ink me capable of playing you some villainous
trick?"

"When a woman possesses such a treasure the fear of losing it is so
strong that it naturally inspires a feeling of terror. I am absurd, I
know; forgive me, dear."

A few moments later the marquise departed; as she watched her go the
princess said to herself:--

"How she will pluck me! But to save her the trouble of trying to get
Daniel away from here I'll send him to her."

At three o'clock, or a few moments after, d'Arthez arrived. In the midst
of some interesting topic on which he was discoursing eloquently, the
princess suddenly cut him short by laying her hand on his arm.

"Pardon me, my dear friend," she said, interrupting him, "but I fear
I may forget a thing which seems a mere trifle but may be of great
importance. You have not set foot in Madame d'Espard's salon since the
ever-blessed day when I met you there. Pray go at once; not for your
sake, nor by way of politeness, but for me. You may already have made
her an enemy of mine, if by chance she has discovered that since her
dinner you have scarcely left my house. Besides, my friend, I don't like
to see you dropping your connection with society, and neglecting your
occupations and your work. I should again be strangely calumniated. What
would the world say? That I held you in leading-strings, absorbed you,
feared comparisons, and clung to my conquest knowing it to be my last!
Who will know that you are my friend, my only friend? If you love me
indeed, as you say you love me, you will make the world believe that
we are purely and simply brother and sister--Go on with what you were
saying."

In his armor of tenderness, riveted by the knowledge of so many splendid
virtues, d'Arthez obeyed this behest on the following day and went
to see Madame d'Espard, who received him with charming coquetry. The
marquise took very good care not to say a single word to him about the
princess, but she asked him to dinner on a coming day.

On this occasion d'Arthez found a numerous company. The marquise
had invited Rastignac, Blondet, the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, Maxime de
Trailles, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, the two brothers Vandenesse, du
Tillet, one of the richest bankers in Paris, the Baron de Nucingen,
Raoul Nathan, Lady Dudley, two very treacherous secretaries of embassies
and the Chevalier d'Espard, the wiliest person in this assemblage and
the chief instigator of his sister-in-law's policy.

When dinner was well u