would go to almost any length. For the
coterie of the Faubourg Saint-Germain was a charmed circle, and the
women who moved in it were at that time the queens of society; and among
the greatest of these _Dames du Petit-Chateau_, as they were called,
were Mme. de Beauseant and her friends the Duchesse de Langeais and the
Duchesse de Maufrigneause. Rastignac was alone in his ignorance of the
frantic efforts made by women who lived in the Chausee-d'Antin to enter
this seventh heaven and shine among the brightest constellations of
their sex. But his cautious disposition stood him in good stead,
and kept his judgment cool, and the not altogether enviable power of
imposing instead of accepting conditions.

"Yes, I am going," he replied.

So it was curiosity that drew him to Mme. de Nucingen; while, if she had
treated him disdainfully, passion perhaps might have brought him to her
feet. Still he waited almost impatiently for to-morrow, and the hour
when he could go to her. There is almost as much charm for a young
man in a first flirtation as there is in first love. The certainty of
success is a source of happiness to which men do not confess, and all
the charm of certain women lies in this. The desire of conquest springs
no less from the easiness than from the difficulty of triumph, and every
passion is excited or sustained by one or the other of these two motives
which divide the empire of love. Perhaps this division is one result of
the great question of temperaments; which, after all, dominates social
life. The melancholic temperament may stand in need of the tonic of
coquetry, while those of nervous or sanguine complexion withdraw if
they meet with a too stubborn resistance. In other words, the lymphatic
temperament is essentially despondent, and the rhapsodic is bilious.

Eugene lingered over his toilette with an enjoyment of all its little
details that is grateful to a young man's self-love, though he will not
own to it for fear of being laughed at. He thought, as he arranged his
hair, that a pretty woman's glances would wander through the dark curls.
He indulged in childish tricks like any young girl dressing for a dance,
and gazed complacently at his graceful figure while he smoothed out the
creases of his coat.

"There are worse figures, that is certain," he said to himself.

Then he went downstairs, just as the rest of the household were sitting
down to dinner, and took with good humor the boisterous applause exc