he is not at home, bring the letter back to me."

Therese went, but not before she had given Eugene a spiteful glance.

Dinner was announced. Rastignac gave his arm to Mme. de Nucingen, she
led the way into a pretty dining-room, and again he saw the luxury of
the table which he had admired in his cousin's house.

"Come and dine with me on opera evenings, and we will go to the Italiens
afterwards," she said.

"I should soon grow used to the pleasant life if it could last, but I am
a poor student, and I have my way to make."

"Oh! you will succeed," she said laughing. "You will see. All that you
wish will come to pass. _I_ did not expect to be so happy."

It is the wont of women to prove the impossible by the possible, and to
annihilate facts by presentiments. When Mme. de Nucingen and Rastignac
took their places in her box at the Bouffons, her face wore a look of
happiness that made her so lovely that every one indulged in those small
slanders against which women are defenceless; for the scandal that
is uttered lightly is often seriously believed. Those who know Paris,
believe nothing that is said, and say nothing of what is done there.

Eugene took the Baroness' hand in his, and by some light pressure of the
fingers, or a closer grasp of the hand, they found a language in which
to express the sensations which the music gave them. It was an evening
of intoxicating delight for both; and when it ended, and they went out
together, Mme. de Nucingen insisted on taking Eugene with her as far as
the Pont Neuf, he disputing with her the whole of the way for a single
kiss after all those that she had showered upon him so passionately at
the Palais-Royal; Eugene reproached her with inconsistency.

"That was gratitude," she said, "for devotion that I did not dare to
hope for, but now it would be a promise."

"And will you give me no promise, ingrate?"

He grew vexed. Then, with one of those impatient gestures that fill a
lover with ecstasy, she gave him her hand to kiss, and he took it with a
discontented air that delighted her.

"I shall see you at the ball on Monday," she said.

As Eugene went home in the moonlight, he fell to serious reflections.
He was satisfied, and yet dissatisfied. He was pleased with an adventure
which would probably give him his desire, for in the end one of the
prettiest and best-dressed women in Paris would be his; but, as a
set-off, he saw his hopes of fortune brought to nothing; and as soo