d butter in her
coffee cup, will be sole heiress of her father's fortune and affections.
A funny way of putting it, isn't it? Taillefer's youngster is an expert
swordsman, and quite cocksure about it, but he will be bled; I have just
invented a thrust for his benefit, a way of raising your sword point
and driving it at the forehead. I must show you that thrust; it is an
uncommonly handy thing to know."

Rastignac heard him in dazed bewilderment; he could not find a word in
reply. Just then Goriot came in, and Bianchon and a few of the boarders
likewise appeared.

"That is just as I intended." Vautrin said. "You know quite well what
you are about. Good, my little eaglet! You are born to command, you are
strong, you stand firm on your feet, you are game! I respect you."

He made as though he would take Eugene's hand, but Rastignac hastily
withdrew it, sank into a chair, and turned ghastly pale; it seemed to
him that there was a sea of blood before his eyes.

"Oh! so we still have a few dubious tatters of the swaddling clothes
of virtue about us!" murmured Vautrin. "But Papa Doliban has three
millions; I know the amount of his fortune. Once have her dowry in your
hands, and your character will be as white as the bride's white dress,
even in your own eyes."

Rastignac hesitated no longer. He made up his mind that he would go that
evening to warn the Taillefers, father and son. But just as Vautrin left
him, Father Goriot came up and said in his ear, "You look melancholy, my
boy; I will cheer you up. Come with me."

The old vermicelli dealer lighted his dip at one of the lamps as he
spoke. Eugene went with him, his curiosity had been aroused.

"Let us go up to your room," the worthy soul remarked, when he had
asked Sylvie for the law student's key. "This morning," he resumed, "you
thought that _she_ did not care about you, did you not? Eh? She would
have nothing to say to you, and you went away out of humor and out of
heart. Stuff and rubbish! She wanted you to go because she was expecting
_me_! Now do you understand? We were to complete the arrangements for
taking some chambers for you, a jewel of a place, you are to move
into it in three days' time. Don't split upon me. She wants it to be a
surprise; but I couldn't bear to keep the secret from you. You will be
in the Rue d'Artois, only a step or two from the Rue Saint-Lazare, and
you are to be housed like a prince! Any one might have thought we were
furnishing the h