al from that moment, and slipped
naturally and easily into a position which opened up a prospect of a
brilliant future.

So, as he waited for Delphine, in the pretty boudoir, where he felt
that he had a certain right to be, he felt himself so far away from the
Rastignac who came back to Paris a year ago, that, turning some power of
inner vision upon this latter, he asked himself whether that past self
bore any resemblance to the Rastignac of that moment.

"Madame is in her room," Therese came to tell him. The woman's voice
made him start.

He found Delphine lying back in her low chair by the fireside, looking
fresh and bright. The sight of her among the flowing draperies of muslin
suggested some beautiful tropical flower, where the fruit is set amid
the blossom.

"Well," she said, with a tremor in her voice, "here you are."

"Guess what I bring for you," said Eugene, sitting down beside her. He
took possession of her arm to kiss her hand.

Mme. de Nucingen gave a joyful start as she saw the card. She turned
to Eugene; there were tears in her eyes as she flung her arms about his
neck, and drew him towards her in a frenzy of gratified vanity.

"And I owe this happiness to you--to _thee_" (she whispered the more
intimate word in his ear); "but Therese is in my dressing-room, let us
be prudent.--This happiness--yes, for I may call it so, when it comes
to me through _you_--is surely more than a triumph for self-love? No one
has been willing to introduce me into that set. Perhaps just now I may
seem to you to be frivolous, petty, shallow, like a Parisienne, but
remember, my friend, that I am ready to give up all for you; and that if
I long more than ever for an entrance into the Faubourg Saint-Germain,
it is because I shall meet you there."

"Mme. de Beauseant's note seems to say very plainly that she does not
expect to see the _Baron_ de Nucingen at her ball; don't you think so?"
said Eugene.

"Why, yes," said the Baroness as she returned the letter. "Those women
have a talent for insolence. But it is of no consequence, I shall go.
My sister is sure to be there, and sure to be very beautifully
dressed.--Eugene," she went on, lowering her voice, "she will go to
dispel ugly suspicions. You do not know the things that people are
saying about her. Only this morning Nucingen came to tell me that they
had been discussing her at the club. Great heavens! on what does a
woman's character and the honor of a whole family dep