usehold, and the Marquise had
a great number of servants. The grand receptions were held in the
ground-floor rooms, but she lived on the first floor of the house. The
perfect order of a fine staircase splendidly decorated, and rooms fitted
in the dignified style which formerly prevailed at Versailles, spoke of
an immense fortune. When the judge saw the carriage gates thrown open
to admit his nephew's cab, he took in with a rapid glance the lodge, the
porter, the courtyard, the stables, the arrangement of the house,
the flowers that decorated the stairs, the perfect cleanliness of the
banisters, walls, and carpets, and counted the footmen in livery who, as
the bell rang, appeared on the landing. His eyes, which only yesterday
in his parlor had sounded the dignity of misery under the muddy clothing
of the poor, now studied with the same penetrating vision the furniture
and splendor of the rooms he passed through, to pierce the misery of
grandeur.

"M. Popinot--M. Bianchon."

The two names were pronounced at the door of the boudoir where the
Marquise was sitting, a pretty room recently refurnished, and looking
out on the garden behind the house. At the moment Madame d'Espard was
seated in one of the old rococo armchairs of which Madame had set the
fashion. Rastignac was at her left hand on a low chair, in which he
looked settled like an Italian lady's "cousin." A third person was
standing by the corner of the chimney-piece. As the shrewd doctor had
suspected, the Marquise was a woman of a parched and wiry constitution.
But for her regimen her complexion must have taken the ruddy tone
that is produced by constant heat; but she added to the effect of her
acquired pallor by the strong colors of the stuffs she hung her rooms
with, or in which she dressed. Reddish-brown, marone, bistre with a
golden light in it, suited her to perfection. Her boudoir, copied from
that of a famous lady then at the height of fashion in London, was in
tan-colored velvet; but she had added various details of ornament which
moderated the pompous splendor of this royal hue. Her hair was dressed
like a girl's in bands ending in curls, which emphasized the rather
long oval of her face; but an oval face is as majestic as a round one is
ignoble. The mirrors, cut with facets to lengthen or flatten the face at
will, amply proved the rule as applied to the physiognomy.

On seeing Popinot, who stood in the doorway craning his neck like a
startled animal, w