e difficult; we should be none the worse if
they had. But when that happens, fowls will cut their teeth!"

As he heard this speech, so entirely in character with the lawyer's
appearance, the Chevalier measured him from head to foot, out of one
eye, as much as to say, "We shall easily manage him."

The Marquise looked at Rastignac, who bent over her. "That is the
sort of man," murmured the dandy in her ear, "who is trusted to pass
judgments on the life and interests of private individuals."

Like most men who have grown old in a business, Popinot readily let
himself follow the habits he had acquired, more particularly habits of
mind. His conversation was all of "the shop." He was fond of questioning
those he talked to, forcing them to unexpected conclusions, making them
tell more than they wished to reveal. Pozzo di Borgo, it is said, used
to amuse himself by discovering other folks' secrets, and entangling
them in his diplomatic snares, and thus, by invincible habit, showed
how his mind was soaked in wiliness. As soon as Popinot had surveyed
the ground, so to speak, on which he stood, he saw that it would
be necessary to have recourse to the cleverest subtleties, the most
elaborately wrapped up and disguised, which were in use in the Courts,
to detect the truth.

Bianchon sat cold and stern, as a man who has made up his mind to endure
torture without revealing his sufferings; but in his heart he wished
that his uncle could only trample on this woman as we trample on a
viper--a comparison suggested to him by the Marquise's long dress, by
the curve of her attitude, her long neck, small head, and undulating
movements.

"Well, monsieur," said Madame d'Espard, "however great my dislike to be
or seem selfish, I have been suffering too long not to wish that you may
settle matters at once. Shall I soon get a favorable decision?"

"Madame, I will do my best to bring matters to a conclusion," said
Popinot, with an air of frank good-nature. "Are you ignorant of the
reason which made the separation necessary which now subsists between
you and the Marquis d'Espard?"

"Yes, monsieur," she replied, evidently prepared with a story to tell.
"At the beginning of 1816 M. d'Espard, whose temper had completely
changed within three months or so, proposed that we should go to live
on one of his estates near Briancon, without any regard for my health,
which that climate would have destroyed, or for my habits of life; I
refused to go. M