enaud before his marriage?"

"No, monsieur," replied the Marquise, with some asperity, visible only
to Rastignac and the Chevalier d'Espard.

She was offended at being cross-examined by this layer when she had
intended to beguile his judgment; but as Popinot still looked stupid
from sheer absence of mind, she ended by attributing his interrogatory
to the Questioning Spirit of Voltaire's bailiff.

"My parents," she went on, "married me at the age of sixteen to M.
d'Espard, whose name, fortune, and mode of life were such as my family
looked for in the man who was to be my husband. M. d'Espard was then
six-and-twenty; he was a gentleman in the English sense of the word;
his manners pleased me, he seemed to have plenty of ambition, and I like
ambitious people," she added, looking at Rastignac. "If M. d'Espard
had never met that Madame Jeanrenaud, his character, his learning, his
acquirements would have raised him--as his friends then believed--to
high office in the Government. King Charles X., at that time Monsieur,
had the greatest esteem for him, and a peer's seat, an appointment at
Court, some important post certainly would have been his. That woman
turned his head, and has ruined all the prospects of my family."

"What were M. d'Espard's religious opinions at that time?"

"He was, and is still, a very pious man."

"You do not suppose that Madame Jeanrenaud may have influenced him by
mysticism?"

"No, monsieur."

"You have a very fine house, madame," said Popinot suddenly, taking his
hands out of his pockets, and rising to pick up his coat-tails and warm
himself. "This boudoir is very nice, those chairs are magnificent, the
whole apartment is sumptuous. You must indeed be most unhappy when,
seeing yourself here, you know that your children are ill lodged, ill
clothed, and ill fed. I can imagine nothing more terrible for a mother."

"Yes, indeed. I should be so glad to give the poor little fellows some
amusement, while their father keeps them at work from morning till night
at that wretched history of China."

"You give handsome balls; they would enjoy them, but they might acquire
a taste for dissipation. However, their father might send them to you
once or twice in the course of the winter."

"He brings them here on my birthday and on New Year's Day. On those days
M. d'Espard does me the favor of dining here with them."

"It is very singular behaviour," said the judge, with an air of
conviction. "Have you e