hat arrangement," said the colonel, rising.

As he crossed the waiting-room, he said,--

"Messieurs, I have not delayed you long, I hope."

Then, after distributing a few grasps of the hand, he departed.

Three hours later, when the colonel entered the salon where he was
presented to Madame de Rastignac, he found there the Baron de Nucingen,
who came nearly every day to breakfast with his son-in-law before
the Bourse hour, Emile Blondet of the "Debats," Messieurs Moreau (de
l'Oise), Dionis, and Camusot, three deputies madly loquacious, and two
newly elected deputies whose names it is doubtful if Rastignac knew
himself. Franchessini also recognized Martial de la Roche-Hugon, the
minister's brother-in-law, and the inevitable des Lupeaulx, peer of
France. As for another figure, who stood talking with the minister
for some time in the recess of a window, the colonel learned, after
inquiring of Emile Blondet, that it was that of a former functionary of
the upper police, who continued, as an amateur, to do part of his former
business, going daily to each minister under all administrations with as
much zeal and regularity as if he were still charged with his official
duties.

Madame de Rastignac seen at close quarters seemed to the colonel a
handsome blonde, not at all languishing. She was strikingly like
her mother, but with that shade of greater distinction which in the
descendants of parvenus increases from generation to generation as they
advance from their source. The last drop of the primitive Goriot blood
had evaporated in this charming young woman, who was particularly
remarkable for the high-bred delicacy of all her extremities, the
absence of which in Madame de Nucingen had shown the daughter of Pere
Goriot.

As the colonel wished to retain a footing in the house he now entered
for the first time, he talked about his wife.

"She lived," he said, "in the old English fashion, in her _home_; but he
should be most glad to bring her out of her retreat in order to present
her to Madame de Rastignac if the latter would graciously consent."

"Now," said the minister, dropping the arm of Emile Blondet, with whom
he had been conversing, "let us go into the garden,"--adding, as soon as
they were alone, "We want no ears about us in this matter."

"Maxime came to see me, as I told you," said the colonel, "on his return
from Arcis-sur-Aube, and he is full of an idea of discovering something
about the pretended parentage