your
sacrifice in favor of a poor girl----"

Lousteau was touched; there was so much expression in her look, her
accent, her attitude. "She would make a good man happy," thought he,
pressing her hand in reply.

Madame Cardot looked upon her son-in-law as a man with a future before
him; but, above all the fine qualities she ascribed to him, she was
most delighted by his high tone of morals. Etienne, prompted by the wily
notary, had pledged his word that he had no natural children, no tie
that could endanger the happiness of her dear Felicie.

"You may perhaps think I go rather too far," said the bigot to the
journalist; "but in giving such a jewel as my Felicie to any man, one
must think of the future. I am not one of those mothers who want to
be rid of their daughters. Monsieur Cardot hurries matters on, urges
forward his daughter's marriage; he wishes it over. This is the only
point on which we differ.--Though with a man like you, monsieur, a
literary man whose youth has been preserved by hard work from the moral
shipwreck now so prevalent, we may feel quite safe; still, you would be
the first to laugh at me if I looked for a husband for my daughter with
my eyes shut. I know you are not an innocent, and I should be very sorry
for my Felicie if you were" (this was said in a whisper); "but if you
had any _liaison_--For instance, monsieur, you have heard of Madame
Roguin, the wife of a notary who, unhappily for our faculty, was sadly
notorious. Madame Roguin has, ever since 1820, been kept by a banker--"

"Yes, du Tillet," replied Etienne; but he bit his tongue as he
recollected how rash it was to confess to an acquaintance with du
Tillet.

"Yes.--Well, monsieur, if you were a mother, would you not quake at the
thought that Madame du Tillet's fate might be your child's? At her age,
and _nee_ de Granville! To have as a rival a woman of fifty and more.
Sooner would I see my daughter dead than give her to a man who had such
a connection with a married woman. A grisette, an actress, you take her
and leave her.--There is no danger, in my opinion, from women of that
stamp; love is their trade, they care for no one, one down and another
to come on!--But a woman who has sinned against duty must hug her sin,
her only excuse is constancy, if such a crime can ever have an excuse.
At least, that is the view I hold of a respectable woman's fall, and
that is what makes it so terrible----"

Instead of looking for the meaning of