y more.

He, who had always been poor, regarded this sum as an exhaustless
treasure.

And at nightfall, when he jumped from the stage upon the brilliantly
lighted street of Paris, he seemed to be taking possession of the grand
city, and felt as though he could buy everything in it.

His illusions were those natural to all young men who suddenly come into
possession of a patrimony after years of privation.

It is this ignorance of the real value of money that squanders fortunes,
and fritters away accumulated patrimonies so laboriously earned and
saved in the frugal provinces.

Imbued with his own importance, accustomed to the deference of the
country people, the young marquis came to Paris with the expectation
of being a lion, supposing that his name and fortune were sufficient to
place him upon any pinnacle he might desire.

He was mortified to discover his error. To his great surprise he
discovered that he possessed nothing which constituted a position in
this immense city. He found that in the midst of this busy, indifferent
crowd, he was lost, as unnoticed as a drop of water in a torrent.

But this unflattering reality could not discourage a man who was
determined to gratify his passion at all costs. His ancestral name
gained him but one privilege, disastrous for his future: it opened to
him the doors of the Faubourg St. Germain.

There he became intimate with men of his own age and rank, whose incomes
were larger than his principal.

Nearly all of them confessed that they only kept up their extravagant
style of living by dint of skilful economy behind the scenes, and by
regulating their vices and follies as judiciously as a hosier would
manage his Sunday holidays.

This information astonished Louis, but did not open his eyes. He
endeavored to imitate the dashing style of these economically wasteful
young men, without pretending to conform to their prudential rules. He
learned how to spend, but not how to settle his accounts as they did.

He was Marquis of Clameran, and, having given himself a reputation of
great wealth, he was welcomed by the _elite_ of society; if he made no
friends, he had at least many acquaintances. Among the set into which he
was received immediately upon his arrival, he found ten satellites who
took pleasure in initiating him into the secrets of fashionable life,
and correcting any little provincialisms betrayed in his manners and
conversation.

He profited well and quickly by t