, forming him, he had recourse to the dangerous expedient of
borrowing. One of his friends, a deputy and the friend of his cousin the
Comte de Portenduere, advised him in his distress to go to Gobseck or
Gigonnet or Palma, who, if duly informed as to his mother's means, would
give him an easy discount. Usury and the deceptive help of renewals
enabled him to lead a happy life for nearly eighteen months. Without
daring to leave Madame de Serizy the poor boy had fallen madly in love
with the beautiful Comtesse de Kergarouet, a prude after the fashion
of young women who are awaiting the death of an old husband and making
capital of their virtue in the interests of a second marriage. Quite
incapable of understanding that calculating virtue is invulnerable,
Savinien paid court to Emilie de Kergarouet in all the splendor of
a rich man. He never missed either ball or theater at which she was
present.

"You haven't powder enough, my boy, to blow up that rock," said de
Marsay, laughing.

That young king of fashion, who did, out of commiseration for the lad,
endeavor to explain to him the nature of Emilie de Fontaine, merely
wasted his words; the gloomy lights of misfortune and the twilight of a
prison were needed to convince Savinien.

A note, imprudently given to a jeweler in collusion with the
money-lenders, who did not wish to have the odium of arresting the young
man, was the means of sending Savinien de Portenduere, in default of one
hundred and seventeen thousand francs and without the knowledge of his
friends, to the debtor's prison at Sainte-Pelagie. So soon as the fact
was known Rastignac, de Marsay, and Lucien de Rubempre went to see him,
and each offered him a banknote of a thousand francs when they found
how really destitute he was. Everything belonging to him had been seized
except the clothes and the few jewels he wore. The three young men (who
brought an excellent dinner with them) discussed Savinien's situation
while drinking de Marsay's wine, ostensibly to arrange for his future
but really, no doubt, to judge of him.

"When a man is named Savinien de Portenduere," cried Rastignac, "and
has a future peer of France for a cousin and Admiral Kergarouet for a
great-uncle, and commits the enormous blunder of allowing himself to be
put in Sainte-Pelagie, it is very certain that he must not stay there,
my good fellow."

"Why didn't you tell me?" cried de Marsay. "You could have had my
traveling-carriage, ten thousa