aron was nailed to
the spot. Josepha, in white and yellow, was so beautifully dressed for
the banquet, that amid all this lavish magnificence she still shone
like a rare jewel.

"Isn't this really fine?" said she. "The Duke has spent all the money
on it that he got out of floating a company, of which the shares all
sold at a premium. He is no fool, is my little Duke. There is nothing
like a man who has been a grandee in his time for turning coals into
gold. Just before dinner the notary brought me the title-deeds to sign
and the bills receipted!--They are all a first-class set in there
--d'Esgrignon, Rastignac, Maxime, Lenoncourt, Verneuil, Laginski,
Rochefide, la Palferine, and from among the bankers Nucingen and du
Tillet, with Antonia, Malaga, Carabine, and la Schontz; and they all
feel for you deeply.--Yes, old boy, and they hope you will join them,
but on condition that you forthwith drink up to two bottles full of
Hungarian wine, Champagne, or Cape, just to bring you up to their
mark.--My dear fellow, we are all so much _on_ here, that it was
necessary to close the Opera. The manager is as drunk as a
cornet-a-piston; he is hiccuping already."

"Oh, Josepha!----" cried the Baron.

"Now, can anything be more absurd than explanations?" she broke in
with a smile. "Look here; can you stand six hundred thousand francs
which this house and furniture cost? Can you give me a bond to the
tune of thirty thousand francs a year, which is what the Duke has just
given me in a packet of common sugared almonds from the grocer's?--a
pretty notion that----"

"What an atrocity!" cried Hulot, who in his fury would have given his
wife's diamonds to stand in the Duc d'Herouville's shoes for
twenty-four hours.

"Atrocity is my trade," said she. "So that is how you take it? Well,
why don't you float a company? Goodness me! my poor dyed Tom, you
ought to be grateful to me; I have thrown you over just when you would
have spent on me your widow's fortune, your daughter's portion.--What,
tears! The Empire is a thing of the past--I hail the coming Empire!"

She struck a tragic attitude, and exclaimed:

"They call you Hulot! Nay, I know you not--"

And she went into the other room.

Through the door, left ajar, there came, like a lightning-flash, a
streak of light with an accompaniment of the crescendo of the orgy and
the fragrance of a banquet of the choicest description.

The singer peeped through the partly open door, and seei