efroid had given himself up to all the little pleasures
of preparation for the marriage. At such times men are like birds
building nests in spring; they come and go, pick up their bits of straw,
and fly off with them in their beaks to line the nest that is to hold a
brood of young birds by and by. Isaure's bridegroom had taken a house in
the Rue de la Plancher at a thousand crowns, a comfortable little house
neither too large nor too small, which suited them. Every morning
he went round to take a look at the workmen and to superintend
the painters. He had introduced 'comfort' (the only good thing in
England)--heating apparatus to maintain an even temperature all over the
house; fresh, soft colors, carefully chosen furniture, neither too showy
nor too much in fashion; spring-blinds fitted to every window inside
and out; silver plate and new carriages. He had seen to the stables,
coach-house, and harness-room, where Toby Joby Paddy floundered and
fidgeted about like a marmot let loose, apparently rejoiced to know that
there would be women about the place and a 'lady'! This fervent passion
of a man that sets up housekeeping, choosing clocks, going to visit his
betrothed with his pockets full of patterns of stuffs, consulting her as
to the bedroom furniture, going, coming, and trotting about, for love's
sake,--all this, I say, is a spectacle in the highest degree calculated
to rejoice the hearts of honest people, especially tradespeople. And as
nothing pleases folk better than the marriage of a good-looking young
fellow of seven-and-twenty and a charming girl of nineteen that dances
admirably well, Godefroid in his perplexity over the corbeille asked
Mme. de Nucingen and Rastignac to breakfast with him and advise him on
this all-important point. He hit likewise on the happy idea of asking
his cousin d'Aiglemont and his wife to meet them, as well as Mme. de
Serizy. Women of the world are ready enough to join for once in an
improvised breakfast-party at a bachelor's rooms."

"It is their way of playing truant," put in Blondet.

"Of course they went over the new house," resumed Bixiou. "Married women
relish these little expeditions as ogres relish warm flesh; they
feel young again with the young bliss, unspoiled as yet by fruition.
Breakfast was served in Godefroid's sitting-room, decked out like a
troop horse for a farewell to bachelor life. There were dainty little
dishes such as women love to devour, nibble at, and sip of a