. The Nucingens gave a ball even more splendid than people
expected of them on the occasion of the wedding; Delphine's present to
the bride was a charming set of rubies. Isaure danced, a happy wife, a
girl no longer. The little Baroness was more than ever a Shepherdess of
the Alps. The ball was at its height when Malvina, the _Andalouse_
of Musset's poem, heard du Tillet's voice drily advising her to take
Desroches. Desroches, warmed to the right degree by Rastignac and
Nucingen, tried to come to an understanding financially; but at the
first hint of shares in the mines for the bride's portion, he broke off
and went back to the Matifat's in the Rue du Cherche-Midi, only to find
the accursed canal shares which Gigonnet had foisted on Matifat in lieu
of cash.

"They had not long to wait for the crash. The firm of Claparon did
business on too large a scale, the capital was locked up, the
concern ceased to serve its purposes, or to pay dividends, though the
speculations were sound. These misfortunes coincided with the events of
1827. In 1829 it was too well known that Claparon was a man of straw set
up by the two giants; he fell from his pedestal. Shares that had
fetched twelve hundred and fifty francs fell to four hundred, though
intrinsically they were worth six. Nucingen, knowing their value, bought
them up at four.

"Meanwhile the little Baroness d'Aldrigger had sold out of the mines
that paid no dividends, and Godefroid had reinvested the money belonging
to his wife and her mother in Claparon's concern. Debts compelled
them to realize when the shares were at their lowest, so that of seven
hundred thousand francs only two hundred thousand remained. They made a
clearance, and all that was left was prudently invested in the three per
cents at seventy-five. Godefroid, the sometime gay and careless bachelor
who had lived without taking thought all his life long, found himself
saddled with a little goose of a wife totally unfitted to bear adversity
(indeed, before six months were over, he had witnessed the anserine
transformation of his beloved) to say nothing of a mother-in-law whose
mind ran on pretty dresses while she had not bread to eat. The two
families must live together to live at all. It was only by stirring up
all his considerably chilled interest that Godefroid got a post in
the audit department. His friends?--They were out of town. His
relatives?--All astonishment and promises. 'What! my dear boy! Oh!
count upo