, so I was thinking. I was saying to myself that instead of
enjoying my happiness with fear and trembling at every moment; instead
of taking a world of trouble to whisper a word in an inattentive ear,
of looking over the house at the Italiens to see if some one wears a red
flower or a white in her hair, or watching along the Corso for a gloved
hand on a carriage door, as we used to do at Milan; instead of snatching
a mouthful of baba like a lackey finishing off a bottle behind a door,
or wearing out one's wits with giving and receiving letters like a
postman--letters that consist not of a mere couple of tender lines, but
expand to five folio volumes to-day and contract to a couple of sheets
to-morrow (a tiresome practice); instead of dragging along over the
ruts and dodging behind hedges--it would be better to give way to the
adorable passion that Jean-Jacques Rousseau envied, to fall frankly in
love with a girl like Isaure, with a view to making her my wife, if upon
exchange of sentiments our hearts respond to each other; to be Werther,
in short, with a happy ending.'

"'Which is a common weakness,' returned Rastignac without laughing.
'Possibly in your place I might plunge into the unspeakable delights of
that ascetic course; it possesses the merits of novelty and originality,
and it is not very expensive. Your Monna Lisa is sweet, but inane as
music for the ballet; I give you warning.'

"Rastignac made this last remark in a way which set Beaudenord thinking
that his friend had his own motives for disenchanting him; Beaudenord
had not been a diplomatist for nothing; he fancied that Rastignac wanted
to cut him out. If a man mistakes his vocation, the false start none the
less influences him for the rest of his life. Godefroid was so evidently
smitten with Mlle. Isaure d'Aldrigger, that Rastignac went off to a tall
girl chatting in the card-room.--'Malvina,' he said, lowering his voice,
'your sister has just netted a fish worth eighteen thousand francs a
year. He has a name, a manner, and a certain position in the world;
keep an eye on them; be careful to gain Isaure's confidence; and if
they philander, do not let her send word to him unless you have seen it
first----'

"Towards two o'clock in the morning, Isaure was standing beside a
diminutive Shepherdess of the Alps, a little woman of forty, coquettish
as a Zerlina. A footman announced that 'Mme. la Baronne's carriage stops
the way,' and Godefroid forthwith saw his