t possible?' asked Desroches; 'why, he is tied more than ever to
Mme. Roguin.'

"'_Tied_--he?--You do not know him.'

"'Do you know how Nucingen and du Tillet stand?' asked Desroches.

"'Like this,' said Taillefer; 'Nucingen is just the man to swallow down
his old master's capital, and then to disgorge it.'

"'Ugh! ugh!' coughed Werbrust, 'these churches are confoundedly damp;
ugh! ugh! What do you mean by "disgorge it"'?

"'Well, Nucingen knows that du Tillet has a lot of money; he wants to
marry him to Malvina; but du Tillet is shy of Nucingen. To a looker-on,
the game is good fun.'

"'What!' exclaimed Werbrust, 'is she old enough to marry? How quickly we
grow old!'

"'Malvina d'Aldrigger is quite twenty years old, my dear fellow. Old
d'Aldrigger was married in 1800. He gave some rather fine entertainments
in Strasbourg at the time of his wedding, and afterwards when Malvina
was born. That was in 1801 at the peace of Amiens, and here are we in
the year 1823, Daddy Werbrust! In those days everything was Ossianized;
he called his daughter Malvina. Six years afterwards there was a rage
for chivalry, _Partant pour la Syrie_--a pack of nonsense--and he
christened his second daughter Isaure. She is seventeen. So there are
two daughters to marry.'

"'The women will not have a penny left in ten years' time,' said
Werbrust, speaking to Desroches in a confidential tone.

"'There is d'Aldrigger's man-servant, the old fellow bellowing away at
the back of the church; he has been with them since the two young ladies
were children, and he is capable of anything to keep enough together for
them to live upon,' said Taillefer.

"_Dies iroe_! (from the minor cannons). _Dies illa_! (from the
choristers).

"'Good-day, Werbrust (from Taillefer), the _Dies iroe_ puts me too much
in mind of my poor boy.'

"'I shall go too; it is too damp in here,' said Werbrust.

"_In favilla_.

"'A few halfpence, kind gentlemen!' (from the beggars at the door).

"'For the expenses of the church!' (from the beadle, with a rattling
clatter of the money-box).

"'_Amen_' (from the choristers).

"'What did he die of?' (from a friend).

"'He broke a blood-vessel in the heel' (from an inquisitive wag).

"'Who is dead?' (from a passer-by).

"'The President de Montesquieu!' (from a relative).

"The sacristan to the poor, 'Get away, all of you; the money for you has
been given to us; don't ask for any more.'"

"Done to the life!" cried Co