n the debt. Women understand nothing of these
things; for them, love is always a millionaire."

"But since neither du Tillet nor Desroches married her; just explain
Ferdinand's motive," said Finot.

"Motive?" repeated Bixiou; "why, this. General Rule: A girl that has
once given away her slipper, even if she refused it for ten years, is
never married by the man who----"

"Bosh!" interrupted Blondet, "one reason for loving is the fact that
one has loved. His motive? Here it is. General Rule: Do not marry as a
sergeant when some day you may be Duke of Dantzig and Marshal of France.
Now, see what a match du Tillet has made since then. He married one of
the Comte de Granville's daughters, into one of the oldest families in
the French magistracy."

"Desroches' mother had a friend, a druggist's wife," continued Bixiou.
"Said druggist had retired with a fat fortune. These druggist folk have
absurdly crude notions; by way of giving his daughter a good education,
he had sent her to a boarding-school! Well, Matifat meant the girl to
marry well, on the strength of two hundred thousand francs, good hard
coin with no scent of drugs about it."

"Florine's Matifat?" asked Blondet.

"Well, yes. Lousteau's Matifat; ours, in fact. The Matifats, even then
lost to us, had gone to live in the Rue du Cherche-Midi, as far as may
be from the Rue des Lombards, where their money was made. For my own
part, I had cultivated those Matifats. While I served my time in the
galleys of the law, when I was cooped up for eight hours out of the
twenty-four with nincompoops of the first water, I saw queer characters
enough to convince myself that all is not dead-level even in obscure
places, and that in the flattest inanity you may chance upon an angle.
Yes, dear boy, such and such a philistine is to such another as Raphael
is to Natoire.

"Mme. Desroches, the widowed mother, had long ago planned this marriage
for her son, in spite of a tremendous obstacle which took the shape
of one Cochin, Matifat's partner's son, a young clerk in the adult
department. M. and Mme. Matifat were of the opinion that an attorney's
position 'gave some guarantee for a wife's happiness,' to use their own
expression; and as for Desroches, he was prepared to fall in with his
mother's views in case he could do no better for himself. Wherefore, he
kept up his acquaintance with the druggists in the Rue du Cherche-Midi.

"To put another kind of happiness before you, you should