English lord,--any
husband would have suited her. As she so obviously knew nothing of life,
I took pity upon her, I determined to reveal the great secret of it.
But, pooh! the Matifats shut their doors on me. The bourgeois and I
shall never understand each other."

"She married General Gouraud," said Finot.

"In forty-eight hours, Godefroid de Beaudenord, late of the diplomatic
corps, saw through the Matifats and their nefarious designs," resumed
Bixiou. "Rastignac happened to be chatting with the frivolous Baroness
when Godefroid came in to give his report to Malvina. A word here and
there reached his ear; he guessed the matter on foot, more particularly
from Malvina's look of satisfaction that it was as she had suspected.
Then Rastignac actually stopped on till two o'clock in the morning. And
yet there are those that call him selfish! Beaudenord took his departure
when the Baroness went to bed.

"As soon as Rastignac was left alone with Malvina, he spoke in a
fatherly, good-humored fashion. 'Dear child, please to bear in mind that
a poor fellow, heavy with sleep, has been drinking tea to keep himself
awake till two o'clock in the morning, all for a chance of saying a
solemn word of advice to you--_Marry_! Do not be too particular; do not
brood over your feelings; never mind the sordid schemes of men that have
one foot here and another in the Matifats' house; do not stop to think
at all: Marry!--When a girl marries, it means that the man whom she
marries undertakes to maintain her in a more or less good position in
life, and at any rate her comfort is assured. I know the world. Girls,
mammas, and grandmammas are all of them hypocrites when they fly off
into sentiment over a question of marriage. Nobody really thinks of
anything but a good position. If a mother marries her daughter well, she
says that she has made an excellent bargain.' Here Rastignac unfolded
his theory of marriage, which to his way of thinking is a business
arrangement, with a view to making life tolerable; and ended up with,
'I do not ask to know your secret, Malvina; I know it already. Men talk
things over among themselves, just as you women talk after you leave the
dinner-table. This is all I have to say: Marry. If you do not, remember
that I begged you to marry, here, in this room, this evening!'

"There was a certain ring in Rastignac's voice which compelled,
not attention, but reflection. There was something startling in his
insistence; som