learn that when a woman thinks better of her folly, she thinks
better of her love; but one thing he understood--he saw that he was
no longer the Lucien of Angouleme. Louise talked of herself, of _her_
interests, _her_ reputation, and of the world; and, to veil her egoism,
she tried to make him believe that this was all on his account. He had
no claim upon Louise thus suddenly transformed into Mme. de Bargeton,
and, more serious still, he had no power over her. He could not keep
back the tears that filled his eyes.

"If I am your glory," cried the poet, "you are yet more to me--you are
my one hope, my whole future rests with you. I thought that if you meant
to make my successes yours, you would surely make my adversity yours
also, and here we are going to part already."

"You are judging my conduct," said she; "you do not love me."

Lucien looked at her with such a dolorous expression, that in spite of
herself, she said:

"Darling, I will stay if you like. We shall both be ruined, we shall
have no one to come to our aid. But when we are both equally wretched,
and every one shuts their door upon us both, when failure (for we must
look all possibilities in the face), when failure drives us back to the
Escarbas, then remember, love, that I foresaw the end, and that at
the first I proposed that we should make your way by conforming to
established rules."

"Louise," he cried, with his arms around her, "you are wise; you
frighten me! Remember that I am a child, that I have given myself up
entirely to your dear will. I myself should have preferred to overcome
obstacles and win my way among men by the power that is in me; but if I
can reach the goal sooner through your aid, I shall be very glad to owe
all my success to you. Forgive me! You mean so much to me that I cannot
help fearing all kinds of things; and, for me, parting means that
desertion is at hand, and desertion is death."

"But, my dear boy, the world's demands are soon satisfied," returned
she. "You must sleep here; that is all. All day long you will be with
me, and no one can say a word."

A few kisses set Lucien's mind completely at rest. An hour later Gentil
brought in a note from Chatelet. He told Mme. de Bargeton that he had
found lodgings for her in the Rue Nueve-de-Luxembourg. Mme. de Bargeton
informed herself of the exact place, and found that it was not very far
from the Rue de l'Echelle. "We shall be neighbors," she told Lucien.

Two hours afterwar