ds Louise stepped into the hired carriage sent by
Chatelet for the removal to the new rooms. The apartments were of the
class that upholsterers furnish and let to wealthy deputies and persons
of consideration on a short visit to Paris--showy and uncomfortable. It
was eleven o'clock when Lucien returned to his inn, having seen nothing
as yet of Paris except the part of the Rue Saint-Honore which lies
between the Rue Neuve-de-Luxembourg and the Rue de l'Echelle. He lay
down in his miserable little room, and could not help comparing it in
his own mind with Louise's sumptuous apartments.

Just as he came away the Baron du Chatelet came in, gorgeously arrayed
in evening dress, fresh from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to
inquire whether Mme. de Bargeton was satisfied with all that he had done
on her behalf. Nais was uneasy. The splendor was alarming to her mind.
Provincial life had reacted upon her; she was painfully conscientious
over her accounts, and economical to a degree that is looked upon as
miserly in Paris. She had brought with her twenty thousand francs in the
shape of a draft on the Receiver-General, considering that the sum would
more than cover the expenses of four years in Paris; she was afraid
already lest she should not have enough, and should run into debt; and
now Chatelet told her that her rooms would only cost six hundred francs
per month.

"A mere trifle," added he, seeing that Nais was startled. "For five
hundred francs a month you can have a carriage from a livery stable;
fifty louis in all. You need only think of your dress. A woman moving
in good society could not well do less; and if you mean to obtain a
Receiver-General's appointment for M. de Bargeton, or a post in the
Household, you ought not to look poverty-stricken. Here, in Paris, they
only give to the rich. It is most fortunate that you brought Gentil
to go out with you, and Albertine for your own woman, for servants are
enough to ruin you here. But with your introductions you will seldom be
home to a meal."

Mme. de Bargeton and the Baron de Chatelet chatted about Paris. Chatelet
gave her all the news of the day, the myriad nothings that you are bound
to know, under penalty of being a nobody. Before very long the Baron
also gave advice as to shopping, recommending Herbault for toques and
Juliette for hats and bonnets; he added the address of a fashionable
dressmaker to supersede Victorine. In short, he made the lady see the
necessity o