f rubbing off Angouleme. Then he took his leave after a final
flash of happy inspiration.

"I expect I shall have a box at one of the theatres to-morrow," he
remarked carelessly; "I will call for you and M. de Rubempre, for you
must allow me to do the honors of Paris."

"There is more generosity in his character than I thought," said Mme. de
Bargeton to herself when Lucien was included in the invitation.

In the month of June ministers are often puzzled to know what to do with
boxes at the theatre; ministerialist deputies and their constituents
are busy in their vineyards or harvest fields, and their more exacting
acquaintances are in the country or traveling about; so it comes to
pass that the best seats are filled at this season with heterogeneous
theatre-goers, never seen at any other time of year, and the house is
apt to look as if it were tapestried with very shabby material. Chatelet
had thought already that this was his opportunity of giving Nais the
amusements which provincials crave most eagerly, and that with very
little expense.

The next morning, the very first morning in Paris, Lucien went to the
Rue Nueve-de-Luxembourg and found that Louise had gone out. She had gone
to make some indispensable purchases, to take counsel of the mighty and
illustrious authorities in the matter of the feminine toilette, pointed
out to her by Chatelet, for she had written to tell the Marquise
d'Espard of her arrival. Mme. de Bargeton possessed the self-confidence
born of a long habit of rule, but she was exceedingly afraid of
appearing to be provincial. She had tact enough to know how greatly the
relations of women among themselves depend upon first impressions; and
though she felt that she was equal to taking her place at once in such a
distinguished set as Mme. de d'Espard's, she felt also that she stood in
need of goodwill at her first entrance into society, and was resolved,
in the first place, that she would leave nothing undone to secure
success. So she felt boundlessly thankful to Chatelet for pointing out
these ways of putting herself in harmony with the fashionable world.

A singular chance so ordered it that the Marquise was delighted to find
an opportunity of being useful to a connection of her husband's family.
The Marquis d'Espard had withdrawn himself without apparent reason from
society, and ceased to take any active interest in affairs, political or
domestic. His wife, thus left mistress of her actions, fel