similar ones for her
brother. Here, no one appeared to wear white cravats of a morning
except a few grave seniors, elderly capitalists, and austere public
functionaries, until, in the street on the other side of the railings,
Lucien noticed a grocer's boy walking along the Rue de Rivoli with a
basket on his head; him the man of Angouleme detected in the act of
sporting a cravat, with both ends adorned by the handiwork of some
adored shop-girl. The sight was a stab to Lucien's breast; penetrating
straight to that organ as yet undefined, the seat of our sensibility,
the region whither, since sentiment has had any existence, the sons of
men carry their hands in any excess of joy or anguish. Do not accuse
this chronicle of puerility. The rich, to be sure, never having
experienced sufferings of this kind, may think them incredibly petty and
small; but the agonies of less fortunate mortals are as well worth our
attention as crises and vicissitudes in the lives of the mighty and
privileged ones of earth. Is not the pain equally great for either?
Suffering exalts all things. And, after all, suppose that we change
the terms and for a suit of clothes, more or less fine, put instead a
ribbon, or a star, or a title; have not brilliant careers been tormented
by reason of such apparent trifles as these? Add, moreover, that
for those people who must seem to have that which they have not, the
question of clothes is of enormous importance, and not unfrequently the
appearance of possession is the shortest road to possession at a later
day.

A cold sweat broke out over Lucien as he bethought himself that to-night
he must make his first appearance before the Marquise in this dress--the
Marquise d'Espard, relative of a First Gentleman of the Bedchamber,
a woman whose house was frequented by the most illustrious among
illustrious men in every field.

"I look like an apothecary's son, a regular shop-drudge," he raged
inwardly, watching the youth of the Faubourg Saint-Germain pass
under his eyes; graceful, spruce, fashionably dressed, with a certain
uniformity of air, a sameness due to a fineness of contour, and a
certain dignity of carriage and expression; though, at the same time,
each one differed from the rest in the setting by which he had chosen
to bring his personal characteristics into prominence. Each one made the
most of his personal advantages. Young men in Paris understand the art
of presenting themselves quite as well as women.