t is the old fable of the jay in the peacock's feathers!"

"How do M. and Mme. de Rastignac manage to keep their son in Paris,
when, as we know, their income is under a thousand crowns?" asked
Lucien, in his astonishment at Rastignac's elegant and expensive dress.

"It is easy to see that you come from Angouleme," said Mme. d'Espard,
ironically enough, as she continued to gaze through her opera-glass.

Her remark was lost upon Lucien; the all-absorbing spectacle of the
boxes prevented him from thinking of anything else. He guessed that he
himself was an object of no small curiosity. Louise, on the other hand,
was exceedingly mortified by the evident slight esteem in which the
Marquise held Lucien's beauty.

"He cannot be so handsome as I thought him," she said to herself; and
between "not so handsome" and "not so clever as I thought him" there was
but one step.

The curtain fell. Chatelet was now paying a visit to the Duchesse de
Carigliano in an adjourning box; Mme. de Bargeton acknowledged his bow
by a slight inclination of the head. Nothing escapes a woman of the
world; Chatelet's air of distinction was not lost upon Mme. d'Espard.
Just at that moment four personages, four Parisian celebrities, came
into the box, one after another.

The most striking feature of the first comer, M. de Marsay, famous for
the passions which he had inspired, was his girlish beauty; but its
softness and effeminacy were counteracted by the expression of his eyes,
unflinching, steady, untamed, and hard as a tiger's. He was loved and he
was feared. Lucien was no less handsome; but Lucien's expression was so
gentle, his blue eyes so limpid, that he scarcely seemed to possess
the strength and the power which attract women so strongly. Nothing,
moreover, so far had brought out the poet's merits; while de Marsay,
with his flow of spirits, his confidence in his power to please, and
appropriate style of dress, eclipsed every rival by his presence. Judge,
therefore, the kind of figure that Lucien, stiff, starched, unbending in
clothes as new and unfamiliar as his surroundings, was likely to cut
in de Marsay's vicinity. De Marsay with his wit and charm of manner
was privileged to be insolent. From Mme. d'Espard's reception of this
personage his importance was at once evident to Mme. de Bargeton.

The second comer was a Vandenesse, the cause of the scandal in which
Lady Dudley was concerned. Felix de Vandenesse, amiable, intellectual,
and mode