tand, my good man?" said Josepha.

She had stolen in on tiptoe through a noiseless door, over Persian
carpets, and came upon her adorer, standing lost in amazement--in
the stupid amazement when a man's ears tingle so loudly that he hears
nothing but that fatal knell.

The words "my good man," spoken to an official of such high importance,
so perfectly exemplified the audacity with which these creatures
pour contempt on the loftiest, that the Baron was nailed to the spot.
Josepha, in white and yellow, was so beautifully dressed for the
banquet, that amid all this lavish magnificence she still shone like a
rare jewel.

"Isn't this really fine?" said she. "The Duke has spent all the money on
it that he got out of floating a company, of which the shares all sold
at a premium. He is no fool, is my little Duke. There is nothing like a
man who has been a grandee in his time for turning coals into gold.
Just before dinner the notary brought me the title-deeds to sign and the
bills receipted!--They are all a first-class set in there--d'Esgrignon,
Rastignac, Maxime, Lenoncourt, Verneuil, Laginski, Rochefide, la
Palferine, and from among the bankers Nucingen and du Tillet, with
Antonia, Malaga, Carabine, and la Schontz; and they all feel for
you deeply.--Yes, old boy, and they hope you will join them, but on
condition that you forthwith drink up to two bottles full of Hungarian
wine, Champagne, or Cape, just to bring you up to their mark.--My dear
fellow, we are all so much _on_ here, that it was necessary to close
the Opera. The manager is as drunk as a cornet-a-piston; he is hiccuping
already."

"Oh, Josepha!----" cried the Baron.

"Now, can anything be more absurd than explanations?" she broke in with
a smile. "Look here; can you stand six hundred thousand francs which
this house and furniture cost? Can you give me a bond to the tune of
thirty thousand francs a year, which is what the Duke has just given
me in a packet of common sugared almonds from the grocer's?--a pretty
notion that----"

"What an atrocity!" cried Hulot, who in his fury would have given his
wife's diamonds to stand in the Duc d'Herouville's shoes for twenty-four
hours.

"Atrocity is my trade," said she. "So that is how you take it? Well, why
don't you float a company? Goodness me! my poor dyed Tom, you ought to
be grateful to me; I have thrown you over just when you would have spent
on me your widow's fortune, your daughter's portion.--What, tears! T