rtain veneer of superiority. Crevel set up for being a man of
broad views, a fine gentleman with an air and grace, a liberal man with
nothing narrow in his ideas--and all for the small sum of about
twelve to fifteen hundred francs a month. This was the result not of
hypocritical policy, but of middle-class vanity, though it came to the
same in the end.

On the Bourse Crevel was regarded as a man superior to his time, and
especially as a man of pleasure, a _bon vivant_. In this particular
Crevel flattered himself that he had overtopped his worthy friend
Birotteau by a hundred cubits.

"And is it you?" cried Crevel, flying into a rage as he saw Lisbeth
enter the room, "who have plotted this marriage between Mademoiselle
Hulot and your young Count, whom you have been bringing up by hand for
her?"

"You don't seem best pleased at it?" said Lisbeth, fixing a piercing
eye on Crevel. "What interest can you have in hindering my cousin's
marriage? For it was you, I am told, who hindered her marrying Monsieur
Lebas' son."

"You are a good soul and to be trusted," said Crevel. "Well, then, do
you suppose that I will ever forgive Monsieur Hulot for the crime of
having robbed me of Josepha--especially when he turned a decent girl,
whom I should have married in my old age, into a good-for-nothing slut,
a mountebank, an opera singer!--No, no. Never!"

"He is a very good fellow, too, is Monsieur Hulot," said Cousin Betty.

"Amiable, very amiable--too amiable," replied Crevel. "I wish him no
harm; but I do wish to have my revenge, and I will have it. It is my one
idea."

"And is that desire the reason why you no longer visit Madame Hulot?"

"Possibly."

"Ah, ha! then you were courting my fair cousin?" said Lisbeth, with a
smile. "I thought as much."

"And she treated me like a dog!--worse, like a footman; nay, I might say
like a political prisoner.--But I will succeed yet," said he, striking
his brow with his clenched fist.

"Poor man! It would be dreadful to catch his wife deceiving him after
being packed off by his mistress."

"Josepha?" cried Crevel. "Has Josepha thrown him over, packed him off,
turned him out neck and crop? Bravo, Josepha, you have avenged me!
I will send you a pair of pearls to hang in your ears, my
ex-sweetheart!--I knew nothing of it; for after I had seen you, on the
day after that when the fair Adeline had shown me the door, I went back
to visit the Lebas, at Corbeil, and have but just come back.