this girl, who
was tainted by corruption rather than corrupt; he always saw her
white, winged, pure, and mysterious, as she had made herself for him,
understanding that he would have her so.

Towards the end of the month of May 1825 Lucien had lost all his good
spirits; he never went out, dined with Herrera, sat pensive, worked,
read volumes of diplomatic treatises, squatted Turkish-fashion on a
divan, and smoked three or four hookahs a day. His groom had more to do
in cleaning and perfuming the tubes of this noble pipe than in currying
and brushing down the horses' coats, and dressing them with cockades
for driving in the Bois. As soon as the Spaniard saw Lucien pale, and
detected a malady in the frenzy of suppressed passion, he determined to
read to the bottom of this man's heart on which he founded his life.

One fine evening, when Lucien, lounging in an armchair, was mechanically
contemplating the hues of the setting sun through the trees in the
garden, blowing up the mist of scented smoke in slow, regular clouds,
as pensive smokers are wont, he was roused from his reverie by hearing a
deep sigh. He turned and saw the Abbe standing by him with folded arms.

"You were there!" said the poet.

"For some time," said the priest, "my thoughts have been following the
wide sweep of yours." Lucien understood his meaning.

"I have never affected to have an iron nature such as yours is. To me
life is by turns paradise and hell; when by chance it is neither, it
bores me; and I am bored----"

"How can you be bored when you have such splendid prospects before you?"

"If I have no faith in those prospects, or if they are too much
shrouded?"

"Do not talk nonsense," said the priest. "It would be far more worthy of
you and of me that you should open your heart to me. There is now that
between us which ought never to have come between us--a secret. This
secret has subsisted for sixteen months. You are in love."

"And what then?"

"A foul hussy called La Torpille----"

"Well?"

"My boy, I told you you might have a mistress, but a woman of rank,
pretty, young, influential, a Countess at least. I had chosen Madame
d'Espard for you, to make her the instrument of your fortune without
scruple; for she would never have perverted your heart, she would have
left you free.--To love a prostitute of the lowest class when you
have not, like kings, the power to give her high rank, is a monstrous
blunder."

"And am I the first man