owe him my
blood."

For some days past there had been an idea of attaching Lucien to the
prime minister's cabinet as his private secretary; but Madame d'Espard
brought so many persons into the field in opposition to Lucien, that
Charles X.'s _Maitre Jacques_ hesitated to clinch the matter. Nor was
Lucien's position by any means clear; not only did the question, "What
does he live on?" on everybody's lips as the young man rose in life,
require an answer, but even benevolent curiosity--as much as malevolent
curiosity--went on from one inquiry to another, and found more than one
joint in the ambitious youth's harness.

Clotilde de Grandlieu unconsciously served as a spy for her father and
mother. A few days since she had led Lucien into a recess and told him
of the difficulties raised by her family.

"Invest a million francs in land, and my hand is yours: that is my
mother's ultimatum," Clotilde had explained.

"And presently they will ask you where you got the money," said Carlos,
when Lucien reported this last word in the bargain.

"My brother-in-law will have made his fortune," remarked Lucien; "we can
make him the responsible backer."

"Then only the million is needed," said Carlos. "I will think it over."

To be exact as to Lucien's position in the Hotel Grandlieu, he had never
dined there. Neither Clotilde, nor the Duchesse d'Uxelles, nor Madame de
Maufrigneuse, who was always extremely kind to Lucien, could ever
obtain this favor from the Duke, so persistently suspicious was the old
nobleman of the man that he designated as "le Sire de Rubempre." This
shade of distinction, understood by every one who visited at the house,
constantly wounded Lucien's self-respect, for he felt that he was no
more than tolerated. But the world is justified in being suspicious; it
is so often taken in!

To cut a figure in Paris with no known source of wealth and no
recognized employment is a position which can by no artifice be long
maintained. So Lucien, as he crept up in the world, gave more and more
weight to the question, "What does he live on?" He had been obliged
indeed to confess to Madame de Serizy, to whom he owed the patronage of
Monsieur Granville, the Public Prosecutor, and of the Comte Octave de
Bauvan, a Minister of State, and President of one of the Supreme Courts:
"I am dreadfully in debt."

As he entered the courtyard of the mansion where he found an excuse
for all his vanities, he was saying to himself as he