said the Baron, smiling; "I feel ver' much dat I shall do some
business."

"Then you have seen the fair being?" asked Madame de Nucingen.

"No," said he; "I have only hoped to see her."

"Do men ever love their wives so?" cried Madame de Nucingen, feeling, or
affecting to feel, a little jealous.

"When you have got her, you must ask us to sup with her," said du Tillet
to the Baron, "for I am very curious to study the creature who has made
you so young as you are."

"She is a _cheff-d'oeufre_ of creation!" replied the old banker.

"He will be swindled like a boy," said Rastignac in Delphine's ear.

"Pooh! he makes quite enough money to----"

"To give a little back, I suppose," said du Tillet, interrupting the
Baroness.

Nucingen was walking up and down the room as if his legs had the
fidgets.

"Now is your time to make him pay your fresh debts," said Rastignac in
the Baroness' ear.

At this very moment Carlos was leaving the Rue Taitbout full of hope; he
had been there to give some last advice to Europe, who was to play the
principal part in the farce devised to take in the Baron de Nucingen.
He was accompanied as far as the Boulevard by Lucien, who was not at all
easy at finding this demon so perfectly disguised that even he had only
recognized him by his voice.

"Where the devil did you find a handsomer woman than Esther?" he asked
his evil genius.

"My boy, there is no such thing to be found in Paris. Such a complexion
is not made in France."

"I assure you, I am still quite amazed. Venus Callipyge has not such
a figure. A man would lose his soul for her. But where did she spring
from?"

"She was the handsomest girl in London. Drunk with gin, she killed her
lover in a fit of jealousy. The lover was a wretch of whom the London
police are well quit, and this woman was packed off to Paris for a time
to let the matter blow over. The hussy was well brought up--the daughter
of a clergyman. She speaks French as if it were her mother tongue. She
does not know, and never will know, why she is here. She was told that
if you took a fancy to her she might fleece you of millions, but that
you were as jealous as a tiger, and she was told how Esther lived."

"But supposing Nucingen should prefer her to Esther?"

"Ah, it is out at last!" cried Carlos. "You dread now lest what dismayed
you yesterday should not take place after all! Be quite easy. That
fair and fair-haired girl has blue eyes; she is the antipodes