ou shall be respected like ein Cherman Braut. I shall hafe you to
be free.--Do not veep! Listen to me--I lofe you really, truly, mit de
purest lofe. Efery tear of yours breaks my heart."

"Can one truly love a woman one has bought?" said the poor girl in the
sweetest tones.

"Choseph vas solt by his broders for dat he was so comely. Dat is so in
de Biple. An' in de Eastern lants men buy deir wifes."

On arriving at the Rue Taitbout, Esther could not return to the scene
of her happiness without some pain. She remained sitting on a couch,
motionless, drying away her tears one by one, and never hearing a word
of the crazy speeches poured out by the banker. He fell at her feet, and
she let him kneel without saying a word to him, allowing him to take her
hands as he would, and never thinking of the sex of the creature who was
rubbing her feet to warm them; for Nucingen found that they were cold.

This scene of scalding tears shed on the Baron's head, and of ice-cold
feet that he tried to warm, lasted from midnight till two in the
morning.

"Eugenie," cried the Baron at last to Europe, "persvade your mis'ess
that she shall go to bet."

"No!" cried Esther, starting to her feet like a scared horse. "Never in
this house!"

"Look her, monsieur, I know madame; she is as gentle and kind as a
lamb," said Europe to the Baron. "Only you must not rub her the wrong
way, you must get at her sideways--she had been so miserable here.--You
see how worn the furniture is.--Let her go her own way.

"Furnish some pretty little house for her, very nicely. Perhaps when she
sees everything new about her she will feel a stranger there, and think
you better looking than you are, and be angelically sweet.--Oh! madame
has not her match, and you may boast of having done a very good stroke
of business: a good heart, genteel manners, a fine instep--and a skin, a
complexion! Ah!----

"And witty enough to make a condemned wretch laugh. And madame can feel
an attachment.--And then how she can dress!--Well, if it is costly,
still, as they say, you get your money's worth.--Here all the gowns were
seized, everything she has is three months old.--But madame is so
kind, you see, that I love her, and she is my mistress!--But in all
justice--such a woman as she is, in the midst of furniture that has been
seized!--And for whom? For a young scamp who has ruined her. Poor little
thing, she is not at all herself."

"Esther, Esther; go to bet, my anchel! If