nt, always alarmed by a new idea, has banished these materials
of modern comedy from the stage. The citizen class, less liberal than
Louis XIV., dreads the advent of its _Mariage de Figaro_, forbids the
appearance of a political _Tartuffe_, and certainly would not allow
_Turcaret_ to be represented, for Turcaret is king. Consequently, comedy
has to be narrated, and a book is now the weapon--less swift, but no
more sure--that writers wield.

In the course of this morning, amid the coming and going of callers,
orders to be given, and brief interviews, making Nucingen's private
office a sort of financial lobby, one of his stockbrokers announced to
him the disappearance of a member of the Company, one of the richest
and cleverest too--Jacques Falleix, brother of Martin Falleix, and
the successor of Jules Desmarets. Jacques Falleix was stockbroker in
ordinary to the house of Nucingen. In concert with du Tillet and the
Kellers, the Baron had plotted the ruin of this man in cold blood, as if
it had been the killing of a Passover lamb.

"He could not hafe helt on," replied the Baron quietly.

Jacques Falleix had done them immense service in stock-jobbing. During
a crisis a few months since he had saved the situation by acting boldly.
But to look for gratitude from a money-dealer is as vain as to try to
touch the heart of the wolves of the Ukraine in winter.

"Poor fellow!" said the stockbroker. "He so little anticipated such a
catastrophe, that he had furnished a little house for his mistress
in the Rue Saint-Georges; he has spent one hundred and fifty thousand
francs in decorations and furniture. He was so devoted to Madame du
Val-Noble! The poor woman must give it all up. And nothing is paid for."

"Goot, goot!" thought Nucingen, "dis is de very chance to make up for
vat I hafe lost dis night!--He hafe paid for noting?" he asked his
informant.

"Why," said the stockbroker, "where would you find a tradesman so ill
informed as to refuse credit to Jacques Falleix? There is a splendid
cellar of wine, it would seem. By the way, the house is for sale; he
meant to buy it. The lease is in his name.--What a piece of folly!
Plate, furniture, wine, carriage-horses, everything will be valued in a
lump, and what will the creditors get out of it?"

"Come again to-morrow," said Nucingen. "I shall hafe seen all dat;
and if it is not a declared bankruptcy, if tings can be arranged and
compromised, I shall tell you to offer some reasona