see if it is she."

"What brass she has got!" exclaimed Madame du Val-Noble, using an
expressive but vulgar phrase.

"Oh!" said the Comte de Brambourg, "she very well may. She is with my
friend the Baron de Nucingen--I will go----"

"Is that the immaculate Joan of Arc who has taken Nucingen by storm, and
who has been talked of till we are all sick of her, these three months
past?" asked Mariette.

"Good-evening, my dear Baron," said Philippe Bridau, as he went
into Nucingen's box. "So here you are, married to Mademoiselle
Esther.--Mademoiselle, I am an old officer whom you once on a time were
to have got out of a scrape--at Issoudun--Philippe Bridau----"

"I know nothing of it," said Esther, looking round the house through her
opera-glasses.

"Dis lady," said the Baron, "is no longer known as 'Esther' so short!
She is called Montame de Champy--ein little estate vat I have bought for
her----"

"Though you do things in such style," said the Comte, "these ladies are
saying that Madame de Champy gives herself too great airs.--If you do
not choose to remember me, will you condescend to recognize Mariette,
Tullia, Madame du Val-Noble?" the parvenu went on--a man for whom the
Duc de Maufrigneuse had won the Dauphin's favor.

"If these ladies are kind to me, I am willing to make myself pleasant to
them," replied Madame de Champy drily.

"Kind! Why, they are excellent; they have named you Joan of Arc,"
replied Philippe.

"Vell den, if dese ladies vill keep you company," said Nucingen, "I
shall go 'vay, for I hafe eaten too much. Your carriage shall come for
you and your people.--Dat teufel Asie!"

"The first time, and you leave me alone!" said Esther. "Come, come, you
must have courage enough to die on deck. I must have my man with me as I
go out. If I were insulted, am I to cry out for nothing?"

The old millionaire's selfishness had to give way to his duties as a
lover. The Baron suffered but stayed.

Esther had her own reasons for detaining "her man." If she admitted her
acquaintance, she would be less closely questioned in his presence than
if she were alone. Philippe Bridau hurried back to the box where the
dancers were sitting, and informed them of the state of affairs.

"Oh! so it is she who has fallen heir to my house in the Rue
Saint-Georges," observed Madame du Val-Noble with some bitterness; for
she, as she phrased it, was on the loose.

"Most likely," said the Colonel. "Du Tillet told me that the