ning, and the
courtesan's anxieties were allayed. Next morning, at the hour when
Esther, having taken a bath, was getting into bed again, Madame du
Val-Noble arrived.

"I have the two pills!" said her friend.

"Let me see," said Esther, raising herself with her pretty elbow buried
in a pillow trimmed with lace.

Madame du Val-Noble held out to her what looked like two black currants.

The Baron had given Esther a pair of greyhounds of famous pedigree,
which will be always known by the name of the great contemporary poet
who made them fashionable; and Esther, proud of owning them, had called
them by the names of their parents, Romeo and Juliet. No need here
to describe the whiteness and grace of these beasts, trained for the
drawing-room, with manners suggestive of English propriety. Esther
called Romeo; Romeo ran up on legs so supple and thin, so strong and
sinewy, that they seemed like steel springs, and looked up at his
mistress. Esther, to attract his attention, pretended to throw one of
the pills.

"He is doomed by his nature to die thus," said she, as she threw the
pill, which Romeo crushed between his teeth.

The dog made no sound, he rolled over, and was stark dead. It was all
over while Esther spoke these words of epitaph.

"Good God!" shrieked Madame du Val-Noble.

"You have a cab waiting. Carry away the departed Romeo," said Esther.
"His death would make a commotion here. I have given him to you, and you
have lost him--advertise for him. Make haste; you will have your fifty
thousand francs this evening."

She spoke so calmly, so entirely with the cold indifference of a
courtesan, that Madame du Val-Noble exclaimed:

"You are the Queen of us all!"

"Come early, and look very well----"

At five o'clock Esther dressed herself as a bride. She put on her lace
dress over white satin, she had a white sash, white satin shoes, and a
scarf of English point lace over her beautiful shoulders. In her hair
she placed white camellia flowers, the simple ornament of an innocent
girl. On her bosom lay a pearl necklace worth thirty thousand francs, a
gift from Nucingen.

Though she was dressed by six, she refused to see anybody, even the
banker. Europe knew that Lucien was to be admitted to her room. Lucien
came at about seven, and Europe managed to get him up to her mistress
without anybody knowing of his arrival.

Lucien, as he looked at her, said to himself, "Why not go and live with
her at Rubempre, far fr