ho rules him. I shall never be free, I know
that, so long as he lives. My life is regulated like that of a queen; my
meals are served with the utmost formality; at a given hour I must drive
to the Bois; I am always accompanied by two footmen in full dress; I am
obliged to return at a certain hour. Instead of giving orders, I
receive them. At a ball, at the theatre, a servant comes to me and says:
'Madame's carriage is ready,' and I am obliged to go, in the midst,
perhaps, of something I enjoy. Ferdinand would be furious if I did not
obey the etiquette he prescribes for his wife; he frightens me. In the
midst of this hateful opulence, I find myself regretting the past, and
thinking that our mother was kind; she left us the nights when we could
talk together; at any rate, I was living with a dear being who loved me
and suffered with me; whereas here, in this sumptuous house, I live in a
desert."

At this terrible confession the countess caught her sister's hand and
kissed it, weeping.

"How, then, can I help you," said Eugenie, in a low voice. "He would be
suspicious at once if he surprised us here, and would insist on knowing
all that you have been saying to me. I should be forced to tell a lie,
which is difficult indeed with so sly and treacherous a man; he would
lay traps for me. But enough of my own miseries; let us think of yours.
The forty thousand francs you want would be, of course, a mere nothing
to Ferdinand, who handles millions with that fat banker, Baron de
Nucingen. Sometimes, at dinner, in my presence, they say things to each
other which make me shudder. Du Tillet knows my discretion, and they
often talk freely before me, being sure of my silence. Well, robbery and
murder on the high-road seem to me merciful compared to some of their
financial schemes. Nucingen and he no more mind destroying a man than
if he were an animal. Often I am told to receive poor dupes whose fate
I have heard them talk of the night before,--men who rush into some
business where they are certain to lose their all. I am tempted, like
Leonardo in the brigand's cave, to cry out, 'Beware!' But if I did,
what would become of me? So I keep silence. This splendid house is a
cut-throat's den! But Ferdinand and Nucingen will lavish millions for
their own caprices. Ferdinand is now buying from the other du Tillet
family the site of their old castle; he intends to rebuild it and add
a forest with large domains to the estate, and make his son