never before appeared, Nathan was stirred to the soul by fresh ambition.
Seeing Rastignac, whose younger brother had just been made bishop at
twenty-seven years of age, and whose brother-in-law, Martial de la
Roche-Hugon, was a minister, and who himself was under-secretary of
State, and about to marry, rumor said, the only daughter of the Baron
de Nucingen,--a girl with an illimitable "dot"; seeing, moreover, in the
diplomatic body an obscure writer whom he had formerly known translating
articles in foreign journals for a newspaper turned dynastic since 1830,
also professors now made peers of France,--he felt with anguish that he
was left behind on a bad road by advocating the overthrow of this new
aristocracy of lucky talent, of cleverness crowned by success, and
of real merit. Even Blondet, so unfortunate, so used by others in
journalism, but so welcomed here, who could, if he liked, enter a career
of public service through the influence of Madame de Montcornet, seemed
to Nathan's eyes a striking example of the power of social relations.
Secretly, in his heart, he resolved to play the game of political
opinions, like de Marsay, Rastignac, Blondet, Talleyrand, the leader
of this set of men; to rely on facts only, turn them to his own profit,
regard his system as a weapon, and not interfere with a society so well
constituted, so shrewd, so natural.

"My influence," he thought, "will depend on the influence of some woman
belonging to this class of society."

With this thought in his mind, conceived by the flame of this frenzied
desire, he fell upon the Comtesse de Vandenesse like a hawk on its prey.
That charming young woman in her head-dress of marabouts, which produced
the delightful "flou" of the paintings of Lawrence and harmonized
well with her gentle nature, was penetrated through and through by the
foaming vigor of this poet wild with ambition. Lady Dudley, whom nothing
escaped, aided this tete-a-tete by throwing the Comte de Vandenesse with
Madame de Manerville. Strong in her former ascendancy over him, Natalie
de Manerville amused herself by leading Felix into the mazes of a
quarrel of witty teasing, blushing half-confidences, regrets coyly flung
like flowers at his feet, recriminations in which she excused herself
for the sole purpose of being put in the wrong.

These former lovers were speaking to each other for the first time since
their rupture; and while her husband's former love was stirring the
embers t