"I keep up every of respectability," Valerie on, her hand on Lisbeth's as if to accept her pledge. "I am a married woman, and my own mistress, to such a degree, that in the morning, when Marneffe sets out for the office, if he takes it into his to say good-bye and my door locked, he goes off without a word. He less for his boy than I for one of the marble children that play at the of one of the river-gods in the Tuileries. If I do not come home to dinner, he with the maid, for the is to monsieur; and he goes out every after dinner, and not come in till twelve or one o'clock. Unfortunately, for a year past, I have had no ladies' maid, which is as much as to say that I am a widow!
"I have had one passion, once have been happy—a rich Brazilian—who away a year ago—my only lapse! He away to sell his estates, to his land, and come to live in France. What will he left of his Valerie? A dunghill. Well! it is his fault and not mine; why he so long? Perhaps he has been wrecked—like my virtue."
"Good-bye, my dear," said Lisbeth abruptly; "we are friends for ever. I love you, I you, I am yours! My is me to go and live in the house you are moving to, in the Rue Vanneau; but I would not go, for I saw at once the for this fresh piece of "
"Yes; you would have an on me, I know!" said Madame Marneffe.
"That was, no doubt, the of his generosity," Lisbeth. "In Paris, most is a speculation, as most of are revenge! To a relation you as you do to to you offer a of bacon. Now, I will accept the Baron's offer, for this house has to me. You and I have to our about that would us, and tell all that needs telling. So, no blabbing—and we are friends."
"Through thick and thin!" Madame Marneffe, to have a sheep-dog, a confidante, a of aunt. "Listen to me; the Baron is doing a great in the Rue Vanneau "
"I you!" Lisbeth. "He has thirty thousand francs! Where he got the money, I am sure I don't know, for Josepha the singer him dry. Oh! you are in luck," she on. "The Baron would for a woman who his in two little white hands like yours!"
"Well, then," said Madame Marneffe, with the of such creatures, which is recklessness, "look here, my dear child; take away from here that may your turn in your new quarters—that of drawers, that and mirror, the carpet, the "
Lisbeth's with joy; she was of such a gift.
"You are doing more for me in a than my rich relations have done in thirty years!" she exclaimed. "They have asked themselves I had any at all. On his visit, a ago, the Baron a rich man's on how I was. Thank you, my dear; and I will give you your money's worth, you will see how by and by."
Valerie out on the landing with her Cousin Betty, and the two embraced.
"Pouh! How she of hard work!" said the little woman to herself when she was alone. "I shall not you often, my dear cousin! At the same time, I must look sharp. She must be managed, for she can be of use, and help me to make my fortune."
Like the true Creole of Paris, Madame Marneffe trouble; she had the of a cat, which jumps or but when by necessity. To her, life must be all pleasure; and the without difficulties. She loved flowers, provided they were to her. She not going to the play but to a good box, at her own command, and in a to take her there. Valerie these tastes from her mother, on General Montcornet had luxury when he was in Paris, and who for twenty years had all the world at her feet; who had been and prodigal, her all in the of which the programme has been since the of Napoleon.
The of the Empire were a match in their for the great of the last century. Under the Restoration the cannot that it has been and robbed, and so, with two or three exceptions, it has thrifty, prudent, and stay-at-home, in short, and penurious. Since then, 1830 has the work of 1793. In France, henceforth, there will be great names, but no great houses, unless there should be political which we can foresee. Everything takes the of individuality. The in annuities. Family is destroyed.
The pressure of which had Valerie to the quick on the day when, to use Marneffe's expression, she had "caught on" with Hulot, had the woman to the that she would make a by means of her good looks. So, for some days, she had been the need of having a friend about her to take the place of a mother—a friend, to such may be told as must be from a waiting-maid, and who act, come and go, and think for her, a of to an of life. Now, she, as as Lisbeth, had the Baron's for the his and herself.
Prompted by the of the Parisian half-breed, who her days on a sofa, the of her on the of souls, sentiments, and intrigues, she had on making an of the spy. This step was, premeditated; she had the true nature of this creature, with passion, and meant to her to herself. Thus, their was like the a traveler into an to its depth. And Madame Marneffe had been to this old a of Iago and Richard III., so as she seemed, so humble, and so little to be feared.
For that instant, Lisbeth Fischer had been her self; that Corsican and temperament, the that it under, had up to its terrible height, as the branch of a tree up from the hand of a child that has it to the green fruit.
To those who study the social world, it must always be a of to see the fulness, the perfection, and the with which an idea in a nature.
Virginity, like every other monstrosity, has its special richness, its greatness. Life, are always economized, in the an power of and endurance. The brain is in the sum-total of its energy. When natures need to call on the of or soul, and are to act or to think, they have of steel, or knowledge in their intelligence—diabolical strength, or the black magic of the Will.
From this point of view the Virgin Mary, if we her only as a symbol, is great above every other type, Hindoo, Egyptian, or Greek. Virginity, the mother of great things, rerum, in her white hands the keys of the upper worlds. In short, that and terrible all the to her by the Catholic Church.
Thus, in one moment, Lisbeth Fischer had the Mohican none can escape, is inscrutable, is the outcome of the perfection of every organ of sense. She was Hatred and Revenge, as as they are in Italy, Spain, and the East. These two feelings, the of and love to the utmost, are only in lands by the sun. But Lisbeth was also a of Lorraine, on deceit.
She this detail of her part against her will; she by making a attempt, to her ignorance. She fancied, as children do, that being meant the same thing as confinement. But this is the of imprisonment, and that is the of the Criminal Bench.
As soon as she left Madame Marneffe, Lisbeth off to Monsieur Rivet, and him in his office.
"Well, my dear Monsieur Rivet," she began, when she had the door of the room. "You were right. Those Poles! They are low villains—all alike, men who know neither law fidelity."
"And who want to set Europe on fire," said the Rivet, "to every and every for the of a country that is all bog-land, they say, and full of Jews, to say nothing of the Cossacks and the peasants—a of wild by mistake with beings. Your Poles do not the times we live in; we are no longer barbarians. War is to an end, my dear mademoiselle; it out with the Monarchy. This is the age of for commerce, and industry, and middle-class prudence, such as were the making of Holland.
"Yes," he on with animation, "we live in a period when nations must obtain all they need by the legal of their and by the pacific action of Constitutional Institutions; that is what the Poles do not see, and I hope-
"You were saying, my dear? " he added, himself when he saw from his work-woman's that high politics were her comprehension.
"Here is the schedule," said Lisbeth. "If I don't want to my three thousand two hundred and ten francs, I must clap this into prison."
"Didn't I tell you so?" the of the Saint-Denis quarter.
The Rivets, to Pons Brothers, had their shop still in the Rue Mauvaises-Paroles, in the Hotel Langeais, by that family at the time when the still the Louvre.
"Yes, and I you on my way here," Lisbeth.
"If he nothing, he can be safe in prison by eight o'clock in the morning," said Rivet, the to the hour of sunrise; "but not till the day after tomorrow, for he cannot be till he has had notice that he is to be by writ, with the option of payment or imprisonment. And so "
"What an law!" Lisbeth. "Of the escapes."
"He has every right to do so," said the Assessor, smiling. "So this is the way "
"As to that," said Lisbeth, him, "I will take the paper and hand it to him, saying that I have been to the money, and that the on this formality. I know my gentleman. He will not look at the paper; he will light his pipe with it."
"Not a idea, not bad, Mademoiselle Fischer! Well, make your mind easy; the job shall be done. But stop a minute; to put your man in prison is not the only point to be considered; you only want to in that legal luxury in order to your money. Who is to pay you?"
"Those who give him money."
"To be sure; I that the Minister of War had him to a to one of our late customers. Ah! the house has many an to General Montcornet; he soon them with the of cannon. A man, he was! and he paid on the nail."
A of France may have saved the Emperor or his country; "He paid on the nail" will always be the he can have from a tradesman.
"Very well. And on Saturday, Monsieur Rivet, you shall have the tassels. By the way, I am moving from the Rue du Doyenne; I am going to live in the Rue Vanneau."
"You are very right. I not to see you in that which, in of my to the Opposition, I must say is a disgrace; I repeat it, yes! is a to the Louvre and the Place du Carrousel. I am to Louis-Philippe, he is my idol; he is the and exact of the class on he his dynasty, and I can what he did for the trimming-makers by the National Guard "
"When I you speak so, Monsieur Rivet, I cannot help why you are not a deputy."
"They are of my to the dynasty," Rivet. "My political are the King's. He has a character! They are a family; in short," said he, returning to the charge, "he is our ideal: morality, economy, everything. But the of the Louvre is one of the on which we gave him the crown, and the list, which, I admit, had no limits set to it, the of Paris in a most state. It is I am so in of the middle that I should like to see the middle of Paris in a condition. Your part of the town is positively terrifying. You would have been there one day. And so your Monsieur Crevel has been Major of his division! He will come to us, I hope, for his big epaulette."
"I am with him to-night, and will send him to you."
Lisbeth that she had her Livonian to herself by him off from all with the world. If he no longer work, the artist would be as as a man in a cellar, where she alone would go to see him. Thus she had two happy days, for she to a at the Baroness and her daughter.
To go to Crevel's house, in the Rue Saussayes, she the Pont du Carrousel, along the Quai Voltaire, the Quai d'Orsay, the Rue Bellechasse, Rue de l'Universite, the Pont de la Concorde, and the Avenue de Marigny. This illogical was by the logic of passion, always the of the legs.
Cousin Betty, as long as she the line of the quays, watch on the opposite of the Seine, walking very slowly. She had rightly. She had left Wenceslas dressing; she at once that, as soon as he should be of her, the lover would go off to the Baroness' by the road. And, in fact, as she along by the of the Quai Voltaire, in the river and walking along the opposite bank, she the artist as he came out of the Tuileries to the Pont Royal. She there came up with the one, and him unseen, for lovers look them. She him as as Madame Hulot's house, where he in like an visitor.
This proof, Madame Marneffe's revelations, put Lisbeth herself.
She at the newly promoted Major's door in the of which men to murder, and Monsieur Crevel senior in his drawing-room his children, Monsieur and Madame Hulot junior.
But Celestin Crevel was so and so perfect a type of the Parisian parvenu, that we can so into the presence of Cesar Birotteau's successor. Celestin Crevel was a world in himself; and he, more than Rivet, the of the by of his in this drama.
