Honore de Balzac: Father Goriot

1. FATHER GORIOT (continued)

"Guess what I bring for you," said Eugene, sitting down beside her. He took possession of her arm to kiss her hand

Mme. de Nucingen gave a joyful start as she saw the card. She turned to Eugene; there were tears in her eyes as she flung her arms about his neck, and drew him towards her in a frenzy of gratified vanity.

"And I owe this happiness to you--to thee" (she whispered the more intimate word in his ear); "but Therese is in my dressing-room, let us be prudent.--This happiness--yes, for I may call it so, when it comes to me through YOU--is surely more than a triumph for self-love? No one has been willing to introduce me into that set. Perhaps just now I may seem to you to be frivolous, petty, shallow, like a Parisienne, but remember, my friend, that I am ready to give up all for you; and that if I long more than ever for an entrance into the Faubourg Saint- Germain, it is because I shall meet you there."

"Mme. de Beauseant's note seems to say very plainly that she does not expect to see the Baron de Nucingen at her ball; don't you think so?" said Eugene.

"Why, yes," said the Baroness as she returned the letter. "Those women have a talent for insolence. But it is of no consequence, I shall go. My sister is sure to be there, and sure to be very beautifully dressed.--Eugene," she went on, lowering her voice, "she will go to dispel ugly suspicions. You do not know the things that people are saying about her. Only this morning Nucingen came to tell me that they had been discussing her at the club. Great heavens! on what does a woman's character and the honor of a whole family depend! I feel that I am nearly touched and wounded in my poor sister. According to some people, M. de Trailles must have put his name to bills for a hundred thousand francs, nearly all of them are overdue, and proceedings are threatened. In this predicament, it seems that my sister sold her diamonds to a Jew--the beautiful diamonds that belonged to her husband's mother, Mme. de Restaud the elder,--you have seen her wearing them. In fact, nothing else has been talked about for the last two days. So I can see that Anastasie is sure to come to Mme. de Beauseant's ball in tissue of gold, and ablaze with diamonds, to draw all eyes upon her; and I will not be outshone. She has tried to eclipse me all her life, she has never been kind to me, and I have helped her so often, and always had money for her when she had none.-- But never mind other people now, to-day I mean to be perfectly happy."