was waiting for his wife. In the time of the Restoration the
luxury of the table was carried, as is well known, to the highest
degree, and M. de Beauseant, like many jaded men of the world, had few
pleasures left but those of good cheer; in this matter, in fact, he was
a gourmand of the schools of Louis XVIII. and of the Duc d'Escars, and
luxury was supplemented by splendor. Eugene, dining for the first time
in a house where the traditions of grandeur had descended through many
generations, had never seen any spectacle like this that now met his
eyes. In the time of the Empire, balls had always ended with a supper,
because the officers who took part in them must be fortified for
immediate service, and even in Paris might be called upon to leave the
ballroom for the battlefield. This arrangement had gone out of fashion
under the Monarchy, and Eugene had so far only been asked to dances.
The self-possession which pre-eminently distinguished him in later life
already stood him in good stead, and he did not betray his amazement.
Yet as he saw for the first time the finely wrought silver plate, the
completeness of every detail, the sumptuous dinner, noiselessly served,
it was difficult for such an ardent imagination not to prefer this life
of studied and refined luxury to the hardships of the life which he had
chosen only that morning.

His thoughts went back for a moment to the lodging-house, and with a
feeling of profound loathing, he vowed to himself that at New Year he
would go; prompted at least as much by a desire to live among cleaner
surroundings as by a wish to shake off Vautrin, whose huge hand he
seemed to feel on his shoulder at that moment. When you consider the
numberless forms, clamorous or mute, that corruption takes in Paris,
common-sense begins to wonder what mental aberration prompted the State
to establish great colleges and schools there, and assemble young men in
the capital; how it is that pretty women are respected, or that the gold
coin displayed in the money-changer's wooden saucers does not take to
itself wings in the twinkling of an eye; and when you come to think
further, how comparatively few cases of crime there are, and to count
up the misdemeanors committed by youth, is there not a certain amount of
respect due to these patient Tantaluses who wrestle with themselves and
nearly always come off victorious? The struggles of the poor student
in Paris, if skilfully drawn, would furnish a most drama