n as
he realized this fact, the vague thoughts of yesterday evening began to
take a more decided shape in his mind. A check is sure to reveal to us
the strength of our hopes. The more Eugene learned of the pleasures of
life in Paris, the more impatient he felt of poverty and obscurity. He
crumpled the banknote in his pocket, and found any quantity of plausible
excuses for appropriating it.

He reached the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve at last, and from the
stairhead he saw a light in Goriot's room; the old man had lighted a
candle, and set the door ajar, lest the student should pass him by, and
go to his room without "telling him all about his daughter," to use
his own expression. Eugene, accordingly, told him everything without
reserve.

"Then they think that I am ruined!" cried Father Goriot, in an agony of
jealousy and desperation. "Why, I have still thirteen hundred livres a
year! _Mon Dieu!_ Poor little girl! why did she not come to me? I would
have sold my rentes; she should have had some of the principal, and I
would have bought a life-annuity with the rest. My good neighbor, why
did not _you_ come to tell me of her difficulty? How had you the
heart to go and risk her poor little hundred francs at play? This is
heart-breaking work. You see what it is to have sons-in-law. Oh! if I
had hold of them, I would wring their necks. _Mon Dieu! crying!_ Did you
say she was crying?"

"With her head on my waistcoat," said Eugene.

"Oh! give it to me," said Father Goriot. "What! my daughter's tears have
fallen there--my darling Delphine, who never used to cry when she was
a little girl! Oh! I will buy you another; do not wear it again; let me
have it. By the terms of her marriage-contract, she ought to have the
use of her property. To-morrow morning I will go and see Derville; he is
an attorney. I will demand that her money should be invested in her own
name. I know the law. I am an old wolf, I will show my teeth."

"Here, father; this is a banknote for a thousand francs that she wanted
me to keep out of our winnings. Keep them for her, in the pocket of the
waistcoat."

Goriot looked hard at Eugene, reached out and took the law student's
hand, and Eugene felt a tear fall on it.

"You will succeed," the old man said. "God is just, you see. I know an
honest man when I see him, and I can tell you, there are not many men
like you. I am to have another dear child in you, am I? There, go to
sleep; you can sleep; you are not y