et a father. She was crying! and I
have to be told about it!--and I was quietly eating my dinner, like an
idiot, all the time--I, who would sell the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to
save one tear to either of them."

"An honest man!" said Eugene to himself as he lay down. "Upon my word, I
think I will be an honest man all my life; it is so pleasant to obey
the voice of conscience." Perhaps none but believers in God do good in
secret; and Eugene believed in a God.

The next day Rastignac went at the appointed time to Mme. de Beauseant,
who took him with her to the Duchesse de Carigliano's ball. The
Marechale received Eugene most graciously. Mme. de Nucingen was there.
Delphine's dress seemed to suggest that she wished for the admiration
of others, so that she might shine the more in Eugene's eyes; she
was eagerly expecting a glance from him, hiding, as she thought, this
eagerness from all beholders. This moment is full of charm for one who
can guess all that passes in a woman's mind. Who has not refrained from
giving his opinion, to prolong her suspense, concealing his pleasure
from a desire to tantalize, seeking a confession of love in her
uneasiness, enjoying the fears that he can dissipate by a smile? In
the course of the evening the law student suddenly comprehended his
position; he saw that, as the cousin of Mme. de Beauseant, he was a
personage in this world. He was already credited with the conquest
of Mme. de Nucingen, and for this reason was a conspicuous figure;
he caught the envious glances of other young men, and experienced the
earliest pleasures of coxcombry. People wondered at his luck, and scraps
of these conversations came to his ears as he went from room to room;
all the women prophesied his success; and Delphine, in her dread of
losing him, promised that this evening she would not refuse the kiss
that all his entreaties could scarcely win yesterday.

Rastignac received several invitations. His cousin presented him to
other women who were present; women who could claim to be of the highest
fashion; whose houses were looked upon as pleasant; and this was
the loftiest and most fashionable society in Paris into which he was
launched. So this evening had all the charm of a brilliant debut; it
was an evening that he was to remember even in old age, as a woman looks
back upon her first ball and the memories of her girlish triumphs.

The next morning, at breakfast, he related the story of his success for