clutch by every hair. In the middle of December, Madame Schontz,
who took a real interest in Etienne, sent to beg him to call on her one
morning on business.

"My dear fellow, you have a chance of marrying."

"I can marry very often, happily, my dear."

"When I say marrying, I mean marrying well. You have no prejudices: I
need not mince matters. This is the position: A young lady has got
into trouble; her mother knows nothing of even a kiss. Her father is an
honest notary, a man of honor; he has been wise enough to keep it dark.
He wants to get his daughter married within a fortnight, and he will
give her a fortune of a hundred and fifty thousand francs--for he has
three other children; but--and it is not a bad idea--he will add a
hundred thousand francs, under the rose, hand to hand, to cover the
damages. They are an old family of Paris citizens, Rue des Lombards----"

"Well, then, why does not the lover marry her?"

"Dead."

"What a romance! Such things are nowhere to be heard of but in the Rue
des Lombards."

"But do not take it into your head that a jealous brother murdered the
seducer. The young man died in the most commonplace way of a pleurisy
caught as he came out of the theatre. A head-clerk and penniless,
the man entrapped the daughter in order to marry into the business--A
judgment from heaven, I call it!"

"Where did you hear the story?"

"From Malaga; the notary is her _milord_."

"What, Cardot, the son of that little old man in hair-powder,
Florentine's first friend?"

"Just so. Malaga, whose 'fancy' is a little tomtit of a fiddler of
eighteen, cannot in conscience make such a boy marry the girl. Besides,
she has no cause to do him an ill turn.--Indeed, Monsieur Cardot wants a
man of thirty at least. Our notary, I feel sure, will be proud to have a
famous man for his son-in-law. So just feel yourself all over.--You will
pay your debts, you will have twelve thousand francs a year, and be a
father without any trouble on your part; what do you say to that to the
good? And, after all, you only marry a very consolable widow. There is
an income of fifty thousand francs in the house, and the value of the
connection, so in due time you may look forward to not less than fifteen
thousand francs a year more for your share, and you will enter a family
holding a fine political position; Cardot is the brother-in-law of old
Camusot, the depute who lived so long with Fanny Beaupre."

"Yes," said Lousteau, "