quabble with Madame Cardot. The notary
relies on your honor and good feeling, for the affair is settled. The
clerk, whose conduct has been admirable, went so far as to attend mass!
A finished hypocrite, I say--just suits the mamma. You and Cardot
will still be friends. He is to be a director in an immense financial
concern, and he may be of use to you.--So you have been waked from a
sweet dream."

"I have lost a fortune, a wife, and--"

"And a mistress," said Madame Schontz, smiling. "Here you are, more than
married; you will be insufferable, you will be always wanting to get
home, there will be nothing loose about you, neither your clothes nor
your habits. And, after all, my Arthur does things in style. I will be
faithful to him and cut Malaga's acquaintance.

"Let me peep at her through the door--your Sancerre Muse," she went
on. "Is there no finer bird than that to be found in the desert?" she
exclaimed. "You are cheated! She is dignified, lean, lachrymose; she
only needs Lady Dudley's turban!"

"What is it now?" asked Madame de la Baudraye, who had heard the rustle
of a silk dress and the murmur of a woman's voice.

"It is, my darling, that we are now indissolubly united.--I have just
had an answer to the letter you saw me write, which was to break off my
marriage----"

"So that was the party which you gave up?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I will be more than your wife--I am your slave, I give you my
life," said the poor deluded creature. "I did not believe I could love
you more than I did!--Now I shall not be a mere incident, but your whole
life?"

"Yes, my beautiful, my generous Didine."

"Swear to me," said she, "that only death shall divide us."

Lousteau was ready to sweeten his vows with the most fascinating
prettinesses. And this was why. Between the door of the apartment where
he had taken the lorette's farewell kiss, and that of the drawing-room,
where the Muse was reclining, bewildered by such a succession of shocks,
Lousteau had remembered little De la Baudraye's precarious health, his
fine fortune, and Bianchon's remark about Dinah, "She will be a rich
widow!" and he said to himself, "I would a hundred times rather have
Madame de la Baudraye for a wife than Felicie!"

His plan of action was quickly decided on; he determined to play
the farce of passion once more, and to perfection. His mean
self-interestedness and his false vehemence of passion had disastrous
results. Madame de la Baudraye, when she se