ake off this
province 'intra muros,' a thousand times more absurd and petty than the
true provinces; they at least, side by side with their pettiness, have
habits and customs that are characteristic, a 'sui generis' dignity;
they are frankly what they are, the antipodes of Parisian life; this
other is but a parody of it. I will fling myself upon Paris."

In consequence of these reflections, la Peyrade went to see two or three
barristers who had offered to introduce him at the Palais in secondary
cases. He accepted those that presented themselves at once, and three
weeks after his rupture with the Thuilliers he was no longer the
"advocate of the poor," but a barrister pleading before the Royal court.

He had already pleaded several cases successfully when he received,
one morning, a letter which greatly disturbed him. The president of the
order of barristers requested him to come to his office at the Palais in
the course of the day, as he had something of importance to say to him.
La Peyrade instantly thought of the transaction relating to the purchase
of the house on the boulevard de la Madeleine; it must have come,
he thought, to the ears of the Council of Discipline; if so he was
accountable to that tribunal and he knew its severity.

Now this du Portail, whom he had never yet been to see, in spite of his
conditional promise to Cerizet, was likely to have heard the whole
story of that transaction from Cerizet himself. Evidently all means
were thought good by that man, judging by the use he had made of the
Hungarian woman. In his savage determination to bring about the marriage
with the crazy girl, had this virulent old man denounced him? On seeing
him courageously and with some appearance of success entering a career
in which he might find fame and independence, had his persecutor taken
a step to make that career impossible? Certainly there was enough
likelihood in this suggestion to make the barrister wait in cruel
anxiety for the hour when he might learn the true nature of the alarming
summons.

While breakfasting rather meagrely, his mind full of these painful
conjectures, Madame Coffinet, who had the honor to take charge of his
housekeeping, came up to ask if he would see Monsieur Etienne Lousteau.
[See "The Great Man of the Provinces in Paris."]

Etienne Lousteau! la Peyrade had an idea that he had heard the name
before.

"Show him into my office," he said to the portress.

A moment later he met his visit