d her Mademoiselle de Froidfond) outdid each other in
expressions of admiration. This concert of praise, never before bestowed
upon Eugenie, made her blush under its novelty; but insensibly her ear
became habituated to the sound, and however coarse the compliments might
be, she soon was so accustomed to hear her beauty lauded that if
any new-comer had seemed to think her plain, she would have felt the
reproach far more than she might have done eight years earlier. She
ended at last by loving the incense, which she secretly laid at the feet
of her idol. By degrees she grew accustomed to be treated as a sovereign
and to see her court pressing around her every evening.

Monsieur de Bonfons was the hero of the little circle, where his wit,
his person, his education, his amiability, were perpetually praised. One
or another would remark that in seven years he had largely increased his
fortune, that Bonfons brought in at least ten thousand francs a year,
and was surrounded, like the other possessions of the Cruchots, by the
vast domains of the heiress.

"Do you know, mademoiselle," said an habitual visitor, "that the
Cruchots have an income of forty thousand francs among them!"

"And then, their savings!" exclaimed an elderly female Cruchotine,
Mademoiselle de Gribeaucourt.

"A gentleman from Paris has lately offered Monsieur Cruchot two hundred
thousand francs for his practice," said another. "He will sell it if he
is appointed _juge de paix_."

"He wants to succeed Monsieur de Bonfons as president of the Civil
courts, and is taking measures," replied Madame d'Orsonval. "Monsieur le
president will certainly be made councillor."

"Yes, he is a very distinguished man," said another,--"don't you think
so, mademoiselle?"

Monsieur de Bonfons endeavored to put himself in keeping with the role
he sought to play. In spite of his forty years, in spite of his dusky
and crabbed features, withered like most judicial faces, he dressed
in youthful fashions, toyed with a bamboo cane, never took snuff in
Mademoiselle de Froidfond's house, and came in a white cravat and a
shirt whose pleated frill gave him a family resemblance to the race of
turkeys. He addressed the beautiful heiress familiarly, and spoke of her
as "Our dear Eugenie." In short, except for the number of visitors, the
change from loto to whist, and the disappearance of Monsieur and Madame
Grandet, the scene was about the same as the one with which this history
opened.