what hour Madame de l'Estorade receives. I
ought to call upon her to-morrow, after what happened here to-night."

"At four o'clock," said the young wife through the door,--"on her return
from the Tuileries, where she takes the children to walk every day."

One of the questions that were frequently put by Parisian society after
the marriage of Madame de Rastignac was: "Does she love her husband?"

The doubt was permissible. The marriage of Mademoiselle de Nucingen was
the unpleasant and scarcely moral product of one of those immoral
unions which find their issue in the life of a daughter, after years and
satiety have brought them to a condition of dry-rot and paralysis. In
such marriages of _convenience_ the husband is satisfied, for he
escapes a happiness which has turned rancid to him, and he profits by
a speculation like that of the magician in the "Arabian Nights" who
exchanges old lamps for new. But the wife, on the contrary, must ever
feel a living memory between herself and her husband; a memory which may
revive, and while wholly outside of the empire of the senses, has the
force of an old authority antagonistic to her young influence. In such a
position the wife is a victim.

During the short time we have taken to give this brief analysis of a
situation too frequently existing, Rastignac lingered at the door.

"Well," he said at last, deciding to retire, "good-night, Augusta."

As he said the words, rather piteously, the door opened suddenly,
and his wife, throwing herself into his arms, laid her head upon his
shoulder sobbing.

The question was answered: Madame de Rastignac loved her husband; but
for all that, the distant muttering of a subterranean fire might be
heard beneath the flowers of their garden.

III. A MINISTER'S MORNING

The next day, when Rastignac entered his office, the adjoining
waiting-room was already occupied by eleven persons waiting with letters
of introduction to solicit favors, also two peers of France and several
deputies.

Presently a bell rang. The usher, with an eagerness which communicated
itself to all present, entered the sanctum; an instant later he came
out, bearing this stereotyped message:--

"The minister is obliged to attend a Council. He will, however, have the
honor to receive the gentlemen of the two Chambers. As for the others,
they can call again at another time."

"What other time?" asked one of the postponed; "this is the third time
in three days th