in
spite of her capacity for dissimulation, her discomfiture was discerned
by her rivals. Her unfailing consolation had slipped from her at last.
The delicious thought, "I am the most beautiful," the thought that at
all times had soothed every mortification, had turned into a lie.

At the opening of the second act a woman took up her position not very
far from Raphael, in a box that had been empty hitherto. A murmur of
admiration went up from the whole house. In that sea of human faces
there was a movement of every living wave; all eyes were turned upon the
stranger lady. The applause of young and old was so prolonged, that when
the orchestra began, the musicians turned to the audience to request
silence, and then they themselves joined in the plaudits and swelled the
confusion. Excited talk began in every box, every woman equipped herself
with an opera glass, elderly men grew young again, and polished the
glasses of their lorgnettes with their gloves. The enthusiasm subsided
by degrees, the stage echoed with the voices of the singers, and order
reigned as before. The aristocratic section, ashamed of having yielded
to a spontaneous feeling, again assumed their wonted politely frigid
manner. The well-to-do dislike to be astonished at anything; at the
first sight of a beautiful thing it becomes their duty to discover the
defect in it which absolves them from admiring it,--the feeling of all
ordinary minds. Yet a few still remained motionless and heedless of the
music, artlessly absorbed in the delight of watching Raphael's neighbor.

Valentin noticed Taillefer's mean, obnoxious countenance by Aquilina's
side in a lower box, and received an approving smirk from him. Then he
saw Emile, who seemed to say from where he stood in the orchestra, "Just
look at that lovely creature there, close beside you!" Lastly, he saw
Rastignac, with Mme. de Nucingen and her daughter, twisting his gloves
like a man in despair, because he was tethered to his place, and could
not leave it to go any nearer to the unknown fair divinity.

Raphael's life depended upon a covenant that he had made with himself,
and had hitherto kept sacred. He would give no special heed to any
woman whatever; and the better to guard against temptation, he used
a cunningly contrived opera-glass which destroyed the harmony of the
fairest features by hideous distortions. He had not recovered from the
terror that had seized on him in the morning when, at a mere expressio