I
was afraid that your inexperience and rash ardor might wreck our
carefully-made schemes. Can you recollect yourself as you were then? You
must admit that if you could see your double to-day, you would say the
same yourself. You are not like the same man. That was our mistake. But
would one man in a thousand combine such intellectual gifts with such
wonderful aptitude for taking the tone of society? I did not think that
you would be such an astonishing exception. You were transformed so
quickly, you acquired the manner of Paris so easily, that I did not
recognize you in the Bois de Boulogne a month ago."

Lucien heard the great lady with inexpressible pleasure; the flatteries
were spoken with such a petulant, childlike, confiding air, and she
seemed to take such a deep interest in him, that he thought of his first
evening at the Panorama-Dramatique, and began to fancy that some such
miracle was about to take place a second time. Everything had smiled
upon him since that happy evening; his youth, he thought, was the
talisman that worked this change. He would prove this great lady; she
should not take him unawares.

"Then, what were these schemes which have turned to chimeras, madame?"
asked he.

"Louise meant to obtain a royal patent permitting you to bear the name
and title of Rubempre. She wished to put Chardon out of sight. Your
opinions have put that out of the question now, but _then_ it would not
have been so hard to manage, and a title would mean a fortune for you.

"You will look on these things as trifles and visionary ideas," she
continued; "but we know something of life, and we know, too, all the
solid advantages of a Count's title when it is borne by a fashionable
and extremely charming young man. Announce 'M. Chardon' and 'M. le Comte
de Rubempre' before heiresses or English girls with a million to their
fortune, and note the difference of the effect. The Count might be in
debt, but he would find open hearts; his good looks, brought into relief
by his title, would be like a diamond in a rich setting; M. Chardon
would not be so much as noticed. WE have not invented these notions;
they are everywhere in the world, even among the burgeois. You
are turning your back on fortune at this minute. Do you see that
good-looking young man? He is the Vicomte Felix de Vandenesse, one of
the King's private secretaries. The King is fond enough of young men of
talent, and Vandenesse came from the provinces with baggage