ing
Esther in the house in the Rue Saint-Georges, the Baron begged du
Tillet to take Florine there, that she might see whether everything
was suitable to Nucingen's fortune, and if the description of "a little
palace" were duly realized by the artists commissioned to make the cage
worthy of the bird.

Every device known to luxury before the Revolution of 1830 made this
residence a masterpiece of taste. Grindot the architect considered it
his greatest achievement as a decorator. The staircase, which had been
reconstructed of marble, the judicious use of stucco ornament, textiles,
and gilding, the smallest details as much as the general effect, outdid
everything of the kind left in Paris from the time of Louis XV.

"This is my dream!--This and virtue!" said Florine with a smile. "And
for whom are you spending all this money?"

"For a voman vat is going up there," replied the Baron.

"A way of playing Jupiter?" replied the actress. "And when is she on
show?"

"On the day of the house-warming," cried du Tillet.

"Not before dat," said the Baron.

"My word, how we must lace and brush and fig ourselves out," Florine
went on. "What a dance the women will lead their dressmakers and
hairdressers for that evening's fun!--And when is it to be?"

"Dat is not for me to say."

"What a woman she must be!" cried Florine. "How much I should like to
see her!"

"An' so should I," answered the Baron artlessly.

"What! is everything new together--the house, the furniture, and the
woman?"

"Even the banker," said du Tillet, "for my old friend seems to me quite
young again."

"Well, he must go back to his twentieth year," said Florine; "at any
rate, for once."

In the early days of 1830 everybody in Paris was talking of Nucingen's
passion and the outrageous splendor of his house. The poor Baron,
pointed at, laughed at, and fuming with rage, as may easily be imagined,
took it into his head that on the occasion of giving the house-warming
he would at the same time get rid of his paternal disguise, and get the
price of so much generosity. Always circumvented by "La Torpille," he
determined to treat of their union by correspondence, so as to win from
her an autograph promise. Bankers have no faith in anything less than a
promissory note.

So one morning early in the year he rose early, locked himself into his
room, and composed the following letter in very good French; for though
he spoke the language very badly, he could wri