the letters you could write, however
fine they may be. Try to let her know it, indirectly; perhaps she will
be yours! And--have no scruples, she will not die of that," added she,
looking keenly at her husband.

But Madame de Nucingen knew nothing whatever of the nature of such
women.

"Vat a clefer voman is Montame de Nucingen!" said the Baron to himself
when his wife had left him.

Still, the more the Baron admired the subtlety of his wife's counsel,
the less he could see how he might act upon it; and he not only felt
that he was stupid, but he told himself so.

The stupidity of wealthy men, though it is almost proverbial, is only
comparative. The faculties of the mind, like the dexterity of the limbs,
need exercise. The dancer's strength is in his feet; the blacksmith's in
his arms; the market porter is trained to carry loads; the singer works
his larynx; and the pianist hardens his wrist. A banker is practised
in business matters; he studies and plans them, and pulls the wires
of various interests, just as a playwright trains his intelligence in
combining situations, studying his actors, giving life to his dramatic
figures.

We should no more look for powers of conversation in the Baron de
Nucingen than for the imagery of a poet in the brain of a mathematician.
How many poets occur in an age, who are either good prose writers, or
as witty in the intercourse of daily life as Madame Cornuel? Buffon
was dull company; Newton was never in love; Lord Byron loved nobody but
himself; Rousseau was gloomy and half crazy; La Fontaine absent-minded.
Human energy, equally distributed, produces dolts, mediocrity in all;
unequally bestowed it gives rise to those incongruities to whom the name
of Genius is given, and which, if we only could see them, would look
like deformities. The same law governs the body; perfect beauty is
generally allied with coldness or silliness. Though Pascal was both a
great mathematician and a great writer, though Beaumarchais was a good
man of business, and Zamet a profound courtier, these rare exceptions
prove the general principle of the specialization of brain faculties.

Within the sphere of speculative calculations the banker put forth as
much intelligence and skill, finesse and mental power, as a practised
diplomatist expends on national affairs. If he were equally remarkable
outside his office, the banker would be a great man. Nucingen made
one with the Prince de Ligne, with Mazarin or with