lled my part of the agreement, haven't I? Well, look here, I will
make a bargain with you."

"Let me hear."

"You shall get me the place as cook to Madame, engage me for ten
years, and pay the last five in advance--what is that? Just a little
earnest-money. When once I am about madame, I can bring her to these
terms. Of course, you must first order her a lovely dress from Madame
Auguste, who knows her style and taste; and order the new carriage to
be at the door at four o'clock. After the Bourse closes, go to her rooms
and take her for a little drive in the Bois de Boulogne. Well, by
that act the woman proclaims herself your mistress; she has advertised
herself to the eyes and knowledge of all Paris: A hundred thousand
francs.--You must dine with her--I know how to cook such a dinner!--You
must take her to the play, to the Varietes, to a stage-box, and then all
Paris will say, 'There is that old rascal Nucingen with his mistress.'
It is very flattering to know that such things are said.--Well, all
this, for I am not grasping, is included for the first hundred thousand
francs.--In a week, by such conduct, you will have made some way----"

"But I shall hafe paid ein hundert tousant franc."

"In the course of the second week," Asie went on, as though she had
not heard this lamentable ejaculation, "madame, tempted by these
preliminaries, will have made up her mind to leave her little apartment
and move to the house you are giving her. Your Esther will have seen the
world again, have found her old friends; she will wish to shine and do
the honors of her palace--it is in the nature of things: Another
hundred thousand francs!--By Heaven! you are at home there, Esther
compromised--she must be yours. The rest is a mere trifle, in which you
must play the principal part, old elephant. (How wide the monster opens
his eyes!) Well, I will undertake that too: Four hundred thousand--and
that, my fine fellow, you need not pay till the day after. What do you
think of that for honesty? I have more confidence in you than you
have in me. If I persuade madame to show herself as your mistress, to
compromise herself, to take every gift you offer her,--perhaps this very
day, you will believe that I am capable of inducing her to throw open
the pass of the Great Saint Bernard. And it is a hard job, I can tell
you; it will take as much pulling to get your artillery through as it
took the first Consul to get over the Alps."

"But vy?"

"Her