evue des deux Mondes_.

Well, every day in Paris a hundred or more passions a la Nucingen come
into being, and find expression in offering such rarities as queens dare
not purchase, presented, kneeling, to baggages who, to use Asie's word,
like to cut a dash. But for these little details, a decent citizen would
be puzzled to conceive how a fortune melts in the hands of these women,
whose social function, in Fourier's scheme, is perhaps to rectify the
disasters caused by avarice and cupidity. Such squandering is, no doubt,
to the social body what a prick of the lancet is to a plethoric subject.
In two months Nucingen had shed broadcast on trade more than two hundred
thousand francs.

By the time the old lover returned, darkness was falling; the bouquet
was no longer of any use. The hour for driving in the Champs-Elysees
in winter is between two and four. However, the carriage was of use to
convey Esther from the Rue Taitbout to the Rue Saint-Georges, where she
took possession of the "little palace." Never before had Esther been the
object of such worship or such lavishness, and it amazed her; but, like
all royal ingrates, she took care to express no surprise.

When you go into St. Peter's at Rome, to enable you to appreciate the
extent and height of this queen of cathedrals, you are shown the little
finger of a statue which looks of a natural size, and which measures
I know not how much. Descriptions have been so severely criticised,
necessary as they are to a history of manners, that I must here follow
the example of the Roman Cicerone. As they entered the dining-room,
the Baron could not resist asking Esther to feel the stuff of which the
window curtains were made, draped with magnificent fulness, lined with
white watered silk, and bordered with a gimp fit to trim a Portuguese
princess' bodice. The material was silk brought from Canton, on which
Chinese patience had painted Oriental birds with a perfection only to
be seen in mediaeval illuminations, or in the Missal of Charles V., the
pride of the Imperial library at Vienna.

"It hafe cost two tousand franc' an ell for a milord who brought it from
Intia----"

"It is very nice, charming," said Esther. "How I shall enjoy drinking
champagne here; the froth will not get dirty here on a bare floor."

"Oh! madame!" cried Europe, "only look at the carpet!"

"Dis carpet hafe been made for de Duc de Torlonia, a frient of mine,
who fount it too dear, so I took it for you