hemselves, as Esther had done, for a secret ideal, which is
their religion.

After saving a few jewels from the wreck with great difficulty, Madame
du Val-Noble was crushed under the burden of the horrible report: "She
ruined Falleix." She was almost thirty; and though she was in the prime
of her beauty, still she might be called an old woman, and all the
more so because in such a crisis all a woman's rivals are against her.
Mariette, Florine, Tullia would ask their friend to dinner, and gave her
some help; but as they did not know the extent of her debts, they did
not dare to sound the depths of that gulf. An interval of six years
formed rather too long a gap in the ebb and flow of the Paris tide,
between La Torpille and Madame du Val-Noble, for the woman "on foot" to
speak to the woman in her carriage; but La Val-Noble knew that Esther
was too generous not to remember sometimes that she had, as she said,
fallen heir to her possessions, and not to seek her out by some meeting
which might seem accidental though arranged. To bring about such an
accident, Madame du Val-Noble, dressed in the most lady-like way, walked
out every day in the Champs-Elysees on the arm of Theodore Gaillard, who
afterwards married her, and who, in these straits, behaved very well to
his former mistress, giving her boxes at the play, and inviting her to
every spree. She flattered herself that Esther, driving out one fine
day, would meet her face to face.

Esther's coachman was Paccard--for her household had been made up in
five days by Asie, Europe, and Paccard under Carlos' instructions, and
in such a way that the house in the Rue Saint-Georges was an impregnable
fortress.

Peyrade, on his part, prompted by deep hatred, by the thirst for
vengeance, and, above all, by his wish to see his darling Lydie married,
made the Champs-Elysees the end of his walks as soon as he heard from
Contenson that Monsieur de Nucingen's mistress might be seen there.
Peyrade could dress so exactly like an Englishman, and spoke French so
perfectly with the mincing accent that the English give the language; he
knew England itself so well, and was so familiar with all the customs of
the country, having been sent to England by the police authorities three
times between 1779 and 1786, that he could play his part in London and
at ambassadors' residences without awaking suspicion. Peyrade, who had
some resemblance to Musson the famous juggler, could disguise himself so
ef