een
given in the "little palace."

"Well," said Esther in confidence to her friends, who repeated it to the
Baron, "I shall open house at the Carnival, and I mean to make my man as
happy as a cock in plaster."

The phrase became proverbial among women of her kidney.

The Baron gave vent to much lamentation; like married men, he made
himself very ridiculous, he began to complain to his intimate friends,
and his dissatisfaction was generally known.

Esther, meanwhile, took quite a serious view of her position as the
Pompadour of this prince of speculators. She had given two or three
small evening parties, solely to get Lucien into the house. Lousteau,
Rastignac, du Tillet, Bixiou, Nathan, the Comte de Brambourg--all the
cream of the dissipated crew--frequented her drawing-room. And, as
leading ladies in the piece she was playing, Esther accepted
Tullia, Florentine, Fanny Beaupre, and Florine--two dancers and two
actresses--besides Madame du Val-Noble. Nothing can be more dreary than
a courtesan's home without the spice of rivalry, the display of dress,
and some variety of type.

In six weeks Esther had become the wittiest, the most amusing, the
loveliest, and the most elegant of those female pariahs who form the
class of kept women. Placed on the pedestal that became her, she enjoyed
all the delights of vanity which fascinate women in general, but still
as one who is raised above her caste by a secret thought. She cherished
in her heart an image of herself which she gloried in, while it made
her blush; the hour when she must abdicate was ever present to her
consciousness; thus she lived a double life, really scorning herself.
Her sarcastic remarks were tinged by the temper which was roused in
her by the intense contempt felt by the Angel of Love, hidden in the
courtesan, for the disgraceful and odious part played by the body in the
presence, as it were, of the soul. At once actor and spectator, victim
and judge, she was a living realization of the beautiful Arabian Tales,
in which a noble creature lies hidden under a degrading form, and of
which the type is the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of books--the
Bible. Having granted herself a lease of life till the day after her
infidelity, the victim might surely play awhile with the executioner.

Moreover, the enlightenment that had come to Esther as to the secretly
disgraceful means by which the Baron had made his colossal fortune
relieved her of every scruple. S