matters.--Do you know, Monsieur
Nabob, what I shall require of you if you are to make acquaintance with
my Baron?" said Esther with a smile.

"Oh!--Thank you so much, you will introduce me to Sir Baronet?" said
Peyrade with an extravagant English accent.

"Yes," said she, "you must give me the pleasure of your company at
supper. There is no pitch stronger than champagne for sticking men
together. It seals every kind of business, above all such as you put
your foot in.--Come this evening; you will find some jolly fellows.--As
for you, my little Frederic," she added in the Baron's ear, "you have
your carriage here--just drive to the Rue Saint-Georges and bring Europe
to me here; I have a few words to say to her about the supper. I have
caught Lucien; he will bring two men who will be fun.--We will draw the
Englishman," she whispered to Madame du Val-Noble.

Peyrade and the Baron left the women together.

"Oh, my dear, if you ever succeed in drawing that great brute, you will
be clever indeed," said Suzanne.

"If it proves impossible, you must lend him to me for a week," replied
Esther, laughing.

"You would but keep him half a day," replied Madame du Val-Noble. "The
bread I eat is too hard; it breaks my teeth. Never again, to my dying
day, will I try to make an Englishman happy. They are all cold and
selfish--pigs on their hind legs."

"What, no consideration?" said Esther with a smile.

"On the contrary, my dear, the monster has never shown the least
familiarity."

"Under no circumstances whatever?" asked Esther.

"The wretch always addresses me as Madame, and preserves the most
perfect coolness imaginable at moments when every man is more or less
amenable. To him love-making!--on my word, it is nothing more nor less
than shaving himself. He wipes the razor, puts it back in its case, and
looks in the glass as if he were saying, 'I have not cut myself!'

"Then he treats me with such respect as is enough to send a woman mad.
That odious Milord Potboiler amuses himself by making poor Theodore hide
in my dressing-room and stand there half the day. In short, he tries
to annoy me in every way. And as stingy!--As miserly as Gobseck and
Gigonnet rolled into one. He takes me out to dinner, but he does not pay
the cab that brings me home if I happen not to have ordered my carriage
to fetch me."

"Well," said Esther, "but what does he pay you for your services?"

"Oh, my dear, positively nothing. Five hundred franc