hey do all they can to please
us?"

"Ah, that is the question!" said Madame du Val-Noble. "It is the old
story of the herring, which is the most puzzling fish that swims."

"Why?"

"Well, no one could ever find out."

"Get along, my dear!--I must ask for your fifty thousand francs."

"Good-bye then."

For three days past, Esther's ways with the Baron de Nucingen had
completely changed. The monkey had become a cat, the cat had become a
woman. Esther poured out treasures of affection on the old man; she
was quite charming. Her way of addressing him, with a total absence of
mischief or bitterness, and all sorts of tender insinuation, had carried
conviction to the banker's slow wit; she called him Fritz, and he
believed that she loved him.

"My poor Fritz, I have tried you sorely," said she. "I have teased you
shamefully. Your patience has been sublime. You loved me, I see, and I
will reward you. I like you now, I do not know how it is, but I should
prefer you to a young man. It is the result of experience perhaps.--In
the long run we discover at last that pleasure is the coin of the soul;
and it is not more flattering to be loved for the sake of pleasure than
it is to be loved for the sake of money.

"Besides, young men are too selfish; they think more of themselves than
of us; while you, now, think only of me. I am all your life to you.
And I will take nothing more from you. I want to prove to you how
disinterested I am."

"Vy, I hafe gifen you notink," cried the Baron, enchanted. "I propose to
gife you to-morrow tirty tousant francs a year in a Government bond. Dat
is mein vedding gift."

Esther kissed the Baron so sweetly that he turned pale without any
pills.

"Oh!" cried she, "do not suppose that I am sweet to you only for your
thirty thousand francs! It is because--now--I love you, my good, fat
Frederic."

"Ach, mein Gott! Vy hafe you kept me vaiting? I might hafe been so happy
all dese tree monts."

"In three or in five per cents, my pet?" said Esther, passing her
fingers through Nucingen's hair, and arranging it in a fashion of her
own.

"In trees--I hat a quantity."

So next morning the Baron brought the certificate of shares; he came
to breakfast with his dear little girl, and to take her orders for the
following evening, the famous Saturday, the great day!

"Here, my little vife, my only vife," said the banker gleefully, his
face radiant with happiness. "Here is enough money to pay for you