as a naturalist must have looked
at the first electric-eel that was ever brought to him,--a fish armed
with the power of a Leyden jar, which is the greatest curiosity of the
animal kingdom. After inhaling the incense of his triumph, Cesar got
into the coach to go to his own home, where the marriage contract of
his dear Cesarine and the devoted Popinot was ready for signature. His
nervous laugh disturbed the minds of the three old friends.

It is a fault of youth to think the whole world vigorous with its own
vigor,--a fault derived from its virtues. Youth sees neither men nor
things through spectacles; it colors all with the reflex glory of its
ardent fires, and casts the superabundance of its own life upon the
aged. Like Cesar and like Constance, Popinot held in his memory a
glowing recollection of the famous ball. Constance and Cesar through
their years of trial had often, though they never spoke of it to each
other, heard the strains of Collinet's orchestra, often beheld
that festive company, and tasted the joys so swiftly and so cruelly
chastised,--as Adam and Eve must have tasted in after times the
forbidden fruit which gave both death and life to all posterity; for it
appears that the generation of angels is a mystery of the skies.

Popinot, however, could dream of the fete without remorse, nay, with
ecstasy. Had not Cesarine in all her glory then promised herself to
him--to him, poor? During that evening had he not won the assurance
that he was loved for himself alone? So when he bought the appartement
restored by Grindot, from Celestin, when he stipulated that all should
be kept intact, when he religiously preserved the smallest things that
once belonged to Cesar and to Constance, he was dreaming of another
ball,--his ball, his wedding-ball! He made loving preparation for
it, imitating his old master in necessary expenses, but eschewing all
follies,--follies that were now past and done with. So the dinner was
to be served by Chevet; the guests were to be mostly the same: the Abbe
Loraux replaced the chancellor of the Legion of honor; the president of
the Court of Commerce, Monsieur Lebas, had promised to be there; Popinot
invited Monsieur Camusot in acknowledgment of the kindness he had
bestowed upon Birotteau; Monsieur de Vandenesse and Monsieur de Fontaine
took the place of Roguin and his wife. Cesarine and Popinot distributed
their invitations with much discretion. Both dreaded the publicity of
a wedding, an