too thin, Mme. de
Bargeton amiably pointed to a seat by her side, M. du Chatelet ensconced
himself in an easy-chair, and Lucien then became aware that there was no
one else in the room.

Mme. de Bargeton's words intoxicated the young poet from L'Houmeau. For
Lucien those three hours spent in her presence went by like a dream that
we would fain have last forever. She was not thin, he thought; she was
slender; in love with love, and loverless; and delicate in spite of her
strength. Her foibles, exaggerated by her manner, took his fancy; for
youth sets out with a love of hyperbole, that infirmity of noble souls.
He did not so much as see that her cheeks were faded, that the patches
of color on the cheek-bone were faded and hardened to a brick-red by
listless days and a certain amount of ailing health. His imagination
fastened at once on the glowing eyes, on the dainty curls rippling with
light, on the dazzling fairness of her skin, and hovered about those
bright points as the moth hovers about the candle flame. For her spirit
made such appeal to his that he could no longer see the woman as she
was. Her feminine exaltation had carried him away, the energy of her
expressions, a little staled in truth by pretty hard and constant wear,
but new to Lucien, fascinated him so much the more easily because he was
determined to be pleased. He had brought none of his own verses to read,
but nothing was said of them; he had purposely left them behind because
he meant to return; and Mme. de Bargeton did not ask for them, because
she meant that he should come back some future day to read them to her.
Was not this a beginning of an understanding?

As for M. Sixte du Chatelet, he was not over well pleased with all this.
He perceived rather too late in the day that he had a rival in this
handsome young fellow. He went with him as far as the first flight of
steps below Beaulieu to try the effect of a little diplomacy; and Lucien
was not a little astonished when he heard the controller of excise
pluming himself on having effected the introduction, and proceeding in
this character to give him (Lucien) the benefit of his advice.

"Heaven send that Lucien might meet with better treatment than he had
done," such was the matter of M. du Chatelet's discourse. "The Court was
less insolent that this pack of dolts in Angouleme. You were expected to
endure deadly insults; the superciliousness you had to put up with was
something abominable. If this k