father.  Madame de Nucingen would lap up all the mud between the Rue Saint-Lazare and the Rue de Crenelle to gain admission to my salon.”  What the duchesse did not reveal was that Anastasie had a lover, Count Maxime de Trailles, a gambler and a duellist.  To pay the gambling losses of this unscrupulous lover, to the extent of two hundred thousand francs, the Countess de Restaud induced Old Goriot to sell out of the funds nearly all that remained of his great fortune, and give the proceeds to her.

Returning to his lodgings from a ball in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, Eugene saw a light in Goriot’s room; and, without being noticed, watched the old man laboriously twisting two pieces of silver plate—­his precious dish and porringer—­into one lump.

“He must be mad,” thought the student.

“The poor child!” groaned Goriot.

The next morning Goriot visited a silversmith, and the Countess de Restaud received the money to redeem a note of hand which she had given to a moneylender on behalf of her lover.

“Old Goriot is sublime,” muttered Eugene when he heard of the transaction.

Delphine de Nucingen also had an admirer, Count de Marsay, through whose influence she expected to be introduced into the exclusive aristocratic society to which even the great wealth of her husband and his German patent of nobility could not secure an entry.  Apart from her social aspirations, Delphine was personally extravagant; and as the baron was miserly and only gave her a very scanty allowance, she visited the gambling dens of the Palais Royale to try and raise the money which she could no longer coax from her old father.

III.—­A Temptation and a Murder

To be young, to thirst after a position in the world of fashion, to hunger for the smiles of beautiful women, to obtain an entry into the salons of the Faubourg, meant to Rastignac large expenditure.  He wrote home asking for a loan of twelve hundred francs, which, he said, he must have at all costs.  The Viscomtesse de Beauseant had taken him under her protection, and he was in a situation to make an immediate fortune.  He must go into society, but had not a penny even to buy gloves.  The loan would be returned tenfold.

The mother sold her jewels, the aunt her old laces, his sisters sacrificed their economies, and the twelve hundred francs were sent to Eugene.  With this sum he launched into the gay life of a man of fashion, dressed extravagantly, and gambled recklessly.  One day Vautrin arrived in high spirits, surprising Eugene conversing with Victorine.  This was Vautrin’s opportunity, for which he had been preparing.  When Victorine retired, Vautrin pointed out how impossible it was to maintain a position in society as a law student, and if Eugene wished to get on quickly he must either be rich, or make believe to be so.