“‘Which is a common weakness,’ returned Rastignac without laughing.  ’Possibly in your place I might plunge into the unspeakable delights of that ascetic course; it possesses the merits of novelty and originality, and it is not very expensive.  Your Monna Lisa is sweet, but inane as music for the ballet; I give you warning.’

“Rastignac made this last remark in a way which set Beaudenord thinking that his friend had his own motives for disenchanting him; Beaudenord had not been a diplomatist for nothing; he fancied that Rastignac wanted to cut him out.  If a man mistakes his vocation, the false start none the less influences him for the rest of his life.  Godefroid was so evidently smitten with Mlle. Isaure d’Aldrigger, that Rastignac went off to a tall girl chatting in the card-room.  —­’Malvina,’ he said, lowering his voice, ’your sister has just netted a fish worth eighteen thousand francs a year.  He has a name, a manner, and a certain position in the world; keep an eye on them; be careful to gain Isaure’s confidence; and if they philander, do not let her send word to him unless you have seen it first——­’

“Towards two o’clock in the morning, Isaure was standing beside a diminutive Shepherdess of the Alps, a little woman of forty, coquettish as a Zerlina.  A footman announced that ’Mme. la Baronne’s carriage stops the way,’ and Godefroid forthwith saw his beautiful maiden out of a German song draw her fantastical mother into the cloakroom, whither Malvina followed them; and (boy that he was) he must needs go to discover into what pot of preserves the infant Joby had fallen, and had the pleasure of watching Isaure and Malvina coaxing that sparkling person, their mamma, into her pelisse, with all the little tender precautions required for a night journey in Paris.  Of course, the girls on their side watched Beaudenord out of the corners of their eyes, as well-taught kittens watch a mouse, without seeming to see it at all.  With a certain satisfaction Beaudenord noted the bearing, manner, and appearance, of the tall well-gloved Alsacien servant in livery who brought three pairs of fur-lined overshoes for his mistresses.

“Never were two sisters more unlike than Isaure and Malvina.  Malvina the elder was tall and dark-haired, Isaure was short and fair, and her features were finely and delicately cut, while her sister’s were vigorous and striking.  Isaure was one of those women who reign like queens through their weakness, such a woman as a schoolboy would feel it incumbent upon him to protect; Malvina was the Andalouse of Musset’s poem.  As the sisters stood together, Isaure looked like a miniature beside a portrait in oils.

“‘She is rich!’ exclaimed Godefroid, going back to Rastignac in the ballroom.

“‘Who?’

“‘That young lady.’

“’Oh, Isaure d’Aldrigger?  Why, yes.  The mother is a widow; Nucingen was once a clerk in her husband’s bank at Strasbourg.  Do you want to see them again?  Just turn off a compliment for Mme. de Restaud; she is giving a ball the day after to-morrow; the Baroness d’Aldrigger and her two daughters will be there.  You will have an invitation.’