of Schmucke, our old master.  I am sure he could be very useful in this emergency; he will endorse the notes.  You must add to the four notes a letter in which you guarantee their payment to Madame de Nucingen, and she will give you the money to-morrow.  Do the whole thing yourself; don’t trust it to any one.  I feel sure that Schmucke will make no objection.  To divert all suspicion I told Madame de Nucingen you wanted to oblige our old music-master who was in distress, and I asked her to keep the matter secret.”

“You have the sense of angels!  I only hope Madame de Nucingen won’t tell of it until after she gives me the money,” said the countess.

“Schmucke lives in the rue de Nevers on the quai Conti; don’t forget the address, and go yourself.”

“Thanks!” said the countess, pressing her sister’s hand.  “Ah!  I’d give ten years of life—­”

“Out of your old age—­”

“If I could put an end to these anxieties,” said the countess, smiling at the interruption.

The persons who were at that moment levelling their opera-glasses at the two sisters might well have supposed them engaged in some light-hearted talk; but any observer who had come to the Opera more for the pleasure of watching faces than for mere idle amusement might have guessed them in trouble, from the anxious look which followed the momentary smiles on their charming faces.  Raoul, who did not fear the bailiffs at night, appeared, pale and ashy, with anxious eye and gloomy brow, on the step of the staircase where he regularly took his stand.  He looked for the Countess in her box and, finding it empty, buried his face in his hands, leaning his elbows on the balustrade.

“Can she be here!” he thought.

“Look up, unhappy hero,” whispered Mme. du Tillet.

As for Marie, at all risks she fixed on him that steady magnetic gaze, in which the will flashes from the eye, as rays of light from the sun.  Such a look, mesmerizers say, penetrates to the person on whom it is directed, and certainly Raoul seemed as though struck by a magic wand.  Raising his head, his eyes met those of the sisters.  With that charming feminine readiness which is never at fault, Mme. de Vandenesse seized a cross, sparkling on her neck, and directed his attention to it by a swift smile, full of meaning.  The brilliance of the gem radiated even upon Raoul’s forehead, and he replied with a look of joy; he had understood.

“Is it nothing then, Eugenie,” said the Countess, “thus to restore life to the dead?”

“You have a chance yet with the Royal Humane Society,” replied Eugenie, with a smile.”

“How wretched and depressed he looked when he came, and how happy he will go away!”

At this moment du Tillet, coming up to Raoul with every mark of friendliness, pressed his hand, and said: 

“Well, old fellow, how are you?”

“As well as a man is likely to be who has just got the best possible news of the election.  I shall be successful,” replied Raoul, radiant.