A glance which he threw sideways at the Nabob, whose immense person almost blocked the pavement, revealed to him suddenly in that walk oppressed by the weight of his wealth, a something low and vulgar which he had not previously remarked.  Yes, he was indeed the adventurer from the south, moulded of the slimy clay that covers the quays of Marseilles, trodden down by all the nomads and wanderers of a seaport.  Kind, generous, forsooth! as harlots are, or thieves.  And the gold, flowing in torrents through that tainted and luxurious world, splashing the very walls, seemed to him now to be loaded with all the dross, all the filth of its impure and muddy source.  There remained, then, for him, de Gery, but one thing to do, to go away, to quit with all possible speed this situation in which he risked the compromising of his good name, the one heritage from his father.  Doubtless.  But the two little brothers down yonder in the country.  Who would pay for their board and lodging?  Who would keep up the modest home miraculously brought into being once more by the handsome salary of the eldest son, the head of the family?  Those words, “head of the family,” plunged him immediately into one of those internal combats in which interest and conscience struggled for the mastery—­the one brutal, substantial, attacking vigorously with straight thrusts, the other elusive, breaking away by subtle disengagements—­while the worthy Jansoulet, unconscious cause of the conflict, walked with long strides close by his young friend, inhaling the fresh air with delight at the end of his lighted cigar.

Never had he felt it such a happiness to be alive; and this evening party at Jenkins’s, which had been his own first real entry into society as well as de Gery’s, had left with him an impression of porticoes erected as for a triumph, of an eagerly assembled crowd, of flowers thrown on his path.  So true is it that things only exist through the eyes that observe them.  What a success! the duke, as he took leave of him inviting him to come to see his picture gallery, which meant the doors of Mora House opened to him within a week.  Felicia Ruys consenting to do his bust, so that at the next exhibition the son of the nail-dealer would have his portrait in marble by the same great artist who had signed that of the Minister of State.  Was it not the satisfaction of all his childish vanities?

And each pondering his own thoughts, sombre or glad, they continued to walk shoulder to shoulder, absorbed and so absent in mind that the Place Vendome, silent and bathed in a blue and chilly light, rang under their steps before a word had been uttered between them.

“Already?” said the Nabob.  “I should not at all have minded walking a little longer.  What do you say?” And while they strolled two or three times around the square, he gave vent in spasmodic bursts to the immense joy which filled him.

“How pleasant the air is!  How one can breathe!  Thunder of God!  I would not have missed this evening’s party for a hundred thousand francs.  What a worthy soul that Jenkins is!  Do you like Felicia Ruys’s style of beauty?  For my part, I dote on it.  And the duke, what a great gentleman! so simple, so kind.  A fine place, Paris, is it not, my son?”