THE HUSBAND'S TRIUMPH
During the preceding night Madame du Tillet had gone over in her mindher sister's revelations. Sure, now, of Nathan's safety, she was nolonger influenced by the thought of an imminent danger in thatdirection. But she remembered the vehement energy with which thecountess had declared that she would fly with Nathan if that wouldsave him. She saw that the man might determine her sister in someparoxysm of gratitude and love to take a step which was nothing shortof madness. There were recent examples in the highest society of justsuch flights which paid for doubtful pleasures by lasting remorse andthe disrepute of a false position. Du Tillet's speech brought herfears to a point; she dreaded lest all should be discovered; she knewher sister's signature was in Nucingen's hands, and she resolved toentreat Marie to save herself by confessing all to Felix.
She drove to her sister's house, but Marie was not at home. Felix wasthere. A voice within her cried aloud to Eugenie to save her sister;the morrow might be too late. She took a vast responsibility uponherself, but she resolved to tell all to the count. Surely he would beindulgent when he knew that his honor was still safe. The countess wasdeluded rather than sinful. Eugenie feared to be treacherous and basein revealing secrets that society (agreeing on this point) holds to beinviolable; but--she saw her sister's future, she trembled lest sheshould some day be deserted, ruined by Nathan, poor, suffering,disgraced, wretched, and she hesitated no longer; she sent in her nameand asked to see the count.
Felix, astonished at the visit, had a long conversation with hissister-in-law, in which he seemed so calm, so completely master ofhimself, that she feared he might have taken some terrible resolution.
"Do not be uneasy," he said, seeing her anxiety. "I will act in amanner which shall make your sister bless you. However much you maydislike to keep the fact that you have spoken to me from herknowledge, I must entreat you to do so. I need a few days to searchinto mysteries which you don't perceive; and, above all, I must actcautiously. Perhaps I can learn all in a day. I, alone, my dearsister, am the guilty person. All lovers play their game, and it isnot every woman who is able, unassisted, to see life as it is."
Madame du Tillet returned home comforted. Felix de Vandenesse drewforty thousand francs from the Bank of France, and went direct toMadame de Nucingen He found her at home, thanked her for theconfidence she had placed in his wife, and returned the money,explaining that the countess had obtained this mysterious loan for hercharities, which were so profuse that he was trying to put a limit tothem.
"Give me no explanations, monsieur, since Madame de Vandenesse hastold you all," said the Baronne de Nucingen.
"She knows the truth," thought Vandenesse.
Madame de Nucingen returned to him Marie's letter of guarantee, andsent to the bank for the four notes. Vandenesse, during the short timethat these arrangements kept him waiting, watched the baroness withthe eye of a statesman, and he thought the moment propitious forfurther negotiation.
"We live in an age, madame, when nothing is sure," he said. "Eventhrones rise and fall in France with fearful rapidity. Fifteen yearshave wreaked their will on a great empire, a monarchy, and arevolution. No one can now dare to count upon the future. You know myattachment to the cause of legitimacy. Suppose some catastrophe; wouldyou not be glad to have a friend in the conquering party?"
"Undoubtedly," she said, smiling.
"Very good; then, will you have in me, secretly, an obliged friend whocould be of use to Monsieur de Nucingen in such a case, by supportinghis claim to the peerage he is seeking?"
"What do you want of me?" she asked.
"Very little," he replied. "All that you know about Nathan's affairs."
The baroness repeated to him her conversation with Rastignac, andsaid, as she gave him the four notes, which the cashier had meantimebrought to her:
"Don't forget your promise."
So little did Vandenesse forget this illusive promise that he used itagain on Baron Eugene de Rastignac to obtain from him certain otherinformation. Leaving Rastignac's apartments, he dictated to a streetamanuensis the following note to Florine.
"If Mademoiselle Florine wishes to know of a part she may play she is requested to come to the masked opera at the Opera next Sunday night, accompanied by Monsieur Nathan."
To this ball he determined to take his wife and let her own eyesenlighten her as to the relations between Nathan and Florine. He knewthe jealous pride of the countess; he wanted to make her renounce herlove of her own will, without causing her to blush before him, andthen to return to her her own letters, sold by Florine, from whom heexpected to be able to buy them. This judicious plan, rapidlyconceived and partly executed, might fail through some trick of chancewhich meddles with all things here below.
After dinner that evening, Felix brought the conversation round to themasked balls of the Opera, remarking that Marie had never been to one,and proposing that she should accompany him the following evening.
"I'll find you some one to 'intriguer,'" he said.
"Ah! I wish you would," she replied.
"To do the thing well, a woman ought to fasten upon some good prey, acelebrity, a man of enough wit to give and take. There's Nathan; willyou have him? I know, through a friend of Florine, certain secrets ofhis which would drive him crazy."
"Florine?" said the countess. "Do you mean the actress?"
Marie had already heard that name from the lips of the watchmanQuillet; it now shot like a flash of lightning through her soul.
"Yes, his mistress," replied the count. "What is there so surprisingin that?"
"I thought Monsieur Nathan too busy to have a mistress. Do authorshave time to make love?"
"I don't say they love, my dear, but they are forced to lodgesomewhere, like other men, and when they haven't a home of their ownthey lodge with their mistresses; which may seem to you ratherloose, but it is far more agreeable than lodging in a prison."
Fire was less red than Marie's cheeks.
"Will you have him for a victim? I can help you to terrify him,"continued the count, not looking at his wife's face. "I'll put you inthe way of proving to him that he is being tricked like a child byyour brother-in-law du Tillet. That wretch is trying to put Nathan inprison so as to make him ineligible to stand against him in theelectoral college. I know, through a friend of Florine, the exact sumderived from the sale of her furniture, which she gave to Nathan tofound his newspaper; I know, too, what she sent him out of hersummer's harvest in the departments and in Belgium,--money which hasreally gone to the profit of du Tillet, Nucingen, and Massol. Allthree of them, unknown to Nathan, have privately sold the paper to thenew ministry, so sure are they of ejecting him."
"Monsieur Nathan is incapable of accepting money from an actress."
"You don't know that class of people, my dear," said the count. "Hewould not deny the fact if you asked him."
"I will certainly go to the ball," said the countess.
"You will be very much amused," replied Vandenesse. "With such weaponsin hand you can cut Nathan's complacency to the quick, and you willalso do him a great service. You will put him in a fury; he'll try tobe calm, though inwardly fuming; but, all the same, you will enlightena man of talent as to the peril in which he really stands; and youwill also have the satisfaction of laming the horses of the'juste-milieu' in their stalls-- But you are not listening to me, mydear."
"On the contrary, I am listening intently," she said. "I will tell youlater why I feel desirous to know the truth of all this."
"You shall know it," said Vandenesse. "If you stay masked I will takeyou to supper with Nathan and Florine; it would be rather amusing fora woman of your rank to fool an actress after bewildering the wits ofa clever man about these important facts; you can harness them both tothe same hoax. I'll make some inquiries about Nathan's infidelities,and if I discover any of his recent adventures you shall enjoy thesight of a courtesan's fury; it is magnificent. Florine will boil andfoam like an Alpine torrent; she adores Nathan; he is everything toher; she clings to him like flesh to the bones or a lioness to hercubs. I remember seeing, in my youth, a celebrated actress (who wrotelike a scullion) when she came to a friend of mine to demand herletters. I have never seen such a sight again, such calm fury, suchinsolent majesty, such savage self-control-- Are you ill, Marie?"
"No; they have made too much fire." The countess turned away and threwherself on a sofa. Suddenly, with an unforeseen movement, impelled bythe horrible anguish of her jealousy, she rose on her trembling legs,crossed her arms, and came slowly to her husband.
"What do you know?" she asked. "You are not a man to torture me; youwould crush me without making me suffer if I were guilty."
"What do you expect me to know, Marie?"
"Well! about Nathan."
"You think you love him," he replied; "but you love a phantom made ofwords."
"Then you know--"
"All," he said.
The word fell on Marie's head like the blow of a club.
"If you wish it, I will know nothing," he continued. "You are standingon the brink of a precipice, my child, and I must draw you from it. Ihave already done something. See!"
He drew from his pocket her letter of guarantee and the four notesendorsed by Schmucke, and let the countess recognize them; then hethrew them into the fire.
"What would have happened to you, my poor Marie, three months hence?"he said. "The sheriffs would have taken you to a public court-room.Don't bow your head, don't feel humiliated; you have been the dupe ofnoble feelings; you have coquetted with poesy, not with a man. Allwomen--all, do you hear me, Marie?--would have been seduced in yourposition. How absurd we should be, we men, we who have committed athousand follies through a score of years, if we were not willing togrant you one imprudence in a lifetime! God keep me from triumphingover you or from offering you a pity you repelled so vehemently theother day. Perhaps that unfortunate man was sincere when he wrote toyou, sincere in attempting to kill himself, sincere in returning thatsame night to Florine. Men are worth less than women. It is not for myown sake that I speak at this moment, but for yours. I am indulgent,but the world is not; it shuns a woman who makes a scandal. Is thatjust? I know not; but this I know, the world is cruel. Society refusesto calm the woes itself has caused; it gives its honors to those whobest deceive it; it has no recompense for rash devotion. I see andknow all that. I can't reform society, but this I can do, I canprotect you, Marie, against yourself. This matter concerns a man whohas brought you trouble only, and not one of those high and sacredloves which do, at times, command our abnegation, and even bear theirown excuse. Perhaps I have been wrong in not varying your happiness,in not providing you with gayer pleasures, travel, amusements,distractions for the mind. Besides, I can explain to myself theimpulse that has driven you to a celebrated man, by the jealous envyyou have roused in certain women. Lady Dudley, Madame d'Espard, and mysister-in-law Emilie count for something in all this. Those women,against whom I ought to have put you more thoroughly on your guard,have cultivated your curiosity more to trouble me and cause meunhappiness, than to fling you into a whirlpool which, as I believe,you would never have entered."
As she listened to these words, so full of kindness, the countess wastorn by many conflicting feelings; but the storm within her breast wasruled by one of them,--a keen admiration for her husband. Proud andnoble souls are prompt to recognize the delicacy with which they aretreated. Tact is to sentiments what grace is to the body. Marieappreciated the grandeur of the man who bowed before a woman in fault,that he might not see her blush. She ran from the room like one besideherself, but instantly returned, fearing lest her hasty action mightcause him uneasiness.
"Wait," she said, and disappeared again.
Felix had ably prepared her excuse, and he was instantly rewarded forhis generosity. His wife returned with Nathan's letters in her hand,and gave them to him.
"Judge me," she said, kneeling down beside him.
"Are we able to judge where we love?" he answered, throwing theletters into the fire; for he felt that later his wife might notforgive him for having read them. Marie, with her head upon his knee,burst into tears.
"My child," he said, raising her head, "where are your letters?"
At this question the poor woman no longer felt the intolerable burningof her cheeks; she turned cold.
"That you may not suspect me of calumniating a man whom you thinkworthy of you, I will make Florine herself return you those letters."
"Oh! Surely he would give them back to me himself."
"Suppose that he refused to do so?"
The countess dropped her head.
"The world disgusts me," she said. "I don't want to enter it again. Iwant to live alone with you, if you forgive me."
"But you might get bored again. Besides, what would the world say ifyou left it so abruptly? In the spring we will travel; we will go toItaly, and all over Europe; you shall see life. But to-morrow night wemust go to the Opera-ball; there is no other way to get those letterswithout compromising you; besides, by giving them up, Florine willprove to you her power."
"And must I see that?" said the countess, frightened.
"To-morrow night."
The next evening, about midnight, Nathan was walking about the foyerof the Opera with a mask on his arm, to whom he was attending in asufficiently conjugal manner. Presently two masked women came up tohim.
"You poor fool! Marie is here and is watching you," said one of them,who was Vandenesse, disguised as a woman.
"If you choose to listen to me I will tell you secrets that Nathan ishiding from you," said the other woman, who was the countess, toFlorine.
Nathan had abruptly dropped Florine's arm to follow the count, whoadroitly slipped into the crowd and was out of sight in a moment.Florine followed the countess, who sat down on a seat close at hand,to which the count, doubling on Nathan, returned almost immediately toguard his wife.
"Explain yourself, my dear," said Florine, "and don't think I shallstand this long. No one can tear Raoul from me, I'll tell you that; Ihold him by habit, and that's even stronger than love."
"In the first place, are you Florine?" said the count, speaking in hisnatural voice.
"A pretty question! if you don't know that, my joking friend, whyshould I believe you?"
"Go and ask Nathan, who has left you to look for his other mistress,where he passed the night, three days ago. He tried to kill himselfwithout a word to you, my dear,--and all for want of money. That showshow much you know about the affairs of a man whom you say you love,and who leaves you without a penny, and kills himself,--or, rather,doesn't kill himself, for his misses it. Suicides that don't kill areabout as absurd as a duel without a scratch."
"That's a lie," said Florine. "He dined with me that very day. Thepoor fellow had the sheriff after him; he was hiding, as well hemight."
"Go and ask at the hotel du Mail, rue du Mail, if he was not takenthere that morning, half dead of the fumes of charcoal, by a handsomeyoung woman with whom he has been in love over a year. Her letters areat this moment under your very nose in your own house. If you want toteach Nathan a good lesson, let us all three go there; and I'll showyou, papers in hand, how you can save him from the sheriff and Clichyif you choose to be the good girl that you are."
"Try that on others than Florine, my little man. I am certain thatNathan has never been in love with any one but me."
"On the contrary, he has been in love with a woman in society for overa year--"
"A woman in society, he!" cried Florine. "I don't trouble myself aboutsuch nonsense as that."
"Well, do you want me to make him come and tell you that he will nottake you home from here to-night."
"If you can make him tell me that," said Florine, "I'll take youhome, and we'll look for those letters, which I shall believe in when Isee them, and not till then. He must have written them while I slept."
"Stay here," said Felix, "and watch."
So saying, he took the arm of his wife and moved to a little distance.Presently, Nathan, who had been hunting up and down the foyer like adog looking for its master, returned to the spot where the mask hadaddressed him. Seeing on his face an expression he could not conceal,Florine placed herself like a post in front of him, and said,imperiously:--
"I don't wish you to leave me again; I have my reasons for this."
The countess then, at the instigation of her husband, went up to Raouland said in his ear,--
"Marie. Who is this woman? Leave her at once, and meet me at the footof the grand staircase."
In this difficult extremity Raoul dropped Florine's arm, and thoughshe caught his own and held it forcibly, she was obliged, after amoment, to let him go. Nathan disappeared into the crowd.
"What did I tell you?" said Felix in Florine's astonished ears,offering her his arm.
"Come," she said; "whoever you are, come. Have you a carriage here?"
For all answer, Vandenesse hurried Florine away, followed by his wife.A few moments later the three masks, driven rapidly by the Vandenessecoachman, reached Florine's house. As soon as she had entered her ownapartments the actress unmasked. Madame de Vandenesse could notrestrain a quiver of surprise at Florine's beauty as she stood therechoking with anger, and superb in her wrath and jealousy.
"There is, somewhere in these rooms," said Vandenesse, "a portfolio,the key of which you have never had; the letters are probably in it."
"Well, well, for once in my life I am bewildered; you know somethingthat I have been uneasy about for some days," cried Florine, rushinginto the study in search of the portfolio.
Vandenesse saw that his wife was turning pale beneath her mask.Florine's apartment revealed more about the intimacy of the actressand Nathan than any ideal mistress would wish to know. The eye of awoman can take in the truth of such things in a second, and thecountess saw vestiges of Nathan which proved to her the certainty ofwhat Vandenesse had said. Florine returned with the portfolio.
"How am I to open it?" she said.
The actress rang the bell and sent into the kitchen for the cook'sknife. When it came she brandished it in the air, crying out inironical tones:--
"With this they cut the necks of 'poulets.'"
The words, which made the countess shiver, explained to her, evenbetter than her husband had done the night before, the depths of theabyss into which she had so nearly fallen.
"What a fool I am!" said Florine; "his razor will do better."
She fetched one of Nathan's razors from his dressing-table, and slitthe leather cover of the portfolio, through which Marie's lettersdropped. Florine snatched one up hap-hazard, and looked it over.
"Yes, she must be a well-bred woman. It looks to me as if there wereno mistakes in spelling here."
The count gathered up the letters hastily and gave them to his wife,who took them to a table as if to see that they were all there.
"Now," said Vandenesse to Florine, "will you let me have those lettersfor these?" showing her five bank-bills of ten thousand francs each."They'll replace the sums you have paid for him."
"Ah!" cried Florine, "didn't I kill myself body and soul in theprovinces to get him money,--I, who'd have cut my hand off to servehim? But that's men! damn your soul for them and they'll march overyou rough-shod! He shall pay me for this!"
Madame de Vandenesse was disappearing with the letters.
"Hi! stop, stop, my fine mask!" cried Florine; "leave me one toconfound him with."
"Not possible," said Vandenesse.
"Why not?"
"That mask is your ex-rival; but you needn't fear her now."
"Well, she might have had the grace to say thank you," cried Florine.
"But you have the fifty thousand francs instead," said Vandenesse,bowing to her.
It is extremely rare for young men, when driven to suicide, to attemptit a second time if the first fails. When it doesn't cure life, itcures all desire for voluntary death. Raoul felt no disposition to tryit again when he found himself in a more painful position than thatfrom which he had just been rescued. He tried to see the countess andexplain to her the nature of his love, which now shone more vividly inhis soul than ever. But the first time they met in society, Madame deVandenesse gave him that fixed and contemptuous look which at once andforever puts an impassable gulf between a man and a woman. In spite ofhis natural assurance, Nathan never dared, during the rest of thewinter, either to speak to the countess or even approach her.
But he opened his heart to Blondet; to him he talked of his Laura andhis Beatrice, apropos of Madame de Vandenesse. He even made aparaphrase of the following beautiful passage from the pen ofTheophile Gautier, one of the most remarkable poets of our day:--
"'Ideala, flower of heaven's own blue, with heart of gold, whosefibrous roots, softer, a thousandfold, than fairy tresses, strike toour souls and drink their purest essence; flower most sweet andbitter! thou canst not be torn away without the heart's blood flowing,without thy bruised stems sweating with scarlet tears. Ah! cursedflower, why didst thou grow within my soul?'"
"My dear fellow," said Blondet, "you are raving. I'll grant it was apretty flower, but it wasn't a bit ideal, and instead of singing likea blind man before an empty niche, you had much better wash your handsand make submission to the powers. You are too much of an artist everto be a good politician; you have been fooled by men of not one-halfyour value. Think about being fooled again--but elsewhere."
"Marie cannot prevent my loving her," said Nathan; "she shall be myBeatrice."
"Beatrice, my good Raoul, was a little girl twelve years of age whenDante last saw her; otherwise, she would not have been Beatrice. Tomake a divinity, it won't do to see her one day wrapped in a mantle,and the next with a low dress, and the third on the boulevard,cheapening toys for her last baby. When a man has Florine, who is inturn duchess, bourgeoise, Negress, marquise, colonel, Swiss peasant,virgin of the sun in Peru (only way she can play the part), I don'tsee why he should go rambling after fashionable women."
Du Tillet, to use a Bourse term, executed Nathan, who, for lack ofmoney, gave up his place on the newspaper; and the celebrated manreceived but five votes in the electoral college where the banker waselected.
When, after a long and happy journey in Italy, the Comtesse deVandenesse returned to Paris late in the following winter, all herhusband's predictions about Nathan were justified. He had takenBlondet's advice and negotiated with the government, which employedhis pen. His personal affairs were in such disorder that one day, onthe Champs-Elysees, Marie saw her former adorer on foot, in shabbyclothes, giving his arm to Florine. When a man becomes indifferent tothe heart of a woman who has once loved him, he often seems to hervery ugly, even horrible, especially when he resembles Nathan. Madamede Vandenesse had a sense of personal humiliation in the thought thatshe had once cared for him. If she had not already been cured of allextra-conjugal passion, the contrast then presented by the count tothis man, grown less and less worthy of public favor, would havesufficed her.
To-day the ambitious Nathan, rich in ink and poor in will, has endedby capitulating entirely, and has settled down into a sinecure, likeany other commonplace man. After lending his pen to all disorganizingefforts, he now lives in peace under the protecting shade of aministerial organ. The cross of the Legion of honor, formerly thefruitful text of his satire, adorns his button-hole. "Peace at anyprice," ridicule of which was the stock-in-trade of his revolutionaryeditorship, is now the topic of his laudatory articles. Heredity,attacked by him in Saint-Simonian phrases, he now defends with solidarguments. This illogical conduct has its origin and its explanationin the change of front performed by many men besides Raoul during ourrecent political evolutions.
THE END.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Bidault (known as Gigonnet) The Government Clerks Gobseck The Vendetta Cesar Birotteau The Firm of Nucingen
Blondet, Emile Jealousies of a Country Town A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Modeste Mignon Another Study of Woman The Secrets of a Princess The Firm of Nucingen The Peasantry
Blondet, Virginie Jealousies of a Country Town The Secrets of a Princess The Peasantry A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Another Study of Woman The Member for Arcis
Bruel, Jean Francois du A Bachelor's Establishment The Government Clerks A Start in Life A Prince of Bohemia The Middle Classes A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Camps, Madame Octave de Madame Firmiani The Government Clerks A Woman of Thirty The Member for Arcis
Dudley, Lord The Lily of the Valley The Thirteen A Man of Business Another Study of Woman
Dudley, Lady Arabella The Lily of the Valley The Ball at Sceaux The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess Letters of Two Brides
Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d' The Commission in Lunacy A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Letters of Two Brides Another Study of Woman The Gondreville Mystery The Secrets of a Princess Beatrix
Galathionne, Prince and Princess (both not in each story) The Secrets of a Princess The Middle Classes Father Goriot A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Beatrix
Grandlieu, Duchesse Ferdinand de Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Beatrix
Grandlieu, Vicomtesse Juste de Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Gobseck
Granville, Vicomte de The Gondreville Mystery A Second Home Farewell (Adieu) Cesar Birotteau Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Cousin Pons
Granville, Comtesse Angelique de A Second Home The Thirteen
Granville, Vicomte de A Second Home The Country Parson
La Roche-Hugon, Martial de Domestic Peace The Peasantry The Member for Arcis The Middle Classes Cousin Betty
Listomere, Marquise de The Lily of the Valley Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Daughter of Eve
Lousteau, Etienne A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Beatrix The Muse of the Department Cousin Betty A Prince of Bohemia A Man of Business The Middle Classes The Unconscious Humorists
Manerville, Comtesse Paul de A Marriage Settlement The Lily of the Valley
Marsay, Henri de The Thirteen The Unconscious Humorists Another Study of Woman The Lily of the Valley Father Goriot Jealousies of a Country Town Ursule Mirouet A Marriage Settlement Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Letters of Two Brides The Ball at Sceaux Modeste Mignon The Secrets of a Princess The Gondreville Mystery
Massol Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Magic Skin Cousin Betty The Unconscious Humorists
Nathan, Raoul Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Secrets of a Princess Letters of Two Brides The Seamy Side of History The Muse of the Department A Prince of Bohemia A Man of Business The Unconscious Humorists
Nathan, Madame Raoul (Florine) The Muse of the Department Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Government Clerks A Bachelor's Establishment Ursule Mirouet Eugenie Grandet The Imaginary Mistress A Prince of Bohemia The Unconscious Humorists
Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de Father Goriot The Thirteen Eugenie Grandet Cesar Birotteau Melmoth Reconciled Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Commission in Lunacy Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Modeste Mignon The Firm of Nucingen Another Study of Woman The Member for Arcis
Rastignac, Eugene de Father Goriot A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Ball at Sceaux The Commission in Lunacy A Study of Woman Another Study of Woman The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess The Gondreville Mystery The Firm of Nucingen Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis The Unconscious Humorists
Rastignac, Monseigneur Gabriel de Father Goriot The Country Parson
Rochefide, Marquise de Beatrix The Secrets of a Princess Sarrasine A Prince of Bohemia
Roguin, Madame Cesar Birotteau At the Sign of the Cat and Racket Pierrette A Second Home
Saint-Hereen, Comtesse Moina de A Woman of Thirty The Member for Arcis
Schmucke, Wilhelm Ursule Mirouet Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Cousin Pons
Souchet, Francois The Purse The Imaginary Mistress
Therese Father Goriot
Tillet, Ferdinand du Cesar Birotteau The Firm of Nucingen The Middle Classes A Bachelor's Establishment Pierrette Melmoth Reconciled A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Secrets of a Princess The Member for Arcis Cousin Betty The Unconscious Humorists
Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des Beatrix Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment Another Study of Woman Honorine Beatrix The Muse of the Department
Vandenesse, Marquis Charles de A Woman of Thirty A Start in Life
Vandenesse, Marquise Charles de Cesar Birotteau The Ball at Sceaux Ursule Mirouet A Daughter of Eve
Vandenesse, Comte Felix de The Lily of the Valley Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Cesar Birotteau Letters of Two Brides A Start in Life The Marriage Settlement The Secrets of a Princess Another Study of Woman The Gondreville Mystery
Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de A Second Home The Muse of the Department
Vernou, Felicien A Bachelor's Establishment Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Cousin Betty
Vignon, Claude A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Honorine Beatrix Cousin Betty The Unconscious Humorists