Next day, Goriot and Rastignac were ready to leave the lodging-house,
and only awaited the good pleasure of a porter to move out of it;
but towards noon there was a sound of wheels in the Rue
Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, and a carriage stopped before the door of the
Maison Vauquer. Mme. de Nucingen alighted, and asked if her father
was still in the house, and, receiving an affirmative reply from
Sylvie, ran lightly upstairs.

It so happened that Eugene was at home all unknown to his neighbor. At
breakfast time he had asked Goriot to superintend the removal of his
goods, saying that he would meet him in the Rue d'Artois at four
o'clock; but Rastignac's name had been called early on the list at
the Ecole de Droit, and he had gone back at once to the Rue
Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve. No one had seen him come in, for Goriot had
gone to find a porter, and the mistress of the house was likewise out.
Eugene had thought to pay her himself, for it struck him that if he
left this, Goriot in his zeal would probably pay for him. As it was,
Eugene went up to his room to see that nothing had been forgotten, and
blessed his foresight when he saw the blank bill bearing Vautrin's
signature lying in the drawer where he had carelessly thrown it on the
day when he had repaid the amount. There was no fire in the grate, so
he was about to tear it into little pieces, when he heard a voice
speaking in Goriot's room, and the speaker was Delphine! He made no
more noise, and stood still to listen, thinking that she should have
no secrets from him; but after the first few words, the conversation
between the father and daughter was so strange and interesting that it
absorbed all his attention.

"Ah! thank heaven that you thought of asking him to give an account of