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