"'Do you know how Nucingen and du Tillet stand?' asked Desroches.

"'Like this,' said Taillefer; 'Nucingen is just the man to swallow
down his old master's capital, and then to disgorge it.'

"'Ugh! ugh!' coughed Werbrust, 'these churches are confoundedly damp;
ugh! ugh! What do you mean by "disgorge it"?'

"'Well, Nucingen knows that du Tillet has a lot of money; he wants
to marry him to Malvina; but du Tillet is shy of Nucingen. To a
looker-on, the game is good fun.'

"'What!' exclaimed Werbrust, 'is she old enough to marry? How quickly
we grow old!'

"'Malvina d'Aldrigger is quite twenty years old, my dear fellow. Old
d'Aldrigger was married in 1800. He gave some rather fine
entertainments in Strasbourg at the time of his wedding, and
afterwards when Malvina was born. That was in 1801 at the peace of
Amiens, and here are we in the year 1823, Daddy Werbrust! In those
days everything was Ossianized; he called his daughter Malvina. Six
years afterwards there was a rage for chivalry, _Partant pour la Syrie_
--a pack of nonsense--and he christened his second daughter Isaure.
She is seventeen. So there are two daughters to marry.'

"'The women will not have a penny left in ten years' time,' said
Werbrust, speaking to Desroches in a confidential tone.

"'There is d'Aldrigger's man-servant, the old fellow bellowing away