from sheer absence of mind, she ended by attributing his interrogatory
to the Questioning Spirit of Voltaire's bailiff.

"My parents," she went on, "married me at the age of sixteen to M.
d'Espard, whose name, fortune, and mode of life were such as my family
looked for in the man who was to be my husband. M. d'Espard was then
six-and-twenty; he was a gentleman in the English sense of the word;
his manners pleased me, he seemed to have plenty of ambition, and I
like ambitious people," she added, looking at Rastignac. "If M.
d'Espard had never met that Madame Jeanrenaud, his character, his
learning, his acquirements would have raised him--as his friends then
believed--to high office in the Government. King Charles X., at that
time Monsieur, had the greatest esteem for him, and a peer's seat, an
appointment at Court, some important post certainly would have been
his. That woman turned his head, and has ruined all the prospects of
my family."

"What were M. d'Espard's religious opinions at that time?"

"He was, and is still, a very pious man."

"You do not suppose that Madame Jeanrenaud may have influenced him by
mysticism?"

"No, monsieur."

"You have a very fine house, madame," said Popinot suddenly, taking
his hands out of his pockets, and rising to pick up his coat-tails and
warm himself. "This boudoir is very nice, those chairs are
magnificent, the whole apartment is sumptuous. You must indeed be most