may trust her with your purse or your secrets. But what made me choose
her as queen is her Bourbon-like indifference for a fallen favorite."

"She, like her mother, is much too dear," said des Lupeaulx. "The
handsome Dutch woman would have swallowed up the income of the
Archbishop of Toledo; she ate two notaries out of house and home----"

"And kept Maxime de Trailles when he was a court page," said Bixiou.

"La Torpille is too dear, as Raphael was, or Careme, or Taglioni, or
Lawrence, or Boule, or any artist of genius is too dear," said
Blondet.

"Esther never looked so thoroughly a lady," said Rastignac, pointing
to the masked figure to whom Lucien had given his arm. "I will bet on
its being Madame de Serizy."

"Not a doubt of it," cried du Chatelet, "and Monsieur du Rubempre's
fortune is accounted for."

"Ah, the Church knows how to choose its Levites; what a sweet
ambassador's secretary he will make!" remarked des Lupeaulx.

"All the more so," Rastignac went on, "because Lucien is a really
clever fellow. These gentlemen have had proof of it more than once,"
and he turned to Blondet, Finot, and Lousteau.

"Yes, the boy is cut out of the right stuff to get on," said Lousteau,
who was dying of jealousy. "And particularly because he has what we
call independent ideas . . ."