apartment was to be had for a tenth part of the original cost of its
furniture. A certain Chevalier de Finisterre, to whom Louvier had
introduced the Marquis as a useful fellow who knew Paris, and would save
him from being cheated, had secured this bijou of an apartment for Alain,
and concluded the bargain for the bagatelle of L500. The Chevalier took
the same advantageous occasion to purchase the English well-bred hack and
the neat coupe and horses which the Bordelais was also necessitated to
dispose of. These purchases made, the Marquis had some five thousand
francs (L200) left out of Louvier's premium of L1,000. The Marquis,
however, did not seem alarmed or dejected by the sudden diminution of
capital so expeditiously effected. The easy life thus commenced seemed
to him too natural to be fraught with danger; and easy though it was, it
was a very simple and modest sort of life compared with that of many
other men of his age to whom Enguerrand had introduced him, though most
of them had an income less than his, and few, indeed, of them were his
equals in dignity of birth. Could a Marquis de Rochebriant, if he lived
at Paris at all, give less than three thousand francs a year for his
apartment, or mount a more humble establishment than that confined to a
valet and a tiger, two horses for his _coupe_ and one for the saddle?
"Impossible," said the Chevalier de Finisterre, decidedly; and the
Marquis bowed to so high an authority. He thought within himself, "If I
find in a few months that I am exceeding my means, I can but dispose of
my rooms and my horses, and return to Rochebriant a richer man by far
than I left it."

To say truth, the brilliant seductions of Paris had already produced
their effect, not only on the habits, but on the character and cast of
thought, which the young noble had brought with him from the feudal and
melancholy Bretagne.