held out to him with so haughty a coldness by De Mauleon, were not wholly
without force, though they irritated his self-esteem. He was dimly aware
of the Vicomte's masculine talents for public life; and the high
reputation he had already acquired among military authorities, and even
among experienced and thoughtful civilians, had weight upon Gustave's
impressionable temperament. But though De Mauleon's implied advice here
coincided in much with the tacit compact he had made with Isaura, it
alienated him more from Isaura herself, for Isaura did not bring to him
the fortune which would enable him to suspend his lucubrations, watch the
turn of events, and live at ease in the meanwhile; and the dot to be
received with De Mauleon's ward had those advantages.

While thus meditating Gustave turned into one of the cantines still open,
to brighten his intellect with a _petit verre_, and there he found the
two colleagues in the extinct Council of Ten, Paul Grimm and Edgar
Ferrier. With the last of these revolutionists Gustave had become
intimately _lie_. They wrote in the same journal, and he willingly
accepted a distraction from his self-conflict which Edgar offered him in
a dinner at the cafe Riche, which still offered its hospitalities at no
exorbitant price. At this repast, as the drink circulated, Gustave waxed
confidential. He longed, poor youth, for an adviser. Could he marry a
girl who had been a ballet-dancer, and who had come into an unexpected
heritage? "_Es-tu fou d'en douter_?" cried Edgar. "What a sublime
occasion to manifest thy scorn of the miserable banalities of the
bourgeoisie! It will but increase thy moral power over the people. And
then think of the money. What an aid to the cause! What a capital for
the launch!--journal all thine own! Besides, when our principles
triumph--as triumph they must--what would be marriage but a brief and
futile ceremony, to be broken the moment thou hast cause to complain of
thy wife or chafe at the bond? Only get the dot into thine own hands.