On the 10th of February the twenty-five days expired.  Du Tillet, who did not want Nathan as a rival before the electoral college, where he meant to appear himself, instigated Gigonnet to sue Nathan without compromise.  A man locked up for debt could not present himself as a candidate for election.  Florine was herself in communication with the sheriff on the subject of her personal debts, and no resource was left to her but the “I” of Medea, for her new furniture and belongings were now attached.  The ambitious Raoul heard the cracking in all directions of his prosperous edifice, built, alas! without foundations.  His nerve failed him; too weak already to sustain so vast an enterprise, he felt himself incapable of attempting to build it up again; he was fated to perish in its ashes.  Love for the countess gave him still a few thrills of life; his mask brightened for a moment, but behind it hope was dead.  He did not suspect the hand of du Tillet, and laid the blame of his misfortune on the usurer.  Rastignac, Blondet, Lousteau, Vernou, Finot, and Massol took care not to enlighten him.  Rastignac, who wanted to return to power, made common cause with Nucingen and du Tillet.  The others felt a satisfaction in the catastrophe of an equal who had attempted to make himself their master.  None of them, however, would have said a word to Florine; on the contrary, they praised Raoul to her.

“Nathan,” they said, “has the shoulders of an Atlas; he’ll pull himself through; all will come right.”

“There were two new subscribers yesterday,” said Blondet, gravely.  “Raoul will certainly be elected deputy.  As soon as the budget is voted the dissolution is sure to take place.”

But Nathan, sued, could no longer obtain even usury; Florine, with all her personal property attached, could count on nothing but inspiring a passion in some fool who might not appear at the right moment.  Nathan’s friends were all men without money and without credit.  An arrest for debt would destroy his hopes of a political career; and besides all this, he had bound himself to do an immense amount of dramatic work for which he had already received payment.  He could see no bottom to the gulf of misery that lay before him, into which he was about to roll.  In presence of such threatened evil his boldness deserted him.  Would the Comtesse de Vandenesse stand by him?  Would she fly with him?  Women are never led into a gulf of that kind except by an absolute love, and the love of Raoul and Marie had not bound them together by the mysterious and inalienable ties of happiness.  But supposing that the countess did follow him to some foreign country; she would come without fortune, despoiled of everything, and then, alas! she would merely be one more embarrassment to him.  A mind of a second order, and a proud mind like that of Nathan, would be likely to see, under these circumstances, and did see, in suicide the sword to cut the Gordian knots.  The idea