“To dat hussy, your maid——­”

The Englishwoman called Europe, who was not far off.

“Oh!” shrieked Europe, “a man in madame’s room, and he is not monsieur —­how shocking!”

“Did he give you thirty thousand francs to let him in?”

“No, madame, for we are not worth it, the pair of us.”

And Europe set to screaming “Thief” so determinedly, that the banker made for the door in a fright, and Europe, tripping him up, rolled him down the stairs.

“Old wretch!” cried she, “you would tell tales to my mistress!  Thief! thief! stop thief!”

The enamored Baron, in despair, succeeded in getting unhurt to his carriage, which he had left on the boulevard; but he was now at his wits’ end as to whom to apply to.

“And pray, madame, did you think to get my earnings out of me?” said Europe, coming back like a fury to the lady’s room.

“I know nothing of French customs,” said the Englishwoman.

“But one word from me to-morrow to monsieur, and you, madame, would find yourself in the streets,” retorted Europe insolently.

“Dat dam’ maid!” said the Baron to Georges, who naturally asked his master if all had gone well, “hafe do me out of dirty tousant franc —­but it vas my own fault, my own great fault——­”

“And so monsieur’s dress was all wasted.  The deuce is in it, I should advise you, Monsieur le Baron, not to have taken your tonic for nothing——­”

“Georches, I shall be dying of despair.  I hafe cold—­I hafe ice on mein heart—­no more of Esther, my good friend.”

Georges was always the Baron’s friend when matters were serious.

Two days after this scene, which Europe related far more amusingly than it can be written, because she told it with much mimicry, Carlos and Lucien were breakfasting tete-a-tete.

“My dear boy, neither the police nor anybody else must be allowed to poke a nose into our concerns,” said Herrera in a low voice, as he lighted his cigar from Lucien’s.  “It would not agree with us.  I have hit on a plan, daring but effectual, to keep our Baron and his agents quiet.  You must go to see Madame de Serizy, and make yourself very agreeable to her.  Tell her, in the course of conversation, that to oblige Rastignac, who has long been sick of Madame de Nucingen, you have consented to play fence for him to conceal a mistress.  Monsieur de Nucingen, desperately in love with this woman Rastignac keeps hidden—­that will make her laugh—­has taken it into his head to set the police to keep an eye on you—­on you, who are innocent of all his tricks, and whose interest with the Grandlieus may be seriously compromised.  Then you must beg the Countess to secure her husband’s support, for he is a Minister of State, to carry you to the Prefecture of Police.