This was the desperate maze of affairs into which a man who had hitherto been absolutely honest was led by his passions—­one of the best administrative officials under Napoleon—­peculation to pay the money-lenders, and borrowing of the money-lenders to gratify his passions and provide for his daughter.  All the efforts of this elaborate prodigality were directed at making a display before Madame Marneffe, and to playing Jupiter to this middle-class Danae.  A man could not expend more activity, intelligence, and presence of mind in the honest acquisition of a fortune than the Baron displayed in shoving his head into a wasp’s nest:  He did all the business of his department, he hurried on the upholsterers, he talked to the workmen, he kept a sharp lookout on the smallest details of the house in the Rue Vanneau.  Wholly devoted to Madame Marneffe, he nevertheless attended the sittings of the Chambers; he was everywhere at once, and neither his family nor anybody else discovered where his thoughts were.

Adeline, quite amazed to hear that her uncle was rescued, and to see a handsome sum figure in the marriage-contract, was not altogether easy, in spite of her joy at seeing her daughter married under such creditable circumstances.  But, on the day before the wedding, fixed by the Baron to coincide with Madame Marneffe’s removal to her new apartment, Hector allayed his wife’s astonishment by this ministerial communication:—­

“Now, Adeline, our girl is married; all our anxieties on the subject are at an end.  The time is come for us to retire from the world:  I shall not remain in office more than three years longer—­only the time necessary to secure my pension.  Why, henceforth, should we be at any unnecessary expense?  Our apartment costs us six thousand francs a year in rent, we have four servants, we eat thirty thousand francs’ worth of food in a year.  If you want me to pay off my bills—­for I have pledged my salary for the sums I needed to give Hortense her little money, and pay off your uncle——­”

“You did very right!” said she, interrupting her husband, and kissing his hands.

This explanation relieved Adeline of all her fears.

“I shall have to ask some little sacrifices of you,” he went on, disengaging his hands and kissing his wife’s brow.  “I have found in the Rue Plumet a very good flat on the first floor, handsome, splendidly paneled, at only fifteen hundred francs a year, where you would only need one woman to wait on you, and I could be quite content with a boy.”

“Yes, my dear.”

“If we keep house in a quiet way, keeping up a proper appearance of course, we should not spend more than six thousand francs a year, excepting my private account, which I will provide for.”

The generous-hearted woman threw her arms round her husband’s neck in her joy.

“How happy I shall be, beginning again to show you how truly I love you!” she exclaimed.  “And what a capital manager you are!”