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“La Palferine burst into a peal of Homeric laughter.

” ‘Most distinctly,’ he returned, ‘I do /not/ wish to have a woman as ignorant as a carp for my mistress, a woman that springs like a flying fish from the green-room of the Opera to Court, for I should like to see you at the Court of the Citizen King.’

“She turned to me.

” ‘What is the Southern Cross?’ she asked, in a sad, downcast voice.

“I was struck with admiration for this indomitable love, outdoing the most ingenious marvels of fairy tales in real life–a love that would spring over a precipice to find a roc’s egg, or to gather the singing flower. I explained that the Southern Cross was a nebulous constellation even brighter than the Milky Way, arranged in the form of a cross, and that it could only be seen in southern latitudes.

” ‘Very well, Charles, let us go,’ said she.

“La Palferine, ferocious though he was, had tears in his eyes; but what a look there was in Claudine’s face, what a note in her voice! I have seen nothing like the thing that followed, not even in the supreme touch of a great actor’s art; nothing to compare with her movement when she saw the hard eyes softened in tears; Claudine sank upon her knees and kissed La Palferine’s pitiless hand. He raised her with his grand manner, his ‘Rusticoli air,’ as he calls it–‘There, child!’ he said, ‘I will do something for you; I will put you–in my will.’

“Well,” concluded Nathan, “I ask myself sometimes whether du Bruel is really deceived. Truly there is nothing more comic, nothing stranger than the sight of a careless young fellow ruling a married couple, his slightest whims received as law, the weightiest decisions revoked at a word from him. That dinner incident, as you can see, is repeated times without number, it interferes with important matters. Still, but for Claudine’s caprices, du Bruel would be de Cursy still, one vaudevillist among five hundred; whereas he is in the House of Peers.”

“You will change the names, I hope!” said Nathan, addressing Mme. de la Baudraye.

“I should think so! I have only set names to the masks for you. My dear Nathan,” she added in the poet’s ear, “I know another case on which the wife takes du Bruel’s place.”

“And the catastrophe?” queried Lousteau, returning just at the end of Mme. de la Baudraye’s story.

“I do not believe in catastrophes. One has to invent such good ones to show that art is quite a match for chance; and nobody reads a book twice, my friend, except for the details.”

“But there is a catastrophe,” persisted Nathan.

“What is it?”

“The Marquise de Rochefide is infatuated with Charles Edward. My story excited her curiosity.”

“Oh, unhappy woman!” cried Mme. de la Baudraye.

“Not so unhappy,” said Nathan, “for Maxime de Trailles and La Palferine have brought about a rupture between the Marquis and Mme. Schontz, and they mean to make it up between Arthur and Beatrix.”

1839 – 1845.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
Cesar Birotteau
The Commission in Lunacy
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Secrets of a Princess
The Government Clerks
Pierrette
A Study of Woman
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Honorine
The Seamy Side of History
The Magic Skin
A Second Home
Letters of Two Brides
The Muse of the Department
The Imaginary Mistress
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
The Country Parson
In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following:
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche

Bruel, Jean Francois du
A Bachelor’s Establishment
The Government Clerks
A Start in Life
The Middle Classes
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Daughter of Eve

Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du
A Bachelor’s Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
The Middle Classes

Chaffaroux
Cesar Birotteau
The Middle Classes

Chocardelle, Mademoiselle
Beatrix
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis

La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty

Laguerre, Mademoiselle
The Peasantry

La Palferine, Comte de
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty
Beatrix
The Imaginary Mistress

Lousteau, Etienne
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
A Daughter of Eve
Beatrix
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
The Unconscious Humorists

Marcas, Zephirin
Z. Marcas

Nathan, Raoul
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Letters of Two Brides
The Seamy Side of History
The Muse of the Department
A Man of Business
The Unconscious Humorists

Nathan, Madame Raoul
The Muse of the Department
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Government Clerks
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Ursule Mirouet
Eugenie Grandet
The Imaginary Mistress
A Daughter of Eve
The Unconscious Humorists

Popinot, Madame Anselme
Cesar Birotteau
Cousin Betty
Cousin Pons

Rochefide, Marquise de
Beatrix
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Sarrasine

Tissot, Pierre-Francois
Father Goriot