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"D'Ajuda will tell you that if any one in Paris can conduct that difficult negotiation, it is I, of course without mixing you up in it; without its being even known that I have come here this evening. Only, before anything is done, we must settle preliminaries. How much are you willing to sacrifice?" "All that is necessary." "Very well, then, Madame la duchesse.
Monsieur d'Ajuda arranged to dine with Maxime at the club in the rue de Beuane, and proposed to him after dinner to go and play dummy whist with the Duc de Grandlieu, who had an attack of gout and was all alone.
"She came to Courcelles after the marriage of the Marquis d'Ajuda; nobody visits her. She has, besides, too much sense not to see that she is in a false position, so she has made no attempt to see any one. M. de Champignelles and a few gentlemen went to call upon her, but she would see no one but M. de Champignelles, perhaps because he is a connection of the family.
"Tell the duchess that Madame de Rochefide will not leave Paris, but within a fortnight she will have left Calyste. Now, d'Ajuda, shake hands. Neither you nor I have ever said, or known, or done anything about this; we admire the chances of life, that's all." "The duchess has already made me swear on the holy Gospels to hold my tongue." "Will you receive my wife a month hence?" "With pleasure."
As the price of my efforts you must do me the honor to receive in your house and seriously protect Madame la Comtesse de Trailles." "What! are you married?" cried d'Ajuda. "I shall be married within a fortnight to the heiress of a rich but extremely bourgeois family, a sacrifice to opinion! I imbibe the very spirit of my government, and start upon a new career.
"Then, what would you do yourself in such a case?" "I should suffer in silence." At this point the Marquis d'Ajuda appeared in Mme. de Beauseant's box. "I have made a muddle of my affairs to come to you," he said, "and I am telling you about it, so that it may not be a sacrifice."
Maxime and d'Ajuda could not refrain from smiling at the idea of this agreement between heaven and hell. "To prevent Madame de Rochefide from ever seeing Calyste again," she continued, "we will all travel, Juste and his wife, Calyste, Sabine, and I. I will leave Clotilde with her father " "It is too soon to sing victory, madame," said Maxime.
Eugene ran his fingers through his hair, and constrained himself to bow. He thought that now Mme. de Beauseant would give him her attention; but suddenly she sprang forward, rushed to a window in the gallery, and watched M. d'Ajuda step into his carriage; she listened to the order that he gave, and heard the Swiss repeat it to the coachman: "To M. de Rochefide's house."
"There is always one resource with the Marquise de Rochefide," remarked Clotilde, smiling, to her sister; "she never keeps her adorers long." "D'Ajuda, my darling," continued the duchess, "was Monsieur de Rochefide's brother-in-law.
The first act came to an end just then. "Do you know Mme. de Nucingen well enough to present M. de Rastignac to her?" she asked of the Marquis d'Ajuda. "She will be delighted," said the Marquis. The handsome Portuguese rose as he spoke and took the student's arm, and in another moment Eugene found himself in Mme. de Nucingen's box.
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