The fourth,M.de Canalis,one of the most famous poets of the day,and as yet a newly risen celebrity,was prouder of his birth than of his genius,and dangled in Mme.d'Espard's train by way of concealing his love for the Duchesse de Chaulieu.In spite of his graces and the affectation that spoiled them,it was easy to discern the vast,lurking ambitions that plunged him at a later day into the storms of political life.A face that might be called insignificantly pretty and caressing manners thinly disguised the man's deeply-rooted egoism and habit of continually calculating the chances of a career which at that time looked problematical enough;though his choice of Mme.de Chaulieu (a woman past forty)made interest for him at Court,and brought him the applause of the Faubourg Saint-Germain and the gibes of the Liberal party,who dubbed him "the poet of the sacristy."Mme.de Bargeton,with these remarkable figures before her,no longer wondered at the slight esteem in which the Marquise held Lucien's good looks.And when conversation began,when intellects so keen,so subtle,were revealed in two-edged words with more meaning and depth in them than Anais de Bargeton heard in a month of talk at Angouleme;and,most of all,when Canalis uttered a sonorous phrase,summing up a materialistic epoch,and gilding it with poetry--then Anais felt all the truth of Chatelet's dictum of the previous evening.Lucien was nothing to her now.Every one cruelly ignored the unlucky stranger;he was so much like a foreigner listening to an unknown language,that the Marquise d'Espard took pity upon him.She turned to Canalis.
"Permit me to introduce M.de Rubempre,"she said."You rank too high in the world of letters not to welcome a debutant.M.de Rubempre is from Angouleme,and will need your influence,no doubt,with the powers that bring genius to light.So far,he has no enemies to help him to success by their attacks upon him.Is there enough originality in the idea of obtaining for him by friendship all that hatred has done for you to tempt you to make the experiment?"The four newcomers all looked at Lucien while the Marquise was speaking.De Marsay,only a couple of paces away,put up an eyeglass and looked from Lucien to Mme.de Bargeton,and then again at Lucien,coupling them with some mocking thought,cruelly mortifying to both.
He scrutinized them as if they had been a pair of strange animals,and then he smiled.The smile was like a stab to the distinguished provincial.Felix de Vandenesse assumed a charitable air.Montriveau looked Lucien through and through.
"Madame,"M.de Canalis answered with a bow,"I will obey you,in spite of the selfish instinct which prompts us to show a rival no favor;but you have accustomed us to miracles.""Very well,do me the pleasure of dining with me on Monday with M.de Rubempre,and you can talk of matters literary at your ease.I will try to enlist some of the tyrants of the world of letters and the great people who protect them,the author of Ourika,and one or two young poets with sound views.""Mme.la Marquise,"said de Marsay,"if you give your support to this gentleman for his intellect,I will support him for his good looks.Iwill give him advice which will put him in a fair way to be the luckiest dandy in Paris.After that,he may be a poet--if he has a mind."Mme.de Bargeton thanked her cousin by a grateful glance.
"I did not know that you were jealous of intellect,"Montriveau said,turning to de Marsay;"good fortune is the death of a poet.""Is that why your lordship is thinking of marriage?"inquired the dandy,addressing Canalis,and watching Mme.d'Espard to see if the words went home.
Canalis shrugged his shoulders,and Mme.d'Espard,Mme.de Chaulieu's niece,began to laugh.Lucien in his new clothes felt as if he were an Egyptian statue in its narrow sheath;he was ashamed that he had nothing to say for himself all this while.At length he turned to the Marquise.
"After all your kindness,madame,I am pledged to make no failures,"he said in those soft tones of his.
Chatelet came in as he spoke;he had seen Montriveau,and by hook or crook snatched at the chance of a good introduction to the Marquise d'Espard through one of the kings of Paris.He bowed to Mme.de Bargeton,and begged Mme.d'Espard to pardon him for the liberty he took in invading her box;he had been separated so long from his traveling companion!Montriveau and Chatelet met for the first time since they parted in the desert.
"To part in the desert,and meet again in the opera-house!"said Lucien.
"Quite a theatrical meeting!"said Canalis.
Montriveau introduced the Baron du Chatelet to the Marquise,and the Marquise received Her Royal Highness'ex-secretary the more graciously because she had seen that he had been very well received in three boxes already.Mme.de Serizy knew none but unexceptionable people,and moreover he was Montriveau's traveling companion.So potent was this last credential,that Mme.de Bargeton saw from the manner of the group that they accepted Chatelet as one of themselves without demur.
Chatelet's sultan's airs in Angouleme were suddenly explained.
At length the Baron saw Lucien,and favored him with a cool,disparaging little nod,indicative to men of the world of the recipient's inferior station.A sardonic expression accompanied the greeting,"How does HE come here?"he seemed to say.This was not lost on those who saw it;for de Marsay leaned towards Montriveau,and said in tones audible to Chatelet:
"Do ask him who the queer-looking young fellow is that looks like a dummy at a tailor's shop-door."Chatelet spoke a few words in his traveling companion's ear,and while apparently renewing his acquaintance,no doubt cut his rival to pieces.