I must go out; I have some urgent business on hand."
"Can I be of any use?"
"My word, yes! Will you go to old Taillefer's while I go to Mme. de
Nucingen? Ask him to make an appointment with me some time this
evening; it is a matter of life and death."
"Really, young man!" cried Father Goriot, with a change of
countenance; "are you really paying court to his daughter, as those
simpletons were saying down below? . . . _Tonnerre de dieu!_ you have
no notion what a tap _a la Goriot_ is like, and if you are playing a
double game, I shall put a stop to it by one blow of the fist. . . Oh!
the thing is impossible!"
"I swear to you that I love but one woman in the world," said the
student. "I only knew it a moment ago."
"Oh! what happiness!" cried Goriot.
"But young Taillefer has been called out; the duel comes off
to-morrow morning, and I have heard it said that he may lose his life
in it."
"But what business is it of yours?" said Goriot.
"Why, I ought to tell him so, that he may prevent his son from putting
in an appearance----"
Just at that moment Vautrin's voice broke in upon them; he was
standing at the threshold of his door and singing:
"Oh! Richard, oh my king!
All the world abandons thee!
Broum! broum! broum! broum! broum!
The same old story everywhere,
A roving heart and a .
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