Besides, I
shall succeed, and I will pay her a hundredfold. There is nothing
criminal in this _liaison_; nothing that could cause the most austere
moralist to frown. How many respectable people contract similar
unions! We deceive nobody; it is deception that makes a position
humiliating. If you lie, you lower yourself at once. She and her
husband have lived apart for a long while. Besides, how if I called
upon that Alsatian to resign a wife whom he cannot make happy?"
Rastignac's battle with himself went on for a long while; and though
the scruples of youth inevitably gained the day, an irresistible
curiosity led him, about half-past four, to return to the Maison
Vauquer through the gathering dusk.
Bianchon had given Vautrin an emetic, reserving the contents of the
stomach for chemical analysis at the hospital. Mlle. Michonneau's
officious alacrity had still further strengthened his suspicions of
her. Vautrin, moreover, had recovered so quickly that it was
impossible not to suspect some plot against the leader of all frolics
at the lodging-house. Vautrin was standing in front of the stove in
the dining-room when Rastignac came in. All the lodgers were assembled
sooner than usual by the news of young Taillefer's duel.
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