Vicomtesse de Beauséant

“VICOMTESSE DE BEAUSEANT.”

He went to Delphine at once in his joy. He had procured this pleasure for her, and doubtless he would receive the price of it. Mme. de Nucingen was dressing. Rastignac waited in her boudoir, enduring as best he might the natural impatience of an eager temperament for the reward desired and withheld for a year. Such sensations are only known once in a life. The first woman to whom a man is drawn, if she is really a woman--that is to say, if she appears to him amid the splendid accessories that form a necessary background to life in the world of Paris--will never have a rival.