is known down to its very excrescences, will see that Beaudenord must
have acquired about seventeen thousand livres per annum; for he paid
some seventeen francs of taxes and spent a thousand crowns on his own
whims. Well, dear boys, when Godefroid came of age, the Marquis
d'Aiglemont submitted to him such an account of his trust as none of
us would be likely to give a nephew; Godefroid's name was inscribed as
the owner of eighteen thousand livres of _rentes_, a remnant of his
father's wealth spared by the harrow of the great reduction under the
Republic and the hailstorms of Imperial arrears. D'Aiglemont, that
upright guardian, also put his ward in possession of some thirty
thousand francs of savings invested with the firm of Nucingen; saying
with all the charm of a _grand seigneur_ and the indulgence of a soldier
of the Empire, that he had contrived to put it aside for his ward's
young man's follies. 'If you will take my advice, Godefroid,' added
he, 'instead of squandering the money like a fool, as so many young
men do, let it go in follies that will be useful to you afterwards.
Take an attache's post at Turin, and then go to Naples, and from
Naples to London, and you will be amused and learn something for your
money. Afterwards, if you think of a career, the time and the money
will not have been thrown away.' The late lamented d'Aiglemont had
more sense than people credited him with, which is more than can be
said of some of us."

"A young fellow that starts with an assured income of eighteen
thousand livres at one-and-twenty is lost," said Couture.

"Unless he is miserly, or very much above the ordinary level," added
Blondet.

"Well, Godefroid sojourned in the four capitals of Italy," continued