creature I once told you about; I can hear a fine lady's step in the
corridor; it is she, no doubt;' and, as a matter of fact, the young
man came in with a woman on his arm. I recognized the Countess, whose
levee Gobseck had described for me, one of old Goriot's two daughters.

"The Countess did not see me at first; I stayed where I was in the
window bay, with my face against the pane; but I saw her give Maxime a
suspicious glance as she came into the money-lender's damp, dark room.
So beautiful she was, that in spite of her faults I felt sorry for
her. There was a terrible storm of anguish in her heart; her haughty,
proud features were drawn and distorted with pain which she strove in
vain to disguise. The young man had come to be her evil genius. I
admired Gobseck, whose perspicacity had foreseen their future four
years ago at the first bill which she endorsed.

"'Probably,' said I to myself, 'this monster with the angel face
controls every possible spring of action in her: rules her through
vanity, jealousy, pleasure, and the current of life in the world.'"

The Vicomtesse de Grandlieu broke in on the story.

"Why, the woman's very virtues have been turned against her," she
exclaimed. "He has made her shed tears of devotion, and then abused
her kindness and made her pay very dearly for unhallowed bliss."

Derville did not understand the signs which Mme. de Grandlieu made to
him.

"I confess," he said, "that I had no inclination to shed tears over
the lot of this unhappy creature, so brilliant in society, so