needs confirmation."

He followed the handsome pair, got past them, examined them keenly,
and came back, to the great satisfaction of all the envious crowd, who
were eager to learn the source of Lucien's change of fortune.

"Friends," said Bixiou, "you have long known the goddess of the Sire
de Rubempre's fortune: She is des Lupeaulx's former 'rat.'"

A form of dissipation, now forgotten, but still customary at the
beginning of this century, was the keeping of "rats." The "rat"--a
slang word that has become old-fashioned--was a girl of ten or twelve
in the chorus of some theatre, more particularly at the opera, who was
trained by young roues to vice and infamy. A "rat" was a sort of demon
page, a tomboy who was forgiven a trick if it were but funny. The
"rat" might take what she pleased; she was to be watched like a
dangerous animal, and she brought an element of liveliness into life,
like Scapin, Sganarelle, and Frontin in old-fashioned comedy. But a
"rat" was too expensive; it made no return in honor, profit, or
pleasure; the fashion of rats so completely went out, that in these
days few people knew anything of this detail of fashionable life
before the Restoration till certain writers took up the "rat" as a new
subject.

"What! after having seen Coralie killed under him, Lucien means to rob
us of La Torpille?" (the torpedo fish) said Blondet.

As he heard the name the brawny mask gave a significant start, which,
though repressed, was understood by Rastignac.