They returned to Paris. Then Edouard set about realizing the plans that he had formed. Every day he went to the Bourse and to the cafés where business men gathered; he did not go into any business at once, but he listened, walked about, talked and made acquaintances. Dufresne was often present, and he had promised his friend to let him in for a share in his brilliant speculations. Moreover, when business was not brisk, such people passed their time agreeably, laughing, telling one another the news of the day, talking about theatres, balls, fashions, concerts and love-affairs. The course of the stock market did not prevent them from being thoroughly posted as to the course of literature, music and dancing. While negotiating bills of exchange on Vienna or London, they enquired the name of the actress who was to play in the new piece; they undertook to sell shares and to hire a box at the Bouffons; they extolled the honesty of this or that tradesman, and the eccentricity of Lord Byron; the punctuality of a commission merchant, and the pirouettes of Paul; they knew the cause of the latest failure, and the plot of the melodrama which was then the rage; they knew what had happened at the last ball given by a banker, and in his wife’s curtained box at the theatre. In fact, they knew everything, for they discussed all subjects. At all these gatherings they declared war and peace, and settled the course of the weather; they divided, reunited, and enlarged empires with the end of a cane or switch; they knew the secrets of the cabinets of all the powers of Europe!--yet when they returned home to their wives, they did not notice everything that had taken place during their absence. Adeline sighed for the happy days that she had passed in the country immediately after her marriage. However, her husband still loved her; she did not doubt it; but she saw him less frequently, and when he was with her, he no longer, as formerly, talked of love, of constancy, of conjugal happiness, but he assured her that he would soon be engaged in extensive affairs, speculations, in which he would make large profits. “But what need have we of so much money, my dear?” said Adeline, throwing her arms about her husband; “I am soon to be a mother, that is to me the greatest of all joys; with your love I desire no other----” “My dear love, what you say is very pretty; I share your sentiments, but I see farther than you do. Never fear, we shall be very happy some day.” “Ah! my dear, never so happy, never more happy than I have been; before you knew Dufresne, you thought of nobody but me!” “Well, now you are going to talk about Dufresne, are you? You don’t like him; you have taken a grudge against him. What has he done to cause this? He gives me good advice, and he is pushing me along the road to wealth; I don’t see in that any reason for detesting him!” “I detest nobody.” “But you receive him coldly, and Madame Dolban too.” “I receive him as I do everybody.”