The Chevalier bowed, but did not speak. “M. d’Espard, who has watched this affair, took me to the Oratoire, where this woman goes to sermon, for she is a Protestant. I saw her; she is not in the least attractive; she looks like a butcher’s wife, extremely fat, horribly marked with the smallpox; she has feet and hands like a man’s, she squints, in short, she is monstrous!” “It is inconceivable,” said the judge, looking like the most imbecile judge in the whole kingdom. “And this creature lives near here, Rue Verte, in a fine house? There are no plain folk left, it would seem?” “In a mansion on which her son has spent absurd sums.” “Madame,” said Popinot, “I live in the Faubourg Saint-Marceau; I know nothing of such expenses. What do you call absurd sums?” “Well,” said the Marquise, “a stable with five horses and three carriages, a phaeton, a brougham, and a cabriolet.” “That costs a large sum, then?” asked Popinot in surprise. “Enormous sums!” said Rastignac, intervening. “Such an establishment would cost, for the stables, the keeping the carriages in order, and the liveries for the men, between fifteen and sixteen thousand francs a year.” “Should you think so, madame?” said the judge, looking much astonished. “Yes, at least,” replied the Marquise. “And the furniture, too, must have cost a lot of money?” “More than a hundred thousand francs,” replied Madame d’Espard, who could not help smiling at the lawyer’s vulgarity. “Judges, madame, are apt to be incredulous; it is what they are paid for, and I am incredulous. The Baron Jeanrenaud and his mother must have fleeced M. d’Espard most preposterously, if what you say is correct. There is a stable establishment which, by your account, costs sixteen thousand francs a year. Housekeeping, servants’ wages, and the gross expenses of the house itself must run to twice as much; that makes a total of from fifty to sixty thousand francs a year. Do you suppose that these people, formerly so extremely poor, can have so large a fortune? A million yields scarcely forty thousand a year.” “Monsieur, the mother and son invested the money given them by M. d’Espard in the funds when they were at 60 to 80. I should think their income must be more than sixty thousand francs. And then the son has fine appointments.” “If they spend sixty thousand francs a year,” said the judge, “how much do you spend?” “Well,” said Madame d’Espard, “about the same.” The Chevalier started a little, the Marquise colored; Bianchon looked at Rastignac; but Popinot preserved an expression of simplicity which quite deceived Madame d’Espard. The chevalier took no part in the conversation; he saw that all was lost. “These people, madame, might be indicted before the superior Court,” said Popinot. “That was my opinion,” exclaimed the Marquise, enchanted. “If threatened with the police, they would have come to terms.”