"
When the three friends got back into their own vehicle, Gazonal
endeavoured to seize Bixiou round the waist, crying out: "She bites!
You're a fine rascal!"
"So women say," replied Bixiou.
At half-past eleven o'clock, after the play, another citadine took the
trio to the house of Mademoiselle Seraphine Sinet, better known under
the name of Carabine,--one of those pseudonyms which famous lorettes
take, or which are given to them; a name which, in this instance, may
have referred to the pigeons she had killed.
Carabine, now become almost a necessity for the banker du Tillet,
deputy of the Left, lived in a charming house in the rue Saint-
Georges. In Paris there are many houses the destination of which never
varies; and the one we now speak of had already seen seven careers of
courtesans. A broker had brought there, about the year 1827, Suzanne
du Val-Noble, afterwards Madame Gaillard. In that house the famous
Esther caused the Baron de Nucingen to commit the only follies of his
life. Florine, and subsequently, a person now called in jest "the late
Madame Schontz," had scintillated there in turn. Bored by his wife, du
Tillet bought this modern little house, and there installed the
celebrated Carabine, whose lively wit and cavalier manners and
shameless brilliancy were a counterpoise to the dulness of domestic
life, and the toils of finance and politics.
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