"I'll put you in
the way of proving to him that he is being tricked like a child by
your brother-in-law du Tillet. That wretch is trying to put Nathan in
prison so as to make him ineligible to stand against him in the
electoral college. I know, through a friend of Florine, the exact sum
derived from the sale of her furniture, which she gave to Nathan to
found his newspaper; I know, too, what she sent him out of her
summer's harvest in the departments and in Belgium,--money which has
really gone to the profit of du Tillet, Nucingen, and Massol. All
three of them, unknown to Nathan, have privately sold the paper to the
new ministry, so sure are they of ejecting him."
"Monsieur Nathan is incapable of accepting money from an actress."
"You don't know that class of people, my dear," said the count. "He
would not deny the fact if you asked him."
"I will certainly go to the ball," said the countess.
"You will be very much amused," replied Vandenesse. "With such weapons
in hand you can cut Nathan's complacency to the quick, and you will
also do him a great service. You will put him in a fury; he'll try to
be calm, though inwardly fuming; but, all the same, you will enlighten
a man of talent as to the peril in which he really stands; and you
will also have the satisfaction of laming the horses of the
'juste-milieu' in their stalls-- But you are not listening to me, my
dear.
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