To marry the young Duc d'Herouville, it was necessary to conciliate the great banking-houses; but the haughty pride of the daughter of the house alienated these people by cutting speeches.

During the first years of the Restoration, from 1817 to 1825, Mademoiselle d'Herouville, though in quest of millions, refused, among others, the daughter of Mongenod the banker, with whom Monsieur de Fontaine afterwards contented himself.
At last, having lost several good opportunities to establish her nephew, entirely through her own fault, she was just considering whether the property of the Nucingens was not too basely acquired, or whether she should lend herself to the ambition of Madame de Nucingen, who wished to make her daughter a duchess.

The king, anxious to restore the d'Herouvilles to their former splendor, had almost brought about this marriage, and when it failed he openly accused Mademoiselle d'Herouville of folly.

In this way the aunt made the nephew ridiculous, and the nephew, in his own way, was not less absurd.

When great things disappear they leave crumbs, "frusteaux," Rabelais would say, behind them; and the French nobility of this century has left us too many such fragments.
Neither the clergy nor the nobility have anything to complain of in this long history of manners and customs.