Never had eye beheld such a rage of expenditure.

The great house seemed to have been built over a gulf in which men--their worldly possessions, their fortunes, their very names--were swallowed up without leaving even a handful of dust behind them.

This courtesan, who had the tastes of a parrot and gobbled up radishes and burnt almonds and pecked at the meat upon her plate, had monthly table bills amounting to five thousand francs.

The wildest waste went on in the kitchen: the place, metaphorically speaking was one great river which stove in cask upon cask of wine and swept great bills with it, swollen by three or four successive manipulators.

Victorine and Francois reigned supreme in the kitchen, whither they invited friends.
In addition to these there was quite a little tribe of cousins, who were cockered up in their homes with cold meats and strong soup.