Fortunio is a novel by the French writer Théophile Gautier, first published under the name L'Eldorado and serialized in the newspaper Le Figaro from May 28 to July 14, 1837.
Musidora's interest is piqued, and she makes a bet with George that she will get Fortunio to fall in love with her within six weeks.
Musidora's servants, Jacinthe and Jack, as well as her white cat, are introduced as she struggles to get the purse open.
She loses faith in the bet and falls in love with Fortunio in short order, but upon opening the purse finds a letter she cannot read and a strange needle.
She decides to hunt down someone who can read the letter, and goes with Arabella to the houses of renowned professors of language.
Upon her return home, she receives a letter from Fortunio informing her that she may keep the purse, and warning her that the needle is poisoned.
His true home in Paris is introduced: Eldorado, which he hollowed out of a block of townhouses and filled with an Indian hothouse environment and servant girls.
Fortunio returns to India, and writes a letter explaining his distaste with Paris and its culture and customs, which are so strange to him.
One professor is described as wearing a wig, an item which went out of fashion decades previous, and Musidora at one point goes without a corset.
Treasures and customs are often mentioned, and much of Fortunio's mystery comes from the fact that he was not raised in Paris, and cannot be pinned down in the way that the Parisians are accustomed to.
It is noted that rich men have no cares for the law, but Fortunio does not do anything that the narrator himself considers immoral until he burns Musidora's house down.