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diff --git a/1373-0.txt b/1373-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f350a24 --- /dev/null +++ b/1373-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,504 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1373 *** + +STUDY OF A WOMAN + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To the Marquis Jean-Charles di Negro. + + + + + +STUDY OF A WOMAN + + +The Marquise de Listomere is one of those young women who have been +brought up in the spirit of the Restoration. She has principles, she +fasts, takes the sacrament, and goes to balls and operas very elegantly +dressed; her confessor permits her to combine the mundane with sanctity. +Always in conformity with the Church and with the world, she presents +a living image of the present day, which seems to have taken the word +"legality" for its motto. The conduct of the marquise shows precisely +enough religious devotion to attain under a new Maintenon to the gloomy +piety of the last days of Louis XIV., and enough worldliness to adopt +the habits of gallantry of the first years of that reign, should it ever +be revived. At the present moment she is strictly virtuous from policy, +possibly from inclination. Married for the last seven years to the +Marquis de Listomere, one of those deputies who expect a peerage, she +may also consider that such conduct will promote the ambitions of her +family. Some women are reserving their opinion of her until the moment +when Monsieur de Listomere becomes a peer of France, when she herself +will be thirty-six years of age,--a period of life when most women +discover that they are the dupes of social laws. + +The marquis is a rather insignificant man. He stands well at court; his +good qualities are as negative as his defects; the former can no more +make him a reputation for virtue than the latter can give him the sort +of glamor cast by vice. As deputy, he never speaks, but he votes RIGHT. +He behaves in his own home as he does in the Chamber. Consequently, he +is held to be one of the best husbands in France. Though not susceptible +of lively interest, he never scolds, unless, to be sure, he is kept +waiting. His friends have named him "dull weather,"--aptly enough, for +there is neither clear light nor total darkness about him. He is like +all the ministers who have succeeded one another in France since the +Charter. A woman with principles could not have fallen into better +hands. It is certainly a great thing for a virtuous woman to have +married a man incapable of follies. + +Occasionally some fops have been sufficiently impertinent to press the +hand of the marquise while dancing with her. They gained nothing in +return but contemptuous glances; all were made to feel the shock of that +insulting indifference which, like a spring frost, destroys the germs of +flattering hopes. Beaux, wits, and fops, men whose sentiments are fed +by sucking their canes, those of a great name, or a great fame, those of +the highest or the lowest rank in her own world, they all blanch before +her. She has conquered the right to converse as long and as often as she +chooses with the men who seem to her agreeable, without being entered on +the tablets of gossip. Certain coquettish women are capable of following +a plan of this kind for seven years in order to gratify their fancies +later; but to suppose any such reservations in the Marquise de Listomere +would be to calumniate her. + +I have had the happiness of knowing this phoenix. She talks well; I know +how to listen; consequently I please her, and I go to her parties. That, +in fact, was the object of my ambition. + +Neither plain nor pretty, Madame de Listomere has white teeth, a +dazzling skin, and very red lips; she is tall and well-made; her foot +is small and slender, and she does not put it forth; her eyes, far from +being dulled like those of so many Parisian women, have a gentle glow +which becomes quite magical if, by chance, she is animated. A soul +is then divined behind that rather indefinite form. If she takes an +interest in the conversation she displays a grace which is otherwise +buried beneath the precautions of cold demeanor, and then she is +charming. She does not seek success, but she obtains it. We find that +for which we do not seek: that saying is so often true that some day +it will be turned into a proverb. It is, in fact, the moral of this +adventure, which I should not allow myself to tell if it were not +echoing at the present moment through all the salons of Paris. + +The Marquise de Listomere danced, about a month ago, with a young man as +modest as he is lively, full of good qualities, but exhibiting, chiefly, +his defects. He is ardent, but he laughs at ardor; he has talent, and he +hides it; he plays the learned man with aristocrats, and the aristocrat +with learned men. Eugene de Rastignac is one of those extremely clever +young men who try all things, and seem to sound others to discover what +the future has in store. While awaiting the age of ambition, he scoffs +at everything; he has grace and originality, two rare qualities because +the one is apt to exclude the other. On this occasion he talked for +nearly half an hour with madame de Listomere, without any predetermined +idea of pleasing her. As they followed the caprices of conversation, +which, beginning with the opera of "Guillaume Tell," had reached the +topic of the duties of women, he looked at the marquise, more than once, +in a manner that embarrassed her; then he left her and did not speak to +her again for the rest of the evening. He danced, played at ecarte, lost +some money, and went home to bed. I have the honor to assure you that +the affair happened precisely thus. I add nothing, and I suppress +nothing. + +The next morning Rastignac woke late and stayed in bed, giving himself +up to one of those matutinal reveries in the course of which a young man +glides like a sylph under many a silken, or cashmere, or cotton drapery. +The heavier the body from its weight of sleep, the more active the mind. +Rastignac finally got up, without yawning over-much as many ill-bred +persons are apt to do. He rang for his valet, ordered tea, and drank +immoderately of it when it came; which will not seem extraordinary to +persons who like tea; but to explain the circumstance to others, who +regard that beverage as a panacea for indigestion, I will add that +Eugene was, by this time, writing letters. He was comfortably seated, +with his feet more frequently on the andirons than, properly, on the +rug. Ah! to have one's feet on the polished bar which connects the two +griffins of a fender, and to think of our love in our dressing-gown is +so delightful a thing that I deeply regret the fact of having neither +mistress, nor fender, nor dressing-gown. + +The first letter which Eugene wrote was soon finished; he folded and +sealed it, and laid it before him without adding the address. The second +letter, begun at eleven o'clock, was not finished till mid-day. The four +pages were closely filled. + +"That woman keeps running in my head," he muttered, as he folded this +second epistle and laid it before him, intending to direct it as soon as +he had ended his involuntary revery. + +He crossed the two flaps of his flowered dressing-gown, put his feet +on a stool, slipped his hands into the pockets of his red cashmere +trousers, and lay back in a delightful easy-chair with side wings, the +seat and back of which described an angle of one hundred and twenty +degrees. He stopped drinking tea and remained motionless, his eyes fixed +on the gilded hand which formed the knob of his shovel, but without +seeing either hand or shovel. He ceased even to poke the fire,--a vast +mistake! Isn't it one of our greatest pleasures to play with the fire +when we think of women? Our minds find speeches in those tiny blue +flames which suddenly dart up and babble on the hearth. We interpret as +we please the strong, harsh tones of a "burgundian." + +Here I must pause to put before all ignorant persons an explanation of +that word, derived from a very distinguished etymologist who wishes his +name kept secret. + +"Burgundian" is the name given, since the reign of Charles VI., to those +noisy detonations, the result of which is to fling upon the carpet +or the clothes a little coal or ember, the trifling nucleus of a +conflagration. Heat or fire releases, they say, a bubble of air left in +the heart of the wood by a gnawing worm. "Inde amor, inde burgundus." +We tremble when we see the structure we had so carefully erected between +the logs rolling down like an avalanche. Oh! to build and stir and play +with fire when we love is the material development of our thoughts. + +It was at this moment that I entered the room. Rastignac gave a jump and +said:-- + +"Ah! there you are, dear Horace; how long have you been here?" + +"Just come." + +"Ah!" + +He took up the two letters, directed them, and rang for his servant. + +"Take these," he said, "and deliver them." + +Joseph departed without a word; admirable servant! + +We began to talk of the expedition to Morea, to which I was anxious to +be appointed as physician. Eugene remarked that I should lose a great +deal of time if I left Paris. We then conversed on various matters, and +I think you will be glad if I suppress the conversation. + +When the Marquise de Listomere rose, about half-past two in the +afternoon of that day, her waiting-maid, Caroline, gave her a letter +which she read while Caroline was doing her hair (an imprudence which +many young women are thoughtless enough to commit). + +"Dear angel of love," said the letter, "treasure of my life and +happiness--" + +At these words the marquise was about to fling the letter in the fire; +but there came into her head a fancy--which all virtuous women will +readily understand--to see how a man who began a letter in that style +could possibly end it. When she had turned the fourth page and read it, +she let her arms drop like a person much fatigued. + +"Caroline, go and ask who left this letter." + +"Madame, I received it myself from the valet of Monsieur le Baron de +Rastignac." + +After that there was silence for some time. + +"Does Madame intend to dress?" asked Caroline at last. + +"No--He is certainly a most impertinent man," reflected the marquise. + +I request all women to imagine for themselves the reflections of which +this was the first. + +Madame de Listomere ended hers by a formal decision to forbid her porter +to admit Monsieur de Rastignac, and to show him, herself, something +more than disdain when she met him in society; for his insolence far +surpassed that of other men which the marquise had ended by overlooking. +At first she thought of keeping the letter; but on second thoughts she +burned it. + +"Madame had just received such a fine love-letter; and she read it," +said Caroline to the housemaid. + +"I should never have thought that of madame," replied the other, quite +surprised. + +That evening Madame de Listomere went to a party at the Marquis de +Beauseant's, where Rastignac would probably betake himself. It was +Saturday. The Marquis de Beauseant was in some way a connection of +Monsieur de Rastignac, and the young man was not likely to miss coming. +By two in the morning Madame de Listomere, who had gone there solely for +the purpose of crushing Eugene by her coldness, discovered that she was +waiting in vain. A brilliant man--Stendhal--has given the fantastic name +of "crystallization" to the process which Madame de Listomere's thoughts +went through before, during, and after this evening. + +Four days later Eugene was scolding his valet. + +"Ah ca! Joseph; I shall soon have to send you away, my lad." + +"What is it, monsieur?" + +"You do nothing but make mistakes. Where did you carry those letters I +gave you Saturday?" + +Joseph became stolid. Like a statue in some cathedral porch, he stood +motionless, entirely absorbed in the labors of imagination. Suddenly he +smiled idiotically, and said:-- + +"Monsieur, one was for the Marquise de Listomere, the other was for +Monsieur's lawyer." + +"You are certain of what you say?" + +Joseph was speechless. I saw plainly that I must interfere, as I +happened to be again in Eugene's apartment. + +"Joseph is right," I said. + +Eugene turned and looked at me. + +"I read the addresses quite involuntarily, and--" + +"And," interrupted Eugene, "one of them was _not_ for Madame de +Nucingen?" + +"No, by all the devils, it was not. Consequently, I supposed, my dear +fellow, that your heart was wandering from the rue Saint-Lazare to the +rue Saint-Dominique." + +Eugene struck his forehead with the flat of his hand and began to laugh; +by which Joseph perceived that the blame was not on him. + +Now, there are certain morals to this tale on which young men had better +reflect. _First mistake_: Eugene thought it would be amusing to +make Madame de Listomere laugh at the blunder which had made her the +recipient of a love-letter which was not intended for her. _Second +mistake_: he did not call on Madame de Listomere for several days after +the adventure, thus allowing the thoughts of that virtuous young woman +to crystallize. There were other mistakes which I will here pass over in +silence, in order to give the ladies the pleasure of deducing them, "ex +professo," to those who are unable to guess them. + +Eugene at last went to call upon the marquise; but, on attempting to +pass into the house, the porter stopped him, saying that Madame la +marquise was out. As he was getting back into his carriage the Marquis +de Listomere came home. + +"Come in, Eugene," he said. "My wife is at home." + +Pray excuse the marquis. A husband, however good he may be, never +attains perfection. As they went up the staircase Rastignac perceived +at least a dozen blunders in worldly wisdom which had, unaccountably, +slipped into this page of the glorious book of his life. + +When Madame de Listomere saw her husband ushering in Eugene she could +not help blushing. The young baron saw that sudden color. If the most +humble-minded man retains in the depths of his soul a certain conceit of +which he never rids himself, any more than a woman ever rids herself of +coquetry, who shall blame Eugene if he did say softly in his own mind: +"What! that fortress, too?" So thinking, he posed in his cravat. +Young men may not be grasping but they like to get a new coin in their +collection. + +Monsieur de Listomere seized the "Gazette de France," which he saw on +the mantelpiece, and carried it to a window, to obtain, by journalistic +help, an opinion of his own on the state of France. + +A woman, even a prude, is never long embarrassed, however difficult may +be the position in which she finds herself; she seems always to have on +hand the fig-leaf which our mother Eve bequeathed to her. Consequently, +when Eugene, interpreting, in favor of his vanity, the refusal to admit +him, bowed to Madame de Listomere in a tolerably intentional manner, she +veiled her thoughts behind one of those feminine smiles which are more +impenetrable than the words of a king. + +"Are you unwell, madame? You denied yourself to visitors." + +"I am well, monsieur." + +"Perhaps you were going out?" + +"Not at all." + +"You expected some one?" + +"No one." + +"If my visit is indiscreet you must blame Monsieur le marquis. I had +already accepted your mysterious denial, when he himself came up, and +introduced me into the sanctuary." + +"Monsieur de Listomere is not in my confidence on this point. It is not +always prudent to put a husband in possession of certain secrets." + +The firm and gentle tones in which the marquise said these words, and +the imposing glance which she cast upon Rastignac made him aware that he +had posed in his cravat a trifle prematurely. + +"Madame, I understand you," he said, laughing. "I ought, therefore, to +be doubly thankful that Monsieur le marquis met me; he affords me an +opportunity to offer you excuses which might be full of danger were you +not kindness itself." + +The marquise looked at the young man with an air of some surprise, but +she answered with dignity:-- + +"Monsieur, silence on your part will be the best excuse. As for me, +I promise you entire forgetfulness, and the pardon which you scarcely +deserve." + +"Madame," said Rastignac, hastily, "pardon is not needed where there was +no offence. The letter," he added, in a low voice, "which you received, +and which you must have thought extremely unbecoming, was not intended +for you." + +The marquise could not help smiling, though she wished to seem offended. + +"Why deceive?" she said, with a disdainful air, although the tones of +her voice were gentle. "Now that I have duly scolded you, I am willing +to laugh at a subterfuge which is not without cleverness. I know many +women who would be taken in by it: 'Heavens! how he loves me!' they +would say." + +Here the marquise gave a forced laugh, and then added, in a tone of +indulgence:-- + +"If we desire to continue friends let there be no more _mistakes_, of +which it is impossible that I should be the dupe." + +"Upon my honor, madame, you are so--far more than you think," replied +Eugene. + +"What are you talking about?" asked Monsieur de Listomere, who, for +the last minute, had been listening to the conversation, the meaning of +which he could not penetrate. + +"Oh! nothing that would interest you," replied his wife. + +Monsieur de Listomere tranquilly returned to the reading of his paper, +and presently said:-- + +"Ah! Madame de Mortsauf is dead; your poor brother has, no doubt, gone +to Clochegourde." + +"Are you aware, monsieur," resumed the marquise, turning to Eugene, +"that what you have just said is a great impertinence?" + +"If I did not know the strictness of your principles," he answered, +naively, "I should think that you wished either to give me ideas which I +deny myself, or else to tear a secret from me. But perhaps you are only +amusing yourself with me." + +The marquise smiled. That smile annoyed Eugene. + +"Madame," he said, "can you still believe in an offence I have not +committed? I earnestly hope that chance may not enable you to discover +the name of the person who ought to have read that letter." + +"What! can it be _still_ Madame de Nucingen?" cried Madame de Listomere, +more eager to penetrate that secret than to revenge herself for the +impertinence of the young man's speeches. + +Eugene colored. A man must be more than twenty-five years of age not +to blush at being taxed with a fidelity that women laugh at--in order, +perhaps, not to show that they envy it. However, he replied with +tolerable self-possession:-- + +"Why not, madame?" + +Such are the blunders we all make at twenty-five. + +This speech caused a violent commotion in Madame de Listomere's bosom; +but Rastignac did not yet know how to analyze a woman's face by a rapid +or sidelong glance. The lips of the marquise paled, but that was all. +She rang the bell for wood, and so constrained Rastignac to rise and +take his leave. + +"If that be so," said the marquise, stopping Eugene with a cold and +rigid manner, "you will find it difficult to explain, monsieur, why your +pen should, by accident, write my name. A name, written on a letter, +is not a friend's opera-hat, which you might have taken, carelessly, on +leaving a ball." + +Eugene, discomfited, looked at the marquise with an air that was both +stupid and conceited. He felt that he was becoming ridiculous; and after +stammering a few juvenile phrases he left the room. + +A few days later the marquise acquired undeniable proofs that Eugene had +told the truth. For the last fortnight she has not been seen in society. + +The marquis tells all those who ask him the reason of this seclusion:-- + +"My wife has an inflammation of the stomach." + +But I, her physician, who am now attending her, know it is really +nothing more than a slight nervous attack, which she is making the most +of in order to stay quietly at home. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + + Joseph + The Magic Skin + + Listomere, Marquis de + The Lily of the Valley + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + + Listomere, Marquise de + The Lily of the Valley + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + + Rastignac, Eugene de + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Ball at Sceaux + The Interdiction + Another Study of Woman + The Magic Skin + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Gondreville Mystery + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + The Unconscious Humorists + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Study of a Woman, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1373 *** |