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diff --git a/old/nswmn10.txt b/old/nswmn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e6f31c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/nswmn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1969 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Another Study of Woman, by Balzac +#62 in our series by Honore de Balzac + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz + + + +ANOTHER STUDY OF WOMAN + +by HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + +Translated By +Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell + + + +DEDICATION + +To Leon Gozlan as a Token of Literary Good-fellowship. + + + + +ANOTHER STUDY OF WOMAN + + + + +At Paris there are almost always two separate parties going on at +every ball and rout. First, an official party, composed of the persons +invited, a fashionable and much-bored circle. Each one grimaces for +his neighbor's eye; most of the younger women are there for one person +only; when each woman has assured herself that for that one she is the +handsomest woman in the room, and that the opinion is perhaps shared +by a few others, a few insignificant phrases are exchanged, as: "Do +you think of going away soon to La Crampade?" "How well Madame de +Portenduere sang!" "Who is that little woman with such a load of +diamonds?" Or, after firing off some smart epigrams, which give +transient pleasure, and leave wounds that rankle long, the groups thin +out, the mere lookers on go away, and the waxlights burn down to the +sconces. + +The mistress of the house then waylays a few artists, amusing people +or intimate friends, saying, "Do not go yet; we will have a snug +little supper." These collect in some small room. The second, the real +party, now begins; a party where, as of old, every one can hear what +is said, conversation is general, each one is bound to be witty and to +contribute to the amusement of all. Everything is made to tell, honest +laughter takes the place of the gloom which in company saddens the +prettiest faces. In short, where the rout ends pleasure begins. + +The Rout, a cold display of luxury, a review of self-conceits in full +dress, is one of those English inventions which tend to /mechanize/ +other nations. England seems bent on seeing the whole world as dull as +itself, and dull in the same way. So this second party is, in some +French houses, a happy protest on the part of the old spirit of our +light-hearted people. Only, unfortunately, so few houses protest; and +the reason is a simple one. If we no longer have many suppers +nowadays, it is because never, under any rule, have there been fewer +men placed, established, and successful than under the reign of Louis +Philippe, when the Revolution began again, lawfully. Everybody is on +the march some whither, or trotting at the heels of Fortune. Time has +become the costliest commodity, so no one can afford the lavish +extravagance of going home to-morrow morning and getting up late. +Hence, there is no second soiree now but at the houses of women rich +enough to entertain, and since July 1830 such women may be counted in +Paris. + +In spite of the covert opposition of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, two +or three women, among them Madame d'Espard and Mademoiselle des +Touches, have not chosen to give up the share of influence they +exercised in Paris, and have not closed their houses. + +The salon of Mademoiselle des Touches is noted in Paris as being the +last refuge where the old French wit has found a home, with its +reserved depths, its myriad subtle byways, and its exquisite +politeness. You will there still find grace of manner notwithstanding +the conventionalities of courtesy, perfect freedom of talk +notwithstanding the reserve which is natural to persons of breeding, +and, above all, a liberal flow of ideas. No one there thinks of +keeping his thought for a play; and no one regards a story as material +for a book. In short, the hideous skeleton of literature at bay never +stalks there, on the prowl for a clever sally or an interesting +subject. + +The memory of one of these evenings especially dwells with me, less by +reason of a confidence in which the illustrious de Marsay opened up +one of the deepest recesses of woman's heart, than on account of the +reflections to which his narrative gave rise, as to the changes that +have taken place in the French woman since the fateful revolution of +July. + +On that evening chance had brought together several persons, whose +indisputable merits have won them European reputations. This is not a +piece of flattery addressed to France, for there were a good many +foreigners present. And, indeed, the men who most shone were not the +most famous. Ingenious repartee, acute remarks, admirable banter, +pictures sketched with brilliant precision, all sparkled and flowed +without elaboration, were poured out without disdain, but without +effort, and were exquisitely expressed and delicately appreciated. The +men of the world especially were conspicuous for their really artistic +grace and spirit. + +Elsewhere in Europe you will find elegant manners, cordiality, genial +fellowship, and knowledge; but only in Paris, in this drawing-room, +and those to which I have alluded, does the particular wit abound +which gives an agreeable and changeful unity to all these social +qualities, an indescribable river-like flow which makes this profusion +of ideas, of definitions, of anecdotes, of historical incidents, +meander with ease. Paris, the capital of taste, alone possesses the +science which makes conversation a tourney in which each type of wit +is condensed into a shaft, each speaker utters his phrase and casts +his experience in a word, in which every one finds amusement, +relaxation, and exercise. Here, then, alone, will you exchange ideas; +here you need not, like the dolphin in the fable, carry a monkey on +your shoulders; here you will be understood, and will not risk staking +your gold pieces against base metal. + +Here, again, secrets neatly betrayed, and talk, light or deep, play +and eddy, changing their aspect and hue at every phrase. Eager +criticism and crisp anecdotes lead on from one to the next. All eyes +are listening, a gesture asks a question, and an expressive look gives +the answer. In short, and in a word, everything is wit and mind. + +The phenomenon of speech, which, when duly studied and well handled, +is the power of the actor and the story-teller, had never so +completely bewitched me. Nor was I alone under the influence of its +spell; we all spent a delightful evening. The conversation had drifted +into anecdote, and brought out in its rushing course some curious +confessions, several portraits, and a thousand follies, which make +this enchanting improvisation impossible to record; still, by setting +these things down in all their natural freshness and abruptness, their +elusive divarications, you may perhaps feel the charm of a real French +evening, taken at the moment when the most engaging familiarity makes +each one forget his own interests, his personal conceit, or, if you +like, his pretensions. + +At about two in the morning, as supper ended, no one was left sitting +round the table but intimate friends, proved by intercourse of fifteen +years, and some persons of great taste and good breeding, who knew the +world. By tacit agreement, perfectly carried out, at supper every one +renounced his pretensions to importance. Perfect equality set the +tone. But indeed there was no one present who was not very proud of +being himself. + +Mademoiselle des Touches always insists on her guests remaining at +table till they leave, having frequently remarked the change which a +move produces in the spirit of a party. Between the dining-room and +the drawing-room the charm is destroyed. According to Sterne, the +ideas of an author after shaving are different from those he had +before. If Sterne is right, may it not be boldly asserted that the +frame of mind of a party at table is not the same as that of the same +persons returned to the drawing-room? The atmosphere is not heady, the +eye no longer contemplates the brilliant disorder of the dessert, lost +are the happy effects of that laxness of mood, that benevolence which +comes over us while we remain in the humor peculiar to the well-filled +man, settled comfortably on one of the springy chairs which are made +in these days. Perhaps we are not more ready to talk face to face with +the dessert and in the society of good wine, during the delightful +interval when every one may sit with an elbow on the table and his +head resting on his hand. Not only does every one like to talk then, +but also to listen. Digestion, which is almost always attent, is +loquacious or silent, as characters differ. Then every one finds his +opportunity. + +Was not this preamble necessary to make you know the charm of the +narrative, by which a celebrated man, now dead, depicted the innocent +jesuistry of women, painting it with the subtlety peculiar to persons +who have seen much of the world, and which makes statesmen such +delightful storytellers when, like Prince Talleyrand and Prince +Metternich, they vouchsafe to tell a story? + +De Marsay, prime minister for some six months, had already given +proofs of superior capabilities. Those who had known him long were not +indeed surprised to see him display all the talents and various +aptitudes of a statesman; still it might yet be a question whether he +would prove to be a solid politician, or had merely been moulded in +the fire of circumstance. This question had just been asked by a man +whom he had made a prefet, a man of wit and observation, who had for a +long time been a journalist, and who admired de Marsay without +infusing into his admiration that dash of acrid criticism by which, in +Paris, one superior man excuses himself from admiring another. + +"Was there ever," said he, "in your former life, any event, any +thought or wish which told you what your vocation was?" asked Emile +Blondet; "for we all, like Newton, have our apple, which falls and +leads us to the spot where our faculties develop----" + +"Yes," said de Marsay; "I will tell you about it." + +Pretty women, political dandies, artists, old men, de Marsay's +intimate friends,--all settled themselves comfortably, each in his +favorite attitude, to look at the Minister. Need it be said that the +servants had left, that the doors were shut, and the curtains drawn +over them? The silence was so complete that the murmurs of the +coachmen's voices could be heard from the courtyard, and the pawing +and champing made by horses when asking to be taken back to their +stable. + +"The statesman, my friends, exists by one single quality," said the +Minister, playing with his gold and mother-of-pearl dessert knife. "To +wit: the power of always being master of himself; of profiting more or +less, under all circumstances, by every event, however fortuitous; in +short, of having within himself a cold and disinterested other self, +who looks on as a spectator at all the changes of life, noting our +passions and our sentiments, and whispering to us in every case the +judgment of a sort of moral ready-reckoner." + +"That explains why a statesman is so rare a thing in France," said old +Lord Dudley. + +"From a sentimental point of view, this is horrible," the Minister +went on. "Hence, when such a phenomenon is seen in a young man-- +Richelieu, who, when warned overnight by a letter of Concini's peril, +slept till midday, when his benefactor was killed at ten o'clock--or +say Pitt, or Napoleon, he was a monster. I became such a monster at a +very early age, thanks to a woman." + +"I fancied," said Madame de Montcornet with a smile, "that more +politicians were undone by us than we could make." + +"The monster of which I speak is a monster just because he withstands +you," replied de Marsay, with a little ironical bow. + +"If this is a love-story," the Baronne de Nucingen interposed, "I +request that it may not be interrupted by any reflections." + +"Reflection is so antipathetic to it!" cried Joseph Bridau. + +"I was seventeen," de Marsay went on; "the Restoration was being +consolidated; my old friends know how impetuous and fervid I was then. +I was in love for the first time, and I was--I may say so now--one of +the handsomest young fellows in Paris. I had youth and good looks, two +advantages due to good fortune, but of which we are all as proud as of +a conquest. I must be silent as to the rest.--Like all youths, I was +in love with a woman six years older than myself. No one of you here," +said he, looking carefully round the table, "can suspect her name or +recognize her. Ronquerolles alone, at the time, ever guessed my +secret. He had kept it well, but I should have feared his smile. +However, he is gone," said the Minister, looking round. + +"He would not stay to supper," said Madame de Nucingen. + +"For six months, possessed by my passion," de Marsay went on, "but +incapable of suspecting that it had overmastered me, I had abandoned +myself to that rapturous idolatry which is at once the triumph and the +frail joy of the young. I treasured /her/ old gloves; I drank an +infusion of the flowers /she/ had worn; I got out of bed at night to +go and gaze at /her/ window. All my blood rushed to my heart when I +inhaled the perfume she used. I was miles away from knowing that woman +is a stove with a marble casing." + +"Oh! spare us your terrible verdicts," cried Madame de Montcornet with +a smile. + +"I believe I should have crushed with my scorn the philosopher who +first uttered this terrible but profoundly true thought," said de +Marsay. "You are all far too keen-sighted for me to say any more on +that point. These few words will remind you of your own follies. + +"A great lady if ever there was one, a widow without children--oh! all +was perfect--my idol would shut herself up to mark my linen with her +hair; in short, she responded to my madness by her own. And how can we +fail to believe in passion when it has the guarantee of madness? + +"We each devoted all our minds to concealing a love so perfect and so +beautiful from the eyes of the world; and we succeeded. And what charm +we found in our escapades! Of her I will say nothing. She was +perfection then, and to this day is considered one of the most +beautiful women in Paris; but at that time a man would have endured +death to win one of her glances. She had been left with an amount of +fortune sufficient for a woman who had loved and was adored; but the +Restoration, to which she owed renewed lustre, made it seem inadequate +in comparison with her name. In my position I was so fatuous as never +to dream of a suspicion. Though my jealousy would have been of a +hundred and twenty Othello-power, that terrible passion slumbered in +me as gold in the nugget. I would have ordered my servant to thrash me +if I had been so base as ever to doubt the purity of that angel--so +fragile and so strong, so fair, so artless, pure, spotless, and whose +blue eyes allowed my gaze to sound it to the very depths of her heart +with adorable submissiveness. Never was there the slightest hesitancy +in her attitude, her look, or word; always white and fresh, and ready +for the Beloved like the Oriental Lily of the 'Song of Songs!' Ah! my +friends!" sadly exclaimed the Minister, grown young again, "a man must +hit his head very hard on the marble to dispel that poem!" + +This cry of nature, finding an echo in the listeners, spurred the +curiosity he had excited in them with so much skill. + +"Every morning, riding Sultan--the fine horse you sent me from +England," de Marsay went on, addressing Lord Dudley, "I rode past her +open carriage, the horses' pace being intentionally reduced to a walk, +and read the order of the day signaled to me by the flowers of her +bouquet in case we were unable to exchange a few words. Though we saw +each other almost every evening in society, and she wrote to me every +day, to deceive the curious and mislead the observant we had adopted a +scheme of conduct: never to look at each other; to avoid meeting; to +speak ill of each other. Self-admiration, swagger, or playing the +disdained swain,--all these old manoeuvres are not to compare on +either part with a false passion professed for an indifferent person +and an air of indifference towards the true idol. If two lovers will +only play that game, the world will always be deceived; but then they +must be very secure of each other. + +"Her stalking-horse was a man in high favor, a courtier, cold and +sanctimonious, whom she never received at her own house. This little +comedy was performed for the benefit of simpletons and drawing-room +circles, who laughed at it. Marriage was never spoken of between us; +six years' difference of age might give her pause; she knew nothing of +my fortune, of which, on principle, I have always kept the secret. I, +on my part, fascinated by her wit and manners, by the extent of her +knowledge and her experience of the world, would have married her +without a thought. At the same time, her reserve charmed me. If she +had been the first to speak of marriage in a certain tone, I might +perhaps have noted it as vulgar in that accomplished soul. + +"Six months, full and perfect--a diamond of the purest water! That has +been my portion of love in this base world. + +"One morning, attacked by the feverish stiffness which marks the +beginning of a cold, I wrote her a line to put off one of those secret +festivals which are buried under the roofs of Paris like pearls in the +sea. No sooner was the letter sent than remorse seized me: she will +not believe that I am ill! thought I. She was wont to affect jealousy +and suspiciousness.--When jealousy is genuine," said de Marsay, +interrupting himself, "it is the visible sign of an unique passion." + +"Why?" asked the Princesse de Cadignan eagerly. + +"Unique and true love," said de Marsay, "produces a sort of corporeal +apathy attuned to the contemplation into which one falls. Then the +mind complicates everything; it works on itself, pictures its fancies, +turns them into reality and torment; and such jealousy is as +delightful as it is distressing." + +A foreign minister smiled as, by the light of memory, he felt the +truth of this remark. + +"Besides," de Marsay went on, "I said to myself, why miss a happy +hour? Was it not better to go, even though feverish? And, then, if she +learns that I am ill, I believe her capable of hurrying here and +compromising herself. I made an effort; I wrote a second letter, and +carried it myself, for my confidential servant was now gone. The river +lay between us. I had to cross Paris; but at last, within a suitable +distance of her house, I caught sight of a messenger; I charged him to +have the note sent up to her at once, and I had the happy idea of +driving past her door in a hackney cab to see whether she might not by +chance receive the two letters together. At the moment when I arrived +it was two o'clock; the great gate opened to admit a carriage. Whose? +--That of the stalking-horse! + +"It is fifteen years since--well, even while I tell the tale, I, the +exhausted orator, the Minister dried up by the friction of public +business, I still feel a surging in my heart and the hot blood about +my diaphragm. At the end of an hour I passed once more; the carriage +was still in the courtyard! My note no doubt was in the porter's +hands. At last, at half-past three, the carriage drove out. I could +observe my rival's expression; he was grave, and did not smile; but he +was in love, and no doubt there was business in hand. + +"I went to keep my appointment; the queen of my heart met me; I saw +her calm, pure, serene. And here I must confess that I have always +thought that Othello was not only stupid, but showed very bad taste. +Only a man who is half a Negro could behave so: indeed Shakespeare +felt this when he called his play 'The Moor of Venice.' The sight of +the woman we love is such a balm to the heart that it must dispel +anguish, doubt, and sorrow. All my rage vanished. I could smile again. +Hence this cheerfulness, which at my age now would be the most +atrocious dissimulation, was the result of my youth and my love. My +jealousy once buried, I had the power of observation. My ailing +condition was evident; the horrible doubts that had fermented in me +increased it. At last I found an opening for putting in these words: +'You have had no one with you this morning?' making a pretext of the +uneasiness I had felt in the fear lest she should have disposed of her +time after receiving my first note.--'Ah!' she exclaimed, 'only a man +could have such ideas! As if I could think of anything but your +suffering. Till the moment when I received your second note I could +think only of how I could contrive to see you.'--'And you were +alone?'--'Alone,' said she, looking at me with a face of innocence so +perfect that it must have been his distrust of such a look as that +which made the Moor kill Desdemona. As she lived alone in the house, +the word was a fearful lie. One single lie destroys the absolute +confidence which to some souls is the very foundation of happiness. + +"To explain to you what passed in me at that moment it must be assumed +that we have an internal self of which the exterior /I/ is but the +husk; that this self, as brilliant as light, is as fragile as a shade +--well, that beautiful self was in me thenceforth for ever shrouded in +crape. Yes; I felt a cold and fleshless hand cast over me the winding- +sheet of experience, dooming me to the eternal mourning into which the +first betrayal plunges the soul. As I cast my eyes down that she might +not observe my dizziness, this proud thought somewhat restored my +strength: 'If she is deceiving you, she is unworthy of you!' + +"I ascribed my sudden reddening and the tears which started to my eyes +to an attack of pain, and the sweet creature insisted on driving me +home with the blinds of the cab drawn. On the way she was full of a +solicitude and tenderness that might have deceived the Moor of Venice +whom I have taken as a standard of comparison. Indeed, if that great +child were to hesitate two seconds longer, every intelligent spectator +feels that he would ask Desdemona's forgiveness. Thus, killing the +woman is the act of a boy.--She wept as we parted, so much was she +distressed at being unable to nurse me herself. She wished she were my +valet, in whose happiness she found a cause of envy, and all this was +as elegantly expressed, oh! as Clarissa might have written in her +happiness. There is always a precious ape in the prettiest and most +angelic woman!" + +At these words all the women looked down, as if hurt by this brutal +truth so brutally stated. + +"I will say nothing of the night, nor of the week I spent," de Marsay +went on. "I discovered that I was a statesman." + +It was so well said that we all uttered an admiring exclamation. + +"As I thought over the really cruel vengeance to be taken on a woman," +said de Marsay, continuing his story, "with infernal ingenuity--for, +as we had loved each other, some terrible and irreparable revenges +were possible--I despised myself, I felt how common I was, I +insensibly formulated a horrible code--that of Indulgence. In taking +vengeance on a woman, do we not in fact admit that there is but one +for us, that we cannot do without her? And, then, is revenge the way +to win her back? If she is not indispensable, if there are other women +in the world, why not grant her the right to change which we assume? + +"This, of course, applies only to passion; in any other sense it would +be socially wrong. Nothing more clearly proves the necessity for +indissoluble marriage than the instability of passion. The two sexes +must be chained up, like wild beasts as they are, by inevitable law, +deaf and mute. Eliminate revenge, and infidelity in love is nothing. +Those who believe that for them there is but one woman in the world +must be in favor of vengeance, and then there is but one form of it-- +that of Othello. + +"Mine was different." + +The words produced in each of us the imperceptible movement which +newspaper writers represent in Parliamentary reports by the words: +/great sensation/. + +"Cured of my cold, and of my pure, absolute, divine love, I flung +myself into an adventure, of which the heroine was charming, and of a +style of beauty utterly opposed to that of my deceiving angel. I took +care not to quarrel with this clever woman, who was so good an +actress, for I doubt whether true love can give such gracious delights +as those lavished by such a dexterous fraud. Such refined hypocrisy is +as good as virtue.--I am not speaking to you Englishwomen, my lady," +said the Minister, suavely, addressing Lady Barimore, Lord Dudley's +daughter. "I tried to be the same lover. + +"I wished to have some of my hair worked up for my new angel, and I +went to a skilled artist who at that time dwelt in the Rue Boucher. +The man had a monopoly of capillary keepsakes, and I mention his +address for the benefit of those who have not much hair; he has plenty +of every kind and every color. After I had explained my order, he +showed me his work. I then saw achievements of patience surpassing +those which the story books ascribe to fairies, or which are executed +by prisoners. He brought me up to date as to the caprices and fashions +governing the use of hair. 'For the last year,' said he, 'there has +been a rage for marking linen with hair; happily I had a fine +collection of hair and skilled needlewomen,'--on hearing this a +suspicion flashed upon me; I took out my handkerchief and said, 'So +this was done in your shop, with false hair?'--He looked at the +handkerchief, and said, 'Ay! that lady was very particular, she +insisted on verifying the tint of the hair. My wife herself marked +those handkerchiefs. You have there, sir, one of the finest pieces of +work we have ever executed.' Before this last ray of light I might +have believed something--might have taken a woman's word. I left the +shop still having faith in pleasure, but where love was concerned I +was as atheistical as a mathematician. + +"Two months later I was sitting by the side of the ethereal being in +her boudoir, on her sofa; I was holding one of her hands--they were +very beautiful--and we scaled the Alps of sentiment, culling their +sweetest flowers, and pulling off the daisy-petals; there is always a +moment when one pulls daisies to pieces, even if it is in a drawing- +room and there are no daisies. At the intensest moment of tenderness, +and when we are most in love, love is so well aware of its own short +duration that we are irresistibly urged to ask, 'Do you love me? Will +you love me always?' I seized the elegiac moment, so warm, so flowery, +so full-blown, to lead her to tell her most delightful lies, in the +enchanting language of love. Charlotte displayed her choicest +allurements: She could not live without me; I was to her the only man +in the world; she feared to weary me, because my presence bereft her +of all her wits; with me, all her faculties were lost in love; she was +indeed too tender to escape alarms; for the last six months she had +been seeking some way to bind me to her eternally, and God alone knew +that secret; in short, I was her god!" + +The women who heard de Marsay seemed offended by seeing themselves so +well acted, for he seconded the words by airs, and sidelong attitudes, +and mincing grimaces which were quite illusory. + +"At the very moment when I might have believed these adorable +falsehoods, as I still held her right hand in mine, I said to her, +'When are you to marry the Duke?' + +"The thrust was so direct, my gaze met hers so boldly, and her hand +lay so tightly in mine, that her start, slight as it was, could not be +disguised; her eyes fell before mine, and a faint blush colored her +cheeks.--'The Duke! What do you mean?' she said, affecting great +astonishment.--'I know everything,' replied I; 'and in my opinion, you +should delay no longer; he is rich; he is a duke; but he is more than +devout, he is religious! I am sure, therefore, that you have been +faithful to me, thanks to his scruples. You cannot imagine how +urgently necessary it is that you should compromise him with himself +and with God; short of that you will never bring him to the point.'-- +'Is this a dream?' said she, pushing her hair from her forehead, +fifteen years before Malibran, with the gesture which Malibran has +made so famous.--'Come, do not be childish, my angel,' said I, trying +to take her hands; but she folded them before her with a little +prudish and indignant mein.--'Marry him, you have my permission,' said +I, replying to this gesture by using the formal /vous/ instead of +/tu/. 'Nay, better, I beg you to do so.'--'But,' cried she, falling at +my knees, 'there is some horrible mistake; I love no one in the world +but you; you may demand any proofs you please.'--'Rise, my dear,' said +I, 'and do me the honor of being truthful.'--'As before God.'--'Do you +doubt my love?'--'No.'--'Nor my fidelity?'--'No.'--'Well, I have +committed the greatest crime,' I went on. 'I have doubted your love +and your fidelity. Between two intoxications I looked calmly about +me.'--'Calmly!' sighed she. 'That is enough, Henri; you no longer love +me.' + +"She had at once found, you perceive, a loophole for escape. In scenes +like these an adverb is dangerous. But, happily, curiosity made her +add: 'And what did you see? Have I ever spoken of the Duke excepting +in public? Have you detected in my eyes----?'--'No,' said I, 'but in +his. And you have eight times made me go to Saint-Thomas d'Aquin to +see you listening to the same mass as he.'--'Ah!' she exclaimed, 'then +I have made you jealous!'--Oh! I only wish I could be!' said I, +admiring the pliancy of her quick intelligence, and these acrobatic +feats which can only be successful in the eyes of the blind. 'But by +dint of going to church I have become very incredulous. On the day of +my first cold, and your first treachery, when you thought I was in +bed, you received the Duke, and you told me you had seen no one.'--'Do +you know that your conduct is infamous?'--'In what respect? I consider +your marriage to the Duke an excellent arrangement; he gives you a +great name, the only rank that suits you, a brilliant and +distinguished position. You will be one of the queens of Paris. I +should be doing you a wrong if I placed any obstacle in the way of +this prospect, this distinguished life, this splendid alliance. Ah! +Charlotte, some day you will do me justice by discovering how unlike +my character is to that of other young men. You would have been +compelled to deceive me; yes, you would have found it very difficult +to break with me, for he watches you. It is time that we should part, +for the Duke is rigidly virtuous. You must turn prude; I advise you to +do so. The Duke is vain; he will be proud of his wife.'--'Oh!' cried +she, bursting into tears, 'Henri, if only you had spoken! Yes, if you +had chosen'--it was I who was to blame, you understand--'we would have +gone to live all our days in a corner, married, happy, and defied the +world.'--'Well, it is too late now,' said I, kissing her hands, and +putting on a victimized air.--'Good God! But I can undo it all!' said +she.--'No, you have gone too far with the Duke. I ought indeed to go a +journey to part us more effectually. We should both have reason to +fear our own affection----'--'Henri, do you think the Duke has any +suspicions?' I was still 'Henri,' but the /tu/ was lost for ever.--'I +do not think so,' I replied, assuming the manner of a friend; 'but be +as devout as possible, reconcile yourself to God, for the Duke waits +for proofs; he hesitates, you must bring him to the point.' + +"She rose, and walked twice round the boudoir in real or affected +agitation; then she no doubt found an attitude and a look beseeming +the new state of affairs, for she stopped in front of me, held out her +hand, and said in a voice broken by emotion, 'Well, Henri, you are +loyal, noble, and a charming man; I shall never forget you.' + +"These were admirable tactics. She was bewitching in this transition +of feeling, indispensable to the situation in which she wished to +place herself in regard to me. I fell into the attitude, the manners, +and the look of a man so deeply distressed, that I saw her too newly +assumed dignity giving way; she looked at me, took my hand, drew me +along almost, threw me on the sofa, but quite gently, and said after a +moment's silence, 'I am dreadfully unhappy, my dear fellow. Do you +love me?'--'Oh! yes.'--'Well, then, what will become of you?' " + +At this point the women all looked at each other. + +"Though I can still suffer when I recall her perfidy, I still laugh at +her expression of entire conviction and sweet satisfaction that I must +die, or at any rate sink into perpetual melancholy," de Marsay went +on. "Oh! do not laugh yet!" he said to his listeners; "there is better +to come. I looked at her very tenderly after a pause, and said to her, +'Yes, that is what I have been wondering.'--'Well, what will you do?' +--'I asked myself that the day after my cold.'--'And----?' she asked +with eager anxiety.--'And I have made advances to the little lady to +whom I was supposed to be attached.' + +"Charlotte started up from the sofa like a frightened doe, trembling +like a leaf, gave me one of those looks in which women forgo all their +dignity, all their modesty, their refinement, and even their grace, +the sparkling glitter of a hunted viper's eye when driven into a +corner, and said, 'And I have loved this man! I have struggled! I +have----' On this last thought, which I leave you to guess, she made +the most impressive pause I ever heard.--'Good God!' she cried, 'how +unhappy are we women! we never can be loved. To you there is nothing +serious in the purest feelings. But never mind; when you cheat us you +still are our dupes!'--'I see that plainly,' said I, with a stricken +air; 'you have far too much wit in your anger for your heart to suffer +from it.'--This modest epigram increased her rage; she found some +tears of vexation. 'You disgust me with the world and with life.' she +said; 'you snatch away all my illusions; you deprave my heart.' + +"She said to me all that I had a right to say to her, and with a +simple effrontery, an artless audacity, which would certainly have +nailed any man but me on the spot.--'What is to become of us poor +women in a state of society such as Louis XVIII.'s charter made it?'-- +(Imagine how her words had run away with her.)--'Yes, indeed, we are +born to suffer. In matters of passion we are always superior to you, +and you are beneath all loyalty. There is no honesty in your hearts. +To you love is a game in which you always cheat.'--'My dear,' said I, +'to take anything serious in society nowadays would be like making +romantic love to an actress.'--'What a shameless betrayal! It was +deliberately planned!'--'No, only a rational issue.'--'Good-bye, +Monsieur de Marsay,' said she; 'you have deceived me horribly.'-- +'Surely,' I replied, taking up a submissive attitude, 'Madame la +Duchesse will not remember Charlotte's grievances?'--'Certainly,' she +answered bitterly.--'Then, in fact, you hate me?'--She bowed, and I +said to myself, 'There is something still left!' + +"The feeling she had when I parted from her allowed her to believe +that she still had something to avenge. Well, my friends, I have +carefully studied the lives of men who have had great success with +women, but I do not believe that the Marechal de Richelieu, or Lauzun, +or Louis de Valois ever effected a more judicious retreat at the first +attempt. As to my mind and heart, they were cast in a mould then and +there, once for all, and the power of control I thus acquired over the +thoughtless impulses which make us commit so many follies gained me +the admirable presence of mind you all know." + +"How deeply I pity the second!" exclaimed the Baronne de Nucingen. + +A scarcely perceptible smile on de Marsay's pale lips made Delphine de +Nucingen color. + +"How we do forget!" said the Baron de Nucingen. + +The great banker's simplicity was so extremely droll, that his wife, +who was de Marsay's "second," could not help laughing like every one +else. + +"You are all ready to condemn the woman," said Lady Dudley. "Well, I +quite understand that she did not regard her marriage as an act of +inconstancy. Men will never distinguish between constancy and +fidelity.--I know the woman whose story Monsieur de Marsay has told +us, and she is one of the last of your truly great ladies." + +"Alas! my lady, you are right," replied de Marsay. "For very nearly +fifty years we have been looking on at the progressive ruin of all +social distinctions. We ought to have saved our women from this great +wreck, but the Civil Code has swept its leveling influence over their +heads. However terrible the words, they must be spoken: Duchesses are +vanishing, and marquises too! As to the baronesses--I must apologize +to Madame de Nucingen, who will become a countess when her husband is +made a peer of France--baronesses have never succeeded in getting +people to take them seriously." + +"Aristocracy begins with the viscountess," said Blondet with a smile. + +"Countesses will survive," said de Marsay. "An elegant woman will be +more or less of a countess--a countess of the Empire or of yesterday, +a countess of the old block, or, as they say in Italy, a countess by +courtesy. But as to the great lady, she died out with the dignified +splendor of the last century, with powder, patches, high-heeled +slippers, and stiff bodices with a delta stomacher of bows. Duchesses +in these days can pass through a door without any need to widen it for +their hoops. The Empire saw the last of gowns with trains! I am still +puzzled to understand how a sovereign who wished to see his drawing- +room swept by ducal satin and velvet did not make indestructible laws. +Napoleon never guessed the results of the Code he was so proud of. +That man, by creating duchesses, founded the race of our 'ladies' of +to-day--the indirect offspring of his legislation." + +"It was logic, handled as a hammer by boys just out of school and by +obscure journalists, which demolished the splendors of the social +state," said the Comte de Vandenesse. "In these days every rogue who +can hold his head straight in his collar, cover his manly bosom with +half an ell of satin by way of a cuirass, display a brow where +apocryphal genius gleams under curling locks, and strut in a pair of +patent-leather pumps graced by silk socks which cost six francs, +screws his eye-glass into one of his eye-sockets by puckering up his +cheek, and whether he be an attorney's clerk, a contractor's son, or a +banker's bastard, he stares impertinently at the prettiest duchess, +appraises her as she walks downstairs, and says to his friend--dressed +by Buisson, as we all are, and mounted in patent-leather like any duke +himself--'There, my boy, that is a perfect lady.' " + +"You have not known how to form a party," said Lord Dudley; "it will +be a long time yet before you have a policy. You talk a great deal in +France about organizing labor, and you have not yet organized +property. So this is what happens: Any duke--and even in the time of +Louis XVIII. and Charles X. there were some left who had two hundred +thousand francs a year, a magnificent residence, and a sumptuous train +of servants--well, such a duke could live like a great lord. The last +of these great gentlemen in France was the Prince de Talleyrand.--This +duke leaves four children, two of them girls. Granting that he has +great luck in marrying them all well, each of these descendants will +have but sixty or eighty thousand francs a year now; each is the +father or mother of children, and consequently obliged to live with +the strictest economy in a flat on the ground floor or first floor of +a large house. Who knows if they may not even be hunting a fortune? +Henceforth the eldest son's wife, a duchess in name only, has no +carriage, no people, no opera-box, no time to herself. She has not her +own rooms in the family mansion, nor her fortune, nor her pretty toys; +she is buried in trade; she buys socks for her dear little children, +nurses them herself, and keeps an eye on her girls, whom she no longer +sends to school at a convent. Thus your noblest dames have been turned +into worthy brood-hens." + +"Alas! it is true," said Joseph Bridau. "In our day we cannot show +those beautiful flowers of womanhood which graced the golden ages of +the French Monarchy. The great lady's fan is broken. A woman has +nothing now to blush for; she need not slander or whisper, hide her +face or reveal it. A fan is of no use now but for fanning herself. +When once a thing is no more than what it is, it is too useful to be a +form of luxury." + +"Everything in France has aided and abetted the 'perfect lady,' " said +Daniel d'Arthez. "The aristocracy has acknowledged her by retreating +to the recesses of its landed estates, where it has hidden itself to +die--emigrating inland before the march of ideas, as of old to foreign +lands before that of the masses. The women who could have founded +European /salons/, could have guided opinion and turned it inside out +like a glove, could have ruled the world by ruling the men of art or +of intellect who ought to have ruled it, have committed the blunder of +abandoning their ground; they were ashamed of having to fight against +the citizen class drunk with power, and rushing out on to the stage of +the world, there to be cut to pieces perhaps by the barbarians who are +at its heels. Hence, where the middle class insist on seeing +princesses, these are really only ladylike young women. In these days +princes can find no great ladies whom they may compromise; they cannot +even confer honor on a woman taken up at random. The Duc de Bourbon +was the last prince to avail himself of this privilege." + +"And God alone knows how dearly he paid for it," said Lord Dudley. + +"Nowadays princes have lady-like wives, obliged to share their opera- +box with other ladies; royal favor could not raise them higher by a +hair's breadth; they glide unremarkable between the waters of the +citizen class and those of the nobility--not altogether noble nor +altogether /bourgeoises/," said the Marquise de Rochegude acridly. + +"The press has fallen heir to the Woman," exclaimed Rastignac. "She no +longer has the quality of a spoken /feuilleton/--delightful calumnies +graced by elegant language. We read /feuilletons/ written in a dialect +which changes every three years, society papers about as mirthful as +an undertaker's mute, and as light as the lead of their type. French +conversation is carried on from one end of the country to the other in +a revolutionary jargon, through long columns of type printed in old +mansions where a press groans in the place where formerly elegant +company used to meet." + +"The knell of the highest society is tolling," said a Russian Prince. +"Do you hear it? And the first stroke is your modern word /lady/." + +"You are right, Prince," said de Marsay. "The 'perfect lady,' issuing +from the ranks of the nobility, or sprouting from the citizen class, +and the product of every soil, even of the provinces is the expression +of these times, a last remaining embodiment of good taste, grace, wit, +and distinction, all combined, but dwarfed. We shall see no more great +ladies in France, but there will be 'ladies' for a long time, elected +by public opinion to form an upper chamber of women, and who will be +among the fair sex what a 'gentleman' is in England." + +"And that they call progress!" exclaimed Mademoiselle des Touches. "I +should like to know where the progress lies?" + +"Why, in this," said Madame de Nucingen. "Formerly a woman might have +the voice of a fish-seller, the walk of a grenadier, the face of an +impudent courtesan, her hair too high on her forehead, a large foot, a +thick hand--she was a great lady in spite of it all; but in these +days, even if she were a Montmorency--if a Montmorency would ever be +such a creature--she would not be a lady." + +"But what do you mean by a 'perfect lady'?" asked Count Adam Laginski. + +"She is a modern product, a deplorable triumph of the elective system +as applied to the fair sex," said the Minister. "Every revolution has +a word of its own which epitomizes and depicts it." + +"You are right," said the Russian, who had come to make a literary +reputation in Paris. "The explanation of certain words added from time +to time to your beautiful language would make a magnificent history. +/Organize/, for instance, is the word of the Empire, and sums up +Napoleon completely." + +"But all that does not explain what is meant by a lady!" the young +Pole exclaimed, with some impatience. + +"Well, I will tell you," said Emile Blondet to Count Adam. "One fine +morning you go for a saunter in Paris. It is past two, but five has +not yet struck. You see a woman coming towards you; your first glance +at her is like the preface to a good book, it leads you to expect a +world of elegance and refinement. Like a botanist over hill and dale +in his pursuit of plants, among the vulgarities of Paris life you have +at last found a rare flower. This woman is attended by two very +distinguished-looking men, of whom one, at any rate, wears an order; +or else a servant out of livery follows her at a distance of ten +yards. She displays no gaudy colors, no open-worked stockings, no +over-elaborate waist-buckle, no embroidered frills to her drawers +fussing round her ankles. You will see that she is shod with prunella +shoes, with sandals crossed over extremely fine cotton stockings, or +plain gray silk stockings; or perhaps she wears boots of the most +exquisite simplicity. You notice that her gown is made of a neat and +inexpensive material, but made in a way that surprises more than one +woman of the middle class; it is almost always a long pelisse, with +bows to fasten it, and neatly bound with fine cord or an imperceptible +braid. The Unknown has a way of her own in wrapping herself in her +shawl or mantilla; she knows how to draw it round her from her hips to +her neck, outlining a carapace, as it were, which would make an +ordinary woman look like a turtle, but which in her sets off the most +beautiful forms while concealing them. How does she do it? This secret +she keeps, though unguarded by any patent. + +"As she walks she gives herself a little concentric and harmonious +twist, which makes her supple or dangerous slenderness writhe under +the stuff, as a snake does under the green gauze of trembling grass. +Is it to an angel or a devil that she owes the graceful undulation +which plays under her long black silk cape, stirs its lace frill, +sheds an airy balm, and what I should like to call the breeze of a +Parisienne? You may recognize over her arms, round her waist, about +her throat, a science of drapery recalling the antique Mnemosyne. + +"Oh! how thoroughly she understands the /cut/ of her gait--forgive the +expression. Study the way she puts her foot forward moulding her skirt +with such a decent preciseness that the passer-by is filled with +admiration, mingled with desire, but subdued by deep respect. When an +Englishwoman attempts this step, she looks like a grenadier marching +forward to attack a redoubt. The women of Paris have a genius for +walking. The municipality really owed them asphalt footwalks. + +"Our Unknown jostles no one. If she wants to pass, she waits with +proud humility till some one makes way. The distinction peculiar to a +well-bred woman betrays itself, especially in the way she holds her +shawl or cloak crossed over her bosom. Even as she walks she has a +little air of serene dignity, like Raphael's Madonnas in their frames. +Her aspect, at once quiet and disdainful, makes the most insolent +dandy step aside for her. + +"Her bonnet, remarkable for its simplicity, is trimmed with crisp +ribbons; there may be flowers in it, but the cleverest of such women +wear only bows. Feathers demand a carriage; flowers are too showy. +Beneath it you see the fresh unworn face of a woman who, without +conceit, is sure of herself; who looks at nothing, and sees +everything; whose vanity, satiated by being constantly gratified, +stamps her face with an indifference which piques your curiosity. She +knows that she is looked at, she knows that everybody, even women, +turn round to see her again. And she threads her way through Paris +like a gossamer, spotless and pure. + +"This delightful species affects the hottest latitudes, the cleanest +longitudes of Paris; you will meet her between the 10th and 110th +Arcade of the Rue de Rivoli; along the line of the Boulevards from the +equator of the Passage des Panoramas, where the products of India +flourish, where the warmest creations of industry are displayed, to +the Cape of the Madeleine; in the least muddy districts of the citizen +quarters, between No. 30 and No. 130 of the Rue du Faubourg Saint- +Honore. During the winter, she haunts the terrace of the Feuillants, +but not the asphalt pavement that lies parallel. According to the +weather, she may be seen flying in the Avenue of the Champs-Elysees, +which is bounded on the east by the Place Louis XV., on the west by +the Avenue de Marigny, to the south by the road, to the north by the +gardens of the Faubourg Saint-Honore. Never is this pretty variety of +woman to be seen in the hyperborean regions of the Rue Saint-Denis, +never in the Kamtschatka of miry, narrow, commercial streets, never +anywhere in bad weather. These flowers of Paris, blooming only in +Oriental weather, perfume the highways; and after five o'clock fold up +like morning-glory flowers. The women you will see later, looking a +little like them, are would-be ladies; while the fair Unknown, your +Beatrice of a day, is a 'perfect lady.' + +"It is not very easy for a foreigner, my dear Count, to recognize the +differences by which the observer /emeritus/ distinguishes them--women +are such consummate actresses; but they are glaring in the eyes of +Parisians: hooks ill fastened, strings showing loops of rusty-white +tape through a gaping slit in the back, rubbed shoe-leather, ironed +bonnet-strings, an over-full skirt, an over-tight waist. You will see +a certain effort in the intentional droop of the eyelid. There is +something conventional in the attitude. + +"As to the /bourgeoise/, the citizen womankind, she cannot possibly be +mistaken for the spell cast over you by the Unknown. She is bustling, +and goes out in all weathers, trots about, comes, goes, gazes, does +not know whether she will or will not go into a shop. Where the lady +knows just what she wants and what she is doing, the townswoman is +undecided, tucks up her skirts to cross a gutter, dragging a child by +the hand, which compels her to look out for the vehicles; she is a +mother in public, and talks to her daughter; she carries money in her +bag, and has open-work stockings on her feet; in winter, she wears a +boa over her fur cloak; in summer, a shawl and a scarf; she is +accomplished in the redundancies of dress. + +"You will meet the fair Unknown again at the Italiens, at the Opera, +at a ball. She will then appear under such a different aspect that you +would think them two beings devoid of any analogy. The woman has +emerged from those mysterious garments like a butterfly from its silky +cocoon. She serves up, like some rare dainty, to your lavished eyes, +the forms which her bodice scarcely revealed in the morning. At the +theatre she never mounts higher than the second tier, excepting at the +Italiens. You can there watch at your leisure the studied +deliberateness of her movements. The enchanting deceiver plays off all +the little political artifices of her sex so naturally as to exclude +all idea of art or premeditation. If she has a royally beautiful hand, +the most perspicacious beholder will believe that it is absolutely +necessary that she should twist, or refix, or push aside the ringlet +or curl she plays with. If she has some dignity of profile, you will +be persuaded that she is giving irony or grace to what she says to her +neighbor, sitting in such a position as to produce the magical effect +of the 'lost profile,' so dear to great painters, by which the cheek +catches the high light, the nose is shown in clear outline, the +nostrils are transparently rosy, the forehead squarely modeled, the +eye has its spangle of fire, but fixed on space, and the white +roundness of the chin is accentuated by a line of light. If she has a +pretty foot, she will throw herself on a sofa with the coquettish +grace of a cat in the sunshine, her feet outstretched without your +feeling that her attitude is anything but the most charming model ever +given to a sculptor by lassitude. + +"Only the perfect lady is quite at her ease in full dress; nothing +inconveniences her. You will never see her, like the woman of the +citizen class, pulling up a refractory shoulder-strap, or pushing down +a rebellious whalebone, or looking whether her tucker is doing its +office of faithful guardian to two treasures of dazzling whiteness, or +glancing in the mirrors to see if her head-dress is keeping its place. +Her toilet is always in harmony with her character; she had had time +to study herself, to learn what becomes her, for she has long known +what does not suit her. You will not find her as you go out; she +vanishes before the end of the play. If by chance she is to be seen, +calm and stately, on the stairs, she is experiencing some violent +emotion; she has to bestow a glance, to receive a promise. Perhaps she +goes down so slowly on purpose to gratify the vanity of a slave whom +she sometimes obeys. If your meeting takes place at a ball or an +evening party, you will gather the honey, natural or affected of her +insinuating voice; her empty words will enchant you, and she will know +how to give them the value of thought by her inimitable bearing." + +"To be such a woman, is it not necessary to be very clever?" asked the +Polish Count. + +"It is necessary to have great taste," replied the Princesse de +Cadignan. + +"And in France taste is more than cleverness," said the Russian. + +"This woman's cleverness is the triumph of a purely plastic art," +Blondet went on. "You will not know what she said, but you will be +fascinated. She will toss her head, or gently shrug her white +shoulders; she will gild an insignificant speech with a charming pout +and smile; or throw a Voltairean epigram into an 'Indeed!' an 'Ah!' a +'What then!' A jerk of her head will be her most pertinent form of +questioning; she will give meaning to the movement by which she twirls +a vinaigrette hanging to her finger by a ring. She gets an artificial +grandeur out of superlative trivialities; she simply drops her hand +impressively, letting it fall over the arm of her chair as dewdrops +hang on the cup of a flower, and all is said--she has pronounced +judgment beyond appeal, to the apprehension of the most obtuse. She +knows how to listen to you; she gives you the opportunity of shining, +and--I ask your modesty--those moments are rare?" + +The candid simplicity of the young Pole, to whom Blondet spoke, made +all the party shout with laughter. + +"Now, you will not talk for half-an-hour with a /bourgeoise/ without +her alluding to her husband in one way or another," Blondet went on +with unperturbed gravity; "whereas, even if you know that your lady is +married, she will have the delicacy to conceal her husband so +effectually that it will need the enterprise of Christopher Columbus +to discover him. Often you will fail in the attempt single-handed. If +you have had no opportunity of inquiring, towards the end of the +evening you detect her gazing fixedly at a middle-aged man wearing a +decoration, who bows and goes out. She has ordered her carriage, and +goes. + +"You are not the rose, but you have been with the rose, and you go to +bed under the golden canopy of a delicious dream, which will last +perhaps after Sleep, with his heavy finger, has opened the ivory gates +of the temple of dreams. + +"The lady, when she is at home, sees no one before four; she is shrewd +enough always to keep you waiting. In her house you will find +everything in good taste; her luxury is for hourly use, and duly +renewed; you will see nothing under glass shades, no rags of wrappings +hanging about, and looking like a pantry. You will find the staircase +warmed. Flowers on all sides will charm your sight--flowers, the only +gift she accepts, and those only from certain people, for nosegays +live but a day; they give pleasure, and must be replaced; to her they +are, as in the East, a symbol and a promise. The costly toys of +fashion lie about, but not so as to suggest a museum or a curiosity +shop. You will find her sitting by the fire in a low chair, from which +she will not rise to greet you. Her talk will not now be what it was +at the ball; there she was our creditor; in her own home she owes you +the pleasure of her wit. These are the shades of which the lady is a +marvelous mistress. What she likes in you is a man to swell her +circle, an object for the cares and attentions which such women are +now happy to bestow. Therefore, to attract you to her drawing-room, +she will be bewitchingly charming. This especially is where you feel +how isolated women are nowadays, and why they want a little world of +their own, to which they may seem a constellation. Conversation is +impossible without generalities." + +"Yes," said de Marsay, "you have truly hit the fault of our age. The +epigram--a volume in a word--no longer strikes, as it did in the +eighteenth century, at persons or at things, but at squalid events, +and it dies in a day." + +"Hence," said Blondet, "the intelligence of the lady, if she has any, +consists in casting doubts on everything. Here lies the great +difference between two women; the townswoman is certainly virtuous; +the lady does not know yet whether she is, or whether she always will +be; she hesitates and struggles where the other refuses point-blank +and falls full length. This hesitancy in everything is one of the last +graces left to her by our horrible times. She rarely goes to church, +but she will talk to you of religion; and if you have the good taste +to affect Free-thought, she will try to convert you, for you will have +opened the way for the stereotyped phrases, the head-shaking and +gestures understood by all these women: 'For shame! I thought you had +too much sense to attack religion. Society is tottering, and you +deprive it of its support. Why, religion at this moment means you and +me; it is property, and the future of our children! Ah! let us not be +selfish! Individualism is the disease of the age, and religion is the +only remedy; it unites families which your laws put asunder,' and so +forth. Then she plunges into some neo-Christian speech sprinkled with +political notions which is neither Catholic nor Protestant--but moral? +Oh! deuced moral!--in which you may recognize a fag end of every +material woven by modern doctrines, at loggerheads together." + +The women could not help laughing at the airs by which Blondet +illustrated his satire. + +"This explanation, dear Count Adam," said Blondet, turning to the +Pole, "will have proved to you that the 'perfect lady' represents the +intellectual no less than the political muddle, just as she is +surrounded by the showy and not very lasting products of an industry +which is always aiming at destroying its work in order to replace it +by something else. When you leave her you say to yourself: She +certainly has superior ideas! And you believe it all the more because +she will have sounded your heart with a delicate touch, and have asked +you your secrets; she affects ignorance, to learn everything; there +are some things she never knows, not even when she knows them. You +alone will be uneasy, you will know nothing of the state of her heart. +The great ladies of old flaunted their love-affairs, with newspapers +and advertisements; in these days the lady has her little passion +neatly ruled like a sheet of music with its crotchets and quavers and +minims, its rests, its pauses, its sharps to sign the key. A mere weak +women, she is anxious not to compromise her love, or her husband, or +the future of her children. Name, position, and fortune are no longer +flags so respected as to protect all kinds of merchandise on board. +The whole aristocracy no longer advances in a body to screen the lady. +She has not, like the great lady of the past, the demeanor of lofty +antagonism; she can crush nothing under foot, it is she who would be +crushed. Thus she is apt at Jesuitical /mezzo termine/, she is a +creature of equivocal compromises, of guarded proprieties, of +anonymous passions steered between two reef-bound shores. She is as +much afraid of her servants as an Englishwoman who lives in dread of a +trial in the divorce-court. This woman--so free at a ball, so +attractive out walking--is a slave at home; she is never independent +but in perfect privacy, or theoretically. She must preserve herself in +her position as a lady. This is her task. + +"For in our day a woman repudiated by her husband, reduced to a meagre +allowance, with no carriage, no luxury, no opera-box, none of the +divine accessories of the toilet, is no longer a wife, a maid, or a +townswoman; she is adrift, and becomes a chattel. The Carmelites will +not receive a married woman; it would be bigamy. Would her lover still +have anything to say to her? That is the question. Thus your perfect +lady may perhaps give occasion to calumny, never to slander." + +"It is all so horribly true," said the Princesse de Cadignan. + +"And so," said Blondet, "our 'perfect lady' lives between English +hypocrisy and the delightful frankness of the eighteenth century--a +bastard system, symptomatic of an age in which nothing that grows up +is at all like the thing that has vanished, in which transition leads +nowhere, everything is a matter of degree; all the great figures +shrink into the background, and distinction is purely personal. I am +fully convinced that it is impossible for a woman, even if she were +born close to a throne, to acquire before the age of five-and-twenty +the encyclopaedic knowledge of trifles, the practice of manoeuvring, +the important small things, the musical tones and harmony of coloring, +the angelic bedevilments and innocent cunning, the speech and the +silence, the seriousness and the banter, the wit and the obtuseness, +the diplomacy and the ignorance which make up the perfect lady." + +"And where, in accordance with the sketch you have drawn," said +Mademoiselle des Touches to Emile Blondet, "would you class the female +author? Is she a perfect lady, a woman /comme il faut/?" + +"When she has no genius, she is a woman /comme il n'en faut pas/," +Blondet replied, emphasizing the words with a stolen glance, which +might make them seem praise frankly addressed to Camille Maupin. "This +epigram is not mine, but Napoleon's," he added. + +"You need not owe Napoleon any grudge on that score," said Canalis, +with an emphatic tone and gesture. "It was one of his weaknesses to be +jealous of literary genius--for he had his mean points. Who will ever +explain, depict, or understand Napoleon? A man represented with his +arms folded, and who did everything, who was the greatest force ever +known, the most concentrated, the most mordant, the most acid of all +forces; a singular genius who carried armed civilization in every +direction without fixing it anywhere; a man who could do everything +because he willed everything; a prodigious phenomenon of will, +conquering an illness by a battle, and yet doomed to die of disease in +bed after living in the midst of ball and bullets; a man with a code +and a sword in his brain, word and deed; a clear-sighted spirit that +foresaw everything but his own fall; a capricious politician who +risked men by handfuls out of economy, and who spared three heads-- +those of Talleyrand, of Pozzo de Borgo, and of Metternich, +diplomatists whose death would have saved the French Empire, and who +seemed to him of greater weight than thousands of soldiers; a man to +whom nature, as a rare privilege, had given a heart in a frame of +bronze; mirthful and kind at midnight amid women, and next morning +manipulating Europe as a young girl might amuse herself by splashing +water in her bath! Hypocritical and generous; loving tawdriness and +simplicity; devoid of taste, but protecting the arts; and in spite of +these antitheses, really great in everything by instinct or by +temperament; Caesar at five-and-twenty, Cromwell at thirty; and then, +like my grocer buried in Pere Lachaise, a good husband and a good +father. In short, he improvised public works, empires, kings, codes, +verses, a romance--and all with more range than precision. Did he not +aim at making all Europe France? And after making us weigh on the +earth in such a way as to change the laws of gravitation, he left us +poorer than on the day when he first laid hands on us; while he, who +had taken an empire by his name, lost his name on the frontier of his +empire in a sea of blood and soldiers. A man all thought and all +action, who comprehended Desaix and Fouche." + +"All despotism and all justice at the right moments. The true king!" +said de Marsay. + +"Ah! vat a pleashre it is to dichest vile you talk," said Baron de +Nucingen. + +"But do you suppose that the treat we are giving you is a common one?" +asked Joseph Bridau. "If you had to pay for the charms of conversation +as you do for those of dancing or of music, your fortune would be +inadequate! There is no second performance of the same flash of wit." + +"And are we really so much deteriorated as these gentlemen think?" +said the Princesse de Cadignan, addressing the women with a smile at +once sceptical and ironical. "Because, in these days, under a regime +which makes everything small, you prefer small dishes, small rooms, +small pictures, small articles, small newspapers, small books, does +that prove that women too have grown smaller? Why should the human +heart change because you change your coat? In all ages the passions +remain the same. I know cases of beautiful devotion, of sublime +sufferings, which lack the publicity--the glory, if you choose--which +formerly gave lustre to the errors of some women. But though one may +not have saved a King of France, one is not the less an Agnes Sorel. +Do you believe that our dear Marquise d'Espard is not the peer of +Madame Doublet, or Madame du Deffant, in whose rooms so much evil was +spoken and done? Is not Taglioni a match for Camargo? or Malibran the +equal of Saint-Huberti? Are not our poets superior to those of the +eighteenth century? If at this moment, through the fault of the +Grocers who govern us, we have not a style of our own, had not the +Empire its distinguishing stamp as the age of Louis XV. had, and was +not its splendor fabulous? Have the sciences lost anything?" + +"I am quite of your opinion, madame; the women of this age are truly +great," replied the Comte de Vandenesse. "When posterity shall have +followed us, will not Madame Recamier appear in proportions as fine as +those of the most beautiful women of the past? We have made so much +history that historians will be lacking. The age of Louis XIV. had but +one Madame de Sevigne; we have a thousand now in Paris who certainly +write better than she did, and who do not publish their letters. +Whether the Frenchwoman be called 'perfect lady,' or great lady, she +will always be /the/ woman among women. + +"Emile Blondet has given us a picture of the fascinations of a woman +of the day; but, at need, this creature who bridles or shows off, who +chirps out the ideas of Mr. This and Mr. That, would be heroic. And it +must be said, your faults, mesdames, are all the more poetical, +because they must always and under all circumstances be surrounded by +greater perils. I have seen much of the world, I have studied it +perhaps too late; but in cases where the illegality of your feelings +might be excused, I have always observed the effects of I know not +what chance--which you may call Providence--inevitably overwhelming +such as we consider light women." + +"I hope," said Madame de Vandenesse, "that we can be great in other +ways----" + +"Oh, let the Comte de Vandenesse preach to us!" exclaimed Madame de +Serizy. + +"With all the more reason because he has preached a great deal by +example," said the Baronne de Nucingen. + +"On my honor!" said General de Montriveau, "in all the dramas--a word +you are very fond of," he said, looking at Blondet--"in which the +finger of God has been visible, the most frightful I ever knew was +very near being by my act----" + +"Well, tell us all about it!" cried Lady Barimore; "I love to +shudder!" + +"It is the taste of a virtuous woman," replied de Marsay, looking at +Lord Dudley's lovely daughter. + +"During the campaign of 1812," General de Montriveau began, "I was the +involuntary cause of a terrible disaster which may be of use to you, +Doctor Bianchon," turning to me, "since, while devoting yourself to +the human body, you concern yourself a good deal with the mind; it may +tend to solve some of the problems of the will. + +"I was going through my second campaign; I enjoyed danger, and laughed +at everything, like the young and foolish lieutenant of artillery that +I was. When we reached the Beresina, the army had, as you know, lost +all discipline, and had forgotten military obedience. It was a medley +of men of all nations, instinctively making their way from north to +south. The soldiers would drive a general in rags and bare-foot away +from their fire if he brought neither wood nor victuals. After the +passage of this famous river disorder did not diminish. I had come +quietly and alone, without food, out of the marshes of Zembin, and was +wandering in search of a house where I might be taken in. Finding none +or driven away from those I came across, happily towards evening I +perceived a wretched little Polish farm, of which nothing can give you +any idea unless you have seen the wooden houses of Lower Normandy, or +the poorest farm-buildings of la Beauce. These dwellings consist of a +single room, with one end divided off by a wooden partition, the +smaller division serving as a store-room for forage. + +"In the darkness of twilight I could just see a faint smoke rising +above this house. Hoping to find there some comrades more +compassionate than those I had hitherto addressed, I boldly walked as +far as the farm. On going in, I found the table laid. Several +officers, and with them a woman--a common sight enough--were eating +potatoes, some horseflesh broiled over the charcoal, and some frozen +beetroots. I recognized among the company two or three artillery +captains of the regiment in which I had first served. I was welcomed +with a shout of acclamation, which would have amazed me greatly on the +other side of the Beresina; but at this moment the cold was less +intense; my fellow-officers were resting, they were warm, they had +food, and the room, strewn with trusses of straw, gave the promise of +a delightful night. We did not ask for so much in those days. My +comrades could be philanthropists /gratis/--one of the commonest ways +of being philanthropic. I sat down to eat on one of the bundles of +straw. + +"At the end of the table, by the side of the door opening into the +smaller room full of straw and hay, sat my old colonel, one of the +most extraordinary men I ever saw among all the mixed collection of +men it has been my lot to meet. He was an Italian. Now, whenever human +nature is truly fine in the lands of the South, it is really sublime. +I do not know whether you have ever observed the extreme fairness of +Italians when they are fair. It is exquisite, especially under an +artificial light. When I read the fantastical portrait of Colonel +Oudet sketched by Charles Nodier, I found my own sensations in every +one of his elegant phrases. Italian, then, as were most of the +officers of his regiment, which had, in fact, been borrowed by the +Emperor from Eugene's army, my colonel was a tall man, at least eight +or nine inches above the standard, and was admirably proportioned--a +little stout perhaps, but prodigiously powerful, active, and clean- +limbed as a greyhound. His black hair in abundant curls showed up his +complexion, as white as a woman's; he had small hands, a shapely foot, +a pleasant mouth, and an aquiline nose delicately formed, of which the +tip used to become naturally pinched and white whenever he was angry, +as happened often. His irascibility was so far beyond belief that I +will tell you nothing about it; you will have the opportunity of +judging of it. No one could be calm in his presence. I alone, perhaps, +was not afraid of him; he had indeed taken such a singular fancy to me +that he thought everything I did right. When he was in a rage his brow +was knit and the muscles of the middle of his forehead set in a delta, +or, to be more explicit, in Redgauntlet's horseshoe. This mark was, +perhaps, even more terrifying than the magnetic flashes of his blue +eyes. His whole frame quivered, and his strength, great as it was in +his normal state, became almost unbounded. + +"He spoke with a strong guttural roll. His voice, at least as powerful +as that of Charles Nordier's Oudet, threw an incredible fulness of +tone into the syllable or the consonant in which this burr was +sounded. Though this faulty pronunciation was at times a grace, when +commanding his men, or when he was excited, you cannot imagine, unless +you had heard it, what force was expressed by this accent, which at +Paris is so common. When the Colonel was quiescent, his blue eyes were +angelically sweet, and his smooth brow had a most charming expression. +On parade, or with the army of Italy, not a man could compare with +him. Indeed, d'Orsay himself, the handsome d'Orsay, was eclipsed by +our colonel on the occasion of the last review held by Napoleon before +the invasion of Russia. + +"Everything was in contrasts in this exceptional man. Passion lives on +contrast. Hence you need not ask whether he exerted over women the +irresistible influences to which our nature yields"--and the general +looked at the Princesse de Cadignan--"as vitreous matter is moulded +under the pipe of the glass-blower; still, by a singular fatality--an +observer might perhaps explain the phenomenon--the Colonel was not a +lady-killer, or was indifferent to such successes. + +"To give you an idea of his violence, I will tell you in a few words +what I once saw him do in a paroxysm of fury. We were dragging our +guns up a very narrow road, bordered by a somewhat high slope on one +side, and by thickets on the other. When we were half-way up we met +another regiment of artillery, its colonel marching at the head. This +colonel wanted to make the captain who was at the head of our foremost +battery back down again. The captain, of course, refused; but the +colonel of the other regiment signed to his foremost battery to +advance, and in spite of the care the driver took to keep among the +scrub, the wheel of the first gun struck our captain's right leg and +broke it, throwing him over on the near side of his horse. All this +was the work of a moment. Our Colonel, who was but a little way off, +guessed that there was a quarrel; he galloped up, riding among the +guns at the risk of falling with his horse's four feet in the air, and +reached the spot, face to face with the other colonel, at the very +moment when the captain fell, calling out 'Help!' No, our Italian +colonel was no longer human! Foam like the froth of champagne rose to +his lips; he roared inarticulately like a lion. Incapable of uttering +a word, or even a cry, he made a terrific signal to his antagonist, +pointing to the wood and drawing his sword. The two colonels went +aside. In two seconds we saw our Colonel's opponent stretched on the +ground, his skull split in two. The soldiers of his regiment backed-- +yes, by heaven, and pretty quickly too. + +"The captain, who had been so nearly crushed, and who lay yelping in +the puddle where the gun carriage had thrown him, had an Italian wife, +a beautiful Sicilian of Messina, who was not indifferent to our +Colonel. This circumstance had aggravated his rage. He was pledged to +protect the husband, bound to defend him as he would have defended the +woman herself. + +"Now, in the hovel beyond Zembin, where I was so well received, this +captain was sitting opposite to me, and his wife was at the other end +of the table, facing the Colonel. This Sicilian was a little woman +named Rosina, very dark, but with all the fire of the Southern sun in +her black almond-shaped eyes. At this moment she was deplorably thin; +her face was covered with dust, like fruit exposed to the drought of a +highroad. Scarcely clothed in rags, exhausted by marches, her hair in +disorder, and clinging together under a piece of a shawl tied close +over her head, still she had the graces of a woman; her movements were +engaging, her small rose mouth and white teeth, the outline of her +features and figure, charms which misery, cold, and neglect had not +altogether defaced, still suggested love to any man who could think of +a woman. Rosina had one of those frames which are fragile in +appearance, but wiry and full of spring. Her husband, a gentleman of +Piedmont, had a face expressive of ironical simplicity, if it is +allowable to ally the two words. Brave and well informed, he seemed to +know nothing of the connections which had subsisted between his wife +and the Colonel for three years past. I ascribed this unconcern to +Italian manners, or to some domestic secret; yet there was in the +man's countenance one feature which always filled me with involuntary +distrust. His under lip, which was thin and very restless, turned down +at the corners instead of turning up, and this, as I thought, betrayed +a streak of cruelty in a character which seemed so phlegmatic and +indolent. + +"As you may suppose the conversation was not very sparkling when I +went in. My weary comrades ate in silence; of course, they asked me +some questions, and we related our misadventures, mingled with +reflections on the campaign, the generals, their mistakes, the +Russians, and the cold. A minute after my arrival the colonel, having +finished his meagre meal, wiped his moustache, bid us good-night, shot +a black look at the Italian woman, saying, 'Rosina?' and then, without +waiting for a reply, went into the little barn full of hay, to bed. +The meaning of the Colonel's utterance was self-evident. The young +wife replied by an indescribable gesture, expressing all the annoyance +she could not feel at seeing her thralldom thus flaunted without human +decency, and the offence to her dignity as a woman, and to her +husband. But there was, too, in the rigid setting of her features and +the tight knitting of her brows a sort of presentiment; perhaps she +foresaw her fate. Rosina remained quietly in her place. + +"A minute later, and apparently when the Colonel was snug in his couch +of straw or hay, he repeated, 'Rosina?' + +"The tone of this second call was even more brutally questioning than +the first. The Colonel's strong burr, and the length which the Italian +language allows to be given to vowels and the final syllable, +concentrated all the man's despotism, impatience, and strength of +will. Rosina turned pale, but she rose, passed behind us, and went to +the Colonel. + +"All the party sat in utter silence; I, unluckily, after looking at +them all, began to laugh, and then they all laughed too.--'/Tu ridi?/ +--you laugh?' said the husband. + +" 'On my honor, old comrade,' said I, becoming serious again, 'I +confess that I was wrong; I ask your pardon a thousand times, and if +you are not satisfied by my apologies I am ready to give you +satisfaction.' + +" 'Oh! it is not you who are wrong, it is I!' he replied coldly. + +"Thereupon we all lay down in the room, and before long all were sound +asleep. + +"Next morning each one, without rousing his neighbor or seeking +companionship, set out again on his way, with that selfishness which +made our rout one of the most horrible dramas of self-seeking, +melancholy, and horror which ever was enacted under heaven. +Nevertheless, at about seven or eight hundred paces from our shelter +we, most of us, met again and walked on together, like geese led in +flocks by a child's wilful tyranny. The same necessity urged us all. + +"Having reached a knoll where we could still see the farmhouse where +we had spent the night, we heard sounds resembling the roar of lions +in the desert, the bellowing of bulls--no, it was a noise which can be +compared to no known cry. And yet, mingling with this horrible and +ominous roar, we could hear a woman's feeble scream. We all looked +round, seized by I know not what impulse of terror; we no longer saw +the house, but a huge bonfire. The farmhouse had been barricaded, and +was in flames. Swirls of smoke borne on the wind brought us hoarse +cries and an indescribable pungent smell. A few yards behind, the +captain was quietly approaching to join our caravan; we gazed at him +in silence, for no one dared question him; but he, understanding our +curiosity, pointed to his breast with the forefinger of his right +hand, and, waving the left in the direction of the fire, he said, +'/Son'io/.' + +"We all walked on without saying a word to him." + +"There is nothing more terrible than the revolt of a sheep," said de +Marsay. + +"It would be frightful to let us leave with this horrible picture in +our memory," said Madame de Montcornet. "I shall dream of it----" + +"And what was the punishment of Monsieur de Marsay's 'First'?" said +Lord Dudley, smiling. + +"When the English are in jest, their foils have the buttons on," said +Blondet. + +"Monsieur Bianchon can tell us, for he saw her dying," replied de +Marsay, turning to me. + +"Yes," said I; "and her end was one of the most beautiful I ever saw. +The Duke and I had spent the night by the dying woman's pillow; +pulmonary consumption, in the last stage, left no hope; she had taken +the sacrament the day before. The Duke had fallen asleep. The Duchess, +waking at about four in the morning, signed to me in the most touching +way, with a friendly smile, to bid me leave him to rest, and she +meanwhile was about to die. She had become incredibly thin, but her +face had preserved its really sublime outline and features. Her pallor +made her skin look like porcelain with a light within. Her bright eyes +and color contrasted with this languidly elegant complexion, and her +countenance was full of expressive calm. She seemed to pity the Duke, +and the feeling had its origin in a lofty tenderness which, as death +approached, seemed to know no bounds. The silence was absolute. The +room, softly lighted by a lamp, looked like every sickroom at the hour +of death. + +"At this moment the clock struck. The Duke awoke, and was in despair +at having fallen asleep. I did not see the gesture of impatience by +which he manifested the regret he felt at having lost sight of his +wife for a few of the last minutes vouchsafed to him; but it is quite +certain that any one but the dying woman might have misunderstood it. +A busy statesman, always thinking of the interests of France, the Duke +had a thousand odd ways on the surface, such as often lead to a man of +genius being mistaken for a madman, and of which the explanation lies +in the exquisiteness and exacting needs of their intellect. He came to +seat himself in an armchair by his wife's side, and looked fixedly at +her. The dying woman put her hand out a little way, took her husband's +and clasped it feebly; and in a low but agitated voice she said, 'My +poor dear, who is left to understand you now?' Then she died, looking +at him." + +"The stories the doctor tells us," said the Comte de Vandenesse, +"always leave a deep impression." + +"But a sweet one," said Mademoiselle des Touches, rising. + + + +PARIS, June 1839-42. + + + + 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: + La Grande Breteche + +Blondet, Emile + Jealousies of a Country Town + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Firm of Nucingen + The Peasantry + +Blondet, Virginie (Madame Montcornet) + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Secrets of a Princess + The Peasantry + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Member for Arcis + A Daughter of Eve + +Bridau, Joseph + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Pierre Grassou + Letters of Two Brides + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + +Canalis, Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de + Letters of Two Brides + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Modeste Mignon + The Magic Skin + A Start in Life + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + The Member for Arcis + +Dudley, Lord + The Lily of the Valley + The Thirteen + A Man of Business + A Daughter of Eve + +Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d' + The Commission in Lunacy + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + +Laginski, Comte Adam Mitgislas + The Imaginary Mistress + Cousin Betty + +Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Jealousies of a Country Town + Ursule Mirouet + A Marriage Settlement + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + +Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Muse of the Department + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + +Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Pierrette + The Member for Arcis + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + +Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de + Father Goriot + The Thirteen + Eugenie Grandet + Cesar Birotteau + Melmoth Reconciled + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Commission in Lunacy + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + The Firm of Nucingen + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + +Portenduere, Vicomtesse Savinien de + Ursule Mirouet + Beatrix + +Rastignac, Eugene de + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Ball at Sceaux + The Commission in Lunacy + A 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 + +Ronquerolles, Marquis de + The Imaginary Mistress + The Peasantry + Ursule Mirouet + A Woman of Thirty + The Thirteen + The Member for Arcis + +Serizy, Comtesse de + A Start in Life + The Thirteen + Ursule Mirouet + A Woman of Thirty + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + The Imaginary Mistress + +Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + +Vandenesse, Comte Felix de + The Lily of the Valley + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Cesar Birotteau + Letters of Two Brides + A Start in Life + The Marriage Settlement + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + + + + + +end of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Another Study of Woman, by Balzac + |