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Ball at Sceaux - Honore de Balzac · The Ball at Sceaux

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  Speaker 1: Section one of The ball at Soux. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Bruce Pirie, The ball at Soux by Onoraid
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  Speaker 1: of Balzac, translated by Clara Belle. The Comte de Fontaine,
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  Speaker 1: head of one of the oldest families in Poiteau, had
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  Speaker 1: served the Bourbon cause with intelligence and bravery during the
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  Speaker 1: war in Lavantday against the Republic. After having escaped all
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  Speaker 1: the dangers which threatened the Royalist leaders during this stormy
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  Speaker 1: period of modern history, he was wont to say in jest,
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  Speaker 1: I am one of the men who gave themselves to
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  Speaker 1: be killed on the steps of the throne. And the
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  Speaker 1: pleasantry had some truth in it, as spoken by a
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  Speaker 1: man left for dead at the bloody Battle of Le
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  Speaker 1: cato Chamins. Though ruined by confiscation, the staunch fonde and
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  Speaker 1: steadily refused the lucrative posts offered to him by the
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  Speaker 1: Emperor Napoleon. Immovable in his aristocratic faith, he had blindly
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  Speaker 1: obeyed its precepts when he thought it fitting to choose
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  Speaker 1: a companion for life in spite of the blandishments of
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  Speaker 1: a rich but revolutionary Parvenu who valued the alliance at
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  Speaker 1: a high figure. He married Mademoiselle de Caergarouette, without a
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  Speaker 1: fortune but belonging to one of the oldest families in Brittany.
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  Speaker 1: When the Second Revolution burst on Monsieur de Fontaine, he
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  Speaker 1: was encumbered with a large family. Though it was no
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  Speaker 1: part of the noble gentleman's views to solicit favors, he
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  Speaker 1: yielded to his wife's wish, left his country estate, of
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  Speaker 1: which the income barely sufficed to maintain his children, and
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  Speaker 1: came to Paris, saddened by seeing the greediness of his
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  Speaker 1: former comrades in the rush for places and dignities under
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  Speaker 1: the new constitution. He was about to return to his
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  Speaker 1: property when he received a ministerial dispatch in which a
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  Speaker 1: well known magnate announced to him his nomination as may
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  Speaker 1: challes de comte or brigadier general, under a rule which
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  Speaker 1: allowed the officers of the Catholic armies to count the
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  Speaker 1: twenty submerged years of Louis the Eighteenth reign as years
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  Speaker 1: of service. Some days later he further received, without any solicitation,
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  Speaker 1: ex officio, the crosses of the Legion of Honor and
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  Speaker 1: of Saint Louis. Shaken in his determination by these successive favors,
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  Speaker 1: due as he supposed to the monarch's remembrance, he was
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  Speaker 1: no longer satisfied with taking his family, as he had
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  Speaker 1: piously done every Sunday, to cry vive le rois in
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  Speaker 1: the hall of the Tuileries when the royal family passed
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  Speaker 1: through on their way to Chapel. He craved the favor
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  Speaker 1: of a private audience. The audience, at once granted, was
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  Speaker 1: in no sense private. The royal drawing room was full
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  Speaker 1: of old adherents, whose powdered heads, seen from above, suggested
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  Speaker 1: a carpet of snow. There the Count met some old
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  Speaker 1: friends who received him somewhat coldly. But the princes he
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  Speaker 1: thought adorable, an enthusiastic expression which escaped him, when the
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  Speaker 1: most gracious of his masters, to whom the Count had
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  Speaker 1: supposed himself to be known only by name, came to
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  Speaker 1: shake hands with him and spoke of him as the
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  Speaker 1: most thorough vandayuan of them all. Notwithstanding this ovation, none
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  Speaker 1: of these august persons thought of inquiring as to the
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  Speaker 1: sum of his losses or of the money he had
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  Speaker 1: poured so generally into the chests of the Catholic regiments.
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  Speaker 1: He discovered a little late that he had made war
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  Speaker 1: at his own cost. Towards the end of the evening,
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  Speaker 1: he thought he might venture on a witty allusion to
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  Speaker 1: the state of his affairs, similar as it was to
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  Speaker 1: that of many other gentlemen. His Majesty laughed heartily enough.
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  Speaker 1: Any speech that bore the hallmark of wit was certain
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  Speaker 1: to please him, But he nevertheless replied with one of
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  Speaker 1: those royal pleasantries whose sweetness is more formidable than the
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  Speaker 1: anger of a rebuke. One of the king's most intimate
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  Speaker 1: advisors took an opportunity of going up to the fortune
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  Speaker 1: seeking Vandy, and made him understand by a keen and
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  Speaker 1: polite hint that the time had not yet come for
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  Speaker 1: settling accounts with the sovereign, that there were bills of
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  Speaker 1: much longer standing than his on the books, and there
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  Speaker 1: no doubt they would remain as part of the history
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  Speaker 1: of the revolution. The count prudently withdrew from the venerable group,
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  Speaker 1: which formed a respectful semicircle before the Auguste family. Then,
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  Speaker 1: having extricated his sword, not without some difficulty, from among
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  Speaker 1: the lean legs which had got mixed up with it.
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  Speaker 1: He crossed the courtyard of the Tuileriy and got into
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  Speaker 1: the hackney cab he had left on the quay with
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  Speaker 1: the rest of spirit, which is peculiar to the nobility
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  Speaker 1: of the old school, in whom still survives the memory
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  Speaker 1: of the league and the day of the barricades. In
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  Speaker 1: fifteen eighty eight, he bewailed himself in his cab loudly
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  Speaker 1: enough to compromise him over the change that had come
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  Speaker 1: over the court. Formerly, he said to himself, everyone could
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  Speaker 1: speak freely to the King of his own little affairs.
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  Speaker 1: The nobles could ask him a favor or for money
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  Speaker 1: when it suited them. And nowadays one cannot recover the
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  Speaker 1: money advanced for his service without raising a scandal. By heaven,
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  Speaker 1: the cross of Saint Louis and the rank of brigadier
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  Speaker 1: general will not make good the three hundred thousand livres
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  Speaker 1: I have spent out and out on the royal cause.
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  Speaker 1: I must speak to the King face to face in
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  Speaker 1: his own room. This scene cooled Monsieur de Fontaine's ardor
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  Speaker 1: all the more effectually because his requests for an interview
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  Speaker 1: were never answered and indeed, he saw the upstarts of
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  Speaker 1: the empire obtaining some of the offices reserved under the
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  Speaker 1: old monarchy for the highest families. All is lost, he
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed one morning. The king has certainly never been other
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  Speaker 1: than a revolutionary. But for Monsieur, who never derogates and
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  Speaker 1: is some comfort to his faithful adherents. I do not
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  Speaker 1: know what hands the Crown of France might not fall
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  Speaker 1: into if things are to go on like this. Their
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  Speaker 1: cursed constitutional system is the worst possible government and can
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  Speaker 1: never suit France. Louis the eighteenth and Monsieur Bonneaux spoiled
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  Speaker 1: everything at Saint Laulan. The count, in despair, was preparing
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  Speaker 1: to retire to his estate, abandoning with dignity all claims
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  Speaker 1: to repayment. At this moment, the events of the twentieth
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  Speaker 1: of March eighteen fifteen gave warning of a fresh storm
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  Speaker 1: threatening to overwhelm the legitimate monarch and his defenders. Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: de Fontaine, like one of those generous souls who do
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  Speaker 1: not dismiss a servant in a torrent of rain, borrowed
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  Speaker 1: on his lands to follow the routed monarchy, without knowing
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  Speaker 1: whether this complicity and emigration would prove more propitious to
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  Speaker 1: him than his past devotion. But when he perceived that
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  Speaker 1: the companions of the king's exile were in higher favor
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  Speaker 1: than the brave men who had protested sword in hand
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  Speaker 1: against the establishment of the Republic, he may perhaps have
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  Speaker 1: hoped to derive greater profit from this journey into a
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  Speaker 1: foreign land, land from active and dangerous service in the
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  Speaker 1: heart of his own country. Nor was his courtier like
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  Speaker 1: calculation one of those rash speculations which promise splendid results
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  Speaker 1: on paper and a ruinous in effect. He was, to
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  Speaker 1: quote the wittiest and most successful of our diplomats, one
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  Speaker 1: of the faithful five hundred who shared the exile of
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  Speaker 1: the Quartet Ghent, and one of the fifty thousand who
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  Speaker 1: returned with it during the short banishment of royalty. Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: de Fontaine was so happy as to be employed by
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  Speaker 1: Louis the eighteenth, and found more than one opportunity of
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  Speaker 1: giving him proofs of great political honesty and sincere attachment.
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  Speaker 1: One evening, when the king had nothing better to do,
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  Speaker 1: he recalled Monsieur de Fontaine's witticism at the Tuileries. The
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  Speaker 1: old Fandean did not let such a happy chance slip.
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  Speaker 1: He told his history with so much vivacity that a
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  Speaker 1: king who never forgot anything might remember it at a
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  Speaker 1: convenient season. The Royal Amateur of literature also observed the
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  Speaker 1: elegant style given to some notes which the discreet gentleman
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  Speaker 1: had been invited to recast. This little success stamped Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: de Fontaine on the King's memory as one of the
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  Speaker 1: loyal servants of the crown. At the Second Restoration. The
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  Speaker 1: Count was one of those special envoys who were sent
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  Speaker 1: throughout the departments, charged with absolute jurisdiction over the leaders
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  Speaker 1: of revolt. But he used his terrible powers with moderation.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as the temporary commission was ended, the High
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  Speaker 1: Provost found a seat in the Privy Council, became a deputy,
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  Speaker 1: spoke little, listened much, and changed his opinions very considerably.
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  Speaker 1: Certain circumstances, unknown to historians, brought him into such intimate
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  Speaker 1: relations with the Sovereign that one day, as he came in,
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  Speaker 1: the shrewd monarch addressed him, thus, my friend Fontaine, I
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  Speaker 1: shall take care never to appoint you to be Director
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  Speaker 1: general or minister. Neither you nor I as employees could
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  Speaker 1: keep our place on account of our opinions. Representative government
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  Speaker 1: has this advantage. It saves us the sand trouble we
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  Speaker 1: used to have of dismissing our secretaries of state. Our
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  Speaker 1: council is a perfect in parlor. With their public opinion
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  Speaker 1: sometimes sends strange travelers. However, we can always find a
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  Speaker 1: place for our faithful adherents. This ironical speech was introductory
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  Speaker 1: to a rescript giving Monsieur de Fontaine an appointment as
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  Speaker 1: administrator in the Office of Crown Lands. As a consequence
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  Speaker 1: of the intelligent attention with which he listened to his
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  Speaker 1: royal friends sarcasms, his name always rose to his Majesty's
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  Speaker 1: lips when a commission was to be appointed, of which
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  Speaker 1: the members were to receive a handsome salary. He had
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  Speaker 1: the good sense to hold his tongue about the favor
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  Speaker 1: with which he was honored, and knew how to entertain
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  Speaker 1: the Monarch in those familiar chats in which Louis the
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  Speaker 1: eighteenth delighted as much as in a well written note,
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  Speaker 1: by his brilliant manner of repeating political anecdotes and the
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  Speaker 1: political or parliamentary tittle tattle, if the expression may pass,
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  Speaker 1: which at that time was rife. It is well known
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  Speaker 1: that he was immensely amused by every detail of his gouvernmentabillitay,
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  Speaker 1: a word adopted by his facetious majesty. Thanks to the
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  Speaker 1: Comte de Fontaine's good sense, wit and tact, every member
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  Speaker 1: of his numerous family, however young, ended as he jestingly
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  Speaker 1: told his sovereign, in attaching himself like a silkworm.
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  Speaker 2: To the leaves of the pay list.
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  Speaker 1: Thus, by the King's intervention, his eldest son found a
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  Speaker 1: high and fixed position as a lawyer. The second before
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  Speaker 1: the restoration, a mere captain was appointed to the command
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  Speaker 1: and of a legion on the return from Ghent. Then,
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  Speaker 1: thanks to the confusion of eighteen fifteen, when the regulations
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  Speaker 1: were evaded, he passed into the bodyguard, returned to a
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  Speaker 1: line regiment, and found himself, after the affair of the Tocadero,
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  Speaker 1: a lieutenant general with a commission in the guards. The
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  Speaker 1: youngest appointed SIUs prefet Ere long became a legal official
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  Speaker 1: and director of the Municipal Board of the City of Paris,
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  Speaker 1: where he was safe from changes in legislature. These bounties
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  Speaker 1: bestowed without parade and as secret as the favor enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: by the count fell unperceived. Though the father and his
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  Speaker 1: three sons each had sinecures enough to enjoy an income
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  Speaker 1: in salaries almost equal to that of a chief of department,
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  Speaker 1: their political good fortune excited no envy. In those early
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  Speaker 1: days of the constitutional system, few persons had very precise
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  Speaker 1: ideas of the peaceful domain of the civil service, where
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  Speaker 1: astute favorites managed to find an equivalent for the demolished abbeys.
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  Speaker 2: Monsieur le Comte de.
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  Speaker 1: Fontaine, who till lately boasted that he had not read
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  Speaker 1: the charter, and displayed such indignation that the greed of
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  Speaker 1: courtiers had before long proved to his august master, that
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  Speaker 1: he understood, as well as the King himself, the spirit
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  Speaker 1: and resources of the representative system. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: notwithstanding the established careers open to his three sons and
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  Speaker 1: the pecuniary advantages derived from four official appointments, Monsieur de
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  Speaker 1: Fontaine was the head of too large a family to
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  Speaker 1: be able to re establish his fortune easily and rapidly.
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  Speaker 1: His three sons were rich in prospects, in favor, and
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  Speaker 1: in talent, but he had three daughters and was afraid
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  Speaker 1: of wearying the monarch's benevolence, it occurred to him to
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  Speaker 1: mention only one by one these virgins, eager to light
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  Speaker 1: their torches. The king had too much good taste to
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  Speaker 1: leave his work incomplete. The marriage of the eldest with
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  Speaker 1: a receiver, General Planard de Baudris, was arranged by one
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  Speaker 1: of these royal speeches, which cost nothing and are worth millions.
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  Speaker 1: One evening, when the sovereign was out of spirits, he
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  Speaker 1: smiled on hearing of the existence of another Demoiselle de Fontaine,
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  Speaker 1: for whom he found a husband in the person of
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  Speaker 1: a young magistrate of inferior birth, no doubt, but wealthy,
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  Speaker 1: and whom he created Baron. When the year after the
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  Speaker 1: Vondeen spoke of Mademoiselle Emilie de Fontaine, the king replied,
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  Speaker 1: in his thin, sharp tones, amicus Platau, said, maggis amica natio.
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  Speaker 1: Then a few days later he treated his friend Fontaine
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  Speaker 1: to a quatrain harmless enough, which he styled an epigram,
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  Speaker 1: in which he made fun of these three daughters so
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  Speaker 1: skillfully introduced under the form of a trinity. Nay, if
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  Speaker 1: report is to be believed, the monarch had found the
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  Speaker 1: point of the jest in the unity of the three
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  Speaker 1: divine persons, If your Majesty would only condescend to turn
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  Speaker 1: the epigram into an epithalamium, said the Count, trying to
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  Speaker 1: turn the sally to good account. Though I see the
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  Speaker 1: rhyme of it, I fail to see the reason, retorted
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  Speaker 1: the King, who did not relish any pleasantry, however, mild
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  Speaker 1: on the subject of his poetry. From that day, his
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: intercourse with the Monsieur de Fontaine showed less amenity kings enjoy,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: contradicting more than people think. Like most youngest children, Amyle
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  Speaker 1: de Fontaine was a Benjamin, spoiled by almost everybody. The
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  Speaker 1: King's coolness therefore caused the Count all the more regret,
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  Speaker 1: because no marriage was ever so difficult to arrange as
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  Speaker 1: that of this darling daughter. To understand all the obstacles,
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  Speaker 1: we must make our way into the fine residence where
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  Speaker 1: the official was housed at the expense of the nation.
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  Speaker 1: Emily had spent her childhood on the family estate, enjoying
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  Speaker 1: the abundance which suffices for the joys of early youth.
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  Speaker 1: Her lightest wishes had been law to her sisters, her brothers,
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  Speaker 1: her mother, and even her father. All her relations doated
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  Speaker 1: on her having come to years of discretion. Just when
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  Speaker 1: her family was loaded with the favors of fortune, the
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  Speaker 1: enchantment of life continued. The luxury of Paris seemed to
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  Speaker 1: her just as natural as a wealth of flowers or fruit,
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  Speaker 1: or as the rural plenty which had been the joy
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  Speaker 1: of her first years. Just as in her childhood she
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  Speaker 1: had never been thwarted in the satisfaction of her playful desires,
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  Speaker 1: so now, at fourteen, she was still obeyed when she
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: rushed into the whirl of fashion. Thus, accustomed by degrees
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: to the enjoyment of money, elegance of dress, of gilded
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: drawing rooms, and fine carriages became as necessary to her
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  Speaker 1: as the complements of flattery since or false, and the
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  Speaker 1: festivities and vanities of court life. Like most spoiled children,
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  Speaker 1: she tyrannized over those who loved her, and kept her
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  Speaker 1: blandishments for those who were indifferent. Her faults grew with
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  Speaker 1: her growth, and her parents were to gather the bitter
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  Speaker 1: fruits of this disastrous education. At the age of nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: Emilie de Fontaine had not yet been pleased to make
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  Speaker 1: a choice from among the many young men whom her
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  Speaker 1: father's politics brought to his entertainments. Though so young, she
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: asserted in society all the freedom of mind that a
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  Speaker 1: married woman can enjoy. Her beauty was so remarkable that
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: for her to appear in a room was to be
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  Speaker 1: its queen. But like sovereigns, she had no friends, though
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  Speaker 1: she was everywhere the object of attentions to which a
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  Speaker 1: finer nature than hers might perhaps have succumbed.
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  Speaker 2: Not a man, not.
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  Speaker 1: Even an old man, had it in him to contradict
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  Speaker 1: the opinions of a young girl whose lightest look could
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  Speaker 1: rekindle love in the coldest heart. She had been educated
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  Speaker 1: with a care which her sisters had not enjoyed, painted
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  Speaker 1: pretty well, spoke Italian and English, and played the piano brilliantly.
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  Speaker 1: Her voice, trained by the best masters, had a ring
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  Speaker 1: in it, which made her singing irresistibly charming, clever, and intimate.
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  Speaker 1: With every branch of literature, she might have made folks
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: believe that, as Mascaria says, people of quality come into
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  Speaker 1: the world knowing everything. She could argue fluently on Italian
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: or Flemish painting, on the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance,
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  Speaker 1: pronounced at haphazard on books new or old, and could
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  Speaker 1: expose the defects of a work with a cruelly graceful wit.
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  Speaker 1: The simplest thing she said was accepted by an admiring
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: crowd as a fetfah of the Sultan. By the Turks.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: She thus dazzled shallow persons as to deeper minds. Her
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: natural tact enabled her to discern them, and for them
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: she put forth so much fascination that, under cover of
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: her charms she escaped their scrutiny. This enchanting veneer covered
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: a careless heart. The opinion common to many young girls
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: that no one else dwelt in a sphere so lofty
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  Speaker 1: as to be able to understand the merits of her soul,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and the pride based no less on her birth than
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: on her beauty. In the absence of the overwhelming sentiment
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: which sooner or later works havoc in a woman's heart,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: she spent her young ardor in an immoderate love of distinctions,
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  Speaker 1: and expressed the deepest contempt for persons of inferior birth.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Supremely impertinent to all newly created nobility, she made every
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: effort to get her parents recognized as equals by the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: most illustrious families of the Saint Germain quarter. These sentiments
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: had not escaped the observing eye of Monsieur de Fontaine, who,
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  Speaker 1: more than once, when his two elder girls were married,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: had smarted under Emili's sarcasm. Logical readers will be surprised
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  Speaker 1: to see the old royalist bestowing his eldest daughter on
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  Speaker 1: a receiver general possessed indeed of some old hereditary estates,
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  Speaker 1: but whose name was not preceded by the little word
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: to which the throne owed so many partisans, and his
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: second to a magistrate too lately baronified to obscure the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: fact that his father had sold firewood. This noteworthy change
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: in the ideas of a noble on the verge of
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: his sixtieth year, an age when men rarely renounced their convictions,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: was due not merely to his unfortunate residence in the
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: modern Babylon, where sooner or later country folks all get
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: their corners rubbed down. The Comte de Fontaine's new political
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: conscience was also a result of the King's advice and friendship.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: The philosophical prince had taken pleasure in converting the Vandayan
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  Speaker 1: to the ideas required by the advance of the nineteenth
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  Speaker 1: century and the new aspect of the monarchy. Louis the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: eighteenth aimed at fusing parties as Napoleon had fused things
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  Speaker 1: and men. The legitimate king, who was not less clever
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  Speaker 1: perhaps than his rival, acted in a contrary direction. The
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: last head of the House of Bourbon was just as
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: eager to satisfy the third estate and the creations of
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the Empire by curbing the clergy, as the first of
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the Napoleons had been to attract the grand old nobility,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: or to endow the church, the Privy councilor being in
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the secret of these royal projects, had insensibly become one
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: of the most prudent and influential leaders of that moderate
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: party which most desired a fusion of opinion in the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: interests of the nation. He preached the expensive doctrines of
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: constitutional government and lent all his weight to encourage the
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: political seesaw which enabled his master to rule France in
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the midst of storms. Perhaps Monsieur de Fontaine hoped that
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: one of the sudden gusts of legislation, whose unexpected efforts
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: then startled the oldest politicians, might carry him up to
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the rank of peer One of his most rigid principles
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: was to recognize no nobility in France but that of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the peerage, the only families that might enjoy any privileges.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: A nobility bereft of privileges, he would say, is a
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: tool without to handle. As far from Lafayette's party as
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: he was from La Baudonnais, he ardently engaged in the
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: task of general reconciliation, which was to result in a
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: new era and splendid fortunes for France. He strove to
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: convince the families who frequented his drawing room or those
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: whom he visited, how few favorable openings would henceforth be
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: offered by a civil or military career. He urged mothers
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: to give their boys a start in independent and industrial professions,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: explaining that military posts and high government appointments must at
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: last pertain in a quite constitutional order to the younger
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: sons of members of the peerage. According to him, the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: people had conquered a sufficiently large share in practical government
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: by its elective assembly, its appointments to law offices, and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: those of the exchequer, which, said he would always, as heretofore,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: be the natural right of the distinguished men of the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: third estate. These new notions of the head of the Fontaines,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: and the prudent matches for his eldest girls to which
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: they had led, met with strong resistance in the bosom
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: of his family. The Comtesse of Fontaine remained faithful to
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the ancient beliefs which no woman could disown, who, through
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: her mother, belonged to the rolls. Although she had for
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: a while opposed the happiness and fortune awaiting her two
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: eldest girls, she yielded to those private considerations which husband
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: and wife confide to each other when their heads are
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: resting on the same pillow. Monsieur de Fontaine calmly pointed
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: out to his wife, by exact arithmetic, that their residence
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: in Paris the necessity of entertaining the magnificence of the
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: house which made up to them now for the privations
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: so bravely shared in Lavonday, and the expense of their
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: sons swallowed up the chief part of their income from salaries.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: They must therefore seise as a boon from heaven the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: opportunities which offered for settling their girls with such wealth.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Would they not some day enjoy sixty eighty one hundred
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: thousand francs a year. Such advantageous matches were not to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: be met with every day for girls without a portion. Again,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: it was time that they should begin to think of economizing,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to add to the estate of fontene and re establish
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the old territorial fortune of the family. The countess yielded
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: to such cogent arguments as every mother would have done
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: in her place, though perhaps with a better grace. But
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: she declared that amily, at any rate, should marry in
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: such a way as to satisfy the pride she had
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: unfortunately contributed to foster in the girl's young soul. Thus,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: events which ought to have brought joy into the family
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: had introduced a small leven of discord. The receiver general
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and the young lawyer were the objects of a ceremonious
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: formality which the Countess and Emily contrived to create. This
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: etiquette soon found even ampler opportunity for the display of
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: domestic tyranny, for Lieutenant General de Fontaine married Mademoiselle Monngeneau,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the daughter of a rich banker. The president very sensibly
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: found a wife in a young lady whose father twice
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: or thrice a millionaire, had traded in salt, and the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: third brother, faithful to his Plebeian doctrines, married Mademoiselle gross Tet,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the only daughter of the Receiver General. At Bourges, the
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: three sisters in law and the two brothers in law
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: found the high sc fear of political big wigs, and
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the drawing rooms of the Faubeau Saint Germain so full
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of charm and of personal advantages, that they united in
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: forming a little court round the overbearing emily. This treaty
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: between interest and pride was not, however, so firmly cemented,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: but that the young despot was not unfrequently the cause
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: of revolts in her little realm, scenes which the highest
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: circles would not have disowned, kept up a sarcastic temper
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: among all the members of this powerful family, and this
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: without seriously diminishing the regard they professed in public, degenerated
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: sometimes in private into sentiments far from charitable. Thus the
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant General's wife, having become a balon, thought herself quite
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: as noble as an caergarouette, and imagined that her good
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand francs a year gave her the right to
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: be as impertinent as her sister in law Emily, whom
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: she would sometimes wish to see happily married. As she
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: announced that the daughter of some peer of France had
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: married Monsieur So and so with no title to his name,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the Vicomtesse de Fontaine amused herself by eclipsing Emily in
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the taste and magnificence that were conspicuous in her dress,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: her furniture, and her carriages. The satirical spirit in which
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: her brothers and sisters sometimes received the claims avowed by
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Fontaine roused her to wrath that a perfect
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: hailstorm of sharp sayings could hardly mitigate. So when the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: head of the family felt a slight chill in the
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: King's tacit and precarious friendship, he trembled all the more because,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: as a result of her sister's defiant mockery, his favorite
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: daughter had never looked so high in the midst of
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: these circumstances, and that a moment when this petty domestic
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: warfare had become serious, the monarch, whose favor Monsieur da
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Fontaine still hoped to regain, was attacked by the malady
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: of which he was to die. The great political chief
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: who knew so well how to steer his bark in
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the midst of tempests. Soon succumbed certain then of favors
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: to come. The Comte de Fontaine made every effort to
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: collect the elite of marrying men around his youngest daughter.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Those who may have tried to solve the difficult problem
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: of settling a haughty and capricious girl will understand the
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: trouble taken by the unlucky father. Such an affair, carried
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: out to the liking of his beloved child, would worthily
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: crown the career the Count had followed for these ten
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: years at Paris. From the way in which his family
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: claimed salaries under every department, it might be compared with
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the House of Austria, which by intermarriage threatens to pervade Europe.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: The old Fandaean was not to be discouraged in bringing
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: forward suitors, so much had he his daughter's happiness at heart.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: But nothing could be more absurd than the way in
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: which the impertinent young thing pronounced her verdicts and judged
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the merits of her adorers. It might have been supposed that,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: like a princess in the Arabian nights, amily was rich
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: enough and beautiful enough to choose from among all the
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: princes in the world. Her objections were each more preposterous
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: than the last. One had two thick knees and was
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: bow legged. Another was short sighted. This one's name was Duront,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: that one limped, and almost all were too fat, livelier,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: more attractive, and gayer than ever. After dismissing two or
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: three suitors, she rushed into the festivities of the winter
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: season and to balls, where her keen eye criticized the
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: celebrities of the day, delighted in encouraging proposals which she
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: invariably rejected. Nature had bestowed on her all the advantages
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: needed for playing the part of silly men. Tall and slight,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Emily de Fontaine could assume a dignified or a frolicsome
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: mien at her will. Her neck was rather long, allowing
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: her to affect beautiful lattitudes of scorn and impertinence. She
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: had cultivated a large variety of those turned of the
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: head and feminine gestures which emphasize so cruelly or so
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: happily a hint of a smile. Fine black hair, thick
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: and strongly arched eyebrows lent her countenance an expression of
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: pride to which her coquettish instincts and her mirror had
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: taught her to add terror by a stare, or gentleness,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: by the softness of her gaze, by the set of
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: the gracious curve of her lips, by the coldness or
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the sweetness of her smile. When Emily meant to conquer
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: a heart, her pure voice did not lack melody, but
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: she could also give it a sort of curt clearness
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: when she was minded to paralyze a partner's indiscreet tongue.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Her colorless face and alabaster brow were like the limpid
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: surface of a lake, which, by turns is rippled by
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: the impulse of a breeze and recovers its glad serenity
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: when the air is still more than One young man,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: a victim to her scorn, accused her of acting a part,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: but she justified herself by inspiring her detractors with the
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: desire to please her, and then subjecting them to all
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: her most contemptuous caprice. Among the young girls of fashion,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: not one knew better than she how to assume an
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: air of reserve when a man of talent was introduced
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: to her, or how to display the insulting politeness which
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: treats an equal as an inferior, and to pour out
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: her impertinence on all who tried to hold their heads
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: on a level with hers. Wherever she went she seemed
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: to be accepting homage rather than compliments, And even in
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: a princess, her airs and manner would have transformed the
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: chair on which she sat into an imperial throne. End
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: of section one, section two of the ball At so
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: by Honore de Balzac, translated by Clara Belle. This LibriVox
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Bruce Pirie.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Monsieur de Fontaine discovered too late how utterly the education
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: of the daughter he loved had been ruined by the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: tender devotion of the whole family. The admiration which the
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: world is at first ready to bestow on a young girl,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: but for which sooner or later it takes its revenge,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: had added to Amy Lee's pride and increased her self confidence.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Universal subservience had developed in her, the selfishness natural to
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: spoilt children, who, like kings, make a play of everything
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: that comes to hand. As yet, the graces of youth
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: and the charms of talent hid these false from every eye, false,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: all the more odious in a woman, since she can
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: only please by self sacrifice and unselfishness. But nothing escapes
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: the eye of a good father, and Monsieur de Fontaine
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: often tried to explain to his daughter the more important
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: pages of the mysterious book of life. Vain effort. He
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: had to lament his daughter's capricious indocility and ironical shrewdness,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: too often to persevere in a task so difficult as
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: that of correcting an ill disposed nature. He contented himself
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: with giving her, from time to time some gentle and
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: kind advice. But he had the sorrow of seeing his
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: tenderest words slide from his daughter's heart as if it
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: were of marble. A father's eyes are slow to be unsealed,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: and it needed more than one experience before the old
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: royalist perceived that his daughter's rare caresses were bestowed on
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: him with an air of condescension. She was like young
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: children who seemed to say to their mother, make haste
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: to kiss me, that I may go to play. In short,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Emily vouchsafed to be fond of her parents, but often
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: by those sudden whims which seem inexplicable in young girls,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: she kept aloof and scarcely ever appeared. She complained of
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: having to share her father's and mother's heart with too
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: many people. She was jealous of everyone, even of her
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: brothers and sisters. Then, after creating a desert about her,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: the strange girl accused all nature of her unreal solitude
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: and her wilful griefs strong in the experience of her
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: twenty years. She blamed fate because, not knowing that the
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: the mainspring of happiness is in ourselves, she demanded it.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Of the circumstances of life, she would have fled to
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the ends of the earth to escape a marriage such
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: as those of her two sisters, And nevertheless, her heart
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: was full of horrible jealousy at seeing them married, rich
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: and happy. In short, she sometimes led her mother, who
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: was as much a victim to her vagaries as Monsieur
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: de Fontaine, to suspect that she had a touch of madness.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: But such aberrations are quite explicable. Nothing is commoner than
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: this unconfessed pride developed in the heart of young girls
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: belonging to families high in the social scale and gifted
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: by nature with great beauty, they are almost all convinced
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: that their mothers, now forty or fifty years of age,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: can neither sympathize with their young souls nor conceive of
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: their imaginings. They fancy that most mothers, jealous of their girls,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: want to dress them in their own way, with the
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: premeditated purpose of eclipsing them or robbing them of admiration.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Hence often secret tears and dumb revolt against supposed tyranny.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: In the midst of these woes, which become very real.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Though built on an imaginary basis, they have also a
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: mania for composing a scheme of life, while casting for
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: themselves a brilliant horoscope. Their magic consists in taking their
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: dreams for reality Secretly in their long meditations, they resolve
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: to give their heart in hand to none but the
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: man possessing this or the other qualification, and they paint
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: in fancy a model to which, whether or no, the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: future lover must correspond. After some little experienvariance of life
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: and the serious reflections that come with years, by dint
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: of seeing the world and its prosaic round, by dint
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: of observing unhappy examples, the brilliant hues of their ideal
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: are extinguished. Then one fine day, in the course of events,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: they are quite astonished to find themselves happy without the
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: nuptial poetry of their day dreams. It was on the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: strength of that poetry that Mademoiselle Emilie de Fontaine, in
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: her slender wisdom, had drawn up a program to which
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: a suitor must conform to be accepted, hence her disdain
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and sarcasm. Though young and of an ancient family, he
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: must be a peer of France, said she to herself.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: I could not bear not to see my coat of
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: arms on the panels of my carriage among the folds
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: of Azure, mantling not to drive like the princes down
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: the broad walk of the Chanseeslyse on the days of
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Lanchon in Holy week. Besides, my father says that it
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: will some day be the highest dignity in France. He
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: must be a soldier, but I reserve the right of
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: making him retire, and he must bear an order that
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the sentries may present arms to us. And these rare
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: qualifications would count for nothing if this creature of fancy
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: had not the most amiable temper, a fine figure intelligence,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: and above all, if he were not slender to be
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: lean a personal grace, which is but fugitive, especially under
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: a representative government, was an indispensable condition. Mademoiselle de Fontaine
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: had an ideal standard, which was to be the model.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: A young man who, at the first glance did not
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: fulfill the requisite conditions did not even get a second look.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Good heavens, see how fat he is was with her
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the utmost expression of contempt to hear her, people of
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: respectable corpulence were incapable of sentiment, bad husbands, and unfit
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: for civilized society. Though it is esteemed a beauty in
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the east, to be fat seemed to her a misfortune
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: for a woman, but in a man it was a crime.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: These paradoxical views were amusing thanks to a certain liveliness
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: of rhetoric. The count felt, nevertheless, that by and by
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: his daughter's affections, of which the absurdity would be evident
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: to some women who were not less clear sighted than merciless,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: would inevitably become a subject of constant ridicule. He feared
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: lest her eccentric notions should deviate into bad style. He
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: trembled to think that the pitiless world might already be
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: laughing at a young woman who remained so long on
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: the stage without arriving at any conclusion of the drama
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: she was playing more than one actor in it. Disgusted
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: by a refusal, seemed to be waiting for the slightest
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: turn of ill luck to take his revenge. The indifferent
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: the lookers on were beginning to weary of it. Admiration
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: is always exhausting to human beings. The old fonde and
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: knew better than anyone that if there is an art
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: in choosing the right moment for coming forward on the
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: boards of the world, on those of the court, in
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: a drawing room or on the stage, it is still
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: more difficult to quit them in the nick of time.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: So during the first winter after the accession of Charles
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the tenth, he redoubled his efforts, seconded by his three
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: sons and his sons in law, to assemble in the
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: rooms of his official residence the best matches which Paris
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: and the various deputations from departments could offer. The splendor
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: of his entertainments, the luxury of his dining room and
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: his dinners fragrant with truffles, rivaled the famous banquets by
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: which the ministers of that time secured the vote of
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: their parliamentary recruits. The honorable Deputy was consequently pointed at
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: as a most influential corruptor of the legislative honesty of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: the illustrious chamber that was dying, as it would seem,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: of indigestion. A whimsical result, his efforts to get his
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: daughter married secured him a splendid popularity. He perhaps found
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: some covert advantage in selling him truffles twice over. This accusation,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: started by certain mocking liberals, who made up by their
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: flow of words for their small following in the chamber,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: was not a success. The potaval gentleman had always been
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: so noble and so honorable that he was not once
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the object of those epigrams which the malicious journalism of
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: the day hurled at the three hundred votes of the Center,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: at the ministers, the cooks, the directors general, the princely Amphytrians,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: and the official supporters of the Villel ministry. At the
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: close of this campaign, during which Monsieur de Fontaine had
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: on several occasions brought out all his forces, he believed
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: that this time the procession of suitors would not be
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: a mere dissolving view.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: In his daughter's eyes.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: That it was timed she should make up her mind.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: He felt a certain inward satisfaction at having well fulfilled
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: his duty as a father, and having left no stone unturned.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: He hoped that among so many hearts lay at Emily's feet,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: there might be one to which her caprice might give
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: a preference. Incapable of repeating such an effort, and tired
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: too of his daughter's conduct, one morning towards the end
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: of Lent, when the business at the chamber did not
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: demand his vote, he determined to.
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: Ask what her views were.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: While his valet was artistically decorating his bald yellow head
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: with the delta of powder, which, with the hanging El
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: de Pijeon completed his venerable style of hair dressing, Emily's father,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: not without some secret misgivings, told his old servant to
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: go and desire the haughty damsel to appear in the
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: presence of the head of the family, Joseph. He added,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: when his hair was dressed, take away that towel, draw
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: back the curtains, put those chairs square, shake the rug
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: and lay it quite straight. Dust everything. Now air the
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: room a little by opening the window. The Count multiplied
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: his orders putting Joseph out of breath, and the old servant,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: understanding his master's intentions, aired and tidied the room, of
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: course the least cared for of any in the house,
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: and succeeded in giving a look of harmony to the
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: files of bills, the letter boxes, the books, and furniture
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of this sanctum where the interests of the royal domains
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: were debated over. When Joseph had reduced this chaos to
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: some sort of order, and brought to the front such
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: things as might be most pleasing to the eye, as
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: if it were a shopped front, or such as by
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: their color, might give the effect of a kind of
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: official poetry, He stood for a moment in the midst
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: of the labyrinth of papers, piled in some places even
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: on the floor, admired his handiwork, jerked his head and
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: went the anxious sinecure holder did not share his retainer's
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: favorable opinion. Before seating himself in his deep chair, whose
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: surrounded back screened him from drafts, he looked round him doubtfully,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: examined his dressing gown with a hostile expression, shook off
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: a few grains of snuff carefully wiped his nose, arranged
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the tongs and shovel made the fire, pulled up the
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: heels of his slippers, pulled out his little que of hair,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: which had lodged horizontally between the collar of his waistcoat
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: and that of his dressing gown, restoring it to its
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: perpendicular position. Then he swept up the ashes of the hearth,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: which bore witness to a persistent katar. Finally, the old
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: man did not settle himself till he had once more
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: looked all over the room, hoping that nothing could give
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: occasion to the saucy and impertinent remarks with which his
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: daughter was apt to answer his good advice. On this occasion,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: he was anxious not to compromise his dignity as a father.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: He daintily took a pinch of snuff, cleared his throat
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: two or three times, as if he were about to
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: demand a count out of the house. Then he heard
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: his daughter's light step, and she came in, humming an
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: air from il Barbieri, Good morning, Papa, What do you
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: want with me so early? Having sung these words as
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: though they were the refrain of the melody, she kissed
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: the count, not with the familiar tenderness which makes a
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: daughter's love so sweet a thing, but with the light
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: carelessness of a mistress confidant of pleasing whatever she may do.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: My dear child, said Monsieur de Fontaine gravely. I sent
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: for you to talk to you very seriously about your
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: future prospects. You are, at this moment under the necessity
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: of making such a choice of a husband as may
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: secure your durable happiness, my good father replied emily, assuming
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: her most coaxing tone of voice to interrupt him. It
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: strikes me that the armistice on which we agreed as
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: to my suitors is not yet expired. Amily we must
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: to day forbear from jesting on so important a matter.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: For some time past, the efforts of those who most
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: truly love you, my dear child, have been concentrated on
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: the endeavor to settle you suitably, and you would be
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: guilty of ingratitude in meeting with levity those proofs of
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: kindness which I am not alone in lavishing on you.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: As she heard these words, after flashing a mischievously inquisitive
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: look at the furniture of her father's study, the young
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: girl brought forward the arm chair which looked as if
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: it had been least used by petitioners, set it at
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: the side of the fireplace so as to sit facing
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: her father, and settled herself in so solemn an attitude
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: that it was impossible not to read in it a
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: mocking intention, crossing her arms over the dainty trimmings of
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: a pellerin a lnege and ruthlessly crushing its endless frills
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: of white tulle. After a laughing side glance at her
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: old father's troubled face, she broke silence. I never heard
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: you say, my dear father, that the government issued its
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: instructions in its dressing gown. However, and she smiled, that
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: does not matter. The mob are probably not particular. Now
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: what are your proposals for legislation and your official introductions?
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: I shall not always be able to make them. Headstrong girl, listen, Emily,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: it is my intention no longer to compromise my reputation,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: which is part of my children's fortune, by recruiting the
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: regiment of dancers which spring after spring you put to route.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: You have already been the cause of many dangerous misunderstandings
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: with certain families. I hope to make you perceive more
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: truly the difficulties of your position and of ours. You
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: are two and twenty, my dear child, and you ought
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: to have been married nearly three years, since your brothers
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: and your two sisters are richly and happily provided for.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: But my dear, the expenses occasioned by these marriages and
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: the style of housekeeping you re acquire of your mother,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: have made such inroads on our income that I can
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: hardly promise you one hundred thousand francs as a marriage portion.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: From this day forth, I shall think only of providing
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: for your mother, who must not be sacrificed to her children.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Amily If I were to be taken from my family,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: Madame de Fontaine could not be left at anybody's mercy,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: and ought to enjoy the affluence which I have given
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: her too late, as a reward of her devotion in
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: my misfortunes. You see, my child, that the amount of
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: your fortune bears no relation to your notions of grandeur.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Even that would be such a sacrifice as I have
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: not hitherto made for either of my children. But they
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: have generously agreed not to expect in the future any
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: compensation for the advantage thus given to a too favored
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: child in their position, said Amyle, with an ironical toss
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: of her head. My dear, do not so depreciate those
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: who love you. Only the poor are generous as a rule.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: The rich have always excellent reasons for not handing over
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: twenty thousand francs to a relation.
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: Come, my child, do not pout.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: Let us talk rationally among the young marrying men. Have
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: you noticed Monsieur de Manerville. Oh, he minces his words.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: He says zoulee instead of jule. He is always looking
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: at his feet because he thinks them small, and he
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: gazes at himself in the glass. Besides, he is fair.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: I don't like fair men. Well, then, Monsieur de Beaudenort,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: he is not noble. He is ill made and stout.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: He is dark.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: Kit is true.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: If the two gentlemen could agree to combine their fortunes,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: and the first would give his name and his figure
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: to the second, who should keep his dark hair, then
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: perhaps what can you say against Monsieur d Rastignac. Madame
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: de Nussingen has made a banker of him, she said
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: with meaning. And our cousin the Vicomte de Portendois, a
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: mere boy who dances badly, besides, he has no fortune.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: And after all, Papa, none of these people have titles.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I want at least to be a countess like my mother.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: Have you seen no one then this winter? No, Papa,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: What then do you want the son of a peer
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: of France? My dear girl, you are mad, said Monsieur
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: de Fontaine, rising, But he suddenly lifted his eyes to
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: heaven and seemed to find a fresh fount of resignation
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: in some religious thought. Then, with a look of fatherly
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: pity at his daughter, who herself was moved, he took
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: her hand, pressed it, and said, with deep feeling, God
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: is my witness, poor mistaken child, I have conscientiously discharged
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: my duty to you as a father. Conscientiously, do I say,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: most lovingly, my amily? Yes, God knows this winter I
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: have brought before you more than one good man, whose character,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: whose habits, and whose temper were known to me, and
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: all seemed worthy of you, My child, My task is done.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: From this day forth you are the arbiter of your fate,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: and I consider myself both happy and unhappy at finding
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: myself relieved of the heaviest of paternal functions. I know
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: not whether you will for any long time. Now hear
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: a voice which to you has never been stern. But
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: remember that conjugal happiness does not rest so much on
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: brilliant qualities and ample fortune as on reciprocal esteem. This
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: happiness is in its nature modest and devoid of show.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: So now, my dear, my consent is given beforehand, whoever
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: the son in law may be, whom you introduce to me.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: But if you should be unhappy, remember you will have
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: no right to accuse your father. I shall not refuse
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: to take proper steps and help you. Only your choice
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: must be serious and final. I will never twice compromise
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the respect due to my white hairs. The affection thus
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: expressed by her father, the solemn tones of his urgent
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: address deeply touched Mademoiselle de Fontaine, but she concealed her emotion.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Seated herself on her father's knees, for he had dropped
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: all tremulous into his chair. Again, caressed him fondly, and
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: coaxed him so engagingly that the old man's brow cleared.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: As soon as Emily thought that her father had got
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: over his painful agitation, she said, in a gentle voice,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I have to thank you for your graceful attention, My
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: dear father, You have had your room set in order
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: to receive your beloved daughter. You did not perhaps know
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: that you would find her so foolish and so headstrong.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: But Papa, is it so difficult to get married to
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: a peer of France? You declared that they were manufactured
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: by dozens. At least you will not refuse to advise me. No,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: my poor child, No, and more than once I may
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: have occasion to cry. Beware, remember that the making of
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: peers is so recent a force in our government machinery
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: that they have no great fortunes. Those who are rich
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: look to becoming richer. The wealthiest member of our peerage
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: has not half the income of the least rich lord
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: in the English upper chamber. Thus, all the French peers
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: are on the lookout for great heiresses for their sons,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: wherever they may meet with them. The necessity in which
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: they find themselves of marrying for money will certainly exist
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: for at least two centuries, pending such a fortunate accident
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: as you long for. And this fastidiousness may cost you
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: the best years of your life. Your attractions might work
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: a miracle for men often marry for love, in these days,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: when experience lurks behind so sweet a face as yours,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: it may achieve wonders. In the first place, Have you
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: not the gift of recognizing virtue in the greater or
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: smaller dimensions of a man's body. This is no small
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: matter to so wise a young person as you are.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: I need not enlarge on all the difficulties of the enterprise.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: I am sure that you would never attribute good sense
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: to a stranger because he had a handsome face, or
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: all the virtues because he had a fine figure. And
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: I am quite of your mind in thinking that the
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: sons of peers ought to have an air peculiar to themselves,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: and perfectly distinctive manners. Though nowadays no external sign stamps
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: a man of rank, those young men will have, perhaps
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: to you, the indefinable something that will reveal it. Then again,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: you have your heart well in hand, like a good
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: horseman who is sure his steed cannot bold.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: Luck be with you, my dear.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: You are making game of me, Papa. Well, I assure
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: you that I would rather die in Mademoiselle de Conde's
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: convent than not be the wife of a peer of France.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: She slipped out of her father's arms, and proud of
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: being her own. Mistress went off singing the air of
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Karl dubitare in the matrimonio seguito. As it happened, the
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: family were that day keeping the anniversary of a family fact.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: At dessert, Madame Planard, the receiver General's wife, spoke with
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: some enthusiasm of a young American owning an immense fortune,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: who had fallen passionately in love with her sister and
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: made through her the most splendid proposals. A banker, I
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: rather think, observed Amili carelessly. I do not like many dealers,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: but amily, replied the Baron de Vilain, the husband of
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: the count's second daughter. You do not like lawyers either,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: so that if you refuse men of wealth who have
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: not titles. I do not quite see in what class
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: you are to choose a husband, especially Amily, with your
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: standard of slimness, added the Lieutenant General. I know what
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: I want, replied the young lady. My sister wants a
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: fine name, a fine young man, fine prospects, and a
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand francs a year, said the Baron de Fontaine,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Monsieur de Marseilles. For instance, I know my dear retorted Emilie,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: that I do not mean to make such a foolish
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: marriage as some I have seen. Moreover, to put an
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: end to these matrimonial discussions, I hereby declare that I
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: shall look on any one who talks to me of
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: marriage as a foe to my peace of mind. An
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: uncle of Amili's, a vice admiral whose fortune had just
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: been increased by twenty thousand francs a year in consequence
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: of the act of indemnity, and a man of seventy
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: feeling himself privileged to say hard things to his grand
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: niece on whom he doted in order to mollify the
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: bitter tone of the discussion now exclaimed, do not tease
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: my poor little Emilie. Don't you see she is waiting
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: till the Duc de Bordeaux comes of age. The old
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: man's pleasantry was received with general laughter. Take care, I
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: don't marry you, old fool, replied the young girl, whose
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: last words were happily drowned in the noise. My dear children,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: said Madame de Fantaine, to soften this saucy retort. Amily
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: like you will take no advice but her mother's.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: Bless me.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: I shall take no advice but my own in a
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: matter which concerns no one but myself, said Mademoiselle de
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: Fantine very distinctly. At this, all eyes were turned to
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: the head of the family. Everyone seemed anxious as to
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: what he would do to assert his dignity. The venerable
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: gentleman enjoyed much consideration, not only in the world, happier
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: than many fathers, he was also appreciated by his family,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: all its members having a just esteem for the solid
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: qualities by which he had been able to make their fortunes. Hence,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: he was treated with the deep respect which is shown
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: by English families and some aristocratic houses on the continent
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: to the living representatives of an ancient pedigree. Deep silence
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: had fallen, and the guests looked alternately from the spoilt
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: girl's proud and sulky pout to the severe faces of
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: Monsieur and Madame de Fontaine. I have made my daughter
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: Amy Lee mistress of her own fate, was the reply
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: spoken by the count in a deep voice. Relations and
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: guests gazed at Mademoiselle de Fontaine with mingled curiosity and pity.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: The words seemed to declare that fatherly affection was weary
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: of the contest with the character that the whole family
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: knew to be incorrigible. The sons in law muttered, and
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: the brothers glanced at their wives with mocking smiles. From
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: that moment everyone ceased to take any interest in the
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: haughty girl's prospects of marriage. Her old uncle was the
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: only person who, as an old sailor, ventured to stand
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: on her tack and take her broadsides, without ever troubling
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: himself to return her fire. End of section two, Section
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: three of the ball At so by Honoreta Balzac, translated
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: by Clara Belle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: read by Bruce Pie. When the fine weather was settled
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: and after the budget was voted, the whole family, a
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: perfect example of the park elamentary families on the northern
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: side of the Channel, who have a footing in every
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: government department and ten votes in the House of Commons,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: flew away like a brood of young birds, to the
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: charming neighborhoods of Olney, Antoni and Chateinnay. The wealthy Receiver
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: General had lately purchased in this part of the world
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: a country house for his wife, who remained in Paris
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: only during the session. Though the fair Emilie despised the commonalty,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: her feeling was not carried so far as to scorn
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: the advantages of a fortune acquired in a profession. So
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: she accompanied her sister to the sumptuous villa, less out
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: of affection for the members of her family who were
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: visiting there, than because fashion has ordained that every woman
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: who has any self respect must leave Paris in the summer.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: The green seclusion of soul answered to perfection the requirements
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: of good stuffle and of the duties of an official position.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: As it is extremely doubtful that the fame of the
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: bal Dessault should ever have extended beyond the borders of
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: the department of the Seine, it will be necessary to
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: give some account of this weekly festivity, which at that
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: time was important enough to threaten to become an institution.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: The environs of the little town of Seaulx enjoy a
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: reputation due to the scenery, which is considered enchanting. Perhaps
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: it is quite ordinary, and owes its fame only to
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: the stupidity of the Paris townsfolk, who, emerging from the
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: stony abyss in which they are buried would find something
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: to admire in the flats of Labousse. However, as the
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: poetic shades of Olney, the hillsides of Antoni and the
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: valley of the Bievre are peopled with artists who have
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: traveled far, by foreigners who are very hard to please,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: and by a great many pretty women, not devoid of taste.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: It is to be supposed that the Parisians are right,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: but so possesses another attraction not less powerful to the Parisian.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: In the midst of a garden, whence there are delightful views,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: stands a large rotunda, open on all sides, with a light,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: spreading roof, supported on elegant pillars. This rural baldachino shelters
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: a dancing floor. The most stuck up landowners of the
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: neighborhood rarely fail to make an excursion thither once or
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: twice during the season, arriving at this rustic palace of Terpsicarie,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: either in dashing parties on horseback or in the light
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: and elegant carriages which powder the philosophical pedestrian with dust.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: The hope of meeting some women of fashion and of
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: being seen by them, and the hope less often disappointed
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: of seeing young peasant girls as wily as judges. Crowds
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: the ballroom at so with numerous swarms of lawyer's clerks,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: of the disciples of Esculapius, and other youths whose complexions
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: are kept pale and moist by the damp atmosphere of
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: Paris back shops. And a good many bourgeois marriages have
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: had their beginning to the sound of the band occupying
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: the center of this circular ballroom. If that roof could speak,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: what love stories could it not tell? This interesting medley
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: gave the sow balls at that time a spice of
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: more amusement than those of two or three places of
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: the same kind near Paris, and it had incontestable advantages
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: in its rotunda, and the beauty of its situation and
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: its gardens. Was the first to express a wish to
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: play at being common folk at this gleeful suburban entertainment,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: and promised herself immense pleasure in mingling with the crowd.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: Everybody wondered at her desire to wander through such a mob,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: But is there not a keen pleasure to grand people
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: in an incognito, Mademoiselle la Fontaine amused herself with imagining
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: all these town bred figures. She fancied herself, leaving the
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: memory of a bewitching glance and smile stamped on more
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: than one shopkeeper's heart, laughed beforehand at the damsel's airs,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: and sharpened her pencils for the scenes she proposed to
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: sketch in her satirical album. Sunday could not come soon
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: enough to satisfy her impatience. The party from the Villa
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: Plana set out on foot, so as not to betray
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: the rank of the person at who were about to
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: honor the ball with their presents. They dined early, and
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: the month of May humored this aristocratic escapade by one
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: of its finest evenings. Mademoiselle de Fontaine was quite surprised
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: to find in the rotunda some quadrilles made up of
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: persons who seemed to belong to the upper classes. Here
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: and there, indeed were some young men who looked as
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: though they must have saved for a month to shine
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: for a day, and she perceived several couples whose too
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: hearty glee suggested nothing conjugal. Still, she could only glean
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: instead of gathering a harvest. She was amused to see
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: that pleasure in a cotton dress was so very like
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: pleasure robed in satin, and that the girls of the
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: middle class danced quite as well as ladies, nay sometimes better.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Most of the women were simply and suitably dressed. Those
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: who in this assembly represented the ruling power, that is
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: to say, the country folk kept apart with wonderful politeness.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: In fact, Mademoiselle Emily had to study the various elements
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: that composed the mixture before she could find any subject
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: for pleasantry. But she had not time to give herself
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: up to malicious criticism or opportunity for hearing many of
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: the startling speeches which caricaturists so gladly pick up. The
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: haughty young lady suddenly found a flower in this wide field.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: The metaphor is reasonable, whose splendor and coloring worked on
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: her imagination. With all the fascination of novelty, it often
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: happens that we look at a dress, a hanging a
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: blank sheet of paper with so little heed that we
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: do not at first detect a ste or a bright spot,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: which afterwards strikes the eye as though it had come
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: there at the very instant when we see it, and
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: by a sort of moral phenomenon somewhat resembling this, Mademoiselle
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: de Fontaine discovered in a young man the external perfection
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: of which she had so long dreamed.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: Seated on one of the.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: Clumsy chairs which marked the boundary line of the circular floor,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: she had placed herself at the end of the row
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: formed by the family party, so as to be able
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: to stand up or push forward as her fancy moved her,
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: treating the living pictures and groups in the hall as
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: if she were in a picture gallery, impertinently turning her
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: eyeglass on persons not two yards away, and making her
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: remarks as though she were criticizing or praising a study
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: of a head, a painting of genre. Her eyes, after
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: wandering over the vast moving picture, were suddenly caught by
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: this figure, which seemed to have been placed on purpose
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: in one corner of the canvas, and in the best light,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: like a person out of all proportion with the rest.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: The stranger, alone and absorbed in thought, leaned lightly against
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: one of the columns that supported the roof. His arms
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: were folded, and he leaned slightly on one side, as
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: though he had placed himself there to have his portrait
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: taken by a painter. His attitude, though full of elegance
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: and dignity, was devoid of affectation. Nothing suggested that he
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: had half turned his head and bent it a little
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: to the right, like Alexander, or Lord Byron and some
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: other great men, for the sole purpose of attracting attention.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: His fixed gaze followed a girl who was dancing, and
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: betrayed some strong feeling. His slender, easy frame recalled the
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: noble proportions of the Apollo. Fine black hair curled naturally
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: over a high forehead. At a glance, Mademoiselle de Fontaine
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: observed that his linen was fine, his gloves fresh and
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: evidently bought of a good maker, and his feet were
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: small and well shot in boots of Irish kid He
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: had none of the vulgar trinkets displayed by the dandies
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: of the National Guard or the lovelaces of the counting House.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: A black ribbon to which an eyeglass was attached, hung
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: over a waistcoat of the most fashionable cut. Never had
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: the fastidious Emily seen a man's eyes shaded by such
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: long curled lashes. Melancholy and passion were expressed in this face,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: and the complexion was of a manly, olive hue. His
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: mouth seemed ready to smile, unbending the corners of eloquent lips.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: But this, far from hinting at gaiety, revealed, on the contrary,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: a sort of pathetic grace. There was too much promise
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: in that head, too much distinction in his whole person,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: to allow of one saying what a handsome man, or
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: what a fine man one wanted to know him. The
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: most clear sighted observer, on seeing this stranger, could not
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: have helped taking him for a clever man attracted to
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: this rural festivity by some powerful motive. All these observations
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: cost Amilie only a minute's attention, during which the privileged gentleman,
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: under her severe scrutiny, became the object of her secret admiration.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: She did not say to herself, he must be apar
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: of France, but oh, if only he is noble, and
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: he surely must be. Without finishing her thought, she suddenly rose, and,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: followed by her brother, the General, she made her way
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: towards the column, affecting to watch the merry quadrille. But
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: by a stratagem of the eye familiar to women. She
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: lost not a gesture of the young man as she
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: went towards him. The stranger politely moved to make way
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: for the newcomers and went to lean against another pillar.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: Amily As much nettled by his politeness as she might
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: have been, may An impertinence began talking to her brother
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: in a louder voice than good taste, and joined. She
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: turned and tossed her head, gesticulated eagerly, and laughed for
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: no particular reason, less to amuse her brother than to
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: attract the attention of the imperturbable stranger. None of her
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: little arts succeeded. Mademoiselle de Fontaine then followed the direction
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: in which his eyes were fixed and discovered the cause
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: of his indifference. In the midst of the quadrille, close
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: in front of them, a pale girl was dancing. Her
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: face was like one of the divinities which Juel Dai
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: has introduced into his immense composition of French Warriors. Received
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: by Ossian, Emily fancied that she recognized her as a
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: distinguished milady who for some months had been living on
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: a neighboring estate. Her partner was a lad of about fifteen,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: with red hands and dressed in nankeen trousers, a blue
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: coat and white shoes, which showed that the damsel's love
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: of dancing made her easy to please in the matter
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: of partners. Her movements did not betray her apparent delicacy,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: but a faint flush already tinged her white cheeks, and
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: her complexion was gaining color. Mademoiselle de Fontaine went nearer
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: to be able to examine the young lady at the
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: moment when she returned to her place, while the side
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: couples in their turn, danced the figure, but the stranger
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: went up to the pretty dancer, and leaning over, said,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: in a gentle but commanding tone, Clara, my child, did
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: not dance any more. Clara made a little pouting face,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: bent her head, and finally smiled. When the dance was over,
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: the young man rapped her in a cashmere shawl with
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: a lover's care, and seated her in a place sheltered
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: from the wind. Very soon, Mademoiselle de Fontaine, seeing them
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: rise and walk round the place as if preparing to leave,
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: found means to follow them under pretense of admiring the
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: views from the garden. Her brother lent himself with malicious
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: good humor to the divigations of her rather eccentric wanderings.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: Amily then saw the attractive couple get into an elegant tilbury,
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: by which stood a mounted groom in livery. At the
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: moment when from his high seat the young man was
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: drawing the reins, even she caught a glance from his eye,
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: such as a man cast seamlessly at the crowd, And
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: then she enjoyed the feeble satisfaction of seeing him turn
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: his head to look at her. The young lady did
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: the same. Was it from jealousy? I imagine you have
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: now seen enough of the garden, said her brother. We
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: may go back to the dancing. I am ready, said she.
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: Do you think the girl can be a relation of
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: Lady Dudley's. Lady Dudley may have some male relations staying
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: with her, said the bowl de Fontaine, But a young
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: girl no. Next day, Mademoiselle de Fontaine expressed a wish
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: to take a ride. Then she gradually accustomed her old
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: uncle and her brothers to escorting her in very early rides. Excellent,
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: she declared, for her health. She had a particular fancy
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: for the environs of the hamlet where Lady Dudley was living.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: Notwithstanding her cavalry maneuvers, she did not meet the stranger
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: so soon as the eager search she pursued might have
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: allowed her to hope. She went several times to the
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: Bals des Sault without seeing the young Englishman who had
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: dropped from the skies to pervade and beautify her dreams.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: Though nothing spurs on a young girl's infant passion so
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: effectually as an obstacle, there was a time when Mademoiselle
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: de Fontaine was on the point of giving up her
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: strange and secret search, almost despairing of the success of
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: an enterprise whose singularity may give some idea of the
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: boldness of her temper. In point of fact, she might
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: have wandered long about the village of Chatenay without meeting
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: her unknown the fair Clara, since that was the name
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: amily had overheard, was not English, and the stranger who
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: escorted her did not dwell among the flowery and fragrant
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: bowers of Chatenay. One evening, Emily, out riding with her uncle,
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: who during fine weather had gained a fairly long truce
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: from the gout, met Lady Dudley, the distinguished foreigner had
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: with her in her open carriage. Monsieur van Denesse amily
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: recognized her the handsome couple, and her suppositions were at
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: once dissipated like a dream. Annoyed, as any woman must be,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: whose expectations are frustrated, she touched up her horse so
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: suddenly that her uncle had the greatest difficulty in following her.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: She had set off at such a pace. I am
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: too old, it would seem to understand these youthful spirits,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: said the old sailor to himself, as he put his
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: horse to a canter. Or perhaps young people are not
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: what they used to be. But what ails my niece now?
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: She is walking at a foot pace like a gendarme
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: on patrol in the Paris streets. One might fancy she
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: wanted to outflank that worthy man, who looks to me
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: like an author dreaming over his poetry, For he has
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: I think a note book in his hand. My word,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: I am a great simpleton? Is not that the very
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: young man we we are in search of? At this idea,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: the old admiral moderated his horse's pace so as to
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: follow his niece without making any noise. He had played
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: too many pranks in the years seventeen seventy one and
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: soon after a time of our history when gallantry was
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: held in honor, not to guess at once that, by
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: the merest chance, Amy Lee had met the unknown of
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: the saul Gardens. In spite of the film which Age
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: had drawn over his gray eyes, the Comte de Caergaroette
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: could recognize the signs of extreme agitation in his niece
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: under the unmoved expression she tried to give to her features.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: The girl's piercing eyes were fixed in a sort of
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: dull amazement on the stranger who quietly walked on in
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: front of her. Ah, that's it, thought the sameler. She
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: is following him as a pirate follows a merchantman. Then
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: when she has lost sight of him, she will be
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: in despair at not knowing who it is she is
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: in love with, and whether he is a marquis or
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: a shop keeper. Really, these young heads need an old
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: fogey like me always by their side. He unexpectedly spurred
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: his horse in such a way as to make his
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: nieces bold, and rode so hastily between her and the
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: young man on foot that he obliged him to fall
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: back on to the grassy bank which rose from the roadside. Then,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: abruptly drawing up, the count exclaimed, couldn't you get out
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: of the way. I beg your pardon, monsieur, But I
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: did not know that it lay with me to apologize
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: to you, because you almost rode me down there. Enough
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: of that, my good fellow, replied the sailor harshly, in
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: a sneering tone that was nothing less than insulting. At
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: the same time, the count raised his hunting crop as
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: if to strike his horse, and touched the young fellow's shoulder, saying,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: a liberal citizen is a reasoner. Every reasoner should be prudent.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: The young man went up the bank side as he
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: heard the sarcasm. Then he crossed his arms and said,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: in an excited tone of voice, I cannot suppose, monsieur,
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: as I look at your white hairs, that you still
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: amuse yourself by provoking jewels. White hairs, cried the sailor,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: interrupting him. You lie in your throat, they are only gray.
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: A quarrel thus begun, had in a few seconds become
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: so fierce that the younger man forgot the moderation he
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: had tried to preserve. Just as the Comte de Caergarotte
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: saw his niece come o back to them with every
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: sign of the greatest uneasiness. He told his antagonist his name,
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: bidding him keep silence before the young lady entrusted to
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: his care. The stranger could not help smiling as he
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: gave a visiting card to the old man, desiring him
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: to observe that he was living at a country house
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: at Chevrose, And after pointing this out to him, he
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: hurried away, You very nearly damaged that poor young counter jumper,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: my dear, said the count, advancing hastily to meet Amy Lee.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: Do you not know how to hold your horse in?
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: And there you leave me to compromise my dignity in
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: order to screen your folly. Whereas if you had but
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: stopped one of your looks, or one of your pretty speeches,
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: one of those you can make so prettily when you
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: are not pert, would have set everything right even if
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: you had broken his arm. My dear uncle, it was
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: your horse, not mine, that caused the accident. I really
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: think you can no longer ride. You are not so
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: good a horseman as you were last year. But instead
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: of talking nonsense, nonsense, by gad, is it nothing to
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: be so impertinent to your uncle? Ought we not to
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: go on and inquire if the young man is hurt?
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: He is limping, Uncle, only look, No, he is running,
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: I rated him soundly. Oh yes, Uncle, I know you there. Stop,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: said the count, pulling Amily's horse by the bridle. I
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: do not see the necessity of making advances to some
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: shop keeper who is only too lucky to have been
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: thrown down by a charming young lady or the commander
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: of La balpoole. Why do you think he is anything
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: so common, my dear uncle. He seems to me to
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: have very fine manners. Everyone has manners nowadays, my dear
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: No uncle, not everyone has the air and style which
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: come of the habit of frequenting drawing rooms. And I
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: am ready to lay a bet with you that the
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: young man is of noble birth. You had not long
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: to study him. No, but it is not the first
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: time I have seen him, nor is it the first
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: time you have looked for him, replied the admiral with
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: a laugh. Amily colored her uncle amused himself for some
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: time with her embarrassment. Then he said, Amily you know
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: that I love you as my own child, precisely because
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: you are the only member of the family who has
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: the legitimate pride of high birth. Devil take it, child,
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: who could have believed that sound principles would become so rare? Well,
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: I will be your confidante, my dear child. I see
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: that this young gentleman is not indifferent to you. Hush
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: all the family would laugh at us if we sailed
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: under the wrong flag.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 2: You know what that means.
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: We too, will keep our secret, and I promise to
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: bring him straight into the drawing room when Uncle tomorrow.
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: But my dear uncle, I am not committed to anything, nothing, whatever,
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: And you may bombard him, set fire to him, and
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: leave him to founder like an old hulk. If you choose,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: he won't be the first. I fancy you are kind uncle.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: As soon as the Count got home, he put on
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: his glasses, quietly, took the car out of his pocket
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: and read Maximilian Longueville Rue de Sentier. Make yourself happy,
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: my dear niece, he said to Emily. You may hook
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: him with an easy conscience. He belongs to one of
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: our historical families, and if he is not a peer
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: of France, he infallibly will be, how do you know
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: so much? That is my secret? Then do you know
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: his name? The old man bowed his gray head, which
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: was not unlike a gnarled oak stump with a few
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: leaves fluttering about it withered by autumnal frosts, and his
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: niece immediately began to try the ever new power of
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: her coquettish arts. Long familiar with the secret of cajoling
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: the old man, she lavished on him the most childlike caresses,
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: the tenderest names. She even went so far as to
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: kiss him, to induce him to divulge so important a secret.
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: The old man, who spent his life in playing off
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: these scenes on his niece, often paying for them with
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: a present of jewelry or by giving her his box
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: at the opera, this time amused himself with her entreaties
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: and above all, her caresses. But as he spun out
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: this pleasure too long, Emily grew angry, passed from coaxing
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: to sarcasm and sulks. Then, urged by curiosity, she recovered herself.
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: The diplomatic admiral extracted a solemn promise from his niece
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: that she would for the future be gentler, less noisy,
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: and less wilful, that she would spend less and above
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: all tell him everything. The treaty being concluded and signed
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: by a kiss impressed on Emilie's white brow. He led
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: her into a corner of the room, drew her on
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: to his knee, held the card under the thumbs so
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: as to hide it, and then uncovered the letters one
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: by one, spelling the name of Longueville. But he firmly
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: refused to show her anything more. This incident added to
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: the intensity of Mademoiselle de Fontaine's secret sentiment, and during
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: the chief part of the night she evolved the most
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: brilliant pictures from the dreams with which she had fed
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: her hopes. At last, thanks to chance to which she
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: had so often appealed, Emily could now see something very
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: unlike a chimera at the fountain head of the imaginary
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: wealth with which she gilded her married life. Ignorant as
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: all young girls are of the pair world of love
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: and marriage, she was passionately captivated by the externals of
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: marriage and love. Is not this as much as to
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: say that her feeling had birth like all the feelings
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: of extreme youth. Sweet but cruel mistakes which exert a
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: fatal influence on the lives of young girls so inexperienced
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: as to trust their own judgment to take care of
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: their future happiness. And of section three section four of
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: the ball at Soux by Honare de Balzac, translated by
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: Clara Belle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: read by Bruce Piriy. Next morning, before Emily was awake,
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: her uncle had hastened to Chauffrose on recognizing in the
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: courtyard of an elegant little villa the young man he
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: had so determinedly insulted the day before. He went up
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: to him with the pressing politeness of men of the
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: old court. Why, my dear sir, who could have guessed
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: that I should have a brush at the age of
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: seventy three with the son or the grandson of one
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: of my best friends? I am a vice Admiral, monsieur.
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: Is not that as much as to say that I
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: think no more of fighting a jewel than of smoking
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: a cigar. Why in my time no two young men
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: could be intimate till they had seen the color of
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: their blood. But s death, sir, last evening sailor, like
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: I had taken a drop too much grog on board,
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: and I ran you down, shake hands. I would rather
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: take a hundred rebuffs from a long ville than cause
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: his family the smallest regret. However, coldly the young man
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: tried to behave to the Comte de Caergaroet. He could
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: not resist the frank cordiality of his manner, and presently
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: gave him his hand. You were going out riding, said
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: the count. Do not let me detain you. But unless
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: you have other plans, I beg you will come to
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: dinner to day at the Ville Planard. My nephew, the
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: Comte de Fontaine is a man. It is essential that
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: you should know, ah ha, And I propose to make
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: up to you for my clumsiness by introducing you to
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: five of the prettiest women in Paris. So so, young man,
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: your brow is clearing. I am fond of young people,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: and I like to see them happy. Their happiness reminds
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: me of the good times of my youth, when adventures
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: were not lacking any more than duewels we were gay dogs.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: Then nowadays you think and worry over everything as though
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: there had never been a fifteenth and a sixteenth century.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: But Monsieur, are we not in the right. The sixteenth
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: century only gave religious liberty to Europe, and the nineteenth
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: will give it political liberty. Oh, we will not talk politics.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: I am a perfect old woman ultra, you see. But
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: I do not hinder young men from being revolutionary, so
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: long as they leave the king at liberty to disperse
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: their assemblies. When they had gone a little way, and
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: the Count and his companion were in the heart of
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: the woods, the old sailor pointed out a slender, young
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: birch sampling, pulled up his horse, took out one of
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: his pistols, and the bullet was lodged in the heart
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: of the tree fifteen paces away. You see, my dear fellow,
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: that I am not afraid of a jewel, he said,
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: with comical gravity, as he looked at Monsieur Longueville. Nor am,
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: I replied the young man, promptly, cocking his pistol, he
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: aimed at the hole made by the Comte's bullet and
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: sent his own close to it. That is what I
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: call a well educated man, cried the admiral with enthusiasm.
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: During this ride with the youth, whom he already regarded
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: as his nephew. He found endless opportunities of catechising him
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: on all the trifles of which a perfect knowledge constituted
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: according to his private code. An accomplished gentleman, have you
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: any debts, he at last asked of his companion, after
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: many other inquiries. No, monsieur, what you pay for all
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: you have punctually? Otherwise we should lose our credit and
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: every sort of respect. But at least you have more
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: than one mistress. Ah, you blush, comrade, well manners have changed.
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: All these oceans of lawful order, Kantism and liberty have
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: spoilt the young men. You have no gimand now no dute,
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: no creditors, and you know nothing of heraldry. Why, my
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: dear young friend, you are not fully fledged. The man
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: who does not sow his wild oats in the spring
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: sows them in the winter. If I have but eighty
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: thousand francs a year at the age of seventy, it
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: is because I ran through the capital at thirty oh
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: with my wife. Indecency and honor. However, your imperfections will
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: not interfere with my introducing you at the Pavillon Plena.
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: Remember you have promised to come and I shall expect
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: you what an odd little old man, said Longville to himself.
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: He is so jolly and hale, but though he wishes
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: to seem a good fellow, I will not trust him
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: too far. Next day, at about four o'clock, when the
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: house party were dispersed in the drawing rooms and billiard room,
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: a servant announced to the inhabitants of the villa Planins
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: Monsieur de Longueville. On hearing the name of the old
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: admiral's protegee, everyone down to the player who was about
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: to miss his stroke rushed in as much to study
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Fontaine's countenance as to judge of this phoenix
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: of men, who had earned honorable mention to the detriment
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: of so many rivals. A simple but elegant style of dress,
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: an air of perfect ease, polite manners, a pleasant voice
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: with a ring in it, which found a response in
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: the hearer's heart strings, won the good will of the family.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: For Monsieur Longueville. He did not seem unaccustomed to the
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: luxury of the receiver General's ostentatious mansion. Though his conversation
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: was that of a man of the world, it was
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: easy to discern that he had had a brilliant education,
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: and that his knowledge was as thorough as it was extensive.
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: He knew so well the right thing to say. In
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: a discussion on naval architecture trivial it is true, started
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: by the old admiral that one of the ladies remarked
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: that he must have passed through the ecole polytechnique, and
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: I think, Madame, he replied that I may regard it
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: as an honor to have got in in spite of
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: urgent pressing. He refused politely but firmly to be kept
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: to dinner, and put an end to the persistency of
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: the ladies by saying that he was the Hippocrates of
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: his young sister, whose delicate health required great care. Monsieur
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: is perhaps a medical man, asked one of Emily's sisters
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: in law, with ironical mins, meaning Monsieur hath left the
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: a called polytechnique. Mademoiselle de Fontaine kindly put in her
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: face had flushed with richer color as she learned that
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: the young lady of the ball was Monsieur Longville's sister.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: But my dear, he may be a doctor and yet
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: have been to the a called polytechnique. Is it not so, monsieur?
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: There is nothing to prevent it, Madame replied the young man.
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: Every eye was on Emili, who was gazing with uneasy
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: curiosity at the fascinating stranger. She breathed more freely when
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: he added, not without a smile. I have not the
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: honor of belonging to the medical profession, and I even
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: gave up going into the engineers in order to preserve
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: my independence. Andrew did well, said the Count. But how
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: can you regard it as an honor to be a doctor,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: added the breton nobleman. Ah, my young friend, such a
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: man as you, Monsieur le comte, I respect every profession
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: that has a useful purpose. Well, in that we agree
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: you respect those professions. I imagine as a young man
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: respects a dowager. Monsieur Longueville made his visit neither too
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: long nor too short. He left at the moment when
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: he saw that he had pleased everybody, and that each
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: one's curiosity about him had been roused. He is a
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: cunning rascal, said the Count, coming into the drawing room.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: After seeing him to the door. Mademoiselle de Fontaine, who
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: had been in the secret of this call, had dressed
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: with some care to attract the young man's eye, but
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: she had the little disappointment of finding that he did
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: not bestow on her her so much attention as she
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: thought she deserved. The family were a good deal surprised
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: at the silence into which she had retired, Emily generally
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: displayed all her arts for the benefit of newcomers, her
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: witty prattle and the inexhaustible eloquence of her eyes and attitudes.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: Whether it was that the young man's pleasing voice and
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: attractive manners had charmed her that she was seriously in love,
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: and that this feeling had worked a change in her,
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: her demeanor had lost all its affectations. Being simple and natural,
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: she must no doubt have seemed more beautiful. Some of
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: her sisters and an old lady, a friend of the family,
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: saw in this behavior our refinement of art. They supposed
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: that Emily, judging the man worthy of her, intended to
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: delay revealing her merits so as to dazzle him. Suddenly,
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: when she found that she pleased him, every member of
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: the family was curious to know what this capricious creature
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: thought of the stranger. But when during dinner, everyone chose
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: to endow Monsieur Longville with some fresh quality which no
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: one else had discovered. Mademoiselle de Fontaine sat for some
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: time in silence. A sarcastic remark of her uncle's suddenly
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: roused her from her apathy. She said, somewhat epigrammatically, that
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: such heavenly perfection must cover some great defect, and that
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: she would take good care how she judged so gifted
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: a man at first sight. Those who please everybody please nobody,
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: she added, And the worst of all faults is to
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: have none. Like all girls who are in love, Emily
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: cherished the hope of being able to hide her feelings
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of her heart by putting the argus
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: eyes that watched on the wrong tack. But by the
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: end of a fortnight there was not a member of
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: the large family party who was not in this little
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: domestic secret. When Monsieur Longville called for the third time,
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: Amily believed it was chiefly for her sake. This discovery
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: gave her such intoxicating pleasure that she was startled as
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: she reflected on it. There was something in it very
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: painful to her pride, Accustomed as she was to be
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: the center of her world, she was obliged to recognize
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: a force that attracted her outside herself. She tried to resist,
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: but she could not chase from her heart the fascinating
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: image of the young man. Then came some anxiety. Two
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: of Monsieur Longville's qualities, very adverse to general curiosity, and
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: especially to Mademoiselle de Fontainees, were unexpected modesty and discretion.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: He never spoke of himself, of his pursuits, or of
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: his family. The hints Emili threw out in conversation, and
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: the traps she laid to extract from the young fellow
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: some facts concerning himself, he could evade with the adroitness
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: of a diplomatist, concealing a secret. If she talked of painting,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: he responded as a connoisseur. If she sat down to play,
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: he showed without conceit that he was a very good pianist.
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: One evening he delighted all the party by joining his
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: delightful voice to Emily's in one of Simaos's charming duets.
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: But when they tried to find out whether he were
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: a professional singer, he baffled them so pleasantly that he
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: did not afford these women, practiced as they were in
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: the art of reading feelings, the least chance of discovering
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: to what social sphere he belonged. However, boldly the old
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: uncle cast the boarding hooks over the vessel. Longvial slipped
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: away cleverly so as to preserve the charm of mystery,
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: and it was easy to him to remain the handsome
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: stranger at the villa, because curiosity never overstepped the bounds
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: of good breeding. Emily, distracted by this reserve, hoped to
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: get more out of the sister than the brother in
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: the form of confidences. Aided by her uncle, who was
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: as skillful in such maneuvers as in handling a ship,
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: she endeavored to bring upon the scene the hitherto unseen
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: figure of Mademoiselle Clara Longville. The family party at the
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: villa planas soon expressed the greatest desire to make the
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: acquaintance of so amiable a young lady, and to give
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: her some amusement. An informal dance was proposed and accepted.
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: The ladies did not despair of making a young girl
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: of sixteen talk, notwithstanding the little clouds piled up by
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: suspicion and created by curiosity. A light of joy shone
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: in Emily's soul, for she found life delicious When thus
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: intimately connected with another than herself, she began to understand
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: the relations of life, whether it is that happiness makes
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: us better or that she was too fully occupied to
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: torment other people. She became less caustic, more gentle, and indulgent.
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: This change in her temper enchanted and amazed her family.
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: Perhaps at last, her selfishness was being transformed to love.
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: It was a deep delight to her to look for
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: the arrival of her bashful and unconfessed adorer. Though they
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: had not uttered a word of passion, she knew that
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: she was loved, and with what art? Did she not
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: lead the stranger to unlock the stores of his information,
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: which proved to be varied. She perceived that she, too
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: was being studied, and that made her endeavor to remedy
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: the defects her education had encouraged. Was not this her
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: first homage to love and a bitter reproach to herself.
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: She desired to please, and she was enchanting. She loved
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: and she was idolized. Her family, knowing that her pride
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: would sufficiently protect her, gave her enough freedom to ensure
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: joy the little childish delights which give to first love
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: its charm and its violence. More than once, the young
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: man and Mademoiselle de Fontaine wattd tete tete in the
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: avenues of the garden, where nature was dressed like a
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: woman going to a ball. More than once they had
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: those conversations aimless and meaningless, in which the emptiest phrases
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: are those which cover the deepest feelings. They often admired
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: together the setting sun and its gorgeous coloring. They gathered
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: daisies to pull the petals off, and sang the most
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: impassioned duets, using the notes set down by Pergulesi or
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: Rossini as faithful interpreters to express their secrets. The day
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: of the dance came. Clara Longueville and her brother, whom
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: the servants persisted in honoring with the noble du were
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: the principal guests. For the first time in her life,
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Fontaine felt pleasure in a young girl's triumph.
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: She lavished on Clara in all sincerity, the gracious petting
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: and little attentions which women generally give each other only
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: to excite the jealousy of men. Emily had indeed an
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: object in view. She wanted to discover some secrets. But
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: being a girl, Mademoiselle Longueville showed even more mother wit
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: than her brother, for she did not even look as
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: if she were hiding a secret, and kept the conversation
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: to subjects unconnected with personal interests, while at the same
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: time she gave it so much charm that Mademoiselle de
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: Fontaine was almost envious and called her the siren. Though
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: Emily had intended to make Clara talk, it was Clara,
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: in fact who questioned Emily. She had meant to judge her,
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: and she was judged by her. She was constantly provoked
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: to find that she had betrayed her own character in
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: some reply which Clara had extracted from her, while her
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: modest and candid manner prohibited any suspicion of perfidy. There
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: was a moment when Mademoiselle de Fontaine seemed sorry for
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: an ill judged sally against the commonalty to which Clara
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: had led her. Mademoiselle said, the sweet child, I have
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: heard so much of you from Maximilia that I had
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: the keenest desire to know you out of affection for him.
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: But is not a wish to know you a wish
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: to love you, My dear Clara, I feared I might
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: have displeased you by speaking thus of people who are
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: not of noble birth.
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, be quite easy.
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: That sort of discussion is pointless in these days. As
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: for me, it does not affect me. I I am
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: beside the question. Ambitious as the answer might seem, it
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: filled Mademoiselle de Fontaine with the deepest joy, For, like
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: all infatuated people, she explained it as oracles are explained,
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: in the sense that harmonized with her wishes. She began
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: dancing again in higher spirits than ever. As she watched Longville,
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: whose figure and grace almost surpassed those of her imaginary ideal,
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: she felt added satisfaction in believing him to be well born.
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: Her black eyes sparkled, and she danced with all the
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: pleasure that comes of dancing in the presence of the
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: being we love. The couple had never understood each other
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: as well as at this moment. More than once. They
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: felt their finger tips thrill and tremble as they were
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: married in the figures.
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 2: Of the dance.
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: The early autumn had come to the handsome pair. In
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: the midst of country festivities and pleasures. They had abandoned
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: themselves softly to the tide of the sweetest sentiment in life,
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: strengthening it by a thousand little incidents which anyone can imagine,
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: for love is, in some respects always the same. They
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: studied each other through it all, as much as lovers can.
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 2: Well well.
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: A flirtation never turned so quickly into a love match,
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: said the old uncle, who kept an eye on the
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: two young people as a naturalist watches and insect in
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: the microscope. The speech alarmed Monsieur and Madame Fontaine. The
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: old fanteean had ceased to be so indifferent to his
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: daughter's prospects as he had promised to be. He went
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: to Paris to seek information and found none. Uneasy at
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: this mystery, and not yet knowing what might be the
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: outcome of the inquiry which she had begged of Paris
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: friend to institute with reference to the family of Longville,
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: he thought it was his duty to warn his daughter
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: to behave prudently. The fatherly admonition was received with mock
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: submission spiced with irony. At least, my dear Emily, if
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: you love him, do not own it to him. My
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: dear father, I certainly do love him, but I will
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: await your permission before I tell him so. But remember, Emily,
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: you know nothing of his family or his pursuits. I
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: may be ignorant, but I am content to be. But Father,
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: you wished to see me married. You left me at
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: liberty to make my choice. My choice is irrevocably made.
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: What more is needful? It is needful to any ascertain,
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: my dear, whether the man of your choice is the
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: son of a peer of France. The venerable Gentleman retorted sarcastically.
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: Emily was silent for a moment. She presently raised her head,
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: looked at her father, and said, somewhat anxiously, are not
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: the long veils? They became extinct in the person of
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: the old Duke de Rostein Limburg, who perished on the
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: scaffold in seventeen ninety three. He was the last representative
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: of the last and younger branch. But Papa, there are
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: some very good families descended from bastards. The history of
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: France swarms with princes bearing the bar sinister on their shields.
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: Your ideas are much changed, said the old man, with
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: a smile. The following day was the last that the
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: Fontaine family were to spend at the Pavillon Planar. Emily,
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: greatly disturbed by her father's warning, awaited with extreme impatience
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: the hour at which young Longueville was in the habit
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: of coming. To bring some explanation from him, She went
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: out after dinner and walked alone across the shrubbery towards
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: an arbor fit for lovers, where she knew that the
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: eager youth would seek her. And as she hastened thither,
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: she considered of the best way to discover so important
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: a matter without compromising herself, a rather difficult thing. Hitherto,
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: no direct avowal had sanctioned the feelings which bound her
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: to this stranger. Like Maximilian, she had secretly enjoyed the
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: sweetness of first love, But both were equally proud, and
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: each feared to confess that love. Maximilian Longueville, to whom
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: Clara had communicated her not unfounded suspicions as to Emili's character,
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: was by turns carried away by the violence of a
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: young man's passion, and held back by a wish to
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: know and test the woman to whom he would be
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: entrusting his happiness. His love had not hindered him from
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: perceiving in Amili the prejudices which marred her young nature.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: But before attempting to counteract them, he wished to be
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: sure that she loved him, for he would no sooner
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: risk the fate of his love than of his life.
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: He had therefore persistently kept a silence, to which his looks,
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: his behavior, and his smallest actions gave the lie on
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: her side. The self respect natural to a young girl,
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: augmented in Mademoiselle de Fontaine by the monstrous vanity founded
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: on her birth and beauty, kept her from meeting the
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: declaration half way, which her growing passion sometimes urged her
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: to invite. Thus the lovers had instinctively understood the situation
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: without explaining to each other their secret motives. There are
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: times in life when such vagueness pleases youthful minds. Just
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: because each had postponed speaking too long, they seemed to
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: be playing a cruel game of suspense. He was trying
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: to discover whether he was beloved. By the effort any
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: confession would cost his haughty mistress. She every minute hoped
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: that he would break a too respectful silence. Emily, seated
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: on a rustic bench, was reflecting on all that had
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: happened in these three months. Full of enchantment. Her father's
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: suspicions were the last that could appeal to her. She
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: disposed of them at once by two or three of
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: those reflections natural to an inexperienced girl, which to her
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: seemed conclusive. Above all, she was convinced that it was
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: impossible that she should deceive herself. All the summer through
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: she had not been able to detect in Maximilian a
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: single gesture or a single word which could indicate a
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: vulgar origin or vulgar occupations. Nay More, his manner of
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: discussing things revealed a man devoted to the highest interests
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: of the nation. Besides, she reflected, an office clerk, banker,
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: or a merchant would not be at leisure to spend
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: a whole season in paying his addresses to me in
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: the midst of woods and fields, wasting his time as
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: freely as a nobleman who has life before him, free
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: of all care. She had given herself up to meditations
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: far more interesting to her than these preliminary thoughts. When
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: a slight rustling in the leaves announced to her that
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: Maximilian had been watching her for a minute, not probably
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: without admiration.
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 2: Do you know that it is very.
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: Wrong to take a young girl thus unawares, she asked him, smiling,
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: especially when they are busy with their secrets, replied Maximilian archly,
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: why should I not have my secrets? You certainly have yours.
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: Then you really were thinking of your secrets, he went on, laughing, No,
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: I was thinking of yours, my own, I know, But
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: perhaps my secrets are yours and yours mine, cried the
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: young man, softly seizing Mademoiselle de Fontaine's hand and drawing
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: it through his arm. After walking a few steps, they
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: found themselves under a clump of trees, which the hues
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: of the sinking sun wrapped in a haze of red
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: and brown. This touch of natural magic lent a certain
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: solemnity to the moment. The young man's free and eager action,
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: and above all, the throbbing of his surging heart, whose
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: hurried beating spoke to Emily's arm, stirred her to an
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: emotion that was all the more disturbing because it was
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: produced by the simplest and most innocent circumstances. The restraint
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: under which the young girls of the upper class live
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: gives incredible force to any explosion of feeling, and to
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: meet an impassioned lover is one of the greatest dangers
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: they can encounter. Never had Emilie and Maximilian allowed their
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: eyes to say so much that they dared never speak.
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: Carried away by this entire oxication, they easily forgot the
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: petty stipulations of pride and the cold hesitancies of suspicion.
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: At first, indeed, they could only express themselves by a
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: pressure of hands, which interpreted their happy thoughts. After slowly
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: pacing a few steps in long silence, Mademoiselle de Fontaine spoke, Monsieur,
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: I have a question to ask you, she said, trembling
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: and in an agitated voice. But remember I beg that
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: it is in a manner compulsory on me from the
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: rather singular position I am in with regard to my family.
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: A pause terrible to Emilie followed these sentences, which she
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: had almost stammered out during the minute. While it lasted,
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: the girl haughty as she was dared not meet the
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: flashing eye of the man's she loved, for she was
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: secretly conscious of the meanness of the next words. She added,
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: are you of noble birth? As soon as the words
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: were spoken, she wished herself at the bottom of a lake.
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Longville gravely replied, and his face assumed a sort
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: of stern dignity. I promise to answer you truly as
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: soon as you shall have answered in all sincerity a
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: question I will put to you. He released her arm,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: and the girl suddenly felt alone in the world. As
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: he said, what is your object in questioning me as
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: to my birth? She stood motionless, cold and speechless. Mademoiselle
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: Maximilian went on, let us go no further if we
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: do not understand each other. I love you, he said,
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: in a voice of deep emotion. Well, then, he added,
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: as he heard the joyful exclamation, she could not suppress.
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: Why ask me if I am of noble birth? Could
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: he speak so? If he were not? Cried a voice
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: within her, which amily believed came from the depths of
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: her heart. She gracefully raised her head, seemed to find
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: new life in the young man's gaze, and held out
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: her hand as if to renew the alliance. You thought,
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: I cared very much for dignities, said she with keen archness.
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: I have no titles to offer my wife, he replied,
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: in a half sportive, half serious tone. But if I
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: choose one of high rank and among women whom a
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: wealthy home has accustomed to the luxury and pleasures of
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: a fine fortune, I know what's such a choice requires
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: of me. Love gives everything, he added lightly, But only
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: two lovers once married, they need something more than the
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: vault of heaven and the carpet of a meadow. He
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: is rich, she reflected, as to titles. Perhaps he only
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: wants to try me. He has been told that I
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: am mad about titles and bent on marrying none but
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: a peer's son. My priggish sisters have played me that trick.
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: I assure you, monsieur, she said aloud, that I have
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: had very extravagant ideas about life and the world. But now,
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: she added, pointedly, looking at him in a perfectly distracting way,
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: I know where true riches are to be found for
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: a wife. I must believe that you are speaking from
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: the depths of your heart, he said with gentle gravity.
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: But this winter, my dear EMILYI in less than two months,
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: perhaps I may be proud of what I shall have
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: to offer you if you care for the pleasures of wealth.
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: This is the only secret I shall keep locked here.
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: And he laid his hand on his heart, for on
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: its success, my happiness depends. I dare not say ours, yes, yes, ours.
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: Exchanging such sweet nothings, they slowly made their way back
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: to rejoin the company. Mademoiselle de Fontaine had never found
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: her lover more amiable or wittier. His light figure, his
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: engaging manners seemed to her more charming than ever since
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: the conversation, which had made her, to some extent the
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: possessor of a heart worthy to be the envy of
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: every woman. Sang an Italian duet with so much expression
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: that the audience applauded enthusiastically. Their adieus were in a
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: conventional tone which concealed their happiness. In short, this day
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: had been to Emilie like a chain, binding her more
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: closely than ever to the stranger's fate. The strength and
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: dignity he had displayed in the scene when they had
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: confessed their feelings had perhaps impressed Mademoiselle de Fontaine with
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: the respect without which there is no true love. When
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: she was left alone in the drawing room with her father.
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: The old man went up to her, affectionately, held her hands,
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: and asked her whether she had gained any light as
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: to Monsieur Longville's family and fortune. Yes, my dear father,
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: she replied, and I am happier than I could have hoped.
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: In short, Monsieur de Longueville is the only man I
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: could ever marry. Very well, emily, said the count. Then
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: I know what remains for me to do. Do you
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: know of any impediment? She asked in sincere alarm, my
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: dear child. The young man is totally unknown to me.
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: But unless he is not a man of honor, so
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: long as you love him, he is as dear to
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: me as a son. Not a man of honor, exclaimed Amily.
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: As to that, I am quite easy. My uncle, who
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: introduced him to us, will answer for him. Say, my
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 1: dear uncle, has he been a filibuster, an outlaw? A pirate?
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: I knew I should find myself in this fix, cried
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: the old sailor. Waking up, he looked round the room,
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: but his niece had vanished like Saint Elmo's fire. To
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: use his favorite expression, Well, uncle, Monsieur de Fontaine went on,
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: how could you hide from us all you knew about
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: this young man? You must have seen how anxious.
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 2: We have been.
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: Is Monsieur de Longueville, a man of family. I don't
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: know him from Adam or Eve, said the Comte de Caergaroette,
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: trusting to that crazy child's tact. I got him here
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: by a method of my own. I know that the
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: boy shoots with a pistol to admiration, huntswell, plays wonderfully
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: at billiards, at chess, and at backgammon. He handles the
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: foils and rides a horse like the late Chevalier de
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: Saint George. He has a thorough knowledge of all our vintages.
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: He is as good an arithmetician as Bahram, draws, dances
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: and sings. Well, the Devil's in it. What more do
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: you want? If that is not a perfect gentleman, Find
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: me a bourgeois who knows all this, or any man
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: who lives more nobly than he does. Does he do
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: anything I ask you? Does he compromise his dignity by
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: hanging about an office, bowing down before the upstarts? You
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: call directors general? He walks upright. He is a man. However,
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: I have just found in my waistcoat pocket the card
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: he gave me when he fancied I wanted to cut
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: his throat. Poor innocent young men are very simple minded nowadays.
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 2: Here it is.
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: Rue du Santier number five, said Monsieur de Fontaine, trying
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: to recall, among all the information he had received, something
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: which might concern the stranger. What the devil can it mean?
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Palmer Faerbust and Co. Wholesale dealers in muslimlens, calicoes
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: and printed cotton goods live there stay, I have it Longville,
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: the deputy has an interest in their house. Well, But
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: so far as I know, Longville has but one son
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: of two and thirty, who is not at all like
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: our man, and to whom he gave fifty thousand francs
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: a year that he might marry a minister's daughter. He
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: wants to be made a peer like the rest of em.
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: I never heard him mention this Maximilian has he a daughter?
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: Who is this girl Clara? Besides, it is open to
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: any adventurer to call himself Longville, but is not the
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: house of Palmaverir Brusten Co. Half ruined by some speculation
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: in Mexico or the Indies. I will clear all this up.
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: You speak a soliloquious if you were on the stage,
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: and seem to account me a cipher, said the old Admiral. Suddenly,
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 1: don't you know that if he is a gentleman, I
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: have more than one bag in my hold that will
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: stop any leak in his fortune. As to that, if
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: he is a son of long Ville's, he will want nothing,
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: but said Monsieur de Fontaine, shaking his head from side
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: to side. His father has not even washed off the
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: stains of his origin. Before the Revolution, he was an attorney,
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: and the duh he has since assumed no more belongs
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: to him than half of his fortune. Pooh pooh, happy
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: those whose fathers were hanged, cried the Admiral gaily and
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: of section four section five of the ball that's so
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: by honoreda Balzac, translated by Clara Belle. This LibriVox recording
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain, read by Bruce Pirie. Three
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: or four days after this memorable day, on one of
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: those fine mornings in the month of November, which showed
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: the boulevards cleaned by the sharp cold of an early frost,
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Fontaine, wrapped in a new style of fur
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 1: cape of which she wished to set the fashion, went
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: out with two of her sisters in law, on whom
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 1: she had been wont to discharge her most cutting remarks.
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: The three women were tempted to the drive less by
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  Speaker 1: their desire to try a very elegant carriage and wear
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: gowns which were to set the fashion for the winter,
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: than by their wish to see a cape which a
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: friend had observed in a handsome lace and linen shop
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: at the corner of the Rue de la Payee. As
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: soon as they were in the shop, the Balon de
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: Fontaine pulled a amily by the sleeve and pointed out
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: to her. Maximilian Longueville, seated behind the desk and engaged
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: in paying out the change for a gold piece to
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: one of the workwomen with whom he seemed to be
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: in consultation. The handsome stranger held in his hand a
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: parcel of patterns which left no doubt as to his
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: honorable profession. Emily felt an icy shudder, though no one
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: perceived it. Thanks to the good breeding of the best society,
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: she completely concealed the rage in her heart and answered
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: her sister in law with the words I knew it.
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: With the fullness of intonation and inimitable decision which the
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: most famous actress of the time might have envied her.
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: She went straight up to the desk. Longeville looked up,
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: put the patterns in his pocket with distracting coolness, bowed
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 1: to Mademoiselle de Fontaine, and came forward, looking at her keenly. Mademoiselle,
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: he said to the shop girl, who followed him, looking
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: very much disturbed, I will send to settle that account.
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: My house deals in that way. But here, he whispered
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: into her ear as he gave her a thousand franc note.
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 2: Take this.
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: It is between ourselves. You will forgive me I trust, Mademoiselle,
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: he added, turning to Emily, you will kindly excuse the
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: tyranny of business matters. Indeed, monsieur, it seems to me
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: that it is of no concern of mine, replied Mademoiselle
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: de Fontaine, looking at him with a bold expression of
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: sarcastic indifference, which might have made anyone believe that she
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: now saw him for the first time. Do you really
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: mean it, asked Maximilian in a broken voice, Emily turned
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: her back upon him with amazing insolence. These words, spoken
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: in an undertone, had escaped the ears of her two
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 1: sisters in law. When, after buying the cape, the three
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: ladies got into the carriage again. Emily, seated with her
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: back to the horses, could not resist one last comprehensive
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: glance into the depths of the odious shop, where she
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: saw Maximilian standing with his arms folded in the attitude
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: of a man superior to the disaster that has so
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: suddenly fallen on him. Their eyes met and flashed implacable looks,
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 1: each hoped to inflict a cruel wound on the heart
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: of a lover. In one instant, they were as far
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: apart as if one had been in China and the
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: other in Greenland. Does not the breath of vanity wither everything.
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Fontaine, a prey to the most violent struggle
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: that can torture the heart of a young girl, reaped
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 1: the richest harvest of anguish that prejudice and narrow mindedness
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: ever sowed in a human soul. Her face, but just
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: now fresh and velvety, was streaked with yellow lines and
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 1: red patches. The paleness of her cheeks seemed every now
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 1: and then to turn green. Hoping to hide her despair
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: from her sisters, she would laugh as she pointed out
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: some ridiculous dress or passer by, but her laughter was spasmodic.
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: She was more deeply hurt by their unspoken compassion than
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: by any satirical comments for which she might have revenged herself.
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: She exhausted her wit in trying to engage them in
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: the conversation in which she tried to expend her fury
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: in senseless paradoxes, heaping on all men engaged in trade,
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: the bitterest insults and witticisms in the worst taste. On
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: getting home, she had an attack of fever, which had
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: first assumed a somewhat serious character. By the end of
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: a month, the care of her parents and of the
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: physician restored her to her family. Everyone hoped that this
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: lesson would be severe enough to subdue Emily's nature, but
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: she insensibly fell into her old habits and threw herself
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 1: again into the world of fashion. She declared that there
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: was no disgrace in making a mistake. If she, like
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 1: her father, had a vote in the chamber, she would
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: move for an edict, she said, by which all merchants,
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: and especially dealers in Calico should be branded on the forehead,
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: like barry sheep down to the third generation. She wished
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 1: that none but nobles should have the right to wear
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: the antique French costume, which was so becoming to the
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: courtiers of Louis the fifteenth. To hear her, it was
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: a misfit fortune for France, perhaps that there was no
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: outward and visible difference between a merchant and a peer
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 1: of France. And a hundred more such pleasantries, easy to imagine,
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: were rapidly poured out when any accident brought up the subject.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: But those who loved Demili could see through all her
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 1: banter a tinge of melancholy, it was clear that Maximilian
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 1: Longueville still reigned over that inexorable heart. Sometimes she would
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: be as gentle as she had been during the brief
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 1: summer that had seen the birth of her love. Sometimes
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: again she was unendurable. Everyone made excuses for her inequality
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: of temper, which had its source in sufferings. At once
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: secret and known to all. The Comte de caergaloatt had
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: some influence over her, thanks to his increased prodigality a
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: kind of consolation which rarely fails of its effect on
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: a Parisian girl. The first ball at which Mademoiselle de
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: Fontaine appeared was at the Neapolitan ambassador's. As she took
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: her place in the first quadrille, she saw a few
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: yards away from her Maximilian Longueville, who nodded slightly to
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: her partner. Is that young man a friend of yours,
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 1: she asked, with a scornful air. Only my brother, he replied,
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: Amily could not help starting ah, he continued, and he
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 1: is the noblest soul living. Do you know my name?
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: Asked Amilie, eagerly interrupting him. No, Mademoiselle, it is a crime.
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 1: I confess not to remember a name which is on
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: every lip, I ought to say, in every heart. But
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 1: I have a valid excuse. I have but just arrived
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: from Germany. My ambassador, who is in Paris on leave,
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: sent me here this evening to take care of his
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 1: amiable wife, whom you may see yonder in that corner.
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: A perfect tragic mask, said Emily, after looking at the ambassadress.
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 1: And yet that is her ball room face, said the
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 1: young man, laughing, I shall have to dance with her.
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: So I thought I might have some compensation. Mademoiselle de
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: Fontaine curtesied, I was very much surprised. The voluble young
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 1: secretary went on to find my brother here. On arriving
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 1: from Vienna, I heard that the poor boy was ill
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 1: in bed, and I counted on seeing him before coming
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: to this ball. But politics does not always allow us
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 1: to indulge family affection. The Padrona de la Cassa would
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: not give me time to call on my poor maximiliar. Then, monsieur,
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: your brother is not like you in diplomatic employment.
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 2: No, said the attache with a sigh.
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: The poor fellow sacrificed himself for me. He and my
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 1: sister Clara have renounced their share of my father's fortune
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: to make an eldest son of me. My father dreams
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: of a peerage like all who vote for the ministry. Indeed,
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 1: it is promised him, he added in an undertone. After
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: saving up a little capital, my brother joined a banking firm,
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: and I hear he has just effected a speculation in
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 1: Brazil which may make him a millionaire. You see me
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 1: in the highest spirits at having been able by my
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 1: diplomatic connections to contribute to his success. I am impatiently
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 1: expecting a dispatch from the Brazilian location which will help
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: to lift the cloud from his brow. What do you
• 2:28:07
  Speaker 1: think of him? Well, your brother's face does not look
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: to me like that of a man busied with money matters.
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 1: The young attache shot a scrutinizing glance at the apparently
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: calm face of his partner. What he exclaimed with a smile,
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 1: Can young ladies read the thoughts of love behind the
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 1: silent brow? Your brother is in love, then she asked,
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: betrayed into a movement of curiosity. Yes, my sister Clara,
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 1: to whom he is as devoted as a mother, wrote
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 1: to me that he had fallen in love this summer
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: with a very pretty girl. But I have had no
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: further news of the affair. Would you believe that the
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: poor boy used to get up at five in the
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 1: and went off to settle his business, that he might
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 1: be back by four o'clock in the country where the
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: lady was. In fact, he ruined a very nice thoroughbread
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: that I had just given him. Forgive my chatter, mademoiselle,
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 1: I have but just come home from Germany for a year.
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: I have heard no decent French. I have been weaned
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: from French faces and satiated with Germans to such a
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: degree that I believed in my patriotic mania. I could
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: talk to the chimeras on a French candlestick. And if
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: I talk with a lack of reserve, unbecoming in a diplomatist,
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: the fault is yours, Mademoiselle. Was it not you who
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: pointed out my brother? When he is the theme, I
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 1: become inexhaustible. I should like to proclaim to all the
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: world how good and generous he is. He gave up
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 1: no less than one hundred thousand francs a year the
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: income from the long View property. If Mademoiselle de Fontaine
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: had the benefit of these important revelations, it was partly
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 1: due to the skill with which she continued to question
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: her confiding partner from the moment when she found out
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: that he was the brother of her scorned lover. And
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 1: could you, without being grieved, see your brothers selling Muslin
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: and calico, asked Emilie at the end of the third
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 1: figure of the quadrille. How do you know that, asked
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 1: the attache. Thank God, though I pour out a flood
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 1: of words, I have already acquired the art of not
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: telling more than I intend, like all the other diplomatic apprentices.
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 2:30:49
  Speaker 1: You told me.
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 2: I assure you.
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 1: Monsieur de Longueville looked at Mademoiselle de Fontaine with a
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 1: surprise that was full of perspicacity. A suspicion flashed upon him.
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: He glanced inquiringly from his brother to his partner, guessed everything,
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 1: clasped his hands, fixed his eyes on the ceiling, and
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: began to laugh, saying, I am an idiot. You are
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: the handsomest person here. My brother keeps stealing glances at you.
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: He is dancing in spite of his illness, and you
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: pretend not to see him. Make him happy. He added,
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: as he led her back to her old uncle. I
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: shall not be jealous, but I shall always shiver a
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: little at calling you my sister. The lovers, however, were
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 1: to prove as inexorable to each other as they were
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: to themselves. At about two in the morning, refreshments were
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: served in an immense corridor where to leave persons of
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: the same couterie free to meet each other, the tables
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: were arranged as in a restaurant. By one of those
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 1: accidents which always happened to lovers. Mademoiselle de Fontaine found
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 1: herself at a table next to that at which the
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: more important guests were seated. Maximilian was of the group. Emily,
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 1: who lent an attentive ear to her neighbor's conversation, overheard
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 1: one of those dialogs into which a young woman so
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: easily falls with a young man who has the grace
• 2:32:27
  Speaker 1: and style of Maximilian Longueville. The lady talking to the
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: young banker was a Neapolitan duchess whose eyes shot lightning flashes,
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 1: and whose skin had the sheen of satin. The intimate
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 1: terms on which Longville affected to be with her stung
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Fontaine all the more because she had just
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 1: given her lover back twenty times as much tenderness as
• 2:32:55
  Speaker 1: she had ever felt for him before. Yes, Monsieur, in
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: my country, true love can make every kind of sacrifice,
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 1: the duchess was saying, in a simper You have more
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: passion than French women, said Maximilia, whose burning gaze fell
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: on Emili. They are all vanity, monsieur, Emili eagerly interposed,
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: Is it not very wrong to calumniate your own country devotion?
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: Is to be found in every nation. Do you imagine,
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle retorted the Italian with a sardonic smile, that a
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 1: Parisian would be capable of following her lover all over
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: the world. Oh, Madame, let us understand each other. She
• 2:33:48
  Speaker 1: would follow him to a desert and live in a tent,
• 2:33:52
  Speaker 1: but not to sit in a shop. A disdainful gesture
• 2:33:58
  Speaker 1: completed her meaning. Thus, under the influence of her disastrous education, Emily,
• 2:34:04
  Speaker 1: for the second time, killed her budding happiness and destroyed
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 1: its prospects of life. Maximilian's apparent indifference and a woman's
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: smile had wrung from her one of those sarcasms whose
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 1: treacherous zest always led her astray. Rademoiselle said Longville in
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 1: a low voice, under cover of the noise made by
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: the ladies as they rose from the table. No one
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: will ever more ardently desire your happiness than I permit
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 1: me to assure you of this. As I am taking
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 1: leave of you. I am starting for Italy in a
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 1: few days with a duchess, no doubt, no, but perhaps
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: with a mortal blow. Is not that pure fancy? Asked
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: Emili with an agg anxious glance. No, he replied, there
• 2:35:03
  Speaker 1: are wounds which never heal. You are not to go,
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: said the girl imperiously, and she smiled. I shall go,
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 1: replied Maximilian gravely. You will find me married on your return.
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: I warn you, she said, coquettishly. I hope so, impertinent, wretch,
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: she exclaimed, how cruel a revenge. A fortnight later, Maximilian
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 1: set out with his sister Clara for the warm and
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 1: poetic scenes of beautiful Italy, leaving Mademoiselle de Fontaine a
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: prey to the most vehement regret. The young secretary to
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 1: the Embassy took up his brother's quarrel and contrived to
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: take signal vengeance on amily's disdain by making known the
• 2:35:59
  Speaker 1: occasion of the lover's separation. He repaid his fair partner
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: with interest all the sarcasm with which she had formerly
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: attacked Maximilia, and often made more than one excellency smile
• 2:36:15
  Speaker 1: by describing the fair foe of the counting house, the
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: amazon who preached a crusade against bankers, the young girl
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 1: whose love had evaporated before a bale of muslin. The
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 1: Comte de Fontaine was obliged to use his influence to
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 1: procure an appointment to Russia for Auguste Lanville, in order
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 1: to protect his daughter from the ridicule heaped upon her
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: by this dangerous young persecutor. Not long after, the Ministry,
• 2:36:50
  Speaker 1: being compelled to raise a levy of peers to support
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: the Aristocratic party trembling in the upper Chamber under the
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 1: lash of an illustrious writer, gave Monsieur Guillrodon de Longueville
• 2:37:02
  Speaker 1: a peerage with the title of Vicomte. Monsieur de Fontaine
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 1: also obtained a peerage, the reward due as much to
• 2:37:11
  Speaker 1: his fidelity in evil days as to his name, which
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: claimed a place in the hereditary chamber. About this time, Emily,
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: now of age, made no doubt some serious reflections on life,
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 1: for her tone and manners changed perceptibly. Instead of amusing
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 1: herself by saying spiteful things to her uncle, she lavished
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: on him the most affectionate attentions. She brought him his
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: stick with a persevering devotion that made the cynical smile.
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: She gave him her arm, rode in his carriage, and
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 1: accompanied him in all his drives. She even persuaded him
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 1: that she liked the smell of tobacco. And read him
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 1: his favorite paper, Lacotidienne. In the midst of clouds of
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 1: smoke which the malicious old sailor intentionally blew over her,
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 1: she learned Piquet to be a match for the old
• 2:38:11
  Speaker 1: count and this fantastic damsel even listened without impatience to
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 1: his periodical narratives of the battles of the Bellepool, the
• 2:38:20
  Speaker 1: maneuvers of the Ville de Paris, Monsieur le Souclin's first expedition,
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 1: or the Battle of Abouquir, Though the old sailor had
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: often said that he knew his longitude and latitude too
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: well to allow himself to be captured by a young corvette.
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 1: One fine morning Paris drawing rooms heard the news of
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 1: the marriage of Mademoiselle de Fontaine to the Comte de Caergaroette.
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: The young countess gave splendid entertainments to drown thought, but
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 1: she no doubt found a void at the bottom.
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 2: Of the world.
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: Luxury was ineffectual to disguise the emptiness and grief of
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 1: her sorrowing soul. For the most part, in spite of
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: the flashes of assumed gaiety, her beautiful face expressed unspoken melancholy.
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 1: Emily appeared, however, full of attentions and consideration for her
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: old husband, who, on retiring to his rooms at night
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 1: to the sounds of a lively band, would often say,
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: I do not know myself was I to wait till
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 1: the age of seventy two to embark as pilot on
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 1: board the bell Amy Lee after twenty years of matrimonial galleys.
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 1: The conduct of the young Countess was marked by such
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 1: strictness that the most clear sighted criticism had no fault
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 1: to find with her. Lookers on chose to think that
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: the vice merle had reserved the right of disposing of
• 2:40:03
  Speaker 1: his fortune to keep his wife more tightly in hand,
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 1: But this was a notion as insulting to the uncle
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 1: as to the niece. Their conduct was indeed so delicately
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 1: judicious that the men who were most interested in guessing
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 1: the secrets of the couple could never decide whether the
• 2:40:22
  Speaker 1: old count regarded her as a wife or as a daughter.
• 2:40:27
  Speaker 1: He was often heard to say that he had rescued
• 2:40:30
  Speaker 1: his niece as a castaway after shipwreck, and that for
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: his part, he had never taken a mean advantage of
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: hospitality when he had saved an enemy from the fury
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 1: of the storm. Though the Countess aspired to reign in
• 2:40:48
  Speaker 1: Paris and tried to keep pace with Madame the Duchesses
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 1: de Moufrignes and Duchaulieu, the Marquises Despard and Degliment, the
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 1: Comtess's fell de Moncorney and Arresteaux, Madame de Comte and
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Touche. She did not yield to the addresses
• 2:41:09
  Speaker 1: of the young Vicomte de Portent, Duire, who made her.
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 2: His idol.
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: Two years after her marriage. In one of the old
• 2:41:19
  Speaker 1: drawing rooms in the Faubois Saint Jamain, where she was
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: admired for her character worthy of the old school, Emily
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 1: heard the Vicomte de Longueville announced in the corner of
• 2:41:33
  Speaker 1: the room where she was sitting playing piquet with the
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 1: Bishop of perse Police. Her agitation was not observed. She
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 1: turned her head and saw her former lover come in
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: in all the freshness of youth. His father's death and
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: then that of his brother killed by the severe climate
• 2:41:56
  Speaker 1: of Saint Petersburg, had placed on Maximilian's the hereditary plumes
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 1: of the French peer's hat. His fortune matched his learning
• 2:42:07
  Speaker 1: and his merits. Only the day before, his youthful and
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 1: fervid eloquence had dazzled the assembly. At this moment he
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: stood before the Countess, free and graced with all the
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: advantages she had formerly required of her ideal. Every mother
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: with a daughter to marry made amiable advances to a
• 2:42:30
  Speaker 1: man gifted with the virtues which they attributed to him,
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: as they admired his attractive person. But Ami Lee knew
• 2:42:39
  Speaker 1: better than anyone that the Vicomte de Longueville had the
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 1: steadfast nature in which a wise woman sees a guarantee
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 1: of happiness. She looked at the admiral, who, to use
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 1: his favorite expression, seemed likely to hold his corn for
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 1: a long time yet, and cursed the follies of her youth.
• 2:43:07
  Speaker 1: At this moment, Monsieur de Persepolis said, with episcopal grace,
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 1: fair lady, you have thrown away the king of hurts.
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 1: I have won, But do not regret your money. I
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 1: keep it for my little seminaries. End of Section five.
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: End of the ball at Soul by Honore de Balzac,
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 1: translated by Clara Bell