An Old Maid

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Honoré de Balzac. An Old Maid

CHAPTER I. ONE OF MANY CHEVALIERS DE VALOIS

CHAPTER II. SUSANNAH AND THE ELDERS

CHAPTER III. ATHANASE

CHAPTER IV. MADEMOISELLE CORMON

CHAPTER V. AN OLD MAID’S HOUSEHOLD

CHAPTER VI. FINAL DISAPPOINTMENT AND ITS FIRST RESULT

CHAPTER VII. OTHER RESULTS

Отрывок из книги

On a Wednesday morning, early, toward the middle of spring, in the year 16, – such was his mode of reckoning, – at the moment when the chevalier was putting on his old green-flowered damask dressing-gown, he heard, despite the cotton in his ears, the light step of a young girl who was running up the stairway. Presently three taps were discreetly struck upon the door; then, without waiting for any response, a handsome girl slipped like an eel into the room occupied by the old bachelor.

“Ah! is it you, Suzanne?” said the Chevalier de Valois, without discontinuing his occupation, which was that of stropping his razor. “What have you come for, my dear little jewel of mischief?”

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“Old stupid!” said Suzanne, laughing.

The pretty girl went upstairs, leaving Rene to finish his porringer of buckwheat in boiled milk. Du Bousquier, still in bed, was revolving in his mind his plans of fortune; for ambition was all that was left to him, as to other men who have sucked dry the orange of pleasure. Ambition and play are inexhaustible; in a well-organized man the passions which proceed from the brain will always survive the passions of the heart.

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