Modeste Mignon. Оноре де Бальзак. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Оноре де Бальзак
Издательство: Bookwire
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Жанр произведения: Языкознание
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isbn: 4057664601469
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       Honoré de Balzac

      Modeste Mignon

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664601469

       CHAPTER I. THE CHALET

       CHAPTER II. A PORTRAIT FROM LIFE

       CHAPTER III. PRELIMINARIES

       CHAPTER IV. A SIMPLE STORY

       CHAPTER V. THE PROBLEM STILL UNSOLVED

       CHAPTER VI. A MAIDEN’S FIRST ROMANCE

       CHAPTER VII. A POET OF THE ANGELIC SCHOOL

       CHAPTER VIII. BLADE TO BLADE

       CHAPTER IX. THE POWER OF THE UNSEEN

       CHAPTER X. THE MARRIAGE OF SOULS

       CHAPTER XI. WHAT COMES OF CORRESPONDENCE

       CHAPTER XII. A DECLARATION OF LOVE,—SET TO MUSIC

       CHAPTER XIII. A FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF MONSIEUR DE LA BRIERE

       CHAPTER XIV. MATTERS GROWN COMPLICATED

       CHAPTER XV. A FATHER STEPS IN

       CHAPTER XVI. DISENCHANTED

       CHAPTER XVII. A THIRD SUITOR

       CHAPTER XVIII. A SPLENDID FIRST APPEARANCE

       CHAPTER XIX. OF WHICH THE AUTHOR THINKS A GOOD DEAL

       “I.”

       CHAPTER XX. THE POET DOES HIS EXERCISES

       CHAPTER XXI. MODESTE PLAYS HER PART

       CHAPTER XXII. A RIDDLE GUESSED

       CHAPTER XXIII. BUTSCHA DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF

       CHAPTER XXIV. THE POET FEELS THAT HE IS LOVED TOO WELL

       CHAPTER XXV. A DIPLOMATIC LETTER

       CHAPTER XXVI. TRUE LOVE

       CHAPTER XXVII. A GIRL’S REVENGE

       CHAPTER XXVIII. MODESTE BEHAVES WITH DIGNITY

       CHAPTER XXIX. CONCLUSION

       ADDENDUM

       The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

       Table of Contents

      At the beginning of October, 1829, Monsieur Simon Babylas Latournelle, notary, was walking up from Havre to Ingouville, arm in arm with his son and accompanied by his wife, at whose side the head clerk of the lawyer’s office, a little hunchback named Jean Butscha, trotted along like a page. When these four personages (two of whom came the same way every evening) reached the elbow of the road where it turns back upon itself like those called in Italy “cornice,” the notary looked about to see if any one could overhear him either from the terrace above or the path beneath, and when he spoke he lowered his voice as a further precaution.

      “Exupere,” he said to his son, “you must try to carry out intelligently a little manoeuvre which I shall explain to you, but you are not to ask the meaning of it; and if you guess the meaning I command you to toss it into that Styx which every lawyer and every man who expects to have a hand in the government of his country is bound to keep within him for the secrets of others. After you have paid your respects and compliments to Madame and Mademoiselle Mignon, to Monsieur and Madame Dumay, and to Monsieur Gobenheim if he is at the Chalet, and as soon as quiet is restored, Monsieur Dumay will take you aside; you are then to look attentively at Mademoiselle Modeste (yes, I am willing to allow it) during the whole time he is speaking to you. My worthy friend will ask you to go out and take a walk; at the end of an hour, that is, about nine o’clock, you are to come back in a great hurry; try to puff as if you were out of breath, and whisper in Monsieur Dumay’s ear, quite low, but so that Mademoiselle Modeste is sure to overhear you, these words: ‘The young man has come.’ ”

      Exupere was to start the next morning for Paris to begin the study of law. This impending departure had induced Latournelle to propose him to his friend Dumay as an accomplice in the important conspiracy which these directions indicate.

      “Is Mademoiselle Modeste suspected of having a lover?” asked Butscha in a timid voice of Madame Latournelle.

      “Hush, Butscha,” she replied, taking her husband’s arm.

      Madame Latournelle, the daughter of a clerk of the supreme court, feels that her birth authorizes her to claim issue from a parliamentary family. This conviction explains why the lady, who is somewhat blotched as to complexion, endeavors to assume in her own person the majesty of a court whose decrees are recorded in her father’s pothooks. She takes snuff, holds herself as stiff as a ramrod, poses for a person of consideration,