Honoré de Balzac

“ Has love got second sight? What answer can one give, after having seen so many unions celebrated under the auspices of so heavenly a contract, broken later on, engendering almost eternal hatred, and positive repulsion? ”

“ A divine smile dried Ursule’s tears and she said:
“In some circumstances misfortune is a good thing!”
The doctor could not answer this simplicity.
“What has he done, godfather?” she resumed.
“In two years, my little angel, he has contracted one hundred and twenty thousand francs’ worth of debts in Paris! He was foolish enough to allow himself to be put in Sainte-Pélagie, a blunder which, as times go, brings a young man into disrepute forever. A spendthrift who is capable of plunging a poor mother into sorrow and want, would kill his wife from despair as your poor father did.” ”

“ The justice of the peace escorted the notary as far as the gate, asking him without any show of eagerness:
“What happened to Ursule?”
“I do not know,” replied Monsieur Dionis, “she was on the steps listening to us; and, when her uncle refused to lend the sum necessary to young Portenduère, who is in prison for debt, for he did not have, like Monsieur du Rouvre, a Monsieur Bongrand to defend him, she grew pale, staggered—Could she be in love with him? Might there be between them—?”
“At fifteen?” rejoined Bongrand, interrupting Dionis. ”

“ When Ursule, who had not dared look at her godfather, raised her eyes to his, her heart was deeply touched at seeing the tears rolling down his withered cheeks. Old men’s tears are as alarming as children’s are natural. ”

“ Bongrand had decided that Ursule Mirouët was a stranger with regard to Doctor Minoret, but he felt that the spirit of the law repulsed any illegitimate offshoots from the family. The authors of the Code had only foreseen the weakness of fathers and mothers for the natural children, without imagining that the uncles or the aunts might espouse the tenderness of the natural child in favor of its descendants. ”

“ A man of good feeling and a man of genius see everything. Bongrand, nettled at the doctor’s silence, but moved doubtless through interest in Ursule and believing her to be imperiled, resolved to defend her against the heirs. He was frantic at the thought of knowing nothing of the old man’s conversation with Dionis. ”

“ You are between your blessed childhood, which ceases, and the agitations of love, which will make your existence a stormy one, for you have the nervous system belonging to an exquisite sensitiveness. What has come to you, is love, my child,” said the old man, with an expression of profound sadness, “it is love in its sacred simplicity, love as it should be ”

“ The sensations that you experience, this movement of your sensibility which rushes from its yet unknown centre over your heart and mind, this happiness with which you think of Savinien, all is natural. But, my adored child, as our good Abbé Chaperon has told you, society demands the sacrifice of many natural inclinations. ”

“ The notary was delighted enough at this discovery, which might prevent the dreaded marriage in extremis with which the doctor could balk his heirs, whilst Bongrand saw his castles in the air overthrown; for a long time, he had been thinking of marrying his son to Ursule.
“If the poor child were in love with this fellow, it would be a misfortune for her; Madame de Portenduère is a Breton and biased as to her nobility,” returned the justice of the peace after a pause. ”

“ I have studied women well, and know that, if love only masters most of them after many proofs and miracles of affection, if those women never break their silence and only yield when conquered, there are others who, under the influence of a sympathy which is accounted for nowadays by magnetic fluids, are overcome in an instant. ”

“ Seeing them dwelling at the summit of human affairs, business people do not believe superior men capable of descending to the infinite littlenesses of the details which, like the interests in finance and the microscopies in natural science, end by equalizing capital and forming worlds. ”

“ The senses can, so to speak, mutually correspond and the ideas be at variance: and perhaps some people live more through ideas than through the feelings. On the other hand, characters often agree and the persons dislike each other. ”