Honoré de Balzac

“ It often happens that a piece, poor in itself, but played by a young girl under the influence of deep feeling, makes more impression than a grand overture pompously rendered by a skilled orchestra. In all music, besides the composer’s idea, there exists the soul of the player, who, through a license acquired only in this art, may give meaning and poetry to phrases that have no great value. Chopin to-day proves the truth of this fact on the thankless piano, as has been already demonstrated by Paganini on the violin. ”

“ Ursule continued playing, the heirs left, with the exception of Désiré, who was trying to find out the intentions of his great-uncle, of the viscount and of Ursule.
“You have as much talent as soul, mademoiselle,” said Savinien when the young girl shut her piano to come and sit beside her godfather. “Who is your master?”
“A German, living quite close to the Rue Dauphiné, on the Quai Conti,” said the doctor. “Had he not given Ursule a lesson every day during our visit to Paris, he would have come this morning.”
“He is not only a great musician,” said Ursule, “but an adorably simple man.” ”

“ After this reply, which was tinged with both mockery and dignity, silence reigned without anybody trying to break it, and it was becoming irksome, when someone knocked.
“Here is our dear curé,” said the old lady, rising, leaving Ursule alone, and advancing to meet the Abbé Chaperon, an honor she had shown to neither Ursule nor the doctor.
The old man smiled in looking alternately at his ward and Savinien. To complain of Madame de Portenduère’s manner or to take offence at it was a reef upon which a small-minded man would have run aground; but Minoret had learnt too much not to avoid it ”

“ Nevertheless, all social law has its exceptions. And so Savinien was considering how to bend his mother’s pride before Ursule’s innate nobleness. The struggle began on the spot As soon as Savinien was seated at table, his mother told him of the horrible letters, according to her, that the Kergarouëts and the Portenduères had written to her.
“There is no more family nowadays, mother,” answered Savinien, “there are only individuals! The nobles are no longer a solid party. To-day no one asks you if you are a Portenduère, if you are brave, if you are a statesman ”

“ When the doctor returned to Madame de Portenduère’s he found Dionis there, accompanied by Messieurs Bongrand and Levrault, the mayor, the witnesses required by law for the validity of deeds drawn up in parishes where there is only one notary. Minoret took Monsieur Dionis aside and whispered a word in his ear, after which the notary read out the acknowledgment; in it Madame de Portenduère was to give a mortgage on all her property to the extent of repaying the hundred thousand francs the doctor had lent the viscount, and the interest was stipulated at five per cent. ”

“ Nowadays it is only given to doctors and poor artists. Therefore kings have done well to combine it with that of Saint-Lazare, a saint who was, I believe, a poor devil restored to life by a miracle! On that score, the order of Saint-Michel and Saint-Lazare should be, for us, a symbol. ”