Honoré de Balzac

“ In fact, military service stamps the gestures, the bearing and appearance of men with decision mingled with gravity, an indefinable uprightness which enables the most superficial observer to recognize a military man under the bourgeois coat; there is no better proof that a man is made to command. Ursule loved Savinien still better for it, and felt a childish delight in walking up and down the little garden on his arm, making him relate the share he had had, in his character of naval cadet, in the capture of Algiers. ”

“ In fact, the old man’s demise possessed the attraction of a problem. But the doctor did not know he was ill, he labored under a delusion, and neither poor Ursule, nor Savinien, nor the justice of the peace, nor the curé, would through delicacy, enlighten him as to his situation; the Nemours doctor, who came to see him every night, was afraid to prescribe any further. Old Minoret felt no pain, he was gently dying. With him, the mind remained strong, clear and powerful. With old men thus constituted, the mind governs the body and gives it strength to die standing. ”

“ When peace was almost re-established, the doctor bought a little house adjoining his own, and tore it down, as well as the wall of his courtyard, so as to have a coach house and stable built on the ground. To use the capital of a thousand francs’ income to set up outhouses seemed madness to the Minoret heirs. The so-called madness began a new era in the doctor’s life, for, at a time when horses and carriages were to be procured for almost nothing, he brought back from Paris three superb horses and a barouche. ”