Honoré de Balzac

“ La Bougival, located above, could come down at the call of a bell placed at the head of her young mistress’s bed. The room destined for the library, the ground-floor parlor and the kitchen, still empty, only stained, freshly papered and painted, were waiting for the purchases the goddaughter was to make at the sale of her godfather’s furniture. Although they knew Ursule’s character, the justice of the peace and the curé dreaded this sudden transition for her to a life devoid of the refinements and luxury to which the deceased doctor had insisted upon accustoming her. ”

“ Listen to me: if you induce little Mirouët—who possesses moreover forty thousand francs—to become your wife, as sure as my name is Minoret, I will give you the means to buy a notary’s practice at Orleans.”
“No,” said Goupil, “I should not be conspicuous enough; but at Montargis—”
“No,” retorted Minoret, “but at Sens—”
“Done! then it shall be Sens!” cried the hideous head clerk, “there is an archbishop there, I do not dislike a pious country; with a little hypocrisy one gets on better. Besides, the little one is religious, she would be a success there.” ”

“ On learning this disaster, Ursule, barely recovered from the fever and the blow aimed at her by the heirs, was stupefied with grief. To love and find one’s self powerless to succor the beloved one is one of the most frightful sufferings that can lay waste to the soul of a noble, delicate woman.
“I meant to have bought my uncle’s house, I shall buy your mother’s,” she said.
“Is it possible?” said Savinien. “You are a minor and cannot sell your stock without formalities to which the attorney for the crown would never consent Besides, we shall not attempt to resist. ”

“ Savinien still has six thousand francs a year, Ursule has forty thousand francs, I shall have their capitals put out at interest à la Massin, but honestly, and in ten years they will have a small fortune.”
“Savinien would be a fool; he can marry Mademoiselle du Rouvre when he pleases, an only daughter to whom her uncle and aunt intend to leave two magnificent legacies.”
“‘When Love lays hold upon us, good-bye to prudence,’ says La Fontaine. But who is he, your notary? for after all—” rejoined Bongrand out of curiosity.
“I,” replied Goupil, startling the justice of the peace. ”

“ Bongrand, who bought for Ursule the pieces of furniture that the deceased had been fond of and that were calculated to adorn the little house, did not appear at all at the sale of the library. More cunning than the heirs, whose avidity might have made him pay too dear for the books, he had commissioned a dealer in second-hand books at Melun, who had purposely come to Nemours, and who had already had several lots knocked down to him. In consequence of the suspicion of the heirs, the library was sold in separate works. ”

“ Everything is out in the grounds. People come and go everywhere as if it were the street, the handsomest furniture is put to any use, they climb upon it, and a hen would not be able to find her chicks for the muddle! One would think one was at a fire. The things are in the yard, the cupboards open, and nothing in them! Oh! the poor dear man, it was well he died, this sale would have killed him. ”

“ Moreover, in buying an establishment of any kind, the house nearly always forms part of the sale. The justice of the peace, to whom the attorney for the crown had entrusted the orphan’s interests, saw no other way of removing her from the inn than by making her buy a little house in the Grand’Rue, at the corner of the bridge on the Loing, with the house-door opening on a passage, and having only one parlor on the ground floor with two windows looking on the street, and behind which there was a kitchen, with a French window looking on an inner court about thirty feet square. ”

“ The whole town is delighted to see the discomfiture of a noble family. These bourgeois are like hounds at the death. Happily I still have ten thousand francs with which I shall be able to provide for my mother until the end of this wretched business. ”

“ Minoret had committed the robbery without the least reflection, so rapidly had events succeeded each other; reflection came afterward. Now, if you have thoroughly grasped this man’s physiognomy and appearance, you will understand the amazing effect that thought would produce upon him. ”

“ Happily for Minoret, the head clerk believed, like all crafty people, that his marriage with Ursule was an excuse for making up to him since he had set Massin against them.
“It is not he,” he said to himself, “who thought of this humbug, I recognize my Zélie, she has dictated his rôle. ”

“ The old lady was stunned at being called upon to pay one hundred and twenty-nine thousand five hundred and seventeen francs fifty-five centimes to the heirs at twenty-four hours’ notice, and the interest from the day of the application, at the risk of seizure of her property. To borrow was impossible. Savinien went to consult a solicitor at Fontainebleau.
“You have to deal with bad people who will never compromise ”