The Rush for the Spoil, Book Two of Rougon-Macquart Cycle by Émile Zola Part 2/2 | Full Audio Book

Support through Patreon – https://patreon.com/LibriVoxAudiobooks
Merchandise – https://my-store-2993814.creator-spring.com/

The Rush for the Spoil, Book Two of Rougon-Macquart Cycle by Émile Zola (1840 – 1902)
Genre(s): Culture & Heritage Fiction, General Fiction, Historical Fiction

Read by: Mark Leder in English

Parts:
Part 1 https://youtu.be/zqusupDUHOg

Chapters:
00:00:00 – 08 – Chapter Four, Part Two
01:14:27 – 09 – Chapter Five, Part One
02:05:15 – 10 – Chapter Five, Part Two
02:51:38 – 11 – Chapter Five, Part Three
03:29:29 – 12 – Chapter Six, Part One
04:26:59 – 13 – Chapter Six, Part Two
05:29:22 – 14 – Chapter Seven

Book Two of Zola’s 20-volume Rougon-Macquart Cycle. ‘The Rush for the Spoil’ (‘La Curee’) concerns Aristide Siccard (once Aristide Rougon) and his family, who come to Paris during the Second Empire, and ‘make a killing’, as they say, in land speculation. – Summary by Mark Leder

More information: https://librivox.org/the-rush-for-the-spoil-book-two-of-rougon-macquart-cycle-by-emile-zola/

LibriVox – free public domain audiobooks (https://librivox.org/)

Section eight of the rush for the spoil by Emil zolah translated by Henry vitelli this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Mark leader Section 8 the times were momentarily bad for speculation sard was the worthy offspring of the hotel DeVille like Paris he’d been eager for transformation

Feverishly bent upon enjoyment and blindly lavish in expenditure and at this moment like the city itself he found himself in the presence of a formidable deficit which it was necessary he should make good secretly for he would not hear speak of sobriety economy calm and simple life he

Preferred to retain the useless luxury and real misery of these new thoroughfares when he had derived that colossal Fortune ushered each morning into being but always swallowed up when evening came passing from Adventure to Adventure he now only possessed the Gilded facade of an absent capital in that time of fierce Madness Paris

Herself did not engage her future with less self-restraint or March more straightly towards every Folly and every Financial trickery the liquidation threatened to be a terrible one the finest speculations fell through in sard’s hands as he confessed he had just experienced considerable losses on the b

M tutan l Ro had almost capsized the credit viol by a bullying game which had suddenly turned against him fortunately the government intervening secretly had reset the famous Farmers loan machine on its legs sakar already badly shaken by this double blow warmly rid by his brother the minister on account of a

Danger which had threatened the delegation bonds of the City of Paris compromised at the same time at the viol was yet even unluckier in his speculations in house property Minon and Shier had altogether ceased dealing with him if he accused them it was because he was secretly

Enraged to think that he had blundered by building on his share of the land whilst they prudently sold their while they were netting a fortune he remained hampered by his houses which he was only able to dispose of at a loss among others he sold a mansion in the

Rud de Marin on which he still owed 380,000 Franks for 300,000 he had certainly invented a Dodge worthy of him which consisted in demanding 10,000 Franks for a flat worth 8,000 at the most the frightened tenant only signed a lease when the landlord consented to make him a present of the

First two years rent the apartment was thus brought down to its real value But the lease enunciated the figure of 10,000 Franks and when sart found a purchaser and capitalized the income of the property the valuation proved most fantastic he could not apply the Swindle

On a large scale as his houses did not let indeed he had built them too soon the clearings amid which they were so to they lost in the mud and the winter cold isolated them and lowered their value considerably the affair which affected sakar the most was the vulgar Swindle of

M M sharier who brought back from him the Mansion which he’d been compelled to give up building on the boulevard maler the contractors were at last smitten with a desire of residing on their Boulevard as they had sold their share of the building plots at a profit and cented the embarrassed circumstances of

Their ex partner they offered to rid him of the enclosure in the center of which the Mansion Rose to the flooring of the first story where the iron girds were partly placed only they talked of the solid foundations in Cut Stone as useless rubbish saying that they would

Have preferred the soil to be bare so as to build upon it according to their taste sart had to sell without taking the hund and odd thousand Franks which he’d already expended in into account and what exasperated him the more was that the contractors would never agree

To take the ground back at the rate of 250 Franks the meter at which figure it had been valued when the plots were shared they knocked off 25 Franks per meter like those secondhand dealers who will only give four Franks for an object which they sold for five a day

Before 48 hours later sart had the grief of seeing an army of Masons invade the enclosure and continue building upon the so-called useless rubbish he thus played the impecunious all the better before his wife as his Affairs were becoming more and more muddled he was not the man to confess

Himself for the simple love of truth but if you find yourself embarrassed said Renee with an air of Doubt why did you buy me that iget and necklace which cost you I believe 65,000 pranks I have no use for those jewels and I shall be obliged to ask

Your permission to dispose of them so as to give worms something on account never do that he exclaimed nervously if you were not seen wearing those Jewels at the ball at the ministry tomorrow people would gossip about my position he was good-natured that morning so we ended by smiling and

Muttering with a wink we speculators my dear are like pretty women we have our little trickeries pray keep your regret in your necklace for love of me he could not tell the story for although a very amusing one it was in somewhat questionable taste zard and Lord darini had entered into an alliance

One night after supper Laura was head over heels in debt and was trying to find some nice young man who would kindly alope with her and take her to London zakar on his side felt the ground giving way beneath him his failing imagination sought for an expedient

Which would show him to the public wallowing on a bed of gold and banknotes the Harlot and the Speculator came to an understanding amid the semi intoxication of dessert he hit upon the idea of that sail of diamonds which attracted all Paris and where amid a great fuss he

Purchased some Jewels for his wife then with the product of the sale some 400,000 Franks he succeeded in satisfying Laura’s creditors who were owed about twice that amount it may even be believed that he recouped a part of his 65,000 Franks when he was seen liquidating

Bini’s Affairs he was supposed to be her protector people thought that he had paid her debts in full and that he was doing all sorts of foolish things for her every hand was stretched out to him and his credit it returned formidable at the borce he was joked

About his passion with smiles and Illusions which delighted him meanwhile Lord dorini brought into notoriety by all this fuss and with whom he did not even spend a single night pretended she was deceiving him with eight or 10 fools allured by the idea of stealing her from a man of such colossal

Wealth in one month she obtained two sets of furniture and more diamonds that she had sold sakar had fallen into the habit of going to smoke a cigar at her place of an afternoon on leaving the Bor and he often perceived coattails flying off in Terror through the

Doorways when he and laa were alone they could not look at each other without laughing he kissed her on the forward as if she were a perverse girl whose Navy delighted him he did not give her a copper on the contrary she once lent him some money to pay a gambling debt

Renee wished to insist and spoke of at least pawning the jewels but her husband made her understand that it was not possible that all Paris expected to see her wearing them on the tomorrow thereupon the young woman who was greatly worried about worms Bill tried to devise another

Expedient but my cheron affair she suddenly exclaimed it is progressing well isn’t it you told me only the other day but the prophets would be superb perhaps loo would Advance me the 136,000 Franks For A Minute sakar had forgotten the tongs between his legs he now hastily took hold of them again lent

Forward and almost disappeared into the fireplace when the young woman heard his voice huskily muttering yes yes Arsenal might perhaps she was at last coming of her own accord to the point to which he had gently tried to lead her since the outset of the conversation for 2 years already he’d

Been preparing his masterly stroke in the direction of shahon his wife had never consented to part with Aunt Elizabeth’s property she’d sworn to thead that she would keep it intact to bequeath it to her children should she become a mother in presence of this obstinacy the Speculator

Imagination had set to work and had ended by constructing something poetical a design of Exquisite Navy a colossal piece of trickery by which the City of Paris the state his wife and even Laro would be victimized he no longer talked about selling the ground only he every day

Deplore the Folly of leaving it unproductive of contenting oneself with an income of 2% Renee always pressed for money had ended by entertaining the idea of a speculation sard based his operation on the certainty of an approaching expropriation for The Cutting of the boulevard D euen the line of which was

Not yet clearly decided upon and then it was that he brought forward his old accomplice larano as a partner who made an agreement with his wife on The Following basis she on her side brought the ground representing a value of 500,000 Franks and laano on his side undertook to

Expend a similar sum in building upon this ground a popular music hall with a large garden where games of all kind swings Skittles and bowls should be installed the profits were naturally to be divided just as the vosses were to be equally shared in the event of one of the

Partners wishing to retire he might do so by claiming his share according to the valuation which would be made Renee seemed surprised by this High figure of 500,000 Franks when the ground was worth 300,000 at the most but zakar made her understand that it was a skillful plan for tying Leno’s hands

Later on for his buildings would never represent such an amount lareno had become an elegant man about town well gloved with dazzling linen and astounding neck ties to go about he had a Tilbury as light as a piece of clockwork with a very high seat in which he drove himself his offices in

The ru de RI were a set of sumptuous rooms in which one never saw the least portfolio or business paper lying about his clerks wrote on tables of black and pearwood adorned with marquetry and ornaments of chased brass he had assumed the style and title of an expropriation

Agent a new calling which The Works of Paris had brought into being by his connection with devil he was informed in advance of The Cutting of any new thoroughfares when he had induced the road inspector to show him the proposed line of route of a new Boulevard he went

To offer his services to the threatened householders and he brought forward his little plan for increasing the indemnity by acting before the decree of public utility was issued as soon as a householder accepted his proposals he took all the expense on himself drew a plan of the the property

Brought the affair before the courts and paid an advocate the whole for a percentage on the difference between the offer made by the city and the indemnity awarded by the jury to this calling which after all might be avowed he annexed several others he especially practiced

Usery he was not the user of the old school ragged and dirty with white expressionless eyes like five Frank pieces and pair lips tightly drawn together like the strings of a purse he smiled gave Charming glances had himself dressed by Desa and went to lunch at

Bance with his victim whom he called my dear fellow at bottom despite his waist coats tightly buckled around his waist Leno was a terrible fellow who without losing ought of his amiability would have prosecuted a debtor for payment of a bill until the unfortunate man was reduced to commit

Suicide sakar would willingly have chosen another partner but he still entertained anxiety respecting the false inventory which larano previously preserved so he preferred to interest him in the affair hoping that he’d be able to profit by some circumstance to regain possession of this compromising document Leno built the Music Hall an

Edifice in planks and plaster so mounted by little tin belfries which he painted red and yellow the garden and the games proved successful in the populace District of shahon at the end of a couple of years the speculation seemed a prosperous one although the prophets were in reality very

Small so far sakar had always spoken enthusiastically to his wife concerning the prospects of such a fine idea on seeing that her husband did not make up his mind to come out out of the fireplace where his voice was becoming more and more indistinct Renee exclaimed

I shall go to see Laro today it is my only resource thereupon he abandoned the log with which he was struggling the errands done my dear he said smiling don’t I foro all your desires I saw Lano last night and he promised you the 136,000 Franks she asked anxiously

Between the two flaming logs he was building a mountain of live Cinders delicately taking up the smallest fragments with the tongues and looking with a satisfied Air at the elevation which he raised with infinite art oh how fast you go he muttered 136,000 Franks make a large sum lareno

He’s a good fellow but his means are still limited he’s quite ready to oblig you he paused blinking his eyes in rebuilding a corner of the elevation which had fallen through the Pastime began to confuse the young woman’s ideas despite herself she watched the work of her husband whose clumsiness

Increased she felt inclined to give him advice forgetting worms the bill and her need of money she ended by exclaiming but place that large bit there underneath the others will then keep up her husband submissively obeyed her and added he can only find 50,000 Franks it will always make a nice installment

Only he won’t mix this affair up with the Chiron one he is but an intermediary do you understand my dear the person who really lends the money demands enormous interest he wants a note of hand for 80,000 Franks at 6 months date and having crowned the height with

A pointed Cinder he crossed his hands over the tongs and looked fixes L at his wife 80,000 Franks she cried but that’s robbery do you advise me to do anything so foolish no he answered plainly but if you are in absolute need of money I won’t forbid

It he rose up as if he meant to leave the room Renee in a state of cruel indecision looked at her husband and at the bill which he laid upon the mantle shelf she ended by taking her poor head in her hands and murmuring oh these business matters my head is splitting this

Morning well I shall sign this bill for 880,000 Franks if I didn’t I should become altogether ill I know myself I should spend the day in frightful tortures I prefer to be foolish at once it will relieve me and she spoke of ringing to have a bill stamp fetched but he insisted upon

Rendering her this service in person no doubt he had the bill stamp in his pocket for his absence scarcely lasted a couple of minutes while she was riding at a little table which he had drawn to the Fireside he examined her and an astonished feeling of Desire lighted up his eyes it

Was very warm in the room which was still full of the young woman’s rising in the scent of her first toilet wilst speaking she had let the folds of a dressing gown in which she had swathed herself fall down and the eyes of her husband who stood in front

Of her glided over her bent head from amid the gold of her hair far down to the whiteness of her neck and bosom he smiled with a singular air this Ardent fire which had burnt his face this closed room the heavy atmosphere of which was impregnated with a scent of

Love this yellow hair and this white skin which tempted him with with a kind of conjugal disdain made him dreamy enlarged the scope of a drama in which he had just played a scene and prompted some secret voluptuous design in his brutal jobber flesh when his wife held him out the

Bill begging him to finish the affair for her he took it still looking at her you are bewitchingly beautiful he murmured and as she lent forward to push the table aside he roughly kissed on the neck she gave a little cry then she rose up quivering trying to laugh thinking

Despite of herself of the others kisses the night before but he regretted having given her this cabman’s kiss and unleaving he simply pressed her hand in a friendly Manner and promised her that she should have the 50,000 Franks that same evening Renee dozed all day in front of

The fire at hours of Crisis she experienced the crol like Langer all her turbulent nature became lazy chilly B numed she shivered she needed blazing fires a suffocating heat which brought little drops of perspiration to her forward and tranquilized her in this Burning atmosphere in this bath of

Flames she scarcely suffered her pain became like a light dream a vague oppression the very ambiguity of which and by becoming voluptuous it was thus that until the evening she lulled her remorse of the night before in the red glow of the Hearth opposite a terrible fire which

Made the furniture around her crack and at moments deprived her of the consciousness of being she was able to dream of Maxim as of an inflamed enjoyment the Rays of which burnt her she had a nightmare of strange Amour amid flaring logs on beds heated white hot Celeste went to and fro

About the room with the calm face of a servant with icy blood she had orders not to admit anyone and she even kept the door shut to those inseparables adelene desan and suzan Hoffner when they called on returning from lunching together at a villa which they had rented at

Sanj however towards the evening when Celeste came to inform her mistress that her master’s sister Madame sidoni wished to see her she received orders to show her in as a rule Madame sidoni only called at dusk and yet her brother had prevailed upon her to wear silk dresses

But no one knew how it happened although the silk she wore came fresh from the shop it never looked new it was shabby destitute of Sheen and seemed to be in tatters she had also consented not to bring her basket to sar’s house but by way of compensation her pocket always overflowed with

Papers she was interested in Rene whom she was unable to transform into a reasonable customer resigned to the necessities of life she visited her regularly wearing the discreet smile of a doctor who does not like to frighten his patient by telling her the name of her disease she commiserated her little

Worries as if they’d been Petty ailments which she could cure immediately if the young woman only chose the latter who was in one of those moments when one feels the need of being pied simply received her to tell her that she had intolerable pains in her head why my beauty muttered Madame

Sidoni as she glided through the shade of the room why you are stifling here still your neuralgic pains eh it’s worry you take life too much to heart yes I have a great deal of worry replied Renee night was coming on she had not allowed Celeste to light the lamp the

Fire alone shed a grand red glow which fully illuminated her as she reclined in her white dressing gown the lace of which had a pinkish tinge at the edge of a shade one could just see an end of Madame C’s black dress and her two crossed hands encased in Gray cotton

Gloves her soft voice emerged out of the darkness still worry about money she said in a tone full of gentleness and pity just as if she had spoken of the worries of the heart Renee lowered her eyelids and made a gesture of a vowel ah if my brothers listen to me

Said Madame sidoni we should all be rich but they shrug their should shoulders whenever I speak to them about that debt of three milliards you know still I have good hopes for the last 10 years I’ve been wanting to make a journey to England but I have so little time for

Myself anyhow I recently made up my mind to write to London and I’m waiting for the answer and as the young woman smiled I know you are incredulous as well still you would be very pleased if I made you present of a pretty million one of these

Days oh the story is simple enough it was a Paris Banker who lent the money to the son of the king of England and as the banker died without leaving any direct airs the state can nowadays claim the reimbursement of the debt with compound interest I have calculated it

It amounts to 2 milard 943 milons 210,000 Franks it will come it will come never fear in the meantime said the young woman with the dash of irony you ought to obtain me 100,000 Franks I could then pay my tailor who’s greatly worrying me 100,000 Franks can be found replied

Madame sidoni quietly it’s only a question of paying for them the fire was glowing blowing Renee feeling more and more language stretched out her legs and showed the tips of her slippers at the edge of her dressing gown while the woman of business resumed in her commiserating

Voice poor dear you are really not reasonable I know a great many women but I’ve never seen a single one so careless about her health as you are for instance that little mishala there’s one who knows how to manage in spite of my myself I think of you when I see her so

Happy and well do you know that Miss de safre is madly in love with her and that he’s already given her presentence worth nearly 10,000 Franks I believe that her dream is to have a country house Madame sidoni was growing more animated and fumbled in her

Pocket I still have about me a letter from a poor young woman if we had a light I would let you read it just fancy her husband doesn’t provide for her he had accepted some bills and she has been obliged to borrow from the gentleman I

Know it was I who rescued the promisory notes from a lawyer’s clutches and it wasn’t an easy matter the poor children do you know they are wrong I receive them at my place as if they were my son and daughter you know a money lender asked Renee negligently I know 10

Between women one can say a number of things can’t one and it isn’t because your husband is my brother that I excuse his conduct in running after strumpets and leaving a beautiful woman like you to mope at the fireside that Lord costs him a fortune it wouldn’t astonish me if he had

Refused you money he has refused you hasn’t he oh the wretch Renee listened complacently to this voice which emerged out of a shade like the vague echo of her own dreams with her eyelids half lowered almost recumbent in her armchair she no longer realized that Madame sidoni was

There she fancied she dreamt that evil thoughts had come to her and tempted her with infinite gentleness meanwhile the others spoke on at length and her voice was like a monotonous flow of lukewarm water it was Madame Deen who spoiled your life she said you wouldn’t believe

Me oh you wouldn’t be reduced to cry by your fir side if you hadn’t mistrusted me and I love you like my eyes my beauty you have a bewitching foot you will no doubt laugh at me but I must tell you my Folly when I haven’t seen you for 3 days

I am absolutely impelled to come and admire you yes I lack something I feel feel the need of feasting my eyes on your beautiful hair your face which is so white and delicate and your slim waist really I’ve never seen anyone else with such a figure Renee ended by smiling her lovers

Themselves had not shown such warmth such Pious ecstasy in speaking to her of her beauty Madam sidoni observed her smile come it’s a greed he said Rising hastily I run on and on and forget that I make your head split you will come tomorrow won’t you we will talk over

Money Matters we will find a lender you hear me I’m determined that you shall be happy the young woman still motionless and enervated by the heat answered after a pause as if she had had to make a laborious effort to understand what was being said around

Her yes yes it’s agreed and we will have a chat but not tomorrow worms will be satisfied with something on account when he worries me again we will see don’t talk to me about all that now business has made my head split Madame sidon seemed greatly

Vexed she was on the point of sitting down again and resuming her coaxing monologue but Rene’s weary attitude decided her to defer the attack till another occasion she drew a handful of papers out of her pocket searched among them and ended by finding an object enclosed in a kind of pink

Box I came to recommend you a new soap she said resuming her business voice I take a great interest in the inventor who’s a Charming young man it is a very soft soap very good for the skin you will try it won’t you and you will speak

Of it to your friends I’ll leave it there on your mantle shelf she had gone to the door when she returned again and standing upright amid the Rosy Glow of the fire which lighted up her wax and face she began to praise an elastic belt an invention intended to take the place of

Stays it gives you a perfectly round waist a true wasps waste she said I saved it from bankruptcy when you come you’ll try the specimens won’t you I had to run about among solicitors during a whole week the documents are in my pocket and I’m now

Going to my lawyer to have the last attachment raised goodbye for the present pretty one remember that I’m waiting for you and that I want to dry your beautiful eyes she glided away and disappeared Renee did not even hear her close the door she she remained there before the

Dying fire continuing her dream of the whole day with her head full of dancing ciphers while in the distance she heard the voices of sakar and Madame sidoni who offered her considerable sums in the tone with which an Auctioneer invites bids for a lot of furniture she felt her husband’s rough

Kiss on her neck and when she turned around she fancied the other was there at her feet with her black dress and her flabby face making passionate speeches to her praising her Perfections and begging for an appointment with the attitude of a lover past resignation this made her

Smile the heat became more and more stifling in the room and the young woman’s torper the strange dreams she made were but a light and artificial sleep amid which she always beheld the little private room on the Boulevard and the broad div against which she’d fallen on her knees

She no longer suffered at all when she raised her eyelids again Maxim’s image passed through the rosy masks of fire at The Minister’s ball on the tomorrow beautiful Madame sakar looked marvelous worms had accepted the 50,000 Franks on account and she emerged from this pecuniary worry with the laughter of

Convalescence when she crossed the reception rooms in her robe of pink file with a long Louie c train edged with deep white lace there was a murmur and the men shoved one another aside to see her her intimate friends bent low with a discreet knowing smile rending homage to

Those beautiful shoulders with which all official Paris was so well acquainted and which were indeed The Firm Columns of the Empire she’ Beed her bosom with such a contempt for other people’s looks she walked by so tender and so gentle in her nudity that it was almost not

Indecent Ean rugon the great politician who felt that his sister-in-law’s bare bosom was even more eloquent than his speeches in the chamber softer and more persuasive in making people appreciate the charms of the rain and converting Skeptics when to compliment her on her happy audacity in lowering her dress

Body a couple of finger breaths almost all the cor legis was there and by the way that the deputies looked at the young woman the minister made up his mind that he should have a fine success on the marrow in the delicate question of the loans of the City of

Paris people could not vote against the power which on the hot bed of millions reared such a flower as this Renee so strange a flower of voluptuousness will silken flesh and statuesque nudity a living enjoyment that left a scent of tepid pleasure behind but what made the whole ball

Whisper were the necklace and the agret the men recognized the jewels and the women furtively called each other’s attention to them with their eyes these diamonds were the one subject of talk throughout the evening and in the white light of the chandeliers the reception room stretched away filled

With a resplendent throng which looked like a jumble of stars huddled into too small a corner of space at about 1:00 Sakara disappeared he had enjoyed his wife’s success like a man whose clap trap succeeds he had again Consolidated his credit a business matter required his

Presence at Lo does so he went off begging Maxine to take Renee home after the ball Maxim spent the evening soberly beside died Louise de M both of them very much occupied in saying frightful things about the women who passed by and when they had said something rather

Stronger than usual they stifled their laughter in their pocket handkerchiefs Renee had to come to ask the young fellow for his arm when she wished to leave she was nervously gay in the carriage she still quivered with all the intoxication of the light the perfumes and the noise that she had just left

She moreover seemed to have forgotten their nonsense of the boulevard as Maxim called it she only asked him in a strange tone of voice is that little Hunchback Louise so very funny then oh very funny replied the young man beginning to laugh again you saw the

Jutes dist Stanish with a yellow bird in her hair didn’t you well Louise pretends that it’s an automatic bird which flaps its wings every hour and cries cuckoo cuckoo to the poor Duke this Gest coming from a girl who had just left school seemed very comical to

Renee when they reached the house as Maxim was about to take his leave she said to him aren’t you coming up Celeste has no doubt prepared me something to eat he ascended in his usual easy manner upstairs however there was nothing to eat and had gone to bed Renee

Had to light the tapers in a little candelabrum her hands slightly trembled that foolish girl she said speaking of her maid she must have misunderstood my orders I shall never be able to undress myself unhelped she passed into the dressing room Maxim followed her to relate another remark of Louise’s which had

Just recurred to his mind he was as much at his ease as if he had stayed late at a friends and was looking for his Cigar Case to light an Nana but when Renee had set the candal abum down she turned round and fell speechless and portentous into the young

Man’s arms pressing her mouth upon his own Rene’s private Suite of rooms was a nest of Silk and Lace a Marvel of CSH luxury a tiny budoir preceded the bedroom the two apartments formed but one or rather the budoir was scarcely more than the threshold of the bedroom a

Large Al Cove furnished with couches and having a pair of curtains instead of a door the walls in both Apartments were hung with flax tinted silk and stuff embroidered with huge bouquets of roses white lilac and buttercups the curtains and door hangings were of Venetian lace over a

Silken line Ling formed alternately of gray and pink bands in the bedroom the white marble chimney piece a real Jewel displayed like a flower bed its incrustations of lapis lazle and precious mosaics repeating the roses white lilac and butter cups of the hangings a large gray and pink bed the

Pattered and upholstered woodwork of which was not seen and the head of which stood against the wall filled quite one half of the room with its flow of dra y lace and silk brocaded with bouquets and falling from the ceiling to the carpet you would have taken it for a

Woman’s dress rounded scalloped decked with Puffs bows and flounces and the large curtain swelling out like a skirt made you dream of some tall lovesick wench leaning back fainting away and almost sinking upon the pillows under the curtains it was quite a sanctuary plated cambrick a snowy mass

Of lace all sorts of delicate transparent things enveloped in a church-like dimness beside the bedstead this Monument The Devout amplitude of which suggested a chapel adorned for some Festival the other articles of furniture some low seats a chaval glass 6 feet high and chiffonier provided with a multitude of drawers subsided into

Nothingness on the floor the bluish gray C carpet was studded with pale fullblown roses and on either side of the bed lay two large black bear skins edged with pink velvet having silver Claws and with their heads turned towards the window gazing fixedly at the empty Sky through their glass

Eyes soft Harmony muffled silence rained in this room no high note no metallic reflection or bright gilding broke broke into a dreamy scale of pink and gray even the chimney ornaments the frame of the mirror the clock a little candelabra were of old s and their mountings of guilt copper were barely

Visible these ornaments were Marvels the clock especially with its circle of py Cupids who descended and leaned around the D like a band of naked urchins careless to the rapid flight of time this discreet luxury these colors and objects which Rene’s taste had chosen soft and smiling lent a

Corpuscular appearance to the room the dimness of an Al Cove with the curtains drawn it seemed as if the bed stretched AAR as if the whole room indeed were one huge bed with its carpets bear skins stuffed seats and padded hangings prolonging the softness of the floor up

The walls to the ceiling and as in a bed the young woman left the imprint the warmth and the perfume of her body upon all the things when one Drew aside the double hanging screening the room from the budoir it seemed as if one raised some silken counter pan and entered some vast

Couch still warm and moist where one found on the fine linen the adorable figure the Slumber and dreams of a Parisian woman of 30 an adjoining spacious apartment hung with old chint was simply furnished all round with lofty wardrobes containing Rene’s Army of dresses Celeste who was very methodical

Classified the dresses according to their age ticketed them and introduced arithmetic amid all her mistress’s yellow or blue Caprices and kept the apartment in a state of vest like impressiveness and stable like cleanliness beyond the wardrobes there was not an article of furniture and no finery was left lying about the Wardrobe

Doors Shone cold and clean like the varnished panels of a broam the Marvel of The Suite however the apartment that all Paris talked about was the dressing room folks said beautiful Madame sar’s dressing room as one says the gallery of mirrors at verai this apartment was situated in one

Of the towers of the Mansion Just Over the little buttercup drawing room on entering it one fancied oneself in a large circular tent a fairy like tent pitched in full Fantasy by some Lovick Amazon in the center of the ceiling a crown of chased silver held up the

Drapery of the tent which extended cuple alike to the walls and then fell straight to the floor this drapery these rich hangings were formed of pink silk covered with a muslin of a very open texture which was caught in plates at intervals a band of lace separated the

Plates and silver fillets descended from the crown and glided along the hangings on the either side of each of these bands here the pinkish gray of the bedroom grew brighter became a pinkish white like naked flesh and in this bow of lace beneath these curtains which hid all the

Ceilings save a bluish cavity inside the small circle described by the crown where Chaplan had painted a laughing Cupid looking down and preparing his Dart one could have fancied oneself at the bottom of a sweet meat box or in some precious jewel case enlarged and made to display the nudity of a woman

Instead of the brilliancy of a diamond the carpet of snowy whiteness stretched around without the least flowery design a wardrobe with plate glass doors and the two panels of which were mounted with silver a couch two armchairs some White Satin stools a large toilet table with a slab of pink

Marble and the legs of which were screened by flounces of muslin and Lace furnished the room the glasses the vases and the Basin on the toilet table were of old Bohemian Crystal Street pink and white and there was yet another table incrusted with silver like the Wardrobe

And on which all the implements but toilet utensils were arranged it was like a strange surgical case displaying a large number of little instruments the purpose of which was not readily guessed back scrapers shining brushes files of every Dimension and every shape straight and curved scissors every variety of pincers and pins

Each one of these objects in silver and ivory was marked with Rene’s monogram but the dressing room had one delightful corner and to that corner especially did it owe its Fame in front of the window the folds of a tent parted and in a kind of Al Cove of considerable

Length but limited breadth one aspired a bath a tank of pink marble embedded in the flooring and with its sides chamfered like those of a large shell rising to a level with the carpet one descended into the bath by marble steps above the silver Taps shaped like swans heads a Venetian mirror frameless

But with curved edges and a design ground in the crystal filled the back of the AL Cove Renee took a bath of a few minutes duration every morning and this bath filled the dressing room with moisture with a the perfume of fresh wet flesh for the whole day at times an open scent

Bottle a piece of soap left out of its dish lent a dash of something stronger to this rather insipid smell the young woman liked to remain there almost in a state of nudity until noon the round tent itself was also naked the pink bath the pink tables and

Basins the musin of the ceiling and the walls beneath which one seemed to see pink blood foring acquired the roundness of Flesh the curves of bear shoulders and bosoms and according to the hour of a day one would liken the apartment to the snowy skin of a child or to the warm

Skin of a woman it was one vast nudity when Renee left her bath her Fair form lent but a little more pink to all the rosy flesh of the room it was Maxim who undressed her he understood that kind of thing in his Nimble hands divined pins and glided

Around her waist with innate science he let down her locks took off her diamonds and then dressed her hair for the night and as he mingled jokes and caresses with his duties of chambermaid and hairdresser Renee laughed with a greasy stifled laugh while the silk of her dress body rustled and and her

Petticoats were loosened one by one when she saw herself naked she blew out the tapers of the candal abam caught hold of Maxim round the body and all but carried him into the bedroom the ball had completed her intoxication and in her fever she was conscious of the previous day which he

Had spent by the Fireside of that day of ardant toror and vague and smiling dreams she still heard sard’s and Madame On’s voices talking calling out figures through their noses like lawyers it was these people who bored her who drove her to crime and even now when in the depths of

The vast dark bed she sought for Maxine’s lips she still saw him amid the fire of a day before looking at her with scorching eyes the young fellow only went off at 6:00 in the morning she gave him the key of a little gate of the p mooso and made him swear

To come back every night the dressing room communicated with the Buttercup drawing room by a little staircase hidden in the wall and connecting all the apartments of a tower from the Buttercup room it was easy to pass into the conservatory and then reach the park on going out at dawn amid a thick

Fog Maxim was somewhat stupified by his good fortune he accepted it however with his usual complacence as a neutral being so much the worse thought he it’s she who wishes it after all she’s dodly well formed and she was quite right she’s twice as funny in bed as Sylvia

Is they had glider to incest from mwin Maxim in his threadbear Collegian tunic had hung on Rene’s neck creasing her God Frances habit from that time forward there had been a prolonged perversion of every minute between them the strange education which the young woman gave the child the familiarities which made them

Boon comrades later on The Smiling Audacity Of Their confidential chats all this perilous promiscuity had ended by linking them together with a strange Bond the joys of friendship almost becoming carnal satisfactions they had surrendered themselves to each other for years the brutish Act was but the acute crisis of this unconscionable malady of

Passion amid the maddened society in which they lived their crime had sprouted as upon a rich dung Heap full of impure juices it had developed itself with a strange refinement amid a particular kind of debauchery when the roomy Carriage conveyed them to to the B and rolled them gently along the pathways

Whispering smutty things into each other’s ears diving back into their childhood in search of a dirty practices of instinct it was but a deviation but an unconfessed mode of satisfying their desires they felt themselves to be vaguely guilty as if they had just slightly touched one another and this

Original sin this Langer born of dirty conversation the what wearied them with voluptuous fatigue titilated them even more softly than plain positive kisses their familiarity was thus a slow lovers March which was fatally destined to lead them someday or other to the private room of the cafe Rish and to Rene’s

Large gray and pink bed when they found themselves in each other’s arms they did not even feel the shock of sin one would have said but they were lovers of long standing whose kisses were full of Recollections and they had spent so much time in a contact of their whole beings

That despite themselves they talked of the past which was so full of their ignorant tenderness do you recollect the day when I came to Paris said Maxine you wore a funny costume and I traced an angle on your bosom with my finger and I advised

You to open your dress in a point I felt your skin onto your shimy set and my finger embedded itself a little it was very nice Renee laughed kissing him and murmuring you were already awfully vicious how you did amuse us at worms do you recollect we used to call you our

Little man I always believed that fat suzan would have readily yielded to you if the maranes hadn’t watched you with such Furious eyes ah yes we had some good laughs muttered the young fellow the photographic album eh and all the rest our Rambles through Paris our snacks at the pastry Cooks on the

Boulevard those little strawberry Tarts which you like so much you know for myself I shall always remember the afternoon when you related to me ad Line’s Adventures at the convent when she wrote letters to Suzanne signing herself disp like a man and proposing to carry her off but lovers again grew merry over

This good story and then Maxim continued in his coaxing voice when you came to fetch me at the college in your Carriage we must have looked funny both of us I was so small that I Disappeared under your skirts yes yes she stammered quivering and drawing the young fellow towards her

It was is very nice as you say we loved each other without knowing it eh I realized it before you did the other day on returning from the bo my leg rubbed against yours and I started but you didn’t notice anything eh you didn’t think of

Me oh yes I did he replied a little embarrassed only I didn’t know you understand I didn’t dare he lied the idea of possessing Renee had never plainly occurred to him he’ robbed up against her with all his vice Without Really Desiring her he was too feeble for such an effort he

Accepted Renee because she imposed herself upon him and he had glided to her couch without willing or foreseeing it when he had rolled there however he remained there because it was warm and because he habitually forgot himself at the bottom of all the holes into which he fell

At the outset he even tasted some satisfactions of selflove she was the first married woman that he had possessed he did not reflect that her husband was his father but Renee brought with her in sinning all the ardor of a heart which has lost caste she also had slided down

The slope only she had not rolled as far as the bottom like a massive of inert flesh desire had been kindled within her when it was too late to resist it and when the fall had become inevitable this fall abruptly appeared to her as one of the necessities of her

Boredom as a rare extreme enjoyment which alone could Rouse her tired senses her Wounded Heart it was during that autumnal prominade in the Twilight when the B was falling asleep that the vague idea of incest came to her like a titilation which lent an unknown quiver

To her skin and in the evening in the semi intoxication of a dinner this idea lashed by jealousy became precise rose up ardently before her amid the Flames of the conservatory as she watched Maxim and Louise at that hour she desired sin the sin which no one commits the sin which

Would fill her empty life and finally set her in that hell of which she was still afraid just as she had been when she was a little girl then on the tomorrow by a strange sentiment of remorse and lassitude she no longer wished it it seemed to her as if she’d already sinned

That it was not so nice as she had fancied and that it would really be too dirty the crisis was bound to be fatal to come from herself apart from those two beings those comrades who were destined to to deceive each other one fine evening and to couple themselves

Thinking they were merely exchanging a handshake however after this stupid fall she returned to her dream of a nameless pleasure and then she took Maxim in her arms again inquisitive as to the cruel Delights of a love which she regarded as a crime her valtion accepted incest

Required it decided upon tasting it to the end even to remorse should that ever come she was active and conscious of her doings she loved with a fury of a great fashionable lady with the nervous prejudices she possessed as an offspring of the middle classes with all the

Struggles Joys and disgusts of a woman who drowns herself in self disdain Maxim returned every night he came by by way of the garden at about 1:00 Renee usually awaited him in the conservatory which he had to cross to reach the little drawing room they moreover displayed perfect audacity barely concealing themselves and

Forgetting the most classical precautions of adultery it is true that this corner of the house belonged to them Baptist the husband’s valet alone had a right to enter it and Baptist like a serious man took himself off as soon soon as his duties were over Maxim even pretended with a laugh

That he withdrew to go and write his Memoirs one night however when the young fellow had just arrived Renee showed him Baptist who was solemnly crossing the drawing room with a Candlestick in his hand but tall valet with his minister– likee figure lighted by the yellow glow

Of the wax had a more dignified and severe physiognomy than usual as the lover leaned forward they saw him blow out his candle and go towards the Stables where the horses and ostlers were asleep he’s going his round said Maxim Renee remained quivering Baptist usually alarmed her it often happened to

Her to say that with his coldness and his clear glances which never fell upon women’s shoulders he was the only honest man in the house then they evinced some Prudence in seeing each other they closed the doors of a little drawing room and were able to dispose of this room with the

Conservatory in Rene’s apartments in all Tranquility it was a little world and during the earlier months they were tasted the most refined the most delicately sought for delights they promin their Amour from a large gray and pink bed of a sleeping room to the white and Rosy nudity of the

Dressing room and to the pale yellow Yow Symphony of a little drawing room each chamber with its particular scent its hangings its special life lent them a different form of tenderness and made Renee a different lover she was delicate and pretty on her padded gray lady’s couch in the warm aristocratic bedroom

Where love underwent a tasteful attenuation she showed herself a capricious carnal female under the flesh colored tent amid the perfume and damp Langer of the bath on leaving which she surrendered herself to Maxim who preferred her thus then downstairs in the bright Sunrise of a little drawing room amid

The yellow Aurora which gilded her hair she became a goddess with her Fair Diana like head her bare arms which assumed chased postures her beautious form which reclined on the couches in attitudes revealing Noble outlines of antique gracefulness but there was a thought which Maxim was almost frightened of and

Where when they only led him on evil days the days when she felt the need of more bitter intoxication then they loved in the conservatory it was there but they tasted incest One Night in an hour of Anguish the young woman had compelled her lover

To go and fetch one of the black bear skins then they had stretched themselves on this Inky fur at the edge of an ornament metal Basin in the large circular pathway Out of Doors it was freezing terribly amid the limpid Moonlight Maxine had arrived shivering with frozen ears and fingers and the

Conservatory was heated to such a point that he fainted on the bear skin coming from a dry biting cold he entered into so heavy a flame that he felt a smarting as if he’d been whipped with a rod when he recovered himself he saw Renee kneeling leaning over him with

With fixed eyes and a brutish attitude which frightened him with her hair down and her shoulders bare she was resting herself on her fists with her figure stretched out and looking like a huge cat with phosphorescent eyes above the shoulders of his adorable Amorous animal gazing at him the young

Fellow lying on his back perceived the marble Sphinx with her glistening hips lightened by the moon Renee had the attitude in the smile of the feminine headed monster and in her loosened skirts she looked like the white sister of this black deity Maxim remained supine the heat was

Suffocating it was a dull heat which did not fall from the sky in a rain of fire but trailed on the ground like some unhealthy exhalation and its theme ascended like a storm charged Cloud a warm humidity covered the lovers with with a kind of Dew and Ardent

Sweat for a long time they remained motionless and speechless in this bath of flame Maxim flat and inert Renee quivering on her wrists as on Supple nervous hands outside through the little panes of the conservatory one caught glimpses of the park moo of the clumps of trees

With fine black outlines of the grass Lawns as white as frozen lakes quite a dead landscape the delicate light tints of which reminded one of bits of Japanese Engravings and this spot of burning soil this inflamed couch on which the lovers were stretched boiled strangely amid the great mute

Cold they passed the night of mad love Renee was the man the passionate acting will Maxim submitted what with his lank limbs his graceful slimness like that of a Roman youth this neutral fair-haired pretty being stricken in his virility since childhood became a big girl in the young woman’s inquisitive arms he seemed

To have been born and to have grown up for a perversion of love Renee enjoyed her domination and with her passion she bent this creature whose sexuality always seemed indeterminate for her it was a constant astonishment of desire a surprise of the senses a strange sensation of uncomfortableness and acute

Pleasure she no longer knew what he was and she thought doubtingly of his fine skin his fleshy neck his abandonment and fainting fits she then enjoyed an hour of repletion by revealing to her an unknown ecstasy Maxim completed her foolish toilets her prodigious luxury her mad

Life he set in her flesh the high note which he already heard singing around her he was the lover who matched the Fashions and Follies of the period this pretty young fellow whose puny figure was revealed by his attire this man who ought to have been a girl who strolled

On the boulevards his hair parted in the Middle with little bursts of laughter and bored Smiles became in Rene’s hands the instrument of one of those the ouy suited to days of Decline and which among rotten Nations at certain periods use up flesh and unsettled intelligence and it was especially in

The conservatory that Renee was the man that Ardent night they spent there was followed by several others the conservatory loved and burnt with them amid the heavy atmosphere in the whitish Moonlight they saw the Strange World of plants around them moving confusedly and exchanging Embraces the black bear skin stretched right across the

Pathway at their feet the Basin steamed full of a swarming a thick entanglement of roots while the rosy stars of the NY opened on the surface of the water like virgin bodices and the bushy Telus drooped like the hair of languishing water nymphs then around them the palms and

The LA the Indian bamboos rose up towards the arched roof near which they leaned and mingled their leaves together assuming the unsteady attitudes of tired lovers lower down the ferns the Terrace the alsophis looked like green ladies with ample skirts trimmed with symmetrical flounces and who mute and

Motionless at the edge of the pathway awaited love beside them the Twisted red spot foliage of the Bonas and the white leaves shaped like L heads of the caladiums furnished a vague Suite of bruises and pidi which the lovers could not explain to themselves but amid which they at times discerned roundness like

Those of hips and knees wallowing on the ground beneath the brutality of bleeding caresses and the bananas bending with the weight of their Bunches of fruit spoke to them of the rich fertility of the soil while the abian Euphoria the prickly deformed tapering stems of which covered with horrid excrescences they

Could aspy in the darkness seemed to perspire with SAP with the overflowing flux of their fiery growth but by degrees as the lovers glances dived into the corners of the conservatory the darkness was filled with a more Furious debauchery of leaves and stems they could not distinguish on the

Stages the mortis soft like velvet the gloxinias with Violet Bells the dracus resembling Blades of old varnished lacquer it was a round dance of living plants pursuing each other with unquenched tenderness at the Four Corners at the point where the curtains of tropical creepers formed Arbors their carnal

Fancy grew matter again and the Supple shoots of the vanillas the Indian berries the Chris qualis and the binias seemed to be the interminable arms of lovers who could not be seen but who distractedly lengthened their Embrace to draw all scattered Delights toward them these endless arms drooped with

Lassitude locked together in a spasm of Love sought for each other entwined together like a crowd bent on copulation it was indeed the immense culation of the conservatory of this bit of Virgin Forest Ablaze with the foliage and the flowers of the tropics Maxim and Renee with their senses perverted felt themselves carried

Away amid these Mighty nuptuals of nature the soil burnt their backs through the bear skin and drops of heat fell upon them from a lofty Palms the sap which arose in the tree trunks penetrated them as well and imparted to them mad desires of immediate growth of gigantic

Procreation they took part in the copulation of the conservatory it was then in the pale glimmer that Visions stupified them nightmares amid which during long intervals they beheld the Amour of the palms and ferns the foliage assumed a confused equivocal aspect which their desires transformed into something sensual murmurs Whispers with were

Wafted to them from the clumps of shrubs faint voices size of ecstasy stifled cries of pain distant laughter all that was noisy in their own kisses and that Echo sent them back at times they thought themselves shaken by an earthquake as if the Earth itself in a crisis of satisfied desire

Had burst forth into voluptuous sobs if they they had closed their eyes if the suffocating Heat and the pale light had not imparted to them a deprivation of every sense the Aromas alone would have sufficed to throw them into an extraordinary state of nervous aysm the Basin enveloped them in a deep

Pungent Aroma amid which passed the Thousand perfumes of flowers in the foliage at times the vanilla sang with Dove like coings then came the rough notes of a thanan hopus whose Streed mouths had the same strong smelling bitter breath as a convalescent the orchids in their baskets secured by wire chains also

Breathed like animated incense burners but the odor that predominated the odor in which all these vague breaths were mingled was a human odor an odor of Love which Maxim recognized when he kissed Renee on the nape of her neck when he plunged his head into her flowing hair

And they remained Intoxicated by this scent the scent of an Amorous woman which trailed through the conservatory as in an Al Cove where Earth might be engaged in procreation as a rule the lovers lay down under the kangia from Madagascar Under The Poisoned shrub a leaf of which the young woman once had

Bitten around them the white statues laughed gazing at the mighty coupling of foliage the moon as it turned displaced the groups and animated the drama with its changing light they were a Thousand Leagues from Paris far from the easy life of the boad balone and official

Drawing rooms in a corner of some Indian Forest of some monstrous Temple of which the black marble Sphinx became the deity they felt themselves rolling to Crime to a cursed love to wild beast tenderness all the polulation which surrounded them the swarming of the Basin the naked IM modesty of the

Foliage threw them fully into the Dante es hell of passion it was then in the depths of this glass cage boiling over with the Flames of Summer lost amidst the clear coldness of December that they tasted incest as though it had been the criminal fruit of some overheated soil

Feeling the while a dim fear of their terrifying couch and in the center of the black bear skin Renee’s body seemed wider as she crouched like a huge cat with her back stretched out and her wrists extended like Supple nervous shins she was all swollen with voluptuousness and the light outlines of

Her shoulders and loins stood out with feline angularity against the inky stain which blackened the yellow sand of the pathway with its fur she watched Maxim this prey extended beneath her who abandoned himself and whom she possessed completely and from time to time she abruptly lent forward and kissed him with her irritated

Mouth her lips then parted with the greedy bleeding brilliancy of the Chinese habiscus the expanse of which covered the side of the mansion she was then nothing but a burning daughter of the conservatory her kisses bloomed and faded like those red flowers of a gigantic malow which last barely a few

Hours and which ever spring to life again like the bruised insatiable lips of a giant mesalina this ends Section 8 section nine of the rush for the spoil by Emil zolah translated by Henry vitelli this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Mark leader section

Nine the kiss which sakar had imprinted on his wife’s neck preoccupied him he had not availed himself of his marital rights for a long time already valued at nearly 2 millions of Franks though they were not worth a quarter of that amount must end by being swallowed up in a colossal bankruptcy if

The fery of expropriation did not touch them with her golden wand according to the original plans which the two Confederates had been able to consult the new Boulevard opened in view of connecting the artillery Depot of vinan with the prince euen barracks and of bringing the guns and ammunition

Into the Heart of Paris without passing through the foror San Antoine would cross a part of the ground but it was still to be feared that only a corner of a ladder might be cut off and that the ingenious speculation of the musical would fall through by reason of its very

Impedence in that case loo would remain with a delicate matter to deal with still this Peril did not prevent him despite the secondary part which he played perforce from feeling Soul sick when he thought of the poultry 10% which he would pocket in this colossal robbery of

Millions and at those moments he could not resist the Furious longing he felt to extend his hand and carve out a larger share for himself sakar had not even allowed him to lend money to his wife he had preferred to amuse himself with this big piece of theatrical trickery which

Delighted his partiality for complicated trans trans actions no no my dear fellow he said with his provansal accent which he exaggerated whenever he wished to impart additional salt to a joke don’t let us mix up our accounts you’re the only man in Paris to whom I have sworn never to owe a

Copper lareno contented himself with insinuating that his colleague’s wife was a gulf he advised him not to give her another Sue so that she would then be compelled to transfer her property to them immediately he would have preferred to have to deal with sakar alone he probed him at times and carried

Things so far as to say with the weary indifferent air of a man about town all the same I must put my papers in a little order your wife frightens me my good fellow I don’t want Justice to place the seals on certain documents at my

Office zakar was not the man to submit to such illusions patiently especially as he was well acquainted with the frigid meticulous order which prevailed in the agent’s offices the whole of his cunning active little person revolted against the terror with which this coxcomb of a user in yellow kid gloves

Tried to inspire him the worst was that he felt himself seized with shutters when he thought of a possible Scandal and he beheld himself brutally exiled by his brother in living in Belgium by some advoc ation not to be acknowledged one day he grew angry and said to

Leno listen my boy you’re a nice fellow but it would be as well for you to return me the document you know of you’ll see that scrap of paper will end by making us quarrel the agent feigned astonishment pressed his dear Master’s Hand and assured him of his devotion zard

Regretted his momentary hastiness it was at this period perod that he began to think seriously of drawing nearer to his wife he might yet have need of her against his accomplice and he moreover said to himself that business matters are discussed marvelously well between man and wife in bed that kiss on his

Wife’s neck gradually revealed to him quite a new system of tactics besides he was not in a hurry he husbanded his resources he devoted the whole winter to ripening his plan though worried by a hundred different Affairs Each of which was more muddled than the other it was a terrible winter for him

Full of shocks a prodigious campaign during which he had to conquer bankruptcy daily however far from cutting down his expenses at home he gave fed after fat but if he succeeded in meeting every difficulty he had to neglect Renee whom he reserved for a triumphal blow when the cheron transaction became ripe he

Contented himself with preparing the Finish By continuing not to give her any money save through the intermediary of Lano when he was able to dispose of a few thousand Franks and she complained of her poverty he took them to her saying that Leno’s people required a note of hand for double the

Amount this comedy vastly amused him the stories connected with these promisory notes delighted him by the Touch of Romance which they imparted to the affair even at the period of his clearest profits he’d served his wife her income in the most irregular manner at one time making her princely presence

Abandoning handfuls of Bank notes to her and then leaving her in the Lurch for a poultry amount during weeks together now that he found himself seriously embarrassed he talked about the expenses of the household and treated her like a creditor to whom one is unwilling to confess one’s ruin and

Whom UND disposes to patients by means of and Bull stories she scarcely listened to him however she signed whatever he chose and only pied herself for not being able to sign more already however there were 200,000 Franks worth of promisory notes signed by her which barely cost him 110,000 after having these bills

Endorsed by loano to whose order they were made payable he placed them in in circulation in a prudent manner intending to employ them as decisive weapons later on he would never have been able to hold out to the end of that terrible winter to lend his wife money

Uously and keep up his style of living but for the sale of his ground on the Boulvard maler which Miss minion and Shier paid him for in Hard Cash retaining however a formidable discount for Renee this same winter was one long Joy lack of money was her only

Suffering Maxim cost her very dear he still treated her as a stepmother and allowed her to pay everywhere but this hidden poverty was an additional Delight for her she exercised her wits and racked her brain so that her dear child should want for nothing and when she had prevailed upon

Her husband to find her a few thousand Franks she and her lover expended them in some costly Folly like two school boys let loose on their first Escapade when they were haot up they remained at home and derived their enjoyment from this large building of such new and insolently stupid luxury

The father was never there the lovers Sat by the Fireside more frequently than formerly the fact was that Renee had filled the icy emptiness of the Gilded ceilings with a warm enjoyment the suspicious Abode of worldly pleasure had become a chapel in which she secretly practiced a new

Religion Maxim did not merely lend to her nature that high note which harmonized with her mad dresses he was the very lover fitted to this mansion with broad Windows like shop fronts and which a flood of sculpture inundated from Garrett to seller he animated all this plaster from the two py Cupids who

Let a stream of water flow from their shell in the courtyard to the tall naked women supporting the balconies and playing with apples and ears of corn amid the pediments he explained the unduly ornate Hall the tiny dimensions of the garden the dazzling rooms in which one saw too

Many armchairs and not one work of art the young woman who had formerly felt bored to death in the House suddenly began to amuse herself there and availed herself of it just as she might have done with something the use of which she had not understood at first and it was

Not only through her own Apartments through the Buttercup drawing room in the conservatory that she promin her love but through the entire Mansion she even ended by finding an enjoyment in lying on the div of the smoking room she forgot herself there and declared that the vague smell of tobacco pervading the

Apartment was very agreeable she appointed two reception days instead of one on Thursdays all the mere acquaintances called but Mondays were reserved to intimate female friends men were not admitted Maxim alone was present at those Choice Gatherings which took place in the Buttercup drawing room one evening she had the astounding idea

Of dressing him up as a woman and of presenting him as one of her cousins Adeline Suzanne the baroness demold and the other friends who were there rose up and bowed astonished by the sight of this face which they vaguely recognized then when they realized the truth they laughed a great deal and

Absolutely refused to let the young man go and change his clothes they kept him with them in his skirts teasing him and lending themselves to equivocal jokes when he’d seen these ladies off by the main gate he went round the park and returned into the house by way of the

Conservatory Rene’s dear friends never had the slightest suspicion of the truth indeed the lovers could not behave together more familiarly than they had previously done when they declared themselves to be Boon comrades and if it happened that a servant saw them rather close together behind a door he expressed no surprise

At it being used to the pleasantries of his mistress and his master’s son this complete Liberty this impunity forwards behind them with a quiet step she had naturally become their accomplice one morning when they had forgotten themselves in the bed she found them there and retained all the

Coolness of a servant with icy blood they then ceased restraining themselves she came in at all hours without the sound of their kisses making her turn her head they relied upon her to warn them in the case of alarm they did not purchase her silence she was a very

Economical very honest girl and was not known to have a single lover Renee however was not cloistered taking Maxim in her train like a fair-haired page in a dress coat she frequented Society where she tasted even more acute Pleasures the season was one long Triumph for her Never Had Her

Imagination been Bolder as regards toilets and headdresses it was then that she risked wearing that famous Bush tinted robe on which a complete stag hunt was embroidered with such attributes as powder flasks hunting horns in Broad bladed knives it was then also that she set the fashion of wearing the hair in

The antique style Maxine having to go and sketch patterns for her at the compana Museum which had recently been opened she grew younger she was in all the plitude of her turbulent Beauty incest lent her a fire which glowed in the depths of her eyes and heeded her laughter her eyeglasses looked superbly

Insolent on the tip of her nose and she gazed at the other women at the dear friends who basked in the enormity of some Vice with the a of a bragging hoby Hoy and with a fixed smile which signified I also have my crime Maxim on his side declared that Society was

Wearisome it was not merely for show that he pretended to be bored in it for he really did not amuse himself anywhere at the twer at the ministers residences he disappeared amid Rene’s skirts but he became the master again as soon as some freak was in question Renee

Wished to see the private room on the boulevard again and the breath of a Divan made her smile then he took her a little bit everywhere to harlot’s house to the Opera ball to the stage boxes of petty theaters to all the equivocal places where they could elbow brutal

Vice and taste the Delights of remaining Incognito when they furtively returned to the house worn out with fatigue they fell asleep in each other’s arms sleeping off a drunkenness of obscene Paris with snatches of smutty verses still ringing in their ears on the tomorrow Maxim imitated the actors and Renee accompanying herself on

The piano of a little drawing room tried to recall the horse voice and the wriggling of blanch Müller in her part of the B elain the music lessons she had taken at the convent now only served her to murder the verses of the new burlesks she had a religious horror of serious

Aires Maxim poked fun at German music with her and he thought it his duty to go and his tan haiser both by conviction and to defend his Stepmother’s sprightly refrains one of their great enjoyments was skating it was fashionable that winter the emperor having been one of

The first to try the ice on the lake in the Badu balone Renee ordered a complete polish costume velvet and fur of worms and insisted upon Maxim wearing high boots and a fox skin cap they reached the ba in the intense cold which made their noses and lips

Tingle as if the wind had blown fine sand into their faces it amused them to feel cold the bo was quite gray with threads of snow like narrow lace along the branches of the trees and under the pale sky above the congealed and bedimmed Lake Only The

Pines of the islands still displayed on the edge of the Horizon their theatrical drapery on which the snow had also swn broad bands of lace the lovers darted along together in the frozen air with the rapid flight of swallows skimming just above the ground setting one hand behind their backs and

Placing one upon each other’s shoulder they went off erect smiling side by side and revolving round the broad space marked out by thick ropes loungers looked at them from the roadway from time to time they came to warm them eles at the brazers lighted at the edge of the lake and then they

Started off again they enlarged the course of their flight with her eyes watering both with pleasure and with cold then when the spring came Renee remembered her old elic fancy she insisted upon Maxim’s strolling with her in the park moo at night time By Moonlight they went into The Grotto and

Sat down on the grass in front of the colonade but when she expressed the desire to row on the little Lake they found that there were no ores in the boat which could be seen from the house moed at the edge of a pathway they were evidently removed every evening this was a

Disappointment besides the vast Shadows of the park made Bel lovers nervous they would have liked to have had a Venetian fet given there with Red Lanterns and an orchestra they preferred it during the daytime of an afternoon and they often stay sted themselves at one of the

Windows of the Mansion to watch the equipages following the graceful curve of the Main Avenue they enjoyed themselves in gazing Upon This Charming corner of New Paris this clean smiling bit of nature these Lawns looking like Stripes of velvet dotted with flower beds and choice shrubs and edged with magnificent white

Roses carriages passed by each other as numerous as on the boulevard lady promenaders carelessly trailed their skirts as if they had not ceased treading the carpets of their drawing rooms and a thwart the foliage Renee and Maxim criticized the dresses and pointed out the equipages to each other deriving

Real enjoyment from the soft tints of this large garden a scrap of gilded railing Shone between two trees a party of ducks passed over the lake the little Renaissance Bridge looked white and new amid the green star whilst on either side of the Main Avenue mamas Seated on yellow chairs forgot in

Their chatter the little boys and girls who looked at one another with a pretty air and pouted like precocious children the lovers had a great liking for New Paris they often rambled through the city in their Carriage going out of their way so as to pass along certain

Boulevards for which they had a personal affection the lofty houses adorned with large carved doors loaded with balconies whereon names and callings glittered in large gold letters delighted them while the broam darted along they followed with a friendly glance the gray bands of interminable footways with their seats their variegated columns and their

Scrubby trees this bright gap which extended to the limits of the Horizon growing narrower and opening Upon A Bluey parallelogram of space the on interrupted double row of large shops where shop men smiled at female customers the currents of the stamping swarming crowd filled them little by

Little with a feeling of absolute and complete satisfaction they realized that they beheld the Perfection of street life they were enamored even of a Jets of the watering hose which passed like white smoke before their houses and then spread out and fell in a fine rain under

The wheels of the BR darkening the ground and raising a slight cloud of dust they still went on and it seemed to them that the vehicle was rolling over carpets along the straight endless Highway which had been pierced solely so that they might not have to pass through dark

Alleys each Boulevard became some passage of their mansion the gay Sunshine smiled upon the house fronts lit up the window panes fell upon the Verandas of the shops and cafes and heated the asphalt under the busy tread of the crowd and when they returned home somewhat dazed by the bright confusion

Of these long bizaar they found enjoyment in the park moo which was like the complimentary platband of the New Paris which displayed its luxury amid the first warmth of spring when the exigencies of fashionable life absolutely compelled them to leave Paris they went to the seaside regretfully however and thinking of the Boulevard

And sidewalks while on the shores of the ocean then love itself grew dull there it was a hot house flower which needed the spacious gray and pink bed the naked fleshy aspect of a dressing room and the Gilded dawn of a little drawing room alone of an evening in front of the sea

They no longer found anything to say to each other Renee tried to sing the air she had heard at the Variety theater accompanying herself on an old piano which was agonizing in a corner of her room at the hotel but the instrument damp with the breezes from the open had the dreary

Voice of the Great Waters label elen seemed lugubrious and fantastic to console herself Renee astonished the people on the Sands by her prodigious costumes the whole band of fashionable women there was yawning while waiting for the Advent of winter and trying despairingly to invent some bathing

Dress which would not make them look too ugly Renee was never able to Prevail upon Maxim to bathe he had an atrocious fear of water he turned quite pale when mati reached his boots and for nothing in the world would he have approached the edge of a cliff he kept away from

All pits and made a long circuit to avoid any steep part of the shore zakar came to see the children on two or three occasions he was overwhelmed with worry he said it was only about October when they all three found themselves again in Paris that he seriously thought of drawing nearer his

Wife the cheron affair was ripening his plan was a simple and brutal one he relied upon capturing Renee by the same devices that he would have employed Ed with a harlot she lived on amid an increasing need of money and out of Pride she only applied to her husband at the last

Extremity the latter resolved to profit by her first request to show his gallantry and invid Delite occasion by the payment of some heavy debt to resume relations which had so long been severed some terrible embarrassments awaited Renee and Maxim in Paris several of the the promisory notes drawn to

Lano’s account had fallen due but as sakar naturally left them slumbering at the lawyers they did not cause the young wife much worry she was far more alarmed by her debts as regards worms whose bill now amounted to nearly 200,000 Franks but Taylor demanded something on account and threatened to suspend all credit

Renee felt sudden shutters when she thought of a scandal of a lawsuit and a especially of a quarrel with the illustrious man milliner moreover she needed pocket money she and Maxim would feel bored to death if they did not have a few Louie a day to spend the dear boy was quite

Stumped since he had vainly rummaged through his father’s drawers his Fidelity and exemplary behavior during the last seven or eight months were largely due to the absolute emptiness of his purse he did not always have 20 Franks in his pocket to invite some street walker to supper and so he

Philosophically returned to the house at each of their freaks the young woman handed him her purse so that he might defay the expenses in the restaurants the balls and Petty theaters she continued treating him maternally and indeed it was she who with the tips of her gloved fingers

Settled at the pastry Cooks where they stopped almost every afternoon to eat little oyster patties of a morning he often found in his westcot some Louie which he had not known to be there and which he placed there like a mother filling a School Boy’s pocket and to think but this delightful

Life of snacks satisfied fancies and fcil pleasure was about to end but a yet more Grievous worry came to alarm them Silvia’s Jeweler to whom Maxim owed 10,000 Franks grew angry and talked about cliche the debtor’s prison such costs had accumulated on the notes at hand which he held and had long since

Protested that the debt had increased by some three or 4,000 Franks zakar plainly declared that he could do nothing in the matter the imprisonment of a son at cliche would increase his notoriety and when he secured the young fellow’s release he would make a great noise over his paternal

Liberality Renee was in despair she saw her dear child in prison in a perfect dungeon sleeping on damp straw one evening she seriously proposed to him not to leave her rooms but to live there unknown to everyone and sheltered from the BFFs then she swore that she would

Procure the money she never referred to the origin of AET of that woman Sylvia who confided The Secret of her affections to the mirrors of private rooms some 50,000 Franks that was what she needed 15 ,000 for maxim 30,000 for worms and 5,000 this pocket money they would then have a fortn night’s

Happiness before them she embarked on the campaign her first idea was to ask her husband for these 50,000 Franks but it was only with a feeling of repugnance that she decided to do so on the last occasions that he had entered her room to bring her some money he’ printed

Fresh kisses on her neck taking hold of her hands and talking about his is affection women have acute powers of perception which enable them to guess men’s feelings so she expected some Demand on his side some tacit bargain concluded with a smile and indeed when she asked him for

The 50,000 Franks he cried out declared that lareno would never lend such a sum and that he himself was still too embarrassed then changing his tone as if conquered and seized with sudden emotion one cannot refuse you anything he murmured I will run about Paris and accomplish The

Impossible I want you to be pleased my dear and setting his lips to her ear and kissing her hair he added in a slightly trembling voice I will bring you the money tomorrow evening here in your room without any note to sign but she hasted L said that she was

Not in a hurry that she did not wish to trouble him so much he who had just set all his heart in that dangerous without any note which had escaped him and which he regretted did not appear to have encountered a disagreeable refusal he rose up saying very well I am

At your disposal I will find you the sum when the moment arrives Laro will be for nothing in it you understand it is a present which I mean to make you he smiled with a good-natured air she remained in a state of cruel anguish she felt she’d lose a little equilibrium

Left her if she surrendered herself to her husband it was her last Pride to be married to the father and to be only the son’s wife often when Maxim seemed to her to be cold she tried to make him understand the situation by very transparent illusions it is true that the young man

Whom she expected to see fall at her feet after this Revelation remained altogether indifferent imagining no doubt that she merely wished to reassure him as to the possibility of a meeting between his father and himself in the gray silk room when zakar had left her she hastily

Dressed herself and had the horses put too while her broam was conveying her toward the E San Louie she prepared the manner in which she would ask her father for the the 50,000 Franks she flung herself into this sudden idea without consenting to discuss it feeling very

Cowardly at the bottom of her heart and seized with Invincible fright at the thought of such a step when she arrived the courtyard of the Bome Mansion froze her with its mournful cloer likee dampness and it was with a desire to run away that she mounted the broad stone

Staircase on which her little high heeled boots resounded terribly she’d been foolish enough in her haste to choose a costume of dead leaf tinted silk with long flounces of white lace trimmed with bows of ribbon and cut a forth by a plated sash this toilet which was completed by

A little hat with a large white Veil set such a singular note in the dark Gloom of the staircase that she herself became conscious of how strange she looked there she trembled as she crossed the austere Suite of spacious room rooms where the personages vaguely visible on the tapestry seemed surprised to see

This stream of skirts pass by in the semi daylight of their Solitude she found her father in a drawing room looking on to the Courtyard where he habitually remained he was reading a large book placed on a desk adapted to the arms of his chair in front of one of the windows

Aunt Elizabeth sat knitting with long wooden needles and in in the Silence of the room The Tick Tac of these needles was the only sound one heard Renee sat down ill at ease unable to make a movement without disturbing the severity of a lofty ceiling by a noise of rustling

Silk her laces looked crudely White against the dark background of tapestry and old furniture M Batel gazed at her with hands resting on the edge of a desk Aunt Elizabeth talked about the approaching wedding of Christine who was to marry the son of a very rich attorney the

Young girl had gone to a tradesman’s with an old family servant and the good Aunt talked on alone in her Placid Voice without ceasing to knit gossiping about household Affairs and casting smiling glances at Renee from above her spectacles but the young woman became more and more Disturbed all the silence

Of the house weighed upon her shoulders and she would have given a great deal for the lace of her dress to have been black her father’s gaze embarrassed her to such a point that she considered worms really ridiculous to have imagined such high flounces how smart you are my girl

Suddenly said Aunt Elizabeth who had not yet even noticed her niece’s lace she stopped knitting and settled her spectacles to see the better M beod chatel gave a faint smile it is rather white said he a woman must be greatly embarrassed with that on the sidewalks but one doesn’t go out on foot

Father cried Rene who immediately afterwards regretted these words from her heart the Old Gentleman seemed about to reply then he rose up straightened his high stature and began walking slow without again looking at his daughter the latter remained quite pale with emotion each time that she exhorted

Herself to take courage and that she tried to find a transition that would lead up to the request for money she experienced a shooting pain at the heart we never see you now father she murmured oh replied her aunt your father hardly ever goes out except at long

Intervals to Str in the jardan de plant and I even have to get angry to make him do that he pretends that he loses himself in Paris that the city is no longer made for him ah you do right to scold him my husband would be so happy to see

You at our Thursdays from time to time continued the young woman M Batel took a few steps in silence then in a quiet voice you must thank your husband for me he said he is an active fellow it appears and I hope for your sake that he conducts his Enterprises

Honestly but we haven’t the same ideas and I feel ill at ease in your fine house in the park moo Aunt Elizabeth seemed vexed by this reply how wicked men are with their politics she said would you like to know the truth your father is furious with you because you go to the

Twery but the Old Gentleman Shrugged his shoulders as if to say that his dissatisfaction had far more Grievous causes he began slowly walking again with a dreamy air Renee remained for a moment silent with the request for the 50,000 Franks on the tip of her tongue but seized with even greater cowardice

Than before she kissed her father and went off Aunt Elizabeth insisted upon accompanying her to the staircase as they crossed the suite of rooms she continued chattering in her old woman’s squeaky voice you are happy my dear child it pleases me very much to see you looking

Beautiful and well for if your marriage had turned out badly I should have thought myself guilty your husband loves you you have all you need haven’t you of course replied Renee compelling herself to smile though feeling sick at heart her aunt still detained her with her hand on the ballustrade of the

Staircase do you see I have only one fear that you may become intoxicated with all your happiness be prudent and above all don’t sell anything if you had a child someday you would have a little Fortune all ready for him when Renee was in her broam again she

Heaved a sigh of relief she had drops of cold perspiration on her forehead she wiped them off thinking of the icy dampness of the B Mansion then as the Broome rolled along amid the clear sunlight of the key s PA she remembered the 50,000 Franks and all her suffering was revived again acuter

Than before she whom people thought so bold how cowardly she had just been and yet it was a question of maxim of his Liberty of their joint Delights amid the bitter approaches which she addressed to herself an idea suddenly sprung up which brought her despair to a climax she ought to have

Spoken about the 50,000 Franks to Aunt Elizabeth on the stairs what had she been thinking about the worthy woman would perhaps have lent her the amount or at all all events have helped her she was already leaning forward to tell her Coachman to drive back to the ru San

Louis Anil when she thought she again beheld her father slowly crossing the solemn darkness of the grand drawing room she would never have the courage to return at once to that room what could she say to explain this second visit and in the depth of her heart she

No longer even Found the courage to speak of the affair to Aunt Elizabeth so she told her Coachman to drive her to the rudu forier Madame sidoni uttered a cry of delight when she saw her opening but discreetly curtained door of the shop she was there by chance she was about to

Hasten to the magistrates where she had summoned the customer but she would not put in an appearance she could do so some other day she was so happy that her sister-in-law had at length had the amiability to pay her a little visit Renee smiled with an embarrassed air

Madame sidoni would not by any means allow her to remain downstairs she made her go up into her room by the little staircase after removing the brass knob from the shop door she removed and refixed this knob which was secured by a simple nail at least 20 times a day

There my beauty she said making Renee sit down on a couch we shall be able to chat nicely do you know that you come in the very nick of time I meant to go and see you this evening Renee who knew the room experienced that vague feeling of

Uneasiness which a prominer feels on finding that a strip of forest has been cut down in a favorite landscape ah she said at last you’ve changed the position of the bed haven’t you yes quietly replied the lace dealer one of my customers thought it would be

Much better in front of the mantel piece she also advised me to have red curtains that’s what I was thinking the curtains used not to be of that color red is a very common color she put on her ey glasses and looked at this room which displayed the

Kind of luxury one finds in a large Hotel on the mantle shelf she saw some long hair pins which certainly did not come from Madame sidon’s meager shinon the paper of that part of the wall against which the bed had formerly stood was all torn discolored and dirtied by the

Mattresses the agent had certainly tried to hide this SAR with the backs of two armchairs but these backs were rather low and Rene’s glance remained fixed on this worn strip of paper you have something to say to me she asked at last yes it’s quite a story said madam

Sidoni joining her hands and assuming the expression of a glutton who’s about to relate what he’s eaten at dinner just fancy Miss safre is in love with the beautiful Madame sakar yes with yourself my pretty one Renee did not vouch safe even a gesture of coquetry indeed she remarked but you

Said he was so smitten with Madame mishala oh that’s finished quite finished I can prove it to you if you like don’t you know then that little michelan has pleased Baron guro it’s incredible everyone who knows the baron is amazed and now she’s on the way to

Obtaining the red ribbon for her husband ah she’s a woman of spirit she isn’t fainthearted she doesn’t need anyone to steer her boat Madame sidoni said this with an air of some little regret mingled with admiration but to return to M de safre it would seem that he met you at an actress’s

Ball muffled up in a domino and he even accuses himself of having somewhat cavalierly offered you a supper is it true the young woman was quite surprised perfectly true murmured she but who could have told him wait a bit he pretends that he recognized you later

On when you were no longer in the room and that he remembered having seen you leave on Maxim’s arm since then he has been madly in love it has grown in his heart you understand been a sudden fancy he came to see me to beg me to make you his

Apologies well tell him but I forgive him interrupted Renee negligently and again assailed by all her worry she continued ah my good I am awfully bothered it is absolutely necessary that I should have 50,000 Franks tomorrow morning I came to speak to you about the matter you know some money lenders you told

Me the agent vexed by the abrupt manner in which her sister-in-law had interrupted her story made her wait some time for an answer yes certainly only I advise you first of all to try and obtain the money from a friend if I were in your place I know very well

What I should do I should simply apply to miss de safre reene smiled in a constrained manner but it would hardly be proper she answered since you pretend that he is so much in love the old woman looked at her with a fixed stare then her flabby face gently

Softened into a smile of tender pity poor dear she muttered you’ve been crying in don’t deny it I can see it by your eyes you must be strong and accept life come let me arrange the little matter in question Renee rose up twisting her fingers and making her gloves crack and

She remained standing quite shaken by a cruel internal struggle she was opening her mouth to accept perhaps when a gentle ring at the bell resounded in the Next Room Madam sidoni hastily went out leaving the door jar so that a double row of pianos could be

Seen the young woman then heard a man’s step and the stifled sound of a conversation carried on in an undertone she mechanically went to examine more closely the yellowish stain with which the mattresses had streaked the wall this stain Disturbed her made her ill at ease forgetting everything Maxine

The 50,000 Franks and M de safre she stepped back to the front of the bed reflecting this bed had been much better placed as it had formerly stood some women were really wanting in Taste of a certainty when one lay down one must have a light in one’s eyes and in the

Depths of her memory she vaguely saw the figure of the stranger of the key s poow will rise up her novel in two assignations that chance a more which she’d partaken of there at that other place the wearing away of the wallpaper was all that remained of

It then the room filled her with uneasiness and the hum of voices which continued in the next apartment made her feel impatient when Madame sidoni returned opening and closing the door with due precaution she made repeated signs with the tips of her fingers to recommend Renee to speak

Low then she whispered in her ear you don’t know the adventure is a good one it’s Miss de safre who’s there you didn’t tell him though that I was here asked the young woman anxiously the agent seemed surprised and with an air of great Simplicity answered

But I did he’s waiting for me to tell him to come in of course I didn’t speak about the 50,000 Franks Renee who was quite pale had drawn herself up as if she’d been struck with a whip a great pride again Rose to her heart that creaking of boots which

She heard growing louder in the Next Room exasperated her I’m going she said curtly come and open the door for me mam cidoni tried to smile don’t be childish she said I can’t be left with that fellow on my hands since I’ve told him you are here you really compromise me

But the young woman had already descended the little staircase she repeated in front of the closed shop door open it open it when MCE dealer withdrew the brass knob she had the habit of putting it in her pocket she wished to continue parleying finally seized with anger

Herself and displaying in the depths of her gray eyes the tart acridity of her nature she cried but come what shall I say to the man that I’m not for sale replied Renee who already had one foot on the sidewalk and it seemed to her that she could hear Madame sidoni muttering as

She banged the door get off you Jade you shall pay me for this by Heavens thought Renee as she again entered her broam I prefer my husband to that she returned straight home in the evening she told Maxim not to come she was poorly she needed Repose and on the tomorrow when she

Handed him the 15,000 Franks for Sylvia’s jeweler she remained embarrassed in presence of his surprise and his questions her husband she said had done a good stroke of business from that day forth however she became more capricious she often changed the hour of the appointments which he

Gave the young fellow and even she frequently watched for him in the Conservatory to send him away he did not worry himself much about these changes of humor it pleased him to be an obedient thing in women’s hands what bored him a great deal more was the moral turn in which their lovers

Meetings took at times she became quite sad and it even happened that she had big Tears In Her Eyes she left off singing the refrain about the handsome young man in the Belen she played the hymn she’d learned at school and asked her lover if he did not think that sin

Was always punished sooner or later she’s decidedly growing old he thought it will be the utmost if she’s funny for another year or two this ends section nine section 10 of the rush for of spoil by Emil zolah translated by Henry vitelli this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Mark

Leer section 10 the truth was that she suffered cruy she would now have preferred to deceive Maxim with Miss de safre she had revolted at Madame sidon she had given way to instinctive Pride to disgust for such a low bargain but on the following days when she endured the anguish of adultery

Everything in her foundered and she felt herself so despicable that she would have surrendered herself to the first man who pushed open the door of the room containing the posan the thought of her husband had at times formerly passed before her amid her incest like a touch of voluptuous

Horror but henceforth husband the man himself entered into it with a brutality that transformed her most delicate Sensations into intolerable sufferings she who had enjoyed the refinement of her sin and had willingly dreamt of a corner of a superhuman Paradise where the gods partook of their Amur together was now descending to

Vulgar debauchery to being shared by two men in vain did she try to derive enjy from her infamy her lips were still warm with sard’s kisses when she offered them to maxims her inquisitiveness descended to the depths of these accursed Pleasures she went as far as to mingle the two

Affections and to seek for the son amid the father’s hugs and she emerged yet more alarmed and more bruised from this journey into unknown evil from this Ardent Darkness into which she confounded the person of her double lover with a terror which was like the death rattle of her

Enjoyment she kept this drama to herself alone and increased the suffering it occasioned by the feverishness of Her Imagination she would have preferred to die rather than own the truth to Maxim she had an inward fear that the young man might revolt and leave her she had such an absolute belief in the

Monstrosity of her sin and in Eternal damnation that she would have more willingly crossed the park M so naked than have confessed her shame aloud on the other hand she still remained the Mad capap who astonished Paris by her extravagant conduct nervous gay seized hold of her prodigious Caprices which the newspapers

Talked about designating her by her initials it was at this period that she seriously wished to fight a duel with pistols with the duchess toes who had int intentionally so she said upset a glass of punch over her dress to calm her it was necessary for her brother-in-law the minister to get

Angry on another occasion she bet with Madame de laen that she would make the round of a long shamp race course in less than 10 minutes and it was only a question of costume that deterred her from doing so Maxim himself began to feel afraid of this head in which

Madness lurked and on the pillow at night time he thought could hear all the hubub of a city bent on enjoying itself one evening they went together to the theat Italian they had not even looked at the bill they wished to see the great Italian tragedian restor who then

Attracted all Paris and in whom by the command of fashion they were bound to interest themselves the play was Fedor Maxim remembered his classical Repertory sufficiently and Rene knew enough Italian to follow the performance and indeed they derived an a special emotion from this drama performed in a foreign language the

Sority of which seemed to them at times to be a simple orchestral accompaniment supporting the pantomime of the actors hippos was a tall pale fellow a very poor actor who whimpered in his part what a ninny muttered Maxim however restor with her broad shoulders shaken by her

Sobs with her tragical face and fat arms moved grenade deeply fedra was of pacifi blood and she asked herself of what blood she was the incestuous stepmother of modern times she saw not of the piece save this tall woman drawing the ancient crime over the stage when fedra confides her criminal

Tenderness to Enon in the first act when all on fire she declares herself to hippos in the second and later on in the fourth act when the return of Theus overwhelms her and she curses herself in a crisis of gloomy Fury she filled the house with such a cry of savage passion

With such a yearning for superhuman voluptuousness that the young woman felt every shudder of her desire and remorse pass through her own flesh wait murmured Maxim in her ears you’re going to hear teran’s narrative the old fellow has a funny head and he muttered in a hollow

Voice scarce had we passed the gates of Tren he on his Chariot mounted and while the old fellow spoke Renee neither looked nor listened anymore and stifling heat came to her from all the pale faces stretched out towards the stage the monologue continued interminable she imagined herself in the

Conservatory under the Ardent foliage and she dreamt that her husband came in and surprised her in the arms of his son she suffered horribly she was losing Consciousness when Med rattle a fedra repentant and dying in the convulsions caused by the poison made her open her eyes again the curtain

Fell would she have the strength to poison herself someday day how Petty and shameful her drama was beside the ancient epopeia and while Maxim fastened her Opera cloak under her chin she still heard growling behind her resto’s rough voice to which anon’s complacent murmur replied in the broam the young fellow

Talked on alone he considered tragedy sickening as a rule and preferred the pieces performed at the boof however fedra was spicy he had taken an interest in it because and he pressed Rene’s hand to complete his meaning then a funny idea daughtered through his head and he gave way to an

Impulse to say something witty it was I he murmured who did right not to approach the sea at trille Renee lost in the depths of her painful dream remained silent it was necessary for him to repeat his phrase why asked she astonished and failing to understand but the

Monster and he gave vent to a little titter this joke froze the young woman everything was upset in her head her story was no longer a but a big puppet who tucked up her pum and poked out her tongue to the public like blanch Miller in the 30 Act of the

Bain Tain danced the can can and hippos ate bread and jam while stuffing his fingers into his nose when a more ging remorse made Renee shudder she evinced superb Revolt what was her Crime After All why should she blush did she not every day tread upon greater infamies did she not elbow at

The ministers at bateries everywhere in fact wretches like herself who had Millions on their flesh and who were adored on both knees and she thought of the shameful friendship of adelene desan and suzan Hoffner at which one smiled at times at the empress’s Mondays and she recalled

To herself a traffic of Madame dearen whom husband celebrated for her Good Conduct her order and her exactitude in settling her tradesman’s bills she named Madame daste Madame Tessier the baron mold those creatures whose luxury was paid for by their lovers and who were quoted in society like Shares are quoted upon

Change Madame Dain was so stupid and so well formed that she had three Superior officers for her lovers at the same time and was unable to distinguish them from each other on account of their uniforms this made that demon of alouise say that she first of all made them

Strip to their shifts so as to know which of the three she was talking to as for the count as vska she remembered the courtyards in which she had sung the sidewalks on which people pretended they had again seen her dressed in printed Calico and prowling

About like a She Wolf each of these women had her shame her triumphant displayed sore and over topping them all the duchess to Stanish rose up ugly old worn out with the glory of having passed the night in the Imperial bed she typified official Vice from which she

Derived the Majesty of debauchery and a kind of sovereignty over this band of illustrious hussies the incestuous stepmother accustomed herself to her sin as to a Gala robe the stiffness of which might at first have inconvenienced her she followed the Fashions of the period She dressed and undressed herself in the

Style of others she ended by believing that she lived amid a circle above common Morality In which the senses became more acute and developed and in which one was allowed to strip oneself naked for the joy of all Olympus sin became a luxury a flower set

In the hair a diamond fastened on the brow and she again saw like a justification and Redemption the emperor passing on the General’s arm between two rows of inclin line shoulders only one man Baptist her husband’s valet continued to disturb her since zakar showed himself Gallant This

Tall pale dignified valet seemed to walk around her with a semity of mute censure he did not look at her his cold glances passed higher above her Sho with the modesty of a beetle who refuses to defile His Eyes by letting them rest on a hair of a

Sinner she imagined that he knew everything and she would have purchased his silence had she dared then feelings of uneasiness took possession of her she experienced the kind of confused respect when she met Baptist and said to herself that all the honesty of her household had withdrawn and hidden itself under this lackey’s

Dress coat one day she asked Celeste does Baptist joke in the servants all do you know if he has had any Adventure if he has any mistress what a question was all the maid replied come he must have paid you some attentions why he never looks at women

We barely see him he’s always in Master’s rooms or in the Stables he says that he’s very fond of horses Renee was irritated by this respectability for she would have liked to be able to despise her servants although she had taken a liking to Celeste she would have rejoiced to

Learn that she was someone’s mistress but you Celeste she continued don’t you think that Baptist is a goodlook fellow I Madame cried the chambermaid with the stupified air of a person who has just heard something prodigious oh I have very different ideas in my head I don’t want a man I

Have my plan you’ll see later on I’m not a fool no Renee could not draw anything more precise from her moreover her worries were growing her noisy life her mad Rambles met with numerous obstacles which she had to overcome and against which she at times bruised

Herself it was thus that Louise de M rose up one day between herself and Maxim Renee was not jealous of the Hunchback as she disdainfully called her she knew her to be condemned by the doctors and could not believe that Maxim would ever marry such an ugly chit even

At the price of a doy of a million in her fall she had retained a middle class naive respecting the people around her although she despised herself she readily believed that they were Superior and very estimable but wilst rejecting the possibility of a marriage which would

Have seemed to her a piece of sinister debauchery and and a theft she suffered from The Young Folks familiarities and friendliness when she spoke of Louise to Maxim he laughed with satisfaction he repeated the child’s sayings to her and said the urchin calls me her little man you

Know and he displayed such freedom of mind that she did not dare to tell him that this urchin was 17 and that their playfulness with their hands and their eagerness when they met in drawing rooms to find some shady corner to poke fun at everybody grieved her and spoiled her most Pleasant

Evenings an incident occurred which imparted a strange character to the situation Renee often felt the need of acting boastingly and she had whims of brutal boldness she dragged Maxine behind a curtain behind the door and kissed him at the risk of being seen one Thursday evening when the

Buttercup drawing room was was full of people she was seized with the fine idea of calling the young fellow who was talking with Louise she Advanced from the depths of the conservatory where she was to meet him and abruptly kissed him on the mouth between two clumps of Shrubbery thinking that she was

Sufficiently concealed but Louise had followed Maxim and when the lovers raised their heads they saw her a few Paces off looking at them with a strange smile without the least blush or astonishment but with the Quiet friendly air of a companion ince who’s learned enough to understand and appreciate such a

Kiss Maxim felt really frightened that day and it was Renee who showed herself indifferent and almost joyful it was all over it was now impossible for the Hunchback to take her lover from her she thought I ought to have done it on purpose she now knows that her little man belongs to

Me Maxim felt reassured when he again found Louise as gay and as funny as before he considered her to be very acute and a very good-natured girl and that was all there was good reason however for Renee to be disturbed for some little time past sakar had been thinking of his son’s

Marriage with Mademoiselle de maray there was a doy of a million Franks to be had which he did not wish to let Escape meaning to get his hands into this money later on as Louise remained in bed during nearly 3 weeks at the beginning of the

Winter he was so afraid of seeing her die before the projected Union was accomplished that he decided the children should marry at once he certainly thought them rather young but the doctors feared the month of March for the consumptive girl Miss de maray on his side was in a delicate

Position he had eventually succeeded in getting himself returned as a deputy at the last poll only the core legislative had just quashed his election which had provoked a great Scandal when the chamber deliberated on the validity of the returns this election was quite a heroic comical poem on which the

Newspapers lived for a whole month Mel deu the prefect of the department that display made such Vigor that the other candidates had not even been able either to Placer their addresses to the electors or to distribute their voting papers at his advice M deare covered the constituency with tables at which the

Peasants ate and drank for a week he moreover promised a railway line the erection of a bridge and three churches and on the eve of the poll he forwarded to the influential electors the portraits of the emperor and Empress to large Engravings covered with glass and set in Gold

Frames this gift met with tremendous success and the majority in M de Mar’s favor was overwhelming but when the chamber in presence of the bursts of laughter which came from all France found itself compelled to send M de Mar back to his electors the minister flew into a

Terrible passion with the prefect and the unfortunate candidate who had really shown themselves to Z delis he even spoke of choosing someone else as the official candidate M de Mar was terrified he’d spent 300,000 Franks in the department he owned there some large Estates where

He felt bored and which he would have to sell at a loss so he came to beg his dear colleague to appease his brother and to promise him in his name a most properly conducted election it was on this occasion that sard again spoke of the children’s marriage and that the two fathers

Finally decided upon it when Maxim was sounded on the subject he felt embarrassed Louise amused him and Mai tempted him still more he said yes he accepted all the dates that sakar named to avoid the worry of a discussion but at heart he owned to himself that matters would unfortunately

Not be arranged with such Charming facility Renee would never consent she would cry she would up braid him she was capable of provoking some great Scandal to astonish Paris it was very disagreeable she now frightened him she watched him with alarming eyes and she possessed him so despotically that he

Thought he could feel claws digging into her shoulder whenever she laid her white hand on it her turbulence became roughness and there was a cracked sound in the depth of her laughter he really feared that she would go mad One Night in his arms with her remorse fear of being

Surprised the cruel joys of adultery did not manifest themselves as with other women by tears and dejection but by greater extravagance and a more irresistible longing for noise and amid her growing frighten one began to hear a rattling the derangement of this adorable astonishing machine which is breaking

Up Maxim passively awaited an occasion which would rid him of this Troublesome mistress he again said that they had been very stupid if their comrad ship had at first lent additional voluptuousness to their love it now prevented him from breaking off as he would certainly have done from any other

Woman he would not have returned that was his mode of bringing his Amor to a finish so as to avoid any effort or any quarrel but he felt himself incapable of a row and he still even willingly forgot himself at Rene’s Embraces she behaved maternally she paid his expenses and she

Would pull him out of embarrassment if any creditors became angry then he thought of Louise the thought of a dowy of a million of Franks returned to him and made him reflect even amid the young woman’s kisses that it was all very charming and nice but

That it wasn’t serious and must come to an end one night Maxim was so rapidly stumped at the house of a woman where one often gambled till daylight that he experienced one of those mute attacks of anger familiar to the Gamester whose pockets are empty he would have given

Everything in the world to have been able to fling a few more Louie on the table he took up his hat and with the mechanical step of a who is impelled by a fixed idea he repaired to the park moo opened the little gate and found himself in the

Conservatory it was past midnight Renee had forbidden him to come that night when she now closed the door to him she did not even try to invent an explanation while he merely thought of profiting of his holiday he only clearly remembered the young woman’s prohibition when he was in

Front of the glass door of a little drawing room which was closed as a rule when he was to come Renee undid the fastening of this door in advance ba said he on seeing that the window of the dressing room was lighted up I will whistle and she’ll come down I

Shant disturb her if she has a few Louie I’ll go off at once and he whistled gently he indeed often employed this signal to announce his arrival but that evening he fruitlessly whistled several times he grew obstinate raising the key and unwilling to abandon his idea of an

Immediate loan at last he saw the glass door opened with infinite precaution and without his having heard the least sound of footsteps in the dim light of the conservatory Renee appeared to him with her hair down and scarcely dressed as if she were going to bed she was barefooted she pushed him

Towards one of the Arbors descending the steps and walking over the gravel of the pathways without seeming to feel the cold or the roughness of the ground it’s stupid to whistle as loud as that she muttered with restrained anger I told you not to come what do you want

With me eh let’s go up said Maxim surprised by this reception I’ll tell you upstairs you’ll catch cold here but as he stepped forward she held him back and he then perceived that she was horribly pale mute fright bent her form her clothes the lace of her linen

Hung down like tragic shreds upon her shuttering skin he examined her with growing astonishment what’s the matter with you you’re ill and instinctively he raised his eyes and looked through the glass panes of the conservatory at the window of the dressing room where he had seen a

Light but there’s a man in your room he said suddenly no no it isn’t true she stammered supplicating distracted poo my dear I see his shadow then for a minute they remained their face to face not knowing what to say to each other Rene’s teeth chattered

With Terror and it seemed to her as if someone were throwing buckets full of iced water over her bare feet Maxim experienced more irritation than he would have believed but he still remains sufficiently possessed to reflect and say to himself that the occasion was a good one and that he

Would now break off the connection you would make me believe that Celeste wears a coat he continued if the glass panes of the conservatory were not so thick I should perhaps recognize the gentleman she pushed him deeper into the shadow of the foliage saying with her hands clasped and seized with growing

Terror I beg of you Maxim but all the young fellow’s teasing faculties were aroused a ferocious malice which sought for vengeance he was too weak to ease himself by anger spite compressed his lips and instead of striking her as he had at first had the impulse of doing he sharpened his voice

And rejoined you OV told me of it I shouldn’t have come to disturb you it happens every day that one no longer cares for one another I myself was beginning to have enough of it come don’t be impatient I’ll let you go up again but not before you’ve told me the

Gentleman’s name never never murmured the young woman forcing back her tears it isn’t to call him out it’s to know the name tell me the name quick and off I go he caught hold of her wrists and he looked at her laughing his Wicked laugh she struggled distracted bent upon

Not opening her lips again so that the name he asked for might not escape from them we shall make a noise you’ll be nicely placed then why are you frightened aren’t we good friends I want to know who replaces me it’s legitimate come I’ll help you it’s m de musi whose

Grief has touched you she did not answer she bowed her head beneath such an interrogatory it isn’t Miss deusi the Duke to rosan then really not he either perhaps the not even he he stopped short he reflected the devil I can’t think of anyone else it can’t be my father after

What you told me Renee quivered as if she’d been burnt and said huskily no you know very well that he no longer comes I shouldn’t accept it would be ignoble then who is it and he pressed her wrists still more tightly the young woman struggled for a few moments longer

Oh Maxim if you knew I can’t however tell you then conquered crushed looking with a fright at the lighted window it is Miss fre she stammered in a very low voice Maxim whom the cruel game had amused turned extremely pale on hearing this confession which he’d asked for so

Persistently he was irritated by the unexpected pain which this man’s name caused him he violently threw back Rene’s wrists Drawing Near to her and saying to her full in the face and with clinched teeth well do you want to know you are a he said the word and he was

Going off when she hastened to him sobbing taking him in her arms murmuring tender things requests for pardon swearing that she still adored him and that she would explain everything to him on the tomorrow but he disengaged himself and banged the door of the conservatory replying no all’s over I’ve had quite

Enough of it she remained crushed rushed she watched him crossing the garden it seemed to her the Trees of the conservatory revolved around her then she slowly dragged her bare feet over the gravel of the pathways she reascended the steps her skin discolored by the cold and more tragical than ever

Amid the disorder of her lace upstairs she answered in reply to the questions of her husband who was waiting for her that she thought she could recollect where she dropped a little notebook she’d lost since the morning and when she was in bed she suddenly felt immense despare on

Reflecting that she ought to have told Maxim that his father after returning home with her had followed her into her room to talk to her about some money matter it was on the tomorrow that sakar decided to hasten the finish of the shakon matter his wife belonged to him

He had just felt her soft and iner in his hands like something that surrenders itself on the other hand the line which the boulevard Deen was to follow was about to be decided upon and it was necessary that Renee should be despoiled before the approaching expropriation was noised

About zakar displayed an artist’s love in all this affair it was with devotion that he watched his plan ripen and he set his traps with the refinement of a sportsman who prides himself on capturing his game in skillful fashion he felt the satisfaction of an expert Gamester of a man who derives a

Special enjoyment from stol and gain he wished to obtain the ground for a crust of bread and then to give his wife a 100,000 Franks worth of jewelry amid the joy of the Triumph the simplest operations grew complicated became black dramas as soon as he dealt with them he became

Impassioned he would have beaten his father for five Franks but afterwards he scattered gold in Regal fashion however before obtaining from Renee the session of her share in the property he prudently went to Pro blar Sono as to the black mailing intentions which he had sented in him his Instinct

Saved him on this occasion the expropriation agent had imagined on his side that the fruit was ripe and that he could pluck it when entered the office in the rud de roli he found his comper overcome and showing signs of the most violent despair ah my friend murmured larano

Taking hold of his hands we are lost I was about to hasten to your place so that we might consult together and get out of this horrible scrape while he wrong his hands and tried to sob sard noticed that he’d been engaged in signing letters prior to his

Arrival and that the signatures were penned with admirable Precision he accordingly looked at him quietly saying ba what has befallen us then but the agent did not reply at once he’d thrown himself into his armchair in front of his writing Table and there with his elbows on the blotting pad and

His brow between his hands he furiously shook his head finally in a husky voice I have been robbed of AIC maintaining the inventory you know and he related that one of his clerks a Scamp worthy of the galleys had abstracted a large number of papers among which the famous inventory figured

The worst was that the thief had realized to what use he might turn the document in question and he wished to sell it back for a 100,000 Franks sakar reflected the story seemed to him Al together too clumsy plainly enough Laro did not much care at heart whether he

Was believed or not he sought for a simple pretext to make sakad understand that he wanted 100,000 Franks in the Chiron Affair and that he would on this condition return the compromising papers which were in his possession the bargain seemed too honorous to sard he would willingly have

Allowed his ex-colleague a share but he was irritated by the setting of this snare by this pretention to make a dupe of him on the other hand he was not without his apprehensions he knew the person that he had to deal with he knew that he was

Quite capable of taking the documents to his brother the minister who would certainly have paid a price for them so as to stifle any Scandal the devil he muttered sitting down in his turn this is a nasty story and can one see the Scamp in question I will have him sent for said

Loo he lives close by in the rou je laner 10 minutes had not elapsed when a little young fellow with a squint light hair and a face covered with freckles stepped softly into the room taking care but the door should not make a noise he wore an old black frock coat too large

For him and horribly threadbear he remained standing at a respectful distance quietly looking at sakad out of the corner of his eye Lano who called him Baptista made him undergo an interrogatory to which he replied in monosyllables without humbling himself the least in the world indeed he accepted with the utmost indifference

The epithets of thief swindler and scoundrel which his master thought fit to adjoin to each of his questions sakar admired this wretched fellow’s coolness at one moment the expropriation agent sprang from his armchair as if to strike him and he contented himself with retreating a step squinting with still more

Humility that will do leave him alone said the finer and so sir you demand 100,000 Franks for the papers yes 100,000 Franks replied the young man and he went off lareno seemed unable to calm himself what a blard eh he stammered did you see his underhand look

Fellows of that stamp have a timid a but they’d murder a man for 20 Franks sakar however interrupted him saying PO he isn’t terrible I think one will be able to arrange matters with him I came to see you about a much more worrying Affair you were right in

Mistrusting my wife my dear friend just fancy she’s going to sell her share of the property to M Hoffner she needs money says her friend Suzanne must have influenced her the other abruptly ceased despairing he listened rather pale readjusting his stickup collar which had become bent during his fit of

Anger this sale continued sakar means the ruin of our hopes if Miss Hoffner becomes your fellow partner not only will our prophets be compromised but I am dreadfully afraid that we shall find ourselves in a most disagreeable able position towards that over scrupulous fellow who will want to go over the

Accounts the expropriation agent began walking about with an agitated step his patent leather boots creaking on the carpet you see muttered he in what a position one puts oneself to oblige people but my dear fellow if I were in your place I should absolutely prevent my wife from doing anything so foolish

I’d beat her sooner ah my friend said the finer with a Wily smile I have no more power over my wife than you seem to have over that blackard of a Baptista laros stopped short in front of sakar who was still smiling and gazed at him with a profound

Air then he resumed walking up and down but with a slow measured step he approached a Looking Glass pulled up the the bow of his necktie and then walked on again regaining his elegant Manner and suddenly Baptista he cried the little young fellow who squinted came in but by another door he

No longer carried his hat but Twisted a pen between his fingers go and fetch The Ledger said lareno to him and when the clerk was no longer there the agent discussed the sum that was to be given him him do it for me he ended by plainly saying thereupon sard consented to give

30,000 Franks out of the future profits of the Chiron Affair he considered that he still escaped cheaply from the user’s gloved hand the latter had the promise made out in his name prolonging the comedy to the end and stating that he would be accountable to the young man for the 30,000

Franks it was with a laugh of relief that sard burnt The Ledger Page by page at the fire flaming in the great then this operation over he exchanged vigorous handshakes with Lano and left him saying you’re going to LS this evening aren’t you wait for me there I shall have arranged everything

With my wife we will decide on our final plans lini who often moved then resided in a large apartment on the Boulevard asman in front of the expiatory chapel she had just fixed one day a week to be at home like a lady of real Society it

Was a manner of assembling on the same occasion the men who saw her one by one during the week Ares sakar triumphed on Tuesday evenings he was the acknowledged protector and he turned his head with a vague laugh whenever the Mistress of the house betrayed him between two doors by

Giving one of the gentlemen an appointment for the same night when he remained there the last of the set he lit another cigar talked business and joked about the gentleman who was dancing attendance in the street waiting until he left then after calling Laura his dear child and giving

Her a little pat on the cheek he quietly went off by one door while the gentleman came in by another the secret treaty of Alliance would consolidated sar’s credit and procured the dorini two sets of furniture in a month still continued to amuse them but Lura wanted a finish to

The comedy this finish a predetermined one was to consist in a public rupture to the profit of some fool who would pay dearly for the right of being the serious protector known as such to all Paris the fool was found the duor rosan tired of uselessly boring the women of

The same social standing as himself dreamt of acquiring the reputation of a deuche so as to lend some relief to his insipid personality he was very assiduous at the Tuesday at homes of L whom he had conquered by his absolute Simplicity unfortunately although 35 years old he was still dependent upon

His mother to such a point that he could at the most dispose of merely 10 Louie at a time on the evenings when laa dained to take his 10 Louie pitying herself and talking of the 100,000 Franks she needed he sighed and promised her the amount on

The day when he would be the master it was then that she had the idea of putting him on friendly terms with Laro who was one of her good friends the two men went to lunch together at torton and at dessert Laro while relating his am with a delicious

Spanish Beauty pretended that he knew some money lenders but he strongly advised rosan never to let himself pass into their hands This Confidential announcement inflamed the Duke who ended by ringing from his dear friend a promised that he would occupy himself about his little Affair he occupied himself about it so

Well that he was to bring the money on the very evening that sard was to meet him at L’s when lareno arrived V doi’s large white and gold drawing room only contained some five or six women who took hold of his hands and clung to his neck with a furious Outburst of

Affection they called him that Big L A caressing nickname which Lura had invented and he in a fluty voice exclaimed there that’ll do my little kittens you’ll Crush my hat they calmed down and gathered close around him on a couch while he told them about an attack of indigestion which had

Befallen Sylvia with whom he had SED the night before then drawing a sweet meat box from the pocket of his dress coat he offered them some burnt almonds meanwhile Laura came out of her bedroom and as several gentlemen arrived she Drew lareno into a budoir situated

At one end of a drawing room from which it was separated by double hangings half you got the money she asked him when they were alone laano without replying bowed in a jocular Manner and tapped the inner pocket of his coat oh you big La murmured the delighted young woman she

Took him around the waist and kissed him wait a bit she said I want the flimsies rosan is in my room I’ll go and fetch him but he detained her and in his turn kissing her shoulders you know what commission I asked of you why yes you big stupid it’s

Agreed she came back bringing rosan Lao was dressed more correctly than the Duke with better fitting gloves and a more artistic bow to his necktie they negligently touched hands and talked about the raises of two days before at which one of their friends had had a horse beating laa stamped

Impatiently come come never mind all that my darling said she to Rosanne big La has the money you know the affair had better be settled lareno pretended to remember I yes it’s true he said I have the amount but how much better you would have done had you listened to me my dear

Fellow to think that these Rogues demanded 50% of me however I agreed to it all the same as you told me that it didn’t matter Laura had procured some Bill stamps during the day but when it was a question of a pen and an ink stand she

Looked at the two men with an air of consternation doubting whether these objects would be found in the place she wanted to go and look in the kitchen when Laro Drew from his pocket the pocket containing the sweet meat box two marveles a silver pen holder which

Lengthened by means of a screw and a steel and Ebony ink stand of Jewel like finishing delicacy and as rosan sat down draw the notes to my name the agent said I didn’t wish to compromise you you understand we will arrange matters together six notes of 25,000 Franks each

E Laura counted the flimsies on a corner of a table rosan did not even see them when he had signed and raised his head they had already disappeared in the young woman’s pocket however she came to him and kissed him on both cheeks which appeared to Delight him lareno looked at them

Philosophically while folding the promisory notes and replacing the ink and pen holder in his pocket the young woman still had her arms around rosanne’s neck when arist sard raised the corner of a door hanging well don’t disturb yourselves he said laughing fuk blushed but Laura went to shake the finance here’s hand exchanging

A wink of intelligence with him she was radiant this ends section 10 section 11 of the rush for the spoil by Emil zolah translated by Henry vitelli this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Mark leer section 11 it’s done my dear said she I warned

You of it you’re not too angry with me sakar Shrugged his shoulders with a good-natured air he pulled back the hanging and drawing aside to allow Laura and Muk to pass he cried out in an Usher’s yelping voice the Duke The Duchess this witticism met with tremendous success on the marrow the

Newspapers repeated it plainly naming lur darini and designating the two men by extremely transparent initials the rupture between ared sakar and fat laa caused even more of a stir in their pretended Amur had done zakat had let the door curtain Fall Again amid the burst of G ity which his

Jocularity had occasioned in the drawing room ah what a good girl said he turning towards lareno she’s vicious it’s you you Scamp who no doubt profits by all this what are you to have but the agent protested with smiles and pulled down his shirt cuffs which

Had caught up under the sleeves of his coat at last he went and sat down near the door on a couch with sard motioned him come here I don’t want to confess you dash at all let us now deal with serious matters my dear fellow I have had a long talk with my

Wife this evening everything is decided she consents to seed her share in the property asked Leno yes but it wasn’t without trouble on my part women are so obstinate my wife you know it promised to an old Aunt not to sell the ground there was no end to her

Scruples luckily however I had prepared quite a decisive story he rose up to light a cigar at the candle abam which Laura had left on the table and returning and stretching himself languidly on the couch I told my wife he continued that you were completely ruined you gambled at the Bor

Spent your money with harlots dabbled in bad speculations in fact you were on the point of Ending by a frightful bankruptcy I even let it be understood that I did not consider you perfectly honest then I explained to her that the Chiron affair would be wrecked in your

Fall and that the best course would be for her to accept the proposal you had made to me to disengage her by buying her share for a crust of bread it’s true it is an able story muttered the expropriation agent do you fancy your wife will believe such

Trash sakar smiled he was in a disposition to be communicative you are simple my dear fellow he resumed the basis of the story is of little consequence for details gestures and tone of voice are everything called rosan and I bet I will persuade him that it is broad daylight

Light my wife has scarcely any more brains than rosan I let her have a glimpse of a precipice she hasn’t the least idea of the coming expropriation as she was astonished that in the midst of a catastrophe you could think of taking a still heavier burden

On your shoulders I told her that no doubt she hampered you in dealing some ugly blow intended for your creditors finally I advise the transaction as the only means of avoid voiding being mixed up in interminable lawsuits and of deriving some money from the ground lareno still considered the story somewhat

Brutal his method was less dramatic each of his operations was concocted and unraveled with the Elegance of a drawing room comedy I should have imagined something different he said however everyone his own system so all we have to do now is to pay it is on

This point replied sakar that I want to make arrangements with you tomorrow I will take the deed of sale to my wife and she will simply have to send you this deed to receive the stipulated amount I prefer to avoid any interview he had indeed never allowed

Lareno to visit them on a footing of intimacy he did not invite him to his entertainments and he accompanied him to Rene’s on the days when it was absolutely necessary that they should meet this had happened on three occasions at the utmost he almost always transacted matters with a power of

Attorney from his wife not wishing to let her see too closely into his Affairs he now opened his pocketbook adding here of a 200,000 Franks worth of bills accepted by my wife you will give them her in payment and you will add to them 100,000 Franks which I will bring

You tomorrow morning I’m bleeding myself my dear friend this business will cost me a fortune but that will only make 300,000 Franks remarked the expropriation agent will the receipt be for that amount a receipt for 300,000 Franks rejoined sakar laughing ah in that case we should be nicely

Placed later on acc course according to our inventories the property must now be estimated at 2,500,000 Franks the receipt will naturally be for half that amount your wife will never sign it yes she will I tell you that it is all agreed why Dash it all I told

That that was your first condition you present a pistol at our heads with your bankruptcy do you understand and it was for that reason that I appeared to doubt your honesty and accused you of wanting to dup your creditors do you think my wife understands anything of all that lareno shook his head

Muttering no matter you ought to have devised something simpler but my story is Simplicity itself said sakar very much astonished how the devil do you find it complicated he was not conscious of the incredible number of devices which he tacked on to the most ordinary transaction he derived real enjoyment

From the and Bull story which he just told Renee and what delighted him was the impudence of a lie the piling up of impossibilities the astonishing complicacy of the plot he would long since have had the ground if he had not imagined all this drama but he would

Have experienced less enjoyment had he obtained it easily besides he displayed the most Simplicity in making the Chiron speculation quite a financial melodrama he rose up and taking lono’s arm walked towards the drawing room you have perfectly understood me eh he said content yourself with following my instructions and you will applaud me

Later on do you know my dear fellow you do wrong to wear yellow gloves they quite spoil your hands the expropriation agent contented himself with smiling and murmuring oh gloves have their value dear Master one can touch anything without dirtying oneself as they returned into the dra room zart was surprised and somewhat

Alarmed to find Maxim on the other side of the door curtains he was SE on a couch beside a fair-haired woman who was telling him in a monotonous voice along long story no doubt her own the young fellow had in point of fact overheard the conversation between his father and

Lareno the two accomplice seemed to him to be a pair of sharp blades still vexed by Rene’s betrayal he tasted a cowardly enjoyment in learning the theft of which he was about to be the victim it Avenged him a little his father came and shook his hand with a

Suspicious air but Maxim showing him the fair-haired woman whispered in his ear she isn’t badl looking is she I mean to have her this evening thereupon sart attitudinize and showed himself Galant Laura D came and joined them for a moment she complained that Maxim scarcely paid her one visit a month but

He pretended that he’d been very much occupied which statement made everybody laugh he added that in future he should be here there and everywhere I have written the tragedy said he and I only hit on the Fifth Act last night I now mean to rest myself at

The abodes of all the pretty women in Paris he laughed and enjoyed his Illusions which he alone could understand however the only other persons now remaining in the drawing room were rosan and Laro on either corner of the mantlepiece the sakars rose up as well as the fair-haired woman who lived in

The house but darini then went to speak in a low tone to vuk he seemed surprised and vexed seeing that he did not make up his mind to leave his armchair no really not this evening she said in an undertone I have a headache tomorrow evening I promise you rosan had to

Obey Laura waited till he was on the landing and then said quickly and L son’s ear hey big I keep my word shove him into his carriage and when the fair-haired woman took leave of a gentleman to return to her rooms on the floor above Zach card

Was surprised that Maxim did not follow her well he asked him well no replied the young fellow I’ve reflected and he had an idea which he thought a very funny one I abandon my rights to you if you like make haste she hasn’t yet shot her door but his father gently Shrugged his

Shoulders saying thanks youngster I have something better than that for the time being the four men went down outside theuk absolutely wished to take lareno with him in his Carriage his mother lived in the mar and he would have dropped the expropriation agent at his door in the rud de rali the latter

Refused however shut the carriage door himself and told The Coachman to drive off and he then lingered on the sidewalk of the boulevar asman talking with the two others instead of going away ah poor oan said sard who suddenly understood the truth Leno swore that it was not so that

He didn’t care a fig for all that that he was a practical man and as the other two continued joking and the cold was very keen he finished by exclaiming upon my word so much the worse I’m going to ring you are Indiscreet gentlemen good night called Maxine as the door closed

Again and taking his father’s arm he went up the boulevard with him it was one of those clear Frosty nights when it is so agreeable to walk on the hard ground in the icy atmosphere zakar remarked that lareno was wrong that it was preferable to be simply thein’s comrade he started from

This point to declare that the love of these women was really pernicious he showed himself moral and hit upon sentences and advice of astonishing wisdom you see said he to his son all that only lasts for a time my good fellow a man loses his health at it and

Doesn’t taste real happiness you know that I’m not a pure all the same I’ve had quite enough of it I’m going to settle down Maxim chuckled he stopped his father and gazed at him by the Moonlight declaring that he had a fine head but sakar became still more grave joke as

Much as you like I repeat to you but there’s nothing like married life to preserve a man and make him happy thereupon he spoke of Louise and he began walking more slowly so as to settle that matter he said since they were talking of it everything was fully

Arranged he even informed Maxim that he and M deare had fixed the signing of the contract for the Sunday following the midlength Thursday on that Thursday there was to be a grand party at the mansion in the park moo and he could profit by the occasion to make a public announcement of the

Marriage Maxim considered all this to be be very satisfactory he’d rid himself of Renee he saw no more obstacles and he surrendered himself to his father as he had surrendered himself to his stepmother well it’s understood said he only don’t talk about it to Renee her

Friends would twit and tease me and I prefer that they should know the news at the same time as everyone else sakar promised him to keep silent then as they approached the top of the Boulevard m there he again gave him a quantity of excellent advice he told him

How he ought to act to make his home a paradise above everything never break off with your wife it’s Folly a wife with whom you no longer have connection costs you a fortune in the first place a man has to pay some Harlot hasn’t he then the expenditure is much greater at

Home there are dresses madame’s private Pleasures her dear friends the devil and all his train he was in a moment of extraordinary virtue the success of his Chiron Affair had set idilic tenderness in his heart I he continued was born to live happy and ignored in the depths of

Some village with all my family around me people don’t know me my little fellow I seem to be very flighty but in reality not at all I should adore remaining near near my wife I would willingly abandon my Affairs for a modest income which would enable me to retire to

Placant you are about to become rich make yourself a home with Louise in which you will live like two Turtle does it’s so nice I will go to see you it will do me good he ended by having sobs in his voice meanwhile they had reached the

Iron Gate of the mansion and stood talking on the curb of the sidewalk a sharp Northeast wind swept over these Parisian Heights not a sound arose in the pale night white with frost Maxim surprised by his father’s sentimentality had for a moment past had a question on his

Lips but you he said at last it seems to me what as regards your wife sakar shrug his shoulders he quite so I Was a Fool that’s why I speak to you by experience however we have become husband and wife again oh quite so it

Happened nearly 6 weeks ago I go en join her of an evening when I don’t return home too late tonight however the poor ducky must dispense with me I have to work till daylight she has such an awfully fine figure as Maxim held out his hand to his father

The lad detained him and added in a lower key in a confidential tone you know blanch müller’s figure well it’s that but 10 times more Supple and such hips they have a curve a delicacy and then he concluded by saying to the young fellow who was going off

You are like me you have a heart your wife will be happy good goodbye youngster when Maxim had at last rid himself of his father he went rapidly round the park what he had just heard surprised him so much that he experienced an irresistible desire to see

Renee he wished to ask her forgiveness for his brutality to find out why she had lied to him in naming M de safre and to learn the story of her husband’s tenderness he thought of all this conf confusedly however with but the one distinct wish to smoke a cigar in her

Room and renew their comradeship providing she were welld disposed he would even announce his marriage to her so as to make her understand that their Amores must remain dead and buried when he’ opened the little door the key of which he had fortunately retained he ended by saying to himself

That after his father’s confidential Revelations his visit was necessary and qu quite proper in the conservatory he whistled as he’ done the night before but he did not have to wait Renee came to open the glass door of a little drawing room and went upstairs before him without speaking a

Word she still wore a dress of white tulle forming Puffs and covered with satin bows the taals of a satin body were edged with a broad band of White Jet of a light of a candleabra tinged with blue and pink when Maxim looked at her upstairs he was

Touched by her palor and the Deep emotion which deprived her of her voice she could not have been expecting him she still quivered all over at seeing him arrive as quietly as usual with his coaxing air Celeste returned from the Wardrobe where she’d gone to fetch a night gown

And Bel lovers remained silent deferring their explanation until the girl had withdrawn as a rule they did not inconvene venience themselves in her presence but the things which they felt upon their lips filled them with a kind of Shame Renee would have Celeste undresser in the bedroom where there was a large

Fire the chambermaid removed the pins took off each article of finery one by one without hurrying herself and Maxine feeling bored mechanically took up the shimes which was lying on a chair beside him and warmed it in front of the Flames leaning forward with his arms

Apart it was he who used to render an a this little service in happy times and she felt moved when she saw him delicately holding the Gown to the fire then as Celeste showed no signs of finishing the young fellow asked did you enjoy yourself at the

Ball oh no it’s always the same thing you know answered Renee a great deal too many people a perfect Crush Maxim turned the night gown which was now warm on one side what did Adeline wear he asked a mauve dress rather awkwardly devised although she is short she’s mad on

Flounces they then talked about the other women Maxim was now burning his fingers with the Gown but you will Scorch it said Renee whose voice was maternal L caressing Celeste took the Gown from The Young fellow’s hands he rose up and went to look at the

Large pink and gray bed fixing his eyes upon one of the bouquets embroidered on the curtains so as to be able to turn his head and not see Rene’s bare bosom it was instinctive he no longer considered himself her lover so he no longer had the right to

Look then he drew a cigar from his pocket and Li it Renee had given him permission to smoke in her apartments at last Celeste retired leaving the young woman by the Fireside quite white in her night attire Maxim walked about for a few moments longer silent and looking out of

The corner of his eye at Renee who seemed to be again seized with a shudder then stationing himself in front of the mantlepiece with his cigar between his teeth he asked in a Curt voice why didn’t you tell me that it was my father who was with you last

Night she raised her head her eyes dilated with Supreme anguish then A Rush of Blood crimsoned her face and overwhelmed with shame she hid it with her hands and stammered you know that you know that regaining herself possession she tried to lie it’s not true who told it you Maxim Shrugged his

Shoulders why my father himself who considers you nicely formed and talk to me about your hips he had allowed a little vexation to show itself while saying this but he now began walking about again continuing in a chiding but friendly voice between two Puffs of smoke really now I don’t

Understand you you are a singular woman it was your fault if I was rude yesterday if you had told me that it was my father I should have gone off quietly you understand I have no right but you go and name Miss de safre to me she was sobbing with her hands over

Her face he drew near knelt down before her and forcibly Drew her hands aside come tell me why you named Miss de saf he said then still averting her head she answered in a low tone amid her tears I thought that you would leave me if you knew that your

Father he rose to his feet took up his cigar which he had laid on a corner of the mantle shelf and contented himself with muttering you are very funny really she no longer cried the Flames of the Great and the fire of her cheeks were drying her tears her astonishment at seeing Maxim

So calm and pres of a revelation which she had thought was bound to crush him made her forget her shame she looked at him as he walked about she listened to him speaking as if she had been in a dream without abandoning his cigar he repeated to her that she was

Unreasonable that it was quite natural she’d have connection with her husband and that he really could not think of resenting it but to go and confess that she had a lover when it was not true and he constantly returned to that point which he could not understand and which seemed

Really monstrous to him he talked about women’s mad imaginations you are a little bit cracked my dear he said you must take care then he ended by asking inquisitively but why miss your de safre rather than anyone else he cours me said Renee Maxim strained an impertinent

Remark he’d been on the point of saying that she had fancied herself a month older on owning that M de safre was her lover however he merely gave expression to the evil smile which the spiteful idea prompted and throwing his cigar Into the Fire he went and sat down on

The other side of the mantle shelf there he talked reason and gave Renee to understand that they ought to remain good friends the young woman woman’s fixed gaze certainly embarrassed him somewhat he did not dare to announce his marriage to her she contemplated him for a long time

Her eyes still swollen by her tears she found him Petty narrow-minded despicable but she still loved him with the same tenderness that she felt for her lace he looked pretty in the light of the candleabra placed on the corner of the mantle shelf beside him as he threw his head back the light

Of the candles gilded his hair and glided over his face amid the soft down of his cheeks with a Charming orent effect all the same I must be off said he several times he had quite decided not to stop besides Renee would not have allowed it

They both thought it and said it they were now nothing more than two friends when Maxim had at last pressed the Young woman’s hand and was on the point of leaving the room she detained him for another Moment by speaking to him about his father upon whom she bestowed great

Praise you see I felt too much remorse she said I prefer that this should have happened you don’t know your father I was astonished to find him so kind so disinterested the poor fellow had such great worries just now Maxim looked at the tips of his boots without replying and with an

Embarrassed air she dwelt on the subject as long as he did not come into this room it was all the same to me but afterwards when I saw him here so affectionate bringing me money which he must have picked up in all the corners of Paris ruining himself for me without

A murmur I felt ill if you knew how carefully he has watched over my interests the young fellow returned softly to the mantlepiece and lent against it he remained embarrassed with bowed head and a smile gradually rising to his lips yes muttered he my father is very skillful in watching over people’s

Interests his tone of voice astonished Renee she looked at him and he as if to defend himself added oh I know nothing nothing I only say that my father is a skillful man you would do wrong to speak ill of him she rejoined you must judge him rather

Superficially if I acquainted you with all his worries if I repeated to you what he confided to me again this evening you would see how mistaken people are when they think he cares for money Maxim could not restrain a shrug of the shoulders he interrupted his stepmother with an ironical laugh

Ah I know him I know him well he said he must have told you some very pretty things relate them to me this tone of rery wounded her she then enlarged upon her Praises she considered her husband quite a great man she talked about the Chiron Affair that

Piece of jobbery of which he’d understood nothing as about a catastrophe in which sakara’s intelligence and kindness had been revealed to her she added that she should sign the deed of session on the tomorrow and that if this affair were really a disaster she accepted it in punishment for her

Sins Maxim let her go on sneering and looking at her slightly then he said in an undertone that’s it that’s just it and raising his voice and settling his hand on Rene’s shoulder thanks my dear but I already know the story you are of nice composition he again seemed to be on the

Point of leaving but he felt a furious itching to tell Renee everything she had exasperated him with her Praises of her husband and he forgot that he promised himself not to speak so as to avoid anything disagreeable what what do you mean she asked why that my father has done you in

The prettiest way in the world I really pity you you are too much of a simpleton and he then cowardly craftily related to her what he’d heard at LS tasting its secret Delight in descending into these infamies it seemed to him that he was taking his revenge for a vague insult

Which someone had just addressed to him with his harlot’s temperament he lingered beic over this denunciation over this cruel chatter of what he’ overheard behind the door he spared Renee nothing neither the money which her husband had lent her uously nor that which he meant to steal from her with

The help of ridiculous stories fit to send children to sleep the young woman listened to him very pale and with clinched teeth standing in front of a chimney piece she slightly lowered her head and looked at at the fire her night dress the Gown of which Maxim had warmed

Spread out revealing the motionless statue like whiteness of her limbs I tell you all this continued the young man so that you may not seem to be a fool but you would do wrong to get angry with my father he isn’t Wicked he has his failings like everyone till tomorrow eh he still

Advanced towards the door but Renee stopped him with a sudden gesture stay she cried imperiously and taking hold of him drawing him to her almost seating him on her knees in front of the fire she kissed him on the lips saying ah well it would be too stupid to

Put ourselves to inconvenience now don’t you know that my head has no longer seem to belong to me since yesterday since you wanted to break off I am like an idiot at the bowl tonight I had a fog before my eyes it is because I cannot now live quite without

You when you leave me I shall be done for don’t laugh I tell you what I feel she looked at him with infinite tenderness as if she’d not seen him for a long time you found the word she continued I was a simpleton your father would have made me see stars in broad

Daylight did I know anything about it while he was telling me his story I only heard a loud buzzing and I was so crushed that if he had chosen he could have made me go down in my knees to sign his papers and I fancied to myself that I felt

Remorseful I was really as stupid as that she burst out laughing and gleams of folly Shone in her eyes pressing her lover still more tightly she went on do we sin we too we love each other we amuse ourselves as it pleases us everyone has come to that eh you see

Your father doesn’t put himself out he likes money and he takes it wherever he finds it he’s right it sets me at my ease in the first place I sh sign anything and then you will come here every evening I will was afraid that you wouldn’t you know on account of what I

Told you but as you don’t mind it besides I shall close my door to him now you understand she rose up and light of the NightLight Maxim hesitated in despair he realized what a piece of folly he had perpetrated and he harshly reproached himself for having said too

Much how could he announce his marriage now it was his fault the rupture had been accomplished there had been no need for him to go up into that room again or especially to prove to the young woman that her husband deceived her Maxim’s anger with himself was

Increased as he no longer knew what feeling he had first obeyed but if for a moment he thought of being brutal a second time of going away the sight of Renee who was letting her slippers fall lent him Invincible cowardice he felt fright Ed he Remained on the tomorrow when sakat came to his wife’s apartment to make her sign theid of session she quietly answered him that she should not do so that she had reflected she did not however allow herself even an illusion to the truth she had sworn that she would be discreet

For she did not want to create worries for herself but rather wished to taste the renewal of her Amur in peace the shahon affair would finish as it could her refusal to sign was merely an act of Vengeance she did not care a fig for the

Rest sard was on the point of flying into a passion all his dream crumbled his other Affairs were going from bad to worse he found himself at the end of his resources and merely sustained himself by performing miraculous Feats of equ Liberty that very mourning he’d been unable to pay his Baker’s

Bill this did not prevent him however from preparing a splendid entertainment for the mid-lent Thursday in presence of Rene’s refusal he experienced the white Rage of a vigorous man impeded in his work by a child’s whim with the deed Obsession once in his pocket he had relied upon raising funds

Pending the award of the indemnity when he had sight ly calmed down and his intelligence had become clear again his wife’s Sudden Change astonished him she must undoubtedly have been advised he sented a lover this was so clear a presentiment that he hastened to his sister to

Question her to ask her if she did not know anything about Rene’s private life sidon showed herself very bitter she had not forgotten her sister-in-law for the affront she’d given her by refusing to see Miss de safre so when by her brother’s question she understood that the latter accused

His wife of having a lover she cried out that she was certain of it and of her own accord she offered to spy upon the turtle doves in that way the hoty thing would see who it was she had to deal with zakar did not habitually seek after disagreeable truths his interest alone

Compelled him to open his eyes which as a rule he wisely kept closed he accepted his sister’s offer oh be easy I shall learn everything she said to him in a voice full of compassion ah my poor brother Angel would never have betrayed you so good so generous a husband these Parisian dolls

Have no hearts and to think that I never cease giving her good advice this ends section 11 section 12 of the rush for the spoil by Emil zolah translated by Henry vitelli this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Mark leer section 12 there was a fancy dress bowl at the

Sears on the mid-lent Thursday the great curiosity however was the poem of the Amour of handsome Narcissus and the nymph echo in three Tableau which the ladies were to perform for more than a month the author of this poem missu had been traveling from his prefecture to the Mansion of the park

Moo so as to superintend the rehearsals and give his opinion on the costumes he had at first thought of writing his work in verse but later on he had decided in favor of Tableau Vivant it was more noble he said nearer to antique Beauty the ladies no longer slept some

Of them changed their costumes no fewer than three times there were some interminable conferences over which the prefect presided the personage of narcissus was at first discussed at length should a man or a woman personate him at last at the instance of Renee it was decided that the part should be

Confided to Maxim but he was to be the only man in the Tableau and indeed Madame deren declared that she would never have consented to it if little Maxim had not been so like a real girl Renee was to be the nymph Echo the question of the costumes was far more

Complicated Maxim gave a good lift up to the prefect who was quite tired out amid nine women whose mad imaginations threatened to grievously impair his conceptions purity of lines if he had listened to them his Olympus would have worn powder Madame desan absolutely wished to dress with a long skirt to hide her

Somewhat large feet while Madame Hoffner dreamt of dressing herself in a wild BEAST’s skin youu was energetic and he even turned angry on one occasion he was convinced and he said that if he had renounced the versification it was to write his poem in cleverly Combined stuffs and attitudes selected among the

Best the harmony ladies repeated he at each fresh exis she you forget the harmony I can’t however sacrifice the entire work to the flounces you asked me for the conferences took place in the Buttercup drawing room entire afternoons were spent there deciding on the cut of a skirt worms was summoned several times

At last everything was settled the costumes decided on the positions learned and missel deu declared himself satisfied the election of Miss de Mar had given him less trouble the performance of the Amor of handsome Narcissus and man nyph Echo was to begin at 11:00 the large drawing room was already

Full at half 10 and as there was to be a ball afterwards the ladies were there in costumes seated in armchairs ranged in a semicircle in front of the improvised stage a plat platform hidden by two broad curtains of red velvet with golden Fringe running on iron

Rods the gentlemen stood behind or moved to and fro at 10:00 the upholsterers had struck the last Nails home the platform rose up at the end of a drawing room occupying a portion of this long Gallery access to the stage was obtained by the smoking room converted into a green room for the

Artists in addition the ladies had at their disposal several apartments on the first floor where an army of maids prepared the costumes of a different Tableau it was halfast 11 and the curtains were not yet drawn aside a loud buzz filled the drawing room the rows of armchairs were occupied by a most

Astonishing crowd of Martian esses Noble Dames milkmaids Spanish Beauties shepherdesses and sultanas while the compact massive dress coats set a large dark stain beside the glistening of light stuffs and bare shoulders glowing with a bright Sparkle of jewelry the women alone were in costume it was already warm the three

Chandeliers lit up the golden Sheen of a drawing room at last missel deu was seen to emerge from an opening on the left hand side of the platform he had been assisting the lady since 8:00 in the evening his dress coat bore on the left sleeve the mark of three white fingers a

Woman’s little hand which had rested there after dabbling in a box of rice powder but the prefect had something else than the mishaps of his attire to think about he had huge eyes and a swollen and somewhat pale face he did not seem to see anyone and advancing

Towards sakar whom he recognized among a group of grave looking men he said to him in an undertone Dash it all your wife has lost her girdle of foliage we are in a pretty pickle he swore and felt inclined to beat the people around him then without

Waiting for a reply without looking at anything he turned his back plunged under the draperies again and disappeared the singular Apparition of this gentleman made the lady smile the group amid which sakal found himself had gathered behind the last row of seats one armchair had even been

Drawn out of the row for barang guro whose legs had for some time begun to swell Miss tutan L whom the emperor had just raised to the Senate was there with Miss dear whose second election the chamber had dained to accept and Miss mishan decorated the day before and a

Little in the rear were M and Shier one of whom had a large diamond on his cat while the other displayed a still larger one on his finger the gentleman chatted together sakar left them for a moment to go and exchange a few words with his sister who

Had just come in and seated herself between Louise de and Madame mishan Madame sidoni was dressed as a sorceress Louise jauntily wore a Pages costume which gave the air of an urchin little melam made up as an Alm smiled in a lovesick manner amid her veils embroidered with Golden

Threads do you know anything seard softly asked his sister no nothing is yet she replied but the Swain must be here I’ll catch them tonight you may be sure inform me at once say and then sakar turning to the right and to the left complimented Louise and Madame melan

He compared the latter to one of Muhammad’s Ur and the former to Minon of HRI his proval accent seemed to make the whole of his spare strien figure sing with delight when he returned to the group of grave looking men missure deare Drew him on one side and spoke to him

About the marriage of their children nothing was altered the contract was still to be signed on the following Sunday quite so said zakar I even mean to announce the marriage to our friends this evening if you see no impediment I am only waiting for my brother the minister who promised to

Come the new Deputy was delighted however Miss tutan laros was raising his voice as if he were a prey to Lively indignation yes gentlemen he was saying to miss mishan and the two contractors who drew nearer I was simple enough to let my name be mixed up in such an

Affair and as sakar and de joined the group he added I was telling the gentleman about the deplorable adventure of the societ general of the ports of Morocco you know sakar patter did not flinch the company in question had just collapsed amid a frightful Scandal over inquisitive shareholders had wished to

Know what progress had been made with the establishment of the famous commercial stage s on the shores of the Mediterranean and a Judicial inquiry had demonstrated that the ports of Morocco only existed on the plans of the engineers very handsome plans hung on the walls of the company’s

Offices since then miss tutan lahos cried out even louder than the shareholders growing indignant and demanding that his name should be restored to him spotless and he made so much noise that the government to calm and rehabilitate this useful man in the eye of public opinion had decided to

Send him to the Senate it was thus that he fished up the much coveted seat in an affair which had almost brought him to the police court you are really too good to occupy yourself about that said sard you can show your great work the credy viol an establishment which has come Victorious

Out of every crisis yes murmured Dio that is an answer to everything indeed the cardit Vio had just emerged from great and skillfully concealed embarrassments a minister who was very kindly disposed towards this financial institution which held the City of Paris by the throat had brought about a rise

On change which Miss tutan L had turned to Advantage marvelously well nothing titilated him more than the praise bestowed on the prosperity of the cred VI Cole he usually provoked it he thanked M de Mar with a glance and leaning towards Baron guro on Whose armchair he was familiarly leaning he asked

Him you are all right you are not too warm the baron gave a slight grunt he is breaking up he breaks up more every day added M tutan Laos turning towards the other gentleman m melan smiled and from time to time gently lowered his eyelids to look at his Red

Ribbon Minon and Shier firmly planted on their large feet seemed much more at ease in their dress coats since they wore diamonds however it was nearly midnight and the assemblage was growing impatient it did not venture to murmur but the fans fluttered more nervously and the noise of conversation

Increased at length missel deu reappeared he had just passed one shoulder through the narrow opening when he perceived Madame desan at length mounting onto the stage the other ladies already in position for the first Tableau had only been waiting for her the prefect turned around showing

The spectators his back and he could be seen talking with the maress whom the curtains concealed he lowered his voice and making complimentary gestures with the tips of his fingers said my congratulations martianus your costume is delicious I have a much prettier one underneath cavalierly rejoined the young

Woman who laughed in his face so funny did she find him buried in this manner among the draperies The Audacity Of This witticism momentarily astonished the Gallant Mel danu but he recovered himself and enjoying the reparte more and more as he gradually fathomed its depths ah Charming Charming he murmured with a delighted

Air he let the corner of the curtain fall and went to join the group of grave looking men wishing to enjoy his work he was no longer the scared man running after the nymph ekko’s girdle of foliage he was radiant and panting wiping his forehead he still had the

Little white hand marked on the sleeve of his coat and in addition the glove of his right hand was stained with red at the tip of the thumb he had no doubt dipped his thumb into one of the lady’s pots of color he smiled fanned himself with his handkerchief and stammered she is

Adorable lavishing Stupify who asked sard the maress fies she just said to me and he repeated the witticism it was considered extremely smart the gentleman repeated it to one another even worthy Miss Hoffner who had approached could not prevent himself from applauding however a piano which few

People had seen began to play a Walts there was then deep silence the Walts had a capricious interminable role and a very soft phrase ever ascended the keyboard finishing in a nen Gale’s Trill then deeper notes resounded more slowly it was very voluptuous the lady smiled with her head slightly

Inclined the piano had however suddenly put a stop to missel Dean’s gayety he looked at the red velvet curtains with an anxious air he said to himself that he ought to have placed Madame desan in position as he’ placed the others the curtain slowly opened the

Piano again began the sensual Waltz in a minor key a murmur sped through the drawing room the ladies leaned forward the gentlemen stretched out their necks wilst admiration displayed itself here and there by a remark made in too loud a voice by a spontaneous sigh or a stifled

Laugh this lasted for five long minutes beneath the blaze of the three chandeliers Mel deu now reassured smiled beatifically at his poem he before Venus in a marine Grotto so that the goddess May inflame him with her fire but the goddess remains powerless the young man indicates by his attitude

That he is not touched the explanation was not out of place for few of the spectators in the drawing room understood the real meaning of the groups when the prefect had named the personages in an undertone the admiration increased M and sharier continued staring with wide open eyes they had not

Understood a grotto was shown on the platform between the red velvet curtains the scenery was formed of silk with large irregular plates imitating Rocky and fractu on which shells fish and large sea plants were painted the Broken Ground rose up like a hilock covered with the same silk on

Which the scene painter had depicted fine sand constellated with pearls and silver Spangles it was a fitting Retreat for a goddess on the summit of the hillock stood Madame de laen figuring Venus somewhat Stout wearing her pink tights with the Dignity of a duchess of Olympus she depicted The Sovereign of love with

Large severe all devouring eyes behind her showing merely her malicious face her wings and quiver little Madame daste lent her smile to that amiable personage Cupid then on one side of the hilock The Three Graces Madame dewin Tessier and dein hold all in muslin smiled and entwined each other as in pra’s group

While on the other side the marianist espan and Madame Hoffner enveloped in the same flow of lace their arms around each other’s waists and their hair mingled lent something suggestive to the Tableau a souvenir of Lesbos which missel deu explained in a lower voice and further gentleman only saying that

He had wished by this to show the full extent of the power of Venus below the mound the count vska personated voluptuousness she stretched herself out Twisted by a last spasm with her eyes half closed and languishing as if weary very dark she had un loosened her

Black hair and her tunic spotted with tonny flames was cut so as to allow glimpses of her glowing skin the scale of color which the costumes furnished from the snowy whiteness of Venus’s Veil to the dark red of voluptuous tunic was soft generally pink and of a fleshy

Tinge and under the electric ray ingeniously cast upon the stage from one of the garden Windows the gauze the lace all the light transparent stuffs mingled so well with the shoulders and the lights that these pinky whiteness seemed alive and one no longer knew whether the ladies had not carried plastic accuracy

To the point of stripping themselves naked this was but the apotheosis the drama was enacted in the foreground on the left side Renee the nymph Echo stretched out her arms towards the Great Goddess her head half turned in supplicating fashion in the direction of narcissus as if to invite

Him to look at Venus the mere sight of whom Kindles terrible fires but narcissus on the right made a gesture of refusal hid his eyes with his hand and remained icely cold the costumes of these two personages especially had cost Miss upell on new’s imagination infinite trouble narcissus as a Wandering demigod

Of the forests wore the attire of an ideal Huntsman greenish tights a short close fitting jacket and a branch of Oak in his hair the dress of the nymph echko was a complete allegory in itself alone it partook of the high trees and lofty mountains of the resounding spots where

The voices of the earth and air applyed to each other it was a rock by the White Satin of the skirt a Thicket by the foliage of the girdle a pure Sky by The Cloud of blue gauze forming the body and the groups retained the Stillness of statues the carnal note of

Olympus resounded in the blaze of the broad Ray while the piano continued its complaint of acute love it was generally considered that Maxim was admirably formed in making his gesture of refusal he developed his left hip which was much remarked but all the Praises were for Rene’s expression of

Face as missel deu remarked it typified the pangs of unsatisfied desire her face wore an acute smile which tried to become humble she begged her prey with the supplication of a hungry shewolf who half hides her teeth the first Tableau went off very well save that the Mad cap of an Adeline

Moved and only with difficulty restrained an intense desire to laugh at last the curtains closed again and the piano became silent then the audience applauded discreetly and the conversation was resumed a great breath of Love of restrained desire had come from the nudities of the platform and darted

About the drawing room where the women leaned more languidly on their seats while the men spoke in low voices in each other’s ears and smiled there was a whispering as in an Al Cove a semi silence as suited to good Society a longing for voluptuousness barely expressed by a quiver of lips and

In the mute looks exchanged amid this well-mannered delight there was the brutal boldness of Love offered and accepted with a glance there was no end to a judgments passed on the Perfections of the ladies their costumes acquired almost as great import as their shoulders when M and shakier wished to

Question missel denu they were greatly surprised to see him no longer beside them he had already plunged behind the platform again I was telling you then my beauty said Madame sidoni resuming a conversation which the first Tableau had interrupted that I had received a letter from London you know about the affair of

The three mards the person whom I had charged to make inquiries writes to me that she thinks she has discovered the Banker’s receipt England must have paid in that case it has made me feel ill all day she was indeed more yellow than usual in her sorceress’s robe dotted with

Stars and as Madame mishaan did not listen to her she continued in a lower voice muttering that it was impossible that England could have paid and that she should decidedly go to London in herself narcissa’s costume is very pretty isn’t it said Louise to Madame michelan the latter

Smiled she looked at parang guro who seemed quite cheerful again in his armchair Madame sidoni perceiving the direction of her glance lent forward and whispered in her ear so that the child might not hear has he kept his engagement yes replied the young woman languishing playing the part of an Al May

Delightfully I have chosen the house at louven and I have received a title Deeds of it from his man of business but we have broken off I no longer see him Louise had particularly sharp ears to catch what one wanted to hide from her she looked at bhuro with a Page’s

Boldness and said quietly to Madame melan don’t you think that the baron is frightful then bursting out laughing she added I say he ought to have been entrusted with a part of narcissus he would be delicious in apple green tights the sight of Venus of this voluptuous corner of Olympus had indeed

Revived the old Senator he rolled his eyes with delight and turned half around to compliment sakar amid the buzz which filled the drawing room the group of grave looking men continue talking business and politics Mr Hoffner said that he had just been named president of a jury charged with settling questions of

Indemnities then the conversation turned upon the works of Paris on the Boulvard D pren of which the public was beginning to talk seriously zakar seized the opportunity and spoke of a person he knew a proprietor who would no doubt be expropriated the baron Softly waged his

Head M tutan lahos went so far as to declare that there was nothing so disagreeable as to be expropriated M melan ascented and squinted still more in looking at his decoration the indemnities can never be too high sententiously concluded M de Mar who wished to please sard they had understood each other but

Minona Shier now brought their Private Affairs forward they meant to retire soon no doubt to long they said keeping an occasional lodging in Paris they made the gentleman smile when they related that after completing the building of their magnificent mansion on the boulevard maler they had found it so

Handsome that they not been able to resist the desire to sell it their diamonds must have been a consolation which they’d offered themselves sakar laughed with a bad Grace his old Partners had just realized enormous profits from an affair in which he had played the part of a dupe and as

The interval between the Tableau grew longer phrases of Praise about Venus’s bosom and the nymph ekko’s dress were heard amid the conversation of the Grave looking men at the end of a long half hour Mel deu reappeared he was on the high road of success and with disorder of his Aton

Fire increased as he regained his seat he met Miss deusi he shook hands with him in passing and then he retraced his steps to ask him you don’t know the Martian’s remark and he related it to him without waiting for his reply it penetrated him more and more he

Criticized it he ended by finding that it was of Exquisite naive I have a much prettier one underneath it was a cry from the heart but M Dei was not of this opinion he considered the remark indecent he just been attached to the Embassy in England where so the minister

Had told him the greatest propriety was necessary he refused to lead the coton anymore made himself old and no longer spoke of his love for Renee to whom he bowed Gravely when he met her melu was again joining the group formed behind Behind The Baron’s armchair when the piano struck up a

Triumphal March a loud burst of Harmony produced by bold Strokes on the keys preluded a melody of great amplitude amid which a metallic clang resounded at intervals each phrase as soon as finished was repeated in a louder strain accentuating the Rhythm it was at once brutal and

Joyous you will see muttered missel danu I have perhaps carried poetical license rather far but I think that my audacity has answered for nymph Echo seeing that Venus is powerless over the handsome narcissus conducts him to plutus the god of wealth and precious metals after the Temptation Of The Flesh the Temptation Of

Gold that’s classical replied the lean Miss tutan Lush with an amiable smile you are well acquaint Ed with your period my dear prefect the curtains parted the piano played louder the effect was dazzling the electric Ray Fell upon a flaming Splendor which the spectators at first

Thought was a Brazier in which bars of gold and precious stones seemingly melted a new Grotto was presented but this one was not the cool Retreat of Venus bathed by the waters which eded on fine pearled besprinkled sand it must have been situated in the bowels of the

Earth in some deep fiery stratum it seemed a fisure of the ancient Hades a crevice amid a mine of liquescent metals inhabited by plutus the silk simulating The Rock displayed broad metallic loads layers which looked like the veins of the old world teeming with incalculable wealth and the eternal life of the

Soil on the ground by a Bolden acronym which missel danu had decided on there was an avalanche of 20 Frank pieces Louie spread out Louie piled up a polulation of ascending Louie on the summit of this heap of gold sat Madame de gwend as plutus a female

Plutus a plutus showing her bosom amid the broad streaks of her dress imitating all the metals around the god erect or reclining United in bunches or blooming a part were grouped the fairy likee efflorescences of this Grotto into which the calips of the Arabian Knights had seemingly emptied their

Treasure there was Madame Hoffner as gold with a stiff skirt as resplendent as the Robes of a bishop Madame desan is silver shining like Moonlight Madame Deen in warm blue as a sapphire having beside her Little Madame daste a smiling turquoise of a tender shade of blue

Then there were spread out the emerald Madame de minold and the topaz Madame Tessier and lower down cont Sansa lending her dark ardor to Coral was stretched out with her arms raised and loaded with red drops similar to some monstrous and adorable pop which displayed a woman’s flesh amid the pink

And pearly openings of her shell these ladies wore necklaces braces complete sets of jewels for formed of the precious stone they represented the audience particularly noticed the original jewelry of Madam anner and dispan exclusively composed of little gold and little silver coins fresh from the mint in the foreground

The drama remained the same F nymph Echo tempted handsome narcissus who again refused with a gesture and the eyes of the spectators grew accustomed with delight to the SE cavity opening amid the inflamed entrails of the earth to this pile of gold on which the wealth of a world was

Wallowing this second Tableau met with still more success than the first the idea appeared particularly ingenious the boldness of a 20 Frank pieces this stream from some Modern safe which had fallen into a corner of grean Mythology delighted the minds of the ladies and the finers who were present the words

What a number of coins what a quantity of gold sped by amid smiles and long Quivers of satisfaction and assuredly each of the ladies each of the gentleman dreamt of having all this money to her or himself in a Cellar England has paid those are your milliards maliciously murmured Louise in Madame sidon’s

Ear and Madame melan her mouth slightly parted by delighted desire Drew back her Al’s Veil and fondled the gold with a sparkling glance while the group of grave looking men went into transports MOS beaming murmured a few words in the ear of the baron whose face was becoming spotted with yellow

Stains but Mion and shakier less discreet said with brutal Simplicity Dash it all there would be enough there to demolish all Paris and rebuild it the remark seemed a profound one to sakar who was beginning to think that Minon and sharier trifled with people in passing themselves off as

Fools when the curtains closed again and the piano finished a triumphal march with a loud noise of notes thrown one upon the other like final shovel fulls of crowns the Applause burst forth louder and more prolonged however in the middle of a tableau the minut Minister accompanied

By a secretary M de safre had appeared at the door of a drawing room sakar who was impatiently watching for his brother wished to Dart to meet him but the latter requested him by a gesture not to stir and he softly approached the group of grave looking

Men when the curtains had closed again and people had perceived him a long whisper traveled through the drawing room and all heads were turned round the min counterbalance the success of the Amor of handsome Narcissus and the nymph Echo you are a poet my dear prefect he

Said smiling to missel De Anu you once published a volume of verse the conval I believe I see that the cares of office have not exhausted your imagination the prefect detected the point of an epigram in this compliment the sudden Advent of his Superior put him out of countenance the

More as on giving himself a glance to see if his attire were correct he perceives on his coat sleeve a little white hand which he did not dare to rub off he bowed and stammered really continued the minister addressing himself to miss tutan lahos barong guro and the other personages who

Were there all that gold was a marvelous spectacle we should do great things if Miss panu coined money for us in ministerial language this was the same remark as Minon and Sh thereupon Miss tutan Laos and the others paid their court and played on The Minister’s last phrase the Empire

Had already accomplished Marvels there was no lack of gold thanks to the great experience of those in power France had never occupied such a splendid position in the eyes of Europe and the gentle ended by becoming so servile that the minister himself changed the conversation he listened to them with

His head erect and the corners of his mouth slightly raised whereby an expression of doubt and smiling disdain was imparted to his fat carefully shaven white face sakar who wished to bring about the announcement of the marriage of Maxim and Louise maneuvered so as to find a skillful transition he affected great

Familiarity and his brother played the good-natured and consented to do him the service of seeming to be very fond of him he was really a superior man with his clear look his evident contempt of petty rasali his broad shoulders which could have overturned all these folks with a mere

Shrug when the marriage at last came into question he showed himself Charming he let it be understood that he had his wedding gift ready he spoke of Maxim’s appointment as an auditor of the Council of State he went so far as to repeat twice to his brother in a tone of good

Fellowship tell your son that I wish to be his witness M deare blushed with delight sard was congratulated m tutan l offered himself as a second witness then the group abruptly began talking about divorce a member of the opposition had just had the sad courage said Miss

Hoffner to defend this social shame and everyone protested their sense of propriety furnished them with profound remarks M michelas smiled delicately at the minister while Min and Shar observed with astonishment that the collar of his dressing coat was worn in the meantime missel deu remained embarrassed leaning on the armchair of

Barong guro who had contented himself with exchanging a silent handshake with the minister the poet did not dare to leave the spot an indefinable feeling the fear of appearing ridiculous the fear of losing the Good Will of his Superior detained him despite his Furious desire

To go and set the ladies in position on the stage for the last Tableau he waited for some some happy remark to occur to him and reate him in favor but he could think of nothing and he was feeling more and more ill at ease

When he perceived M de safre he took his arm and clung to him as to a saving plank the young man had just arrived he was quite a fresh victim you don’t know the Martian’s remark the prefect asked him melu was so Disturbed how however that he no longer knew how to present

The anecdote in a spicy manner he floundered I said to her you have a Charming costume and and she answered I have a much prettier one underneath quietly added Miss deaf it’s old my dear fellow very old Miss panu looked at him in consternation the remark was old and he

Had meant to sifted his commentary on the naive T of this cry from the heart old as old as the world repeated the secretary Madame desan has said it twice already at bateries this was the last blow after that the prefect no longer cared a fig for the minister or the whole drawing

Room he was proceeding towards the platform when the piano began a Prelude in a saddened tone with Were the daughters of the trees the daughters of the Springs the daughters of the heights all the Laughing naked divinities of the forest and the God and the goddess triumphed and punished the apathy of The Proud young fellow who scorned them while the group of nymphs looked inquisitively and with religious

Fright at the Vengeance of Olympus displayed in the foreground the drama was there being unraveled handsome narcissus lying on the margin of a brook which came down from the back of a stage was looking at himself in the clear mirror an exactitude had been carried to the point

Of placing a strip of looking glass at the bottom of the brook but he was no longer the free young fellow the farest Wanderer death surprised him amid his delighted admiration of his own figure death enervated him and Venus with her outstretched finger like a fairy in a transformation scene

Consigned him to his deadly fate he was becoming a flower his limbs became verdant and longer in his tight fitting costume of green satin the flexible stalk figured by his slightly bent legs sank into the ground to take root there while his bust decked with broad lapets of White Satin

Expanded into a marvelous Corolla Maxim’s Fair hair completed the illusion and set with its l long curls yellow pistols amid the whiteness of the petals and the large nent flower still hum inclined its head towards the spring with its eyes bedimmed and smiling with voluptuous ecstasy as if hansome

Narcissus had at length satisfied in death the passion which he’d felt for himself a few Paces off the nymph Ekko was dying also dying of unquenched desires she found herself gradually caught in the rigidity of the soil she felt her burning limbs congeal and Harden she was not a vulgar Rock soiled

By Moss but white marble by her shoulders and arms by her long snowy robe from which the girdle of foliage and the blue drapery had glided sunk down amid the satin of her skirt which formed large plates similar to a block of paros she threw herself

Back with KN alive in her statue like congealed body save her woman’s eyes eyes which glistened as they remained fixed on the flower of the waters languidly leaning above the mirror of the spring and it already seemed as if all the love sounds of the forest the prolonged noises of the thickets the

Mysterious Quivers of the leaves the Deep size of the Old Oaks came and beat upon the marble flesh of the nymph Echo whose heart still bleeding amid the block resounded protractedly repeating AAR the slightest complaints of the earth and of the air oh how they have muffled up poor

Maxim murmured Louise and Madame sard you would say a dead woman she’s covered with rice powder said Madame mishela other scarce complimentary remarks circulated this third Tableau did not meet with the same unqualified successes the two others and yet it was this tragical ending which made Miss opelu

Enthusiastic about his own Talent he admired himself in it as his narcissist did in his strip of Looking Glass he had said a number of poetical and philosophical allusions in it when the curtains had closed again for the last time and The Spectators had applauded like people of good breeding he experienced

Mental regret at having given way to anger and not having explained the last page of his poem he then wished to give the people around him the key to the Charming Grand or simply suggestive things which handsome Narcissus and the nymph Echo represented and he even tried to say

What Venus and plutus were doing in the depths of the clearing but the gentlemen and ladies whose clear practical Minds had understood The Grotto of Flesh and The Grotto of gold had no inclination to descend into the prefect’s mythological complications only Minon and Shier who absolutely wished to inform themselves

Were good natured enough to question him he took possession of them and kept them during nearly two hours standing in the ambure of a window relating to them the Metamorphoses of avid the minister now withdrew he apologized for not being able to wait for the beautiful Madame

Sakar to compliment her on the perfect gracefulness of the nymph Echo he just been three or four times around the drawing room on the arm of his brother giving a few shakes of the hand and bowing to the ladies he’d never before compromised himself so much for sakar he

Left him radiant when on the threshold he said to him in a loud voice I I shall expect you tomorrow morning come and breakfast with me the balll was about to begin the servants had arranged the lady’s armchairs along the walls the large drawing room now displayed from the

Little yellow room to the platform its bare carpet the large purple flowers of which opened under the dripping light which fell from the crystal of the Shands the heat was increasing the reflection of the red hangings brightened the group formed around the two young women he was afraid that people were poking

Fun at him the other nymphs arrived one after the other they had all resumed their costumes as precious stones the count as vona as Carl met with prodigious successes when one was able to closely examine the ingenious details of her dress then Maxim entered correct in his

Rest coat and with a smiling air and a flow of women enveloped him he was placed in the center of a circle he was joked about his part as a flower and his passion for looking glasses without any embarrassment as if delighted with his part he continued smiling answered the jokes confessed

That he adored himself and that he was sufficiently cured of women to prefer himself to them people laughed louder at this the group grew larger and took possession of the whole center of a drawing room while the young man drowned amid this people of shoulders this medley of bright costumes retained his

Perfume of monstrous love his vicious Fair flowers gentleness when Renee however at last came down there was semi silence she had attired herself in a new costume of such original Grace and such audacity that the gentlemen and the ladies although accustomed to the young woman’s eccentricities at first gave a movement of surprise

She was dressed as an otan this costume it appeared is most primitive as she wore it it comprised soft tinted tights which rose from her feet to her bosom leaving her shoulders and arms bare and over these tights a simple muslin blouse short and trimmed with two flounces so as to slightly hide

The hips in her hair a wreath of wild flowers and gold rings around her ankles and her wrists nothing more she was naked petites had the suppleness of Flesh under the paleness of the blouse the Pure Line of her nudity could be detected from her knees to her armpits vaguely bedimmed by

The flounces but reappearing at the slightest movement and becoming more distinct between the threads of a lace she was an adorable Savage a barbarous voluptuous girl scarcely hidden by a white Vapor a patch of sea fog mid which her whole body could be divined with Rosy Cheeks Renee Advanced

At a rapid step Celeste had made the first tights burst but the young woman had fortunately foreseen the eventuality and taken her precautions these torn tights had delayed her she seemed to care little about her Triumph she smiled however and briefly answered the men who stopped and complimented her

On the purity of her attitudes in met Tableau vivant behind her she left a trail of dress coats astonished and Charmed by the transparency of her muslin blouse when she’ reached the group of women who surrounded Maxim she gave her eyes to Curt exclamations and the maress began to

Look at her from head to foot with a tender air and murmuring she’s admirably formed Madame michelan whose On’s costume became horribly heavy beside this simple Veil cursed her lips while Madame sidoni shriveled up in her black sorceress’s dress murmured in her ear it’s the height of indecency isn’t it my

Beauty ah yes indeed said the pretty brunette at last Miss melan would be angry if I undressed myself like that and he would be quite right concluded the agent the band of serious men were not of this opinion it went into ecstasies at a distance M melan whom his wife so

Inappropriately brought into question showed himself transported so as to please m tutan l Ro and baron guro whom the sight of Renee enraptured sard was greatly complimented on the Perfection of his wife’s figure he bowed and professed to be very touched the evening was a good one for

Him and but for a preoccupation which darted from his eyes at moment moments when he cast a rapid glance at his sister he would have been supremely happy I say she’s never shown us so much jokingly said Louise in Maxim’s ear and indicating Renee by a glance she paused

And then with an undefinable smile at least to me the young fellow looked at her with a nervous air but she continued smiling strangely like a school boy delighted with some bit of fun rather too strong the ball began the platform of a tableau vivon had been utilized to accommodate a

Little Orchestra in which brass instruments predominated and the Bugles and the corneta pisto launched forth their clear notes amid the ideal forest with blue trees first came a quadril a he has boots he has boots Bastian which then constituted the Delight of public balls the ladies danced poas waltzes maerkas

Alternated with quadril the swinging couples came and went filled the long Gallery leaping under the Lash of the brass instruments swaying amid the lullabi of the violins the costumes this flood of women of all countries and all periods displayed a swarming medley of bright stuffs after mingling the colors and

Carrying them off in cadenced confusion the Rhythm at certain touches of the bows abruptly brought back the same tunic of pink satin the same dress body of blue velvet beside the same black coat then another touch of the bows a blast of the cornets pushed the couples

On made them travel in files around the drawing room with the swinging motion of a bark floating away under a gust of wind which had severed the fast that mored it and so on always endlessly for hours together at times between two dances a lady approached a window stifling

Inhaling a little icy air a couple rested on a couch in the little buttercup drawing room or descended into the conservatory going slowly around the paths skirts only the edges of which could be seen seemed to laugh languidly under the Arbors of tropical creepers in the depths of a tepid shade where the

Loud notes of the cornets were wafted during the qu drills of hello the little lambs and I a foot on the move when the servants opened the door of a dining room transformed into a refectory with sideboards against the walls and a long table Laden with cold

Meats in the center there was a shove a crush a tall handsome man who had timidly kept his hat in his hand was so violently flattened against the wall that the unfortunate hat burst with a dull moan this made people laugh the guests rushed upon the pastry and the truffled

Poultry brutally digging their elbows into one another’s ribs it was a pillage hands met amid the Vons and theis did not know whom to answer in the midst of this band of well-bred men whose extended arms expressed the sole fear of arriving too late and finding the dishes

Empty an Old Gentleman became angry because there was no Bordeaux wne and champagne so we affirmed prevented him from sleeping this ends section 12 section 13 of the rush for the spoil by Amil zolah translated by Henry batelli this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Mark leader section

13 softly gentlemen said Baptist in his grave voice there will be enough for everyone but he was not listened to the dining room was already full and yet more anxious dress coats rose up at the door in front of a sideboard stood groups eating quickly and pressing closely together a good many swallowed

Without without drinking not having been able to set their hands on a glass others on the contrary drank after fruitlessly running about for a morsel of bread listen said Mel danu who minion and Shier weary of Mythology had led to the buffet we sh get anything if we

Don’t help each other it’s much worse at Aeries and I have acquired some experience there you look after the wine and I I’ll see to the meat the prefect was watching a leg of muten he stretched out his hand at the right moment threw a break in the surrounding shoulders and quietly

Carried it off after filling his pockets with little rolls the contractors returned from their side Mion with one bottle and sharier with two bottles of champagne but they’d only been able to secure two glasses they said however that it did not matter but they were drink out of the

Same and the party SED on the corner of a flower stand at the end of the room they did not even take off their gloves but put the slices of mutton already cut between their bread and kept the bottles under their arms and standing up they talked with

Their mouths full stretching out their chins in advance of their West Cuts so that the gravy might fall onto the carpet sharier having finished his wine before his bread asked the servant if he could not have a glass of champagne you must wait sir angrily replied the scared servant losing his

Head and forgetting he was no longer in the kitchen 300 bottles have already been drunk however one could hear the notes of the orchestra swelling with sudden gusts couples were footing the paa called the kisses famous at public balls and the rhythm of which each dancer had to Mark by kissing his

Partner Madame desane appeared at the door of a dining room flushed her hair slightly disordered and trailing her silver robe with charming lassitude people barely Drew aside and she had to shove with her elbows to obtain a passage she made the round of a table hesitating a pout on her lips then

She went straight to missel danu who had finished and who was wiping his mouth with his pocket hand handkerchief you would be very amiable sir she said to him with an adorable smile if you’d find me a chair I’ve been round the table fruitlessly the prefect had a spite

Against the maress but his gallantry did not hesitate he hastened found a chair installed Madame desan and remained behind her serving her she would only take a few shrimps with a little butter and two thimble full of champagne she ate in a delicate manner amid the gluttony of the men the table

And the chairs were exclusively reserved for the ladies however an exception was always made in favor of Baron guro he was there seated at ease in front of a bit of pastry the crust of which he crunched with his Jaws the maress reconquered the prefect by telling him that she should never

Forget her emotions an artist in the Amour of handsome Narcissus and the nymph Echo she even explained to him why they had not waited for him at the last Tableau in a manner which completely consoled him the ladies on learning that the minister was there had thought that

It would hardly be proper to prolong the interval she ended by begging him to go in search of Madame Hoffner who was dancing with M Simpson a brute of a man who displeased her she said and when Suzanne was there she no longer looked at missel

Didu Sak followed by Miss tutan Laos de and Hoffner had taken possession of a sideboard as there was no room at the table and Miss de safre passed by with Madame michelan on his arm he detained them and insisted that the pretty brunette should share with his party she nibbled some pastry smiling

Raising her Clear Eyes on the five men who surrounded her her they leaned towards her touched her Al’s Veil embroidered with threads of gold brought her to Bay between themselves in the sideboard against which she ended by leaning taking cakes from every hand very gentle and very caressing and

Showing the lovely Dil of a slave amid her Masters all by himself at the other end of the room M mishan was finishing a terine of Goose’s liver which he had succeeded in capturing Madame sidoni who’d been prowling about the bow since the first bow Strokes now entered the dining room

And summoned sard with a glance she isn’t dancing she said to him in a low voice she seems anxious I think she is meditating some bit of folly but I have not yet been able to discover the Swain I’m going to eat something and then return to the watch

And standing like a man she ate a chicken’s wing which he procured thanks to mure mishela who had finished his terine she poured herself out some Malaga in a large champagne glass then after wiping her mouth with the tips of her fingers she returned to the drawing

Room the train of her sorceress’s robe already seemed to have gathered up all but dust of the carpets the ball was languishing and the orchestra gave sign mind of being blown when a murmur sped about the coton the coton and revived the dancers and the brass instruments alike couples came

From all the clumps of plants in the conservatory the large drawing room grew as full as when the first quadril was danced and there was a discussion among the awakened crowd it was the last flash of the ball the men who did not dance looked with sluggish good nature out of

The depths of the Ember at the talkative group sring in the middle of the room while the supper eaters at the sideboard stretched out their necks to see but without letting go of their bread M deusu won’t said one lady he swears that he no longer leads it come

Once more Miss deusi only this once do it for us but the young Embassy atach remained stiff and his high collar turned down at the points it was really impossible he had sworn there was a disappointment Maxim also refused saying that he couldn’t that he was tired

Out Mel deu did not dare to offer himself he only descended as far as poetry on a lady speaking of Miss Simpson she was silenced Mr Simpson was the strangest Kon leader one ever saw he gave himself up to fantastic and malicious devices it was Rel related that in one drawing room

Where the guests had been so imprudent as to choose him he had compelled the ladies to jump over the chairs and one of his favorite figures was to make everyone go around the room on all fours has Miss safre left asked a childish voice he was leaving he was saying

Goodbye to the beautiful Madame sard with whom he was on the best possible terms since she would not have him this Amy skeptic admired other people’s Caprices he was triumphantly brought back from the hall he tried to escape and said with a smile that he was being compromised that he was a serious

Man then in presence of all the white hands that were stretched out towards him well said he take your places but I warn you that I’m classical I haven’t the Copper’s worth of imagination the couple sat down round the drawing room on all the seats that could be gathered together some young

Fellows even went to fetch the iron chairs of the conservatory it was a monster coton Miss de safre who had the solemn heir of an officiating priest chose as his partner the ctis vona whose costume is coral preoccupied him when everyone was in position he cast a long glance at the

Circular row of skirts each flanked by a dress coat and he made a sign to the orchestra the brass instruments of which resounded heads leaned forward along the smiling band of faces Renee had refused to take part in the coton she’d been nervously gay since the beginning of the ball scarcely

Dancing but mingling with the groups unable to remain still her friends found her strange during the evening she talked of making a balloon Journey with a celebrated aeronaut with whom all Paris was occupied when the coton began she was vexed not to be able to walk about at

Her ease so she stationed herself at the hall door shaking hands with the gentleman who left and talking with her husband’s intimate friends Baron guro who Malaki carried off in his fur coat paid a final eulogium to her OT tahan’s costume meanwhile Miss tutan L Ro shook hands with

Car Maxim relies on you said the latter quite so replied the new Senator and turning towards Renee I haven’t congratulated you Madame so the dear boy is now settled and as she gave an astonished smile my wife doesn’t yet know observed sear we have decided this evening on MM

Moiselle de Mar’s marriage with Maxim she could continued smiling bowing to miss tutan L Ro who went off saying you signed the contract on Sunday a I’m going to NE about a mining Affair but I shall be back in time Renee remained for a moment alone in the middle of the

Hall she no longer smiled and as she gradually dived into what she had just learned she was seized with a great shudder she looked at the red velvet hangings the rare plants the pots of Majolica with a fixed stair then she said aloud I must speak to

Him and she returned to the drawing room but she had to a remain near the entry a figure of the Kon barred the way the orchestra was playing a wall air in a low key the ladies holding each other’s hands formed a circle one of those circles that are formed by little girls

Singing gir and they spun round as quickly as possible pulling one another’s arms laughing and sliding in the center a gentleman it was the malicious M Simpson held a long pink scarf in his hand he raised it with the gesture of a fisherman who’s about to

Cast a net but he did not hurry he no doubt thought it funny to let these ladies turn around and tire themselves they breathed hard and asked for Mercy then he threw the scarf and he threw it with such skill that it went and wound around the shoulders of Madame

Desan and Madame Hoffner who were turning side by side it was one of the Yankees bits of fun he then wished to Walt with both ladies at once and he’d already taken them both by the waist one with his left arm and the other with his right when Mr

Safre in the severe tone of the king of the said you can’t dance with two ladies but Miss Simpson would not let go of the two wastes Adeline and Suzanne threw themselves back in his arms laughing the point was argued the ladies grew angry the hubub was prolonged and

The dress coats in the ambushers of the windows asked themselves how safre would extricate himself from this delicate Dilemma to his glory he indeed seemed perplexed for a moment seeing by what refinement of gracefulness he might win the laughers over to his side then he smiled he took Madame desan

And Madame Hoffner by the hand whispered a question in their ears received their replies and afterwards addressing himself to Miss Simpson do you pluck the verbina or do you pluck the Periwinkle he asked you y Simpson looking rather foolish said that he plucked the verbina whereupon M de safre gave him

The maress saying here is the verbina there was discreet Applause it was found very pretty M safre was a Kon leader who never remained embarrassed such was the lady’s remark in the meanwhile the orchestra had resumed the Walts air with all its instruments and M Simpson after making the round of the

Room waling with Madame desan reconducted her to her seat Renee was able to pass she’d bit her lips till they bled at sight of all this foolishness she consider these women and men stupid to throw scarfs and take the names of flowers her ears rung a furious

Impatience lent her a Brusque desire to throw herself forward head first and open passage she crossed the drawing room with a rapid step jostling the belated couples who were regaining their seats she went straight to the conservatory she’d not seen either Louise or Maxim among the dancers and

She said to herself that they must be there in some Nook formed by the foliage United by that partiality for drollery and impropriety which made them seek out little Corners as soon as they found themselves anywhere together but she fruitlessly explored the dimness of the conservatory she only perceived

In the depths of an arbor a tall young fellow who was devoutly kissing the hands of little Madame daste and murmuring Madame dorence told me right you are an angel this declaration in her house in her Conservatory shocked Renee Madame Deen ought really to have taken her traffic elsewhere and Renee would have

Felt relieved could she have chased all these people who balled so loud out of her Apartments standing in front of the Basin she looked at the water and asked herself where Louise and Maxim could well have hidden themselves the orchestra still played that Walt the slow undulation of which

Made her feel sick it was insupportable one could no longer reflect in one’s own Abode she became confused she for forgot that the Young Folks were not yet married and she said to herself that it was simple enough that they’d gone to bed then she thought of the dining room

And quickly reascended the conservatory staircase but at the door of the drawing room she was stopped for the second time by a figure of the coton these are the black specks ladies gallantly said Miss de safre this is an invention of mine and I inaugurate it for you

There was a great deal of laughter the gentleman explained the illusion to the young women the emperor had just delivered a speech which recorded the presence of certain black specs on the political Horizon these black specs had met with great success no one knew why perisian wits had appropriated the expression and

To such a point that for a week past the black specs had been introduced into everything m seph placed the masculine dancers at one end of the drawing room making them turn their backs to the ladies who were left at the other end then he ordered the men to turn up their

Coats in such a way as to hide the backs of their heads this operation was accomplished amid tremendous mert humpbacked with their shoulders hidden by the Tails of their coats which now only fell to their waists the gentleman looked really frightful don’t laugh ladies cried Miss

De safre with most comical gravity or I shall make you put your lace flounces on your heads the mert increased and theader energetically availed himself of his sovereignty over some of the gentlemen who would not hide the napes of their necks you are the black Speck said he

Hide your heads only show your backs it is necessary that the lady should only see so much black now walk mingle together so that you may not be recognized the hilarity was at its height the black specks went to and fro on their skinny legs with the undulatory motion of headless Ravens one

Gentleman’s shirt was seen with a bit of braces then the ladies begged for mercy they were stifling and M safre was pleased to order them to go and fetch the black specks they went off like a cuy of young partridges amid a loud rustle of skirts then each of them at

The end of her trip seized hold of a gentleman who came within her grasp it was an undescribable medley and the improvised couples disengaged themselves in a file and made the round of a drawing room Walling amid the louder strains of the orchestra Rene had led against the wall

Pale and with compressed lips she looked on an Old Gentleman came and asked her gallantly why she was not dancing she had to smile and give some answer escaping at last she entered the dining room it looked empty but amid the pillaged sideboards and the trailing bottles and plates Maxim and Louise

Seated side by side were quietly sing at one end of a table on a napkin which they had spread out they seemed to be at their ease they laughed amid the disorder of the dirty glasses the dishes soiled with grease the remnants which testify to the gluttony of the supper eaters with white

Gloves they had contented themselves with brushing off the crumbs around them Baptist Gravely walked around the table without a glance for the room through which a band of wolves seemed to have passed he was waiting for the other servants to come and set the side boards in a little

Order Maxim had still been able to gather a very fair supper together Louise adored hard bake with pistachio nuts a plateful of which had remained on the top of a sideboard they had three partially emptied bottles of champagne before them Papa has perhaps gone off said the

Young girl so much the better replied Maxim I will see you home and as she laughed you know that they really want me to marry you he added it’s no longer a joke it’s serious but what shall we do with ourselves when we are married why we’ll do what others do of

Course this reparte escaped her rather quickly and as if to withdraw it she hastily added we will go to Italy it will do my chest good I’m very ill oh my poor Maxim what a sorry wife you will have I am not bigger than two SOS of

Butter she smiled with a shade of sadness in her Pages costume a dry cough brought red gleams to her cheeks it’s the hard bake said she at home I’m forbidden to eat it pass me the plate I’ll put the rest in my pocket and she was emptying the plate

When Renee entered the room she went straight to Maxine making unheard of efforts not to swear not to beat the punch back whom she found there at table with her lover I wish to speak to you she stammered in a husky voice he hesitated frightened dreading

To be with her to you alone at once repeated Renee go then Maxim said Louise with her undefinable look at the same time time you might try to find my father I lose him at every party he rose up he tried to stop the young woman in the middle of a dining

Room by asking her what she could have of so urgent a nature to say to him but she resumed between her teeth follow me or I shall speak out before everyone he turned very pale and followed her with the docility of a beaten animal she thought that Baptist

Was looking at her her but at this moment she cared not for the vet’s clear gaze at the door the detained her for the third time wait she murmured these fools will never have done M safre was placing theuk rosan with his back against the wall in one

Corner of a drawing room beside the dining room door he stationed a lady in front of him then a gentleman back to back with the lady lady then another lady in front of a gentleman and this in a line couple by couple forming as it were a long serpent as the dancers

Talked together and carried behind come ladies he cried to your places for the columns they came and the columns were formed the indecency of finding oneself thus caught pressed between two men leaning against the back of one of them with the chest of the other in front of

Made the ladies very gay the tips of the women’s bosoms touched the facings of the men’s dress coats the gentleman’s legs disappeared amid the lady’s skirts and whenever any sudden mert made a woman’s head lean forward the mustaches in front were obliged to draw back so as

Not to carry matters as far as kissing at One Moment The Joker must have given a slight push for the line closed up the dress coats plunged deeper into the skirt there were little cries and laughs coughs which did not end the baroness to mold Was Heard

Saying but you are stifling me sir don’t squeeze me so hard this seemed so funny and gave the whole line such an attack of hilarity that the shaken columns staggered clashed together and leaned upon one another to avoid falling M safre waited with his hands raised ready to clap then

He clapped at this signal everyone abruptly turned around the couples who were face to face took each other by the waist and the file dispersed waling around the room the only one left was the poor Duke Dean who on turning around found his nose against the wall he was derided by

Everybody come said Renee to Maxim the orchestra was still playing the Walts this soft music the monotonous rhythm of which at last became insipid increased the young woman’s exasperation she gained the little drawing room holding Maxim by the hand and pushing him to the staircase which

Led to the dressing room go up she ordered she followed him at this moment Madam sidoni who throughout the evening had been prowling around about her sister-in-law a by her continual promenades through the rooms just reached the conservatory steps she saw a man’s leg disappear amid the darkness of a little

Staircase a pale smile lit up her waxing face and catching up her sorceress’s skirt to walk the quicker she sought her brother upsetting a figure of the coton and questioning all the servants she met she at last found sakad with M de Mar in an apartment with should join the

Dining room and which had been turned provisionally into a smoking room the two fathers were talking about the doy and the contract but when Sak’s sister had said a word in his ear he rose up apologized and disappeared upstairs the dressing room was in complete disorder over the chairs trailed the

Costume of a nymph Echo for torn tights bit of crumpled lace undergarments thrown aside in a bundle everything that a woman expected elsewhere leaves in her haste behind her the little Ivory and silver tools lay about a little bit everywhere there were brushes and files fallen on the carpet and the towel still

Damp the soap forgotten on the marble slab the scent bottles left open emitted a strong penetrating perfume in the flesh tinted tent to take the white off her arms and shoulders the young woman had dipped herself in the pink marble bath after the Tableau Vivant iridescent scales expanded on the

Sheet of water now grown cold Maxim stepped on some stays narrowly missed falling and tried to laugh but he shivered at sight of Rene’s Stern face she approached him pushing him and saying in a low voice so you’re going to marry the h back not a bit of it he murmured who

Told you so oh don’t lie it’s useless he was prompted to Rebel she alarmed him he wished to finish matters with her well yes I am to marry her what of it am I not the master she came towards him with her head somewhat lowered and with an evil

Laugh and taking hold of his wrists the master you the master you know very well it isn’t so it is I who am the master I Could Break Your Arms if I were cruel you have no more strength than a girl and as he struggled she twisted his

Arms with all the nervous violence that anger imparted to her he uttered a slight cry and she then let go of him resuming don’t let us fight I should prove the stronger he remained pale with the shame of the pain which he Warm my feet when people have done what we have done they remain together besides it’s clear enough I feel bored when you’re not there and as I’m going off I take you with me you can tell Celeste what you want her to go and fetch at your place the unfortunate fellow held out

His hands and supplicated come my little Renee don’t commit such Folly become yourself again think a little of the Scandal I don’t care a fig for the Scandal if you refuse I shall go down into the drawing room and cry out that I have slept with you

And that you are now cowardly enough to want to marry the Hunchback he bowed his head and listened to her already giving way in accepting this will so roughly imposed upon him we will go to halfa she replied in a lower tone caressing her dream and from

There we can reach England no one will bother us anymore if we’re not far enough off we’ll start for America I who always feel cold I should be comfortable there I have often envied crays but while she enlarged the scope of her project Terror again seized hold of

Maxim to leave Paris to go so far away with this woman who was certainly mad to leave behind him a story The shameful character of which would exile ex him forever it was like some atrocious nightmare stifling him he sought in despair for a means of escaping from

This dressing room this pink Retreat where the bell of the lunatic asylum of chanton seemed to toll at last he thought he’d found an expedient but I have no money he said gently so as not to exasperate her if you shut me up I cannot procure

Any I have some money though she replied with an air of Triumph I have a 100,000 Franks everything tallies perfectly well she took out of the Wardrobe a deed OB session which her husband had left with her in the vague hope that she might change her mind she laid it on the

Toilet table compelled Maxim to give her a pen and an ink stand which were in the bedroom and pushing back the soap and signing the ACT there she said the Folly’s done if I’m robed that is because I choose to be we will call on loo before going to the

Station now my little Maxim I’m going to shut you up and we will escape by way of the garden when I’ve turned all these people out of the house we don’t even need to take any luggage she became gay again this wild freak delighted her it was a piece of

Supreme eccentricity a finish which amid her fever seemed to her mind alog together original it surpassed her desire to make a balloon journey by a great deal she went and took Maxim in her arms murmuring I hurt you a little while ago my poor darling but then you

Refused you’ll see how nice it will be would your Hunchback ever love you as I do that little blackamore isn’t a woman she was laughing she was drawing him to her and kissing him on the lips when a sound made them both turn their heads sakar was standing on the threshold of the

Room terrible silence followed Renee slowly withdrew her arm from Maxim’s neck but she did not lower her brow she continued gazing at her husband with her big eyes which stared fixedly like those of a corpse while the young fellow overwhelmed and terrified staggered with bowed head now that he

Was no longer sustained by her Embrace sakar stunned by the Supreme blow which at last made the husband and the father cry out within him did not advance but livid he scorched them from afar with the fire of his glances in the moist odoriferous atmosphere of the room the three tapers

Flared very high their Flames erect with the Stillness of fiery tears and alone breaking the silence the terrible silence a breath of Music ascended the narrow staircase the waltz with its snake likee undulations glided coiled and died away on the snowy carpet amid the split tights and the Fallen skirts then the husband

Advanced the impulse which he felt to resort to brutality brought blotches to his face he clinched his fists to knock down the guilty pair anger in this Restless little man burst forth like the report of firearms he gave a strangled titter and still advancing you were announcing your

Marriage to her a maxim retreated and leaned against the wall listen he stammered it was she he was about to accuse her like a coward to cast the odium of the crime upon her to say that she wanted to carry him off to defend himself with the humility and the

Shutters of a child detected in The Fault but he did not have the strength the words expired in his throat Renee retained her statue like rigidity her air of mute Defiance then sakar no doubt in view of finding a weapon gave a rapid glance around him and on the corner of a toilet

Table among the Combs and nailed brushes he perceived fed of session the stamped paper of which set a yellow stain on the marble he looked at bid he looked at the guilty pair then on leaning forward he saw that the deed was signed his eyes went from

The open ink to the pen still wet which had been left on the foot of the candal abam he remained Direct in front of this signature reflecting the silence seemed to increase the Flames of the candle shot up higher the Walts resounded in a softer lullab along the hangings

Zakar gave an imperceptible shrug of the shoulders he again looked at his wife and his son with a profound air as if to ring from their faces an explanation which he could not Divine then he slowly folded up theid and placed it in the pocket of his dress

Coat his cheeks had become extremely pale you have done well to sign my dear he said gently to his wife you gain a 100,000 Franks by doing so I will give you the money this evening he almost smiled and His Hands alone retained a trembling he took a few steps adding

It’s stifling in here what an idea to come and plot one of your jokes in this Vapor bath and then addressing himself to Maxim who had raised his head surprised by his father’s appeased voice here come come with me he resumed I saw you go up and I came to fetch you

So that you might wish M deare and his daughter good night the two men went down talking together Renee remained alone standing in the middle of a dressing room looking at the yawning cavity of a little staircase in which he had just seen the shoulders of the father and the son

Disappear she could not take her eyes off this cavity what they’d gone off quietly amicably these two men had not murdered each other she lent an ear she listened to ascertain if some atrocious struggle did not make their bodies roll down the stairs nothing in theepa darkness

Nothing but a noise of dancing along long lullabi she thought she could hear in the distance the Martian’s laughter and M phras clear voice then the drama was ended her crime the kisses in the large gray and pink bed the wild nights in the conservatory all the accursed love that

Had consumed her during months had led to this mean ignoble ending her husband knew all and did not even beat her and the silence around her this silence through which Trail the endless walls terrified her even more in the sound of Murder She felt afraid of this peacefulness afraid of this soft tinted

Discreet dressing room full of a scent of Love She perceived herself in the high glass door of the Wardrobe she approached astonished to see herself forgetting her husband forgetting Maxim and altogether preoccupied by the strange woman whom she beheld before her Madness was rising to her

Brain her yellow hair caught up off the temples and the neck seemed to her a nudity and obscenity the wrinkle of her forehead deepened to such a degree that it set a dark bar above her eyes the thin bluish scar of A Lash with a whip who’d marked

Her like that her husband had certainly not raised his hand and her lips astonished her by their palor her myops eyes seemed dead to her how old she looked she inclined her brow and when she beheld herself in her tights in her slight gauze blouse she gazed at herself

With lowered eyelashes and sudden blushes who had stripped her naked what was she doing there bare breasted like a harlot who uncovers herself down to the belly she no longer knew she looked at her thighs which the tight surround Ed at her hips the Supple lines of which

She discerned under the gauze at her bust broadly displayed and she was ashamed of herself and contempt for her flesh filled her with inflexible anger against those who had left her thus with simple circlets of gold around her ankles and wrists to hide her skin then trying with the fixed idea of

Drowning intelligence to remember what she was doing there quite naked in front of that glass she went back by a sudden leap to her childhood she again saw herself as she’d been when 7 years old in the solemn Gloom of the beo Mansion she remembered a day when Aunt

Elizabeth had dressed them herself and Christine in Woolen dresses with a little red check pattern on a gray ground it was Christmas time how pleased they were with those two dresses exactly alike their aunt spoiled them and she carried matter so far as to give each of

Them a bracelet and a necklace of coral beli leaves the sleeves were long the dress bodies rose up to their chins the jewelry displayed itself on the stuff and this seemed very pretty to them Renee also remembered that her father was there and that he smiled with his sad

Air that day instead of playing her sister and herself had walked about the nursery like grownup persons for fear of soiling themselves then at the convent of a visitation her School Fellows had joked her about her clowns dress which came down to her fingertips and Rose up over her

Ears she’d begun to cry during lessons and when Play Time came she turned up her sleeves and tucked in her neckband so that she might not be derided any longer and the coral necklace and bracelet seemed to her much prettier on the skin of her neck and arm

Was it on that day that she’d begun to strip herself her life unrolled itself before her she recalled her long bewilderment the hubub of gold and flesh which had risen within her which had mounted first to her knees then to her stomach then to her lips and the flood of which she now

Felt sweeping over her head striking her skull with swiftly repeated blows it was like a bad sap it had weary her limbs set excrescences of shameful affection in her heart and made whims fit for a sick person or an animal sprout in her brain this sap had impregnated the soles

Of her feet while they rested on her carriage rug and on other carpets too on all the silk and all the Velvet over which she’d walked since her marriage the footsteps of others must have left these seeds of poison now yielding fruit in her blood and circulating in her veins

She well remembered her childhood she had merely been inquisitive when she was little later on even after that rape which had cast evil into her she had not wished for so much shame she would certainly have become better had she remained knitting beside Aunt Elizabeth and while she gazed fixedly

Into the Looking Glass to read there in the peaceful future she’d missed she could hear the regular tick tick of her aunts needles but she only saw her own pink thighs her pink hips the strange woman of pink silk whom she had before her and whose skin of fine stuff of close

Texture seemed made for the Amores of puppets and Dolls she’d come to that to be a big doll from whose torn bosom but a thread of sound escaped then at thought of the enormities of her life the blood of her father that middle class blood which tormented her during hours of Crisis

Cried out within her and revolted she who had always trembled at the thought of hell she ought to have lived in the depth of the black severity of the bar home Mansion who was it then that had stripped her naked and in the bluish shade of the

Glass she thought she could see the figures of sakar and Maxim rise up zard black and sneering with a hue of iron and and pincer-like laughter standing on his skinny legs that man was a will for 10 years she’d seen him at the forge amid the Shivers of the red and metal

With his flesh burnt breathless but still striking raising hammers 20 times too heavy for his arms at the risk of crushing himself she understood him now he seemed to her to have been made taller by this superhuman effort this huge rascality this fix idea of an immense immediate Fortune she remembered him springing

Over obstacles rolling in the mud and not taking the time to wipe himself so bent was he upon arriving early at the goal not even taring to enjoy himself on the road but munching his gold pieces while he ran then Maxim’s Fair pretty head appeared behind his father’s rough

Shoulders he had his clear Harlot smile his empty strumpets eyes which were never lowered his parting in the middle of his hair showing the whiteness of his skull he derided sakar he considered him vulgar to give himself so much trouble to earn money which he Maxim expended with such adorable

Laziness he was kept his long soft hands testified to his vices his hairless body had the wearied attitude of a satisfied woman not even a flash of curiosity as to sin shown in all his cowardly sluggish being through which Vice gently csed like so much warm water he did not initiate he

Underwent and Renee looking at the two apparitions emerged from the slight shade of the mirror retreated a step and saw that sakar had thrown her like a stake like an investment in that Maxim had chance to be there to pick up this Louie fallen from Miss Speculator

Pocket she had been an AET in her husband’s pocketbook he had urged her on to the toilets of a night to the lovers of a season he twisted her in the Flames of his Forge imploring her as though she’d been a precious metal to gild the iron of his

Hands little by little the father had thus rendered her mad enough depraved enough for the kisses of the son if Maxim were sar’s impoverished blood she felt the she herself was the product the worm eaten fruit of these two men the pit of infamy which they dug together and into which they both

Rolled she knew it now it was these men who had stripped her naked sakad had unhooked her dressed body and Maxim had loosened her skirt then between them they had just torn off her shames and present she was without a rag merely with golden rings like a slave

They’d looked at her a little while before but they’d not said to her you are naked the son had trembled like a coward had shuddered at the thought of carrying his crime to the end had refused to follow her in her passion the father instead of killing her had robbed

Her this man punished people by emptying their pockets a signature fell like a Sunray amid the brutality of his anger and by way of Vengeance he carried the signature off then she’d seen their shoulder Retreat into the darkness no blood upon the carpet not a cry not a

Moan they were cowards they had stripped her naked and she said to herself that on one so occasion she Dre the future on the day when inide of the murmuring Shadows of the park moso the thought that her husband would soil her and bring her one day to Madness had come

And frightened her growing desires ah how her poor head suffered how she realized now the fallacy of the idea which had made her believe that she lived in a happy sphere of divine enjoyment and impunity she’d lived in the land of Shame and she was chasen by

The abandonment of her whole body by the death of her agonizing being she wept that she’d not listen to the loud voices of the trees her nudity irritated her she turned her head she looked around her the dressing room retained its musky heaviness its warm Silence with still

Came the phrases of the Walts like the last expiring circles on a sheet of water this slow laughter of distant voluptuousness passed over her with intolerable she stopped up her ears so as to hear it no longer then she beheld the luxury in the room she raised her eyes to the pink

Tent even to the silver crown within which one perceived a cupid preparing his arrows she dwelt on the furniture on the marble slab of a toilet table encumbered with pots and tools which she no longer recognized she went to the bath still full of slumbering water she pushed back

With her foot the stuffs trailing over the White Satin of the armchairs the costume of a nymph Echo the petticoats the Forgotten towels and from all these things voices of Shame arose the robe of the nymph Echo spoke to her of the Pastime she shared because she had thought it original to

Offer herself to Maxim in public the furniture with its bed-like roundness reminded her brutally of her flesh her Amour all the filth that she wished to forget she returned into the middle of the room her face purple not knowing where to fly from this alve perfume this

Luxury which Beed itself with a harlot immodesty which displayed all this pink the room was naked like herself the pink bath The Rosy skin of the hangings the pink marble of the two tables became animated stretched themselves coiled themselves up and surrounded her with such a display of living voluptuousness

That she closed her eyes lowering her head overwhelmed amid the lace of the ceiling and the walls which crushed her but in the Blackness she again saw that flesh tinted spot the dressing room and she also beheld the gray softness of the bedroom the soft orent luster of a

Little drawing room the crude greenness of the conservatory all the wealth that had been her accomplice it was there that her feet had become impregnated with the evil sap she would not have slept with Maxim on a pallet in the depth of a Garret it would have been too ignoble the silk around

Her had made her crime coquettish and she dreamt of tearing down this lace of spitting upon this silk of breaking her large bed to pieces with kicks of dragging her luxury into some gutter when it would emerge worn out and dirty like herself when she reopened her eyes she

Approached the mirror looked at herself again and examined herself closely she was done for she saw herself dead her whole face told her that the cerebral cracking was being completed Maxine that last perversion of her senses had finished his work exhausted her flesh and unhinged her intelligence she had no more Joys to

Taste no hope of an Awakening at this thought a Savage rage was rekindled within her and in a last crisis of Desire she dreamt of taking possession of her prey of agonizing in Maxim’s arms and carrying him off with her Louise could not marry him Louise

Knew very well that he did not belong to her since she’d seen them kissing each other on the lips then she threw a firm mantle over her shoulder so as not to pass naked through the hall and she went downstairs in the little drawing room she came face to face with Madam

Sidoni the latter in view of enjoying the drama had again stationed herself on the steps of the conservatory but she no longer knew what to think when sakar reappeared with Maxim and brutally replied to her whispered questions that she was dreaming but there was nothing whatever then she scented the truth her

Yellow face grew pale she considered this really too strong and she softly went and placed her ear against the staircase door hoping that she’d be able to hear Renee cry fying upstairs when the young woman opened the door it almost smacked her sister-in-law in the face you’re playing the spy on me Renee

Angrily said but Madam cidoni replied with fine disdain do I occupy myself with your filth and catching up her sorceress’s dress and retiring with a majestic look it isn’t my fault little one if accidents be fall you but I have no spite do you hear and understand that

You would have found and would still find a second mother in me I shall expect you at my place whenever you please Renee did not listen to her she entered the large drawing room and passed through a very complicated figure of the coton without even remarking the surprise which her fur mantle

Occasioned in the middle of the room there were groups of ladies and gentlemen who mingled waving band rols and M de safra’s fluty voice called out come ladies the Mexican war the ladies who figur the bushes must spread their skirts out around them and remain on the

Ground now the gentleman must turn round the bushes then when I clap my hands each of them must Walt with his Bush he clapped his hands the brass instruments resounded the Walts once more sent the couples revolving around the room the figure had not been very successful two ladies had remained on

The carpet entangled in their dresses Madame daste declared that the only thing that amused her in the Mexican War was making a cheese of her dress as she’ done at school Renee on reaching the hole found Louise and her father whom sakar and Maxim were accompanying Bon guro had left

Madame sidoni withdrew with Manon and Shah while missel deu escorted Madame mishala whom her husband followed discreetly the prefect had spent the rest of the evening courting the pretty brunette he had just persuaded her to spend a month of the fine weather in the chief town of his department where some

Really curious Antiquities were to be seen Louise who was nibbling on the sly the hard bake which he had in her pocket was seized with a fit of coughing at the moment of leaving the house cover yourself up well said her father and Maxim hastened to tighten the

Strings of the hood of her Opera cloak she raised her chin and let herself be swaddled but when Madame sakar appeared M deare retraced his steps and bid her goodbye for a moment they all remained there together talking Renee wishing to explain her palor and her shutters said that she had

Felt cold and had gone upstairs to throw the fur over her shoulders and she watched for the moment when she might speak in a low voice to Louise who was looking at her with inquisitive Tranquility while the gentleman again shook hands she lent forward and murmured you won’t marry him will you it

Isn’t possible do you know very well but the child interrupted her Rising on tiptoe and speaking in her ear oh be easy I shall take him off it is of no consequence since we’re going to Italy and she smiled with the vague smile of a vicious Sphinx Renee remained

Stammering she did not understand she fancied that the Hunchback was deriding her then when the mar had gone off repeating several times till Sunday she looked at her husband and at Maxim with her frightened eyes and on beholding them with quiet flesh and satisfied attitudes she hid her face

In her hands fled and sought a refuge in the depths of the conservatory the pathways were deserted the large leaves were asleep and on the heavy sheet of water of the Basin two budding nyas slowly unfolded Renee would have liked to cry but the damp warmth the strong perfume

Which he recognized caught her at the throat and strangled her despair she looked at her feet at the edge of the Basin at the spot of yellow sand where she’ stretched the bare skin the winter before and when she raised her eyes she again saw between the two open doors a

Figure of the coton being danced right away in the background there was a deafening noise a confused mass in which she at first only distinguished flying skirts and black legs footing and turning M saf’s voice Cried Out change your ladies change your ladies and the couples passed by amid a

Fine yellow dust each gentleman after three or four turns in the walls threw his partner into the arms of his neighbor who in turn threw him his baroness toold in her costume as the Emerald fell from the hands of the C sh into the hands of M Simpson he caught

Her as he could by a shoulder while the tip of his gloves glided under her dress body count as vona very red in making her Coral drops jingle went with a bound from the chest of M de safre onto the chest of vuk De rosan whom she entwined

And compelled to pouette for five turns when she hung herself on the hips of M Simpson who had just thrown the emerald to the leader of the Kon and Madame Tessier madame daste Madame de laen shining like large living Jewels with the fail palar of a topaz

The soft blue of a turquoise the fiery blue of the sapphire abandoned themselves for a minute vaulted onto the extended wrist of a Walter then started off again came frontwards or backwards into a fresh Embrace visiting one after the other all the masculine Embraces of the drawing

Room however Madame desan had in full View view of the orchestra succeeded in Catching hold of Madame Hoffner as she passed by and now waltzed with her refusing to let go her hold gold and silver danced lovingly together Renee then understood this whirling of skirts this stamping of legs

Standing on a lower surface she could see the fury of the feet the patent leather boots and white ankles mingling pel Mel at intervals it seemed too early as if a gust of wind were about to blow off the dresses the be shoulders the bare arms the bare heads which flew past and

Revolved now seized hold of now thrown off and again caught at the end of the gallery where the Walts of the orchestra grew matter with the red hangings seemed thrown into a transport amid the final fever of the ball appeared to her like the tumultuous image of her own life of

Her nudities and abandonments and she exper experienced such a Pang at the thought that Maxim could take the Hunchback in his arms had just cast her there on the spot where they loved each other that she dreamt of plucking a stalk of the tangia which grazed her cheek and if chewing it till

The sap was exhausted but she was cowardly and she remained in front of the plant shivering under the fur which her hands Drew over her with a tight clutch and a great gesture of terrified shame this ends section 13 section 14 of the rush for the spoil by Emil zolah translated by Henry

Vitelli this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Mark leader section 14 3 months later on one of those gloomy spring mornings which bring back into Paris the dimness and dirty dampness of winter Aris sakar alighted from his Carriage at the pl to chatau do and

Turned with four other gentlemen into the gorge of demolitions opened by the future boulevar pren the party formed a committee of inquiry which the EXP appropriation jury had dispatched to the spot to estimate the value of certain property the owners of which had not come to an amicable arrangement with the city of

Paris sart was renewing his rud La peper stroke of Fortune so that his wife’s name might completely disappear from the affair he had at first devised the mock sale of the ground and the musical Lor relinquished the whole to a supposed creditor the of sale and iated the

Colossal figure of 3 millions of Franks the sum was so exorbitant that when the expropriation agent in the name of the imaginary owner claimed the amount of the purchase money as an Indemnity the commission of the hotel de VI would not Grant more than 2,500,000 Franks despite the underhand

Endeavors of Miss michelan and the speeches of M tutan L and barang guro zakar had expected this pulse he refused the offer and let the case go before the expropriation jury of which he happened to be a member together with M de by a chance he had no doubt assisted and it

Was thus that with four of his colleagues he found himself deputed to make an inquiry respecting his own ground M de Mar accompanied him of the three remaining jurors one was a doctor who smoked a cigar without caring the least in the world for the stones and

Mortar he climbed over and the others two commercial men one of whom a manufacturer of surgical instruments had once turned a grindstone in the streets the path which the gentleman took was in a frightful state it had rained all night the so ground was becoming a river of mud between the

Fallen houses beside this road traced out over loose soil wherein the trans Port carts sank up to the naves of their wheels on either side fragments of the walls shattered with pickaxes remained standing lofty eviscerated buildings displaying their pallet entrails opened in midair their empty staircase frames their suspended gaping rooms which

Appeared like the broken drawers of some great ugly piece of furniture nothing could look more lamentable than the wallpapers of these room rooms blue or yellow squares falling in tatters and indicating at the height of a fifth or sixth floor just under the roofs the place occupied by

Some poor little Garretts narrow holes in which perhaps a man’s whole life had been confined the ribbons of a chimney flues Rose side by side on the bare Walls lugubriously Black and with abrupt bends a forgotten weathercock grad at the edge of a roof wilst some half detached water spouts hung down like

Rags and the Gap still deepened amid these ruins like a breach opened by Cannon under the gray sky amid the Sinister pity of the falling plaster dust the roadway barely marked out covered with refu with piles of Earth and deep pools of water stretched away edged with the black marks of Chimney

Flu as with a morning border the gentlemen with their well blackened boots their frock coats and their tall silk hats set a singular note in this muddy landscape of a dirty yellow tint and across which there only passed some pale workmen some horses splashed to a Chine and some carts the woodwork of

Which disappeared beneath a coat of dust the Jers followed each other in Indian file jumping from Stone to Stone avoiding the pools of flowing fil at times sinking in up to their heels and then shaking their feet and swearing sart had talked about taking the rud de Chon by which they would have

Avoided this prominade over Broken Ground but they unfortunately had several bits of property to visit on the long line of the Boulevard and impelled by curiosity they had decided to pass right through the works besides the site greatly interested them at times s they stopped balancing themselves on some bit of

Plaster which had fallen into a rot raising their noses and calling each other to point out some perforated floor some chimney pot which had remained in the air some joist which had fallen onto a neighboring roof this bit of a destroyed City seen on leaving the Ruda seemed Al together funny to

Them it’s really curious said Miss de Mar look there shakar look at that kitchen up there an old frying pan has remained hanging over the stove I can distinguish it perfectly however the doctor with his cigar between his teeth had set himself in front of a demolished House of which

There only remained the rooms of the ground floor filled with the remnants of the other stories a single fragment of oil rose up above the pile of materials and to over throw it at one effort it had been Girt round with a rope at which several workmen were

Tugging you won’t manage it muttered the doctor they’re pulling it too much to the left the four other jurors had retraced their steps to see the wall tumble and all five of them with her eyes stretched out and with baited breath waited for the fall with a quiver of

Delight the workmen giving way and then suddenly stiffening themselves cried out oh heho they won’t manage it repeated the doctor then after a few seconds of anxiety it’s moving it’s moving joyfully cried one of the commercial men and when the wall gave way at last and fell with a frightful crash raising

A cloud of plaster the gentlemen looked at each other with smiles they were delighted their frck coats became covered with a fine dust which whitened their arms and shoulders resuming their prudent March amid the puddles they now began to talk about the workmen there were not many

Good ones they were all idle fellows prodigals and with all most obstinate only dreaming of their Master’s ruin M de maray who for a moment had been looking with a shudder at two poor Devils perched on the corner of a roof demolish ing a wall with their pickaxes

Expressed however the opinion that all the same these men really possessed great Courage the other jurors again paused and raised their eyes to the workmen who balanced themselves leaning and striking with all their strength they pushed the stones down with their feet and quietly looked at them shattering

Below if the pickaxes had missed striking the mere impulsion of the men’s arms would have precipitated them into into space ah it’s habit said the doctor setting his cigar in his mouth again they are brutes the jurors had now reached one of the houses which they had to

Visit they finished their work in a quarter of an hour and then resumed their walk by degrees they no longer felt so much disgust for the mud they walked in the middle of the pools abandoning the hope of keeping their boots clean when they passed the ru menil mon

One of the commercial men the ex knife grinder became nervous he examined the ruins about him and no longer recognized the neighborhood he said that he lived in that part on his arrival in Paris more than 30 years previously and that he should be very pleased to find the house

Again he continued searching with his eyes when suddenly the sight of a house which the workman’s pics had already cut in Twain made him stop short in the middle of the road he studied the door and the windows then pointing upward with his finger to a corner of the partially demolished

Building there it is he cried I recognize it what prey asked the doctor my room of course that’s it it was a little room situated on the fifth floor and it must have formerly overlooked a courtyard a breach in the wall showed it quite bare already demolished on one

Side with a broad torn band of its wallpaper of a large yellow flowery pattern trembling in the Wind on my left hand one could still see the recess of a coverboard lined with blue paper and beside it was an aperture for a stove pipe with a bit of piping in

It the X Workman was seized with emotion I spent five years in there muttered he my meem were small in those times but no matter I was young you see the cupboard it was there that I put by 300 Franks copper by copper and the hole

For the stove pipe I can still remember the day when I made it the room had no fireplace and it was bitter cold all the more so as we were not often to together come come interrupted the doctor joking we don’t ask you your secrets you played your games like everyone

Else that’s true naively resumed the worthy man I still remember an ironing girl who lived over the way you see the bed was over there on the right hand side near the window ah my poor room how they’ve knocked it about he was really very sad come said sakad no Harm’s done by

Throwing those old cabins down handsome houses and Freestone will be built in place of them would you still live in such a den while you might very well Lodge yourself on the new Boulevard that’s true again replied the manufacturer who seemed quite consoled the commission of inquiry

Halted again at the two other houses the doctor remained at the door smoking and looking at the sky when they reached the rud de zandier the houses became fewer they now passed through large enclosures and over uncultivated land where some half Fallen buildings straggled sakar seemed delighted with

This prominade through ruins he had just remembered the dinner he had one shared with his first wife on the heights of M and he well recollected having indicated with his hand the cut across Paris from the PLU do to the baron the realization of this far distant prediction delighted him he

Followed the cut with the secret joys of authorship as if he himself had with his iron fingers struck the first blows with a pickaxe and he jumped over the puddles reflecting that three millions awaited him under building materials at the end of this River of greasy filth meanwhile the gentlemen fancied

Themselves in the country the road passed through some Gardens the walls of which had been filled there were large clumps of budding lilac with foliage of a very delicate light green each of these Gardens looking like a retreat hung with the leaves of the shrubs displayed a narrow Basin of a miniature

Cascade with bits of wall on which to deceive the eye Arbors in perspective and bluish Landscapes backgrounds had been painted the buildings scattered and discreetly hidden resembled Italian Pavilions in Grecian temples and Moss was wearing away the feet of the plaster columns wilst weeds had loosened the mortar of the

Pediments those are Pon said the doctor with a wink but as he saw that the gentleman did not understand what he meant he explained that under Louie C the nobility had Retreats of this kind for their pleasure parties it was then the fashion and he added they were called

Pon little houses this neighborhood was full of them some stiff things took place in them and no mistake the commission of inquiry had become very attentive the two commercial men’s eyes were shining and they smiled and looked with great interest at these Gardens and Pavilions on which they had

Not bestowed a glance prior to their colleagues explanations a grotto detained them for a long time but when the doctor seeing a house already attacked by the pick said that he recognized that as the count of Sav Pon well known on account of that nobleman’s ories the whole commission

Left the boulevard to go and visit the ruins they climbed on to the Fallen materials entered the ground floor rooms by the windows and as the workmen were away at their midday meal they were able to linger there quite at their ease they indeed remained there for a

Good half hour examining the rosettes of the ceilings the paintings above the doors the strained moldings of the plaster grown yellow with age the doctor reconstructed the building do you see said he this room must be the banqueting hall there was certainly an immense div at that recess

Of the wall and indeed I’m sure that a Looking Glass are mounted the Divan see there are the hold fasts of the glass oh those fellow were scamps who knew dodly well how to enjoy themselves the jurors would never have left these old Stones which tickled their curiosity if arus sard growing

Impatient had not said to them laughing you may look as much as you like the ladies are no longer here let’s get to a our business before leaving however the doctor climbed onto a mantle shelf to delicately detach with one blow of a pick a little painted head of cupid

Which he slipped into the pocket of his frock coat they at length reached the end of their Journey the land which had formerly belonged to Madame Oberto was very vast the Music Hall and the garden occupied barely more than half of the surface a few unimportant houses were

Scattered about the rest of it the new Boulevard cut obliquely across this large parallelogram and this circumstance had quieted one of sar’s fears he had long imagined that only a corner of the Music Hall would be removed by the new Thorofare larano therefore had received orders to open his mouth as the

Bordering plots ought to at least quintuple in value he was already threatening the City of Paris to Avail himself of a recent decree authorizing land owners to deliver up only the ground necessary for works of public utility it was the expropriation agent who received the jurors he took them over the garden made

Them visit the Music Hall and showed them a huge pile of papers but the two commercial men had gone down again accompanied by the doctor whom they were still questioning about count Sav Pon of which their minds were full they listened to him with gaping mouths standing all three beside

Aono and he talked to them about LA pador and related the Amur of Lou K while miss de Mar and sard continued the quiry alone it’s all finished said the latter on returning into the garden if you will allow me gentlemen I will myself draw the report the surgical instrument maker did

Not even hear he was deep in the Regency what funny times all the same he muttered then they found the cab in the rud Deon and they went off muddy to the KN but as satisfied with their prominade as with a pleasure trip in the country in the cab the conversation

Changed they talked politics they said that the emperor did great things for like of what they had just seen had never been witnessed before this long perfectly straight Street would be superb when the houses were erected it was Saka who drew up the report and the jury granted the 3

Millions the Speculator was at the end of his tether he could not have waited a month longer this money saved him from ruin and even a little from the Assi Court he gave 500,000 Franks on the million which he owed to his upholsterer and his contractor for the mansion in the park

Mono he stopped up other holes rushed into new companies and deafened Paris with the noise of the real crowns which he flung by the shovel full onto the shelves of his iron safe the golden river had a source at last but this was not yet a solid entrenched Fortune flowing with a

Regular continuous gush sakar saved from a crisis thought himself pitiful with the crumbs of his three millions and naively said that he was still too poor and could not stop there and soon the ground again cracked beneath his feet Leno had behaved so admirably in the shahon affair that sakar after a

Slight hesitation carried honesty to the point of giv giving him his 10% and his bonus of 30,000 Franks the expropriation agent thereupon opened a banking house when his accomplish accused him in a snappish tone of being richer than himself the Cox come with the yellow gloves replied

Laughing you see dear Master you are very clever in making money rain down but you don’t know how to pick it up but Madam sidon profited by her brother’s stroke of Fortune to borrow 10,000 Franks from him with which she went to spend a couple of months in

England she returned without a copper and it was never known what had become of a 10,000 Franks well it costs she replied when she was questioned I ransacked all the libraries I had three secretaries to assist me in my researches and when she was asked if she at length

Had any positive information about her three milliards she at first smiled with a mysterious air and then ended by muttering you are all incredulous I have found nothing but no matter you will see you will see someday she had not however lost all the time she spent in England her brother

The minister profited by her journey to entrust her with a delicate commission when she returned she obtained large orders from the ministry it was a fresh Incarnation she made contracts with the government and charged herself with supplying it every imaginable thing she sold it provisions and arms for the

Troops furniture for the prefectures and public departments firew for the offices and the museums the money she made did not not induce her to set aside her Eternal black dresses and she retained her yellow doleful face sakar then reflected that it was really she whom he had seen once long

Ago furtively leaving their brother ean’s house she must at all times have kept up a secret connection with him for matters with which no one was acquainted Renee was agonizing amid these interests these ardent thirsts which could not satisfy themselves Aunt Elizabeth was dead Christine had married and left the B

Mansion where her father alone remained erect in the gloomy shade of the large rooms Renee exhausted what she inherited from her aunt in one season she gambled now she’d found a drawing room where lady sat at table till 3:00 in the morning losing hundreds of thousands of Franks in a night

She tried to drink but she could not she experienced Invincible calms of disgust since she’ found herself alone again abandoned to the worldly flood which carried her off she surrendered herself all the more not knowing how to kill time she ended by tasting of everything and nothing touched her amid the immense

Boredom which was crushing her she grew older blue circles appeared around her eyes her nose became thinner her pouting lips parted in sudden and causeless laughter it was the end of a woman when Maxim had married Louise and the Young Folks had started for Italy she no longer troubled herself about her

Lover she even seemed to forget him completely and when Maxim returned home 6 months later having buried the hunchback in the cemetery of a little town in Lombardy it was hatred that she displayed towards him she remembered fedra she no doubt recollected that poisoned love to which she’d heard restor lend her

Sobs then so is never more to meet the young fellow in her home to dig an abyss of Shame between the father and the son forever she compelled her husband to take cognizance of the incest she told him that on the day when he haded urised

Her with Maxim fad who had long pursued her was seeking to assault her sakar was horribly worried by the insistence she evinced in wishing to open his eyes he was obliged to quarrel with his son and ceased to see him the young widower rich with his wife’s doy went to live a bachelor’s

Life in a little house of the Avenue deatrice he had renounced the Council of State Witnessed her shame without leaving her in disgust and she pictured all kinds of abnegation a whole life of renunciation to arrive at understanding the calmness of the chambermaid in the presence of incest her icy hands her respectful quiet attentions and the girl’s devotion made Renee all the happier as she knew her to

Be honest and economical without a lover without a vice at at times in her sad moment she would say to her ah my girl it is you who will close my eyes Celeste never answered but she gave a singular smile one morning she quietly informed her mistress that she was going to leave

That she meant to return into the country Renee remained trembling all over on hearing this as if some great Misfortune had befallen her she cried out and plied Celeste with questions why would she leave her when they got on so well together and she offered to double her

Wages but the maid in answer to all her kind words made a gesture meaning no in a quiet obstinate manner you see Madame she ended by replying you might offer me all the gold of Peru but I could not remain a week longer ah you don’t know me I’ve been

With you for8 years haven’t I well on the very first day I said to myself as soon as I have collected 5,000 Franks together I will return to my Village I will buy leash’s house and I shall live very happily it’s a promise I made to myself

You understand and the 5,000 Franks were completed yesterday when you paid me my wages Renee felt a chill at her heart she saw Celeste passing behind her and Maxim while they were kissing each other and she saw her with her indifference in a perfect state of abstraction dreaming of her 5,000

Franks however she still tried to retain her frightened by the void in which she would have to live longing despite everything to keep near her this obstinate animal whom she had thought devoted and who was merely egotistical the girl smiled still shaking her head muttering no no it

Isn’t possible even if it were my mother I should refuse I shall buy two cows I shall perhaps start a little haberdashers business it’s very pretty down our way oh for the matter of that I’m willing you should come and see me it is near Cayenne I will leave you the

Address Renee then no longer insisted she she shed hot tears when she was alone on the tomorrow with a sick person’s whimsicality she decided to accompany Celeste to the Western Railway Station in her own broam she gave her one of her traveling rugs and made her a present in

Money and showed her the attentions of a mother whose daughter is about to start upon some long difficult journey in the broom she looked at her with moist eyes Celeste chatted and said how pleased she was to go away then emboldened she spoke out and gave some advice to her

Mistress I shouldn’t have understood life like you Madame I’ve often said to myself when I found you with M Maxim is it possible one can be so foolish for men it always ends badly ah for my part I always mistrusted them she laughed and threw herself back in the corner corner of the

Broam my money would have danced she continued and nowadays I should be destroying my eyes with crying so whenever I saw a man I took up a broomstick I never dared to tell you all that besides it didn’t concern me you were free to do as you liked and I

Only had to earn my money honestly at the railway station Renee insisted upon paying her fair and took her a first class ticket as they arrived before the time she detained her pressing her hands and repeating and take good care of yourself don’t neglect your health my good

Celeste the latter allowed herself to be caressed she stood looking happy with a fresh smiling face before her mistress’s tearful eyes Renee again spoke of the past and the maid abruptly exclaimed I was forgetting I didn’t tell you the story of Baptista Master’s valet probably no one is like to tell

You the young woman owned that she indeed knew nothing well you remember his Grand dignified Aires his disdainful glances you yourself spoke to me about them it was all so much acting he didn’t care for women he never came down to per servant Hall when we

Were there I can repeat it now he even pretended that it was disgusting in the drawing room on account of all the lown neck dresses I well believe that he didn’t care for women and she lent towards Rene’s ear and made her blush though she herself retained all her honest

Placidity when the new stable boy she continued told everything to master master preferred to dismiss Baptist rather than send him to jail it seems that these disgusting things had been going on for years in the state tables and to think that the big Scamp pretended he was fond of horses it was

The Grooms that he liked the barell interrupted her she hastily took up the eight or 10 packages which she had not wished to part with she let herself be kissed and then she went off without looking around Renee remained in the station until the engine whistled and when the train had gone off

She was was overcome with despair she no longer knew what to do her days seemed to stretch before her as empty as the vast waiting hole where she’d been left alone she again entered her broam and told The Coachman to drive her home but on the way she changed her mind she was

Afraid of her room of the boredom awaiting her there she no longer felt the necessary courage to return home and change her dress for her usual Drive round the lake she felt a longing for sunlight a longing to mingle with the crowd she ordered The Coachman to drive to the boah it was

4:00 the boah was Awakening from the drowsiness of a warm afternoon clouds of dust flew along the Avenue deatri and what could see spread out afar the expanse of verg which the the slopes of s cloud and Surin crowned by the gray walles of mon Valerian limited high above the Horizon the sun

Shed its Rays filling the recesses of the foliage with golden dust lighting up the tall branches and changing the ocean of leaves into an ocean of light past the fortifications in the Avenue of the boa leading to the lake the ground had just been watered and the

Vehicles rolled over the brown soil as over a carpet amid a rising freshness and an odor of damp Earth mingled with the low bushes on either side the little trees of the copses reared their crowd of young trunks growing indistinct in the greenish dimness which flashes of light

Pierced here and there with yellow Glades and by degrees as one approached the lake the chairs on the side walks became more numerous family sat gazing with quiet silent faces at the interminable procession of Wheels then on reaching the open space in front of a lake there was a

Dazzlement the oblique Sun transformed the round expanse of water into a huge mirror of polished silver reflecting the brilliant disc of the planet All Eyes blinked one could only distinguish the dark form of the pleasure boat on the left hand side near the bank the parasols in the vehicles

Were inclined with a gentle and uniform movement towards the Splendor and only Rose erect again on reaching the roadway skirting the sheet of water which from the summit of the bank now assumed a metallic Blackness stre with golden burnishing on the right hand side the clumps of fur trees lined the road with

Their colonades of straight slender stems the soft Violet tinge of which was Ren by the Flames of the sky on the left of Alon bathed in light and similar to fields of emeralds stretched away as far as the distant lacelike Iron Work of the Gate of louette and on approaching the Cascade

While the dimness of the copses again presented itself on one side the islands at the end of a lake rose up into the blue Air with the sunshine playing over their Banks and bold Shadows darting from their Pines at the feet of which the Chalet looked like some Child’s Play

Thing lost in a corner of a virgin Forest the whole wood laughed and quivered in the sunshine the weather was so magnificent that Renee felt ashamed of her closed broam and her costume of flea tinted silk she Drew back a little and with the windows open looked at this flow of

Light stretching over the water and the verdure at the bends of the Avenue she perceived the line of Wheels revolving like golden stars amid a long train of blinding gleam the varnished panels the flashing steel and Brass mountings the bright colors of the dresses passed on at the

Even Trot of the horses and set against the background of a wood a long moving bar a ray fallen from the sky stretching out and following the bends of the roadway and in this Ray as the young woman blinked her eyes she saw every now

And then the light shenon of a woman the black back of a footman the white man of a horse stand out the arched parasols of watered silk Shone like moons of metal then in presence of this broad daylight this expanse of sunshine Renee thought of the fine dust of Twilight

Which she’d seen one evening falling on the tny foliage Maxim had been with her who was at the period when her desires for that child were Dawning in her and she again saw VOR dampened by the evening air but darkened Underwood with deserted Pathways the line of

Vehicles had gone by with a sad sound past the unoccupied chairs Wist now the rumble of the wheels that Trot of the horses resounded with the joyfulness of a flourish of trumpets then the recollection of all her drives in the bo returned to her she had lived there Maxim had grown up there

At her side on the cushion of her carriage it had been their Garden rain had surprised them there sunshine had brought them back the fall of night had not always driven them away they had been there in every kind of weather they had there tasted the worries and the joy of their

Life amid the emptiness of her being The Melancholy imparted by celest departure these memories gave Renee bitter Joy her heart said never again never again and she was like Frozen when she evoked the image of the winter landscape the congealed dull tinted Lake on which

They’d skated the sky then was of a suy color the snow had set white lace on the trees the wind had thrown fine sand in their eyes and on their lips however on the leftand side on the side reserved to equestrians she had already recognized the Duke rosan Missi and M de

Safre Lao had killed BK’s Mother by presenting her the 150,000 Franks worth of bills accepted by her son and baduk was devouring his second half million with blanch Miller after leaving the first 500,000 Franks in the hands of lini Miss deusi who’ left the embassy in England for the embassy in Italy had

Become Galant again and he led Kon with newly acquired gracefulness as for M de safre he remained the most amiable skeptic and fast liver in the world Renee saw him urging his horse towards the carriage of the ctis vska with whom he was said to be madly in love since the evening when

He’d seen her as Carl at the seads all the ladies were there moreover the duess D in her Eternal eight spring Carriage Madame de lawence in Alando with the baroness de minold and little Madame daste seated in front of her Madame deer Madame deand in a Victoria amid these ladies Sylvia and

Lord displayed themselves on the cushions of a magnificent calash Madame melan even passed by in the depths of a braw the pretty brunette had been to visit the chief town of misseldon and news department and on her return she’d made her appearance in the baah in this broam to which she hoped to

Soon add an open Carriage Renee also perceived the marianist espan and Madame Hoffner the inseparables hidden under their parasols stretched out side by side laughing tenderly and gazing into to each other’s eyes then the gentleman passed by m sh driving a mail coach M Simpson in a dog

Cart Miss Min and Shier more eager than ever for work despite their dream of approaching retirement in a broam which they left at the corner of an Avenue to go a bit of the way on foot m deare still in mourning for his daughter seeking bows for his first

Interruption launched forth the day before at the cor legislative and airing his political importance in the carriage of M tutan laros who had once more saved the Civ viol after placing it within two fingers length of Ruin and whom the Senate made thinner and more influential than

Ever and to close the procession like a final Majesty Baron guro showed his inner heaviness in the sunlight on the pillows with which Carriage was provided Renee felt surprised and disgusted on recognizing Baptist seated with a white face and solemn air beside The Coachman the tall flunky had entered the baron

Service the copses continued to stretch away the water of the lake grew iridescent under the sun rays now become more oblique the line of carriages spread out its dancing gleams and the young woman herself seized and carried away by this enjoyment vaguely divined all the appetites rolling along in the midst of the

Sunlight she did not feel indignant with these sharers of the spoil but she hated them for their joy for this triumphal March which showed them to her full in the golden dust from the sky they were superb and smiling the women displayed themselves white and plump the men had

The rapid glances the delighted deportment of favored lovers and she in the depth of her empty heart found nothing more than lassitude and covert Envy was she better than the others then that she thus bent under the weight of pleasure or was it the others who were praiseworthy for having stronger loins

Than her own she did not know she was just longing for new desires with which to begin life a new when on turning her head she perceived beside her on the footway bordering the Underwood a sight which rendered her heart like a supreme blow sakar and Maxim were walking along

Slowly arm in arm the father must have paid a visit to the son and they had both come down from the avenue deatrice to the lake chatting listen to me repeated repeated sakar you are a simpleton when a man has money like you have he doesn’t let it

Slumber at the bottom of a drawer there’s a 100% to be gained in the affair I mentioned it’s a safe investment you know very well I wouldn’t let you in however the young fellow seemed bored by his father’s insistence he smiled with his pretty air and looked at the

Carriages do you see that little woman over there the one in Mo he suddenly said she’s a washer woman whom that Beast IM you see has brought out they looked at the woman in moth after which sakar drew a cigar from his pocket and addressing himself to Maxim

Who was smoking give me a light he said then they stopped for a moment in front of each other drawing their faces near together when the cigar was lighted you see continued the father again taking his son’s arm and pressing it tightly under his own you would be a

Fool if you didn’t listen to me is it agreed eh will you bring me the 100,000 Franks tomorrow you know very well that I no longer go to your house replied Maxim compressing his lips poo a lot of BOS it’s time there was an end to all

That and while they took a few steps in silence just at the moment when Renee feeling as though she would Swoon hid her head in the padding of the bro so as not to be seen a glowing Buzz swept along the line of vehicles the pedestrians on the footways

Halted and turned around with gaping mouths watching something that approached there was a louder Rumble of Wheels the equipages respectfully Drew aside and two Pyon appeared clad in green with round caps on which golden tassels jolted with their cords spread out leaning slightly forward they hastened on at the Trot of their tall

Bay horses behind them they left an empty space and then in this empty space the emperor appeared he occupied alone the back seat of a Landau dressed in black with his frock coat buttoned up to his chin he wore slightly on one side a very tall hat the silk of which

Listened in front of him on the other seat two gentlemen dressed with that correct Elegance which was favorably looked upon at Aeries remained grave with their hands on their knees and the silent air of two wedding guests prominade amid the Curiosity of a crowd Renee found the emperor

Aged his mouth was parted more languidly under his thick waxed mustaches his eyelids had grown grown heavy to the point that they half covered his dim eyes the yellow greyness of which had become yet more cloudy and his nose alone still looked like a dry bone set in his vague

Face meantime while the ladies in the carriages smiled discreetly the people on foot pointed The Sovereign out to one another a fat man declared that the emperor was the gentleman who turned his back to The Coachman on the left side some hands were raised to salute

But zakar who had taken off his hat even before The Poon had passed waited till the Imperial Carriage was exactly in front of him and then he cried out in his thick provansal voice long live the emperor the emperor surprised turned recognized the Enthusiast no doubt and returned the bow

Smiling and everything then disappeared in the sunlight the equipages closed up and Rene could only perceive above the mains of the horses and between the backs of the footmen the poston’s Caps jolting with their golden tassels she remained for a moment with her eyes wide open full of this

Apparition which reminded her of another hour of her life it seemed to her as if the emperor by mingling with the line of carriages had set the last necessary Ray therein and given a meaning to this triumphal March now it was a glory all these wheels all these

Decorated men all these women languidly stretched out disappeared amid the Flash and the rumble of the Imperial land out this sensation became so acute and so painful that the young woman experienced an imperious need of escaping from this Triumph from Sak’s cry which was still ringing in her ears

From the sight of the father and the son slowly walking along and chatting with their arms linked she reflected with her hands on her breast as if burnt by an internal fire and it was with a sudden hope of relief and salutary coolness that she lent forward and said to The Coachman to

The barol mansion the courtyard retained its cloer likee coldness Renee went round the arcades made Happy by the dampness which fell upon her shoulders she approached the Fountain Green with moss and Polished by wear at the edges she looked at bion’s head now half effaced which with parted Joys emitted a

Gush of Water by an iron pipe how many times had she and Christine taken this head between their girlish arms to lean forward to reach the stream of water the I icy flow of which they like to feel upon their little hands then she mounted the great silent

Staircase she perceived her father at the end of The Suite of spacious rooms he drew up his tall figure and silently went deeper into the shade of the old residence of the hoty Solitude in which he had absolutely cloistered himself since his sister’s death and Renee

Thought of the men of the baah of that other old man Baron guro who had his flesh rolled about on pillows in the sunlight she went up higher she followed the passages the servants stairs she was bound for the nursery when she reached the top Landing

She found the key hanging on the usual nail a large Rusty key it was on which spiders had woven webs theck gave a plaintiff cry how sad the nursery was she felt a Pang at her heart of finding it so empty so gray So Silent she closed the open door of the

Abandoned Avary with the vague idea that it must have been by that door that the joys of her childhood had flown away in front of the flower boxes still full of soil hardened and cracked all over like dry mud she stopped and broke off a road a dendron stem the skeleton

Of a a plant shriveled and white with dust was all that remained of their living clumps of verdure and the matting the matting itself faded Ned by rats displayed itself with The Melancholy aspect of a shroud which has for years awaited a promised corpse in one corner amid this mute

Despair the silent weeping abandonment Renee found one of her old dolls all the the brand had flowed out of it by a hole but its porcelain head continued smiling with its enameled lips above the tabid body which a doll’s Folly seemed to have exhausted Renee felt stifled in the

Tainted atmosphere of the Abode of her childhood she opened the window and gazed on the immense view nothing there was soiled she again found the Eternal Delights the eternal Al juvenescence of the open air the sun must have been sinking behind her but she only saw the Rays of a setting

Planet as they lent with infinite softness a yellowish tinge to this corner of a city which she knew so well it was like the last day of Daylight a gay refrain which slowly subsided on all things there were gleams of tny fire about the boom below while thece work of

The iron cables of the P de Constantine stood out above the whiteness of the pillars then on the right hand the umbrage of the Al oan and the jardan de plant seemed like a great M with stagnant Mossy water the greenish surface of which Blended in the distance

With the mist of the sky on the left the Keandre Katra and the KE de were lined with the same rows of houses those houses which as girls 20 years before they seen there with the same brown patches of sheds the same Ruddy Factory chimneys and above the trees the salt

Roof of the Sal petrier Hospital made Blue by the son’s goodbye suddenly appeared to her like an old friend but what calmed her and imparted coolness to her bosom were the long gray Banks and especially the sin the giantis which he saw coming from a li limits of

The Horizon straight towards her just as in those happy times when she’d feared to see it well and rise up to the very window she remembered their affection for the river their love for its colossal flow for this quivering of Noisy water spreading out in the sheet

At their feet parting around and behind them in two arms the ends of which they could not see though they still felt the great pure caress they were this corner of a city inhabited by the middle and working classes where she dreamt of a life of Peace a final bitterness mounted to her

Lips with her hands clasped she sobbed in the Gathering night the following winter when Renee died of acute menitis it was her father who paid her debts worms Bill amounted to two 27,000 Franks this ends section 14 this ends the rush for the spoil by Emil zolah translated by Henry viselli