FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131  
132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   >>   >|  
m going. Monsieur le president was most anxious to take his place; but he was determined to go, and now we all see why." In this way Grandet made it quite plain that he was under no obligation to des Grassins. * * * * * In all situations women have more cause for suffering than men, and they suffer more. Man has strength and the power of exercising it; he acts, moves, thinks, occupies himself; he looks ahead, and sees consolation in the future. It was thus with Charles. But the woman stays at home; she is always face to face with the grief from which nothing distracts her; she goes down to the depths of the abyss which yawns before her, measures it, and often fills it with her tears and prayers. Thus did Eugenie. She initiated herself into her destiny. To feel, to love, to suffer, to devote herself,--is not this the sum of woman's life? Eugenie was to be in all things a woman, except in the one thing that consoles for all. Her happiness, picked up like nails scattered on a wall--to use the fine simile of Bossuet--would never so much as fill even the hollow of her hand. Sorrows are never long in coming; for her they came soon. The day after Charles's departure the house of Monsieur Grandet resumed its ordinary aspect in the eyes of all, except in those of Eugenie, to whom it grew suddenly empty. She wished, if it could be done unknown to her father, that Charles's room might be kept as he had left it. Madame Grandet and Nanon were willing accomplices in this _statu quo_. "Who knows but he may come back sooner than we think for?" she said. "Ah, don't I wish I could see him back!" answered Nanon. "I took to him! He was such a dear, sweet young man,--pretty too, with his curly hair." Eugenie looked at Nanon. "Holy Virgin! don't look at me that way, mademoiselle; your eyes are like those of a lost soul." From that day the beauty of Mademoiselle Grandet took a new character. The solemn thoughts of love which slowly filled her soul, and the dignity of the woman beloved, gave to her features an illumination such as painters render by a halo. Before the coming of her cousin, Eugenie might be compared to the Virgin before the conception; after he had gone, she was like the Virgin Mother,--she had given birth to love. These two Marys so different, so well represented by Spanish art, embody one of those shining symbols with which Christianity abounds. Returning from Mass on the morning aft
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131  
132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Eugenie
 

Grandet

 

Charles

 

Virgin

 

coming

 
Monsieur
 
suffer
 

suddenly

 
answered
 

wished


unknown

 

accomplices

 
Madame
 

sooner

 
father
 

Mother

 
conception
 
render
 

Before

 

cousin


compared

 

Returning

 

abounds

 

morning

 

Christianity

 

symbols

 

Spanish

 

represented

 

embody

 

shining


painters

 
illumination
 

looked

 

mademoiselle

 

pretty

 
beauty
 

beloved

 
dignity
 

features

 
filled

slowly
 

Mademoiselle

 
character
 
solemn
 

thoughts

 

thinks

 
occupies
 

exercising

 
strength
 

consolation