they make up
their minds to be guided by circumstances at the time, and not by their
own choice. I saw the kind of woman at once, tired of her husband, tired
of her brats, regretfully virtuous, craving excitement, always posing as
a weeping willow...."

These were his very words.

Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is
a shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a
student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or
angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be
M. Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or
a member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the
Commercial Court.

"M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the
slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another
cedar-wood box."

"And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou
to choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "_now_ we will go through our old
stock to find another Selim shawl."

PARIS, November 1844.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Government Clerks
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Firm of Nucingen
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
Beatrix
A Man of Business
The Unconscious Humorists
Cousin Pons

Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret)
Jealousies of a Country Town
Beatrix

Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de
The Chouans
The Gondreville Mystery
The Thirteen
Letters of Two Brides

Victorine
Massimilla Doni
Lost Illusions
Letters of Two Brides

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