The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marriage Contract, by Honore de Balzac

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Title: The Marriage Contract

Author: Honore de Balzac

Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley

Release Date: December, 1998 [Etext #1556]
Posting Date: February 26, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT ***

Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny

THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

By Honore De Balzac

Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley

DEDICATION

To Rossini.

THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

CHAPTER I. PRO AND CON

Monsieur de Manerville, the father, was a worthy Norman gentleman,
well known to the Marechael de Richelieu, who married him to one of the
richest heiresses of Bordeaux in the days when the old duke reigned in
Guienne as governor. The Norman then sold the estate he owned in Bessin,
and became a Gascon, allured by the beauty of the chateau de Lanstrac,
a delightful residence owned by his wife. During the last days of the
reign of Louis XV., he bought the post of major of the Gate Guards, and
lived till 1813, having by great good luck escaped the dangers of the
Revolution in the following manner.

Toward the close of the year, 1790, he went to Martinque, where his wife
had interests, leaving the management of his property in Gascogne to an
honest man, a notary's clerk, named Mathias, who was inclined to--or
at any rate did--give into the new ideas. On his return the Comte de
Manerville found his possessions intact and well-managed. This sound
result was the fruit produced by grafting the Gascon on the Norman.

Madame de Manerville died in 1810. Having learned the importance of
worldly goods through the dissipations of his youth, and, giving them,
like many another old man, a higher place than they really hold in life,
Monsieur de Manerville became increasingly economical, miserly, and
sordid. Without reflecting that the avarice of parents prepares the way
for the prodigalities of children, he allowed almost nothing to his son,
although that son was an only child.

Paul de Manerville, coming home fr