Father Goriot HonorĂ© de Balzac (love books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: Honoré de Balzac
Book online «Father Goriot HonorĂ© de Balzac (love books to read .TXT) đ». Author HonorĂ© de Balzac
âWhat a head of iron the man has!â said EugĂšne to himself, as he watched Vautrin walk unconcernedly away with his cane under his arm. âYet Mme. de BeausĂ©ant said as much more gracefully; he has only stated the case in cruder language. He would tear my heart with claws of steel. What made me think of going to Mme. de Nucingen? He guessed my motives before I knew them myself. To sum it up, that outlaw has told me more about virtue than all I have learned from men and books. If virtue admits of no compromises, I have certainly robbed my sisters,â he said, throwing down the bags on the table.
He sat down again and fell, unconscious of his surroundings, into deep thought.
âTo be faithful to an ideal of virtue! A heroic martyrdom! Pshaw! everyone believes in virtue, but who is virtuous? Nations have made an idol of Liberty, but what nation on the face of the earth is free? My youth is still like a blue and cloudless sky. If I set myself to obtain wealth or power, does it mean that I must make up my mind to lie, and fawn, and cringe, and swagger, and flatter, and dissemble? To consent to be the servant of others who have likewise fawned, and lied, and flattered? Must I cringe to them before I can hope to be their accomplice? Well, then, I decline. I mean to work nobly and with a single heart. I will work day and night; I will owe my fortune to nothing but my own exertions. It may be the slowest of all roads to success, but I shall lay my head on the pillow at night untroubled by evil thoughts. Is there a greater thing than thisâ âto look back over your life and know that it is stainless as a lily? I and my life are like a young man and his betrothed. Vautrin has put before me all that comes after ten years of marriage. The devil! my head is swimming. I do not want to think at all; the heart is a sure guide.â
EugĂšne was roused from his musings by the voice of the stout Sylvie, who announced that the tailor had come, and EugĂšne therefore made his appearance before the man with the two money bags, and was not ill pleased that it should be so. When he had tried on his dress suit, he put on his new morning costume, which completely metamorphosed him.
âI am quite equal to M. de Trailles,â he said to himself. âIn short, I look like a gentleman.â
âYou asked me, sir, if I knew the houses where Mme. de Nucingen goes,â Father Goriotâs voice spoke from the doorway of EugĂšneâs room.
âYes.â
âVery well then, she is going to the MarĂ©chale Cariglianoâs ball on Monday. If you can manage to be there, I shall hear from you whether my two girls enjoyed themselves, and how they were dressed, and all about it in fact.â
âHow did you find that out, my good Goriot?â said EugĂšne, putting a chair by the fire for his visitor.
âHer maid told me. I hear all about their doings from ThĂ©rĂšse and Constance,â he added gleefully.
The old man looked like a lover who is still young enough to be made happy by the discovery of some little stratagem which brings him information of his ladylove without her knowledge.
âYou will see them both!â he said, giving artless expression to a pang of jealousy.
âI do not know,â answered EugĂšne. âI will go to Mme. de BeausĂ©ant and ask her for an introduction to the MarĂ©chale.â
EugĂšne felt a thrill of pleasure at the thought of appearing before the Vicomtesse, dressed as henceforward he always meant to be. The âabysses of the human heart,â in the moralistsâ phrase, are only insidious thoughts, involuntary promptings of personal interest. The instinct of enjoyment turns the scale; those rapid changes of purpose which have furnished the text for so much rhetoric are calculations prompted by the hope of pleasure. Rastignac beholding himself well dressed and impeccable as to gloves and boots, forgot his virtuous resolutions. Youth, moreover, when bent upon wrongdoing does not dare to behold himself in the mirror of consciousness; mature age has seen itself; and therein lies the whole difference between these two phases of life.
A friendship between EugĂšne and his neighbor, Father Goriot, had been growing up for several days past. This secret friendship and the antipathy that the student had begun to entertain for Vautrin arose from the same psychological causes. The bold philosopher who shall investigate the effects of mental action upon the physical world will doubtless find more than one proof of the material nature of our sentiments in other animals. What physiognomist is as quick to discern character as a dog is to discover from a strangerâs face whether this is a friend or no? Those bywordsâ ââatoms,â âaffinitiesââ âare facts surviving in modern languages for the confusion of philosophic wiseacres who amuse themselves by winnowing the chaff of language to find its grammatical roots. We feel that we are loved. Our sentiments make themselves felt in everything, even at a great distance. A letter is a living soul, and so faithful an echo of the voice that speaks in it, that finer natures look upon a letter as one of loveâs most precious treasures. Father Goriotâs affection was of the instinctive order, a canine affection raised to a sublime pitch; he had scented compassion in the air, and the kindly respect and youthful sympathy in the studentâs heart. This friendship had, however, scarcely reached the stage at which confidences are made. Though EugĂšne had spoken of his wish to meet Mme. de Nucingen, it was not because he counted on the old man to introduce him to her house, for he hoped that his own audacity might stand
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