ZIBBBiBBm&XBEmŒMm
EUGENIA GRANDET.
young girls to blush, and start, and tremble for
joy. She "turned toward her father, as if to
ask his permission to accept it, and he replied
to her look with a " take it, my daughter," in
a tone of which none of the spectators could
devise the meaning.
The Cruchots were perfectly stupefied at the
joyful and encouraging looks bestowed on
Adolphe by the heiress, to whom such mag-
nificent liberality seemed an incredible thing.
Mr. des Grassins offered a pinch of snuff to Mr.
Grandet, took one himself, brushed off the
grains that fell on his ribbon of the Legion of
Honor, and looked at the Cruchots with an
air that said, "Match that box, my masters!"
Madame des Grassins then cast her eyes on
the blue jars in which the Cruchots's bouquets
had been placed, as if looking for their gifts,
with the well-counterfeited honesty of a sneer-
ing woman.
At this delicate juncture, the abbe rose from
the circle seated around the fire and joined old
Grandet, who was still pacing to and fro across
the room, and stopping him as he reached the
remotest part of it, he whispered:
" These people throw their money out of the
window."
" What of that," rejoined Grandet, " if it
falls back into the cellar?"
"Oh," said the abbe, "if you wish to give
your daughter gold scissors, you are well able
to do so."
" I shall give her something better than scis-
sors," returned Grandet, quietly.
"My nephew is a dolt!" thought the abbe,
as he looked at the president, whose disordered
hair made him appear even worse than usual;
"why could not he have trumped up some
such foolery that would have cost something?"
" We will make up your table," said Madame
des Grassins to Madame Grandet.
" There are enough of us," interposed one of
the Cruchots, ' ' for two tables------"
"Since it is Eugenia's birthday," said old
Grandet, "let all play loto together; "these
children can join in," and he pointed to Eu-
genia and Adolphe. " Come, Nanon, fix the
tables."
"We will help   you,   Miss  Nanon,"   said
Madame des Grassins, gaily, delighted at hav-
ing so delighted Eugenia.
"Ihave never been so happy in my life,"
said the heiress to her. "I have never seen
anything so handsome before."
" Adolphe chose it himself in Paris," whis-
pered Madame des Grassins, in reply.
"Goon! goon!  you d------ intriguer!" said
the president to himself, in a rage; " but if ever
you or your husband has a lawsuit in my court,
you'll lose it, 1 promise you that!"
The notary, from his corner by the fire,
looked at the abbe, and said to himself: " The
Des Grassins may do what they please; my
fortune, with my brother's and nephew's,
amounts |to eleven hundred thousand francs.
Perhaps the Des Grassins have half that sum ;
and there is, besides, a daughter in that family
to be provided for. Let them give as many
things as they please now—the heiress and the
gifts will all be ours one of these days."
At half-past eight the tables were arranged,
and Madame des Grassins had succeeded in
placing her son by the side of Eugenia. The
actors in this scene—so full of interest, though
so trivial in appearance—were furnished with
checked and figured catds, and blue glass
counters, and seemed to be listening to the
witticisms of the notary, who did not draw a
number without some remark; but, in reality,
every one was thinking more of the old miser's
millions than of the game; while he, in turn,
superciliously surveying the group, said to him-
self-                                                           3    ,
"They are all after my money; and they
come here to tire themselves in a strife for my
daughter; but neither the one nor the other of
these sprigs shall have her."
This appearance of social gayety in the old
gray room, illy lighted by two candles; these
shouts of laughter, which were genuine only
on the lips of Eugenia and her mother; this
mean servility attached to such great interests;
this young girl who—like those birds that are
eagerly sought and become the victims of the
high prices set upon them—found herself sur-
rounded by such testimonials of regard, and
was duped by them; all this contributed to
render the passing scene comically sad. The
spirit of this scene is indeed common to all
times and all places; but here it was presented
in its least sophisticated form. The part of old
Grandet, who fully estimated the attachment
of the rival families, and so played them off
against each other as to draw immense pecun-
iary advantage from their competition for his
favor, was the grand centre of the drama,
around which its interests were congregated,
and through which its mysteries were ex-
plained. Was not this old man the incarnation
of the only deity to whom modern mortals bow
the knee—Wealth? omnipotent wealth; and
equally omnipotent whether held by a man
rich in talents and virtues, or by a wretch un-
worthy to crawl on the face of the earth.
The gentle sensibilities of life occupied but
a secondary place in this group ; they animated
only three hearts there, those of Nanon, Eu-
genia, and her mother. And how ignorant
were these three in their simplicity! Neither
Eugenia nor her mother knew or conceived
the extent of Grandet's fortune; they regarded
the things of this life by the light of their own
circumscribed notions; they"neither prized
money nor despised it; they were accustomed
to do without it. Their sensibilities, naturally
vivacious, but crushed and withered they knew
not how nor when, were curiously distinct
from those of the persons assembled around
them, whose existence was purely material.
Strange condition of man! Every one of his
enjoyments proceeds from his ignorance!
Just as Madame Grandet had won a pool of
sixteen sous—the highest that ever had been
risked in that room—and was pocketing the
same, much to Nanon's content, a knock at the
door resounded through the house and caused
the ladies to start from their chairs.
" There's no one of Saumur who knocks in
that fashion!" exclaimed the notary.
"Do they want to break the door down?"
said Nanon.
" Who the devil is it?" cried Mr. Grandet.
Nanon took one of the candles, and, followed
by her master, went to open the door.
"Grandet! Grandet!" exclaimed his wife,
who, actuated by a vague feeling of terror,
was also hurrying in the same direction.
The guests looked at one another for a
moment.
"Let us go, too," said Mr. des Grassins;
" that was a very suspicious knock."
And so saying and following his host he
caught a glimpse of a young man, accompanied
by a porter, who carried two enormous trunks
and dragged behind him sundry carpet-bags.
But old Grandet turned gruffly around and
said to his wife for the benefit of herself and
friends:
" Go back to your loto, and leave me to talk
with this young man."
And thereupon he slammed the door of the
parlor in her face. The agitated players re-
turned to their seats, but did not continue their
game.
" Is it any one of Saumur?" inquired Madame
des Grassins of her husband.
" No, it is a traveler," he answered.
"He must be from Paris," said the notary;
" and indeed," he continued, drawing from his
fob a watch two inches thick that looked like a
Dutch piggin, "it is just nine o'clock; the
diligence is never behind time."
" Is he a young man?" asked the abbe.
"Yes," said Des Grassins,  "and he brings
luggage with him that weighs   at   least six
hundred pounds."
"It must he one of your relations," said the
president to Mrs. Grandet.
" Let us go on with the game," she replied,
softly, "I saw that Mr. Grandet was vexed
when I followed him, and perhaps when he
returns he would be still further displeased to
find us commenting on his affairs."
"It is doubtless your Cousin Grandet, Miss
Eugenia," said Adolphe; "a very handsome
young man, whom I met in Paris at a ball at
Marshal Oud------"                                         '
Adolphe stopped suddenly, for his mother
trod on his toe, and, speaking loud, told him
to put up his stake of two sous: " Can't you
hold your tongue, you booby!" whispered she
in his ear.
At this moment Mr. Grandet returned, while
the steps of Nanon and the porter, carrying up
the luggage, were heard on the stairs. The old
man was followed by the traveler, who, for
the last few moments, had excited so much
curiosity.
" Sit down by the fire," said Grandet to
him.
The stranger prepared to do so ; but before
seating himself he bowed gracefully to the
company, to which salutation the gentlemen re-
plied by a formal bow, and the ladies by a
ceremonious courtesy.
" You   must   be   cold,  sir,"  said   Madame
Grandet; " you come from------"
"That's just the way with women!" inter-
rupted the old cooper, looking up from a letter
he was reading; " why don't you let the gentle-
man rest himself?"
"But, papa," said Eugenia, "perhaps he
wants some supper."
"He has a tongue, and can speak for him-
self," replied her father, severely.
The new-comer was the only one in whom
the details of this scene excited surprise; for
he alone was unacquainted with the miserly
and despotic brutality of old Grandet. Never-
theless, when he heard the last two suggestions
and their answers, he arose from his chair,
turned his back to the fire, raised one of his
feet so as to warm the sole of his boot, and said
to Eugenia:
"Thank you, cousin, I dined at Tours, and
have need of nothing. I am not even fa-
tigued."
"Do you come from the capital?" asked
Madame des Grassins.
Charles—for that was the name of the son of
Mr. Grandet, of Paris—being thus addressed,
raised his eye-glass, surveyed the table and the
people around it, gazed impertinently at Ma-
dame des Grassins, and replied: "Yes, ma-
dame." He then continued: "I see you are
playing loto, aunt; pray continue your game."
"I was sure it was this Paris cousin,"
thought Madame des Grassins, looking toward
him out of a corner of her eye.
"Forty-seven!" cried the abbe; "why don't
you mark it, Madame des Grassins? you have
the number."
Mr. des Grassins placed the counter on the
card before his wife, who, full of sad presenti-
ment, observed Eugenia and her Paris cousin
alternately, without thinking of loto. From
time to time, the young heiress cast furtive
glances at her cousin, and the banker's wife
could easily discern in those glances a crescendo
of astonishment and curiosity.
BOOK II.
Charles Grandet, a fine-looking young
man of two-and-twenty, presented a singular
contrast to the provincialists by whom he was
surrounded. They were offended at his aristo-
cratical manners, and studied his behavior with
the intention of ridiculing it.
At two-and-twenty, young men are so far
boys, that they usually give themselves up to
many puerilities; and ninety-nine in a hundred
of them would probably have acted precisely
as Charles did; that is, like an effeminate
puppy. His father had sent him to pass a few
months with his brother at Saumur; and per-
haps he was thinking of Eugenia when he came
to this determination. Be that as it may,
Charles, who for the first time was going to live
in a province, resolved to appear there with all
the superiority of a fashionable young man, to
astonish the natives by his luxurious display,
and to create a sensation by enacting the style
of Parisian life.
He therefore brought with him the hand-
somest shooting-dress, gun, hunting-knife, and
sheath, that could be found in Paris. He also
brought his most fanciful waistcoats—gray,
white, black, beetle-color, shot with gold, spang-
led, embroidered, double-breasted, straight-col-
lar, rolling-collar, gold buttons, etc. ; also, all
the varieties of stocks and collars then -in
vogue; also, two coats from Staub's; his finest
linen, together with a gold dressing-case, a
present from his mother. In short, he brought
all the nick-nacks of a dandy, not forgetting a
beautiful port-folio, given him by a charming
lady, whom he called Annette, and who was
now traveling with her husband in Scotland.
His inventory comprised, indeed, a cargo of
Parisian trifles, from the switch that serves to
commence a quarrel, to the pistols that some-
times terminate it. As his father had forbid-
den him to take his valet, he came in the coupe
of the diligence, retained for himself alone.
Charles expected to find at least a hundred
persons at his uncle's, with whom he could
hunt in thé forests, and through whose ob-
sequiousness he could lead an elegant vie de
chateau. He had no idea that his uncle lived
at Saumur, where he proposed to stay long
enough to inquire his way to Froidfond ; and
in order to make his debut there in proper
style, he had dressed himself in his most ex-
quisite traveling-costume.    At Tours, he had