A Distinguished Provincial at Paris | Page 3

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Etext prepared by Dagny, [email protected] and John Bickers,
[email protected]

A DISTINGUISHED PROVINCIAL AT PARIS (Lost Illusions

Part II)
by HONORE DE BALZAC

Translated By Ellen Marriage

PREPARER'S NOTE
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris is part two of a trilogy. Part one,
Two Poets, begins the story of Lucien, his sister Eve, and his friend
David in the provincial town of Angouleme. Part two is centered on
Lucien's Parisian life. Part three, Eve and David, reverts to the setting
of Angouleme. Following this trilogy Lucien's story is continued in yet
another book, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.

A DISTINGUISHED PROVINCIAL AT PARIS


PART I
Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien de Rubempre had left Angouleme
behind, and were traveling together upon the road to Paris. Not one of
the party who made that journey alluded to it afterwards; but it may be
believed that an infatuated youth who had looked forward to the
delights of an elopement, must have found the continual presence of
Gentil, the man- servant, and Albertine, the maid, not a little irksome
on the way. Lucien, traveling post for the first time in his life, was
horrified to see pretty nearly the whole sum on which he meant to live
in Paris for a twelvemonth dropped along the road. Like other men who
combine great intellectual powers with the charming simplicity of
childhood, he openly expressed his surprise at the new and wonderful
things which he saw, and thereby made a mistake. A man should study
a woman very carefully before he allows her to see his thoughts and
emotions as they arise in him. A woman, whose nature is large as her
heart is tender, can smile upon childishness, and make allowances; but
let her have ever so small a spice of vanity herself, and she cannot
forgive childishness, or littleness, or vanity in her lover. Many a
woman is so extravagant a worshiper that she must always see the god
in her idol; but there are yet others who love a man for his sake and not
for their own, and adore his failings with his greater qualities.

Lucien had not guessed as yet that Mme. de Bargeton's love was
grafted on pride. He made another mistake when he failed to discern
the meaning of certain smiles which flitted over Louise's lips from time
to time; and instead of keeping himself to himself, he indulged in the
playfulness of the young rat emerging from his hole for the first time.
The travelers were set down before daybreak at the sign of the
Gaillard-Bois in the Rue de l'Echelle, both so tired out with the journey
that Louise went straight to bed and slept, first bidding Lucien to
engage the room immediately overhead. Lucien slept on till four
o'clock in the afternoon, when he was awakened by Mme. de
Bargeton's servant, and learning the hour, made a hasty toilet and
hurried downstairs.
Louise was sitting in the shabby inn sitting-room. Hotel
accommodation is a blot on the civilization of Paris; for with all its
pretensions to elegance, the city as yet does not boast a single inn
where a well- to-do traveler can find the surroundings to which he is
accustomed at home. To Lucien's just-awakened, sleep-dimmed eyes,
Louise was hardly recognizable in this cheerless, sunless room, with
the shabby window- curtains, the comfortless polished floor, the
hideous furniture bought second-hand, or much the worse for wear.
Some people no longer look the same when detached from the
background of faces, objects, and surroundings which serve as a setting,
without which, indeed, they seem to lose something of their intrinsic
worth. Personality demands its appropriate atmosphere to bring out its
values, just as the figures in Flemish interiors need the arrangement of
light and shade in which they are placed by the painter's genius if they
are to live for us. This is especially true of provincials. Mme. de
Bargeton,