Study of a Woman | Page 7

give me ideas which I
deny myself, or else to tear a secret from me. But perhaps you are only
amusing yourself with me."
The marquise smiled. That smile annoyed Eugene.
"Madame," he said, "can you still believe in an offence I have not
committed? I earnestly hope that chance may not enable you to
discover the name of the person who ought to have read that letter."
"What! can it be STILL Madame de Nucingen?" cried Madame de
Listomere, more eager to penetrate that secret than to revenge herself
for the impertinence of the young man's speeches.
Eugene colored. A man must be more than twenty-five years of age not

to blush at being taxed with a fidelity that women laugh at--in order,
perhaps, not to show that they envy it. However, he replied with
tolerable self-possession:--
"Why not, madame?"
Such are the blunders we all make at twenty-five.
This speech caused a violent commotion in Madame de Listomere's
bosom; but Rastignac did not yet know how to analyze a woman's face
by a rapid or sidelong glance. The lips of the marquise paled, but that
was all. She rang the bell for wood, and so constrained Rastignac to
rise and take his leave.
"If that be so," said the marquise, stopping Eugene with a cold and rigid
manner, "you will find it difficult to explain, monsieur, why your pen
should, by accident, write my name. A name, written on a letter, is not
a friend's opera-hat, which you might have taken, carelessly, on leaving
a ball."
Eugene, discomfited, looked at the marquise with an air that was both
stupid and conceited. He felt that he was becoming ridiculous; and after
stammering a few juvenile phrases he left the room.
A few days later the marquise acquired undeniable proofs that Eugene
had told the truth. For the last fortnight she has not been seen in
society.
The marquis tells all those who ask him the reason of this seclusion:--
"My wife has an inflammation of the stomach."
But I, her physician, who am now attending her, know it is really
nothing more than a slight nervous attack, which she is making the
most of in order to stay quietly at home.

ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human
Comedy.
Bianchon, Horace Father Goriot The Atheist's Mass Cesar Birotteau
The Commission in Lunacy Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial
at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment The Secrets of a Princess The
Government Clerks Pierrette A Study of Woman Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life Honorine The Seamy Side of History The Magic Skin
A Second Home A Prince of Bohemia Letters of Two Brides The Muse
of the Department The Imaginary Mistress The Middle Classes Cousin

Betty The Country Parson In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the
following: Another Study of Woman Joseph The Magic Skin
Listomere, Marquis de The Lily of the Valley A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris
Listomere, Marquise de The Lily of the Valley Lost Illusions A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Daughter of Eve
Rastignac, Eugene de Father Goriot A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Ball at Sceaux The Interdiction
Another Study of Woman The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess A
Daughter of Eve The Gondreville Mystery The Firm of Nucingen
Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis The Unconscious Humorists

End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Study of a Woman by Honore
de Balzac

Study of a Woman

from http://www.dertz.in/