LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE (Sequel to “Another Study of Woman.”)     

       By Honoré De Balzac     

       Translated by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell     

  

  

 CONTENTS 

  LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE  

  ADDENDUM 

  

  

       LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE     

       “Ah! madame,” replied the doctor, “I have some appalling stories in my collection. But each one has its proper hour in a conversation—you know the pretty jest recorded by Chamfort, and said to the Duc de Fronsac:       ‘Between your sally and the present moment lie ten bottles of champagne.’”      

       “But it is two in the morning, and the story of Rosina has prepared us,”        said the mistress of the house.     

       “Tell us, Monsieur Bianchon!” was the cry on every side.     

       The obliging doctor bowed, and silence reigned.     

       “At about a hundred paces from Vendôme, on the banks of the Loir,” said he, “stands an old brown house, crowned with very high roofs, and so completely isolated that there is nothing near it, not even a fetid tannery or a squalid tavern, such as are commonly seen outside small towns. In front of this house is a garden down to the river, where the box shrubs, formerly clipped close to edge the walks, now straggle at their own will. A few willows, rooted in the stream, have grown up quickly like an enclosing fence, and half hide the house. 

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