Free Honore de Balzac by An Historical Mystery_The Gondreville Mystery

black coat, silver
shoe-buckles, breeches, black silk stockings, and a black waistcoat
on which lay his clerical bands, giving him a distinguished air which
detracted nothing from his dignity. This abbe, who became bishop of
Troyes after the Restoration, had long made a study of young people
and fully understood the noble character of the young countess; he
appreciated her at her full value, and had shown her, from the first,
a respectful deference which contributed much to her independence at
Cinq-Cygne, for it led the austere old lady and the kind old gentleman
to yield to the young girl, who by rights should have yielded to them.
For the last six months the abbe had watched Laurence with the intuition
peculiar to priests, the most sagacious of men; and although he did
not know that this girl of twenty-three was thinking of overturning
Bonaparte as she lay there twisting with slender fingers the frogged
lacing of her riding-habit, he was well aware that she was agitated by
some great project.
    Mademoiselle Goujet was one of those unmarried women whose portrait can
be drawn in one word which will enable the least imaginative mind to
picture her; she was ungainly. She knew her own ugliness and was the
first to laugh at it, showing her long teeth, yellow as her complexion
and her bony hands. She was gay and hearty. She wore the famous short
gown of former days, a very full skirt with pockets full of keys, a cap
with ribbons and a false front. She was forty years of age very early,
but had, so she said, caught up with herself by keeping at that age for
twenty years. She revered the nobility; and knew well how to preserve
her own dignity by giving to persons of noble birth the respect and
deference that were due to them.
    This little company was a god-send to Madame d'Hauteserre, who had not,
like her husband, rural occupations, nor, like Laurence, the tonic of
hatred, to enable her to bear the dulness of a retired life. Many things
had happened to ameliorate that life within the last six years. The
restoration of Catholic worship allowed the faithful to fulfil their
religious duties, which play more of a part in country life than
elsewhere. Protected by the conservative edicts of the First Consul,
Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre had been able to correspond with their
sons, and no longer in dread of what might happen to them could even
hope for the erasure of their names from the lists of the proscribed and
their consequent return to France. The Treasury had lately made up
the arrearages and now paid its dividends promptly; so that the
d'Hauteserres received, over and above their annuity, about eight
thousand francs a year. The old man congratulated himself on the
sagacity of his foresight in having put all his savings, amounting to
twenty thousand francs, together with those of his ward, in the public
Funds before the 18th Brumaire, which, as we all know, sent those stocks
up from twelve to eighteen francs.
    The chateau of Cinq-Cygne had long been empty and denuded of furniture.
The prudent guardian was careful not to alter its aspect during the
revolutionary troubles; but after the peace of Amiens he made a journey
to Troyes and brought back various relics of the pillaged mansions which
he obtained from the dealers in second-hand furniture. The salon was
furnished for the first time since their occupation of the house.
Handsome curtains of white brocade with green flowers, from the hotel de
Simeuse, draped the six windows of the salon, in which the family were
now assembled. The walls of this vast room were entirely of wood, with
panels encased in beaded mouldings with masks at the angles; the whole
painted in two shades of gray. The spaces over the four doors were
filled with those designs, painted in cameo of two colors, which were
so much in vogue under Louis XV. Monsieur d'Hauteserre had picked up
at Troyes certain gilded pier-tables, a sofa in green damask, a crystal
chandelier, a card-table of marquetry, among other