on>Honoré de Balzac
Ursula
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664630407
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. THE FRIGHTENED HEIRS
CHAPTER III. THE DOCTOR’S FRIENDS
CHAPTER VI. A TREATISE ON MESMERISM
CHAPTER VII. A TWO-FOLD CONVERSION
CHAPTER IX. A FIRST CONFIDENCE
CHAPTER X. THE FAMILY OF PORTENDUERE
CHAPTER XII. OBSTACLES TO YOUNG LOVE
CHAPTER XIII. BETROTHAL OF HEARTS
CHAPTER XIV. URSULA AGAIN ORPHANED
CHAPTER XVI. THE TWO ADVERSARIES
CHAPTER XVII. THE MALIGNITY OF PROVINCIAL MINDS
CHAPTER XVIII. A TWO-FOLD VENGEANCE
CHAPTER XXI. SHOWING HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO STEAL THAT WHICH SEEMS VERY EASILY STOLEN
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
DEDICATION
To Mademoiselle Sophie Surville,
It is a true pleasure, my dear niece, to dedicate to you this
book, the subject and details of which have won the
approbation, so difficult to win, of a young girl to whom the
world is still unknown, and who has compromised with none of
the lofty principles of a saintly education. Young girls are
indeed a formidable public, for they ought not to be allowed
to read books less pure than the purity of their souls; they
are forbidden certain reading, just as they are carefully
prevented from seeing social life as it is. Must it not
therefore be a source of pride to a writer to find that he has
pleased you?
God grant that your affection for me has not misled you. Who can tell?
—the future; which you, I hope, will see, though not, perhaps.
Your uncle,
De Balzac.
URSULA
CHAPTER I. THE FRIGHTENED HEIRS
Entering Nemours by the road to Paris, we cross the canal du Loing, the steep banks of which serve the double purpose of ramparts to the fields and of picturesque promenades for the inhabitants of that pretty little town. Since 1830 several houses had unfortunately been built on the farther side of the bridge. If this sort of suburb increases, the place will lose its present aspect of graceful originality.
In 1829, however, both sides of the road were clear, and the master of the post route, a tall, stout man about sixty years of age, sitting one fine autumn morning at the highest part of the bridge, could take in at a glance the whole of what is called in his business a “ruban de queue.” The month of September was displaying its treasures; the atmosphere glowed above the grass and the pebbles; no cloud dimmed the blue of the sky, the purity of which in all parts, even close to the horizon,
