【英文原著类】THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT(婚约).pdf

THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
THE MARRIAGE
CONTRACT
by HONORE DE BALZAC
Translated By Katharine Prescott Wormeley
DEDICATION
To Rossini.
1
THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
CHAPTER I
PRO AND CON
Monsieur de Manerville, the father, was a worthy Norman gentleman,
well known to the Marechael de Richelieu, who married him to one of the
richest heiresses of Bordeaux in the days when the old duke reigned in
Guienne as governor. The Norman then sold the estate he owned in Bessin,
and became a Gascon, allured by the beauty of the chateau de Lanstrac, a
delightful residence owned by his wife. During the last days of the reign of
Louis XV., he bought the post of major of the Gate Guards, and lived till
1813, having by great good luck escaped the dangers of the Revolution in
the following manner.
Toward the close of the year, 1790, he went to Martinque, where his
wife had interests, leaving the management of his property in Gascogne to
an honest man, a notary's clerk, named Mathias, who was inclined to --or
at any rate did--give into the new ideas. On his return te de
Manerville found his possessions intact and well-managed. This sound
result was the fruit produced by grafting the Gascon on the Norman.
Madame de Manerville died in 1810. Having learned the importance
of worldly goods through the dissipations of his youth, and, giving them,
like many another old man, a higher place than they really hold in life,
Monsieur de Manerville became increasingly economical, miserly, and
sordid. Without reflecting that the avarice of parents prepares the way for
the prodigalities of children, he allowed almost nothing to his son,
although that son was an only child.
Paul de Manerville, coming home from the college of Vendome in
1810, lived under close paternal discipline for three years. The tyranny by
which the old man of seventy oppressed his heir influenced, necessarily, a
heart and a character which were not yet formed. Paul, the son, without
lacking the