: Albert Savarus by Balzac Honor De Marriage Ellen Translator - France Social life and customs 19th century Fiction; French fiction Translations into English

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Translator: Ellen Marriage

ALBERT SAVARUS

Translated by Ellen Marriage

DEDICATION

To Madame Emile Girardin

ALBERT SAVARUS

One of the few drawing-rooms where, under the Restoration, the Archbishop of Besancon was sometimes to be seen, was that of the Baronne de Watteville, to whom he was particularly attached on account of her religious sentiments.

A word as to this lady, the most important lady of Besancon.

Monsieur de Watteville spent his existence in a handsome workshop with a lathe; he was a turner! As subsidiary to this pursuit, he took up a fancy for making collections. Philosophical doctors, devoted to the study of madness, regard this tendency towards collecting as a first degree of mental aberration when it is set on small things. The Baron de Watteville treasured shells and geological fragments of the neighborhood of Besancon. Some contradictory folk, especially women, would say of Monsieur de Watteville, "He has a noble soul! He perceived from the first days of his married life that he would never be his wife's master, so he threw himself into a mechanical occupation and good living."

At a ceremonial dinner given in honor of I know not whose wedding, at the beginning of September 1834, when the women were standing in a circle round the drawing-room fire, and the men in groups by the windows, every one exclaimed with pleasure at the entrance of Monsieur l'Abbe de Grancey, who was announced.

"Well, and the lawsuit?" they all cried.

This was an allusion to the members of the First Court of Appeal of 1830; the Legitimists had almost all withdrawn.

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