Human Follies (La Bêtise Humaine.)

Paris is the dream of all provincialists. Rich and poor want to come here, at least once,--the first to enjoy life, the second to try to make their fortunes. No one can imagine...

It was broad day. Eusebe had been awake for a long time, impatiently awaiting a convenient hour to visit the operatic _artiste_. He thought of going to a splendid store he had n...

Eusebe, upon quitting the _cabinet_ of the magistrate, rejoined his two friends, who were glad to learn that the affair of the duel would be dropped. All three then returned to...

“Just so. Well, all humanity is represented in this narrow space, which is hardly more extensive than your father’s garden. Take a seat, and observe, and in one hour you will kn...

Eusebe’s journey was without incident. Alone in a first-class _coupé_, he made himself a couch, on the floor, of the cushions, and, placing his valise under his head for a pillo...

“Because he is our friend. He is a bore, I grant you, but he is nevertheless a sterling good fellow: he has done me many a good turn, and you have told me yourself that but for...

Eusebe, oppressed with grief, returned home a prey to a violent fever. Notwithstanding his efforts to conceal his suffering, he was forced to take to his bed, where he remained...

“Eusebe, you are no longer a child: it is time to begin your education. You were but eight years old when you lost your mother, my beloved wife. This was a great misfortune, no...

On the appointed Wednesday, Eusebe, Daniel Clamens, and Paul Buck arrived at Versailles. As the hour fixed for the hearing had not yet come, the three friends took a stroll thro...

From the time of Francis I. to the Revolution of ’93, the family of la Varade had always held office in a judicial capacity. The first of the judges was ennobled because he labo...

Eusebe, absorbed in his reflections, walked nearly two hours, gazing to the right and left, without seeing any thing. Finally, he found himself, by accident, on the Place de la...

The house that Lansade had purchased for his retirement was one of those ordinary country mansions which are so dear to the _petits bourgeois_ of Paris. Situated on the summit o...

M. Martin was neither a wicked man nor a fool, but he was a confirmed skeptic. For forty years (he was now sixty) he had been disappointed in all the events of his life.

At the door of the commissary’s office, the clerk politely begged Eusebe to enter first, introducing him into a room divided into two parts by a screen of green lustring. The di...

The two friends walked on a long time in silence. Clamens, rather disappointed by the provincial’s obstinate peculiarities, said to himself, “Eusebe is a simpleton.” On his part...

The order given by Adéonne to her _femme de chambre_ had been so scrupulously observed that up to ten o’clock on the ensuing morning nobody had succeeded in gaining admittance t...

After a long discussion, during which Clamens talked a great deal and Eusebe comprehended very little, the necessity for securing another second for the duel occurred to them, a...

Eusebe threw himself on a divan, and for two hours patiently waited an effusion of his grief in tears. His heart beat violently, and his throat seemed parched; but no tears came...

“I am not married,” said the merchant, “and, therefore, have no son. If I had one, I would not let him travel. For myself, I will never go farther than Versailles, where I am go...

An absurd fashion that prevails behind the scenes gave the finishing stroke to the provincial’s faltering passion for Adéonne. Eusebe, being mild and modest in his manners, soon...

The curtain had risen, and _Horace_ had recounted to _Juliano_ his adventure with the beautiful unknown, without exciting the slightest interest on the part of Eusebe. The heroe...

As chance or destiny would have it, four persons met at the lodgings of Clamens, whose opinions in regard to the approaching duel were widely different. (These were the four ind...

Then occurred a lamentable, but quite common, manifestation of human perversity. These two business-men, who would not for all the world have done a decidedly bad action,--these...

Daniel Clamens was a Jew, with a weakness for literature. He was an intelligent fellow, who knew how to manage his affairs with tact, so that, though he possessed neither fortun...

“Professor,” said Clamens, “I have the honor to introduce to you one of my best friends, M. Eusebe Martin, who is to fight to-morrow, and who does not know how to hold a sword....

About three-quarters of an hour after the combatants had quitted the Bois du Vésinet, two gendarmes arrived in the Avenue de la Grotte. They looked about them for a moment, and...

As Eusebe had seen Adéonne from the auditorium, he had thought that the world did not contain an _artiste_ more marvellously gifted as a vocalist and comédienne. The hearty appl...

Night had come on, which, however, did not disturb Eusebe. He had heard that in Paris night was turned into day,--that Paris was more brilliant at midnight than at noon,--and ma...

Eusebe had deposited his will on the _étagère_ of his mistress. Adéonne regulated his life as the wind blows the leaves that fall upon a tranquil stream. She made him dress acco...

Theatrical performers, and operatic _artistes_ above all, dine at a comparatively early hour. At five o’clock, Adéonne made Eusebe kneel down before her, while she arranged his...

The day at last dawned; but Eusebe, pale and his eyes sunken, slept soundly. At a late hour, a noise in the street awoke him. He rose up, and, looking wildly around the room, th...

On the following morning, at five o’clock, Eusebe awoke, and was somewhat surprised at not seeing the projecting beams on the ceiling, his gun hanging on the wall, and his three...

“You had better reflect. Spend a few days in diverting your mind with the sights of Paris. Endeavor to make acquaintances. On my part, I will look about for something that may b...

Faithful to his programme, he had visited the “Opéra Comique.” The evening on which accident conducted him to the Rue Favart, the bills announced “The Black Domino.” Our hero wa...

If a woman has been reading this story, she will probably throw it aside at this place, with the contemptuous remark that Eusebe is an absurd rustic, destitute of interest, with...

The “Opéra Comique” and the “Gymnase Dramatique” possess _foyers_ of which the prudery has become proverbial. The life of the vocalist is one of protracted labor, rewarded, howe...

The son of the respectable philosopher M. Martin had now been at Paris for two weeks. He spent the day in various ways, but in the evening he was invariably found at one of the...

The chamber which Madame Morin had assigned to Eusebe had been much used. It was in the fourth story. The furniture consisted of a mahogany bedstead, a chest of drawers fanciful...

“Eusebe,--my friend Eusebe,--what pleasure your society affords me! Since I made your acquaintance, I have sought to understand the sympathy I feel for you, and I have hitherto...

“I have known it for more than two weeks. I found a letter from your father in the pocket of your coat. You need not attempt to excuse yourself. I know all you could say.”

Eusebe had forgotten this “adventure,” as the Commandant de Vic would have called it, when, one morning, Adéonne, pale and trembling, embraced him tenderly, and handed him a doc...

On the eve of the day fixed for the marriage, Monsieur, Madame, and Mademoiselle Bonnaud, with their friends, Eusebe Martin, assisted by Lansade and Monsieur de la Varade, went...

Great sorrows only encroach upon one’s life little by little, and Heaven has given to the man who must experience such trials the strength to support them. In the presence of a...

When all the honest _bourgeois_ friends of Bonnaud and Lansade had satisfied their appetites, they did not leave the table, but began to drink, and, as they drank, they sang. It...

The comédienne loved with all the fire of a passionate nature. But she experienced another sentiment in harmony with love. The docile character of Eusebe, and his complete ignor...

Eusebe understood that he did not understand. The provincial felt humiliated because he could not catch the sense of certain phrases and words which were, doubtless, clear enoug...

Eusebe returned directly to his lodgings. For a long time he sat in his room, his elbows resting on the table, and his face buried in his hands. His heart had taken possession o...

This notice was addressed to Adéonne by Bonnaud, who, like a prudent father, wished to advise the cantatrice of the approaching nuptials, in case Eusebe had failed to do so, and...