United States or Austria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Madame Grandet and Eugenie were obliged to go and come and listen to the interminable talk of all these workmen and country folk. Nanon put away in her kitchen the produce which they brought as tribute. She always waited for her master's orders before she knew what portion was to be used in the house and what was to be sold in the market.
But the north wind whistled none the less keenly in winter, and, in spite of the sand-bags at the bottom of the doors of the living-room, the temperature within could scarcely be kept at a proper height. Nanon went to bolt the outer door; then she closed the hall and let loose a wolf-dog, whose bark was so strangled that he seemed to have laryngitis.
After casting his eyes on the attic-walls covered with that yellow paper sprinkled with bouquets so well known in dance-houses, on the fireplace of ribbed stone whose very look was chilling, on the chairs of yellow wood with varnished cane seats that seemed to have more than the usual four angles, on the open night-table capacious enough to hold a small sergeant-at-arms, on the meagre bit of rag-carpet beside the bed, on the tester whose cloth valance shook as if, devoured by moths, it was about to fall, he turned gravely to la Grande Nanon and said,
Her kitchen, whose barred windows looked into the court, was always clean, neat, cold, a true miser's kitchen, where nothing went to waste. When Nanon had washed her dishes, locked up the remains of the dinner, and put out her fire, she left the kitchen, which was separated by a passage from the living-room, and went to spin hemp beside her masters.
Pere Grandet chose to go to bed early, and when he went to bed, everybody else was expected to go too; like as when Augustus drank, Poland was drunk. On this occasion Nanon, Charles, and Eugenie were not less tired than the master. As for Madame Grandet, she slept, ate, drank, and walked according to the will of her husband.
She would have liked to lay under contribution everything in her father's house; but the keys were in his pocket. Nanon came back with two fresh eggs. At sight of them Eugenie almost hugged her round the neck. "The farmer from Lande had them in his basket. I asked him for them, and he gave them to me, the darling, for nothing, as an attention!"
"Goodness!" cried Nanon, "you needn't tell me that." Grandet cast a look that was well-nigh paternal upon his faithful deputy. "Mademoiselle," she cried, when his back was turned, "we shall have the galette." Pere Grandet returned from the garden with the fruit and arranged a plateful on the kitchen-table. "Just see, monsieur," said Nanon, "what pretty boots your nephew has.
Eugenie, her mother, and Nanon went into the kitchen, moved by irresistible curiosity to watch the two actors in the scene which was about to take place in the garden, where at first the uncle walked silently ahead of the nephew.
"Do you always live here?" said Charles, thinking the room uglier by daylight than it had seemed the night before. "Always," answered Eugenie, looking at him, "except during the vintage. Then we go and help Nanon, and live at the Abbaye des Noyers." "Don't you ever take walks?"
The six francs bestowed on Nanon were perhaps the reward of some great service which the poor servant had rendered to her master unawares. "Oh! oh! where's Pere Grandet going? He has been scurrying about since sunrise as if to a fire," said the tradespeople to each other as they opened their shops for the day.
Word Of The Day