Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 13, 2025
"Ta, ta, ta, ta! nonsense; you never die in your family! Eugenie, what have you done with your gold?" he cried, rushing upon her. "Monsieur," said the daughter, falling at Madame Grandet's knees, "my mother is ill. Look at her; do not kill her." Grandet was frightened by the pallor which overspread his wife's face, usually so yellow.
Eugenie and her mother knew nothing of Grandet's wealth; they could only estimate the things of life by the glimmer of their pale ideas, and they neither valued nor despised money, because they were accustomed to do without it.
To the poor peasant who in her youth had earned nothing but harsh treatment, to the pauper girl picked up by charity, Grandet's ambiguous laugh was like a sunbeam. Moreover, Nanon's simple heart and narrow head could hold only one feeling and one idea.
The secret of Grandet's joy lay in the complete success of his speculation.
There'll be a double napoleon for Eugenie in the package," he whispered in Madame Grandet's ear. "I have no gold left, wife. I had a few stray pieces I don't mind telling you that but I had to let them go in business." Then, by way of celebrating the new year, he kissed her on the forehead.
In spite of the recent fall in prices, sugar was still in Grandet's eyes the most valuable of all the colonial products; to him it was always six francs a pound. The necessity of economizing it, acquired under the Empire, had grown to be the most inveterate of his habits.
During the night Grandet's ideas had taken another course, which was the reason of his sudden clemency.
The two lovers, alarmed, fled into the hall, where Eugenie took up her work and Charles began to read the litanies of the Virgin in Madame Grandet's prayer-book. "Mercy!" cried Nanon, "now they're saying their prayers." As soon as Charles announced his immediate departure, Grandet bestirred himself to testify much interest in his nephew.
"Ah!" she said eagerly, "it is Professor Grandet's hand; what can he have sent me?" and hurried to tear the wrapper open. Inside were several articles in pamphlet form, two being his own composition, and the rest by another well-known scientist, all relating to the strata and minerals of this very portion of the coast.
His old friend the notary, feeling sure that the rich heiress would inevitably marry his nephew the president, if Charles Grandet did not return, redoubled all his attentions; he came every day to take Grandet's orders, went on his errands to Froidfond, to the farms and the fields and the vineyards, sold the vintages, and turned everything into gold and silver, which found their way in sacks to the secret hiding-place.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking