United States or Kenya ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Thus the two antagonists met once more, all unknown to themselves, not on the field of battle, but on the peaceful ground of bourgeois vanity. It was arranged that Monsieur Grindot was to take Cesar by the hand and show him the appartement when finished, just as a guide shows a gallery to a sight-seer. Every member of the family had provided his, or her, private "surprise."
The neighborhood has its eye upon me; successful men incur jealousy, envy. Ah! you will soon know that, young man," he said to Grindot; "if we are calumniated, at least let us give no handle to the calumny." "Neither calumny nor evil-speaking can touch you," said Lourdois; "your position is unassailable.
"You know him, of course?" continued Estelle, after a slight pause. "Who does not know him, madame?" said the painter. "Knows him like his double," remarked Mistigris. "Monsieur Grindot told me your name," said Madame Moreau to the painter. "But " "Joseph Bridau," he replied, wondering with what sort of woman he had to do.
The provincial took care not to say that Grindot, the architect, had bestowed his best capacity upon it, as did Stidmann on the carvings, and Leon de Lora on the paintings, for Fabien's crowning defect was the vanity which condescends to lie for the sake of magnifying the individual self.
Above all things I do not want fame before I have earned it. To my mind, the best means of winning credit is not to play into the hands of contractors, but to get at good effects cheaply." "With such ideas, young man," said Birotteau in a patronizing tone, "you will succeed." "Therefore," resumed Grindot, "employ the masons, painters, locksmiths, carpenters, and upholsterers yourself.
"Good morning, monsieur," said Grindot, entering with the lively manner artists put on when they speak of business, and wish to pretend they know nothing about it; "I cannot get your paper cashed, and I am obliged to ask you to give me the amount in ready money. I am truly unhappy in making this request, but I don't wish to go to the usurers.
Grindot guessed that the contractor's bills, out of which he was to have a share, would be paid, like his commission, in notes; and little Molineux had just filled his mind with doubts as to their payment. The architect was about to become pitiless, after the manner of artists, who are most intolerant of men in their dealings with the middle classes.
The more illegal a man's gains the more he clings to them: the human heart is so made. Grindot had really studied the appartement lovingly; he had put all his art and all his time into it; he had given ten thousand francs worth of labor, and he felt that in so doing he had been the dupe of his vanity: the contractors therefore had little trouble in seducing him.
I will simply look over their accounts. Pay me only two thousand francs commission. It will be money well laid out. Give me the premises to-morrow at twelve o'clock, and have your workmen on the spot." "How much it will cost, at a rough guess?" said Birotteau. "From ten to twelve thousand francs," said Grindot. "That does not count the furniture; of course you will renew that.
"Oh! of course, of course, monsieur," said Grindot; "you are in your own home." Brown was the prevailing color in the study, relieved here and there with green, for a thread of harmony led through all the rooms and allied them with one another. Thus the color which was the leading tone of one room became the relieving tint of another.
Word Of The Day