Sentimental Education (Penguin Classics) by Gustave Flaubert

Author:Gustave Flaubert [Flaubert, Gustave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2004-02-05T05:00:00+00:00

5

Deslauriers had taken home from Frédéric’s house a copy of the deed of subrogation together with a power of attorney in proper form giving him full authority. But once he had climbed his five flights of stairs, and was alone in the middle of his dismal study, sitting in his leather armchair, the sight of the stamped documents sickened him.

He was tired of that sort of thing, tired of cheap restaurants, omnibus rides, poverty, hardship. He picked up the papers again; there were others with them – the prospectus of the coal company with the list of the mines and details of their reserves. Frédéric had left him all this so that he could give him his opinion on it.

An idea occurred to him: to go and see Monsieur Dambreuse and ask for the secretary’s post for himself. But the post was sure to be conditional on the purchase of a certain number of shares. He realized the folly of his plan and said to himself:

‘Oh, no! That would be wrong of me.’

Then he racked his brains to find a way of recovering the fifteen thousand francs. A sum like that was nothing for Frédéric. But if he had had it, what an advantage it would have given him! And the former clerk grew indignant at the size of the other’s fortune.

‘The use he makes of it is pitiful. He’s selfish to the core. Oh, what do I care about his fifteen thousand francs?’

Why had he lent them? For love of Madame Arnoux. She was his mistress: Deslauriers had no doubt about that. ‘That’s another thing for which money comes in useful.’ Hatred flooded into his mind.

Then his thoughts turned to Frédéric’s physical appearance, which had always exerted an almost feminine charm on him; and soon he came to admire him for a conquest he knew he himself could never have achieved.

But surely resolution was the essential factor in every undertaking? And since one could overcome any obstacle given sufficient resolution…

‘Ah, that would be a joke!’

He felt ashamed of this treacherous idea, but a minute later he said to himself:

‘Bah! Why should I be afraid?’

He had heard so much about Madame Arnoux that she enjoyed an extraordinary life in his imagination. Such devotion irritated him. His own somewhat theatrical asceticism bored him now. Besides, the society woman – as he imagined her – dazzled the lawyer as the epitome of all the pleasures he had never known. A poor man, he yearned for luxury in its most obvious form.

‘After all, even if he were annoyed, it would serve him right. He’s behaved too badly for me to bother about him. I’ve no proof that she’s his mistress. He’s denied it to me. So I’m free to do as I please!’

The thought of it wouldn’t leave him alone. It was a test of his powers that he wanted to make; with the result that one day, all of a sudden, he polished his boots, bought a pair of white gloves, and

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