History of the Thirteen (Penguin ed) by Honoré de Balzac

Author:Honoré de Balzac [Balzac, Honoré de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141961217
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-12-27T16:00:00+00:00

3

The real woman

FOR about a week Madame de Langeais looked forward to seeing the Marquis de Montriveau again. But Armand was content to send his card every morning to the Hôtel de Langeais. Every time this card was handed over to the duchess, she could not repress a shudder, assailed as she was with sinister thoughts though they were as indistinct as a presentiment can be. When she read his signature, at one moment she seemed to feel the powerful hand of this implacable man running through her hair; at another moment his name conveyed a threat of vengeance which her volatile spirit told her would be atrocious. She had studied him too closely not to fear him. Would she be murdered? Would this man with the neck of a bull gore her and toss her over his head? Would he trample her underfoot? When, where and how would he lay hands on her? Would he inflict much suffering, and what sort of suffering would it be? She was in repentant mood. At certain times, had he come to her, she would have flung herself into his arms with complete abandon.

Every night when she went to sleep she saw Montriveau’s features under some new aspect. Now she saw his bitter smile, now the Jove-like contraction of his eyebrows, his leonine stare; or some disdainful shrug would make him terrible to look at. The next day the visiting-card seemed covered with blood. She lived agitated by the name on it more than she had been by the impetuous, persistent, exigent lover. Then her apprehensions grew greater as his silence persisted : she saw herself having to prepare, without outside help, for a terrible conflict of which she could speak to no one. Her proud, hard soul was more sensible of the pricks of hatred than it had been formerly to the caresses of love. Indeed, if the general could have seen his mistress, with heavily knitted eyebrows, plunged in bitter thought in the recesses of the boudoir in which he had savoured so many joys, perhaps great hope would have been renewed in his heart. Pride is, after all, one of the human sentiments which can give birth to none but noble actions. Although Madame de Langeais kept her thoughts to herself, we may suppose that Monsieur de Montriveau no longer sensed indifference in her. Is it not an immense achievement for a man to monopolize a woman’s thoughts? In her innermost self there must necessarily be progress in one or another direction. Put the fragile creature under the hoofs of a maddened horse, or face to face with some fearsome animal; she will certainly drop to her knees and wait for death. But if the animal calms down and refrains from killing her, she will love it – horse, lion or bull – and will talk quite happily about the experience. The duchess felt that she was at the lion’s feet: she trembled, but did not hate. These two persons, so singularly pitted against each other, met three times that week in social gatherings.

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