



Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny





EVE AND DAVID

(Lost Illusions Part III)


By Honore De Balzac



Translated By Ellen Marriage



  PREPARER'S NOTE

  Eve and David is part three of a trilogy. Eve and David's story
  begins in part one, Two Poets. Part one also introduces Eve's
  brother, Lucien. Part two, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris,
  centers on Lucien's life in Paris. For part three the action once
  more returns to Eve and David in Angouleme. In many references parts
  one and three are combined under the title Lost Illusions and A
  Distinguished Provincial at Paris is given its individual title.
  Following this trilogy Lucien's story is continued in another book,
  Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.





EVE AND DAVID


Lucien had gone to Paris; and David Sechard, with the courage
and intelligence of the ox which painters give the Evangelist for
accompanying symbol, set himself to make the large fortune for which he
had wished that evening down by the Charente, when he sat with Eve by
the weir, and she gave him her hand and her heart. He wanted to make the
money quickly, and less for himself than for Eve's sake and Lucien's. He
would place his wife amid the elegant and comfortable surroundings that
were hers by right, and his strong arm should sustain her brother's
ambitions--this was the programme that he saw before his eyes in letters
of fire.

Journalism and politics, the immense development of the book trade,
of literature and of the sciences; the increase of public interest in
matters touching the various industries in the country; in fact, the
whole social tendency of the epoch following