



Produced by Dagny, and Bonnie Sala





GOBSECK


By Honore De Balzac


Translated By Ellen Marriage




                            DEDICATION

                  To M. le Baron Barchou de Penhoen.

  Among all the pupils of the Oratorian school at Vendome, we are, I
  think, the only two who have afterwards met in mid-career of a
  life of letters--we who once were cultivating Philosophy when by
  rights we should have been minding our De viris. When we met, you
  were engaged upon your noble works on German philosophy, and I
  upon this study. So neither of us has missed his vocation; and
  you, when you see your name here, will feel, no doubt, as much
  pleasure as he who inscribes his work to you.--Your old
  schoolfellow,

       1840                                              De Balzac.





GOBSECK


It was one o'clock in the morning, during the winter of 1829-30, but in
the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu's salon two persons stayed on who did not
belong to her family circle. A young and good-looking man heard the
clock strike, and took his leave. When the courtyard echoed with the
sound of a departing carriage, the Vicomtesse looked up