Poor Relations
POOR RELATIONS BY HONORE DE BALZAC INTRODUCTION _La Cousine Bette_ was perhaps the last really great thing that Balzac did--for _Le Cousin Pons_, which now follows it, was actually written before--and it is beyond all question one of the very greatest of his works. It was written at the highest possible pressure, and (contrary to the author's more usual system) in parts, without even seeing a proof, for the _Constitutionnel_ in the autumn, winter, and early spring of 1846-47, before his departure from Vierzschovnia, the object being to secure a certain sum of ready money to clear off indebtedness. And it has been sometimes asserted that this labor, coming on the top of many years of scarcely less hard works, was
COSMO, neatly, 'My favourite authors are William Shakespeare and
William Milton. They are grand, don't you think?'
ALICE. 'I'm only a woman, you see; and I'm afraid they sometimes bore me,
especially William Milton.'
COSMO, with relief, 'Do they? Me, too.'
ALICE, on the verge of tears again, 'But not half so much as I bore my
baby.'
COSMO, anxious to help her, 'What did you do to her?'
ALICE, appealingly, 'I couldn't help wanting to hold her in my arms,
could I, Cosmo?'
COSMO, full of consideration, 'No, of course you couldn't.' He
reflects. 'How did you take hold of her?'
ALICE. 'I suppose in some clumsy way.'
COSMO. 'Not like this, was it?'
ALICE, gloomily, 'I dare say.'
COSMO. 'You should have done it this way.'
POOR RELATIONS BY HONORE DE BALZAC INTRODUCTION _La Cousine Bette_ was perhaps the last really great thing that Balzac did--for _Le Cousin Pons_, which now follows it, was actually written before--and it is beyond all question one of the very greatest of his works. It was written at the highest possible pressure, and (contrary to the author's more usual system) in parts, without even seeing a proof, for the _Constitutionnel_ in the autumn, winter, and early spring of 1846-47, before his departure from Vierzschovnia, the object being to secure a certain sum of ready money to clear off indebtedness. And it has been sometimes asserted that this labor, coming on the top of many years of scarcely less hard works, was