Petty Troubles of Married Life, Second Part
PETTY TROUBLES OF MARRIED LIFE PART SECOND BY HONORE DE BALZAC PREFACE If, reader, you have grasped the intent of this book,--and infinite honor is done you by the supposition: the profoundest author does not always comprehend, I may say never comprehends, the different meanings of his book, nor its bearing, nor the good nor the harm it may do--if, then, you have bestowed some attention upon these little scenes of married life, you have perhaps noticed their color-- "What color?" some grocer will doubtless ask; "books are bound in
"If they only had here in Paris a force of good, honest Irish cops
instead of these confounded gendarmes," he mused.
She looked her astonishment at the irrelevant observation.
"You see," he explained, "it might be possible then to lay for Teddy H.
some evening and--argue with him."
"It's nice of you, Monte, to think of that," she murmured.
Monte was nice in a good many ways.
"The trouble is, they lack sentiment, these gendarmes," he concluded.
"They are altogether too law-abiding."
CHAPTER III
A SUMMONS
Monte himself had sometimes been accused of lacking sentiment; and yet,
the very first thing he did when starting for his walk the next morning
was to order a large bunch of violets to be sent to number sixty-four
Boulevard Saint-Germain. Then, at a somewhat faster pace than usual,
PETTY TROUBLES OF MARRIED LIFE PART SECOND BY HONORE DE BALZAC PREFACE If, reader, you have grasped the intent of this book,--and infinite honor is done you by the supposition: the profoundest author does not always comprehend, I may say never comprehends, the different meanings of his book, nor its bearing, nor the good nor the harm it may do--if, then, you have bestowed some attention upon these little scenes of married life, you have perhaps noticed their color-- "What color?" some grocer will doubtless ask; "books are bound in