Guy de Maupassant
Translated by Roger Goodman
[1] M.Lantin, having met this young lady at a party given by his immediate superior, was literally enmeshed by love.
[2] She was the daughter of a provincial tax collector who had been dead several years.With her mother, she had come to Paris.Her mother became friendly with several middle-class families of the neighborhood in hopes of marrying off the young lady.Mother and daughter were poor, honorable, quiet and gentle.The girl seemed to be the typical dream woman into whose hands any young man would yearn to entrust his entire life.Her modest beauty had an angelic quality, and the imperceptible smile which constantly graced her lips, seemed a reflection of her heart.
[3] Everyone sang her praises; everyone who knew her repeated incessantly: “It will be a lucky fellow who wins her.You couldn’t find a better catch!”
[4] M.Lantin, now chief clerk of the Minister of the Interior, at a salary of 3500 francs, asked and received her hand in marriage.
[5] He was unbelievably happy.She managed the house with such skill that their life was one of luxury.There was no delicacy, no whim of her husband’s which she did not secure and satisfy; and her personal charm was such that, six years after their first meeting, he loved her even more than he did initially.
[6] He begrudged her only two traits — her love of the theater and her passion for artificial jewels.
[7] Her friends (she knew the wives of several minor functionaries) were always getting her seats for the fashionable plays, sometimes even for first nights; and she dragged her poor husband, willy-nilly, to these entertainments which completely wore him out, tired as he was after a hard day’s work.He begged her to agree to go to the theater with some lady friend of hers who would accompany her home.She took a long time to decide, claiming this a most inconvenient arrangement.At last, however, she agreed, and he was profoundly grateful to her.