0:01

Hey, it's Otis here. Before we get

0:03

to the bedtime reading, I wanted to let you

0:05

know that I just launched a brand new show.

0:08

It's called The Daily Book Club, a daytime

0:10

companion to Sleepy, where you hear entire books,

0:12

one chapter at a time, one day at

0:15

a time. Simple as that. So

0:17

if Sleepy is how you wind down your

0:19

day, The Daily Book Club is a great

0:21

way to start your day. There's

0:23

new episodes daily. I

0:25

read in a slightly peppier voice so that

0:28

you can get really lost in these amazing

0:30

stories that have stood the test of time.

0:33

Or just like Sleepy, you can sit back

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0:37

book. The first book we'll be reading is

0:39

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnem. Story

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is, in the 1920s, four

0:44

women unfulfilled with life take a

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chance and abscond to a dreamy

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medieval Italian castle. It's

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a story dripping with wisteria, the

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0:58

I think that this is a perfect story for

1:00

the season, and you can hear it now. Find

1:02

The Daily Book Club on Spotify, Apple

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show has been a long time coming,

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and I'm so excited to bring you

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even more stories. So go subscribe to The

1:13

Daily Book Club to hear what happens next. Thanks.

1:26

This episode of Sleepy is proudly

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sponsored by ButcherBox. If you've

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well, sleep well. That's

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not just the sound of that first sip of

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morning joe, it's the sound of someone shopping for

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comfortable. Ahh. Hey,

3:44

my name's Otis Gray and you're

3:46

listening to Sleepy. A

3:54

podcast where I read old books that'll be

3:56

interesting. I've

4:00

got a really lovely French

4:03

tale for you tonight to

4:05

go to sleep to. Now

4:07

before we get to this bedtime reading, I

4:10

just want to say that this episode

4:12

is proudly sponsored by Shopify. If

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I'll have a link for this in the show notes as well. And

5:45

this is where I would usually thank all of

5:47

our brand new patrons. But if

5:49

you're hearing this, I'm actually recording

5:51

this ahead of time because I am

5:53

on a wonderful little work vacation in

5:56

Lisbon, Portugal. So, until I see you next

5:59

time. get back I will

6:02

not be recording so

6:04

I just want to thank everyone

6:07

who supported the show on patreon it

6:09

means so much and

6:12

if you're interested in becoming a part of the

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show and not already you

6:16

can go to patreon.com/sleepy radio

6:19

and just donate a dollar a

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again even if you donate one dollar

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it means so much and I'll

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6:37

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6:39

again thank you all and

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if you want to be a part of making this show go

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to patreon.com/sleepy radio

6:47

thank you and

6:50

as always the music you're hearing is by

6:52

my good friend James Levkosky and the

6:54

cover of for sleepy is by Gracie Tainan.

7:04

Tonight I

7:06

can't believe that I have not read any

7:09

of his work on the show yet we are

7:13

going to be reading the

7:15

first chapter of a very

7:17

well-known French tale A Daughter

7:19

of Eve by none other than

7:21

Henri de Balzac. One

7:26

of the most famous French writers in history

7:29

his writing is just a

7:31

melody and I'm sure

7:33

I botched some of the French pronunciation

7:35

but uh it's really lovely

7:38

to read and yeah I really

7:41

really hope you like going to sleep to this if

7:44

you do let me know in the comments

7:47

on Spotify and I will

7:49

read more Balzac

7:52

if you'd like. So

7:55

without further ado tonight's bedtime

7:58

story A Daughter of Eve. of

8:00

Eve, Bon Re de Balzac. And

8:05

now is the time for you to fluff

8:07

up your pillow just how you like it. Feel

8:10

yourself melt into your bed. Get

8:14

real comfortable. Close

8:17

your eyes. And

8:19

let me read to you. Chapter

8:34

1 The Two

8:36

Marys In

8:39

one of the finest houses of

8:41

the Rue Nou de Matherines, at

8:44

half-past eleven at night, two

8:46

young women were sitting before the fireplace

8:48

of a boudoir hung with blue velvet

8:51

of that tender shade which French

8:53

industry has lately learned to fabricate.

8:58

Through the doors and windows were draped

9:00

soft folds of blue cashmere, the

9:03

tint of the hangings, the work

9:05

of one of those upholsterers who have

9:07

just missed being artists, a

9:10

silver lamp studded with turquoise and

9:12

suspended by chains of beautiful workmanship

9:15

hung from the center of the ceiling. The

9:20

same system of decoration was followed

9:23

in the smallest details and

9:25

even to the ceiling of fluted blue silk with

9:28

long bands of white cashmere falling

9:30

at equal distances on the hangings

9:33

where they were caught back by ropes of pearl.

9:38

A warm Belgian carpet, thick

9:41

as turf, of a gray ground with

9:43

blue posies covered the floor. The

9:47

furniture of carved ebony after

9:49

a fine model of the old school gave

9:52

substance and richness to the rather too

9:54

decorative quality, as a painter might call

9:56

it, of the rest of the Rue. On

10:02

either side of a large window,

10:04

two attachéres displayed a hundred

10:06

precious trifles, flowers of

10:08

mechanical art brought into bloom by the

10:11

fire of Thoth. On

10:15

a chimney-piece of slate-blue marble were

10:17

figures in old Dresden, shepherds

10:20

in bridal garb with delicate bouquets

10:22

in their hands, German

10:24

fantasticalities surrounding a platinum

10:27

clock inlaid with

10:29

arabesques. Above

10:32

it sparkled the brilliant facets of a

10:34

Venice mirror framed in ebony, with

10:37

figures carved in relief, evidently

10:39

obtained from some former royal

10:41

residence. Two

10:45

giardiniers were filled with the exotic

10:47

product of a ha-house, pale but

10:50

divine flowers, the treasures of

10:52

botany. In

10:55

this cold, orderly boudoir, where

10:57

all things were in a place as if for sale,

11:00

no sign existed of the gay and

11:02

capricious disorder of a happy home. At

11:08

the present moment, the two young women

11:10

were weeping, pain seemed

11:12

to predominate. The

11:15

name of the owner, Ferdinand de Talais,

11:17

one of the richest bankers in Paris, is

11:19

enough to explain the luxury of the whole

11:21

house, of which this boudoir

11:23

is but a sample. Though

11:29

they were either rank or station, having

11:31

pushed himself forward, heaven knows

11:33

how. Du Talais had

11:35

married, in 1831, the daughter of

11:38

the Comte des Granville, one

11:40

of the greatest names in the French Magistrate, a

11:43

man who became Pierre of France after the

11:45

Revolution of July. This

11:49

marriage of ambition, on Du Talais' part,

11:51

was brought about by his agreeing to

11:54

sign an acknowledgment in the marriage contract

11:56

of a dowry not received, equal

11:58

to that of her elder sister. who

12:00

was married to Comte Felix de Vanden S.

12:05

On the other hand, the Granvilles obtained

12:07

the alliance with Vanden S by the

12:09

largeness of the dot. Thus

12:12

the bank repaired the breach made in

12:14

the pocket of the Magistrate by rank.

12:19

Could the Comte de Vanden S have seen

12:21

himself three years later, the brother-in-law

12:23

of Assur, Ferdinand de

12:25

Toulais? So called, he

12:28

might not have married his wife. But

12:31

what man of rank in 1828 foresaw

12:33

the strange upheavals which the year 1830

12:35

was destined to

12:37

produce in the political condition, the

12:40

fortunes, and the customs of France? Had

12:44

anyone predicted to Comte Felix de Vanden

12:46

S that his head would lose the

12:48

coronet of a peer, and

12:51

that of his father-in-law acquire one, he

12:53

would have thought his informant a lunatic? Bending

12:58

forward on one of those low chairs then

13:00

called, shelfess asked in the

13:03

attitude of a listener, Madame

13:05

de Toulais was pressing to

13:07

her bosom with maternal tenderness and

13:10

occasionally kissing the hand of her sister, Madame

13:13

Felix de Vanden S. Society

13:18

added the baptismal name to her surname

13:21

in order to distinguish the countess from

13:23

her sister-in-law, the Marquis Charles

13:26

de Vanden S, wife

13:28

of the former ambassador, who had

13:30

married the widow of the Comte

13:32

de Courgéret, Mademoiselle

13:34

Emile de Fontaine. Half

13:38

lying on a sofa, her handkerchief

13:40

in the other hand, her

13:42

breathing choked by repressed songs and

13:45

with tearful eyes, a countess

13:47

had been making confidences such are

13:49

made only from sister to sister

13:51

when two sisters love each other

13:53

and these two sisters did love each

13:56

other tenderly. and

14:00

sisters married into such antagonist fears

14:02

can very well not love each

14:04

other, and therefore the historian is

14:06

bound to relate the reasons of

14:08

his tender affection, preserved without

14:11

spot or jar in spite of the

14:13

husband's contempt for each other and

14:15

their own social disunion. A

14:19

rapid glance at their childhood would explain

14:21

the situation. Set

14:25

up in a gloomy house in the Marais by

14:27

a woman of narrow mind, a

14:30

devote who, being sustained by any

14:32

sense of duty, sacred phrase,

14:35

had fulfilled her tasks as a mother religiously.

14:38

Marie-Angélie and Marie

14:40

Eugénie des Granvaux reached

14:43

the period of their marriage, the

14:45

first at eighteen, the second at twenty years of

14:47

age, without ever leaving the

14:49

domestic zone where the rigid maternal eye

14:52

controlled them. Up

14:56

to that time they had never been to

14:58

a play. The churches

15:00

of Paris were their theater. Their

15:03

education in their mother's house had been as

15:05

rigorous as it would have been in a

15:07

convent. From

15:10

infancy they had slept in a room

15:13

adjoining that of the Comte-Tas de Granvaux,

15:15

the door of which stood always open. The

15:20

time not occupied by the care of their

15:22

persons, their religious duties,

15:25

and the studies considered necessary for

15:27

well-bred young ladies, was spent

15:29

in need of work done for the poor, or

15:32

in walks like those an English woman allows

15:34

herself on Sunday, saying

15:37

apparently, not so fast,

15:39

or we shall seem to be amusing ourselves. Their

15:45

education did not go beyond the limits

15:47

imposed by confessors, who

15:49

were chosen by their mother from the

15:52

strictest and least tolerant of the Janzenes

15:54

priests. Never

15:56

were girls delivered over to the

15:58

husband's more absolutely pureness. and virgin than

16:00

they. Their mothers

16:02

seemed to consider that point essential

16:05

as indeed it is the accomplishment

16:07

of all her duties toward earth and

16:09

heaven. These

16:12

two poor creatures had never before their marriage

16:15

read a tale or heard of a

16:17

romance. The very

16:19

drawings were of figures whose anatomy would

16:21

have been masterpieces of the impossible to

16:23

cover yet designed to

16:25

feminize the far days of Hercules

16:27

himself. An

16:30

old maid taught them drawing. A

16:33

worthy priest instructed them in grammar, the

16:36

French language, history, geography, and

16:39

the very little arithmetic it was thought necessary

16:41

in their rank for women to know. Their

16:47

reading selected from authorized books such

16:49

as The Letters at a Fiantes

16:52

and Noel's Lecon de Literature

16:55

was done aloud in the evening. But

17:00

always in presence of their mother's confessor,

17:03

for even in those books there did

17:05

sometimes occur passages which, without

17:07

wise comments, might have roused their

17:09

imagination. Fenelon's

17:13

Telemache was thought dangerous.

17:18

The Comtesse de Granville loved her

17:20

daughters sufficiently to wish to make

17:22

them angels after the pattern of

17:24

Marie Alokay. But the

17:26

poor girls themselves would have preferred a

17:28

less virtuous and more amiable mother. This

17:33

education bore its natural fruits. Religion,

17:38

imposed as a yoe and presented

17:40

under its sternus aspie, wearied

17:42

with formal practice these innocent young

17:45

hearts, treated as sinful.

17:49

They repressed their feelings, and

17:51

it was never precious to them, although

17:54

it struck its roots deep down into their

17:56

natures. training,

18:01

the two Marie's would either have

18:03

become mere imbeciles or

18:05

they must necessarily have longed for

18:07

independence. Thus

18:11

it came to pass that they looked to marriage

18:13

as soon as they saw anything of life and

18:16

were able to compare a few ideas. Of

18:20

their own tender graces and their personal

18:23

value, they were absolutely ignorant.

18:27

They were ignorant, too, of their own

18:29

innocence. How

18:32

then could they know life? Without

18:35

weapons to meet misfortune, without

18:38

experience to appreciate happiness, they

18:41

found no comfort in the maternal jail. All

18:44

their joys were in each other. Their

18:48

tender confidences at night and whispers, or

18:52

a few short sentences exchanged if their mother

18:54

left them for a moment, contained

18:56

more ideas than the words themselves

18:58

expressed. Often

19:02

a glance, concealed from other

19:04

eyes, by which they convey

19:06

to each other their emotions, was

19:08

like a poem of bitter melancholy. The

19:13

sight of a cloudless sky, the

19:15

fragrance of flowers, in turn in

19:17

the garden, arm in arm, these

19:20

were their joys. The

19:24

finishing of a piece of embroidery was to

19:26

them a source of enjoyment. Their

19:31

mother's social circle, far

19:33

from opening resources to their hearts

19:35

or stimulating their minds, only

19:38

darkened their ideas and depressed them. It

19:41

was made up of rigid old women, withered

19:44

and graceless, whose conversation

19:46

turned on the differences which

19:48

distinguished various preachers and confessors,

19:51

on their own petty indispositions, on

19:54

religious events insignificant even

19:57

to the côte d'yens, by their

19:59

love. la ami de la religion. As

20:03

for the men who appear at the

20:05

contest at Granville Salon, they

20:08

extinguished any possible torch of love, so

20:11

cold and sadly resigned were their

20:14

faces. They

20:17

were all of an age when mankind is

20:19

sulky and frightful, and

20:21

natural sensibilities are chiefly exercised

20:23

at table and on

20:25

the things related to personal comfort. Religious

20:30

egotism had long dried up those

20:32

hearts devoted to narrow duties and

20:35

entrenched behind pious practices. Silent

20:40

games of cards occupied the whole

20:42

evening, and the two young

20:44

girls under the band of that Sanhedra, enforced

20:47

by maternal severity, came

20:50

to hate the dispiriting personages about

20:52

them with their hollow eyes

20:54

and scowling faces. On

20:59

the gloom of this life, one sole

21:02

figure of a man, that of

21:04

a music master, stood vigorously forth.

21:08

The confessors had decided that music was

21:10

a Christian art, born of

21:13

the Catholic Church and developed within her.

21:17

The two mariez were therefore permitted to

21:20

study music. A spinster

21:22

and spectacle, who taught singing

21:24

and the piano in a neighboring

21:26

convent, wearied them with

21:28

exercises. But

21:31

when the eldest was ten years old, the

21:33

content at Granville insisted on the

21:36

importance of giving her a master. Madame

21:41

de Granville gave all the value

21:43

of conjugal obedience to this needed

21:45

concession. It is

21:48

part of a devout character to make a merit

21:50

of doing her duty. The

21:55

master was a Catholic German, one

21:58

of those men born old, seem

22:00

all their lives fifty years of age, even

22:02

at eighty. And

22:05

yet, his brown, sunken, wrinkled

22:07

face still kept something infantile and

22:09

artless in its dark creases. The

22:14

blue of innocence was in his eyes, and

22:17

a gay smile was spring-tied about upon

22:19

his lips. His

22:23

iron-grey hair, falling naturally

22:25

like that of a Christ, in order,

22:28

added to his ecstatic air a certain

22:30

solemnity, which was absolutely deceptive

22:33

as to his real nature, for

22:35

he was capable of committing any silliness

22:38

with the most exemplary gravity. His

22:43

clothes were a necessary envelope, to

22:45

which he paid not the slightest attention, for

22:48

his eyes looked too high among

22:50

the clouds to concern themselves with

22:53

such materialities. This

22:59

great unknown artist belonged to the

23:01

kindly class of the self-forgetting, who

23:03

give their time and their soul to others, just

23:06

as they leave their gloves on every table and

23:09

their umbrella at all doors. His

23:14

hands were of a kind that are dirty as

23:16

soon as washed, and

23:19

chewing, his old body

23:21

badly poisoned its knotted old legs, proving

23:23

to what degree a man can make

23:25

it, that the mere accessory of his

23:27

soul belonged to those strange

23:29

creations which have properly depicted only

23:32

by a German, by

23:34

Hoffman, a poet of that

23:36

which seems not to exist, but yet has

23:38

lived. Which

23:42

was Schmoe, formerly Chapel

23:45

Master to the Margrave of

23:47

Anspeth, a musical

23:49

genius who was now examined by a council

23:51

of devotes and asked if

23:53

he kept the fasts. The

23:57

Master was much inclined to answer. Look

24:00

at me." But how

24:02

could he venture to joke with pious

24:04

dowagers and jandinous confessors?

24:08

The apocryphal old fellow held such a

24:10

place in the lives of the two

24:12

Marys. They felt such

24:14

friendship for the grand and simple-minded artist,

24:17

who was happy and contented in the mere comprehension

24:20

of his art, that after

24:22

their marriage they each gave him an

24:24

annuity of three hundred francs a year, a psalm

24:27

which sufficed to pay for his

24:29

lodging, beer, pipes, and clothes. Six

24:34

hundred francs a year and his lessons put him

24:36

in eden. Shmoop

24:39

had never found courage to confide

24:41

his poverty and his aspirations to

24:43

any but these two adorable young

24:45

girls, whose hearts were

24:47

blooming beneath the snow of maternal rigor

24:50

and the ice of devotion. This

24:54

fact explains Shmoop and the

24:56

girlhood of the two Marys. No

25:01

one knew then, or later, what

25:03

ab or pious spinster had

25:06

discovered the old German then vaguely

25:08

wandering about in Paris. But

25:11

as soon as mothers of family learned that

25:13

the Countess de Granville had found a music

25:15

master for her daughters, they

25:18

all inquired for his name and address. Before

25:23

long, Shmoop had thirty pupils

25:25

in the meringue. His

25:29

tardy success was manifested by steel

25:31

buckles to his shoes, which

25:33

were lined with horse-hair soles and

25:36

by more frequent change of linen. His

25:41

artless gaiety, long suppressed

25:43

by noble and decent poverty,

25:45

reappeared. He

25:47

gave vent to witty little remarks and

25:50

flowery speeches by his German gallic patois,

25:53

very observing and very quaint,

25:55

and said with an air which disarmed ridicule. But

26:00

he was so pleased to bring a laugh to the

26:03

lips of his two pupils, whose

26:05

dismal life his sympathy had penetrated,

26:08

that he would gladly have made himself

26:10

willfully ridiculous had he failed in being

26:12

so by nature. According

26:17

to one of the nobler ideas of

26:19

religious education, the young girls

26:22

always accompanied their master respectfully to the

26:24

door. There

26:27

they would make him a few kind speeches,

26:30

glad to do anything to give him pleasure. Poor

26:34

things. All they could

26:36

do was to show him their womanhood. Until

26:40

their marriage, music was to them

26:42

another life within their lives, just

26:45

as, they say, a Russian peasant

26:47

takes his dreams for reality and

26:50

his actual life for a troubled sleep. With

26:55

the instinct of protecting their souls against

26:57

the pettiness that threatened to overwhelm them,

27:00

against the all-pervading asceticism of

27:03

their home, they flung

27:05

themselves into the difficulties of the

27:07

musical art and spent themselves

27:09

upon it. Melody,

27:13

harmony, and composition, three

27:16

daughters of heaven, whose choir

27:18

was led by an old Catholic fawn

27:20

drunk with music, were to

27:22

these poor girls the compensation of their

27:24

trials. They

27:27

made them, as it were, a ramp

27:29

aired against their daily lives. Mozart,

27:33

Beethoven, Gluck, Visello,

27:37

Cimarosa, Heinen, and

27:40

certain secondary geniuses developed in their

27:42

souls a passionate emotion which never

27:45

passed beyond the chaste enclosure of

27:47

their breaths, though it

27:49

permeated that other creation, through

27:51

which, in spirit, they winged their

27:54

flight. When

27:56

they had executed some great work in a

27:58

manner that their master declared, was

28:00

almost faultless. They embraced

28:02

each other in ecstasy, and the

28:05

old man called them his Saint

28:07

Cecilia's. The

28:11

two marees were not taken to a ball

28:13

until they were sixteen years of age, and

28:16

then only four times a year in special houses.

28:20

They were not allowed to leave their mother's

28:23

side without instructions as to their behavior with

28:25

their partners, and so

28:27

severe were those instructions that they dared say

28:29

only yes or no during a dance. The

28:34

eye of the countess never left them, and

28:37

she seemed to know from the mere movement of

28:40

their lips the words they uttered. Even

28:45

the ball-dresses of the poor little

28:48

things were piously irreproachable. Their

28:51

muslin gowns came up to their chins

28:53

with an endless number of thick rushes,

28:56

and the sleeves came down to their wrists. Swathing

29:01

in this way, their natural charms,

29:04

this costume gave them a vague

29:06

resemblance to Egyptian hermé, though

29:09

from these blocks of muslin rose

29:12

enchanting little heads of tender melancholy.

29:16

They felt themselves the object of pity,

29:19

and inwardly resented it. What

29:23

woman, however innocent, does not desire

29:25

to excite envy? No

29:29

dangerous idea, unhealthy or

29:32

even equivocal, soiled the pure pulp

29:34

of their brain. Their

29:36

hearts were innocent, their hands were

29:38

horribly red, and they glowed

29:41

with health. Eve

29:43

did not issue more innocent from the hands

29:45

of God than these two girls from their

29:47

mother's home when they went to the

29:50

mayor's office. and the church to be married, after

29:53

receiving the simple but terrible injunction

29:55

to obey in all things two men

29:57

with whom they were henceforth to live.

30:00

and sleep by day and night. To

30:05

their minds, nothing could be worse

30:07

in the strange houses where they were to

30:09

go than the maternal

30:11

convent. Why

30:15

did the father of these poor girls become

30:17

tated Granville, a

30:19

wise and upright magistrate, though

30:22

sometimes led away by politics, refrain

30:25

from protecting the helpless little creatures

30:27

from such a crushing despotism? Alas,

30:32

by mutual understanding, about

30:34

ten years after marriage, he

30:37

and his wife were separated while living under one

30:39

roof. The

30:43

father had taken upon himself the education

30:45

of his sons, leaving that

30:47

of the daughters to his wife. He

30:50

saw less danger for women than for men

30:53

in the application of his wife's oppressive system.

30:57

The two mariees, destined as women

30:59

to endure tyranny, either of love

31:01

or marriage, would be, he thought,

31:04

less injured than boys, whose

31:06

minds ought to have freer plight, and

31:09

whose manly qualities would deteriorate

31:11

under the powerful compression of

31:14

religious ideas pushed to their utmost

31:16

consequences. Of

31:19

four victims, the Count saved two.

31:25

The Countess regarded her sons as

31:27

too ill-trained to admit of the

31:29

slightest intimacy with their sisters. All

31:33

communication between the poor children was

31:35

therefore strictly watched. When

31:39

the boys came home from school, the

31:42

Count was careful not to keep them in the house.

31:46

The boys always breakfasted and their

31:48

mother and sisters, but

31:51

after that the Count took them off to museums,

31:54

theaters, restaurants, or during the summer

31:56

season into the country. except

32:00

on the solemn days of some

32:02

family festival, such as

32:05

the Countess's birthday or New Year's Day,

32:07

or the day of the distribution of prizes when

32:10

the boys remained in their father's house and slept

32:12

there. The sisters saw so

32:15

little of their brothers that there was absolutely

32:17

no tie between them. On

32:21

those days the Countess never left them

32:23

for an instant alone together. Calls

32:26

up, Where is Angelie? What

32:29

is Eugenia about? Where

32:31

are my daughters? resounded all day.

32:36

As for the mother's sentiments towards her sons,

32:39

the Countess raised to heaven her coal

32:41

and macerated eyes as

32:43

if to ask pardon for God for not

32:45

having snatched them from iniquity. Her

32:51

exclamations and also her reticences on

32:53

the subject of her sons were

32:56

equal to the most lamenting verses in

32:58

Jeremiah and completely deceived

33:01

the sisters who supposed their

33:03

sinful brothers to be doomed to perdition.

33:08

When the boys were 18 years of age, the

33:11

Count gave them rooms in his own part of the

33:13

house and sent them

33:15

to study law under the supervision of

33:17

a solicitor, his former secretary. The

33:23

two Marie's knew nothing, therefore

33:25

a fraternity, except by theory.

33:29

At the time of the marriage of the sisters, both

33:32

brothers were practicing in provincial courts

33:35

and both were detained by important cases. Domestic

33:40

life in many families, which

33:42

might be expected to be intimate, united

33:45

and homogenous is really spent in this

33:47

way. Brothers

33:50

are sent to a distance, busy

33:52

with their own careers, their own

33:54

advancement, occupied perhaps about

33:56

the good of the country. the

34:00

sisters are engrossed in a round of other

34:02

interest. All

34:06

the members of such a family live

34:08

disunited, forgetting one another,

34:11

bound together only by some feeble tie

34:13

of memory, until perhaps

34:16

a sentiment of pride or self-interest

34:18

either joins them or separates them in

34:20

heart, as they already are in fact. Modern

34:26

laws by multiplying the family by

34:28

the family has created great evil,

34:31

namely individualism. In

34:36

the depths of this solitude where

34:38

their girlhood was spent, Angelique

34:40

and Eugenie seldom saw their

34:42

father, and when he did enter the

34:45

grand apartment of his wife on the first

34:47

floor, he brought with him the

34:49

saddened faith. In

34:53

his own home, he always wore the

34:55

grave and solemn look of a magistrate on the

34:57

bench. When

34:59

the little girls had passed the age of dolls

35:02

and toys, when they began, about

35:04

twelve to use their minds, an

35:06

epoch at which they ceased to laugh at

35:08

Schmo, they divined the

35:10

secret of the cares that lined their father's

35:13

forehand, and they recognized

35:15

beneath that mask of sternness the relics

35:17

of a kind are in

35:19

a fine character. They

35:24

vaguely perceived how he had yielded to

35:26

the forces of religion in his household,

35:29

disappointed as he was in hopes of a

35:31

husband and wounded in the

35:33

tenderest fibers of paternity, the

35:35

love of a father for his daughters. Such

35:41

griefs were singularly moving to the hearts

35:43

of the two young girls, who

35:45

were themselves deprived of all tenderness. Sometimes,

35:50

when pacing the garden between his

35:53

daughters, with an arm round

35:55

each little waist and stepping

35:57

with their own short steps, the

35:59

father would stop short behind a clump of trees,

36:03

out of sight of the house, and kiss

36:05

them on their foreheads. His

36:08

eyes, his lips, his whole

36:10

countenance expressing the deepest commiseration. You

36:16

are not very happy, my dear little girl, she said

36:18

one day, but I shall

36:20

marry you early, that will comfort

36:22

me to have you leave home. Papa,

36:27

said Eugenie, we have

36:30

decided to take the first man who offers. Ah,

36:34

he cried, that is the

36:36

bitter fruit of such a system. They

36:39

want to make saints, and they make.

36:42

He stopped without ending his sentence. After

36:47

the two girls felt an infinite tenderness

36:50

in their father's adjue, or

36:52

in his eyes, when, by chance, he died

36:54

a whole. They

36:57

pitied that father so seldom seen, and

37:00

love fellows often upon pity. This

37:04

stern and rigid education was the

37:06

cause of the marriages of the

37:08

two sisters welded together by misfortune,

37:11

as Rita Christina, by the hand of nature.

37:16

Many men, driven to marriage, prefer a

37:18

girl taken away from a convent, and

37:21

saturated with piety, to a

37:23

girl brought up to worldly ideas. There

37:27

seems to be no middle course. A

37:30

man must marry either an educated girl

37:32

who reads the newspapers and comments upon

37:34

them, who waltzes with a

37:36

dozen young men, goes to the

37:38

theater, devours novels, cares

37:41

nothing for religion, and

37:43

makes her own ethics, or an

37:45

ignorant and innocent young girl, like

37:47

either of the two Marys. Perhaps

37:51

there may be as much danger with

37:53

the one kind as with the other. Yet

37:57

the vast majority of men who are not so

37:59

old, as our Nolfi, prefer

38:01

a religious Agnes to a budding

38:04

Selamite. The

38:07

two Marie's, who were small and slender,

38:09

had the same figure, the

38:12

same foot, the same hand. Eugenie,

38:15

the younger, was fair-haired, like

38:17

her mother. Angelique

38:20

was dark-haired like the father. But

38:24

they both had the same complexion, a

38:26

skin of the pearly whiteness which shows the

38:29

richness and purity of the blood, where

38:31

the color rises through the tissue, like

38:34

that of the jasmine, soft,

38:36

smooth, and tender to the touch.

38:41

Eugenie's blue eyes and the brown

38:43

eyes of Angelique had an expression

38:45

of artless indifference, of

38:48

ingenious surprise which was rendered

38:50

by the vague manner with which the

38:52

pupils floated on the fluid whiteness of

38:55

the eyeball. They

38:58

were both well-made. The rather

39:01

thin shoulders would develop later.

39:05

Their throats, long veil, delighted

39:07

the eye when their husbands requested them

39:09

to wear low dresses to a ball,

39:12

on which occasionally both felt a pleasing shame,

39:16

which made them at first blush behind closed

39:18

doors and afterwards through a

39:20

whole evening and company. On

39:25

occasion, when this scene opens and

39:28

the eldest, Angelique was weeping, while

39:31

the younger Eugenie was consoling her.

39:34

Their hands and arms were as white as milk. Each

39:39

had nursed a child, one

39:41

a boy, the other a daughter. Eugenie,

39:45

as a girl, was thought very giddy by

39:47

her mother, who had therefore

39:49

treated her with a special washfulness

39:52

and severity. In

39:55

the eyes of that much-feared mother, Angelique,

39:58

noble and proud, have a

40:00

soul so lofty that it would guard itself,

40:04

whereas the more lively Eugenie needed

40:06

restraint. There

40:09

are many charming beings misused by

40:11

faith, beings who

40:13

ought by rights to prosper in this life,

40:17

but who live and die unhappy, tortured

40:20

by some evil genius, the

40:23

victims of unfortunate circumstances. The

40:27

innocent and naturally light-hearted Eugenie

40:29

had fallen into the hands

40:31

and beneath the malicious despotism

40:34

of a self-made man on leaving the

40:36

maternal prison. Angelie,

40:40

whose nature inclined her to deeper sentiments,

40:43

was thrown into the upper spheres of

40:45

Parisian social life, with the

40:47

bridle lying loose upon her neck. Thank

40:54

you for listening to Sleepy.

41:00

Good night. you