Bel Ami, Guy de Maupassant [read me like a book txt] 📗

ir, with blue eyes, a curled mustache, hairnaturally wavy and parted in the middle, he recalled the hero of thepopular romances.

It was one of those sultry, Parisian evenings when not a breath ofair is stirring; the sewers exhaled poisonous gases and therestaurants the disagreeable odors of cooking and of kindred smells.Porters in their shirt-sleeves, astride their chairs, smoked theirpipes at the carriage gates, and pedestrians strolled leisurelyalong, hats in hand.

When Georges Duroy reached the boulevard he halted again, undecidedas to which road to choose. Finally he turned toward the Madeleineand followed the tide of people.

The large, well-patronized cafes tempted Duroy, but were he to drinkonly two glasses of beer in an evening, farewell to the meagersupper the following night! Yet he said to himself: "I will take aglass at the Americain. By Jove, I am thirsty."

He glanced at men seated at the tables, men who could afford toslake their thirst, and he scowled at them. "Rascals!"