Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau, Honoré de Balzac [good fiction books to read .TXT] 📗

acknowledgment of the kindness he had bestowed upon Birotteau; Monsieur de Vandenesse and Monsieur de Fontaine took the place of Roguin and his wife. Cesarine and Popinot distributed their invitations with much discretion. Both dreaded the publicity of a wedding, and they escaped the jar such scenes must cause to pure and tender hearts by giving the ball on the evening of the day appointed for signing the marriage-contract.

Constance found in her room the gown of cherry velvet in which she had shone for a single night with fleeting splendor. Cesarine cherished a dream of appearing before Popinot in the identical ball-dress about which, time and time again, he had talked to her. The appartement was made ready to present to Cesar's eyes the same enchanting scene he had once enjoyed for a single evening. Neither Constance, nor Cesarine, nor Popinot perceived the danger to Cesar in this sudden and overwhelming surprise, and they awaited his arrival at four o'clock with a delight that was almost childish.

Following close upon the unspeakable emotion his re-entrance at the Bourse had caused him, the hero of commercial honor was now to meet the sudden shock of felicity that awaited him in his old home. He entered the house, and saw at the foot of the staircase (still new as he had left it) his wife in her velvet robe, Cesarine, the Comte de Fontaine, the Vicomte de Vandenesse, the Baron de la Billardiere, the illustrious Vauquelin. A light film dimmed his eyes, and his uncle Pillerault, who held his arm, felt him shudder inwardly.

"It is too much," said the philosopher to the happy lover; "he can never carry all the wine you are pouring out to him."

Joy was so vivid in their hearts that each attributed Cesar's emotion and his stumbling step to the natural intoxication of his feelings,--natural, but sometimes mortal. When he found himself once more in his own home, when he saw his salon, his guests, the women in their ball-dresses, suddenly the heroic measure in the finale of the great symphony rang forth in his head and heart. Beethoven's ideal music echoed, vibrated, in many tones, sounding its clarions through the membranes of the weary brain, of which it was indeed the grand finale.

Oppressed with this inward harmony, Cesar took the arm of his wife and whispered, in a voice suffocated by a rush of blood that was still repressed: "I am not well."

Constance, alarmed, led him to her bedroom; he reached it with difficulty, and fell into a chair, saying: "Monsieur Haudry, Monsieur Loraux."

The Abbe Loraux came, followed by the guests and the women in their ball-dresses, who stopped short, a frightened group. In presence of that shining company Cesar pressed the hand of his confessor and laid his head upon the bosom of his kneeling wife. A vessel had broken in his heart, and the rush of blood strangled his last sigh.

"Behold the death of the righteous!" said the Abbe Loraux solemnly, pointing to Cesar with the divine gesture which Rembrandt gave to Christ in his picture of the Raising of Lazarus.

Jesus commanded the earth to give up its prey; the priest called heaven to behold a martyr of commercial honor worthy to receive the everlasting palm.


ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
The Commission in Lunacy
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Secrets of a Princess
The Government Clerks
Pierrette
A Study of Woman
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Honorine
The Seamy Side of History
The Magic Skin
A Second Home
A Prince of Bohemia
Letters of Two Brides
The Muse of the Department
The Imaginary Mistress
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
The Country Parson
In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following:
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche

Bidault (known as Gigonnet)
The Government Clerks
Gobseck
The Vendetta
The Firm of Nucingen
A Daughter of Eve

Birotteau, Cesar
A Bachelor's Establishment
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Birotteau, Abbe Francois
The Lily of the Valley
The Vicar of Tours

Braschon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Camusot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
Cousin Pons
The Muse of the Department
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Camusot de Marville, Madame
The Vendetta
Jealousies of a Country Town
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Cousin Pons

Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin
A Start in Life
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Chaffaroux
A Prince of Bohemia
The Middle Classes

Chiffreville, Monsieur and Madame
The Quest of the Absolute

Claparon, Charles
A Bachelor's Establishment
Melmoth Reconciled
The Firm of Nucingen
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes

Cochin, Emile-Louis-Lucien-Emmanuel
The Government Clerks
The Firm of Nucingen
The Middle Classes

Cochin, Adolphe
The Firm of Nucingen

Crevel, Celestin
Cousin Betty
Cousin Pons

Crottat, Monsieur and Madame
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Crottat, Alexandre
Colonel Chabert
A Start in Life
A Woman of Thirty
Cousin Pons

Derville, Madame
Gobseck

Desmartes, Jules
The Thirteen

Desmartes, Madame Jules
The Thirteen

Finot, Andoche
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Government Clerks
A Start in Life
Gaudissart the Great
The Firm of Nucingen

Fontaine, Comte de
The Chouans
Modeste Mignon
The Ball at Sceaux
The Government Clerks

Gaudissart, Felix
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Cousin Pons
Honorine
Gaudissart the Great

Gobseck, Jean-Esther Van
Gobseck
Father Goriot
The Government Clerks
The Unconscious Humorists

Gobseck, Sarah Van
Gobseck
The Maranas
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Member for Arcis

Granville, Vicomte de (later Comte)
The Gondreville Mystery
Honorine
A Second Home
Farewell (Adieu)
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
A Daughter of Eve
Cousin Pons

Grindot
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Start in Life
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Beatrix
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty

Guillaume
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Haudry (doctor)
The Thirteen
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Seamy Side of History
Cousin Pons

Keller, Francois
Domestic