The country doctor / by Honoré de Balzac.

  • Honoré de Balzac
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The country doctor / by Honoré de Balzac. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    deceased proprietor, is floored with planks, wains- coted in the lower part of the walls and furnished with tapestries of the century before the last. The large and wide easy-chairs covered with flowered lampas, the antique gilded branched candlesticks which ornament the chimney-piece, and the curtains with heavy tassels, announced the opulence of the late cure. Benassis had completed this furnishing, which did not want for character, by two consoles of wood with sculptured garlands, placed opposite each other in the space between the windows, and by a timepiece in tortoise-shell incrusted with brass which decorated the chimney. The doctor rarely inhabited this room, which exhaled the damp odor of apartments which are always closed. There was in it still the smell of the defunct cure, the peculiar scent of his tobacco even seemed to issue from the corner of the chimney in which he habitually sat. The two large armchairs were placed symmetrically on each side of the hearth, in which there had been no fire since Monsieur Gravier’s visit, but in which were now burning the clear flames of pine wood. “ It is still cold in the evening,” said Benassis, “the fire is very agreeable.” Genestas, become thoughtful, was beginning to understand the indifference of the doctor to the ordinary things of life. “ Monsieur,” he said to him, “ you have, indeed, the spirit of a good citizen, and I am surprised that, after having accomplished so many things, you have not attempted to enlighten the government.”
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