The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Prince of Bohemia, by Honore de Balzac

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Title: A Prince of Bohemia

Author: Honore de Balzac

Translator: Clara Bell and Others

Release Date: July, 1999 [Etext #1812]
Posting Date: March 2, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA ***

Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny

A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA

By Honore De Balzac

Translated by Clara Bell and others

DEDICATION

To Henri Heine.

I inscribe this to you, my dear Heine, to you that represent in
Paris the ideas and poetry of Germany, in Germany the lively and
witty criticism of France; for you better than any other will know
whatsoever this Study may contain of criticism and of jest, of
love and truth.

DE BALZAC.

A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA

"My dear friend," said Mme. de la Baudraye, drawing a pile of manuscript
from beneath her sofa cushion, "will you pardon me in our present
straits for making a short story of something which you told me a few
weeks ago?"

"Anything is fair in these times. Have you not seen writers serving up
their own hearts to the public, or very often their mistress' hearts
when invention fails? We are coming to this, dear; we shall go in quest
of adventures, not so much for the pleasure of them as for the sake of
having the story to tell afterwards."

"After all, you and the Marquise de Rochefide have paid the rent, and
I do not think, from the way things are going here, that I ever pay
yours."

"Who knows? Perhaps the same good luck that befell Mme. de Rochefide may
come to you."

"Do you call it good luck to go back to one's husband?"

"No; only great luck. Come, I am listening."

And Mme. de la Baudraye read as follows:

"Scene--a splendid salon in the Rue de Chartres-du-Roule. One
of the most famous writers of the day discovered sitting on a
settee beside a very illustrious Marquise, with whom he is on
such terms of intimacy, as a man has a right to claim when a
woman singles him out and keeps him at her side as a complacent