The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Commission in Lunacy, by Honore de Balzac

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Title: The Commission in Lunacy

Author: Honore de Balzac

Translator: Clara Bell

Release Date: August, 1998 [Etext #1410]
Posting Date: February 24, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMISSION IN LUNACY ***

Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny

THE COMMISSION IN LUNACY

By Honore De Balzac

Translated By Clara Bell

DEDICATION

Dedicated to Monsieur le Contre-Amiral Bazoche,
Governor of the Isle of Bourbon, by the grateful writer.
DE BALZAC.

THE COMMISSION IN LUNACY

In 1828, at about one o'clock one morning, two persons came out of
a large house in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, near the
Elysee-Bourbon. One was the famous doctor, Horace Bianchon; the other
was one of the most elegant men in Paris, the Baron de Rastignac; they
were friends of long standing. Each had sent away his carriage, and
no cab was to be seen in the street; but the night was fine, and the
pavement dry.

"We will walk as far as the boulevard," said Eugene de Rastignac to
Bianchon. "You can get a hackney cab at the club; there is always one to
be found there till daybreak. Come with me as far as my house."

"With pleasure."

"Well, and what have you to say about it?"

"About that woman?" said the doctor coldly.

"There I recognize my Bianchon!" exclaimed Rastignac.

"Why, how?"

"Well, my dear fellow, you speak of the Marquise d'Espard as if she were
a case for your hospital."

"Do you want to know what I think, Eugene? If you throw over Madame de
Nucingen for this Marquise, you will swap a one-eyed horse for a blind
one."

"Madame de Nucingen is six-and-thirty, Bianchon."

"And this woman is three-and-thirty," said the doctor quickly.

"Her worst enemies only say six-and-twenty."

"My dear boy, when you really want to know a woman's age, look at her
temples and the tip of her nose. Whatever women may achieve with their
cosmetics, they can do nothing against those incorruptible witnesses to
their experiences. There each year of life ha