Honore de Balzac

A Woman of Thirty Honore de Balzac

Book Excerpt: ...ce seek to retrace the picture of the pageant which they were assembled to behold."Do let us go more quickly, father; I can hear the drums," the young girl said, and in a half-teasing, half-coaxing manner she urged her companion forward."The troops are marching into the Tuileries," said he."Or marching out of it--everybody is coming away," she answered in childish vexation, which drew a smile from her father."The review only begins at half-past twelve," he said; he had fallen half behind his impetuous daughter. It might have been supposed that she meant to hasten their progress by a movement of her right arm, for it swung like an oar blade through the water. In her impatience she had crushed her handkerchief into a ball in her tiny, well-gloved fingers. Now and then the old man smiled, but the smiles were succeeded by an anxious look which crossed his withered face and saddened it. In his love for the fair young girl by his side, he was as fain to exalt the present moment as to dread the fu...