Honoré de Balzac
translation: Katharine Prescott Wormeley

EUGENIE GRANDET
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III

Nanon took one of the candles and went to open the door, followed by her master.

"Grandet! Grandet!" cried his wife, moved by a sudden impulse of fear, and running to the door of the room.

All the players looked at each other.

"Suppose we all go?" said Monsieur des Grassins; "that knock strikes me as evil-intentioned."

Hardly was Monsieur des Grassins allowed to see the figure of a young man, accompanied by a porter from the coach-office carrying two large trunks and dragging a carpet-bag after him, than Monsieur Grandet turned roughly on his wife and said,—

"Madame Grandet, go back to your loto; leave me to speak with monsieur."

Then he pulled the door quickly to, and the excited players returned to their seats, but did not continue the game.

"Is it any one belonging to Saumur, Monsieur des Grassins?" asked his wife.

"No, it is a traveller."

"He must have come from Paris."

"Just so," said the notary, pulling out his watch, which was two inches thick and looked like a Dutch man-of-war; "it's nine o'clock; the diligence of the Grand Bureau is never late."

"Is the gentleman young?" inquired the Abbe Cruchot.

"Yes," answered Monsieur des Grassins, "and he has brought luggage which must weigh nearly three tons."

"Nanon does not come back," said Eugenie.

"It must be one of your relations," remarked the president.

"Let us go on with our game," said Madame Grandet gently. "I know from Monsieur Grandet's tone of voice that he is annoyed; perhaps he would not like to find us talking of his affairs."

"Mademoiselle," said Adolphe to his neighbor, "it is no doubt your cousin Grandet,—a very good-looking young man; I met him at the ball of Monsieur de Nucingen." Adolphe did not go on, for his mother trod on his toes; and then, asking him aloud for two sous to put on her stake, she whispered: "Will you hold your tongue, you great goose!"

At this moment Grandet returned, without la Grande Nanon, whose steps, together with those of the porter, echoed up the staircase; and he was followed by the traveller who had excited such curiosity and so filled the lively imaginations of those present that his arrival at this dwelling, and his sudden fall into the midst of this assembly, can only be likened to that of a snail into a beehive, or the introduction of a peacock into some village poultry-yard.

"Sit down near the fire," said Grandet.

Before seating himself, the young stranger saluted the assembled company very gracefully. The men rose to answer by a courteous inclination, and the women made a ceremonious bow.

"You are cold, no doubt, monsieur," said Madame Grandet; "you have, perhaps, travelled from—"

"Just like all women!" said the old wine-grower, looking up from a letter he was reading. "Do let monsieur rest himself!"

"But, father, perhaps monsieur would like to take something," said Eugenie.

"He has got a tongue," said the old man sternly.

The stranger was the only person surprised by this scene; all the others (...)

(......)