So Fair, Yet False, or "Pourquoi?" (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI. DEATH-BED REVELATIONS. Yes, Louis Boissard had started joyfully indeed for that excursion to Switzerland, from which, alas he was never to return. So joyfully that one might well have wondered how a man who had fairly worshipped his father, could manifest so much gayety a few months only after the death of the ironmaster. For it had been very brief, that good time which Baptiste the Rich had indulged in, at the end of a long career wholly consecrated to labor. When he was hoping to enjoy for a few years more the sweet pleasure; so long deferred, of living with his children, death had carried him off at the very beginning of that felicity. How he did love his children, the good iron-master He adored his own Louis; and Martha he cherished her with a profound gratitude for all the happiness she afforded to his son. And then, to see him playing with his grandchildren What hearty laughter, what honest mirth And sometimes he would stop in the midst of all this hilarity, to exclaim with a sort of superstition: "Upon my word, I am too happy I am sure something is going to happen to me."-Then he would turn to Martha and add quickly: "What a fool I am, talking about being too happy Won't I be three times more so when my old friend Grandet--your father, dear Martha--will have got rid of all his draper's traps at Valeroye to come and join us? Ah, hammer and anvil then we can boast of having a nice time of it " But the iron-master never lived to see that day. At the very moment when he was announcing the near arrival of Grandet, who had at last retired from business, a thunderstroke came to prostrate honest Baptiste. It was one evening after dinner; the family was gathered in the parlor. While Louis was giving a drawing lesson to his...