Miss Eugenie Grandet

Eugenie knew all too well.

Father is old, really old.

He no longer has the energy and himself to care about the bills from tailors and shoe dealers, he becomes prone to sleepiness, and his memory is not as good as before.

In the past, whenever guests gathered in the living room, he sat in the corner and seemed to squint, but he was secretly paying attention to their conversation.Now, he still likes to sit in the corner that belongs to him, but when the visitors are talking in his ears, he actually leans on the easy chair and falls asleep.

Eugenie found that she seemed to have changed accordingly, a change in her mood.

Since her mother's death, she has found herself becoming sentimental.

A withered rose that she put in the book as a bookmark in the early years, or a few sighs unconsciously uttered by her father in his sleep, can make her feel sad.She was more reluctant than ever to see her father showing his aging appearance, and she was even more afraid that he would leave her like this.Although she didn't like Saumur, she knew what Saumur's old house meant to her father, so she moved back to make her father feel more comfortable.She also cut down on food and expenses. Except for the supply of fresh milk and bread, she only ate meat twice a week. Because of this, the old father was happier and would eat more.She still remembered that around this time in the past, the old father accidentally fell while climbing the stairs one day, which led to his final paralysis, so she took extra care of him.Except for setting aside time in the morning to deal with the endless stream of visitors and business affairs, she spent the rest of the time by her old father's side almost the entire time.She ate with him, walked with him, and listened to him tell her all the things he had accumulated in his life. To her surprise, the accounts were accurate to a sou.Or sometimes, when the weather was fine, when he insisted on going to see the fields, she would order Cornoille to get in the car and go with her.

Although Eugenie took good care of her, old age inevitably came to the old Grandet.By the late spring of 1826, he could barely walk.For about half a day, he seemed ignorant, obedient to his daughter, and his innocent eyes seemed to have returned to his childhood. Report to him the income of the grape fields, or order Eugenie to carry him to his closet, and look at the stacks of gold coins before him, and his eyes will be restored to their former glory. His face radiated a golden light that awed the Saumurs.

But gradually, Eugenie discovered something. The old father was actually not happy, as if he had some unfulfilled wish.As the days passed and his body aged, his emotions became more pronounced.He often sighed before Eugenie, and fixed her with a sad and angry look.

"Father, what else do you want me to do?"

Whenever she held his hand and asked patiently, he would shake his head, turn his face away, and say in a desperate tone: "It's useless if I say it! You won't listen to me anyway! You always Take pleasure in being against me! I know, you are a bad-hearted girl!"

Eugenie was not quite sure what her old father was blaming her for.Perhaps, just like what he said, she had indeed been disobedient to him all the time, probably so much that even she couldn't figure out what he hated herself the most now.

But one day, she suddenly understood.

It was one afternoon at the end of April, when the old Grandet was sleeping on the bed, and Eugenie was sitting on a chair next to his bed, looking down at a stack of research reports on the latest development plan of the railway project that had just been handed in, His attention was suddenly attracted by the old father on the bed.

"Twenty-five Flotafones! Twenty-five Flotifons!" she saw her old father open his eyes and stare blankly at the top of the bed-curtain above his head, and muttered the words twice. , let out a long sigh of despair, then closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep again.

Eugenie was startled.

25 Flois Fon...

It sounds like it is so far away.

Seems like five years have passed, right?She had little time, or rather, little relish to recall anyone or anything connected with it.And, she felt, she had succeeded in forgetting too.But now, it suddenly appeared in front of her in such a way, so clear that people were caught off guard.

It turned out that it was this past incident that made my old father never forget it, and even now thinking about it, he still complains to himself.

Perhaps, she had vaguely guessed what the old father was thinking before.After all, she knows her father too well, what he wants to do, what he will do, she guessed him thoroughly five years ago.Even now, even if she brought the whole Anjou province in front of him, he would still feel pain for the 25 Flois rich land that could have fallen into his pocket so easily but missed it. endlessly.

It's just that she has been reluctant to face it squarely.

----

After the old father muttered a few words in his sleep, he continued to sleep deeply.

Eugenie, however, could no longer look at what she was holding.

She stared motionlessly at the silhouette of her father sleeping on the bed, and her mood suddenly became chaotic.After a while she got up, opened the door softly, and when she came out, she saw Nanon standing in the doorway with a tray of teapots in her hand, with tears in her eyes.

"Miss, you are too cruel-this is the master's greatest wish, so you are still indifferent?" She said in a low voice, "I knew it a long time ago, but I just didn't dare to mention it to you. You are really cruel-"

Eugenie lowered her head and went down the stairs leading down the corridor, and Nanon chased her.

"Miss! I beg you, just let the master feel at ease, and you should also find that person!"

Eugenie's hand rested on the worm-eaten armrest.She stopped, turned her head and looked up.

In the dark stairwell, a slender beam of sunlight managed to squeeze in through the cracks in the tiles at the top corner of the head, and shone right on Nanon's face.The eyes on that rough, perennially red-purple face were staring at him eagerly and dissatisfied.

"Nanon, let me think, think again..."

Eugenie whispered, turned her head, and went on downstairs.

----

That night, after accompanying her old father and waiting for him to fall asleep, Eugenie slept in her mother's room.

Although it has been a year since Mrs. Grandet passed away, everything in this room still remains as it was when she was alive.Every week, either Nanon, or Eugenie herself, must change the water in the vase in front of the portrait hanging on the wall facing Mrs. Grandet, and insert a freshly cut one from her lifetime. favorite rose.

Madame Grandet also liked her portrait very much.The portrait was painted for her by Mrs. Mibel, the most famous portrait painter in Paris, one year before her death.In the portrait, Mrs. Grandet is wearing a golden and green velvet dress and a solemn turban, with a loving light in her eyes and a gentle and satisfied smile on her mouth.

"My daughter, I'm going to heaven, and I'll look at you in heaven... If you miss me, just look at this portrait... Oh, if I can see you married now, I will spend my whole life I really have no regrets…”

The words that Mrs. Grandet said when she caught herself before she died seemed to be recalled in her ears again at this moment...

Early next morning, just after dawn, Eugenie rose at six o'clock.

This is a habit I have developed following my father for many years. Whether it is winter or summer, old Grandet will definitely wake up at this point. Even now, he still does this-he hates those habits of sleeping until eight or nine o'clock Those who can't get up, curse them as slobs who have a bad life.

When she looked in the mirror, Eugenie noticed that her eyes seemed a little swollen.After finishing her simple dressing and going to take care of her father as usual, she found that Nanon, who would always appear on time at this time, was gone and replaced by Sarah, the newly hired maid in the family, the daughter of the cook who used to help Nanon. , married six months ago, to the son of a tenant in Floisfonli.As a reward for her years of hard work, Eugenie gave her a tea set, plus a thousand francs in congratulations.

"And Nanon?"

asked Eugenie, as she helped her father, who had woken up, to dress him.

"Don't you know, miss?" said Sara in surprise. "Mum left by train yesterday. She said she was going to Paris."

Eugenie was taken aback.

It was only then that I remembered that I hadn't seen Nanon since we parted at the stairs yesterday.

Saumur Station opens twice a day in the morning and evening to take the train to Orleans.After arriving in Orleans, because the railway to Paris was still under construction, he could only take a postcoach as before.But the whole itinerary can be cut in half.

In other words, Nanon should have boarded the stagecoach to Paris by now.

If all goes well, she should be able to reach Paris before noon.

"Eugenie!"

When she was in a daze, old Grandet got a little impatient waiting, and urged her to put on socks for him quickly, "You must dress Daddy neatly! Let them know that the old boss is still in good spirits. Who wants to fool, Then give him some color and see..." He muttered in his mouth.

Today is the day when the steward of the manor comes to pay the bill.Every day like this, old Grandet would become extremely sober, and his eyes would recover.

"Okay, father."

Eugenie regained her composure, knelt down and put on the old father's shoes and socks.