Works of Guy de Maupassant

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Excerpt: ... MADEMOISELLE PEARL w Hat a curious fancy I had, when I chose Mademoiselle Pearl for queen that evening! I go every year to celebrate Twelfth Night at the home of my dear friend Chantal. My father, who 'was his most intimate comrade, took me there when I was a child. I have kept up the custom, and I shall conLEsS tinue it, without doubt, as long as there is Ilk' a Chantal in the world. />– The Chantals lead a singular existence; they > live in Paris as if they inhabited Grasse, Yvetot, or Pont-a-Mousson. They possess a house situated in a little garden, close to the Observatory. There they dwell as quietly as if in the country. Of Paris, the real Paris, they know nothing, they suspect nothing; they are far from it, very far! At times, however, they make a little journey to it. Madame Chantal goes there to lay in her supplies, as they say in the family. 15 G. dcM. Mademoiselle Pearl, who keeps the keys of the kitchen closets (for the linen closets are administered by the mistress of the house herself), announces that the sugar is getting low, that there are no more canned things, that there is not much coffee left in the coffee-sack. Thus put on guard against famine, Madame Chantal takes account of the stock remaining on hand, making notes in a blank book. After she has written down a great many figures, she gives herself up to long calculations at first, and afterward to long discussions with Mademoiselle Pearl. They finish at last by agreeing, and by fixing upon certain quantities of each commodity with which they wish to provide themselves for three months: sugar, rice, prunes, coffee, preserves, cans of peas and of beans, lobster, salted or smoked fish, etc., etc. Then they decide upon a day for the purchases, and when it arrives they go in a cab, with a railing around...