Excerpt from La Com die Humaine of Honor De Balzac: Translated by Katherine Prescott Wormeley; Fame and Sorrow; Colonel Chabert; The Atheist's Mass; La Grande Bret che; The Purse; La Grenadiere; A Double Life; The Rural Ball; The Deserted Woman On a rainy morning in the month Of March, a young man carefully wrapped in a cloak was standing beneath the awning Of a shop directly Opposite to the Old build ing, which be examined with the enthusiasm Of an archae ologist; for, in truth, this relic Of the bourgeoisie Of the sixteenth century presented more than one problem to the mind Of an intelligent Observer. Each storey had its own peculiarity on the first were four long, narrow windows very close to each other, with wooden squares in place of glass panes to the lower sash, so as to give the uncertain light by which a clever shopkeeper can make his goods match any color desired by a customer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.