Colonel Chabert Honore de Balzac Author

Book Excerpt: ns of theprolix document. Five clerks with rows of hungry teeth, bright,mocking eyes, and curly heads, lifted their noses towards the door,after crying all together in a singing tone, Come in!Boucard kept his face buried in a pile o... Read more

Book Excerpt: ns of theprolix document. Five clerks with rows of hungry teeth, bright,mocking eyes, and curly heads, lifted their noses towards the door,after crying all together in a singing tone, Come in!Boucard kept his face buried in a pile of papers--/broutilles/ (oddsand ends) in French law jargon--and went on drawing out the bill ofcosts on which he was busy.The office was a large room furnished with the traditional stool whichis to be seen in all these dens of law-quibbling. The stove-pipecrossed the room diagonally to the chimney of a bricked-up fireplace;on the marble chimney-piece were several chunks of bread, triangles ofBrie cheese, pork cutlets, glasses, bottles, and the head clerk's cupof chocolate. The smell of these dainties blended so completely withthat of the immoderately overheated stove and the odor peculiar tooffices and old papers, that the trail of a fox would not have beenperceptible. The floor was covered with mud and snow, brought in bythe clerks. Near the window stood thRead More Less