The Complete Works of Guy de Maupassant (Volume 16); Translations and Critical and Interpretative Essays

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. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ...could intrust this delicate mission. It was the end of July. Paris was empty. They were searching in vain for a name which offered them sufficient guaranty. Their embarrassment grew when they heard of a great breach of morality which had happened on a railway train a few days previously. And the ladies were positive that all the gay girls of the whole capital spent their lives on the expresses between Auvergne and the Lyons Station. According to M. de Bridoie, of the Gil Bias, all these women had gone to Vichy, Mont Dore, and Bourboule. In order to get there they must have gone on the railway, and they would again undoubtedly come back by the same means of transportation; they must probably be going back and forth every day. It was, therefore, a continual coming and going of naughty people on that confounded line. The ladies were most distressed that entrance to the stations should not be forbidden to suspicious women. Now, Eoger de Sarcagnes was fifteen, Gontran de Vaulacelles thirteen, and Eoland de Bridoie eleven. What was to be done? They could not expose their dear children to the contact of such creatures. What might they not hear? What might they not learn if they were to spend a whole day or night in a compartment which contained one or two of these persons, with a couple of their companions? The situation seemed to be absolutely hopeless, when Madame de Martinsec happened to pass. She stopped to greet her friends, who told her their troubles. Why, the matter is quite simple, she exclaimed. I will lend you the Abbe. I can very well get along without him for forty-eight hours. Rodolphe's education will not be compromised by that. He can go for your children and bring them back again. Thus it was agreed upon that Abbe Lecuir, a...