Gil Blas by Alain-René Lesage (best romance books of all time TXT) 📕

among people so little inclined to treat me civilly. The only point remaining now to be discussed was her future destiny and provision. “My dear mother,” said I, “since my uncle stands so much in need of your attendance, I will no longer urge you to go along with me; but, as his days seem likely to be very few on earth, you must promise to come and take up your abode with me at my farm as soon as the last duties are performed to his honored remains.”

“I shall make no such promise,” answered my mother, “for I mean to pass the remnant of my days in the Asturias, and in a state of perfect independence.”

“Will you not on all occasions,” replied I, “be absolute mistress in my household?”

“Maybe so, and maybe not,” rejoined she: “you have only to fall in love with some flirt of a girl, and then you will marry: then she will be my daughter-in-law, and I shall be her stepmother; and then we shall live together as stepmothers and daughters-in-law usually do.”

“Your prognostics,” said I, “are fetched from a great distance. I have not at present the most remote intention of entering into the happy state; but even though such a whim should take possession of my brain, I will pledge myself for instructing my wife betimes in an implicit submission to your will and pleasure.”

“That is giving security without the means of making good your contract,” replied my mother; “you would scarcely be able to justify bail. I would not even swear that, in our sparring-matches, you might not take your wife’s part in preference to mine, however ill she might behave, or however unreasonably she might argue.”

“You talk very excellent sense, madam,” cried my secretary, coming in for his share of the conversation; “I think just as you do, that docility is about as much the virtue of a donkey as of a daughter-in-law. As the matter stands, that there may be no difference of opinion between my master and you, since you are absolutely determined to live asunder, you in the Asturias, and he in the kingdom of Valencia, he must allow you an annuity of a hundred pistoles, and send me hither every year for the payment. By thus arranging matters, mother and son will be very good friends, with an interval of two hundred leagues between them.”

The parties concerned fell in at once with the proposal: I paid the first year in advance, and stole out of Oviedo the next morning before dawn, for fear of vying with Saint Stephen in popular favor. Such were the charms of my return to my native place. An admirable lesson this, for those successful upstarts, who, having gone abroad to make their fortunes, come home to be the purse-proud tyrants of their birthplace.

III

Gil Blas sets out for Valencia, and arrives at Lirias⁠—Description of his seat⁠—The particulars of his reception, and the characters of the inhabitants he found there.

We took the road for León, afterwards that of Valencia; and, continuing our journey by short stages, arrived on the evening of the tenth day at the town of Segorba, whence early on the morrow we repaired to my seat, at the distance of very little more than three leagues. In proportion as we approached nearer, it was amusing to see with what a longing eye my secretary looked at all the estates which lay in our way, to the right and left of the road. Whenever he caught a glimpse of any which bespoke the rank and opulence of its owner, he never missed pointing at it with his finger, and wishing that were the place of our retreat.

“I know not, my good friend,” said I, “what idea you have formed of our habitation; but if you have taken it into your head that ours is a magnificent house, with the domain of a great landed proprietor, I warn you in time that you are laying much too flattering an unction to your vanity.

“If you have no mind to be the dupe of a warm imagination, figure to yourself the little ornamented cottage which Horace fitted up near Tibur, in the country of the Sabines, on a small farm, the fee-simple of which was given him by Maecenas. Don Alphonso has made me just such another present, more as a token of affection than for the value of the thing.”

“Then I must expect to see nothing but a dirty hovel!” exclaimed Scipio.

“Bear in mind,” replied I, “that I have always given you quite an unvarnished description of my place; and now, even at this moment, you may judge for yourself whether I have not stuck to truth and nature in my representations. Just carry your eye along the course of the Guadalaviar, and observe at a little distance from the further bank, near that hamlet, consisting of nine or ten tenements, a house with four small turrets: that is my mansion.”

“The deuce and all!” stammered out my secretary, short-breathed with sudden admiration: “why, that house is one of the prettiest things in nature. Besides the castellated air which those turrets give it, all the beauties of situation and architecture, fertility of soil, and perfection of landscape, combine to rival or excel the immediate neighborhood of Seville, complimented as it is for its picturesque attractions by the appellation of an earthly paradise. Had we chosen the place of our settlement for ourselves, it could not have been more to my taste: a river meanders through the grounds, distilling plenty and verdure from its fertilizing bosom; the leafy honors of an umbrageous wood invite the midday walk, and qualify the temperature of the seasons. What a heavenly abode of solitude and contemplation! Ah! my dear master, we shall act very foolishly if we are in a hurry to run away from our happiness.”

“I am delighted,” answered I, “that you are so well satisfied with the retreat provided for us, though yet