CONTENTS
DEDICATION
URSULA
CHAPTER I. THE FRIGHTENED HEIRS
CHAPTER II. THE RICH UNCLE
CHAPTER III. THE DOCTOR’S FRIENDS
CHAPTER IV. ZELIE
CHAPTER V. URSULA
CHAPTER VI. A TREATISE ON MESMERISM
CHAPTER VII. A TWO-FOLD CONVERSION
CHAPTER VIII. THE CONFERENCE
CHAPTER IX. A FIRST CONFIDENCE
CHAPTER X. THE FAMILY OF PORTENDUERE
CHAPTER XI. SAVINIEN SAVED
CHAPTER XII. OBSTACLES TO YOUNG LOVE
CHAPTER XIII. BETROTHAL OF HEARTS
CHAPTER XIV. URSULA AGAIN ORPHANED
CHAPTER XV. THE DOCTOR’S WILL
CHAPTER XVI. THE TWO ADVERSARIES
CHAPTER XVII. THE MALIGNITY OF PROVINCIAL MINDS
CHAPTER XVIII. A TWO-FOLD VENGEANCE
CHAPTER XIX. APPARITIONS
CHAPTER XX. REMORSE
CHAPTER XXI. SHOWING HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO STEAL
THAT WHICH SEEMS VERY EASILY STOLEN
ADDENDUM
To Mademoiselle Sophie Surville, It is a true pleasure, my dear niece, to dedicate to you this book, the subject and details of which have won the approbation, so difficult to win, of a young girl to whom the world is still unknown, and who has compromised with none of the lofty principles of a saintly education. Young girls are indeed a formidable public, for they ought not to be allowed to read books less pure than the purity of their souls; they are forbidden certain reading, just as they are carefully prevented from seeing social life as it is. Must it not therefore be a source of pride to a writer to find that he has pleased you? God grant that your affection for me has not misled you. Who can tell? —the future; which you, I hope, will see, though not, perhaps. Your uncle, De Balzac.