Paul de Manerville, a young Bordeaux gentleman back from Paris, wants to marry the beautiful Natalie Evangelista, whose widowed mother has spent far more of the family fortune than anyone suspects. Over three days of negotiation his old notary Mathias and her shrewd young notary Solonet fight clause by clause over the marriage settlement, and the contract decides more than the wedding vows.
A sharp, compact piece of La Comédie humaine showing how money, law and vanity shape a French marriage. Download the free EPUB.