About this story
You play Eugene de Rastignac, a law student living on his family's hope and not much money. At the table, old Goriot crumbles yesterday's bread and is mocked for the silver he no longer owns, until a carriage too fine for the street stops outside and a veiled woman who leaves no name asks for the old gentleman. He wants the parlour cleared of witnesses. The lock clicks.
Who you’ll meet
Pere Goriot, the ruined old merchant the reader lodges alongside, at the parlour door with the veiled lady of rank who has come to him in secret, while the jovial fellow lodger grins from the dining-room doorway.
How it opens
The boarding house crouched where the Paris street fell toward a damp hollow.
Madame VauquerThese walls are sound, whatever the cabbage chooses to remember.
Madame VauquerMorning light arrives late because the courtyard keeps it first.
Madame VauquerSeven places, seven accounts, and never seven prompt payments.
Madame VauquerMonsieur Eugene, your coffee cools while Paris advances without you.
The widow guarded the steaming pot as though each cup reduced her fortune.