Mascot

At the end of October, a young man entered the Palais Royal building - Rafael de Valantin, in the eyes of which the players noticed some terrible secret, his face expressing the impassivity of the suicide and a thousand deceived hopes. The loser Valantin sank the last Napoleonder and began to roam the streets of Paris in a daze. His mind was swallowed by a single thought - to commit suicide by rushing into the Seine from the Royal Bridge. The idea that in the afternoon he will become the prey of boaters, which will be valued at fifty francs, aroused his disgust. He decided to die at night, "in order to leave to the society that despised the greatness of his soul an unidentified corpse." Carelessly wandering around, he began to examine the Louvre, the Academy, the towers of the Cathedral of Our Lady, the towers of the Palace of Justice, the bridge of the Arts. To wait for the night, he went to the shop of antiquities to ask the price of works of art. There a thin old man appeared before him with an ominous mockery on his thin lips. The astute old man guessed about the mental torment of the young man and offered to make him more powerful than the monarch. He handed him a shagreen shred, on which the following words were engraved in Sanskrit: “Having me, you will possess everything, but your life will belong to me <...> Desire - and your desires will be fulfilled <...> With every desire I will decrease like your days ... "

Rafael made an agreement with the old man, whose whole life was to preserve the forces unspent in passions, and wished, if his fate did not change in the shortest possible time, so that the old man fell in love with a dancer. On the Bridge of Arts, Valentin accidentally met his friends, who, considering him an outstanding person, offered to work in the newspaper, in order to create an opposition “able to satisfy the citizen king who was unsatisfied without much harm to the national government” (Louis Philippe). Friends led Raphael to a dinner party at the base of the newspaper in the house of the richest banker Tyfer. The audience that gathered in this magnificent mansion that evening was truly monstrous: “Young writers without style stood next to young writers without ideas, prose writers eager for poetic beauties - next to prosaic poets <...> There were two or three scientists created in order to dilute the atmosphere of the conversation with nitrogen, and several vaudeville artists who are ready at any moment to sparkle with ephemeral sparkles that, like diamond sparks, do not shine and do not warm. ” After a hearty dinner, the audience was offered beautiful courtesans, subtle fakes under the "innocent timid virgins." Courtesans Akilina and Euphrasius, in an interview with Raphael and Emil, argue that it is better to die young than to be abandoned when their beauty fades.

Woman without a heart

Rafael tells Emil about the reasons for his anguish and suffering. From childhood, Raphael's father subjugated his son to severe discipline. Until twenty-one years old, he was under the firm hand of a parent, the young man was naive and longed for love. Once at a ball, he decided to play for his father’s money and won an impressive amount of money for him, however, ashamed of his act, he hid this fact. Soon, his father began to give him money for maintenance and share his plans. Raphael's father fought for ten years with Prussian and Bavarian diplomats, seeking recognition of the rights to foreign land ownership. From this process, to which Raphael actively connected, his future depended. When the decree of loss of rights was promulgated, Raphael sold the land, leaving only an island of no value where his mother’s grave was located. A long reckoning with creditors began, which brought her father to the grave. The young man decided to extend the remaining funds for three years, and settled in a cheap hotel, doing scientific work - “Theory of Will”. He lived half-starving, but the work of thought, occupation, seemed to him the most beautiful thing in life. The hostess of the hotel, Mrs. Godin, motherly cared for Rafael, and her daughter Polina rendered him many services, which he could not reject. After a while, he began to give lessons to Polina, the girl was extremely capable and quick-witted. Having gone headlong into science, Raphael continued to dream of a beautiful lady, luxurious, noble and rich. In Pauline, he saw the embodiment of all his desires, but she lacked a salon gloss. "... a woman, - if she is attractive, like the beautiful Elena, this Galatea of ​​Homer, - cannot win my heart if she is even a little dumb."

One winter, Rastignac brought him into the house, “where all of Paris has been” and introduced him to the charming Countess Theodora, the owner of eighty thousand livres of income. The countess was a lady of twenty-two years old, enjoyed an impeccable reputation, had a marriage, but did not have a lover, the most enterprising red tape of Paris suffered a fiasco in the struggle for the right to possess her. Rafael fell in love with Theodora without memory, she was the embodiment of those dreams that made his heart tremble. Parting with him, she asked him to visit her. Upon returning home and feeling the contrast of the situation, Rafael cursed his “honest and respectable poverty” and decided to seduce Theodora, who was the last lottery ticket on which his fate depended. What sacrifices the poor seducer did not make: he incredibly managed to get to her house on foot in the rain and maintain a presentable appearance; with the last money he drove her home when they returned from the theater. In order to secure a worthy wardrobe, he had to conclude an agreement on writing false memoirs, which were to be published under the name of another person. Once she sent him a note with a messenger and asked him to come. Appearing at her call, Rafael learned that she needed the patronage of his influential relative, the Duke de Navarren. The madman in love was only a means to the realization of a mysterious affair, about which he never knew. Raphael was tormented by the idea that the cause of the loneliness of the countess could be a physical disability. To dispel his doubts, he decided to hide in her bedroom. Having left the guests, Theodora entered her apartment and seemed to take off her usual mask of courtesy and affability. Raphael did not find any flaws in her, and calmed down; falling asleep, she said: "My God!". The raptured Rafael built a lot of guesses assuming that this exclamation could mean: “Her exclamation, whether meaningless, or deep, or accidental, or significant, could express both happiness, and grief, and bodily pain, and concern” . As it turned out later, she just remembered what she had forgotten to tell her broker so that he exchanged a five-percent rent for a three-percent. When Raphael revealed to her his poverty and all-consuming passion for her, she replied that she would not belong to anyone and would agree to marry only the duke. Rafael forever left the countess and moved to Rastignac.

Rastignac, playing in a gambling house with their joint money, won twenty-seven thousand francs. From this day, friends went wild. When the funds were wasted, Valanten decided that he was a “social zero” and decided to die.

The story goes back to the moment when Raphael is in Tyfer's mansion. He takes a piece of shagreen leather from his pocket and expresses a desire to become the owner of two hundred thousand annual income. The next morning, the notary Cardo informs the public that Rafael became the full heir to Major O’Flaherty, who died the day before. The newly made rich looked at the shagreen and noticed that it had decreased in size. He was overwhelmed by the ghostly chill of death, now "he could do everything - and did not want anything."

Agony

One December day, an old man came to the marvelous mansion of the Marquis de Valanten, under whose guidance Rafael-mister Porrique once studied. The old faithful servant Jonathan tells the teacher that his master leads a reclusive life and suppresses all desires in himself. The venerable old man came to ask the Marquis to ask the Minister to restore him, Porrique, as an inspector at a provincial college. Raphael, weary of the long outpourings of the old man, accidentally uttered that he sincerely wished for him to be able to achieve reinstatement. Realizing what was said, the Marquis was furious when he looked at the shagreen leather, it noticeably decreased. In the theater, he once met a dry old man with young eyes, while in his gaze now only echoes of outdated passions were read. The old man led the arm of a friend of Raphael - the dancer Euphrasia. To the questioning look of the Marquis, the old man replied that he was now happy as a young man, and that he misunderstood being: "All life is in one hour of love." Looking at the audience, Rafael stopped his gaze on Theodore, who was sitting with another admirer, all the same beautiful and cold. On a nearby armchair with Rafael sat a beautiful stranger, capturing the admiring glances of all the men present. It was Pauline. Her father, who once commanded a squadron of equestrian grenadiers of the imperial guard, was captured by the Cossacks; According to rumors, he managed to escape and get to India. Returning, he made his daughter the heiress of a million fortune. They agreed to meet at the Saint-Quentin Hotel, their former home, which had memories of their poverty, Polina wanted to transfer the papers that Rafael had bequeathed to her when moving.

Finding himself at home, Raphael looked longingly at the talisman and thought that Pauline should love him. The next morning he was overwhelmed with joy - the talisman did not decrease, which means that the contract was violated.

Having met, young people realized that they wholeheartedly love each other and nothing prevents their happiness. When Rafael once again looked at the shagreen leather, he noticed that it had again decreased, and in a fit of anger threw it into the well. What will be will be, - decided the exhausted Raphael and healed soul in soul with Polina. One February day, the gardener brought the Marquis a strange find, "the size of which now did not exceed six square inches."

From now on, Rafael decided to seek a means of salvation from scientists to stretch the shagreen and extend his life. The first to whom he went was Mr. Lavril, "priest of zoology." When asked about how to stop skin narrowing, Lavril answered: “Science is vast, and human life is very short. Therefore, we do not pretend to know all the phenomena of nature. "

The second to whom the Marquis addressed, was a professor of mechanics Tablet. An attempt to stop the narrowing of shagreen leather by exposing it to a hydraulic press was unsuccessful. The shagreen stays safe and sound. The struck German hit the skin with a blacksmith hammer, but there was no trace of damage on it. The apprentice threw the skin into a coal-fired furnace, but even from it the shagreen leather was taken out completely unscathed.

The chemist Jafe broke the razor, trying to cut the skin, tried to cut it with an electric current, exposed the voltaic column - all to no avail.

Now Valanten already did not believe in anything, he began to look for damage to his body and called for doctors. For a long time he began to notice signs of consumption, now it became obvious to him and Pauline. Doctors came to the following conclusion: “in order to break the window, a blow was needed, but who struck it?” They attributed leeches, diet, and climate change. Rafael smiled sarcastically in response to these recommendations.

A month later, he went to the waters in Aix. Here he was faced with gross coldness and neglect of others. He was shunned and almost declared in person that "since a person is so sick, he should not ride on the water." The clash with the cruelty of secular treatment led to a duel with one of the brave brave men. Raphael killed his adversary, and his skin narrowed again.

Leaving the water, he settled in the rural hut of Mont-Dore. The people with whom he lived deeply sympathized with him, and pity - "the feeling that is most difficult to endure from other people." Soon, Jonathan came for him and took his master home. He sent Pauline letters in which she poured out her love for him, he threw into the fireplace. The opium solution prepared by Bianchon plunged Raphael into artificial sleep for several days. The old servant decided to follow Bianchon’s advice and entertain the master. He convened a full house of friends, a magnificent feast was planned, but when he saw this spectacle, Valanten became furious. After drinking a portion of sleeping pills, he again fell into a dream. Pauline woke him, he began to beg her to leave him, showed a piece of skin that became the size of a "periwinkle sheet", she began to examine the talisman, and he, seeing how beautiful she was, could not control herself. “Pauline, come here! Pauline!" He cried out, and the talisman in her hand began to shrink. Polina decided to tear her chest to pieces, strangle herself with a shawl to die. She decided that if she killed herself, he would be alive. Rafael, seeing all this, became intoxicated with passion, rushed to her and died immediately.

Epilogue

What happened to Polina?

On the steamer City of Angers, a young man and a beautiful woman admired the figure in the fog over the Loire. “This light creation, whether undine or sylphide, soared in the air, - so the word you are looking for in vain is somewhere in my memory, but it can’t be caught <...> You would think that this is the ghost of the Lady portrayed by Antoine de la Sal, wants to protect his country from the invasion of modernity. "