Read "The Conquest of Plassans" by Émile Zola online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The general elections were to take place in October. About the middle of September, Monseigneur Rousselot suddenly set off to Paris, after having a long interview with Abbé Faujas. It was said that one of his sisters, who lived at Versailles, was seriously ill. Five days later he was back in Plassans again, and he called Abbé Surin into his study to read to him. Lying back in his easy chair, closely enveloped in a padded robe of violet silk, although the weather was still quite warm, he smilingly listened to the young Abbé's womanish voice as he softly lisped the strophes of Anacreon.
'Good, very good,' he said; 'you express the music of that beautiful tongue excellently.'