Explore "The Amethyst Ring" by Anatole France on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The drawing-room of the house in the grey Batignolles quarter was humble, the only decorations being copies of the engravings in the Louvre, little statues, cups and dishes of Sèvres china, trivial-looking ornaments, which somehow proclaimed the fact that the lady of the house was connected with Government officials.
Madame Cheiral, _née_ Loyer, was the sister of the Minister of Justice and Public Worship. She was the widow of a commission-agent in the Rue d'Hauteville, who had died without leaving a penny, and she had attached herself to her brother, partly for the sake of a home, and partly out of maternal ambition. She ruled the old bachelor, who ruled the country, and had forced him to take as his secretary-in-chief her son Maurice, who was not fitted for anything in particular, and was good for nothing except some public office.