A Second Home

"A Second Home" by Honoré de Balzac
Caroline Crochard, a delightful young girl living with her mother in squalid conditions, spends her time sewing in the window. The Comte de Granville, an aristocrat who was married at too young an age to a bigoted woman, and who is now unhappy in his home, sees the girl and falls in love with her. Balzac takes up their story some years later. Caroline is now richly installed in a luxurious apartment with two children, whose father, known to Caroline as Roger de Granville, cannot acknowledge them on account of his marriage. Eventually Caroline abandons de Granville and takes up with an impoverished young man, who squanders her property.