This is one of Balzac's best stories, about a man who keeps two households.

The story begins with a chaste and lovely needlewoman called Caroline who spends her days by the window of a run-down house in a seedy part of Paris. A gloomy young man passes by each day and inevitably he notices her and begins to take an interest in her despite his depression. One day he sees that she is desperately short of money and throws his purse in through the window, and after that there's a picnic. One thing leads to another, and he sets her up in a charming house where she lives contentedly and bears him a couple of children.

Her mother, a rather crafty old woman, falls ill before long and there's a splendid scene where three old biddies and her servant are all waiting for her to die so that they can get their hands on her money. On her death-bed she reveals the name of the man whose mistress her daughter is...