The writer Balzac tells the tale of a ferryboat, traveling from an island on the coast of Flanders to Ostend on the mainland.

“Night is coming on. A man appears. He is not distinguished in dress. Seven persons sit in better seats on the boat:

• A cavalier with gilded spurs and jewel bedecked cap;
• A proud damsel with falcon on her wrist;
• Her mother;
• A churchman of high rank;
• A fat merchant;
• A doctor of science.

They make sure there is no room for the stranger. He moved up among the poor, the working people, a young woman…