登陆注册
4279900000017

第17章

Not finding any great love in her husband, Virginie had set to work to create it. Having by degrees learned to esteem and care for his wife, the time that his happiness had taken to germinate was to Joseph Lebas a guarantee of its durability. Hence, when Augustine plaintively set forth her painful position, she had to face the deluge of commonplace morality which the traditions of the Rue Saint-Denis furnished to her sister.

"The mischief is done, wife," said Joseph Lebas; "we must try to give our sister good advice." Then the clever tradesman ponderously analyzed the resources which law and custom might offer Augustine as a means of escape at this crisis; he ticketed every argument, so to speak, and arranged them in their degrees of weight under various categories, as though they were articles of merchandise of different qualities; then he put them in the scale, weighed them, and ended by showing the necessity for his sister-in-law's taking violent steps which could not satisfy the love she still had for her husband; and, indeed, the feeling had revived in all its strength when she heard Joseph Lebas speak of legal proceedings. Augustine thanked them, and returned home even more undecided than she had been before consulting them. She now ventured to go to the house in the Rue du Colombier, intending to confide her troubles to her father and mother; for she was like a sick man who, in his desperate plight, tries every prescription, and even puts faith in old wives' remedies.

The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness that touched her deeply. Her visit brought them some little change, and that to them was worth a fortune. For the last four years they had gone their way like navigators without a goal or a compass. Sitting by the chimney corner, they would talk over their disasters under the old law of /maximum/, of their great investments in cloth, of the way they had weathered bankruptcies, and, above all, the famous failure of Lecocq, Monsieur Guillaume's battle of Marengo. Then, when they had exhausted the tale of lawsuits, they recapitulated the sum total of their most profitable stock-takings, and told each other old stories of the Saint-Denis quarter. At two o'clock old Guillaume went to cast an eye on the business at the Cat and Racket; on his way back he called at all the shops, formerly the rivals of his own, where the young proprietors hoped to inveigle the old draper into some risky discount, which, as was his wont, he never refused point-blank. Two good Normandy horses were dying of their own fat in the stables of the big house; Madame Guillaume never used them but to drag her on Sundays to high Mass at the parish church. Three times a week the worthy couple kept open house. By the influence of his son-in-law Sommervieux, Monsieur Guillaume had been named a member of the consulting board for the clothing of the Army. Since her husband had stood so high in office, Madame Guillaume had decided that she must receive; her rooms were so crammed with gold and silver ornaments, and furniture, tasteless but of undoubted value, that the simplest room in the house looked like a chapel. Economy and expense seemed to be struggling for the upper hand in every accessory. It was as though Monsieur Guillaume had looked to a good investment, even in the purchase of a candlestick. In the midst of this bazaar, where splendor revealed the owner's want of occupation, Sommervieux's famous picture filled the place of honor, and in it Monsieur and Madame Guillaume found their chief consolation, turning their eyes, harnessed with eye-glasses, twenty times a day on this presentment of their past life, to them so active and amusing. The appearance of this mansion and these rooms, where everything had an aroma of staleness and mediocrity, the spectacle offered by these two beings, cast away, as it were, on a rock far from the world and the ideas which are life, startled Augustine; she could here contemplate the sequel of the scene of which the first part had struck her at the house of Lebas--a life of stir without movement, a mechanical and instinctive existence like that of the beaver; and then she felt an indefinable pride in her troubles, as she reflected that they had their source in eighteen months of such happiness as, in her eyes, was worth a thousand lives like this; its vacuity seemed to her horrible. However, she concealed this not very charitable feeling, and displayed for her parents her newly-acquired accomplishments of mind, and the ingratiating tenderness that love had revealed to her, disposing them to listen to her matrimonial grievances. Old people have a weakness for this kind of confidence.

Madame Guillaume wanted to know the most trivial details of that alien life, which to her seemed almost fabulous. The travels of Baron da la Houtan, which she began again and again and never finished, told her nothing more unheard-of concerning the Canadian savages.

"What, child, your husband shuts himself into a room with naked women!

And you are so simple as to believe that he draws them?"As she uttered this exclamation, the grandmother laid her spectacles on a little work-table, shook her skirts, and clasped her hands on her knees, raised by a foot-warmer, her favorite pedestal.

"But, mother, all artists are obliged to have models.""He took good care not to tell us that when he asked leave to marry you. If I had known it, I would never had given my daughter to a man who followed such a trade. Religion forbids such horrors; they are immoral. And at what time of night do you say he comes home?""At one o'clock--two----"

The old folks looked at each other in utter amazement.

"Then he gambles?" said Monsieur Guillaume. "In my day only gamblers stayed out so late."Augustine made a face that scorned the accusation.

同类推荐
  • 渐悟集

    渐悟集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 六艺纲目

    六艺纲目

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 胎产秘书

    胎产秘书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大乘中观释论

    大乘中观释论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 玉清无极总真文昌大洞仙经

    玉清无极总真文昌大洞仙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • BLIX

    BLIX

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 奇葩奇葩处处哀

    奇葩奇葩处处哀

    一些荒谬,一些世俗,一些呆痴,一些缘木求鱼南辕北辙直至匪夷所思,一些俗意盎然的情节……无限的人生命运的叹息,无数的悲欢离合的撩拨……空间、时间、性别三元素的纠结激荡,旋转了个人、历史、命运的万花筒。本书收录了王蒙最新创作的《奇葩奇葩处处哀》及另外三个短篇小说。《奇葩奇葩处处哀》讲述了极品男人沈卓然在丧妻后择偶再婚过程中,遭遇四个奇女子的故事,以一个男人的视角反映了当下生活中女人奇妙的择偶标准及人生追求,生动幽默地描写了各种价值观对人们的影响。故事结局令人啼笑皆非,出人意料。其他的三篇短篇小说均为王蒙近期以现实生活中女性为题材的新作。
  • 听,你的身体在抱怨

    听,你的身体在抱怨

    如何倾听身体的私房话,如何正确判断身体的状态,听懂身体的话后该如何与身体和谐相处……如果你有这样的疑问,请翻开《听你的身体在抱怨》,它将带你开始与自己身体的一次倾心详谈,让你与身体成为真正的朋友。
  • 英雄联盟意识王者

    英雄联盟意识王者

    玩好LOL的关键是什么?你肯定会说,那是技术!可史翟有着和你不同的理解,技术自然关键,可如果遇到和你技术差不多的玩家,秀不起来呢?也许你说,那也没啥,快乐就行了!可史翟不会那么想,你的队友同样不会这么想,电竞的关键,是不管顺风逆风,都得想办法赢下比赛!开挂?在真正的意识面前,那根本上不了台面!秀操作?你能带领团队一起秀么?技术不如人,就不能打了么?史翟轻轻摆手,No!No!No!这是一个团队游戏,比拼的不只是技术,还有精神,思维和意识!
  • 王子与贫儿(中小学生必读丛书)

    王子与贫儿(中小学生必读丛书)

    本书以16世纪的英国为背景,描写了王子和贫儿互换身份的童话式故事。一个阴差阳错的偶然机会,长相相同的王子爱德华和贫儿汤姆因互换衣服,从而导致了命运的颠倒。曾经的小乞丐成了王子的“替身”,真正的王子流落在外,受尽欺凌和嘲讽。后来,王子历经种种劫难,终于回到了王宫;而汤姆也将不属于自己的王位还给了王子。经过这样的“交换身份”,两个少年都懂得了很多东西……
  • 星尘

    星尘

    苏浅星是一个私生女,跟母亲生活在一起的她,虽然有着家境富裕的父亲,却从来没有享受过温暖和关爱,过着窘迫的生活,在常年抑郁的母亲自杀之后,满怀恨意的她为了报复争夺同父异母的妹妹喜欢的人,然而一场意外的车祸,让一切的故事有了出人意料的反转。3年后,一个叫纪墨卿的少女作家出现在人们的视线,她有着一双跟苏浅星一样布满伤痕的眼睛。
  • 不二臣

    不二臣

    作为疯子和谄臣的女儿。祁太微逃过婚,放过火,杀过人,死的时候漂泊异乡,孑然一身。她拼尽全力爱上的,不过是场黄粱美梦。如今梦醒了从头再来,这种裙下之臣不要也罢。“抓住这只手,你就可以活命。”“活你个大头鬼啊。”做人真他娘一点意思也没有……
  • 豪赌血丝玉

    豪赌血丝玉

    宝蛋生于1900年,外号叫八国,那年八国联军打进中国,打得大清王朝割地求和,邱庄人恨极了洋人,也恨极了宝蛋一家,所以当宝蛋降生在邱万财家里时,邱庄人就说:又一个劣货出世了,长大后肯定比八国联军还劣,所以当宝蛋刚会走路时,村里人就悄悄地叫起了劣八国。当着邱家人的面不便叫,便直喊八国,搞得邱家人莫名其妙。邱万财是个挂千顷牌的财主,家里有一眼望不到边的地,百囤踅不完的粮,还有一片二百亩地的楸树园。骡马成群,佃户连村,方圆数县提起邱家,没有不知道其家业的。邱家虽阔,但小气得出名。
  • 迈克尔·波伦“饮食觉醒”系列:杂食者的两难+为食物辩护+吃的法则(套装共3册)

    迈克尔·波伦“饮食觉醒”系列:杂食者的两难+为食物辩护+吃的法则(套装共3册)

    迈克尔·波伦“饮食觉醒”系列包括《杂食者的两难》、《为食物辩护》、《吃的法则》。自从人类开始围坐在一起共同进餐,饮食之道就与文化而不仅仅是生理需求,结下了不解之缘,人类透过饮食,将自然转化为文化。在本套装中,作为美国饮食界的引领者,迈克尔·波伦长期关注饮食议题,企图在工业社会与田园自然中寻求调和,给出了杂食者“到底要吃什么”的答案。
  • 羞涩夫君

    羞涩夫君

    当穿越流行到楚乔乔身上时,楚乔乔很淡定的接受了这个事实,同时也很淡定的过着自己的生活。当遇上那个拉拉小手,会脸红;亲亲小嘴,吓得不敢动的男人时,她的世界便开始不淡定了!入凤府,上斗长辈,下打奴才,中间防小三,为了那个男人,她豁出去了!可到最后,她才真正发现要斗,要打,要防的对象是谁!丫的,跟她装纯装真装青涩是吧!看她非将这臭男人一脚踹飞,然后,另觅他处,逍遥快活去!片段:“楚,楚姑娘,你,你要做什么?”“你说我要做什么?”挽了挽袖口,表情凝重道。“你……我,你可不能胡来呀!”凤陌天一副贞洁圣女的样子。楚乔乔大步一跨,成功的将凤陌天逼的跌倒在那床上,同时用命令的声音道,“把外套脱掉!”