登陆注册
4703900000011

第11章

The wife's deep belief in her husband's power and superior talents, in his capabilities and character, had, in fact, for the moment allayed her anxiety.

What the Baroness' reflections and tears were after Crevel's departure may now be clearly imagined. The poor woman had for two years past known that she was at the bottom of a pit, but she had fancied herself alone in it. How her son's marriage had been finally arranged she had not known; she had known nothing of Hector's connection with the grasping Jewess; and, above all, she hoped that no one in the world knew anything of her troubles. Now, if Crevel went about so ready to talk of the Baron's excesses, Hector's reputation would suffer. She could see, under the angry ex-perfumer's coarse harangue, the odious gossip behind the scenes which led to her son's marriage. Two reprobate hussies had been the priestesses of this union planned at some orgy amid the degrading familiarities of two tipsy old sinners.

"And has he forgotten Hortense!" she wondered.

"But he sees her every day; will he try to find her a husband among his good-for-nothing sluts?"

At this moment it was the mother that spoke rather than the wife, for she saw Hortense laughing with her Cousin Betty--the reckless laughter of heedless youth; and she knew that such hysterical laughter was quite as distressing a symptom as the tearful reverie of solitary walks in the garden.

Hortense was like her mother, with golden hair that waved naturally, and was amazingly long and thick. Her skin had the lustre of mother-of-pearl. She was visibly the offspring of a true marriage, of a pure and noble love in its prime. There was a passionate vitality in her countenance, a brilliancy of feature, a full fount of youth, a fresh vigor and abundance of health, which radiated from her with electric flashes. Hortense invited the eye.

When her eye, of deep ultramarine blue, liquid with the moisture of innocent youth, rested on a passer-by, he was involuntarily thrilled.

Nor did a single freckle mar her skin, such as those with which many a white and golden maid pays toll for her milky whiteness. Tall, round without being fat, with a slender dignity as noble as her mother's, she really deserved the name of goddess, of which old authors were so lavish. In fact, those who saw Hortense in the street could hardly restrain the exclamation, "What a beautiful girl!"

She was so genuinely innocent, that she could say to her mother:

"What do they mean, mamma, by calling me a beautiful girl when I am with you? Are not you much handsomer than I am?"

And, in point of fact, at seven-and-forty the Baroness might have been preferred to her daughter by amateurs of sunset beauty; for she had not yet lost any of her charms, by one of those phenomena which are especially rare in Paris, where Ninon was regarded as scandalous, simply because she thus seemed to enjoy such an unfair advantage over the plainer women of the seventeenth century.

Thinking of her daughter brought her back to the father; she saw him sinking by degrees, day after day, down to the social mire, and even dismissed some day from his appointment. The idea of her idol's fall, with a vague vision of the disasters prophesied by Crevel, was such a terror to the poor woman, that she became rapt in the contemplation like an ecstatic.

Cousin Betty, from time to time, as she chatted with Hortense, looked round to see when they might return to the drawing-room; but her young cousin was pelting her with questions, and at the moment when the Baroness opened the glass door she did not happen to be looking.

Lisbeth Fischer, though the daughter of the eldest of the three brothers, was five years younger than Madame Hulot; she was far from being as handsome as her cousin, and had been desperately jealous of Adeline. Jealousy was the fundamental passion of this character, marked by eccentricities--a word invented by the English to describe the craziness not of the asylum, but of respectable households. A native of the Vosges, a peasant in the fullest sense of the word, lean, brown, with shining black hair and thick eyebrows joining in a tuft, with long, strong arms, thick feet, and some moles on her narrow simian face--such is a brief description of the elderly virgin.

The family, living all under one roof, had sacrificed the common-looking girl to the beauty, the bitter fruit to the splendid flower.

Lisbeth worked in the fields, while her cousin was indulged; and one day, when they were alone together, she had tried to destroy Adeline's nose, a truly Greek nose, which the old mothers admired. Though she was beaten for this misdeed, she persisted nevertheless in tearing the favorite's gowns and crumpling her collars.

At the time of Adeline's wonderful marriage, Lisbeth had bowed to fate, as Napoleon's brothers and sisters bowed before the splendor of the throne and the force of authority.

Adeline, who was extremely sweet and kind, remembered Lisbeth when she found herself in Paris, and invited her there in 1809, intending to rescue her from poverty by finding her a husband. But seeing that it was impossible to marry the girl out of hand, with her black eyes and sooty brows, unable, too, to read or write, the Baron began by apprenticing her to a business; he placed her as a learner with the embroiderers to the Imperial Court, the well-known Pons Brothers.

Lisbeth, called Betty for short, having learned to embroider in gold and silver, and possessing all the energy of a mountain race, had determination enough to learn to read, write, and keep accounts; for her cousin the Baron had pointed out the necessity for these accomplishments if she hoped to set up in business as an embroiderer.

She was bent on making a fortune; in two years she was another creature. In 1811 the peasant woman had become a very presentable, skilled, and intelligent forewoman.

同类推荐
  • 恒春县志

    恒春县志

    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。
  • 佛说宝生陀罗尼经

    佛说宝生陀罗尼经

    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。
  • 书法纶贯

    书法纶贯

    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。
  • 岫岩志略

    岫岩志略

    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。
  • 任诞

    任诞

    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
  • 迷航之旅

    迷航之旅

    外星人老六,在淼星开启了连接地球互联网之旅;地球这端,小喵已经经历了第20次相亲。他们谁也没有想到,穿越星际的磁场,彼此进化的征程,让他们一起make出一个“星际萌宝”……拯救海洋围城、异形来袭的淼星,保卫地球的和平安宁,是萌宝家族担起的重任!
  • 神医凰后

    神医凰后

    阳翟城内,伏家四小姐上门认亲被拒后,一气之下,一头撞在了郭家的大门上血溅当场……当死了的女孩子再次睁开眼时,命运的齿轮就此缓缓开启。女儿泪红颜乱江山唳,任谁多情唯有空余恨。兜兜转转两世姻缘,最后陪在她身边的,到底是三国第一名士,还是两朝之君王?
  • 修仙吉祥物

    修仙吉祥物

    天若有情天亦老,天若无情呢,特么也一样岁月催人老啊。她是修士?对,公认的修士;她是天才?嗯,公认的天才;她是炮灰?对,公认的炮……不对,她怎么能是炮灰呢,她是吉祥物,对,公认的吉祥物。亲,你还在遥遥无望的修仙途中徘徊吗?你还在为没有机缘、没有资源而烦恼吗?不用急,星珞牌修仙吉祥物,为您打怪升级保驾护航,让您修仙资源源源不竭。亲,你还犹豫什么,你还担心什么,拿出灵石放心大胆的购买吧。
  • 大宗师5:摇光临阵

    大宗师5:摇光临阵

    摇光、天璇、天玑、玉衡、开阳、天权、天枢——七星阵法;水分、晷分、听弦、看蜡、冥战、算沙、黑暗传——七线并行;翻开这本书,你会看到,一个新的为正史不载的世界之门正被打开;过去,我们称那个风尘异人迭出的世界为江湖,在老蛇笔下,这里是诡道的世界。
  • 从亡国女到乱世妃:琉璃璨

    从亡国女到乱世妃:琉璃璨

    一个亡国公主,被抓到后宫,只不过是被当做殷实后宫的宠物罢了。因她那张倾国容颜,国才破家才亡。而她,终究被困。她是个亡国公主,也是万千穿越大军中的一员。可不同的是,刚受完训、出任务的她完全不知道何谓穿越。她,只是为了遵照同伴临死前的遗愿。努力活着,找寻回现代的路,却发现,那场背叛的阴谋。
  • 巳疟编

    巳疟编

    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。
  • 跑偏的游戏愿望师

    跑偏的游戏愿望师

    “什么,当愿望师需要成为一名全职业大师,不是biu一下就完成愿望的么?”“瓦特?愿望师什么时候还有月老的兼职?”“干脆让我拯救世界得了……额,我只是开玩笑的,别当真。游戏要是关服了,咱们换个游戏耍不行么?不行,好吧,那咱们还是造游戏吧——”
  • 山经传

    山经传

    天高有九重,地亦分九泉;洪荒肆虐,便是那九泉被打开,禹帝将那洪荒妖兽,神鬼妖魔,纷纷赶回了九泉之中,铸鼎镇压之,并让人间帝王世代守护。直到有一天,九鼎失落了。他是庸碌的富家子弟,却因莫名其妙的灵异事件成了一个活死人,有家而不得归。直到有一天,从别人的口中听说,他从小生活的故乡并不存在...故乡都不存在了?那父老乡亲呢?本书是个以山海经洪荒神话为背景的灵异类故事,与道,佛并无多大关系。讲的是佛陀东渡之前的地府由来。
  • 药妃在上

    药妃在上

    帅哥,江湖救急!借你衣服穿穿!”某女剥光正修炼某邪王,然后逍遥跑路。某邪王清醒之后咬牙:搜!给我掘地三尺也要把她搜出来!他是这个大陆众生膜拜的圣尊,神秘,高贵,不可攀。。她现代杀手之王,对他的评价是:妖孽,变态,神棍。她避他如蛇蝎,他缠她如缠藤。她无情无爱,快意恩仇。他却将她放在心尖尖上,不容任何人轻辱,他说辱我者尚可原谅,辱她者杀无赦!
  • 碧海青龙传系列二

    碧海青龙传系列二

    十万年前的洪荒之战,无数强者陨落天际,踏入轮回;十万年后,他们的转世逐一出现,当年的暗中布局,都渐渐地浮出水面;看似平静的人间界,终于再起波澜,大唐的烟尘,掩不住历史的脚印,唐朝的官场、江湖逐一出场,无数英杰也逐一隆重登场;但所有人,都只是一个人的陪衬……