章节正文
manufacturer, there M. Fritot is first; but as a salesman. He
discovered the 'Selim shawl,' AN ABSOLUTELY UNSALABLE article, yet we
never bring it out but we sell it. We keep always a shawl worth five
or six hundred francs in a cedar-wood box, perfectly plain outside,
but lined with satin. It is one of the shawls that Selim sent to the
Emperor Napoleon. It is our Imperial Guard; it is brought to the front
whenever the day is almost lost; il se vend et ne meurt pas--it sells
its life dearly time after time."
As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and
appeared in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to Britain
and to all its products which make believe they are alive. The
apparition put you in mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it
walked along, jerkily by fits and starts, in an awkward fashion
invented in London, and cultivated in every family with patriotic
care.
"An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is
our Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels;
we catch them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we
join in the laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit.
There are sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to
their houses, and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an
Englishwoman!--you might as well attack the bronzestatue of Louis
Quatorze! That sort of woman turns shopping into an occupation, an
amusement. She quizzes us, forsooth!"
The romanticassistant came to the front.
"Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something
expensive or----"
"I will see." (Je veraie.)
"How much would madame propose----"
"I will see."
The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand,
giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said
plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders.
"These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange--all
at ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and
others at three."
The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with
gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same
scrutiny, and made no sign.
"Have you any more?" (Havaivod'hote?) demanded she.
"Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a
shawl?"
"Oh, quite decided" (trei-deycidai).
The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out
solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay
attention to all this magnificence!"
"These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn;
they have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore."
"Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want."
The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inwardirritation, which
communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool
as a cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor.
"What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a
pattern of birds nestling in pagodas.
"Seven thousand francs."
She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass,
and handed it back again.
"No, I do not like it at all." (Je n'ame pouinte.)
A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no
purpose.
"This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the
master as he spoke.
"Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of
the establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in
which pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The
Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from
head to foot, unwilling to understand that the man before her was
eligible for Parliament and dined at the Tuileries.
"I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It
is not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was
thinking of giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805;
it belonged to the Empress Josephine."
"Let me see it, monsieur."
"Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my
house."
"I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady.
This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of
going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all the
while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers,
sheltering her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses.
"It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame."
"Oh!" (hau!)
"It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the
Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my
lady, and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for
another brought by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my
predecessor; but I have never seen the money back. Our ladies in
France are not rich enough; it is not as it is in England. The shawl
is worth seven thousand francs; and taking interest and compound
interest altogether, it makes up fourteen or fifteen thousand by
now--"
"How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman.
"Here it is, madame."
With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden Grune Gewolbe might
have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square
cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and
plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl
worth about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow
ground, of which the startling color was only surpassed by the
surprising efforts of the Indian imagination.
"Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it is
really handsome. Just my ideal" (ideol) "of a shawl; it is very
magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the
purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be
very fine.
"It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took----"
"A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she
arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the
glass. The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his
hands, smoothed it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt
plays on the pianoforte keys.
"It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as
possible.
Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The
shawl is sold," they thought.
"Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared
to be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged.
"Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (une voteure).
All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as
one man, as if an electric shock had gone through them.
"I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with
unshaken composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess
Narzicof; she left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame
would like to see it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not
been in use altogether for ten days; there is not its like in Paris."
The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration.
"I am quite willing."
"If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can
try the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves.
"How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his
employer offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the
jobbed brougham.
By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter
of a novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional
interest attached to all contests, however trifling, between England
and France.
Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned.
"Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take
an invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to
take."
"How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of
invoices.
"Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be
conspicuous. As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she
said, 'Keep your carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take
the shawl.' While M. Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking
assistant) was serving, I watched her carefully; she kept one eye on
you all the time to see what you thought of her; she was thinking more
about you than of the shawls. Englishwomen are peculiar in their
DISTASTE (for one cannot call it taste); they do not know what they
want; they make up their minds to be guided by circumstances at the
time, and not by their own choice. I saw the kind of woman at once,
tired of her husband, tired of her brats, regretfully virtuous,
craving excitement, always posing as a weepingwillow. . . ."
These were his very words.
Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is
a shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a
student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or
angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be
M. Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or
a member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the
Commercial Court.
"M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the
slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another
cedar-wood box."
"And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou
to choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "NOW we will go through our old
stock to find another Selim shawl."
PARIS, November 1844.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Government Clerks
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Firm of Nucingen
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
Beatrix
A Man of Business
The Unconscious Humorists
Cousin Pons
Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret)
Jealousies of a Country Town
Beatrix
Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de
The Chouans
The Gondreville Mystery
The Thirteen
Letters of Two Brides
Victorine
Massimilla Doni
Lost Illusions
Letters of Two Brides
End
discovered the 'Selim shawl,' AN ABSOLUTELY UNSALABLE article, yet we
never bring it out but we sell it. We keep always a shawl worth five
or six hundred francs in a cedar-wood box, perfectly plain outside,
but lined with satin. It is one of the shawls that Selim sent to the
Emperor Napoleon. It is our Imperial Guard; it is brought to the front
whenever the day is almost lost; il se vend et ne meurt pas--it sells
its life dearly time after time."
As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and
appeared in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to Britain
and to all its products which make believe they are alive. The
apparition put you in mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it
walked along, jerkily by fits and starts, in an awkward fashion
invented in London, and cultivated in every family with patriotic
care.
"An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is
our Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels;
we catch them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we
join in the laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit.
There are sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to
their houses, and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an
Englishwoman!--you might as well attack the bronzestatue of Louis
Quatorze! That sort of woman turns shopping into an occupation, an
amusement. She quizzes us, forsooth!"
The romanticassistant came to the front.
"Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something
expensive or----"
"I will see." (Je veraie.)
"How much would madame propose----"
"I will see."
The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand,
giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said
plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders.
"These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange--all
at ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and
others at three."
The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with
gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same
scrutiny, and made no sign.
"Have you any more?" (Havaivod'hote?) demanded she.
"Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a
shawl?"
"Oh, quite decided" (trei-deycidai).
The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out
solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay
attention to all this magnificence!"
"These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn;
they have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore."
"Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want."
The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inwardirritation, which
communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool
as a cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor.
"What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a
pattern of birds nestling in pagodas.
"Seven thousand francs."
She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass,
and handed it back again.
"No, I do not like it at all." (Je n'ame pouinte.)
A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no
purpose.
"This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the
master as he spoke.
"Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of
the establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in
which pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The
Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from
head to foot, unwilling to understand that the man before her was
eligible for Parliament and dined at the Tuileries.
"I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It
is not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was
thinking of giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805;
it belonged to the Empress Josephine."
"Let me see it, monsieur."
"Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my
house."
"I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady.
This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of
going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all the
while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers,
sheltering her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses.
"It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame."
"Oh!" (hau!)
"It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the
Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my
lady, and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for
another brought by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my
predecessor; but I have never seen the money back. Our ladies in
France are not rich enough; it is not as it is in England. The shawl
is worth seven thousand francs; and taking interest and compound
interest altogether, it makes up fourteen or fifteen thousand by
now--"
"How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman.
"Here it is, madame."
With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden Grune Gewolbe might
have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square
cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and
plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl
worth about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow
ground, of which the startling color was only surpassed by the
surprising efforts of the Indian imagination.
"Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it is
really handsome. Just my ideal" (ideol) "of a shawl; it is very
magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the
purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be
very fine.
"It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took----"
"A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she
arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the
glass. The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his
hands, smoothed it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt
plays on the pianoforte keys.
"It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as
possible.
Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The
shawl is sold," they thought.
"Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared
to be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged.
"Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (une voteure).
All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as
one man, as if an electric shock had gone through them.
"I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with
unshaken composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess
Narzicof; she left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame
would like to see it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not
been in use altogether for ten days; there is not its like in Paris."
The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration.
"I am quite willing."
"If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can
try the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves.
"How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his
employer offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the
jobbed brougham.
By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter
of a novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional
interest attached to all contests, however trifling, between England
and France.
Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned.
"Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take
an invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to
take."
"How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of
invoices.
"Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be
conspicuous. As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she
said, 'Keep your carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take
the shawl.' While M. Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking
assistant) was serving, I watched her carefully; she kept one eye on
you all the time to see what you thought of her; she was thinking more
about you than of the shawls. Englishwomen are peculiar in their
DISTASTE (for one cannot call it taste); they do not know what they
want; they make up their minds to be guided by circumstances at the
time, and not by their own choice. I saw the kind of woman at once,
tired of her husband, tired of her brats, regretfully virtuous,
craving excitement, always posing as a weepingwillow. . . ."
These were his very words.
Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is
a shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a
student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or
angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be
M. Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or
a member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the
Commercial Court.
"M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the
slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another
cedar-wood box."
"And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou
to choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "NOW we will go through our old
stock to find another Selim shawl."
PARIS, November 1844.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Government Clerks
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Firm of Nucingen
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
Beatrix
A Man of Business
The Unconscious Humorists
Cousin Pons
Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret)
Jealousies of a Country Town
Beatrix
Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de
The Chouans
The Gondreville Mystery
The Thirteen
Letters of Two Brides
Victorine
Massimilla Doni
Lost Illusions
Letters of Two Brides
End
- manufacturer [,mænju´fæktʃərə]
n.制造人；工厂主 (初中英语单词) - absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
- imperial [im´piəriəl] a.帝国的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- carriage [´kæridʒ] n.马车；客车；货运 (初中英语单词)
- peculiar [pi´kju:liə] a.特有的；奇异的 (初中英语单词)
- statue [´stætʃu:] n.塑像，雕像 (初中英语单词)
- occupation [,ɔkju´peiʃən] a.职业的；军事占领的 (初中英语单词)
- romantic [rəu´mæntik] a.传奇(式)的；浪漫的 (初中英语单词)
- assistant [ə´sistənt] n.助手；助理；助教 (初中英语单词)
- indian [´indiən] a.印度的 n.印度人 (初中英语单词)
- countenance [´kauntinəns] n.面部表情；脸色；面容 (初中英语单词)
- rejoice [ri´dʒɔis] v.(使)高兴；欢庆 (初中英语单词)
- establishment [i´stæbliʃmənt] n.建(成)立；研究所 (初中英语单词)
- parliament [´pɑ:ləmənt] n.议(国)会 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- turkey [´tə:ki] n.火鸡 (初中英语单词)
- ambassador [æm´bæsədə] n.大使 (初中英语单词)
- altogether [,ɔ:ltə´geðə] ad.完全；总而言之 (初中英语单词)
- mixture [´mikstʃə] n.混合；混合比；混合物 (初中英语单词)
- emperor [´empərə] n.皇帝 (初中英语单词)
- accent [´æksənt, æk´sent] n.重音；口音 vt.重读 (初中英语单词)
- princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
- payment [´peimənt] n.支付；报酬；报偿 (初中英语单词)
- amazement [ə´meizmənt] n.惊愕；惊奇 (初中英语单词)
- trifling [´traifliŋ] a.微小的；轻浮的 (初中英语单词)
- monsieur [mə´sjə:] n.先生 (初中英语单词)
- excitement [ik´saitmənt] n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词)
- willow [´wiləu] n.柳树 (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- salesman [´seilzmən] n.店员；推销员 (高中英语单词)
- perfectly [´pə:fiktli] ad.理想地；完美地 (高中英语单词)
- napoleon [nə´pəuljən] n.拿破仑 (高中英语单词)
- awkward [´ɔ:kwəd] a.笨拙的；为难的 (高中英语单词)
- bronze [brɔnz] n.青铜(器) (高中英语单词)
- significant [sig´nifikənt] a.重要的；意义重大的 (高中英语单词)
- indifference [in´difrəns] n.冷淡；无足轻重 (高中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- inward [´inwəd] a.向内的；心灵上的 (高中英语单词)
- apparently [ə´pærəntli] ad.显然，表面上地 (高中英语单词)
- startling [´stɑ:tliŋ] a.惊人的 (高中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- proprietor [prə´praiətə] n.所有人；业主；经营者 (高中英语单词)
- profound [prə´faund] a.深奥的；渊博的 (高中英语单词)
- successor [sək´sesə] n.继承人，接班人 (高中英语单词)
- colonel [´kə:nəl] n.海(陆)军上校 (高中英语单词)
- unconscious [ʌn´kɔnʃəs] a.无意识的；不觉察的 (高中英语单词)
- dearly [´diəli] ad.深深地(爱等)；昂贵 (英语四级单词)
- staircase [´steəkeis] n.楼梯 =stairway (英语四级单词)
- flattery [´flætəri] n.奉承；谄媚的举动 (英语四级单词)
- cucumber [´kju:kʌmbə] n.黄瓜 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- unwilling [ʌn´wiliŋ] a.不愿意的；不情愿的 (英语四级单词)
- empress [´empris] n.女皇；皇后 (英语四级单词)
- infinitely [´infinitli] ad.无限地；无穷地 (英语四级单词)
- composure [kəm´pəuʒə] n.镇静，沉着 (英语四级单词)
- cultivated [´kʌltiveitid] a.在耕作的；有教养的 (英语六级单词)
- courier [´kuriə] n.送急件的人；信使 (英语六级单词)
- irritation [,iri´teiʃən] n.(被)激怒；疼痛处 (英语六级单词)
- turkish [´tə:kiʃ] a.&n.土耳其人(语)的 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- eccentric [ik´sentrik] a.古怪的；离心的 (英语六级单词)
- weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)
- shopkeeper [´ʃɔp,ki:pə] n.(小店)店主 (英语六级单词)
- well-read [,wel´rid] a.博学的 (英语六级单词)
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