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A Daughter of Eve-Part7_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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the music. A fairy's wand seemed to have commanded this dazzling

revelry, this melody of perfumes, these iridescent lights glittering



from crystal chandeliers or sparkling in candelabra. This assemblage

of the prettiest women in their prettiest dresses stood out upon a



gloomy background of men in black coats, among whom the eye remarked

the elegant, delicate, and correctly drawn profile of nobles, the



ruddy beards and grave faces of Englishmen, and the more gracious

faces of the French aristocracy. All the orders of Europe glittered on



the breasts or hung from the necks of these men.

Examining this society carefully, it was seen to present not only the



brilliant tones and colors and outward adornment, but to have a soul,

--it lived, it felt, it thought. Hidden passions gave it a



physiognomy; mischievous or malignant looks were exchanged; fair and

giddy girls betrayed desires; jealous women told each other scandals



behind their fans, or paid exaggerated compliments. Society, anointed,

curled, and perfumed, gave itself up to social gaiety which went to



the brain like a heady liquor. It seemed as if from all foreheads, as

well as from all hearts, ideas and sentiments were exhaling, which



presently condensed and reacted in a volume on the coldest persons

present, and excited them. At the most animated moment of this



intoxicating party, in a corner of a gilded salon where certain

bankers, ambassadors, and the immoral old English earl, Lord Dudley,



were playing cards, Madame Felix de Vandenesse was irresistibly drawn

to converse with Raoul Nathan. Possibly she yielded to that ball-



intoxication which sometimes wrings avowals from the most discreet.

At sight of such a fete, and the splendors of a world in which he had



never before appeared, Nathan was stirred to the soul by fresh

ambition. Seeing Rastignac, whose younger brother had just been made



bishop at twenty-seven years of age, and whose brother-in-law, Martial

de la Roche-Hugon, was a minister, and who himself was under-secretary



of State, and about to marry, rumor said, the only daughter of the

Baron de Nucingen,--a girl with an illimitable "dot"; seeing,



moreover, in the diplomatic body an obscure writer whom he had

formerly known translating articles in foreign journals for a



newspaper turned dynastic since 1830, also professors now made peers

of France,--he felt with anguish that he was left behind on a bad road



by advocating the overthrow of this new aristocracy of lucky talent,

of cleverness crowned by success, and of real merit. Even Blondet, so



unfortunate, so used by others in journalism, but so welcomed here,

who could, if he liked, enter a career of public service through the



influence of Madame de Montcornet, seemed to Nathan's eyes a striking

example of the power of social relations. Secretly, in his heart, he



resolved to play the game of political opinions, like de Marsay,

Rastignac, Blondet, Talleyrand, the leader of this set of men; to rely



on facts only, turn them to his own profit, regard his system as a

weapon, and not interfere with a society so well constituted, so



shrewd, so natural.

"My influence," he thought, "will depend on the influence of some



woman belonging to this class of society."

With this thought in his mind, conceived by the flame of this frenzied



desire, he fell upon the Comtesse de Vandenesse like a hawk on its

prey. That charming young woman in her head-dress of marabouts, which



produced the delightful "flou" of the paintings of Lawrence and

harmonized well with her gentle nature, was penetrated through and



through by the foaming vigor of this poet wild with ambition. Lady

Dudley, whom nothing escaped, aided this tete-a-tete by throwing the



Comte de Vandenesse with Madame de Manerville. Strong in her former

ascendancy over him, Natalie de Manerville amused herself by leading



Felix into the mazes of a quarrel of witty teasing, blushing half-

confidences, regrets coyly flung like flowers at his feet,



recriminations in which she excused herself for the sole purpose of

being put in the wrong.



These former lovers were speaking to each other for the first time

since their rupture; and while her husband's former love was stirring






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