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A Daughter of Eve-Part11_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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little salon. Instead of looking at Nathan when he was announced, she

looked at his reflection in a mirror.



"Monsieur le ministre," said Madame d'Espard, addressing Nathan, and

presenting him to de Marsay by a glance, "was maintaining, when you



came in, that the royalists and the republicans have a secret

understanding. You ought to know something about it; is it so?"



"If it were so," said Raoul, "where's the harm? We hate the same

thing; we agree as to our hatreds, we differ only in our love. That's



the whole of it."

"The alliance is odd enough," said de Marsay, giving a comprehensively



meaning glance at the Comtesse Felix and Nathan.

"It won't last," said Rastignac, thinking, perhaps, wholly of



politics.

"What do you think, my dear?" asked Madame d'Espard, addressing Marie.



"I know nothing of public affairs," replied the countess.

"But you soon will, madame," said de Marsay, "and then you will be



doubly our enemy."

So saying he left the room with Rastignac, and Madame d'Espard



accompanied them to the door of the first salon. The lovers had the

room to themselves for a few moments. Marie held out her ungloved hand



to Raoul, who took and kissed it as though he were eighteen years old.

The eyes of the countess expressed so noble a tenderness that the



tears which men of nervoustemperament can always find at their

service came into Raoul's eyes.



"Where can I see you? where can I speak with you?" he said. "It is

death to be forced to disguise my voice, my look, my heart, my love--"



Moved by that tear Marie promised to drive daily in the Bois, unless

the weather were extremely bad. This promise gave Raoul more pleasure



than he had found in Florine for the last five years.

"I have so many things to say to you! I suffer from the silence to



which we are condemned--"

The countess looked at him eagerly without replying, and at that



moment Madame d'Espard returned to the room.

"Why didn't you answer de Marsay?" she said as she entered.



"We ought to respect the dead," replied Raoul. "Don't you see that he

is dying? Rastignac is his nurse,--hoping to be put in the will."



The countesspretended to have other visits to pay, and left the

house.



For this quarter of an hour Raoul had sacrificed important interests

and most precious time. Marie was perfectlyignorant of the life of



such men, involved in complicated affairs and burdened with exacting

toil. Women of society are still under the influence of the traditions



of the eighteenth century, in which all positions were definite and

assured. Few women know the harassments in the life of most men who in



these days have a position to make and to maintain, a fame to reach, a

fortune to consolidate. Men of settled wealth and position can now be



counted; old men alone have time to love; young men are rowing, like

Nathan, the galleys of ambition. Women are not yet resigned to this



change of customs; they suppose the same leisure of which they have

too much in those who have none; they cannot imagine other



occupations, other ends in life than their own. When a lover has

vanquished the Lernean hydra in order to pay them a visit he has no



merit in their eyes; they are only grateful to him for the pleasure he

gives; they neither know nor care what it costs. Raoul became aware as



he returned from this visit how difficult it would be to hold the

reins of a love-affair in society, the ten-horsed chariot of



journalism, his dramas on the stage, and his generally involved

affairs.



"The paper will be wretched to-night," he thought, as he walked away.

"No article of mine, and only the second number, too!"



Madame Felix de Vandenesse drove three times to the Bois de Boulogne

without finding Raoul; the third time she came back anxious and



uneasy. The fact was that Nathan did not choose to show himself in the

Bois until he could go there as a prince of the press. He employed a



whole week in searching for horses, a phantom and a suitable tiger,

and in convincing his partners of the necessity of saving time so



precious to them, and therefore of charging his equipage to the costs

of the journal. His associates, Massol and du Tillet agreed to this so



readily that he really believed them the best fellows in the world.

Without this help, however, life would have been simply impossible to






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