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A Start in Life-Part1_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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rule of departure, rigorous toward strangers, was often relaxed for

country customers. This method not infrequently enabled Pierrotin to



pocket two fares for one place, if a countryman came early and wanted

a seat already booked and paid for by some "bird of passage" who was,



unluckily for himself, a little late. Such elasticity will certainly

not commend itself to purists in morality; but Pierrotin and his



colleague justified it on the varied grounds of "hard times," of their

losses during the winter months, of the necessity of soon getting



better coaches, and of the duty of keeping exactly to the rules

written on the tariff, copies of which were, however, never shown,



unless some chance traveller was obstinate enough to demand it.

Pierrotin, a man about forty years of age, was already the father of a



family. Released from the cavalry on the great disbandment of 1815,

the worthy fellow had succeeded his father, who for many years had



driven a coucou of capricious flight between Paris and Isle-Adam.

Having married the daughter of a small inn-keeper, he enlarged his



business, made it a regular service, and became noted for his

intelligence and a certain military precision. Active and decided in



his ways, Pierrotin (the name seems to have been a sobriquet)

contrived to give, by the vivacity of his countenance, an expression



of sly shrewdness to his ruddy and weather-stained visage which

suggested wit. He was not without that facility of speech which is



acquired chiefly through "seeing life" and other countries. His voice,

by dint of talking to his horses and shouting "Gare!" was rough; but



he managed to tone it down with the bourgeois. His clothing, like that

of all coachmen of the second class, consisted of stout boots, heavy



with nails, made at Isle-Adam, trousers of bottle-green velveteen,

waistcoat of the same, over which he wore, while exercising his



functions, a blue blouse, ornamented on the collar, shoulder-straps

and cuffs, with many-colored embroidery. A cap with a visor covered



his head. His military career had left in Pierrotin's manners and

customs a great respect for all social superiority, and a habit of



obedience to persons of the upper classes; and though he never

willingly mingled with the lesser bourgeoisie, he always respected



women in whatever station of life they belonged. Nevertheless, by dint

of "trundling the world,"--one of his own expressions,--he had come to



look upon those he conveyed as so many walking parcels, who required

less care than the inanimate ones,--the essential object of a coaching



business.

Warned by the general movement which, since the Peace, was



revolutionizing his calling, Pierrotin would not allow himself to be

outdone by the progress of new lights. Since the beginning of the



summer season he had talked much of a certain large coach, ordered

from Farry, Breilmann, and Company, the best makers of diligences,--a



purchase necessitated by an increasing influx of travellers.

Pierrotin's present establishment consisted of two vehicles. One,



which served in winter, and the only one he reported to the tax-

gatherer, was the coucou which he inherited from his father. The



rounded flanks of this vehicle allowed him to put six travellers on

two seats, of metallichardness in spite of the yellow Utrecht velvet



with which they were covered. These seats were separated by a wooden

bar inserted in the sides of the carriage at the height of the



travellers' shoulders, which could be placed or removed at will. This

bar, specially covered with velvet (Pierrotin called it "a back"), was



the despair of the passengers, from the great difficulty they found in

placing and removing it. If the "back" was difficult and even painful



to handle, that was nothing to the suffering caused to the omoplates

when the bar was in place. But when it was left to lie loose across



the coach, it made both ingress and egress extremely perilous,

especially to women.



Though each seat of this vehicle, with rounded sides like those of a

pregnant woman, could rightfully carry only three passengers, it was



not uncommon to see eight persons on the two seats jammed together

like herrings in a barrel. Pierrotin declared that the travellers were






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