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A Start in Life-Part20_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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was kept but a short time, he went to his work in the office;

occasionally he was sent to the Palais, but always under the thumb of



the rigid Godeschal, till dinner. The dinner was that of his master,--

one dish of meat, one of vegetables, and a salad. The dessert



consisted of a piece of Gruyere cheese. After dinner, Godeschal and

Oscar returned to the office and worked till night. Once a month Oscar



went to breakfast with his uncle Cardot, and he spent the Sundays with

his mother. From time to time Moreau, when he came to the office about



his own affairs, would take Oscar to dine in the Palais-Royal, and to

some theatre in the evening. Oscar had been so snubbed by Godeschal



and by Desroches for his attempts at elegance that he no longer gave a

thought to his clothes.



"A good clerk," Godeschal told him, "should have two black coats, one

new, one old, a pair of black trousers, black stockings, and shoes.



Boots cost too much. You can't have boots till you are called to the

bar. A clerk should never spend more than seven hundred francs a year.



Good stout shirts of strong linen are what you want. Ha! when a man

starts from nothing to reach fortune, he has to keep down to bare



necessities. Look at Monsieur Desroches; he did what we are doing, and

see where he is now."



Godeschal preached by example. If he professed the strictest

principles of honor, discretion, and honesty, he practised them



without assumption, as he walked, as he breathed; such action was the

natural play of his soul, as walking and breathing were the natural



play of his organs. Eighteen months after Oscar's installation into

the office, the second clerk was, for the second time, slightly wrong



in his accounts, which were comparativelyunimportant. Godeschal said

to him in presence of all the other clerks:



"My dear Gaudet, go away from here of your own free will, that it may

not be said that Monsieur Desroches has dismissed you. You have been



careless or absent-minded, and neither of those defects can pass here.

The master shall know nothing about the matter; that is all that I can



do for a comrade."

At twenty years of age, Oscar became third clerk in the office. Though



he earned no salary, he was lodged and fed, for he did the work of the

second clerk. Desroches employed two chief clerks, and the work of the



second was unremitting toil. By the end of his second year in the law-

school Oscar knew more than most licensed graduates; he did the work



at the Palais intelligently, and argued some cases in chambers.

Godeschal and Desroches were satisfied with him. And yet, though he



now seemed a sensible man, he showed, from time to time, a hankering

after pleasure and a desire to shine, repressed, though it was, by the



stern discipline and continual toil of his life.

Moreau, satisfied with Oscar's progress, relaxed, in some degree, his



watchfulness; and when, in July, 1825, Oscar passed his examinations

with a spotless record, the land-agent gave him the money to dress



himself elegantly. Madame Clapart, proud and happy in her son,

prepared the outfitsplendidly for the rising lawyer.



In the month of November, when the courts reopened, Oscar Husson

occupied the chamber of the second clerk, whose work he now did



wholly. He had a salary of eight hundred francs with board and

lodging. Consequently, uncle Cardot, who went privately to Desroches



and made inquiries about his nephew, promised Madame Clapart to be on

the lookout for a practice for Oscar, if he continued to do as well in



the future.

In spite of these virtuous appearances, Oscar Husson was undergoing a



great strife in his inmost being. At times he thought of quitting a

life so directly against his tastes and his nature. He felt that



galley-slaves were happier than he. Galled by the collar of this iron

system, wild desires seized him to fly when he compared himself in the



street with the well-dressed young men whom he met. Sometimes he was

driven by a sort of madness towards women; then, again, he resigned



himself, but only to fall into a deeper disgust for life. Impelled by

the example of Godeschal, he was forced, rather than led of himself,



to remain in that rugged way.

Godeschal, who watched and took note of Oscar, made it a matter of



principle not to allow his pupil to be exposed to temptation.

Generally the young clerk was without money, or had so little that he



could not, if he would, give way to excess. During the last year, the

worthy Godeschal had made five or six parties of pleasure with Oscar,



defraying the expenses, for he felt that the rope by which he tethered

the young kid must be slackened. These "pranks," as he called them,



helped Oscar to endureexistence, for there was little amusement in




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