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An Old Maid-Part2_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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by the old bachelor.



"Ah! is it you, Suzanne?" said the Chevalier de Valois, without

discontinuing his occupation, which was that of stropping his razor.



"What have you come for, my dear little jewel of mischief?"

"I have come to tell you something which may perhaps give you as much



pleasure as pain?"

"Is it anything about Cesarine?"



"Cesarine! much I care about your Cesarine!" she said with a saucy

air, half serious, half indifferent.



This charming Suzanne, whose present comicalperformance was to

exercise a great influence in the principal personages of our history,



was a work-girl at Madame Lardot's. One word here on the topography of

the house. The wash-rooms occupied the whole of the ground floor. The



little courtyard was used to hang out on wire cords embroidered

handkerchiefs, collarets, capes, cuffs, frilled shirts, cravats,



laces, embroidered dresses,--in short, all the fine linen of the best

families of the town. The chevalier assumed to know from the number of



her capes in the wash how the love-affairs of the wife of the prefect

were going on. Though he guessed much from observations of this kind,



the chevalier was discretion itself; he was never betrayed into an

epigram (he had plenty of wit) which might have closed to him an



agreeable salon. You are therefore to consider Monsieur de Valois as a

man of superior manners, whose talents, like those of many others,



were lost in a narrow sphere. Only--for, after all, he was a man--he

permitted himself certain penetrating glances which could make some



women tremble; although they all loved him heartily as soon as they

discovered the depth of his discretion and the sympathy that he felt



for their little weaknesses.

The head woman, Madame Lardot's factotum, an old maid of forty-six,



hideous to behold, lived on the opposite side of the passage to the

chevalier. Above them were the attics where the linen was dried in



winter. Each apartment had two rooms,--one lighted from the street,

the other from the courtyard. Beneath the chevalier's room there lived



a paralytic, Madame Lardot's grandfather, an old buccaneer named

Grevin, who had served under Admiral Simeuse in India, and was now



stone-deaf. As for Madame Lardot, who occupied the other lodging on

the first floor, she had so great a weakness for persons of condition



that she may well have been thought blind to the ways of the

chevalier. To her, Monsieur de Valois was a despotic monarch who did



right in all things. Had any of her workwomen been guilty of a

happiness attributed to the chevalier she would have said, "He is so



lovable!" Thus, though the house was of glass, like all provincial

houses, it was discreet as a robber's cave.



A born confidant to all the little intrigues of the work-rooms, the

chevalier never passed the door, which usually stood open, without



giving something to his little ducks,--chocolate, bonbons, ribbons,

laces, gilt crosses, and such like trifles adored by grisettes;



consequently, the kind old gentleman was adored in return. Women have

an instinct which enables them to divine the men who love them, who



like to be near them, and exact no payment for gallantries. In this

respect women have the instinct of dogs, who in a mixed company will



go straight to the man to whom animals are sacred.

The poor Chevalier de Valois retained from his former life the need of



bestowing gallantprotection, a quality of the seigneurs of other

days. Faithful to the system of the "petite maison," he liked to



enrich women,--the only beings who know how to receive, because they

can always return. But the poor chevalier could no longer ruin himself



for a mistress. Instead of the choicest bonbons wrapped in bank-bills,

he gallantly presented paper-bags full of toffee. Let us say to the



glory of Alencon that the toffee was accepted with more joy than la

Duthe ever showed at a gilt service or a fine equipage offered by the



Comte d'Artois. All these grisettes fully understood the fallen

majesty of the Chevalier de Valois, and they kept their private



familiarities with him a profound secret for his sake. If they were




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