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Domestic Peace-Part6_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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"Wear it," he said, "in memory of this hour, and for the love of----"



She was looking at him with such rapture that he did not end the

sentence; he kissed her hand.



"You give it me?" she said, looking much astonished.

"I wish I had the whole world to offer you!"



"You are not joking?" she went on, in a voice husky with too great

satisfaction.



"Will you accept only my diamond?"

"You will never take it back?" she insisted.



"Never."

She put the ring on her finger. Martial, confident of coming



happiness, was about to put his hand round her waist, but she suddenly

rose, and said in a clear voice, without any agitation:



"I accept the diamond, monsieur, with the less scruple because it

belongs to me."



The Baron was speechless.

"Monsieur de Soulanges took it lately from my dressing-table, and told



me he had lost it."

"You are mistaken, madame," said Martial, nettled. "It was given me by



Madame de Vaudremont."

"Precisely so," she said with a smile. "My husband borrowed this ring



of me, he gave it to her, she made it a present to you; my ring has

made a little journey, that is all. This ring will perhaps tell me all



I do not know, and teach me the secret of always pleasing.--Monsieur,"

she went on, "if it had not been my own, you may be sure I should not



have risked paying so dear for it; for a young woman, it is said, is

in danger with you. But, you see," and she touched a spring within the



ring, "here is M. de Soulanges' hair."

She fled into the crowded rooms so swiftly, that it seemed useless to



try to follow her; besides, Martial, utterly confounded, was in no

mood to carry the adventure further. The Countess' laugh found an echo



in the boudoir, where the young coxcomb now perceived, between two

shrubs, the Colonel and Madame de Vaudremont, both laughing heartily.



"Will you have my horse, to ride after your prize?" said the Colonel.

The Baron took the banter poured upon him by Madame de Vaudremont and



Montcornet with a good grace, which secured their silence as to the

events of the evening, when his friend exchanged his charger for a



rich and pretty young wife.

As the Comtesse de Soulanges drove across Paris from the Chausee



d'Antin to the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where she lived, her soul was

prey to many alarms. Before leaving the Hotel Gondreville she went



through all the rooms, but found neither her aunt nor her husband, who

had gone away without her. Frightful suspicions then tortured her



ingenuous mind. A silent witness of her husbands' torments since the

day when Madame de Vaudremont had chained him to her car, she had



confidently hoped that repentance would ere long restore her husband

to her. It was with unspeakable repugnance that she had consented to



the scheme plotted by her aunt, Madame de Lansac, and at this moment

she feared she had made a mistake.



The evening's experience had saddened her innocent soul. Alarmed at

first by the Count's look of suffering and dejection, she had become



more so on seeing her rival's beauty, and the corruption of society

had gripped her heart. As she crossed the Pont Royal she threw away



the desecrated hair at the back of the diamond, given to her once as a

token of the purest affection. She wept as she remembered the bitter



grief to which she had so long been a victim, and shuddered more than

once as she reflected that the duty of a woman, who wishes for peace



in her home, compels her to bury sufferings so keen as hers at the

bottom of her heart, and without a complaint.



"Alas!" thought she, "what can women do when they do not love? What is

the fount of their indulgence? I cannot believe that, as my aunt tells



me, reason is all-sufficient to maintain them in such devotion."

She was still sighing when her man-servant let down the handsome



carriage-step down which she flew into the hall of her house. She

rushed precipitately upstairs, and when she reached her room was



startled by seeing her husband sitting by the fire.

"How long is it, my dear, since you have gone to balls without telling



me beforehand?" he asked in a broken voice. "You must know that a

woman is always out of place without her husband. You compromised



yourself strangely by remaining in the dark corner where you had




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