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Gobseck-Part5_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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civil and smooth-spoken of capitalists. Money will be forthcoming if



he has any, or rather, if you can give him adequate security.'

" 'Monsieur,' said he, 'it does not enter into my thoughts to force



you to do me a service, even though you have passed your word.'

" 'Sardanapalus!' said I to myself, 'am I going to let that fellow



imagine that I will not keep my word with him?'

" 'I had the honor of telling you yesterday,' said he, 'that I had



fallen out with Daddy Gobseck most inopportunely; and as there is

scarcely another man in Paris who can come down on the nail with a



hundred thousand francs, at the end of the month, I begged of you to

make my peace with him. But let us say no more about it----'



"M. de Trailles looked at me with civil insult in his expression, and

made as if he would take his leave.



" 'I am ready to go with you,' said I.

"When we reached the Rue de Gres, my dandy looked about him with a



circumspection and uneasiness that set me wondering. His face grew

livid, flushed, and yellow, turn and turn about, and by the time that



Gobseck's door came in sight the perspiration stood in drops on his

forehead. We were just getting out of the cabriolet, when a hackney



cab turned into the street. My companion's hawk eye detected a woman

in the depths of the vehicle. His face lighted up with a gleam of



almost savage joy; he called to a little boy who was passing, and gave

him his horse to hold. Then we went up to the old bill discounter.



" 'M. Gobseck,' said I, 'I have brought one of my most intimate

friends to see you (whom I trust as I would trust the Devil,' I added



for the old man's private ear). 'To oblige me you will do your best

for him (at the ordinary rate), and pull him out of his difficulty (if



it suits your convenience).'

"M. de Trailles made his bow to Gobseck, took a seat, and listened to



us with a courtier-like attitude; its charminghumility would have

touched your heart to see, but my Gobseck sits in his chair by the



fireside without moving a muscle, or changing a feature. He looked

very like the statue of Voltaire under the peristyle of the Theatre-



Francais, as you see it of an evening; he had partly risen as if to

bow, and the skull cap that covered the top of his head, and the



narrow strip of sallow forehead exhibited, completed his likeness to

the man of marble.



" 'I have no money to spare except for my own clients,' said he.

" 'So you are cross because I may have tried in other quarters to ruin



myself?' laughed the Count.

" 'Ruin yourself!' repeated Gobseck ironically.



" 'Were you about to remark that it is impossible to ruin a man who

has nothing?' inquired the dandy. 'Why, I defy you to find a better



STOCK in Paris!' he cried, swinging round on his heels.

"This half-earnest buffoonery produced not the slightest effect upon



Gobseck.

" 'Am I not on intimate terms with the Ronquerolles, the Marsays, the



Franchessinis, the two Vandenesses, the Ajuda-Pintos,--all the most

fashionable young men in Paris, in short? A prince and an ambassador



(you know them both) are my partners at play. I draw my revenues from

London and Carlsbad and Baden and Bath. Is not this the most brilliant



of all industries!'

" 'True.'



" 'You make a sponge of me, begad! you do. You encourage me to go and

swell myself out in society, so that you can squeeze me when I am hard



up; but you yourselves are sponges, just as I am, and death will give

you a squeeze some day.'



" 'That is possible.'

" 'If there were no spendthrifts, what would become of you? The pair



of us are like soul and body.'

" 'Precisely so.'



" 'Come, now, give us your hand, Grandaddy Gobseck, and be magnanimous

if this is "true" and "possible" and "precisely so." '



" 'You come to me,' the usurer answered coldly, 'because Girard,

Palma, Werbrust, and Gigonnet are full up of your paper; they are



offering it at a loss of fifty per cent; and as it is likely they only

gave you half the figure on the face of the bills, they are not worth



five-and-twenty per cent of their supposed value. I am your most

obedient! Can I in common decency lend a stiver to a man who owes



thirty thousand francs, and has not one farthing?' Gobseck continued.

'The day before yesterday you lost ten thousand francs at a ball at



the Baron de Nucingen's.'

" 'Sir,' said the Count, with rare impudence, 'my affairs are no






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