酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Modeste Mignon-Part22_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
"Melchior," said La Briere, "I am yours for life and death."



He wrung the poet's hand and left him abruptly, for he was in haste to

meet Monsieur Mignon.



CHAPTER XV

A FATHER STEPS IN



The Comte de La Bastie was at this moment overwhelmed with the sorrows

which lay in wait for him as their prey. He had learned from his



daughter's letter of Bettina's death and of his wife's infirmity, and

Dumay related to him, when they met, his terrible perplexity as to



Modeste's love affairs.

"Leave me to myself," he said to his faithful friend.



As the lieutenant closed the door, the unhappy father threw himself on

a sofa, with his head in his hands, weeping those slow, scanty tears



which suffuse the eyes of a man of sixty, but do not fall,--tears soon

dried, yet quick to start again,--the last dews of the human autumn.



"To have children, to have a wife, to adore them--what is it but to

have many hearts and bare them to a dagger?" he cried, springing up



with the bound of a tiger and walking up and down the room. "To be a

father is to give one's self over, bound hand and foot to sorrow. If I



meet that D'Estourny I will kill him. To have daughters!--one gives

her life to a scoundrel, the other, my Modeste, falls a victim to



whom? a coward, who deceives her with the gilded paper of a poet. If

it were Canalis himself it might not be so bad; but that Scapin of a



lover!--I will strangle him with my two hands," he cried, making an

involuntary gesture of furiousdetermination. "And what then? suppose



my Modeste were to die of grief?"

He gazed mechanically out of the windows of the hotel des Princes, and



then returned to the sofa, where he sat motionless. The fatigues of

six voyages to India, the anxieties of speculation, the dangers he had



encountered and evaded, and his many griefs, had silvered Charles

Mignon's head. His handsome soldierly face, so pure in outline and now



bronzed by the suns of China and the southern seas, had acquired an

air of dignity which his present grief rendered almost sublime.



"Mongenod told me he felt confidence in the young man who is coming to

ask me for my daughter," he thought at last; and at this moment Ernest



de La Briere was announced by one of the servants whom Monsieur de La

Bastie had attached to himself during the last four years.



"You have come, monsieur, from my friend Mongenod?" he said.

"Yes," replied Ernest, growing timid when he saw before him a face as



sombre as Othello's. "My name is Ernest de La Briere, related to the

family of the late cabinetminister, and his private secretary during



his term of office. On his dismissal, his Excellency put me in the

Court of Claims, to which I am legal counsel, and where I may possibly



succeed as chief--"

"And how does all this concern Mademoiselle de La Bastie?" asked the



count.

"Monsieur, I love her; and I have the unhoped-for happiness of being



loved by her. Hear me, monsieur," cried Ernest, checking a violent

movement on the part of the angry father. "I have the strangest



confession to make to you, a shameful one for a man of honor; but the

worst punishment of my conduct, natural enough in itself, is not the



telling of it to you; no, I fear the daughter even more than the

father."



Ernest then related simply, and with the nobleness that comes of

sincerity, all the facts of his little drama, not omitting the twenty



or more letters, which he had brought with him, nor the interview

which he had just had with Canalis. When Monsieur Mignon had finished



reading the letters, the unfortunate lover, pale and suppliant,

actually trembled under the fiery glance of the Provencal.



"Monsieur," said the latter, "in this whole matter there is but one

error, but that is cardinal. My daughter will not have six millions;



at the utmost, she will have a marriage portion of two hundred

thousand francs, and very doubtful expectations."



"Ah, monsieur!" cried Ernest, rising and grasping Monsieur Mignon's

hand; "you take a load from my breast. Nothing can now hinder my



happiness. I have friends, influence; I shall certainly be chief of




文章总共2页
文章标签:翻译  译文  翻译文  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号