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Modeste Mignon-Part29_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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At breakfast next morning, the friends agreed to spend the evening of

the following day at the Chalet and initiate themselves into the



delights of provincial whist. To get rid of the day they ordered their

horses, purchased by Germain at a large price, and started on a voyage



of discovery round the country, which was quite as unknown to them as

China; for the most foreign thing to Frenchmen in France is France



itself.

By dint of reflecting on his position as an unfortunate and despised



lover, Ernest went through something of the same process as Modeste's

first letter had forced upon him. Though sorrow is said to develop



virtue, it only develops it in virtuous persons; that cleaning-out of

the conscience takes place only in persons who are by nature clean. La



Briere vowed to endure his sufferings in Spartan silence, to act

worthily, and give way to no baseness; while Canalis, fascinated by



the enormous "dot," was telling himself to take every means of

captivating the heiress. Selfishness and devotion, the key-notes of



the two characters, therefore took, by the action of a moral law which

is often very odd in its effects, certain measures that were contrary



to their respective natures. The selfish man put on self-abnegation;

the man who thought chiefly of others took refuge on the Aventinus of



pride. That phenomenon is often seen in political life. Men frequently

turn their characters wrong side out, and it sometimes happens that



the public is unable to tell which is the right side.

After dinner the two friends heard of the arrival of the grand



equerry, who was presented at the Chalet the same evening by

Latournelle. Mademoiselle d'Herouville had contrived to wound that



worthy man by sending a footmen to tell him to come to her, instead of

sending her nephew in person; thus depriving the notary of a



distinguished visit he would certainly have talked about for the rest

of his natural life. So Latournelle curtly informed the grand equerry,



when he proposed to drive him to the Chalet, that he was engaged to

take Madame Latournelle. Guessing from the little man's sulky manner



that there was some blunder to repair, the duke said graciously:--

"Then I shall have the pleasure, if you will allow me, of taking



Madame Latournelle also."

Disregarding Mademoiselle d'Herouville's haughty shrug, the duke left



the room with the notary. Madame Latournelle, half-crazed with joy at

seeing the gorgeouscarriage at her door, with footmen in royal livery



letting down the steps, was too agitated on hearing that the grand

equerry had called for her, to find her gloves, her parasol, her



absurdity, or her usual air of pompous dignity. Once in the carriage,

however, and while expressing confused thanks and civilities to the



little duke, she suddenly exclaimed, from a thought in her kind

heart,--



"But Butscha, where is he?"

"Let us take Butscha," said the duke, smiling.



When the people on the quays, attracted in groups by the splendor of

the royal equipage, saw the funny spectacle, the three little men with



the spare gigantic woman, they looked at one another and laughed.

"If you melt all three together, they might make one man fit to mate



with that big cod-fish," said a sailor from Bordeaux.

"Is there any other thing you would like to take with you, madame?"



asked the duke, jestingly, while the footman awaited his orders.

"No, monseigneur," she replied, turning scarlet and looking at her



husband as much as to say, "What did I do wrong?"

"Monsieur le duc honors me by considering that I am a thing," said



Butscha; "a poor clerk is usually thought to be a nonentity."

Though this was said with a laugh, the duke colored and did not



answer. Great people are to blame for joking with their social

inferiors. Jesting is a game, and games presuppose equality; it is to



obviate any inconvenient results of this temporaryequality that

players have the right, after the game is over, not to recognize each



other.

The visit of the grand equerry had the ostensible excuse of an



important piece of business; namely, the retrieval of an immense tract

of waste land left by the sea between the mouths of the two rivers,



which tract had just been adjudged by the Council of State to the

house of Herouville. The matter was nothing less than putting flood-



gates with double bridges, draining three or four hundred acres,

cutting canals, and laying out roadways. When the duke had explained






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