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Modeste Mignon-Part31_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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saved me from the dangers of the world. Moreover, Monsieur le Duc de



Chaulieu launched me in my present career. Without the influence of

that family the king and the princesses would have forgotten a poor



poet like me; therefore my affection for the duchess must always be

full of gratitude."



His voice quivered.

"We ought to love the woman who has led you to write those sublime



poems, and who inspires you with such noble feelings," said Modeste,

quite affected. "Who can think of a poet without a muse!"



"He would be without a heart," replied Canalis. "He would write barren

verses like Voltaire, who never loved any one but Voltaire."



"I thought you did me the honor to say, in Paris," interrupted Dumay,

"that you never felt the sentiments you expressed."



"The shoe fits, my soldier," replied the poet, smiling; "but let me

tell you that it is quite possible to have a great deal of feeling



both in the intellectual life and in real life. My good friend here,

La Briere, is madly in love," continued Canalis, with a fine show of



generosity, looking at Modeste. "I, who certainly love as much as he,

--that is, I think so unless I delude myself,--well, I can give to my



love a literary form in harmony with its character. But I dare not

say, mademoiselle," he added, turning to Modeste with too studied a



grace, "that to-morrow I may not be without inspiration."

Thus the poet triumphed over all obstacles. In honor of his love he



rode a-tilt at the hindrances that were thrown in his way, and Modeste

remained wonder-struck at the Parisian wit that scintillated in his



declamatory discourse, of which she had hitherto known little or

nothing.



"What an acrobat!" whispered Butscha to Latournelle, after listening

to a magnificent tirade on the Catholic religion and the happiness of



having a pious wife,--served up in response to a remark by Madame

Mignon.



Modeste's eyes were blindfolded as it were; Canalis's elocution and

the close attention which she was predetermined to pay to him



prevented her from seeing that Butscha was carefully noting the

declamation, the want of simplicity, the emphasis that took the place



of feeling, and the curious incoherencies in the poet's speech which

led the dwarf to make his rather cruel comment. At certain points of



Canalis's discourse, when Monsieur Mignon, Dumay, Butscha, and

Latournelle wondered at the man's utter want of logic, Modeste admired



his suppleness, and said to herself, as she dragged him after her

through the labyrinth of fancy, "He loves me!" Butscha, in common with



the other spectators of what we must call a stage scene, was struck

with the radiantdefect of all egoists, which Canalis, like many men



accustomed to perorate, allowed to be too plainly seen. Whether he

understood beforehand what the person he was speaking to meant to say,



whether he was not listening, or whether he had the faculty of

listening when he was thinking of something else, it is certain that



Melchior's face wore an absent-minded look in conversation, which

disconcerted the ideas of others and wounded their vanity. Not to



listen is not merely a want of politeness, it is a mark of disrespect.

Canalis pushed this habit too far; for he often forgot to answer a



speech which required an answer, and passed, without the ordinary

transitions of courtesy, to the subject, whatever it was, that



preoccupied him. Though such impertinence is accepted without protest

from a man of marked distinction, it stirs a leaven of hatred and



vengeance in many hearts; in those of equals it even goes so far as to

destroy a friendship. If by chance Melchior was forced to listen, he



fell into another fault; he merely lent his attention, and never gave

it. Though this may not be so mortifying, it shows a kind of semi-






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