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The Collection of Antiquities-Part10_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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For a pair of lovers, the rest of their species are about as much



alive as figures on the tapestry. The Duchess, flattery apart, was

avowedly and admittedly one of the ten handsomest women in society.



"The loveliest woman in Paris" is, as you know, as often met with in

the world of love-making as "the finest book that has appeared in this



generation," in the world of letters.

The converse which Victurnien held with the Duchess can be kept up at



his age without too great a strain. He was young enough and ignorant

enough of life in Paris to feel no necessity to be upon his guard, no



need to keep a watch over his lightest words and glances. The

religious sentimentalism, which finds a broadlyhumorouscommentary in



the after-thoughts of either speaker, puts the old-world French chat

of men and women, with its pleasant familiarity, its lively ease,



quite out of the question; they make love in a mist nowadays.

Victurnien was just sufficient of an unsophisticated provincial to



remain suspended in a highly appropriate and unfeigned rapture which

pleased the Duchess; for women are no more to be deceived by the



comedies which men play than by their own. Mme. de Maufrigneuse

calculated, not without dismay, that the young Count's infatuation was



likely to hold good for six whole months of disinterested love. She

looked so lovely in this dove's mood, quenching the light in her eyes



by the golden fringe of their lashes, that when the Marquise d'Espard

bade her friend good-night, she whispered, "Good! very good, dear!"



And with those farewell words, the fair Marquise left her rival to

make the tour of the modern Pays du Tendre; which, by the way, is not



so absurd a conception as some appear to think. New maps of the

country are engraved for each generation; and if the names of the



routes are different, they still lead to the same capital city.

In the course of an hour's tete-a-tete, on a corner sofa, under the



eyes of the world, the Duchess brought young d'Esgrignon as far as

Scipio's Generosity, the Devotion of Amadis, and Chivalrous Self-



abnegation (for the Middle Ages were just coming into fashion, with

their daggers, machicolations, hauberks, chain-mail, peaked shoes, and



romantic painted card-board properties). She had an admirable turn,

moreover, for leaving things unsaid, for leaving ideas in a discreet,



seeming careless way, to work their way down, one by one, into

Victurnien's heart, like needles into a cushion. She possessed a



marvelous skill in reticence; she was charming in hypocrisy, lavish of

subtle promises, which revived hope and then melted away like ice in



the sun if you looked at them closely, and most treacherous in the

desire which she felt and inspired. At the close of this charming



encounter she produced the running noose of an invitation to call, and

flung it over him with a dainty demureness which the printed page can



never set forth.

"You will forget me," she said. "You will find so many women eager to



pay court to you instead of enlightening you. . . . But you will come

back to me undeceived. Are you coming to me first? . . . No. As you



will.--For my own part, I tell you frankly that your visits will be a

great pleasure to me. People of soul are so rare, and I think that you



are one of them.--Come, good-bye; people will begin to talk about us

if we talk together any longer."



She made good her words and took flight. Victurnien went soon

afterwards, but not before others had guessed his ecstatic condition;



his face wore the expression peculiar to happy men, something between

an Inquisitor's calm discretion and the self-contained beatitude of a



devotee, fresh from the confessional and absolution.

"Mme. de Maufrigneuse went pretty briskly to the point this evening,"



said the Duchesse de Grandlieu, when only half-a-dozen persons were

left in Mlle. des Touches' little drawing-room--to wit, des Lupeaulx,



a Master of Requests, who at that time stood very well at court,




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