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The Commission in Lunacy-Part6_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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wounds she had bound up, and whom she flattered, pronounced her as

capable in diplomacy as the wife of the Russian ambassador to London.



The Marquise had indeed several times suggested to deputies or to

peers words and ideas that had rung through Europe. She had often



judged correctly of certain events on which her circle of friends

dared not express an opinion. The principal persons about the Court



came in the evening to play whist in her rooms.

Then she also had the qualities of her defects; she was thought to be



--and she was--indiscreet. Her friendship seemed to be staunch; she

worked for her proteges with a persistency which showed that she cared



less for patronage than for increased influence. This conduct was

based on her dominantpassion, Vanity. Conquests and pleasure, which



so many women love, to her seemed only means to an end; she aimed at

living on every point of the largest circle that life can describe.



Among the men still young, and to whom the future belonged, who

crowded her drawing-room on great occasions, were to be seen MM. de



Marsay and de Ronquerolles, de Montriveau, de la Roche-Hugon, de

Serizy, Ferraud, Maxime de Trailles, de Listomere, the two



Vandenesses, du Chatelet, and others. She would frequently receive a

man whose wife she would not admit, and her power was great enough to



induce certain ambitious men to submit to these hard conditions, such

as two famous royalist bankers, M. de Nucingen and Ferdinand du



Tillet. She had so thoroughlystudied the strength and the weakness of

Paris life, that her conduct had never given any man the smallest



advantage over her. An enormous price might have been set on a note or

letter by which she might have compromised herself, without one being



produced.

If an arid soul enabled her to play her part to the life, her person



was no less available for it. She had a youthful figure. Her voice

was, at will, soft and fresh, or clear and hard. She possessed in the



highest degree the secret of that aristocratic pose by which a woman

wipes out the past. The Marquise knew well the art of setting an



immense space between herself and the sort of man who fancies he may

be familiar after some chance advances. Her imposing gaze could deny



everything. In her conversation fine and beautiful sentiments and

noble resolutions flowed naturally, as it seemed, from a pure heart



and soul; but in reality she was all self, and quite capable of

blasting a man who was clumsy in his negotiations, at the very time



when she was shamelessly making a compromise for the benefit of her

own interest.



Rastignac, in trying to fasten on to this woman, had discerned her to

be the cleverest of tools, but he had not yet used it; far from



handling it, he was already finding himself crushed by it. This young

Condottiere of the brain, condemned, like Napoleon, to give battle



constantly, while knowing that a single defeat would prove the grave

of his fortunes, had met a dangerous adversary in his protectress. For



the first time in his turbulent life, he was playing a game with a

partner worthy of him. He saw a place as Minister in the conquest of



Madame d'Espard, so he was her tool till he could make her his--a

perilous beginning.



The Hotel d'Espard needed a large household, and the Marquise had a

great number of servants. The grand receptions were held in the



ground-floor rooms, but she lived on the first floor of the house. The

perfect order of a fine staircasesplendidly decorated, and rooms



fitted in the dignified style which formerly prevailed at Versailles,

spoke of an immense fortune. When the judge saw the carriage gates



thrown open to admit his nephew's cab, he took in with a rapid glance

the lodge, the porter, the courtyard, the stables, the arrangement of



the house, the flowers that decorated the stairs, the perfect




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