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

The Country Doctor-Part1_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
so little of a gambler that if, when in company, some one was wanted



to cut in or to take a bet at ecarte, he usually fixed his eyes on his

boots; but though he did not allow himself any extravagances, he



conformed in every way to custom.

His uniforms lasted longer than those of any other officer in his



regiment, as a consequence of the sedulously careful habits that

somewhat straitened means had so instilled into him, that they had



come to be like a second nature. Perhaps he might have been suspected

of meannesss if it had not been for the fact that with wonderful



disinterestedness and all a comrade's readiness, his purse would be

opened for some harebrained boy who had ruined himself at cards or by



some other folly. He did a service of this kind with such thoughtful

tact, that it seemed as though he himself had at one time lost heavy



sums at play; he never considered that he had any right to control the

actions of his debtor; he never made mention of the loan. He was the



child of his company; he was alone in the world, so he had adopted the

army for his fatherland, and the regiment for his family. Very rarely,



therefore, did any one seek the motives underlying his praiseworthy

turn for thrift; for it pleased others, for the most part, to set it



down to a not unnatural wish to increase the amount of the savings

that were to render his old age comfortable. Till the eve of his



promotion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of cavalry it was fair to

suppose that it was his ambition to retire in the course of some



campaign with a colonel's epaulettes and pension.

If Genestas' name came up when the officers gossiped after drill, they



were wont to classify him among the men who begin with taking the

good-conduct prize at school, and who, throughout the term of their



natural lives, continue to be punctilious, conscientious, and

passionless--as good as white bread, and just as insipid. Thoughtful



minds, however, regarded him very differently. Not seldom it would

happen that a glance, or an expression as full of significance as the



utterance of a savage, would drop from him and bear witness to past

storms in his soul; and a careful study of his placid brow revealed a



power of stifling down and repressing his passions into inner depths,

that had been dearly bought by a lengthy acquaintance with the perils



and disastrous hazards of war. An officer who had only just joined the

regiment, the son of a peer of France, had said one day of Genestas,



that he would have made one of the most conscientious of priests, or

the most upright of tradesmen.



"Add, the least of a courtier among marquises," put in Genestas,

scanning the young puppy, who did not know that his commandant could



overhear him.

There was a burst of laughter at the words, for the lieutenant's



father cringed to all the powers that be; he was a man of supple

intellect, accustomed to jump with every change of government, and his



son took after him.

Men like Genestas are met with now and again in the French army;



natures that show themselves to be wholly great at need, and relapse

into their ordinary simplicity when the action is over; men that are



little mindful of fame and reputation, and utterly forgetful of

danger. Perhaps there are many more of them than the shortcomings of



our own characters will allow us to imagine. Yet, for all that, any

one who believed that Genestas was perfect would be strangely



deceiving himself. The major was suspicious, given to violent

outbursts of anger, and apt to be tiresome in argument; he was full of



national prejudices, and above all things, would insist that he was in

the right, when he was, as a matter of fact, in the wrong. He retained



the liking for good wine that he had acquired in the ranks. If he rose

from a banquet with all the gravity befitting his position, he seemed



serious and pensive, and had no mind at such times to admit any one

into his confidence.



Finally, although he was sufficiently acquainted with the customs of

society and with the laws of politeness, to which he conformed as



rigidly as if they had been military regulations; though he had real

mental power, both natural and acquired; and although he had mastered






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