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 Firm of Nucingen-Part2_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
fellow, who fancies that my silence is worth no more than five hundred

francs. You will never be a minister if you cannot gauge people's



consciences. There, my good Finot," he added soothingly, "I will get

on with my story without personalities, and we shall be quits."



"Now," said Couture with a smile, "he will begin to prove for our

benefit that Nucingen made Rastignac's fortune."



"You are not so far out as you think," returned Bixiou. "You do not

know what Nucingen is, financiallyspeaking."



"Do you know so much as a word as to his beginnings?" asked Blondet.

"I have only known him in his own house," said Bixiou, "but we may



have seen each other in the street in the old days."

"The prosperity of the firm of Nucingen is one of the most



extraordinary things seen in our days," began Blondet. "In 1804

Nucingen's name was scarcely known. At that time bankers would have



shuddered at the idea of three hundred thousand francs' worth of his

acceptances in the market. The great capitalist felt his inferiority.



How was he to get known? He suspended payment. Good! Every market rang

with a name hitherto only known in Strasbourg and the Quartier



Poissonniere. He issued deposit certificates to his creditors, and

resumed payment; forthwith people grew accustomed to his paper all



over France. Then an unheard-of-thing happened--his paper revived, was

in demand, and rose in value. Nucingen's paper was much inquired for.



The year 1815 arrives, my banker calls in his capital, buys up

Government stock before the battle of Waterloo, suspends payment again



in the thick of the crisis, and meets his engagements with shares in

the Wortschin mines, which he himself issued at twenty per cent more



than he gave for them! Yes, gentlemen!--He took a hundred and fifty

thousand bottles of champagne of Grandet to cover himself (forseeing



the failure of the virtuous parent of the present Comte d'Aubrion),

and as much Bordeaux wine of Duberghe at the same time. Those three



hundred thousand bottles which he took over (and took at thirty sous

apiece, my dear boy) he supplied at the price of six francs per bottle



to the Allies in the Palais Royal during the foreign occupation,

between 1817 and 1819. Nucingen's name and his paper acquired a



European celebrity. The illustrious Baron, so far from being engulfed

like others, rose the higher for calamities. Twice his arrangements



had paid holders of his paper uncommonly well; HE try to swindle them?

Impossible. He is supposed to be as honest a man as you will find.



When he suspends payment a third time, his paper will circulate in

Asia, Mexico, and Australia, among the aborigines. No one but Ouvrard



saw through this Alsacien banker, the son of some Jew or other

converted by ambition; Ouvrard said, 'When Nucingen lets gold go, you



may be sure that it is to catch diamonds.' "

"His crony, du Tillet, is just such another," said Finot. "And, mind



you, that of birth du Tillet has just precisely as much as is

necessary to exist; the chap had not a farthing in 1814, and you see



what he is now; and he has done something that none of us has managed

to do (I am not speaking of you, Couture), he has had friends instead



of enemies. In fact, he has kept his past life so quiet, that unless

you rake the sewers you are not likely to find out that he was an



assistant in a perfumer's shop in the Rue Saint Honore, no further

back than 1814."



"Tut, tut, tut!" said Bixiou, "do not think of comparing Nucingen with

a little dabbler like du Tillet, a jackal that gets on in life through



his sense of smell. He scents a carcass by instinct, and comes in time

to get the best bone. Besides, just look at the two men. The one has a



sharp-pointed face like a cat, he is thin and lanky; the other is

cubical, fat, heavy as a sack, imperturbable as a diplomatist.



Nucingen has a thick, heavy hand, and lynx eyes that never light up;

his depths are not in front, but behind; he is inscrutable, you never



see what he is making for. Whereas du Tillet's cunning, as Napoleon

said to somebody (I have forgotten the name), is like cotton spun too



fine, it breaks."

"I do not myself see that Nucingen has any advantage over du Tillet,"



said Blondet, "unless it is that he has the sense to see that a

capitalist ought not to rise higher than a baron's rank, while du



Tillet has a mind to be an Italian count."

"Blondet--one word, my boy," put in Couture. "In the first place,



Nucingen dared to say that honesty is simply a question of

appearances; and secondly, to know him well you must be in business



yourself. With him banking is but a single department, and a very

small one; he holds Government contracts for wines, wools, indigoes--



anything, in short, on which any profit can be made. He has an all-




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