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The Firm of Nucingen-Part5_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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features were finely and delicately cut, while her sister's were

vigorous and striking. Isaure was one of those women who reign like



queens through their weakness, such a woman as a schoolboy would feel

it incumbent upon him to protect; Malvina was the Andalouse of



Musset's poem. As the sisters stood together, Isaure looked like a

miniature beside a portrait in oils.



" 'She is rich!' exclaimed Godefroid, going back to Rastignac in the

ballroom.



" 'Who?'

" 'That young lady.'



" 'Oh, Isaure d'Aldrigger? Why, yes. The mother is a widow; Nucingen

was once a clerk in her husband's bank at Strasbourg. Do you want to



see them again? Just turn off a compliment for Mme. de Restaud; she is

giving a ball the day after to-morrow; the Baroness d'Aldrigger and



her two daughters will be there. You will have an invitation.'

"For three days Godefroid beheld Isaure in the camera obscura of his



brain--HIS Isaure with her white camellias and the little ways she had

with her head--saw her as you see the bright thing on which you have



been gazing after your eyes are shut, a picture grown somewhat

smaller; a radiant, brightly-colored vision flashing out of a vortex



of darkness."

"Bixiou, you are dropping into phenomena, block us out our pictures,"



put in Couture.

"Here you are, gentlemen! Here is the picture you ordered!" (from the



tones of Bixiou's voice, he evidently was posing as a waiter.) "Finot,

attention, one has to pull at your mouth as a jarvie pulls at his



jade. In Madame Theodora Marguerite Wilhelmine Adolphus (of the firm

of Adolphus and Company, Manheim), relict of the late Baron



d'Aldrigger, you might expect to find a stout, comfortable German,

compact and prudent, with a fair complexion mellowed to the tint of



the foam on a pot of beer; and as to virtues, rich in all the

patriarchal good qualities that Germany possesses--in romances, that



is to say. Well there was not a gray hair in the frisky ringlets that

she wore on either side of her face; she was still as fresh and as



brightly colored on the cheek-bone as a Nuremberg doll; her eyes were

lively and bright; a closely-fitting bodice set off the slenderness of



her waist. Her brow and temples were furrowed by a few involuntary

wrinkles which, like Ninon, she would fain have banished from her head



to her heel, but they persisted in tracing their zigzags in the more

conspicuous place. The outlines of the nose had somewhat fallen away,



and the tip had reddened, and this was the more awkward because it

matched the color on the cheek-bones.



"An only daughter and an heiress, spoilt by her father and mother,

spoilt by her husband and the city of Strasbourg, spoilt still by two



daughters who worshiped their mother, the Baroness d'Aldrigger

indulged a taste for rose color, short petticoats, and a knot of



ribbon at the point of the tightly-fitting corselet bodice. Any

Parisian meeting the Baroness on the boulevard would smile and condemn



her outright; he does not admit any plea of extenuating circumstances,

like a modern jury on a case of fratricide. A scoffer is always



superficial, and in consequence cruel; the rascal never thinks of

throwing the proper share of ridicule on society that made the



individual what he is; for Nature only makes dull animals of us, we

owe the fool to artificial conditions."



"The thing that I admire about Bixiou is his completeness," said

Blondet; "whenever he is not gibing at others, he is laughing at



himself."

"I will be even with you for that, Blondet," returned Bixiou in a



significant tone. "If the little Baroness was giddy, careless,

selfish, and incapable in practical matters, she was not accountable



for her sins; the responsibility is divided between the firm of

Adolphus and Company of Manheim and Baron d'Aldrigger with his blind



love for his wife. The Baroness was a gentle as a lamb; she had a soft

heart that was very readily moved; unluckily, the emotion never lasted



long, but it was all the more frequently renewed.

"When the Baron died, for instance, the Shepherdess all but followed



him to the tomb, so violent and sincere was her grief, but--next

morning there was green peas at lunch, she was fond of green peas, the



delicious green peas calmed the crisis. Her daughters and her servants

loved her so blindly that the whole household rejoiced over a






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