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The Illustrious Gaudissart-Part4_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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that I had to show him two full puncheons. Our neighbor, Pierre

Champlain, fortunately had two which he had not sold. I asked him to



kindly let me have them rolled into our cellar; and oh, dear! now that

the good-man has seen them he insists on bottling them off himself!"



Madame Vernier had related the poor woman's trouble to her husband

just before the entrance of Gaudissart, and at the first words of the



famous traveller Vernier determined that he should be made to grapple

with Margaritis.



"Monsieur," said the ex-dyer, as soon as the illustrious Gaudissart

had fired his first broadside, "I will not hide from you the great



difficulties which my native place offers to your enterprise. This

part of the country goes along, as it were, in the rough,--"suo modo."



It is a country where new ideas don't take hold. We live as our

fathers lived, we amuse ourselves with four meals a day, and we



cultivate our vineyards and sell our wines to the best advantage. Our

business principle is to sell things for more than they cost us; we



shall stick in that rut, and neither God nor the devil can get us out

of it. I will, however, give you some advice, and good advice is an



egg in the hand. There is in this town a retiredbanker in whose

wisdom I have--I, particularly--the greatest confidence. If you can



obtain his support, I will add mine. If your proposals have real

merit, if we are convinced of the advantage of your enterprise, the



approval of Monsieur Margaritis (which carries with it mine) will open

to you at least twenty rich houses in Vouvray who will be glad to try



your specifics."

When Madame Vernier heard the name of the lunatic she raised her head



and looked at her husband.

"Ah, precisely; my wife intends to call on Madame Margaritis with one



of our neighbors. Wait a moment, and you can accompany these ladies--

You can pick up Madame Fontanieu on your way," said the wily dyer,



winking at his wife.

To pick out the greatest gossip, the sharpest tongue, the most



inveterate cackler of the neighborhood! It meant that Madame Vernier

was to take a witness to the scene between the traveller and the



lunatic which should keep the town in laughter for a month. Monsieur

and Madame Vernier played their part so well that Gaudissart had no



suspicions, and straightway fell into the trap. He gallantly offered

his arm to Madame Vernier, and believed that he made, as they went



along, the conquest of both ladies, for those benefit he sparkled with

wit and humor and undetected puns.



The house of the pretended banker stood at the entrance to the Valley

Coquette. The place, called La Fuye, had nothing remarkable about it.



On the ground floor was a large wainscoted salon, on either side of

which opened the bedroom of the good-man and that of his wife. The



salon was entered from an ante-chamber, which served as the dining-

room and communicated with the kitchen. This lower door, which was



wholly without the external charm usually seen even in the humblest

dwellings in Touraine, was covered by a mansard story, reached by a



stairway built on the outside of the house against the gable end and

protected by a shed-roof. A little garden, full of marigolds,



syringas, and elder-bushes, separated the house from the fields; and

all around the courtyard were detached buildings which were used in



the vintage season for the various processes of making wine.

CHAPTER IV



Margaritis was seated in an arm-chair covered with yellow Utrecht

velvet, near the window of the salon, and he did not stir as the two



ladies entered with Gaudissart. His thoughts were running on the casks

of wine. He was a spare man, and his bald head, garnished with a few



spare locks at the back of it, was pear-shaped in conformation. His

sunken eyes, overtopped by heavy black brows and surrounded by



discolored circles, his nose, thin and sharp like the blade of a

knife, the strongly marked jawbone, the hollow cheeks, and the oblong



tendency of all these lines, together with his unnaturally long and

flat chin, contributed to give a peculiar expression to his



countenance,--something between that of a retired professor of

rhetoric and a rag-picker.



"Monsieur Margaritis," cried Madame Vernier, addressing him, "come,

stir about! Here is a gentleman whom my husband sends to you, and you



must listen to him with great attention. Put away your mathematics and

talk to him."



On hearing these words the lunatic rose, looked at Gaudissart, made




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