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The Lily of the Valley-Part6_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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and prominent amid the general pallor of his skin, showed a physical



structure which was likely to ensure him a long life. His hard, light-

yellow eye fell upon mine like a ray of wintry sun, bright without



warmth, anxious without thought, distrustful without conscious cause.

His mouth was violent and domineering, his chin flat and long. Thin



and very tall, he had the bearing of a gentleman who relies upon the

conventional value of his caste, who knows himself above others by



right, and beneath them in fact. The carelessness of country life had

made him neglect his external appearance. His dress was that of a



country-man whom peasants and neighbors no longer considered except

for his territorial worth. His brown and wiry hands showed that he



wore no gloves unless he mounted a horse, or went to church, and his

shoes were thick and common.



Though ten years of emigration and ten years more of farm-life had

changed his physical condition, he still retained certain vestiges of



nobility. The bitterest liberal (a term not then in circulation) would

readily have admitted his chivalric loyalty and the imperishable



convictions of one who puts his faith to the "Quotidienne"; he would

have felt respect for the man religiously devoted to a cause, honest



in his political antipathies, incapable of serving his party but very

capable of injuring it, and without the slightest real knowledge of



the affairs of France. The count was in fact one of those upright men

who are available for nothing, but stand obstinately in the way of



all; ready to die under arms at the post assigned to them, but

preferring to give their life rather than to give their money.



During dinner I detected, in the hanging of his flaccid cheeks and the

covert glances he cast now and then upon his children, the traces of



some wearing thought which showed for a moment upon the surface.

Watching him, who could fail to understand him? Who would not have



seen that he had fatally transmitted to his children those weakly

bodies in which the principle of life was lacking. But if he blamed



himself he denied to others the right to judge him. Harsh as one who

knows himself in fault, yet without greatness of soul or charm to



compensate for the weight of misery he had thrown into the balance,

his private life was no doubt the scene of irascibilities that were



plainly revealed in his angular features and by the incessant

restlessness of his eye. When his wife returned, followed by the



children who seemed fastened to her side, I felt the presence of

unhappiness, just as in walking over the roof of a vault the feet



become in some way conscious of the depths below. Seeing these four

human beings together, holding them all as it were in one glance,



letting my eye pass from one to the other, studying their countenances

and their respective attitudes, thoughts steeped in sadness fell upon



my heart as a fine gray rain dims a charminglandscape after the sun

has risen clear.



When the immediate subject of conversation was exhausted the count

told his wife who I was, and related certain circumstances connected



with my family that were wholly unknown to me. He asked me my age.

When I told it, the countess echoed my own exclamation of surprise at



her daughter's age. Perhaps she had thought me fifteen. Later on, I

discovered that this was still another tie which bound her strongly to



me. Even then I read her soul. Her motherhood quivered with a tardy

ray of hope. Seeing me at over twenty years of age so slight and



delicate and yet so nervously strong, a voice cried to her, "They too

will live!" She looked at me searchingly, and in that moment I felt



the barriers of ice melting between us. She seemed to have many

questions to ask, but uttered none.



"If study has made you ill," she said, "the air of our valley will

soon restore you."



"Modern education is fatal to children," remarked the count. "We stuff

them with mathematics and ruin their health with sciences, and make



them old before their time. You must stay and rest here," he added,




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