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The Lily of the Valley-Part40_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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not escape me without a breach of civility; but, like her mother, she



looked at no one, and kept silence without even once turning her eyes

in my direction.



"Dear Madeleine," I said in a low voice, "What have you against me?

Why do you show such coldness in the presence of death, which ought to



reconcile us all?"

"I hear in my heart what my mother is saying at this moment," she



replied, with a look which Ingres gave to his "Mother of God,"--that

virgin, already sorrowful, preparing herself to protect the world for



which her son was about to die.

"And you condemn me at the moment when your mother absolves me,--if



indeed I am guilty."

"You, YOU," she said, "always YOUR SELF!"



The tones of her voice revealed the determined hatred of a Corsican,

implacable as the judgments of those who, not having studied life,



admit of no extenuation of faults committed against the laws of the

heart.



An hour went by in deepest silence. The Abbe Birotteau came to us

after receiving the countess's general confession, and we followed him



back to the room where Henriette, under one of those impulses which

often come to noble minds, all sisters of one intent, had made them



dress her in the long white garment which was to be her shroud. We

found her sitting up; beautiful from expiation, beautiful in hope. I



saw in the fireplace the black ashes of my letters which had just been

burned, a sacrifice which, as her confessor afterwards told me, she



had not been willing to make until the hour of her death. She smiled

upon us all with the smile of other days. Her eyes, moist with tears,



gave evidence of inward lucidity; she saw the celestial joys of the

promised land.



"Dear Felix," she said, holding out her hand and pressing mine, "stay

with us. You must be present at the last scene of my life, not the



least painful among many such, but one in which you are concerned."

She made a sign and the door was closed. At her request the count sat



down; the Abbe Birotteau and I remained standing. Then with Manette's

help the countess rose and knelt before the astonished count,



persisting in remaining there. A moment after, when Manette had left

the room, she raised her head which she had laid upon her husband's



knees.

"Though I have been a faithful wife to you," she said, in a faint



voice, "I have sometimes failed in my duty. I have just prayed to God

to give me strength to ask your pardon. I have given to a friendship



outside of my family more affectionate care than I have shown to you.

Perhaps I have sometimes irritated you by the comparisons you may have



made between these cares, these thoughts, and those I gave to you. I

have had," she said, in a sinking voice, "a deep friendship, which no



one, not even he who has been its object, has fully known. Though I

have continued virtuous according to all human laws, though I have



been a irreproachable wife to you, still other thoughts, voluntary or

involuntary, have often crossed my mind and, in this hour, I fear I



have welcomed them too warmly. But as I have tenderly loved you, and

continued to be your submissive wife, and as the clouds passing



beneath the sky do not alter its purity, I now pray for your blessing

with a clean heart. I shall die without one bitter thought if I can



hear from your lips a tender word for your Blanche, for the mother of

your children,--if I know that you forgive her those things for which



she did not forgive herself till reassured by the great tribunal which

pardons all."



"Blanche, Blanche!" cried the broken man, shedding tears upon his

wife's head, "Would you kill me?" He raised her with a strength



unusual to him, kissed her solemnly on the forehead, and thus holding

her continued: "Have I no forgiveness to ask of you? Have I never been



harsh? Are you not making too much of your girlish scruples?"

"Perhaps," she said. "But, dear friend, indulge the weakness of a



dying woman; tranquillize my mind. When you reach this hour you will

remember that I left you with a blessing. Will you grant me permission



to leave to our friend now here that pledge of my affection?" she




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