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

Vendetta-Part11_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
said.



"But to me alone belongs the right to work in this way," he answered.

"Could I be idle," she asked, her eyes filling with tears, "when I



know that every mouthful we eat costs a drop of your blood? I should

die if I could not add my efforts to yours. All should be in common



between us: pains and pleasures, both."

"She is cold!" cried Luigi, in despair. "Wrap your shawl closer round



you, my own Ginevra; the night is damp and chilly."

They went to the window, the young wife leaning on the breast of her



beloved, who held her round the waist, and, together, in deep silence,

they gazed upward at the sky, which the dawn was slowly brightening.



Clouds of a grayish hue were moving rapidly; the East was growing

luminous.



"See!" said Ginevra. "It is an omen. We shall be happy."

"Yes, in heaven," replied Luigi, with a bitter smile. "Oh, Ginevra!



you who deserved all the treasures upon earth--"

"I have your heart," she said, in tones of joy.



"Ah! I complain no more!" he answered, straining her tightly to him,

and covering with kisses the delicate face, which was losing the



freshness of youth, though its expression was still so soft, so tender

that he could not look at it and not be comforted.



"What silence!" said Ginevra, presently. "Dear friend, I take great

pleasure in sitting up. The majesty of Night is so contagious, it



awes, it inspires. There is I know not what great power in the

thought: all sleep, I wake."



"Oh, my Ginevra," he cried, "it is not to-night alone I feel how

delicately moulded is your soul. But see, the dawn is shining,--come



and sleep."

"Yes," replied Ginevra, "if I do not sleep alone. I suffered too much



that night I first discovered that you were waking while I slept."

The courage with which these two young people fought with misery



received for a while its due reward; but an event which usually crowns

the happiness of a household to them proved fatal. Ginevra had a son,



who was, to use the popular expression, "as beautiful as the day." The

sense of motherhood doubled the strength of the young wife. Luigi



borrowed money to meet the expenses of Ginevra's confinement. At first

she did not feel the fresh burden of their situation; and the pair



gave themselves wholly up to the joy of possessing a child. It was

their last happiness.



Like two swimmers uniting their efforts to breast a current, these two

Corsican souls struggled courageously; but sometimes they gave way to



an apathy which resembled the sleep that precedes death. Soon they

were obliged to sell their jewels. Poverty appeared to them suddenly,



--not hideous, but plainly clothed, almost easy to endure; its voice

had nothing terrifying; with it came neither spectres, nor despair,



nor rags; but it made them lose the memory and the habits of comfort;

it dried the springs of pride. Then, before they knew it, came want,--



want in all its horror, indifferent to its rags, treading underfoot

all human sentiments.



Seven or eight months after the birth of the little Bartolomeo, it

would have been hard to see in the mother who suckled her sickly babe



the original of the beautiful portrait, the sole remaining ornament of

the squalid home. Without fire through a hard winter, the graceful



outlines of Ginevra's figure were slowly destroyed; her cheeks grew

white as porcelain, and her eyes dulled as though the springs of life



were drying up within her. Watching her shrunken, discolored child,

she felt no suffering but for that young misery; and Luigi had no



courage to smile upon his son.

"I have wandered over Paris," he said, one day. "I know no one; can I



ask help of strangers? Vergniaud, my old sergeant, is concerned in a

conspiracy, and they have put him in prison; besides, he has already



lent me all he could spare. As for our landlord, it is over a year

since he asked me for any rent."



"But we are not in want," replied Ginevra, gently, affecting calmness.

"Every hour brings some new difficulty," continued Luigi, in a tone of






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