Monsieur Charles Grandet, a handsome young man of twenty-two, presented at this moment a singular contrast to the worthy provincials, who, considerably disgusted by his aristocratic manners, were all studying him with sarcastic intent. This needs an explanation.
At twenty-two, young people are still so near childhood that they often conduct themselves childishly. In all probability, out of every hundred of them fully ninety-nine would have behaved precisely as Monsieur Charles Grandet was now behaving.
Some days earlier than this his father had told him to go and spend several months with his uncle at Saumur. Perhaps Monsieur Grandet was thinking of Eugenie. Charles, sent for the first time in his life into the provinces, took a fancy to make his appearance with the superiority of a man of fashion, to reduce the whole arrondissement to despair by his luxury, and to make his visit an epoch, importing into those country regions all the refinements of Parisian life. In short, to explain it in one word, he mean to pass more time at Saumur in brushing his nails than he ever thought of doing in Paris, and to assume the extra nicety and elegance of dress which a young man of fashion often lays aside for a certain negligence which in itself is not devoid of grace.
Charles therefore brought with him a complete hunting-costume, the finest gun, the best hunting-knife in the prettiest sheath to be found in all Paris. He brought his whole collection of waistcoats. They were of all kinds—gray, black, white, scarabaeus-colored:some were shot with gold, some spangled, somechined; some were double-breasted and crossed like a shawl, others were straight in the collar; some had turned-over collars, some buttoned up to the top with gilt buttons. He brought every variety of collar and cravat in fashion at that epoch. He brought two of Buisson’s coats and all his finest linens. He brought his pretty gold toilet-set—a present from his mother. He brought all his dandy knick-knacks, not forgetting a ravishing little desk presented to him by the most amiable of women—amiable for him, at least—a fine lady whom he called Annette and who at this moment was travelling, matrimonially and wearily, in Scotland, a victim to certain suspicions which required a passing sacrifice of happiness; in the desk was much pretty note-paper on which to write to her once a fortnight. In short, it was as complete a cargo of Parisian frivolities as it was possible for him to get together—a collection of all the implements of husbandry with which the youth of leisure tills his life, from the little whip which helps to begin a duel, to the handsomely chased pistols which end it. His father having told him to travel alone and modestly, he had taken the coupe of the diligence all to himself, rather pleased at not having to damage a delightful travelling-carriage ordered for a journey on which he was to meet his Annette, the great lady who, etc.—whom he intended to rejoin at Baden in the following June.
Charles expected to meet scores of people at his uncle’s house, to hunt in his uncle’s forests—to live, in short, the usual chateau life;he did not know that his uncle was in Saumur, and had only inquired about him incidentally when asking the way to Froidfond. Hearing that he was in town, he supposed that he should find him in a suitable mansion.In order that he might make a becoming first appearance before his uncle either at Saumur or at Froidfond, he had put on his most elegant travelling attire, simple yet exquisite—“adorable,” to use the word which in those days summed up the special perfections of a man or a thing. At Tours a hairdresser had re-curled his beautiful chestnut locks; there he changed his linen and put on a black satin cravat, which, combined with a round shirt-collar, framed his fair and smiling countenance agreeably. A travelling great-coat, only half buttoned up, nipped in his waist and disclosed a cashmere waistcoat crossed in front, beneath which was another waistcoat of white material. His watch, negligently slipped into a pocket, was fastened by a short gold chain to a buttonhole. His gray trousers, buttoned up at the sides, were set off at the seams with patterns of black silk embroidery. He gracefully twirled a cane, whose chased gold knob did not mar the freshness of his gray gloves. And to complete all, his cap was in excellent taste.
None but a Parisian, and a Parisian of the upper spheres, could thus array himself without appearing ridiculous; none other could give the harmony of self-conceit to all these fopperies, which were carried off, however, with a dashing air—the air of a young man who has fine pistols, a sure aim, and Annette.
Now if you wish to understand the mutual amazement of the provincial party and the young Parisian; if you would clearly see the brilliance which the traveller’s elegance cast among the gray shadows of the room and upon the faces of this family group—endeavor to picture to your minds the Cruchots. All three took snuff, and had long ceased to repress the habit of snivelling or to remove the brown blotches which strewed the frills of their dingy shirts and the yellowing creases of their crumpled collars. Their flabby cravats were twisted into ropes as soon as they wound them about their throats. The enormous quantity of linen which allowed these people to have their clothing washed only once in six months, and to keep it during that time in the depths of their closets, also enabled time to lay its grimy and decaying stains upon it. There was perfect unison of ill-grace and senility about them; their faces, as faded as their threadbare coats, as creased as their trousers, were worn-out, shrivelled-up, and puckered.
As for the others, the general negligence of their dress, which was incomplete and wanting in freshness—like the toilet of all country places, where insensibly people cease to dress for others and come to think seriously of the price of a pair of gloves—was in keeping with the negligence of the Cruchots. A horror of fashion was the only point on which the Grassinists and the Cruchotines agreed. When the Parisian took up his eye-glass to examine the strange accessories of this dwelling—the joists of the ceiling, the color of the woodwork, and the specks which the flies had left there in sufficient number to punctuate the “Moniteur” and the “Encyclopaedia of Sciences,”—the loto-players lifted their noses and looked at him with as much curiosity as they might have felt about a giraffe. Monsieur des Grassins and his son, to whom the appearance of a man of fashion was not wholly unknown, were nevertheless as much astonished as their neighbors, whether it was that they fell under the indefinable influence of the general feeling, or that they really shared it as with satirical glances they seemed to say to their compatriots—
“That is what you see in Paris!”
They were able to examine Charles at their leisure without fearing to displease the master of the house. Grandet was absorbed in the long letter which he held in his hand; and to read it he had taken the only candle upon the card-table, paying no heed to his guests or their pleasure. Eugenie, to whom such a type of perfection, whether of dress or of person, was absolutely unknown, thought she beheld in her cousin a being descended from seraphic spheres. She inhaled with delight the fragrance wafted from the graceful curls of that brilliant head. She would have liked to touch the soft kid of the delicate gloves. She envied Charles his small hands, his complexion, the freshness and refinement of his features. In short, if it is possible to sum up the effect this elegant being produced upon an ignorant young girl perpetually employed in darning stockings or in mending her father’s clothes, and whose life flowed on beneath these unclean rafters, seeing none but occasional passers along the silent street—this vision of her cousin roused in her soul an emotion of delicate desire like that inspired in a young man by the fanciful pictures of women drawn by Westall for the English “Keepsakes,” and that engraved by the Findens with so clever a tool that we fear, as we breathe upon the paper, that the celestial apparitions may be wafted away.
Charles drew from his pocket a handkerchief embroidered by the great lady now travelling in Scotland. As Eugenie saw this pretty piece of work, done in the vacant hours which were lost to love, she looked at her cousin to see if it were possible that he meant to make use of it. The manners of the young man, his gestures, the way in which he took up his eye-glass, his affected superciliousness, his contemptuous glance at the coffer which had just given so much pleasure to the rich heiress, and which he evidently regarded as without value, or even as ridiculous—all these things, which shocked the Cruchots and the des Grassins, pleased Eugenie so deeply that before she slept she dreamed long dreams of her phoenix cousin.
The loto-numbers were drawn very slowly, and presently the game came suddenly to an end. La Grand Nanon entered and said aloud: “Madame, I want the sheets for monsieur’s bed.”
Madame Grandet followed her out. Madame des Grassins said in a low voice: “Let us keep our sous and stop playing.”
Each took his or her two sous from the chipped saucer in which they had been put; then the party moved in a body toward the fire.
“Have you finished your game?” said Grandet, without looking up from his letter.
“Yes, yes!” replied Madame des Grassins, taking a seat near Charles. Eugenie, prompted by a thought often born in the heart of a young girl when sentiment enters it for the first time, left the room to go and help her mother and Nanon. Had an able confessor then questioned her she would, no doubt, have avowed to him that she thought neither of her mother nor of Nanon, but was pricked by a poignant desire to look after her cousin’s room and concern herself with her cousin; to supply what might be needed, to remedy any forgetfulness, to see that all was done to make it, as far as possible, suitable and elegant; and, in fact, she arrived in time to prove to her mother and Nanon that everything still remained to be done. She put into Nanon’s head the notion of passing a warming-pan between the sheets. She herself covered the old table with a cloth and requested Nanon to change it every morning; she convinced her mother that it was necessary to light a good fire, and persuaded Nanon to bring up a great pile of wood into the corridor without saying anything to her father. She ran to get, from one of the corner-shelves of the hall, a tray of old lacquer which was part of the inheritance of the late Monsieur de la Bertelliere, catching up at the same time a six-sided crystal goblet, a little tarnished gilt spoon, an antique flask engraved with cupids, all of which she put triumphantly on the corner of her cousin’s chimney-piece. More ideas surged through her head in one quarter of an hour than she had ever had since she came into the world.
“Mamma,” she said, “my cousin will never bear the smell of a tallow candle; suppose we buy a wax one?” And she darted, swift as a bird, to get the five-franc piece which she had just received for her monthly expenses. “Here, Nanon,” she cried, “quick!”
“What will your father say?” This terrible remonstrance was uttered by Madame Grandet as she beheld her daughter armed with an old Sevres sugar-basin which Grandet had brought home from the chateau of Froidfond.
“And where will you get the sugar? Are you crazy?”
“Mamma, Nanon can buy some sugar as well as the candle.”
“But your father?”
“Surely his nephew ought not to go without a glass of eau sucree? Besides, he will not notice it.”
“Your father sees everything,” said Madame Grandet, shaking her head.
Nanon hesitated; she knew her master.
“Come, Nanon, go—because it is my birthday.”
Nanon gave a loud laugh as she heard the first little jest her young mistress had ever made, and then obeyed her.
While Eugenie and her mother were trying to embellish the bedroom assigned by Monsieur Grandet for his nephew, Charles himself was the object of Madame des Grassins’ attentions; to all appearances she was setting her cap at him.
“You are very courageous, monsieur,” she said to the young dandy, “to leave the pleasures of the capital at this season and take up your abode in Saumur. But if we do not frighten you away, you will find there are some amusements even here.”
She threw him the ogling glance of the provinces, where women put so much prudence and reserve into their eyes that they impart to them the prudish concupiscence peculiar to certain ecclesiastics to whom all pleasure is either a theft or an error.
Charles was so completely out of his element in this abode, and so far from the vast chateau and the sumptuous life with which his fancy had endowed his uncle, that as he looked at Madame des Grassins he perceived a dim likeness to Parisian faces. He gracefully responded to the species of invitation addressed to him, and began very naturally a conversation, in which Madame des Grassins gradually lowered her voice so as to bring it into harmony with the nature of the confidences she was making. With her, as with Charles, there was the need of conference; so after a few moments spent in coquettish phrases and a little serious jesting, the clever provincial said, thinking herself unheard by the others, who were discussing the sale of wines which at that season filled the heads of every one in Saumur—
“Monsieur if you will do us the honor to come and see us, you will give as much pleasure to my husband as to myself. Our salon is the only one in Saumur where you will find the higher business circles mingling with the nobility. We belong to both societies, who meet at our house simply because they find it amusing. My husband—I say it with pride—is as much valued by the one class as by the other. We will try to relieve the monotony of your visit here. If you stay all the time with Monsieur Grandet, good heavens! what will become of you? Your uncle is a sordid miser who thinks of nothing but his vines; your aunt is a pious soul who can’t put two ideas together; and your cousin is a little fool, without education, perfectly common, no fortune, who will spend her life in darning towels.”
“She is really very nice, this woman,” thought Charles Grandet as he duly responded to Madame des Grassins’ coquetries.
“It seems to me, wife, that you are taking possession of monsieur,” said the stout banker, laughing.
On this remark the notary and the president said a few words that were more or less significant; but the abbe, looking at them slyly, brought their thoughts to a focus by taking a pinch of snuff and saying as he handed round his snuff-box: “Who can do the honors of Saumur for monsieur so well as madame?”
“Ah! What do you mean by that, monsieur l’abbe?” demanded Monsieur des Grassins.
“I mean it in the best possible sense for you, for madame, for the town of Saumur, and for monsieur,” said the wily old man, turning to Charles.
The Abbe Cruchot had guessed the conversation between Charles and Madame des Grassins without seeming to pay attention to it.
“Monsieur,” said Adolphe to Charles with an air which he tried to make free and easy, “I don’t know whether you remember me, but I had the honor of dancing as your vis-a-vis at a ball given by the Baron de Nucingen, and—”
“Perfectly; I remember perfectly, monsieur,” answered Charles, pleased to find himself the object of general attention.
“Monsieur is your son?” he said to Madame des Grassins.
The abbe looked at her maliciously.
“Yes, monsieur,” she answered.
“Then you were very young when you were in Paris?” said Charles, addressing Adolphe.
“You must know, monsieur,” said the abbe, “that we send them to Babylon as soon as they are weaned.”
Madame des Grassins examined the abbe with a glance of extreme penetration.
“It is only in the provinces,” he continued, “that you will find women of thirty and more years as fresh as madame, here, with a son about to take his degree. I almost fancy myself back in the days when the young men stood on chairs in the ball-room to see you dance, madame,” said the abbe, turning to his female adversary. “To me, your triumphs are but of yesterday—”
“The old rogue!” thought Madame Grassins; “can he have guessed my intentions?”
“It seems that I shall have a good deal of success in Saumur,”thought Charles as he unbuttoned his great-coat, put a hand into his waistcoat, and cast a glance into the far distance, to imitate the attitude which Chantrey has given to Lord Byron.
The inattention of Pere Grandet, or, to speak more truly, the preoccupation of mind into which the reading of the letter had plunged him, did not escape the vigilance of the notary and the president, who tried to guess the contents of the letter by the almost imperceptible motions of the miser’s face, which was then under the full light of the candle. He maintained the habitual calm of his features with evident difficulty; we may, in fact, picture to ourselves the countenance such a man endeavored to preserve as he read the fatal letter which here follows—
My Brother—It is almost twenty-three years since we have seen each other. My marriage was the occasion of our last interview, after which we parted, and both of us were happy. Assuredly I could not then foresee that you would one day be the prop of the family whose prosperity you then predicted.When you hold this letter within your hands I shall be no longer living. In the position I now hold I cannot survive the disgrace of bankruptcy. I have waited on the edge of the gulf until the last moment, hoping to save myself. The end has come, I must sink into it. The double bankruptcies of my broker and of Roguin, my notary, have carried off my last resources and left me nothing. I have the bitterness of owing nearly four millions, with assets not more than twenty-five per cent in value to pay them. The wines in my warehouses suffer from the fall in prices caused by the abundance and quality of your vintage. In three days Paris will cry out: “Monsieur Grandet was a knave!”and I, an honest man, shall be lying in my winding-sheet of infamy. I deprive my son of a good name, which I have stained, and the fortune of his mother, which I have lost. He knows nothing of all this—my unfortunate child whom I idolize! We parted tenderly. He was ignorant, happily, that the last beatings of my heart were spent in that farewell. Will he not some day curse me? My brother, my brother! The curses of our children are horrible; they can appeal against ours, but theirs are irrevocable. Grandet, you are my elder brother, you owe me your protection; act for me so that Charles may cast no bitter words upon my grave! My brother, if I were writing with my blood, with my tears, no greater anguish could I put into this letter—nor as great, for then I should weep, I should bleed, I should die, I should suffer no more, but now I suffer and look at death with dry eyes.From henceforth you are my son’s father; he has no relations, as you well know, on his mother’s side. Why did I not consider social prejudices? Why did I yield to love? Why did I marry the natural daughter of a great lord? Charles has no family. Oh, my unhappy son! my son! Listen, Grandet! I implore nothing for myself—besides, your property may not be large enough to carry a mortgage of three millions—but for my son! Brother, my suppliant hands are clasped as I think of you; behold them! Grandet, I confide my son to you in dying, and I look at the means of death with less pain as I think that you will be to him a father. He loved me well, my Charles; I was good to him, I never thwarted him; he will not curse me. Ah, you see! he is gentle, he is like his mother, he will cause you no grief. Poor boy! accustomed to all the enjoyments of luxury, he knows nothing of the privations to which you and I were condemned by the poverty of our youth. And I leave him ruined! alone! Yes, all my friends will avoid him, and it is I who have brought this humiliation upon him! Would that I had the force to send him with one thrust into the heavens to his mother’s side! Madness! I come back to my disaster—to his. I send him to you that you may tell him in some fitting way of my death, of his future fate. Be a father to him, but a good father. Do not tear him all at once from his idle life, it would kill him. I beg him on my knees to renounce all rights that, as his mother’s heir, he may have on my estate. But the prayer is superfluous;he is honorable, and he will feel that he must not appear among my creditors. Bring him to see this at the right time;reveal to him the hard conditions of the life I have made for him: and if he still has tender thoughts of me, tell him in my name that all is not lost for him. Yes, work, labor, which saved us both, may give him back the fortune of which I have deprived him; and if he listens to his father’s voice as it reaches him from the grave, he will go the Indies. My brother, Charles is an upright and courageous young man; give him the wherewithal to make his venture;he will die sooner than not repay you the funds which you may lend him. Grandet! if you will not do this, you will lay up for yourself remorse. Ah, should my child find neither tenderness nor succor in you, I would call down the vengeance of God upon your cruelty!If I had been able to save something from the wreck, I might have had the right to leave him at least a portion of his mother’s property;but my last monthly payments have absorbed everything. I did not wish to die uncertain of my child’s fate; I hoped to feel a sacred promise in a clasp of your hand which might have warmed my heart: but time fails me. While Charles is journeying to you I shall be preparing my assignment. I shall endeavor to show by the order and good faith of my accounts that my disaster comes neither from a faulty life nor from dishonesty. It is for my son’s sake that I strive to do this.Farewell, my brother! May the blessing of God be yours for the generous guardianship I lay upon you, and which, I doubt not, you will accept. A voice will henceforth and forever pray for you in that world where we must all go, and where I am now as you read these lines.
Victor-Ange-Guillaume Grandet.
“So you are talking?” said Pere Grandet as he carefully folded the letter in its original creases and put it into his waistcoat-pocket.
He looked at his nephew with a humble, timid air, beneath which he hid his feelings and his calculations. “Have you warmed yourself?” he said to him.
“Thoroughly, my dear uncle.”
“Well, where are the women?” said his uncle, already forgetting that his nephew was to sleep at the house.
At this moment Eugenie and Madame Grandet returned.
“Is the room all ready?” said Grandet, recovering his composure.
“Yes, father.”
“Well then, my nephew, if you are tired, Nanon shall show you your room. It isn’t a dandy’s room; but you will excuse a poor wine-grower who never has a penny to spare. Taxes swallow up everything.”
“We do not wish to intrude, Grandet,” said the banker; “you may want to talk to your nephew, and therefore we will bid you good-night.”
At these words the assembly rose, and each made a parting bow in keeping with his or her own character. The old notary went to the door to fetch his lantern and came back to light it, offering to accompany the des Grassins on their way. Madame des Grassins had not foreseen the incident which brought the evening prematurely to an end, her servant therefore had not arrived.
“Will you do me the honor to take my arm, madame?” said the abbe.
“Thank you, monsieur l’abbe, but I have my son,” she answered dryly.
“Ladies cannot compromise themselves with me,” said the abbe.
“Take Monsieur Cruchot’s arm,” said her husband.
The abbe walked off with the pretty lady so quickly that they were soon some distance in advance of the caravan.
“That is a good-looking young man, madame,” he said, pressing her arm. “Good-bye to the grapes, the vintage is done. It is all over with us. We may as well say adieu to Mademoiselle Grandet. Eugenie will belong to the dandy. Unless this cousin is enamoured of some Parisian woman, your son Adolphe will find another rival in—”
“Not at all, monsieur l’abbe. This young man cannot fail to see that Eugenie is a little fool—a girl without the least freshness. Did you notice her to-night? She was as yellow as a quince.”
“Perhaps you made the cousin notice it?”
“I did not take the trouble—”
“Place yourself always beside Eugenie, madame, and you need never take the trouble to say anything to the young man against his cousin; he will make his own comparisons, which—”
“Well, he has promised to dine with me the day after to-morrow.”
“Ah! if you only would, madame—” said the abbe.
“What is it that you wish me to do, monsieur l’abbe? Do you mean to offer me bad advice? I have not reached the age of thirty-nine, without a stain upon my reputation, thank God! to compromise myself now, even for the empire of the Great Mogul. You and I are of an age when we both know the meaning of words. For an ecclesiastic, you certainly have ideas that are very incongruous. Fie! it is worthy of Faublas!”
“You have read Faublas?”
“No, monsieur l’abbe; I meant to say the Liaisons dangereuses.”
“Ah! that book is infinitely more moral,” said the abbe, laughing. “But you make me out as wicked as a young man of the present day; I only meant—”
“Do you dare to tell me you were not thinking of putting wicked things into my head? Isn’t it perfectly clear? If this young man—who I admit is very good-looking—were to make love to me, he would not think of his cousin. In Paris, I know, good mothers do devote themselves in this way to the happiness and welfare of their children; but we live in the provinces, monsieur l’abbe.”
“Yes, madame.”
“And,” she continued, “I do not want, and Adolphe himself would not want, a hundred millions brought at such a price.”
“Madame, I said nothing about a hundred millions; that temptation might be too great for either of us to withstand. Only, I do think that an honest woman may permit herself, in all honor, certain harmless little coquetries, which are, in fact, part of her social duty and which—”
“Do you think so?”
“Are we not bound, madame, to make ourselves agreeable to each other?—Permit me to blow my nose.—I assure you, madame,”he resumed, “that the young gentleman ogled you through his glass in a more flattering manner than he put on when he looked at me;but I forgive him for doing homage to beauty in preference to old age—”
“It is quite apparent,” said the president in his loud voice,“that Monsieur Grandet of Paris has sent his son to Saumur with extremely matrimonial intentions.”
“But in that case the cousin wouldn’t have fallen among us like a cannon-ball,” answered the notary.
“That doesn’t prove anything,” said Monsieur des Grassins; “the old miser is always making mysteries.”
“Des Grassins, my friend, I have invited the young man to dinner. You must go and ask Monsieur and Madame de Larsonniere and the du Hautoys, with the beautiful demoiselle du Hautoy, of course. I hope she will be properly dressed; that jealous mother of hers does make such a fright of her! Gentlemen, I trust that you will all do us the honor to come,” she added, stopping the procession to address the two Cruchots.
“Here you are at home, madame,” said the notary.
After bowing to the three des Grassins, the three Cruchots returned home, applying their provincial genius for analysis to studying, under all its aspects, the great event of the evening, which undoubtedly changed the respective positions of Grassinists and Cruchotines. The admirable common-sense which guided all the actions of these great machinators made each side feel the necessity of a momentary alliance against a common enemy. Must they not mutually hinder Eugenie from loving her cousin, and the cousin from thinking of Eugenie? Could the Parisian resist the influence of treacherous insinuations, soft-spoken calumnies, slanders full of faint praise and artless denials, which should be made to circle incessantly about him and deceive him?
When the four relations were left alone, Monsieur Grandet said to his nephew—
“We must go to bed. It is too late to talk about the matters which have brought you here; to-morrow we will take a suitable moment. We breakfast at eight o’clock; at midday we eat a little fruit or a bit of bread, and drink a glass of white wine; and we dine, like the Parisians, at five o’clock. That’s the order of the day. If you like to go and see the town and the environs you are free to do so. You will excuse me if my occupations do not permit me to accompany you. You may perhaps hear people say that I am rich—Monsieur Grandet this, Monsieur Grandet that. I let them talk; their gossip does not hurt my credit. But I have not a penny; I work in my old age like an apprentice whose worldly goods are a bad plane and two good arms. Perhaps you’ll soon know yourself what a franc costs when you have got to sweat for it. Nanon, where are the candles?”
“I trust, my nephew, that you will find all you want,” said Madame Grandet; “but if you should need anything else, you can call Nanon.”
“My dear aunt, I shall need nothing; I have, I believe, brought everything with me. Permit me to bid you good-night, and my young cousin also.”
Charles took a lighted wax candle from Nanon’s hand—an Anjou candle, very yellow in color, and so shopworn that it looked like tallow and deceived Monsieur Grandet, who, incapable of suspecting its pres
查理·葛朗臺,二十二歲的俊俏后生,跟那些老實的內地人正好成為古怪的對照;人家看了他貴族式的舉動態(tài)度已經心中有氣,而且還在加以研究,以便大大地訕笑他一番。這緣故需要說明一下。
在二十二歲上,青年人還很接近童年,免不了孩子氣。一百個中間,說不定九十九個都會像查理·葛朗臺一樣的行事。那天晚上的前幾日,父親吩咐他到索漠的伯父那里住幾個月。也許巴黎的葛朗臺念頭轉到歐也妮。初次跑到內地的查理,便想拿出一個時髦青年的摽勁,在州縣里擺闊,在地方上開風氣,帶一些巴黎社會的新玩意兒來??傊痪湓捳f盡,他要在索漠比在巴黎花更多的時間刷指甲,對衣著特別出神入化,下一番苦功,豈不比有些時候一個風流年少的人倒故意地不修邊幅,要顯得瀟灑。
因此,查理帶了巴黎最漂亮的獵裝,最漂亮的獵槍,最漂亮的刀子,最漂亮的刀鞘。他也帶了全套最新奇的背心:灰的,白的,黑的,金殼蟲色的,閃金光的,嵌水鉆的,五色條紋的,雙疊襟的,高領口的,直領口的,翻領的,紐扣一直扣到脖子的,金紐扣的。還有當時風行的各式硬領與領帶,名裁縫蒲伊松做的兩套服裝,最講究的內衣。母親給的一套華麗的純金梳妝用具也隨身帶了。凡是花花公子的玩意兒,都已帶全;一只玲瓏可愛的小文具盒也沒有忘記。這是一個最可愛的——至少在他心目中———他叫作阿納德的闊太太送的禮物。她此刻正在蘇格蘭陪著丈夫游歷,煩悶不堪,可是為了某些謠言不得不暫時犧牲一下幸福。他也帶了非常華麗的信箋,預備每半個月和她通一次信。巴黎浮華生活的行頭,簡直應有盡有,從決斗開場時用的馬鞭起,直到決斗結束時用的鏤工細巧的手槍為止,一個游手好閑的青年出門打天下的隨身家伙,都包括盡了。父親吩咐他一個人上路,切勿浪費,所以他包了驛車的前廂,很高興那輛特地定造、預備六月里坐到巴登溫泉與貴族太太阿納德相會的輕巧可愛的轎車,不致在這次旅行中糟蹋。
查理預備在伯父家里碰到上百客人,一心想到他森林中去圍獵,過一下城堡生活。他想不到伯父就在索漠;車子到的時候,他打聽去法勞豐的路;等到知道伯父在城里,便以為他住的必是高堂大廈。索漠也罷,法勞豐也罷,初次在伯父家露面非體體面面不行,所以他的旅行裝束是最漂亮的,最大方的,用當時形容一個人、一件東西美到極點的口語說,是最可愛的。利用在都爾打尖的時間,他叫了一個理發(fā)匠把美麗的栗色頭發(fā)重新燙過;襯衫也換過一件,戴一條黑緞子領帶,配上圓領,把那張滿面春風的小白臉愈加顯得可愛了;一襲小腰身的旅行外套,紐扣只扣了一半,露出一件高領羊毛背心,里面還有第二件白背心;他的表隨便納在一只口袋里,短短的金鏈系在紐孔上;灰色褲子,紐扣都在兩旁,加上黑絲線繡成的圖案,式樣更美觀了;他極有風趣地揮動手杖,雕刻精工的黃金柄,并沒奪去灰色手套的光澤。最后,他的便帽也是很大方的。
只有巴黎人,一個第一流的巴黎人,才能這樣打扮而不至于俗氣,才有本領使那些無聊的裝飾顯得調和;給這些行頭做支援的,還有一股摽勁,表示他有的是漂亮的手槍,百發(fā)百中的功夫,還有那位貴族太太阿納德。
因此,要了解索漠人與年輕的巴黎人彼此的驚訝,要在堂屋與構成這幅家庭小景的灰暗的陰影中,把來客風流典雅的光彩看個真切的話,就得把幾位克羅旭的模樣懸想一番。三個人都吸鼻煙,既淌鼻水,又把黃里帶紅、衣領打皺、褶裥發(fā)黃的襯衫胸飾沾滿了小黑點:他們久已不在乎這些。軟綿綿的領帶,一扣上去就縮成一根繩子。襯衫內衣之多,一年只要洗兩次,在衣柜底上成年累月地放舊了,顏色也灰了。邋遢與衰老在他們身上合而為一。跟破爛衣服一樣衰敗,跟褲子一樣打皺,他們的面貌顯得憔悴、硬化,嘴臉都扭作一團。
其余的人也是衣冠不整,七零八落,沒有一點兒新鮮氣象,跟克羅旭他們的落拓半斤八兩。內地的裝束大概都是如此,大家不知不覺地只關心一副手套的價錢,而不想打扮給人家看了。只有討厭時裝這一點,臺·格拉桑與克羅旭兩派的意見是一致的。巴黎客人一拿起手眼鏡,打量堂屋里古怪的陳設,樓板的梁木,護壁板的色調,護壁板上數量多得可以標點《日用百科全書》與《政府公報》的蒼蠅屎的時候,那些玩摸彩戲的人便立刻揚起鼻子打量他,好奇的神情似乎在看一頭長頸鹿。臺·格拉桑父子雖然見識過時髦人物,也跟在座的人一樣的驚訝,或許是眾人的情緒有股說不出的力量把他們感染了,或許他們表示贊成,所以含譏帶諷地對大家擠眉弄眼,仿佛說:“你們瞧,巴黎人就是這副腔派。”
并且他們盡可從從容容地端詳查理,不用怕得罪主人。葛朗臺全副精神在對付手里的一封長信,為了看信,他把牌桌上唯一的蠟燭拿開了,既不顧到客人,也不顧到他們的興致。歐也妮從來沒見過這樣美滿的裝束與人品,以為堂兄弟是什么天上掉下來的妙人兒。光亮而拳曲有致的頭發(fā)散出一陣陣的香氣,她盡量地聞著,嗅著,覺得飄飄然。漂亮精美的手套,她恨不得去摸一下那光滑的皮。她羨慕查理的小手,皮色、面貌的嬌嫩與清秀。這可以說是把風流公子給她的印象做了一個概括的敘述??墒且粋€沒有見過世面的姑娘,只知道縫襪子,替父親補衣裳,在滿壁油膩的屋子里討生活的——冷靜的街上一小時難得看到一個行人——這樣一個女子一見這位堂兄弟,自然要神魂顛倒,好像一個青年在英國圣誕畫冊上看到了那些奇妙的女人,鏤刻的精巧,大有吹一口氣就會把天仙似的美女從紙上吹走了似的。
查理掏出一條手帕,是在蘇格蘭游歷的闊太太繡的,美麗的繡作正是熱戀中懷著滿腔愛情做成的;歐也妮望著堂兄弟,看他是否當真拿來用。查理的舉動,態(tài)度,拿手眼鏡的姿勢,故意的放肆,還有對富家閨女剛才多么喜歡的那個針線匣,他認為毫無價值或俗不可耐而一臉瞧不起的神氣,總之,查理的一切,凡是克羅旭與臺·格拉桑他們看了刺眼的,歐也妮都覺得賞心悅目,使她當晚在床上老想著那個了不起的堂兄弟,睡不著覺。
摸彩摸得很慢,不久也就歇了。因為長腳拿儂進來高聲地說:
“太太,得找被單替客人鋪床啦?!?/p>
葛朗臺太太跟著拿儂走了。臺·格拉桑太太便輕輕地說:
“我們把錢收起來,歇了吧。”
各人從缺角的舊碟子內把兩個銅子的賭注收起,一齊走到壁爐前面,談一會兒天。
“你們完了嗎?”葛朗臺說著,照樣念他的信。
“完了,完了。”臺·格拉桑太太答著話,挨著查理坐下。歐也妮,像一般初次動心的少女一樣,忽然想起了一個念頭,離開堂屋,給母親和拿儂幫忙去了。要是一個手腕高明的懺悔師盤問她,她一定會承認那時既沒想到母親,也沒想到拿儂,而是非常急切地要看看堂兄弟的臥房,替他張羅一下,放點兒東西進去,唯恐家人有什么遺漏,樣樣要想個周到,使他的臥房盡可能顯得漂亮干凈。歐也妮已經認為只有她才懂得堂兄弟的口味與心思。
母親與拿儂以為一切安排定當,預備下樓了,她卻正好趕上,指點給她們看,什么都不行。她提醒拿儂撿一些炭火,弄個腳爐烘被單;她親手把舊桌子鋪上一方小臺布,吩咐拿儂這塊臺布每天早上都得更換。她說服母親,壁爐內非好好地生一個火不可,又逼著拿儂瞞了父親搬一大堆木柴放在走廊里。特·拉·裴德里埃老先生的遺產里面,有一個古漆盤子放在堂屋的三角櫥上,還有一只六角水晶杯,一只鍍金褪盡的小羹匙,一個刻著愛神的古瓶:歐也妮一齊搬了來,得意揚揚地擺在壁爐架上。她這一忽兒的念頭,比她出世以來所有的念頭還要多。
“媽媽,”她說,“蠟油的氣味,弟弟一定受不了。去買一支白燭怎么樣?……”說著她像小鳥一般輕盈地跑去,從錢袋里掏出她的月費,一塊五法郎的銀幣,說:
“喂,拿儂,快點兒去?!?/p>
她又拿了一個糖壺,賽佛窖燒的舊瓷器,是葛朗臺從法勞豐別莊拿來的。葛朗臺太太一看到就嚴重地警告說:
“哎,父親看了還了得!……再說哪兒來的糖呢?你瘋了嗎?”
“媽媽,跟白燭一樣好叫拿儂去買啊。”
“可是你父親要怎么說呢?”
“他的侄兒連一杯糖水都沒有喝,成什么話?而且他不會留意的?!?/p>
“嘿,什么都逃不過他的眼睛?!备鹄逝_太太側了側腦袋。
拿儂猶疑不決,她知道主人的脾氣。
“去呀,拿儂,既然今天是我的生日!”
拿儂聽見小主人第一次說笑話,不禁哈哈大笑,照她的吩咐去辦了。
正當歐也妮跟母親想法把葛朗臺派給侄兒住的臥房裝得漂亮一些的時候,查理卻成為臺·格拉桑太太大獻殷勤、百般挑引的目標。
“你真有勇氣呀,先生,”她對他說,“居然肯丟下巴黎冬天的娛樂,住到索漠來。不過,要是你不覺得我們太可怕的話,你慢慢會看到,這里一樣可以玩兒的?!?/p>
接著她做了一個十足內地式的媚眼。內地女子的眼風,因為平常矜持到極點,謹慎到極點,反而有一種饞涎欲滴的神氣,那是把一切歡娛當作竊盜或罪過的教士特有的眼風。
查理在堂屋里迷惘萬分,意想之中伯父的別莊與豪華的生活,跟眼前種種差得太遠了,所以他把臺·格拉桑太太仔細瞧過之后,覺得她淡淡的還有一點兒巴黎婦女的影子。她上面那段話,對他好似一種邀請,他便客客氣氣地接受了,很自然地和她攀談起來。臺·格拉桑太太把嗓子逐漸放低,跟她說的體己話的內容配合。她和查理都覺得需要密談一下。所以時而調情說笑,時而一本正經地閑扯了一會兒之后,那位手段巧妙的內地女子,趁其余的人談論當時全索漠最關心的酒市行情而不注意她的時候,說道:
“先生,要是你肯賞光到舍間來,外子一定跟我一樣的高興。索漠城中,只有在舍間才能同時碰到商界巨頭跟閥閱世家。在這兩個社會里,我們都有份;他們也只愿意在我們家里見面,因為玩得痛快。我敢驕傲地說一句,舊家跟商界都很敬重我的丈夫。我們一定得給你解解悶。要是你老待在葛朗臺先生家里,哎,天哪!不知你要煩成什么樣呢!你的老伯是一個守財奴,一心只想他的葡萄秧;你的伯母是一個理路不清的老虔婆;你的堂姊,不癡不癲,沒有教育,沒有陪嫁,俗不可耐,整天只曉得縫抹布?!?/p>
“她很不錯呢,這位太太?!辈槔磉@樣想著,就跟臺·格拉桑太太的裝腔作勢呼應起來。
“我看,太太,你大有把這位先生包辦的意思。”又胖又高的銀行家笑著插嘴。
聽到這一句,公證人與所長都說了些俏皮話;可是神父很狡猾地望著他們,吸了一撮鼻煙,拿煙壺向大家讓了一陣,把眾人的思想歸納起來說:
“除了太太,還有誰能給這位先生在索漠當向導呢?”
“啊,??!神父,你這句話是什么意思?”臺·格拉桑先生問。
“我這句話,先生,對你,對尊夫人,對索漠城,對這位貴客,都表示最大的好意?!奔榛睦项^兒說到末了,轉身望著查理。
克羅旭神父裝作全沒注意查理和臺·格拉桑太太的談話,其實早已猜透了。
“先生,”阿道夫終于裝作隨便的樣子,對查理說,“不知道你還記得我嗎,在紐沁根男爵府上,跳四組舞的時候我曾經跟你照過一面[1],并且……”
“啊,不錯,先生,不錯?!辈槔砘卮?,他很詫異地發(fā)覺個個人都在巴結他。
“這一位是你的世兄嗎?”他問臺·格拉桑太太。神父狡猾地瞅了她一眼。
“是的,先生。”她說。
“那么你很年輕就上巴黎去了?”查理又轉身問阿道夫。
“當然嘍,先生,”神父插嘴道,“他們斷了奶,咱們就打發(fā)他們進京看花花世界了?!?/p>
臺·格拉桑太太極有深意地把神父瞪了一眼,表示質問。他卻緊跟著說:
“只有在內地,才能看到像太太這樣三十多歲的女子,兒子都快要法科畢業(yè)了,還是這么嬌嫩。”他又轉身對著臺·格拉桑太太,“當年跳舞會里,男男女女站在椅子上爭著看你跳舞的光景,還清清楚楚在我眼前呢。你紅極一時的盛況仿佛是昨天的事。”
“噢!這個老渾蛋!”臺·格拉桑太太心里想,“難道他猜到了我的心事嗎?”
“看來我在索漠可以大大地走紅呢?!辈槔硪贿呄胍贿吔忾_上衣的紐扣,把一雙手按在背心上,眼睛望著空中,模仿英國雕刻家凱脫萊塑的拜倫的姿勢。
葛朗臺老頭的不理會眾人,或者不如說他聚精會神看信的神氣,逃不過公證人和所長的眼睛。葛朗臺的臉這時給燭光照得格外分明,他們想從他微妙的表情中間揣摩書信的內容。老頭兒的神色,很不容易保持平日的鎮(zhèn)靜。并且像下面這樣一封悲慘的信,他念的時候會裝作怎樣的表情,誰都可以想象得到:
大哥,我們分別快二十三年了。最后一次會面是我結婚的時候,那次我們是高高興興分手的。當然,我想不到有這么一天,要你獨力支撐家庭。你當時為了家業(yè)興隆多么快活??墒沁@封信到你手里的時候,我已經不在世界上了。以我的地位,我不愿在破產的羞辱之后還同意顏偷生。我在深淵邊上掙扎到最后一刻,希望能突破難關??墒欠堑共豢伞N业慕浖o人以及公證人洛庚,他們的破產,把我最后一些資本也弄光了。我欠了近四百萬的債,資產只有一百萬。囤積的酒,此刻正碰到市價慘跌,因為你們今年豐收,酒質又好。三天之后,全巴黎的人都要說:“葛朗臺原來是個騙子!”我一生清白,想不到死后要受人唾罵。我既玷污了兒子的姓氏,又侵占了他母親的一份財產。他還一點兒沒有知道呢,我疼愛的這個可憐的孩子!我和他分手的時候,彼此依依不舍。幸而他不知道這次的訣別是我最后一次的發(fā)泄熱情。將來他會不會咒我呢?大哥,大哥,兒女的詛咒是最可怕的!兒女得罪了我們,可以求告,討?zhàn)?;我們得罪了兒女,卻永遠挽回不了。葛朗臺,你是我的兄長,應當保護我:不要讓查理在我的墳墓上說一句狠毒的話!大哥,即使我用血淚寫這封信,也不至于這樣痛苦;因為我可以痛哭,可以流血,可以死,可以沒有知覺;但我現在只覺得痛苦,而且眼看著死,一滴眼淚都沒有。你如今是查理的父親了,他沒有外婆家的親戚,你知道為什么。唉,為什么我當時不聽從社會的成見呢?為什么我向愛情低頭呢?為什么我娶了一個貴人的私生女兒?查理無家可歸了??蓱z的孩子!孩子!你得知道,葛朗臺,我并不為了自己求你;并且你的家產也許還押不到三百萬;我求你是為我的兒子呀!告訴你,大哥,我想到你的時候是合著雙手哀求的。葛朗臺,我臨死之前把查理托付給你了?,F在我望著手槍不覺得痛苦了,因為想到有你擔起為父的責任。查理對我很孝順,我對他那么慈愛,從來不違拗他,他不會恨我的。并且你慢慢可以看到:他性情和順像他母親,絕不會有什么事叫你難堪??蓱z的孩子!他是享福慣的。你我小時候吃穿不全的苦處,他完全不知道……而他現在傾家蕩產,只有一個人了!一定的,所有的朋友都要回避他,而他的羞辱是我造成的。?。∥液薏坏冒阉皇謳咸靽旁谒赣H身邊,唉,我簡直瘋了!我還得講我的苦難,查理的苦難。我打發(fā)他到你那兒,讓你把我的死訊和他將來的命運婉轉地告訴他。希望你做他的父親,慈愛的父親。切勿一下子逼他戒絕悠閑的生活,那他會送命的。我愿意跪下來,求他拋棄母親的遺產,而不要站在我的債權人的地位??墒遣槐兀邪翚?,一定知道他不該和我的債主站在一起。你得教他趁早拋棄我的遺產[2]。我替他造成的艱苦的處境,你得仔細解釋給他聽;如果他對我的孝心不變,那么替我告訴他,前途并不絕望。咱倆當初都是靠工作翻身的,將來他也可以靠著工作把我敗掉的家業(yè)掙回來。如果他肯聽我這個父親的話——為了他,我簡直想從墳墓里爬起來——他應該出國,到印度去[3]!大哥,查理是一個勇敢正直的青年,你給他一批出口貨讓他經營,他死也不會賴掉你給他的第一筆資本的;你一定得供給他,葛朗臺!否則你將來要受良心責備的。??!要是你對我的孩子不肯幫忙,不加憐愛,我要永久求上帝懲罰你的無情無義。我很想能搶救出一部分財產,因為我有權在他母親的財產里面留一筆給他,可是月底的開支把我全部的資源分配完了。不知道孩子將來的命運,我是死不瞑目的;我真想握著你溫暖的手,聽到你神圣的諾言;但是來不及了。在查理趕路的時間,我要把資產負債表造起。我要以業(yè)務的規(guī)矩誠實,證明我這次的失敗既沒有過失也沒有私弊。這不是為了查理嗎!——別了,大哥。我付托給你的監(jiān)護權,我相信你一定會慷慨地接受,愿上帝為此賜福給你。在彼世界上,永久有一個聲音在為你祈禱。那兒我們早晚都要去的,而我已經在那里了。
維克多—安越—琪奧默·葛朗臺
“嗯,你們在談天嗎?”葛朗臺把信照原來的折痕折好,放在背心口袋里。
他因為心緒不寧,做著種種盤算,便故意裝出謙卑而膽怯的神氣望著侄兒說:
“烤了火,暖和了嗎?”
“舒服得很,伯父?!?/p>
“哎,娘兒們到哪里去了?”
他已經忘了侄兒是要住在他家里的。
這時歐也妮和葛朗臺太太正好回到堂屋。
“樓上什么都收拾好了吧?”老頭兒的心又定了下來。
“收拾好了,父親?!?/p>
“好吧,查理,你覺得累,就叫拿儂帶你上去。我的媽,那可不是漂亮哥兒住的房間哦!原諒我們種葡萄的窮人,都給捐稅刮光了。”
“我們不打攪了,葛朗臺,”銀行家插嘴道,“你跟令侄一定有話談。我們走了。明兒見?!?/p>
一聽這幾句話,大家站起身來告別,各人照著各人的派頭行禮。老公證人到門口找出燈籠點了,提議先送臺·格拉桑一家回去。臺·格拉桑太太沒料到中途出了事,散得這么早,家里的當差還沒有來接。
“太太,肯不肯賞臉,讓我攙著你走?”克羅旭神父對臺·格拉桑太太說。
“謝謝你,神父,有孩子招呼我呢?!彼淅涞鼗卮稹?/p>
“太太們跟我一塊兒走是沒有嫌疑的。”神父說。
“喂,就讓克羅旭先生把你攙著吧?!彼恼煞蚪涌谡f。
神父攙著美麗的太太,故意輕快地走在眾人前面。
“這青年很不錯啊,太太,”他緊緊抓著她的胳膊說,“葡萄割完,籃子沒用了!事情吹啦。你休想葛朗臺小姐了,歐也妮是給那個巴黎人的嘍。除非這個堂兄弟愛上什么巴黎女子,令郎阿道夫遇到了一個最……的敵手……”
“別這么說,神父。回頭他就會發(fā)覺歐也妮是一個傻姑娘,一點兒嬌嫩都談不上。你把她打量過沒有?今晚上她臉孔黃得像木瓜?!?/p>
“這一點也許你已經提醒堂兄弟了?”
“老實不客氣……”
“太太,你以后永遠坐在歐也妮旁邊,那么不用對那個青年人多說他堂姊的壞話,他自己會比較,而且對……”
“他已經答應后天上我們家吃晚飯?!?/p>
“啊!要是你愿意的話,太太……”神父說。
“愿意什么,神父?是不是想教壞我?天哪,我一生清白,活到了三十九歲,總不成再來糟蹋自己的聲名,哪怕是為了得蒙古大皇帝的天下!你我在這個年紀上都知道說話應該有個分寸。以你教士的身份,你的念頭真是太不像話了。呸!倒像《福勃拉》[4]書中的……”
“那么你念過《福勃拉》了?”
“不,神父,我是說《男子可畏》那部小說。”
“??!這部書正經多了,”神父笑道,“你把我當作像現在的青年一樣壞!我不過想勸你……”
“你敢說你不是想替我出壞主意嗎?事情還不明白?這青年人固然不錯,我承認,要是他追求我,他當然不會想到他的堂姊了。在巴黎,我知道,有一般好媽媽為了兒女的幸福跟財產,不惜來這么一手;可是咱們是在內地呀,神父?!?/p>
“對,太太。”
“并且,”她又說,“哪怕是一萬萬的家私,我也不愿意用這種代價去換,阿道夫也不愿意?!?/p>
“太太,我沒有說什么一萬萬。誘惑來的時候,恐怕你我都抵抗不了。不過我認為一個清白的女子,只要用意不差,無傷大雅的調調情也未始不可,交際場中,這也是女人的一種責任……”
“真的嗎?”
“太太,我們不是都應當討人喜歡嗎?……對不起,我要擤一下鼻子。真的,太太,”他接下去說,“他拿手眼鏡照你,比他照我的時候,神氣似乎要來得親熱一些;自然,我原諒他愛美甚于敬老……”
“顯而易見,”所長在后面用他粗嗄而洪大的聲音說,“巴黎的葛朗臺打發(fā)兒子到索漠來,完全是為了親事……”
“那么堂兄弟就不至于來得這么突兀了?!惫C人回答。
“那倒不一定,”臺·格拉桑先生表示意見,“那家伙一向喜歡藏頭露尾的?!?/p>
“喂,臺·格拉桑,”他太太插嘴道,“我已經請他來吃晚飯了,那小伙子。你再去邀上拉索尼埃夫婦,杜·奧多阿一家,還有那美麗的杜·奧多阿小姐;噢,但愿她那一天穿得像個樣子!她母親真會忌妒,老把她扮得那么丑!”她又停下腳步對三位克羅旭說:“希望你們也賞光?!?/p>
“你們到了,太太?!惫C人說。
三位克羅旭別了三位臺·格拉?;丶遥宦飞夏贸鰞鹊厝碎L于分析的本領,把當晚那件大事從各方面推敲了一番。為了這件事,克羅旭和臺·格拉桑兩家的關系有了變化。支配這些大策略家行事的世故,使雙方懂得暫時有聯合對付共同敵人的必要。他們不是應該協力同心阻止歐也妮愛上堂兄弟,阻止查理想到堂姊嗎?他們要用花言巧語去陰損人家,表面上恭維,骨子里詆毀,時時刻刻說些似乎天真而別有用心的話。那巴黎人是否能夠抵抗這些手段,不上他們的當呢?
趕到堂屋里只剩下四個家屬的時候,葛朗臺對侄兒說道:
“該睡覺了。夜深了,你到這兒來的事不能再談了;明天再挑個合適的時間吧。我們八點吃早飯;中午隨便吃一點兒水果跟面包,喝一杯白酒;五點吃晚飯,像巴黎人一樣。這是我們的規(guī)矩。你想到城里城外去玩兒吧,盡管自便。原諒我很忙,沒有工夫老是陪你。說不定你會到處聽見人家說我有錢:這里是葛朗臺先生的,那里又是葛朗臺先生的。我讓他們說,這些廢話不會破壞我的信用??墒俏覍嵲跊]有錢,到了這個年紀,還像做伙計的一樣,全部家當只有一雙手和一只蹩腳刨子。你不久或許自己會明白,要流著汗去掙一個錢是多么辛苦。喂,拿儂,把蠟燭拿來。”
“侄兒,我想你屋子里用的東西大概都齊了,”葛朗臺太太說,“缺少什么,盡管吩咐拿儂?!?/p>
“不會吧,伯母,我什么都帶齊的!希望你跟大姊都睡得好。”
查理從拿儂手里接過一支點著的白燭,安育城里的貨色,鋪子里放久了,顏色發(fā)黃,初看跟蠟燭差不多;葛朗臺根本想不到家里有白燭,也就不會發(fā)覺這件奢侈品。
“我來帶路?!彼f。
照例應當從大門里邊的環(huán)洞中出去,葛朗臺卻鄭重其事地走堂屋與廚房之間的過道上樓。過道與樓梯中間隔著一扇門,嵌著橢圓形的大玻璃,擋一下樓梯洞里的冷氣。但是到了冬天,雖然堂屋的門上下四周都釘著絨布條子,照樣有尖利的冷風鉆進來,使里面不容易保持相當的溫度。
拿儂把大門上鎖,關起堂屋,到馬房里放出那條聲音老是發(fā)嗄,仿佛害什么喉頭炎似的狼狗。這畜生兇猛無比,只認得拿儂一人。他們都是鄉(xiāng)下出身,所以彼此了解。查理看到樓梯間墻壁發(fā)黃,到處是煙熏的痕跡,扶手全給蟲蛀了的樓梯,在伯父沉重的腳下顫抖,他的美夢更加吹得無影無蹤了;他疑心走進了一座雞棚,不由得轉身望望他的伯母與堂姊;她們卻是走慣這座樓梯的,根本沒有猜到他為什么驚訝,還以為他表示親熱,便對他很愉快地一笑,越發(fā)把他氣壞了。
“父親送我到這兒來見什么鬼呀!”他心里想。
到了樓上,他看見三扇土紅色的門,沒有門框子,嵌在剝落的墻壁里,釘著兩頭作火舌形的鐵條,就像長長的鎖眼兩端的花紋。正對樓梯的那扇門,一望而知是堵死了的。這間屋正好在廚房上面,只能從葛朗臺的臥房進去,是他辦事的密室,獨一無二的窗洞臨著院子,裝著粗大的鐵柵。
這間房,不用說別人,連葛朗臺太太都不準進去,他要獨自守在里面,好似煉丹師守護丹爐一般。這兒,他準是很巧妙地安排下什么密窟,藏著田契屋契之類,掛著稱金路易的天平,更深夜靜地躲在這里寫憑據、收條,做種種計算;所以一般生意人永遠看到葛朗臺樣樣都有準備,以為他有什么鬼使神差供他驅遣似的。當拿儂打鼾的聲音震動樓板,狼狗在院中巡邏、打呵欠,歐也妮母女倆沉沉酣睡的時候,老箍桶匠一定在這兒瞇著眼睛觀賞黃金,摩挲把玩,裝入桶內,套上箍套。密室的墻壁既厚實,護窗也嚴密。鑰匙只有他一個人有。據說他還在這兒研究圖樣,上面連果樹都注明的,他核算他的出產,數字的準確至多是一根葡萄秧一捆柴的上下。
這扇堵死的門對面是歐也妮的房門。樓梯道的盡頭是老夫婦倆的臥室,占據了整個前樓的位置。葛朗臺太太和女兒的屋子是相連的,中間隔一扇玻璃門。葛朗臺和太太的兩間臥室,有板壁分隔,密室與他的臥房之間是厚實的墻。
葛朗臺老頭把侄兒安置在三樓上,那間高爽的頂樓正好在他的臥室上面,如果侄兒高興起來在房內走動,他可以聽得清清楚楚。
歐也妮和母親走到樓梯道中間,互相擁抱道別;她又對查理說了幾句告別的話,在嘴上很冷淡,在姑娘的心里一定是很熱的;然后她們各自進房。
“這是你的臥房了,侄兒,”葛朗臺一邊開門一邊說,“要出去,先叫拿儂。沒有她,對不起!咱們的狗會一聲不響把你吃掉。好好睡吧——再見。嗨!嗨!娘兒們給你生了火啦。”
這時長腳拿儂提著腳爐進來了。
“哦,又是一個!”葛朗臺說,“你把我侄兒當作臨產的女人嗎?把腳爐拿下去,拿儂!”
“先生,被單還潮著呢,再說,侄少爺真是嬌嫩得像女人一樣。”
“也罷,既然你存心討好他,”葛朗臺把她肩膀一推,“可是留神,別失火?!?/p>
吝嗇鬼一路下樓,不知嘟囔些什么。
查理站在行李堆中愣住了。這間頂樓上的臥房,那種黃底小花球的糊壁紙,像小酒店里用的;粉石的壁爐架,線條像溝槽一般,望上一眼就叫你發(fā)冷;黃椅子的草坐墊涂過油,似乎不止有四只角;床幾的大肚子打開著,容得下一個輕騎兵;稀薄的腳毯上邊是一張有頂的床,滿是蛀洞的帳幔搖搖欲墜。查理一件件地看過了,又一本正經地望著長腳拿儂,說道:
“嗨!嗨!好嫂子,這當真是葛朗臺先生的府上嗎,當過索漠區(qū)長,巴黎葛朗臺先生的哥哥嗎?”
“對呀,先生,一個多可愛、多和氣、多好的老爺哪。要不要幫你打開箱子?”
“好啊,怎么不要呢,我的兵大爺!你沒有在帝國軍隊中當過水手嗎?”
“噢!噢!噢!”拿儂叫道,“什么?帝國軍隊的水手?淡的還是咸的?走水路的嗎?”
“來,把鑰匙拿去,在這口提箱里替我把睡衣找出來。”
一件金線繡花古式圖案的綠綢睡衣,把拿儂看呆了。
“你穿了這個睡覺嗎?”
“是呀。”
“哎喲!圣母瑪利亞!披在祭壇上做桌圍才合適呢。我的好少爺,把它捐給教堂吧,包你上天堂,要不然你的靈魂就沒有救啦。噢!你穿了多好看。我要叫小姐來瞧一瞧?!?/p>
“喂,拿儂,別嚷,好不好?讓我睡覺,我明兒再來整東西;你看中我的睡衣,就讓你拿去救你的靈魂吧。我是誠心的基督徒,臨走一定留下來,你愛怎么辦就怎么辦吧?!?/p>
拿儂呆呆地站在那里,端詳著查理,不敢相信他的話。
“把這件漂亮衣衫給我?”她一邊走一邊說,“他已經在說夢話了,這位少爺。明兒見?!?/p>
“明兒見,拿儂?!辈槔砣胨坝窒?,“我到這兒來干什么呢?父親不是一個呆子,叫我來必有目的。好吧,正經事,明兒想,不知哪個希臘的笨伯說的?!?/p>
歐也妮祈禱的時候忽然停下來想道:“圣母瑪利亞,多漂亮呀,這位堂兄弟!”這天晚上她的禱告就沒有做完。
葛朗臺太太臨睡的時候一點兒念頭都沒有。從板壁正中的小門中間,她聽見老頭兒在房內踱來踱去。像所有膽小的女人一樣,她早已識得老爺的脾氣。海鷗預知雷雨,她也能從微妙莫測的征兆上面,預感到葛朗臺心中的風暴,于是就像她自己所說的,她裝作假死。
葛朗臺望著那扇里邊有鐵板的密室的門,想:
“虧我兄弟想得出,把兒子送給我!嘿,這筆遺產才有趣哩!我可是沒有一百法郎給他。而且一百法郎對這個花花公子中什么用?他拿手眼鏡照我晴雨表的氣概,就像要放一把火把它燒掉似的?!?/p>
葛朗臺想著那份痛苦的遺囑可能發(fā)生的后果,心緒也許比兄弟寫的時候還要亂。
“我真的會到手這件金線衣衫嗎?……”拿儂自言自語地說。她睡熟的時候,已經穿上了祭壇的桌圍,破天荒第一遭地夢見許多鮮花,地毯,綾羅綢緞,正如歐也妮破天荒第一遭地夢見愛情。
注:
[1] 按四組舞的格式,兩對舞伴在某種姿勢中必須互相照面。
[2] 法律規(guī)定:拋棄遺產即不負前人債務的責任。
[3] 本書所稱印度,系泛指東印度(即荷屬南洋群島)與西印度(即美洲)。
[4] 《福勃拉》,描寫十八世界輕狂淫逸的風氣的小說。