The promises on the d’Herouville side were, however, confirmed by the arrival of an invitation, couched in flattering terms, from the Duc de Verneuil and the Master of the Hunt to Monsieur le Comte de La Bastie and his daughter, to stay at Rosembray and be present at a grand hunt on the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, of November following.
La Briere, full of dark presentiments22, craved23 the presence of Modeste with an eagerness whose bitter joys are known only to lovers who feel that they are parted, and parted fatally from those they love. Flashes of joy came to him intermingled with melancholy24 meditations25 on the one theme, “I have lost her,” and made him all the more interesting to those who watched him, because his face and his whole person were in keeping with his profound feeling. There is nothing more poetic26 than a living elegy27, animated28 by a pair of eyes, walking about, and sighing without rhymes.
The Duc d’Herouville arrived at last to arrange for Modeste’s departure; after crossing the Seine she was to be conveyed in the duke’s caleche, accompanied by the Demoiselles d’Herouville. The duke was charmingly courteous, he begged Canalis and La Briere to be of the party, assuring them, as he did the colonel, that he had taken particular care that hunters should be provided for them. The colonel invited the three lovers to breakfast on the morning of the start. Canalis then began to put into execution a plan that he had been maturing in his own mind for the last few days; namely, to quietly reconquer Modeste, and throw over the duchess, La Briere, and the duke. A graduate of diplomacy29 could hardly remain stuck in the position in which he found himself. On the other hand La Briere had come to the resolution of bidding Modeste an eternal farewell. Each suitor was therefore on the watch to slip in a last word, like the defendant’s counsel to the court before judgment30 is pronounced; for all felt that the three weeks’ struggle was approaching its conclusion. After dinner on the evening before the start was to be made, the colonel had taken his daughter by the arm and made her feel the necessity of deciding.
“Our position with the d’Herouville family will be quite intolerable at Rosembray,” he said to her. “Do you mean to be a duchess?”
“No, father,” she answered.
“Then do you love Canalis?”
“No, papa, a thousand times no!” she exclaimed with the impatience31 of a child.
The colonel looked at her with a sort of joy.
“Ah, I have not influenced you,” cried the true father, “and I will now confess that I chose my son-inlaw in Paris when, having made him believe that I had but little fortune, he grasped my hand and told me I took a weight from his mind —”
“Who is it you mean?” asked Modeste, coloring.
“The man of fixed32 principles and sound moralities,” said her father, slyly, repeating the words which had dissolved poor Modeste’s dream on the day after his return.
“I was not even thinking of him, papa. Please leave me at liberty to refuse the duke myself; I understand him, and I know how to soothe33 him.”
“Then your choice is not made?”
“Not yet; there is another syllable34 or two in the charade35 of my destiny still to be guessed; but after I have had a glimpse of court life at Rosembray I will tell you my secret.”
“Ah! Monsieur de La Briere,” cried the colonel, as the young man approached them along the garden path in which they were walking, “I hope you are going to this hunt?”
“No, colonel,” answered Ernest. “I have come to take leave of you and of mademoiselle; I return to Paris —”
“You have no curiosity,” said Modeste, interrupting, and looking at him.
“A wish — that I cannot expect — would suffice to keep me,” he replied.
“If that is all, you must stay to please me; I wish it,” said the colonel, going forward to meet Canalis, and leaving his daughter and La Briere together for a moment.
“Mademoiselle,” said the young man, raising his eyes to hers with the boldness of a man without hope, “I have an entreaty37 to make to you.”
“To me?”
“Let me carry away with me your forgiveness. My life can never be happy; it must be full of remorse38 for having lost my happiness — no doubt by my own fault; but, at least — ”
“Before we part forever,” said Modeste, interrupting a la Canalis, and speaking in a voice of some emotion, “I wish to ask you one thing; and though you once disguised yourself, I think you cannot be so base as to deceive me now.”
The taunt39 made him turn pale, and he cried out, “Oh, you are pitiless!”
“Will you be frank?”
“You have the right to ask me that degrading question,” he said, in a voice weakened by the violent palpitation of his heart.
“Well, then, did you read my letters to Monsieur de Canalis?”
“No, mademoiselle; and I allowed your father to read them it was to justify40 my love by showing him how it was born, and how sincere my efforts were to cure you of your fancy.”
“But how came the idea of that unworthy masquerade ever to arise?” she said, with a sort of impatience.
La Briere related truthfully the scene in the poet’s study which Modeste’s first letter had occasioned, and the sort of challenge that resulted from his expressing a favorable opinion of a young girl thus led toward a poet’s fame, as a plant seeks its share of the sun.
“You have said enough,” said Modeste, restraining some emotion. “If you have not my heart, monsieur, you have at least my esteem41.”
These simple words gave the young man a violent shock; feeling himself stagger, he leaned against a tree, like a man deprived for a moment of reason. Modest, who had left him, turned her head and came hastily back.
“What is the matter?” she asked, taking his hand to prevent him from falling.
“Forgive me — I thought you despised me.”
“But,” she answered, with a distant and disdainful manner, “I did not say that I loved you.”
And she left him again. But this time, in spite of her harshness, La Briere thought he walked on air; the earth softened42 under his feet, the trees bore flowers; the skies were rosy43, the air cerulean, as they are in the temples of Hymen in those fairy pantomimes which finish happily. In such situations every woman is a Janus, and sees behind her without turning round; and thus Modeste perceived on the face of her lover the indubitable symptoms of a love like Butscha’s — surely the “ne plus ultra” of a woman’s hope. Moreover, the great value which La Briere attached to her opinion filled Modeste with an emotion that was inestimably sweet.
“Mademoiselle,” said Canalis, leaving the colonel and waylaying44 Modeste, “in spite of the little value you attach to my sentiments, my honor is concerned in effacing45 a stain under which I have suffered too long. Here is a letter which I received from the Duchesse de Chaulieu five days after my arrival in Havre.”
He let Modeste read the first lines of the letter we have seen, which the duchess began by saying that she had seen Mongenod, and now wished to marry her poet to Modeste; then he tore that passage from the body of the letter, and placed the fragment in her hand.
“I cannot let you read the rest,” he said, putting the paper in his pocket; “but I confide46 these few lines to your discretion47, so that you may verify the writing. A young girl who could accuse me of ignoble48 sentiments is quite capable of suspecting some collusion, some trickery. Ah, Modeste,” he said, with tears in his voice, “your poet, the poet of Madame de Chaulieu, has no less poetry in his heart than in his mind. You are about to see the duchess; suspend your judgment of me till then.”
He left Modeste half bewildered.
“Oh, dear!” she said to herself; “it seems they are all angels — and not marriageable; the duke is the only one that belongs to humanity.”
“Mademoiselle Modeste,” said Butscha, appearing with a parcel under his arm, “this hunt makes me very uneasy. I dreamed your horse ran away with you, and I have been to Rouen to see if I could get a Spanish bit which, they tell me, a horse can’t take between his teeth. I entreat36 you to use it. I have shown it to the colonel, and he has thanked me more than there is any occasion for.”
“Poor, dear Butscha!” cried Modeste, moved to tears by this maternal49 care.
Butscha went skipping off like a man who has just heard of the death of a rich uncle.
“My dear father,” said Modeste, returning to the salon; “I should like to have that beautiful whip — suppose you were to ask Monsieur de La Briere to exchange it for your picture by Van Ostade.”
Modeste looked furtively50 at Ernest, while the colonel made him this proposition, standing51 before the picture which was the sole thing he possessed52 in memory of his campaigns, having bought it of a burgher at Rabiston; and she said to herself as La Briere left the room precipitately53, “He will be at the hunt.”
A curious thing happened. Modeste’s three lovers each and all went to Rosembray with their hearts full of hope, and captivated by her many perfections.
Rosembray — an estate lately purchased by the Duc de Verneuil, with the money which fell to him as his share of the thousand millions voted as indemnity54 for the sale of the lands of the emigres — is remarkable55 for its chateau56, whose magnificence compares only with that of Mesniere or of Balleroy. This imposing57 and noble edifice58 is approached by a wide avenue of four rows of venerable elms, from which the visitor enters an immense rising court-yard, like that at Versailles, with magnificent iron railings and two lodges59, and adorned60 with rows of large orange-trees in their tubs. Facing this court-yard, the chateau presents, between two fronts of the main building which retreat on either side of this projection61, a double row of nineteen tall windows, with carved arches and diamond panes62, divided from each other by a series of fluted63 pilasters surmounted64 by an entablature which hides an Italian roof, from which rise several stone chimneys masked by carved trophies65 of arms. Rosembray was built, under Louis XIV., by a “fermier-general” named Cottin. The facade66 toward the park differs from that on the court-yard by having a narrower projection in the centre, with columns between five windows, above which rises a magnificent pediment. The family of Marigny, to whom the estates of this Cottin were brought in marriage by Mademoiselle Cottin, her father’s sole heiress, ordered a sunrise to be carved on this pediment by Coysevox. Beneath it are two angels unwinding a scroll67, on which is cut this motto in honor of the Grand Monarch68, “Sol nobis benignus.”
From the portico69, reached by two grand circular and balustraded flights of steps, the view extends over an immense fish-pond, as long and wide as the grand canal at Versailles, beginning at the foot of a grass-plot which compares well with the finest English lawns, and bordered with beds and baskets now filled with the brilliant flowers of autumn. On either side of the piece of water two gardens, laid out in the French style, display their squares and long straight paths, like brilliant pages written in the ciphers70 of Lenotre. These gardens are backed to their whole length by a border of nearly thirty acres of woodland. From the terrace the view is bounded by a forest belonging to Rosembray and contiguous to two other forests, one of which belongs to the Crown, the other to the State. It would be difficult to find a nobler landscape.
点击收听单词发音
1 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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2 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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3 truce | |
n.休战,(争执,烦恼等的)缓和;v.以停战结束 | |
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4 adversaries | |
n.对手,敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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5 salon | |
n.[法]沙龙;客厅;营业性的高级服务室 | |
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6 villa | |
n.别墅,城郊小屋 | |
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7 tranquil | |
adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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8 courteous | |
adj.彬彬有礼的,客气的 | |
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9 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
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10 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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11 oratory | |
n.演讲术;词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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12 renounce | |
v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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13 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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14 bias | |
n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见 | |
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15 depreciatory | |
adj.贬值的,蔑视的 | |
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16 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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17 incessantly | |
ad.不停地 | |
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18 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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19 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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20 stratagems | |
n.诡计,计谋( stratagem的名词复数 );花招 | |
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21 conclave | |
n.秘密会议,红衣主教团 | |
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22 presentiments | |
n.(对不祥事物的)预感( presentiment的名词复数 ) | |
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23 craved | |
渴望,热望( crave的过去式 ); 恳求,请求 | |
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24 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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25 meditations | |
默想( meditation的名词复数 ); 默念; 沉思; 冥想 | |
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26 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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27 elegy | |
n.哀歌,挽歌 | |
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28 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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29 diplomacy | |
n.外交;外交手腕,交际手腕 | |
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30 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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31 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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32 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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33 soothe | |
v.安慰;使平静;使减轻;缓和;奉承 | |
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34 syllable | |
n.音节;vt.分音节 | |
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35 charade | |
n.用动作等表演文字意义的字谜游戏 | |
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36 entreat | |
v.恳求,恳请 | |
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37 entreaty | |
n.恳求,哀求 | |
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38 remorse | |
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责 | |
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39 taunt | |
n.辱骂,嘲弄;v.嘲弄 | |
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40 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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41 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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42 softened | |
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰 | |
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43 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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44 waylaying | |
v.拦截,拦路( waylay的现在分词 ) | |
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45 effacing | |
谦逊的 | |
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46 confide | |
v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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47 discretion | |
n.谨慎;随意处理 | |
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48 ignoble | |
adj.不光彩的,卑鄙的;可耻的 | |
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49 maternal | |
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的 | |
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50 furtively | |
adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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51 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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52 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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53 precipitately | |
adv.猛进地 | |
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54 indemnity | |
n.赔偿,赔款,补偿金 | |
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55 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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56 chateau | |
n.城堡,别墅 | |
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57 imposing | |
adj.使人难忘的,壮丽的,堂皇的,雄伟的 | |
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58 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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59 lodges | |
v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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60 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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61 projection | |
n.发射,计划,突出部分 | |
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62 panes | |
窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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63 fluted | |
a.有凹槽的 | |
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64 surmounted | |
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 ); 克服(困难); 居于…之上; 在…顶上 | |
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65 trophies | |
n.(为竞赛获胜者颁发的)奖品( trophy的名词复数 );奖杯;(尤指狩猎或战争中获得的)纪念品;(用于比赛或赛跑名称)奖 | |
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66 facade | |
n.(建筑物的)正面,临街正面;外表 | |
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67 scroll | |
n.卷轴,纸卷;(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
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68 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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69 portico | |
n.柱廊,门廊 | |
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70 ciphers | |
n.密码( cipher的名词复数 );零;不重要的人;无价值的东西 | |
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