Courtly, good-natured, gay, as usual, he told me that the masquerade ball was fixed2 for the next Wednesday, and that he had applied3 for a card for me.
How awfully4 unlucky. I was so afraid I should not be able to go.
He stared at me for a moment with a suspicious and menacing look, which I did not understand, in silence, and then inquired rather sharply. And will Monsieur Beckett be good enough to say why not?
I was a little surprised, but answered the simple truth: I had made an engagement for that evening with two or three English friends, and did not see how I could.
“Just so! You English, wherever you are, always look out for your English boors5, your beer and ‘bifstek’; and when you come here, instead of trying to learn something of the people you visit, and pretend to study, you are guzzling6 and swearing, and smoking with one another, and no wiser or more polished at the end of your travels than if you had been all the time carousing7 in a booth at Greenwich.”
He laughed sarcastically8, and looked as if he could have poisoned me.
“There it is,” said he, throwing the card on the table. “Take it or leave it, just as you please. I suppose I shall have my trouble for my pains; but it is not usual when a man such as I takes trouble, asks a favor, and secures a privilege for an acquaintance, to treat him so.”
This was astonishingly impertinent.
I was shocked, offended, penitent9. I had possibly committed unwittingly a breach10 of good breeding, according to French ideas, which almost justified11 the brusque severity of the Marquis’s undignified rebuke12.
In a confusion, therefore, of many feelings, I hastened to make my apologies, and to propitiate13 the chance friend who had showed me so much disinterested14 kindness.
I told him that I would, at any cost, break through the engagement in which I had unluckily entangled15 myself; that I had spoken with too little reflection, and that I certainly had not thanked him at all in proportion to his kindness, and to my real estimate of it.
“Pray say not a word more; my vexation was entirely16 on your account; and I expressed it, I am only too conscious, in terms a great deal too strong, which, I am sure, your good nature will pardon. Those who know me a little better are aware that I sometimes say a good deal more than I intend; and am always sorry when I do. Monsieur Beckett will forget that his old friend Monsieur Droqville has lost his temper in his cause, for a moment, and — we are as good friends as before.”
He smiled like the Monsieur Droqville of the Belle17 étoile, and extended his hand, which I took very respectfully and cordially.
Our momentary18 quarrel had left us only better friends.
The Marquis then told me I had better secure a bed in some hotel at Versailles, as a rush would be made to take them; and advised my going down next morning for the purpose.
I ordered horses accordingly for eleven o’clock; and, after a little more conversation, the Marquis d’Harmonville bade me good-night, and ran down the stairs with his handkerchief to his mouth and nose, and, as I saw from my window, jumped into his close carriage again and drove away.
Next day I was at Versailles. As I approached the door of the Hotel de France it was plain that I was not a moment too soon, if, indeed, I were not already too late.
A crowd of carriages were drawn19 up about the entrance, so that I had no chance of approaching except by dismounting and pushing my way among the horses. The hall was full of servants and gentlemen screaming to the proprietor20, who in a state of polite distraction21 was assuring them, one and all, that there was not a room or a closet disengaged in his entire house.
I slipped out again, leaving the hall to those who were shouting, expostulating, and wheedling22, in the delusion23 that the host might, if he pleased, manage something for them. I jumped into my carriage and drove, at my horses’ best pace, to the Hotel du Reservoir. The blockade about this door was as complete as the other. The result was the same. It was very provoking, but what was to be done? My postilion had, a little officiously, while I was in the hall talking with the hotel authorities, got his horses, bit by bit, as other carriages moved away, to the very steps of the inn door.
This arrangement was very convenient so far as getting in again was concerned. But, this accomplished24, how were we to get on? There were carriages in front, and carriages behind, and no less than four rows of carriages, of all sorts, outside.
I had at this time remarkably25 long and clear sight, and if I had been impatient before, guess what my feelings were when I saw an open carriage pass along the narrow strip of roadway left open at the other side, a barouche in which I was certain I recognized the veiled Countess and her husband. This carriage had been brought to a walk by a cart which occupied the whole breadth of the narrow way, and was moving with the customary tardiness26 of such vehicles.
I should have done more wisely if I had jumped down on the trottoir, and run round the block of carriages in front of the barouche. But, unfortunately, I was more of a Murat than a Moltke, and preferred a direct charge upon my object to relying on tactique. I dashed across the back seat of a carriage which was next mine, I don’t know how; tumbled through a sort of gig, in which an old gentleman and a dog were dozing27; stepped with an incoherent apology over the side of an open carriage, in which were four gentlemen engaged in a hot dispute; tripped at the far side in getting out, and fell flat across the backs of a pair of horses, who instantly began plunging28 and threw me head foremost in the dust.
To those who observed my reckless charge, without being in the secret of my object, I must have appeared demented. Fortunately, the interesting barouche had passed before the catastrophe29, and covered as I was with dust, and my hat blocked, you may be sure I did not care to present myself before the object of my Quixotic devotion.
I stood for a while amid a storm of sacré-ing, tempered disagreeably with laughter; and in the midst of these, while endeavoring to beat the dust from my clothes with my handkerchief, I heard a voice with which I was acquainted call, “Monsieur Beckett.”
I looked and saw the Marquis peeping from a carriage-window. It was a welcome sight. In a moment I was at his carriage side.
“You may as well leave Versailles,” he said; “you have learned, no doubt, that there is not a bed to hire in either of the hotels; and I can add that there is not a room to let in the whole town. But I have managed something for you that will answer just as well. Tell your servant to follow us, and get in here and sit beside me.”
Fortunately an opening in the closely-packed carriages had just occurred, and mine was approaching.
I directed the servant to follow us; and the Marquis having said a word to his driver, we were immediately in motion.
“I will bring you to a comfortable place, the very existence of which is known to but few Parisians, where, knowing how things were here, I secured a room for you. It is only a mile away, and an old comfortable inn, called the Le Dragon Volant. It was fortunate for you that my tiresome30 business called me to this place so early.”
I think we had driven about a mile-and-a-half to the further side of the palace when we found ourselves upon a narrow old road, with the woods of Versailles on one side, and much older trees, of a size seldom seen in France, on the other.
We pulled up before an antique and solid inn, built of Caen stone, in a fashion richer and more florid than was ever usual in such houses, and which indicated that it was originally designed for the private mansion31 of some person of wealth, and probably, as the wall bore many carved shields and supporters, of distinction also. A kind of porch, less ancient than the rest, projected hospitably32 with a wide and florid arch, over which, cut in high relief in stone, and painted and gilded33, was the sign of the inn. This was the Flying Dragon, with wings of brilliant red and gold, expanded, and its tail, pale green and gold, twisted and knotted into ever so many rings, and ending in a burnished34 point barbed like the dart35 of death.
“I shan’t go in — but you will find it a comfortable place; at all events better than nothing. I would go in with you, but my incognito36 forbids. You will, I daresay, be all the better pleased to learn that the inn is haunted — I should have been, in my young days, I know. But don’t allude37 to that awful fact in hearing of your host, for I believe it is a sore subject. Adieu. If you want to enjoy yourself at the ball, take my advice and go in a domino. I think I shall look in; and certainly, if I do, in the same costume. How shall we recognize one another? Let me see, something held in the fingers — a flower won’t do, so many people will have flowers. Suppose you get a red cross a couple of inches long — you’re an Englishman — stitched or pinned on the breast of your domino, and I a white one? Yes, that will do very well; and whatever room you go into keep near the door till we meet. I shall look for you at all the doors I pass; and you, in the same way, for me; and we must find each other soon. So that is understood. I can’t enjoy a thing of that kind with any but a young person; a man of my age requires the contagion38 of young spirits and the companionship of someone who enjoys everything spontaneously. Farewell; we meet tonight.”
By this time I was standing39 on the road; I shut the carriage-door; bid him good-bye; and away he drove.
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1
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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2
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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3
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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4
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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5
boors
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| n.农民( boor的名词复数 )；乡下佬；没礼貌的人；粗野的人 | |
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6
guzzling
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| v.狂吃暴饮，大吃大喝( guzzle的现在分词 ) | |
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7
carousing
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| v.痛饮，闹饮欢宴( carouse的现在分词 ) | |
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8
sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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9
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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10
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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11
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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12
rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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13
propitiate
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| v.慰解，劝解 | |
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14
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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15
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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17
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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18
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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19
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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20
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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21
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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22
wheedling
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的现在分词 ) | |
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23
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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24
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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25
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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26
tardiness
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| n.缓慢；迟延；拖拉 | |
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27
dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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28
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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29
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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30
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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31
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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32
hospitably
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| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
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33
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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34
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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35
dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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36
incognito
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| adv.匿名地；n.隐姓埋名；adj.化装的，用假名的，隐匿姓名身份的 | |
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37
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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38
contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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39
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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