Chapter 31

 Old Servien, in his working jacket, stepped up to the bed; then,creeping away again on tip-toe:

"He is asleep, Monsieur Garneret, he is asleep. The doctor tellsus he is saved. He is a very good doctor! _You_ know that yourself,for he is your friend, and it was you brought him here. You havebeen our saviour¹, Monsieur Garneret."And the bookbinder turned his head away to wipe his eyes, walkedacross to the window, lifted the curtain and looked out intothe sunlit street.

"The fine weather will quite set him up again. But we have hadsix terrible weeks. I never lost heart; it is not in the natureof things that a father should despair of his son's life; still,you know, Monsieur Garneret, he has been very ill.

"The neighbours have been very good to us; but it was a hard jobnursing him in this cursed cellar. Just think, Monsieur Garneret,for twenty days we had to keep his head in ice.""You know that is the treatment for meningitis."The bookbinder came up confidentially² to Garneret. He scratched hisear, rubbed his forehead, stroked his chin in great embarrassment³.

"My poor lad," he got started at last, "is in love, passionatelyin love. I have found it out from the things he said when hewas delirious⁴. It is not my way to interfere⁵ with what does notconcern me; but as I see the matter is serious, I am going toask you, for his own good, to tell me who it is, if you knowher."Garneret shrugged⁶ his shoulders:

"An actress! a tragedy actress! pooh!"The bookbinder pondered a moment; then:

"Look you, Monsieur Garneret, I acted for the best in my poor boy'sinterest, but I blame myself. I tell myself this, the education Igave him has disqualified him for hard work and practical life....

An actress, you say, a tragedy actress? Tastes of that sort mustbe acquired in the schools. Those times he was attending hisclasses, I used to get hold of his exercise books after he hadgone to bed and read whatever there was in French. It was myway of checking his work; because, ignoramus as he may be, aman can see, with a little common sense, what is done properlyand what is scamped. Well, Monsieur Garneret, I was terrified tofind in his themes so many high-flown ideas; some of them werevery fine, no doubt, and I copied out on a paper those that struckme most. But I used to tell myself: All these grand speeches,all these histories, taken from the books of the ancient Romans,are going to put my lad's head in a fever, and he will never knowthe truth of things. I was right, my dear Monsieur Garneret;it is school learning, look you, has made him fall in love witha tragedy actress----"Jean Servien raised himself up in bed.

"Is that you, Garneret? I am very glad to see you."Then, after listening a moment:

"Why, what is that noise?" he asked.

Garneret told him it was Mont Valérien firing on the fortifications.

The Commune was in full swing.

"Vive la Commune!" cried Jean Servien, and he dropped his headback on the pillow with a smile.

1 saviour   

n.拯救者，救星

参考例句：

• I saw myself as the saviour of my country.我幻想自己为国家的救星。
• The people clearly saw her as their saviour.人们显然把她看成了救星。

2 confidentially   

ad.秘密地，悄悄地

参考例句：

• She was leaning confidentially across the table. 她神神秘秘地从桌子上靠过来。
• Kao Sung-nien and Wang Ch'u-hou talked confidentially in low tones. 高松年汪处厚两人低声密谈。

3 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

4 delirious   

adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的

参考例句：

• He was delirious,murmuring about that matter.他精神恍惚，低声叨念着那件事。
• She knew that he had become delirious,and tried to pacify him.她知道他已经神志昏迷起来了，极力想使他镇静下来。

5 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

6 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》