The re-opening of Parliament was serene4. A few isolated5 jealousies6, a few timid ambitions raised their heads in the House, and that was all. A smile from the Prime Minister was enough to dissipate these shadows. She and he saw each other twice a day, and wrote to each other in the interval7. He was accustomed to intimate relationships, was adroit8, and knew how to dissimulate9; but Eveline displayed a foolish imprudence: she made herself conspicuous10 with him in drawing-rooms, at the theatre, in the House, and at the Embassies; she wore her love upon her face, upon her whole person, in her moist glances, in the languishing11 smile of her lips, in the heaving of her breast, in all her heightened, agitated12, and distracted beauty. Soon the entire country knew of their intimacy13. Foreign Courts were informed of it. The President of the Republic and Eveline’s husband alone remained in ignorance. The President became acquainted with it in the country, through a misplaced police report which found its way, it is not known how, into his portmanteau.
Hippolyte Ceres, without being either very subtle, or very perspicacious14, noticed that there was something different in his home. Eveline, who quite lately had interested herself in his affairs, and shown, if not tenderness, at least affection, towards him, displayed henceforth nothing but indifference16 and repulsion. She had always had periods of absence, and made prolonged visits to the Charity of St. Orberosia; now, she went out in the morning, remained out all day, and sat down to dinner at nine o’clock in the evening with the face of a somnambulist. Her husband thought it absurd; however, he might perhaps have never known the reason for this; a profound ignorance of women, a crass17 confidence in his own merit, and in his own fortune, might perhaps have always hidden the truth from him, if the two lovers had not, so to speak, compelled him to discover it.
When Paul Visire went to Eveline’s house and found her alone, they used to say, as they embraced each other; “Not here! not here!” and immediately they affected18 an extreme reserve. That was their invariable rule. Now, one day, Paul Visire went to the house of his colleague Ceres, with whom he had an engagement. It was Eveline who received him, the Minister of Commerce being delayed by a commission.
“Not here!” said the lovers, smiling.
They said it, mouth to mouth, embracing, and clasping each other. They were still saying it, when Hippolyte Ceres entered the drawing-room.
Paul Visire did not lose his presence of mind. He declared to Madame Ceres that he would give up his attempt to take the dust out of her eye. By this attitude he did not deceive the husband, but he was able to leave the room with some dignity.
Hippolyte Ceres was thunderstruck. Eveline’s conduct appeared incomprehensible to him; he asked her what reasons she had for it.
“Why? why?” he kept repeating continually, “why?”
She denied everything, not to convince him, for he had seen them, but from expediency19 and good taste, and to avoid painful explanations. Hippolyte Ceres suffered all the tortures of jealousy20. He admitted it to himself, he kept saying inwardly, “I am a strong man; I am clad in armour21; but the wound is underneath22, it is in my heart,” and turning towards his wife, who looked beautiful in her guilt23, he would say:
“It ought not to have been with him.”
He was right — Eveline ought not to have loved in government circles.
He suffered so much that he took up his revolver, exclaiming: “I will go and kill him!” But he remembered that a Minister of Commerce cannot kill his own Prime Minister, and he put his revolver back into his drawer.
The weeks passed without calming his sufferings. Each morning he buckled24 his strong man’s armour over his wound and sought in work and fame the peace that fled from him. Every Sunday he inaugurated busts25, statues, fountains, artesian wells, hospitals, dispensaries, railways, canals, public markets, drainage systems, triumphal arches, and slaughter26 houses, and delivered moving speeches on each of these occasions. His fervid27 activity devoured28 whole piles of documents; he changed the colours of the postage stamps fourteen times in one week. Nevertheless, he gave vent29 to outbursts of grief and rage that drove him insane; for whole days his reason abandoned him. If he had been in the employment of a private administration this would have been noticed immediately, but it is much more difficult to discover insanity30 or frenzy31 in the conduct of affairs of State. At that moment the government employes were forming themselves into associations and federations32 amid a ferment33 that was giving alarm both to the Parliament and to public feeling. The postmen were especially prominent in their enthusiasm for trade unions.
Hippolyte Ceres informed them in a circular that their action was strictly34 legal. The following day he sent out a second circular forbidding all associations of government employes as illegal. He dismissed one hundred and eighty postmen, reinstated them, reprimanded them, and awarded them gratuities35. At Cabinet councils he was always on the point of bursting forth15. The presence of the Head of the State scarcely restrained him within the limits of the decencies, and as he did not dare to attack his rival he consoled himself by heaping invectives upon General Debonnaire, the respected Minister of War. The General did not hear them, for he was deaf and occupied himself in composing verses for the Baroness36 Bildermann. Hippolyte Ceres offered an indistinct opposition37 to everything the Prime Minister proposed. In a word, he was a madman. One faculty38 alone escaped the ruin of his intellect: he retained his Parliamentary sense, his consciousness of the temper of majorities, his thorough knowledge of groups, and his certainty of the direction in which affairs were moving.
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1
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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2
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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3
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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4
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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5
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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7
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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adroit
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| adj.熟练的，灵巧的 | |
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dissimulate
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| v.掩饰，隐藏 | |
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10
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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14
perspicacious
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| adj.聪颖的，敏锐的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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crass
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| adj.愚钝的，粗糙的；彻底的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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20
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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21
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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22
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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24
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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busts
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| 半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕 | |
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slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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fervid
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| adj.热情的；炽热的 | |
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28
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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29
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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30
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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31
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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32
federations
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| n.联邦( federation的名词复数 )；同盟；联盟；联合会 | |
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33
ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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34
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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35
gratuities
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| n.报酬( gratuity的名词复数 )；小账；小费；养老金 | |
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36
baroness
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| n.男爵夫人，女男爵 | |
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37
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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38
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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