In the mean time Hippolyte Ceres became a strong man again. In company with his colleague Lapersonne he formed numerous intimacies17 with ladies of the theatre. They were both to be seen at night entering fashionable restaurants in the company of ladies whom they over-topped by their lofty stature18 and their new hats, and they were soon reckoned amongst the most sympathetic frequenters of the boulevards. Fortune’ Lapersonne had his own wound beneath his armour5. His wife, a young milliner whom he carried off from a marquis, had gone to live with a chauffeur19. He loved her still, and could not console himself for her loss, so that very often in the private room of a restaurant, in the midst of a group of girls who laughed and ate crayfish, the two ministers exchanged a look full of their common sorrow and wiped away an unbidden tear.
Hippolytes Ceres, although wounded to the heart, did not allow himself to be beaten. He swore that he would be avenged20.
Madame Paul Visire, whose deplorable health forced her to live with her relatives in a distant province, received an anonymous21 letter specifying22 that M. Paul Visire, who had not a half-penny when he married her, was spending her dowry on a married woman, E— C-, that he gave this woman thirty-thousand-franc motor-cars, and pearl necklaces costing twenty-five thousand francs, and that he was going straight to dishonour23 and ruin. Madame Paul Visire read the letter, fell into hysterics, and handed it to her father.
“I am going to box your husband’s ears,” said M. Blampignon; “he is a blackguard who will land you in the workhouse unless we look out. He may be Prime Minister, but he won’t frighten me.”
When he stepped off the train M. Blampignon presented himself at the Ministry of the Interior, and was immediately received. He entered the Prime Minister’s room in a fury.
“I have something to say to you, sir!” And he waved the anonymous letter.
Paul Visire welcomed him smiling.
“You are welcome, my dear father. I was going to write to you. . . . Yes, to tell you of your nomination25 to the rank of officer of the Legion of Honour. I signed the patent this morning.”
M. Blampignon thanked his son-inlaw warmly and threw the anonymous letter into the fire.
He returned to his provincial26 house and found his daughter fretting27 and agitated28.
“Well! I saw your husband. He is a delightful29 fellow. But then, you don’t understand how to deal with him.”
About this time Hippolyte Ceres learned through a little scandalous newspaper (it is always through the newspapers that ministers are informed of the affairs of State) that the Prime Minister dined every evening with Mademoiselle Lysiane of the Folies Dramatiques, whose charm seemed to have made a great impression on him. Thenceforth Ceres took a gloomy joy in watching his wife. She came in every evening to dine or dress with an air of agreeable fatigue31 and the serenity32 that comes from enjoyment33.
Thinking that she knew nothing, he sent her anonymous communications. She read them at the table before him and remained still listless and smiling.
He then persuaded himself that she gave no heed to these vague reports, and that in order to disturb her it would be necessary to enable her to verify her lover’s infidelity and treason for herself. There were at the Ministry a number of trustworthy agents charged with secret inquiries34 regarding the national defence. They were then employed in watching the spies of a neighbouring and hostile Power who had succeeded in entering the Postal35 and Telegraphic service. M. Ceres ordered them to suspend their work for the present and to inquire where, when, and how the Minister of the Interior saw Mademoiselle Lysiane. The agents performed their missions faithfully and told the minister that they had several times seen the Prime Minister with a woman, but that she was not Mademoiselle Lysiane. Hippolyte Ceres asked them nothing further. He was right; the loves of Paul Visire and Lysiane were but an alibi36 invented by Paul Visire himself, with Eveline’s approval, for his fame was rather inconvenient37 to her, and she sighed for secrecy38 and mystery.
They were not shadowed by the agents of the Ministry of Commerce alone. They were also followed by those of the Prefect of Police, and even by those of the Minister of the Interior, who disputed with each other the honour of protecting their chief. Then there were the emissaries of several royalist, imperialist, and clerical organisations, those of eight or ten blackmailers, several amateur detectives, a multitude of reporters, and a crowd of photographers, who all made their appearance wherever these two took refuge in their perambulating love affairs, at big hotels, small hotels, town houses, country houses, private apartments, villas39, museums, palaces, hovels. They kept watch in the streets, from neighbouring houses, trees, walls, stair-cases, landings, roofs, adjoining rooms, and even chimneys. The Minister and his friend saw with alarm all round their bed room, gimlets boring through doors and shutters40, and drills making holes in the walls. A photograph of Madame Ceres in night attire41 buttoning her boots was the utmost that had been obtained.
Paul Visire grew impatient and irritable42, and often lost his good humour and agreeableness. He came to the cabinet meetings in a rage and he, too, poured invectives upon General Debonnaire — a brave man under fire but a lax disciplinarian — and launched his sarcasms43 against the venerable admiral Vivier des Murenes whose ships went to the bottom without any apparent reason.
Fortune’ Lapersonne listened open-eyed, and grumbled44 scoffingly45 between his teeth:
“He is not satisfied with robbing Hippolyte Ceres of his wife, but he must go and rob him of his catch-words too.”
These storms were made known by the indiscretion of some ministers and by the complaints of the two old warriors46, who declared their intention of flinging their portfolios47 at the beggar’s head, but who did nothing of the sort. These outbursts, far from injuring the lucky Prime Minister, had an excellent effect on Parliament and public opinion, who looked on them as signs of a keen solicitude48 for the welfare of the national army and navy. The Prime Minister was recipient49 of general approbation50.
To the congratulations of the various groups and of notable personages, he replied with simple firmness: “Those are my principles!” and he had seven or eight Socialists51 put in prison.
The session ended, and Paul Visire, very exhausted, went to take the waters. Hippolyte Ceres refused to leave his Ministry, where the trade union of telephone girls was in tumultuous agitation52. He opposed it with an unheard of violence, for he had now become a woman-hater. On Sundays he went into the suburbs to fish along with his colleague Lapersonne, wearing the tall hat that never left him since he had become a Minister. And both of them, forgetting the fish, complained of the inconstancy of women and mingled53 their griefs.
Hippolyte still loved Eveline and he still suffered. However, hope had slipped into his heart. She was now separated from her lover, and, thinking to win her back, he directed all his efforts to that end. He put forth30 all his skill, showed himself sincere, adaptable54, affectionate, devoted55, even discreet56; his heart taught him the delicacies57 of feeling. He said charming and touching58 things to the faithless one, and, to soften59 her, he told her all that he had suffered.
Crossing the band of his trousers upon his stomach.
“See,” said he, “how thin I have got.”
He promised her everything he thought could gratify a woman, country parties, hats, jewels.
Sometimes he thought she would take pity on him. She no longer displayed an insolently60 happy countenance61. Being separated from Paul, her sadness had an air of gentleness. But the moment he made a gesture to recover her she turned away fiercely and gloomily, girt with her fault as if with a golden girdle.
He did not give up, making himself humble62, suppliant63, lamentable64.
One day he went to Lapersonne and said to him with tears in his eyes:
“Will you speak to her?”
Lapersonne excused himself, thinking that his intervention65 would be useless, but he gave some advice to his friend.
“Make her think that you don’t care about her, that you love another, and she will come back to you.”
Hippolyte, adopting this method, inserted in the newspapers that he was always to be found in the company of Mademoiselle Guinaud of the Opera. He came home late or did not come home at all, assumed in Eveline’s presence an appearance of inward joy impossible to restrain, took out of his pocket, at dinner, a letter on scented66 paper which he pretended to read with delight, and his lips seemed as in a dream to kiss invisible lips. Nothing happened. Eveline did not even notice the change. Insensible to all around her, she only came out of her lethargy to ask for some louis from her husband, and if he did not give them she threw him a look of contempt, ready to upbraid67 him with the shame which she poured upon him in the sight of the whole world. Since she had loved she spent a great deal on dress. She needed money, and she had only her husband to secure it for her; she was so far faithful to him.
He lost patience, became furious, and threatened her with his revolver. He said one day before her to Madame Clarence:
“I congratulate you, Madame; you have brought up your daughter to be a wanton hussy.”
“Take me away, Mamma,” exclaimed Eveline. “I will get a divorce!”
He loved her more ardently68 than ever. In his jealous rage, suspecting her, not without probability, of sending and receiving letters, he swore that he would intercept69 them, re-established a censorship over the post, threw private correspondence into confusion, delayed stock-exchange quotations70, prevented assignations, brought out bankruptcies71, thwarted72 passions, and caused suicides. The independent press gave utterance73 to the complaints of the public and indignantly supported them. To justify74 these arbitrary measures, the ministerial journals spoke75 darkly of plots and public dangers, and promoted a belief in a monarchical76 conspiracy77. The less well-informed sheets gave more precise information, told of the seizure78 of fifty thousand guns, and the landing of Prince Crucho. Feeling grew throughout the country, and the republican organs called for the immediate24 meeting of Parliament. Paul Visire returned to Paris, summoned his colleagues, held an important Cabinet Council, and proclaimed through his agencies that a plot had been actually formed against the national representation, but that the Prime Minister held the threads of it in his hand, and that a judicial79 inquiry80 was about to be opened.
He immediately ordered the arrest of thirty Socialists, and whilst the entire country was acclaiming81 him as its saviour82, baffling the watchfulness83 of his six hundred detectives, he secretly took Eveline to a little house near the Northern railway station, where they remained until night. After their departure, the maid of their hotel, as she was putting their room in order, saw seven little crosses traced by a hairpin84 on the wall at the head of the bed.
That is all that Hippolyte Ceres obtained as a reward of his efforts.
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1
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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civilizing
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| v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
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armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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maniacal
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| adj.发疯的 | |
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gnome
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| n.土地神；侏儒，地精 | |
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portfolio
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| n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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tablecloth
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| n.桌布，台布 | |
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intimacies
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| 亲密( intimacy的名词复数 )； 密切； 亲昵的言行； 性行为 | |
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18
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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20
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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21
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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22
specifying
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| v.指定( specify的现在分词 )；详述；提出…的条件；使具有特性 | |
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23
dishonour
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| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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24
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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nomination
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| n.提名，任命，提名权 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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32
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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34
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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postal
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| adj.邮政的，邮局的 | |
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alibi
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| n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口 | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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39
villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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41
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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42
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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sarcasms
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，挖苦( sarcasm的名词复数 ) | |
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44
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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scoffingly
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| 带冷笑地 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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47
portfolios
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| n.投资组合( portfolio的名词复数 )；（保险）业务量；（公司或机构提供的）系列产品；纸夹 | |
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48
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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49
recipient
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| a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器 | |
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approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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51
socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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52
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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53
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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54
adaptable
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| adj.能适应的，适应性强的，可改编的 | |
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55
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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56
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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57
delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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58
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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59
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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60
insolently
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| adv.自豪地，自傲地 | |
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61
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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62
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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suppliant
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| adj.哀恳的；n.恳求者，哀求者 | |
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64
lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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65
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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66
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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67
upbraid
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| v.斥责，责骂，责备 | |
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68
ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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69
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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70
quotations
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| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
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71
bankruptcies
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| n.破产( bankruptcy的名词复数 )；倒闭；彻底失败；（名誉等的）完全丧失 | |
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72
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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73
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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74
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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75
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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76
monarchical
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| adj. 国王的，帝王的，君主的，拥护君主制的 =monarchic | |
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77
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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78
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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79
judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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80
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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81
acclaiming
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| 向…欢呼( acclaim的现在分词 )； 向…喝彩； 称赞…； 欢呼或拥戴（某人）为… | |
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82
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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83
watchfulness
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| 警惕，留心； 警觉（性） | |
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84
hairpin
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| n.簪,束发夹，夹发针 | |
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