The model, seated on a very high stool, kept her pose. She was a long, dark girl. The harsh light which fell from the skylight gave precision to the pure lines of her hip5 and thighs6, accentuated7 her harsh visage, her dark neck, her marble chest, the lines of her knees and feet, the toes of which were set one over the other. Therese looked at her curiously8, divining her exquisite9 form under the miseries10 of her flesh, poorly fed and badly cared for.
Dechartre came toward Therese with an air of painful tenderness which moved her. Then, placing his clay and the instrument near the easel, and covering the figure with a wet cloth, he said to the model:
“That is enough for to-day.”
She rose, picked up awkwardly her clothing, a handful of dark wool and soiled linen11, and went to dress behind the screen.
Meanwhile the sculptor12, having dipped in the water of a green bowl his hands, which the tenacious13 clay made white, went out of the studio with Therese.
They passed under the tree which studded the sand of the courtyard with the shells of its flayed14 bark. She said:
“You have no more faith, have you?”
He led her to his room.
The letter written from Dinard had already softened15 his painful impressions. She had come at the moment when, tired of suffering, he felt the need of calm and of tenderness. A few lines of handwriting had appeased16 his mind, fed on images, less susceptible17 to things than to the signs of things; but he felt a pain in his heart.
In the room where everything spoke18 of her, where the furniture, the curtains, and the carpets told of their love, she murmured soft words:
“You could believe — do you not know what you are? — it was folly19! How can a woman who has known you care for another after you?”
“But before?”
“Before, I was waiting for you.”
“And he did not attend the races at Dinard?”
She did not think he had, and it was very certain she did not attend them herself. Horses and horsey men bored her.
“Jacques, fear no one, since you are not comparable to any one.”
He knew, on the contrary, how insignificant20 he was and how insignificant every one is in this world where beings, agitated21 like grains in a van, are mixed and separated by a shake of the rustic22 or of the god. This idea of the agricultural or mystical van represented measure and order too well to be exactly applied23 to life. It seemed to him that men were grains in a coffee-mill. He had had a vivid sensation of this the day before, when he saw Madame Fusellier grinding coffee in her mill.
Therese said to him:
“Why are you not conceited24?”
She added few words, but she spoke with her eyes, her arms, the breath that made her bosom25 rise.
In the happy surprise of seeing and hearing her, he permitted himself to be convinced.
She asked who had said so odious26 a thing.
He had no reason to conceal27 his name from her. It was Daniel Salomon.
She was not surprised. Daniel Salomon, who passed for not having been the lover of any woman, wished at least to be in the confidence of all and know their secrets. She guessed the reason why he had talked.
“Jacques, do not be cross at what I say to you. You are not skilful28 in concealing29 your sentiments. He suspected you were in love with me, and he wished to be sure of it. I am persuaded that now he has no doubt of our relations. But that is indifferent to me. On the contrary, if you knew better how to dissimulate30, I should be less happy. I should think you did not love me enough.”
For fear of disquieting31 him, she turned to other thoughts:
“I have not told you how much I like your sketch3. It is Florence on the Arno. Then it is we?”
“Yes, I have placed in that figure the emotion of my love. It is sad, and I wish it were beautiful. You see, Therese, beauty is painful. That is why, since life is beautiful, I suffer.”
He took out of his flannel32 coat his cigarette-holder, but she told him to dress. She would take him to breakfast with her. They would not quit each other that day. It would be delightful33.
She looked at him with childish joy. Then she became sad, thinking she would have to return to Dinard at the end of the week, later go to Joinville, and that during that time they would be separated.
At Joinville, at her father’s, she would cause him to be invited for a few days. But they would not be free and alone there, as they were in Paris.
“It is true,” he said, “that Paris is good to us in its confused immensity.”
And he added:
“Even in your absence I can not quit Paris. It would be terrible for me to live in countries that do not know you. A sky, mountains, trees, fountains, statues which do not know how to talk of you would have nothing to say to me.”
While he was dressing34 she turned the leaves of a book which she had found on the table. It was The Arabian Nights. Romantic engravings displayed here and there in the text grand viziers, sultanas, black tunics35, bazaars36, and caravans37.
She asked:
“The Arabian Nights-does that amuse you?”
“A great deal,” he replied, tying his cravat38. “I believe as much as I wish in these Arabian princes whose legs become black marble, and in these women of the harem who wander at night in cemeteries39. These tales give me pleasant dreams which make me forget life. Last night I went to bed in sadness and read the history of the Three Calendars.”
She said, with a little bitterness:
“You are trying to forget. I would not consent for anything in the world to lose the memory of a pain which came to me from you.”
They went down together to the street. She was to take a carriage a little farther on and precede him at her house by a few minutes.
“My husband expects you to breakfast.”
They talked, on the way, of insignificant things, which their love made great and charming. They arranged their afternoon in advance in order to put into it the infinity40 of profound joy and of ingenious pleasure. She consulted him about her gowns. She could not decide to leave him, happy to walk with him in the streets, which the sun and the gayety of noon filled. When they reached the Avenue des Ternes they saw before them, on the avenue, shops displaying side by side a magnificent abundance of food. There were chains of chickens at the caterer’s, and at the fruiterer’s boxes of apricots and peaches, baskets of grapes, piles of pears. Wagons41 filled with fruits and flowers bordered the sidewalk. Under the awning42 of a restaurant men and women were taking breakfast. Therese recognized among them, alone, at a small table against a laurel-tree in a box, Choulette lighting43 his pipe.
Having seen her, he threw superbly a five-franc piece on the table, rose, and bowed. He was grave; his long frock-coat gave him an air of decency44 and austerity.
He said he should have liked to call on Madame Martin at Dinard, but he had been detained in the Vendee by the Marquise de Rieu. However, he had issued a new edition of the Jardin Clos, augmented45 by the Verger de Sainte-Claire. He had moved souls which were thought to be insensible, and had made springs come out of rocks.
“So,” he said, “I was, in a fashion, a Moses.”
He fumbled46 in his pocket and drew from a book a letter, worn and spotted47.
“This is what Madame Raymond, the Academician’s wife, writes me. I publish what she says, because it is creditable to her.”
And, unfolding the thin leaves, he read:
“I have made your book known to my husband, who exclaimed: ‘It is pure spiritualism. Here is a closed garden, which on the side of the lilies and white roses has, I imagine, a small gate opening on the road to the Academie.’”
Choulette relished48 these phrases, mingled49 in his mouth with the perfume of whiskey, and replaced carefully the letter in its book.
Madame Martin congratulated the poet on being Madame Raymond’s candidate.
“You should be mine, Monsieur Choulette, if I were interested in Academic elections. But does the Institute excite your envy?”
He kept for a few moments a solemn silence, then:
“I am going now, Madame, to confer with divers50 notable persons of the political and religious worlds who reside at Neuilly. The Marquise de Rieu wishes me to be a candidate, in her country, for a senatorial seat which has become vacant by the death of an old man, who was, they say, a general during his illusory life. I shall consult with priests, women and children — oh, eternal wisdom! — of the Bineau Boulevard. The constituency whose suffrages51 I shall attempt to obtain inhabits an undulated and wooded land wherein willows52 frame the fields. And it is not a rare thing to find in the hollow of one of these old willows the skeleton of a Chouan pressing his gun against his breast and holding his beads53 in his fleshless fingers. I shall have my programme posted on the bark of oaks. I shall say ‘Peace to presbyteries! Let the day come when bishops54, holding in their hands the wooden crook55, shall make themselves similar to the poorest servant of the poorest parish! It was the bishops who crucified Jesus Christ. Their names were Anne and Caiph. And they still retain these names before the Son of God. While they were nailing Him to the cross, I was the good thief hanged by His side.’”
He lifted his stick and pointed56 toward Neuilly:
“Dechartre, my friend, do you not think the Bineau Boulevard is the dusty one over there, at the right?”
“Farewell, Monsieur Choulette,” said Therese. “Remember me when you are a senator.”
“Madame, I do not forget you in any of my prayers, morning and evening. And I say to God: ‘Since, in your anger, you gave to her riches and beauty, regard her, Lord, with kindness, and treat her in accordance with your sovereign mercy.”
And he went erect57, and dragging his leg, along the populous58 avenue.
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1
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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tenacious
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| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
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14
flayed
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| v.痛打( flay的过去式和过去分词 )；把…打得皮开肉绽；剥（通常指动物）的皮；严厉批评 | |
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15
softened
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| （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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16
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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18
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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19
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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23
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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25
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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26
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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30
dissimulate
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| v.掩饰，隐藏 | |
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31
disquieting
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| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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32
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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tunics
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| n.（动植物的）膜皮( tunic的名词复数 )；束腰宽松外衣；一套制服的短上衣；（天主教主教等穿的）短祭袍 | |
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36
bazaars
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| （东方国家的）市场( bazaar的名词复数 )； 义卖； 义卖市场； （出售花哨商品等的）小商品市场 | |
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37
caravans
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| （可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队） | |
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cravat
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| n.领巾，领结；v.使穿有领结的服装，使结领结 | |
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cemeteries
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| n.（非教堂的）墓地，公墓( cemetery的名词复数 ) | |
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infinity
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| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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42
awning
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| n.遮阳篷；雨篷 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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45
Augmented
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| adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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46
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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47
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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relished
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| v.欣赏( relish的过去式和过去分词 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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49
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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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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51
suffrages
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| （政治性选举的）选举权，投票权( suffrage的名词复数 ) | |
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52
willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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53
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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