Gavrolles bought the ‘Plain Speaker,’ and grinned diabolically4. He bought the ‘Whirligig,’ and positively5 beamed with malignant6 delight.
‘Ah, madame!’ he murmured to himself, ‘what will you say for yourself now?’
In the aesthetic7 circle of which he was so brilliant an ornament8, and where the scandal was soon the topic of passing conversation, Gavrolles assumed an aspect of lofty indignation, and affected9 to deplore10 the public taste which could find pleasure in journalism so brutale. Pressed by his intimates for an explanation of the innuendoes12, he would smile sadly, pass his thin fingers through his hair, and profess13 his determination to ‘compromise no one.’ There were subjects, he said, in which a woman’s honour was concerned, and which he could not discuss; there were secrets which it was a man’s duty to lock firmly in his breast, lest the happiness of another should suffer—ah, yes! And the lean young gentlemen and limp young ladies looked at their plaster of Paris idol14 with increased adoration15.
About this time, it should be noted16, Gavrolles was sincerely inspired by the Divine Muse17. He wrote a great many verses, which he would read aloud to himself, with much gesticulation, in the privacy of his lodging18. Sometimes he even entertained his aesthetic admirers with a selection from these splendid inspirations. Ponto was spellbound, sent a little article to the ‘Megatherium’ as a sort of puff19 preliminary, expressing a hope that these new ‘adumbrations of an august poesy’ would soon be published in post octavo, on rough paper with blunt type, like the divine ‘Parfums de la Chair.’ As a specimen20 of the new work (which, he took occasion to say, posterity21 would remember when Racine, Molière, and Lamartine were all forgotten, and only Gautier, Baudelaire, and Gavrolles remembered) he quoted at full length the priceless pearl of loveliness, the ‘ballade’ entitled ‘Diane: Chute d’un Ange.’
One morning, as this great cosmic creature was sipping22 his coffee and turning over the leaves of a new book by Zola (not without much superfine disgust, for he held that eccentric writer in very genuine dislike), a gentleman was announced, and before Gavrolles could utter a word the gentleman entered. One glance at his face sufficed. The Frenchman had seen it already once or twice before, and hated it cordially.
‘My name is Sutherland,’ said the new comer, quietly closing the door behind him. ‘Possibly you remember me?’
Gavrolles rose smiling, though his cheek was a little pale, his mouth a little venomous. ‘Ah! yes,’ he remembered well Monsieur Sutherland, who had been introduced to him by that ‘dr?le’ of a Crieff. He was delighted to make his acquaintance. If he could serve him in any way, he would be enraptured23.
‘Your rapture24 will diminish, perhaps,’ said Sutherland, paying no attention to the hand which waved him to a chair, ‘when I tell you what brings me here.’
‘Indeed!’ exclaimed Gavrolles, rather nervously25, for his visitor’s manner was not encouraging.
‘You have alluded26 to our second meeting. Pray do you remember our first?’
‘Our first, Monsieur?’
He did remember, only too well for his mental comfort, and even as he spoke28 the dreary29 salle à manger in the little French town arose before him, and he faced again the powerful figure with the stern eyes and the firm square jaw30.
‘It was a few years ago, in France. You had then in your company a young lady whom you called your wife, and to whom, suspecting the nature of your connection with her, I offered my assistance. I afterwards saw you again, when this lady was still in your power, and you were using her as the decoy of a gambling31 hell.’
Gavrolles was now livid. He saw that his visitor meant mischief32, and with an execration33 he sprang up as if to move to the door. But Sutherland blocked the way with an ominous34 scowl35.
‘Keep your seat! I have not yet done with you!’
‘Monsieur, this outrage36——’
‘Bah! do not trouble yourself to seem indignant. You shall hear me out.5
‘I shall do nothing of the kind!’
‘If you attempt to leave this room,’ said Sutherland calmly, ‘I shall thrash you within an inch of your life!’
As he spoke he held in the air a riding-whip, which he appeared to have provided for the purpose.
‘Robber! assassin!’ cried Gavrolles, and he put the table between himself and his visitor.
‘I am neither,’ said Sutherland. ‘I am simply the friend of a lady whom it seems your determination to persecute37 and destroy. Nor is she the only one of your victims with whom I am acquainted. Have you forgotten Adèle Lambert?’
‘I know no such person.’
‘You are a liar38!’ returned Sutherland dryly. ‘You know her—you betrayed her—only a few nights ago she struck you in the face.’
‘Leave my apartment—scoundrel!’
‘It is you who are the scoundrel. I have come to call you to an account.’
Gavrolles threw his arms in the air in savage39 desperation.
‘I don’t know you or your degraded companions. If we were not living in a country where the code of honour is unknown, you should answer with your life for this outrage. But there! You are a coward, and trade upon the immunity40 given by your absurd laws. You know that we cannot in England meet as gentlemen—that is why you venture so far.’
‘You are mistaken,’ returned Sutherland, still with the same sang-froid. ‘It would give me the greatest pleasure to rid the world of so consummate41 a reptile42, but that is neither here nor there. To come to my business. You must give me forthwith y our promise to abandon your persecution43 of Mrs. Forster, and to leave England with out delay.’
‘I do not understand.’
‘Oh yes, you do!’
‘Who is the lady?’ asked Gavrolles, with a sneer44. ‘Pray be explicit45. I know no person of the name you mention.’
‘I mean the wife of Mr. James Forster, of Kensington. Do not assume ignorance. I know the nature of your relations together.’
‘Pardon me, but in your capacity of bully46, of bandit, monsieur, you overrate my intelligence. I know the gentleman to whom you allude27. I have not the pleasure of knowing his wife.’
‘Read those paragraphs.’
Sutherland drew from his breast pocket, and handed across the table, copies of the ‘Whirligig’ and the ‘Plain Speaker,’ with the passages concerning Madeline marked in pencil. Gavrolles glanced at them, and smiled curiously—then tossed them back across the table.
‘You understand those references?’
‘Completely,’ answered Gavrolles, with a mock bow. He was rapidly regaining47 his composure, and making ready to strike his strongest blow.
‘Yet you have the assurance to tell me that you are unacquainted with the lady whose name I have mentioned?’ Gavrolles bowed again.
‘Is she not the same with whom I saw you in company over there in France?’
‘And if she is?’
‘If she is, you are a liar on your own showing. You professed48 not to know her.’
‘I professed nothing of the kind. I said I did not know Mrs. Forster.’
‘She is the same person.’
‘Pardon me, that is impossible. She may be living under that gentleman’s roof, she may even be bearing his name—but she is not his wife!’
It was now Sutherland’s turn to look astonished. Something in the man’s supercilious49 smile, in his growing audacity50 and self-possession, disconcerted him.
‘What!—do you actually insinuate——’
‘Nothing whatever, monsieur. I merely state a fact. But before we continue the conversation, may I ask you a question? Has the lady herself sent you here?’
‘No,’ returned Sutherland, with a heightened colour; ‘I came on my own responsibility.’
‘Oh!—a self-constituted champion, I presume?’
‘If you put it in that way, yes.’
‘You are a friend of hers, of course?’
‘I am so far her friend that I will not see her victimised by a scoundrel.’
‘Referring to me, monsieur?’ asked Gavrolles, with venomous politeness.
Gavrolles, now completely master of himself, leant over the table and looked straight into Sutherland’s eyes.
‘You are very impetuous, monsieur, and not too choice in your use of—what you call—Beelingsgate; but I should wish very much to give you a little piece of advice. Before you proceed any further in this affair I should recommend you to consult the lady herself.’
‘Why?’
‘It would be better—for the lady.’
There was no mistaking the threatening significance of the Frenchman’s tone; but, as he spoke, he took a cigarette from a box upon the table, lit it, and looked keenly through the smoke at Sutherland.
Seeing that he did not immediately reply, but seemed dubious51 and perplexed52, Gavrolles airily continued—
‘I am content, you see, to take the lady’s opinion on the subject. If she sends you here as her accredited53 agent and defender54, I will speak to you, as one gentleman to another. Even then, look you, I should be condescending55, amiable56. It is not every man who would permit a complete stranger to dictate57 to him on a matter concerning only himself and madame his wife.’
‘What do you mean?’ cried Sutherland, now thoroughly58 startled. ‘You cannot mean that——’
‘If you will permit me,’ said Gavrolles, now thoroughly master of the situation, ‘I will explain; but bear in mind, monsieur, you have forced this avowal59 upon me by your brutal11 English violence. Otherwise, I should never have spoken. You have been good enough, Monsieur Sutherland, to say that I am a liar. Au contraire, I do not lie. When we first met, I said the young lady in my company was my wife. It was the truth. A little while ago, I said there was no such person as Mrs. Forster. It was the truth. Why? do you ask. Because a lady cannot bear the name of a second husband, when her first husband is alive.’
There was no mistaking the supreme60 assurance of the man; he spoke with the strength of a settled conviction. Sutherland looked at him in amaze, as the full horror of the situation dawned upon his bewildered mind.
‘You thought me a commonplace seducer,’ continued the Frenchman, loftily; ‘on the contrary, I am an artiste and a man of honour. I took that lady in honourable61 marriage. Afterwards, a cruel series of events drew us asunder62, that was all.’
‘You deserted63 her,’ cried Sutherland. ‘You left her to starve or die!’
‘Unfortunately, we did not agree; she was violent, and I—I will confess it—I was violent too. Eh bien! At the time of which I speak I was heavily in debt, and had to escape my creditors64. I asked her to accompany me, and she refused. A brief separation was necessary. Alas65! Little did I dream that in so short a space of time she would forget her lawful66 husband, and contract a bigamous union with another man.’
He paused a moment, then he concluded—
‘Now, monsieur, the champion of madame, I hope you are satisfied. In any case, there is the door.’
As he spoke he sat down in his chair beside the fire as if intimating that the interview had come to an end.
Sutherland stood perplexed, and watched him for some moments in silence. Then putting on his hat, he said in a low voice—
‘Your tale is plausible67, but I do not believe it. In any case you proclaim yourself a scoundrel. If it were not for your victim’s sake, for the fear of creating a scandal, I think I should carry out my promise, and thrash you. However, I shall postpone68 your punishment for the present. But remember, if the lady we have been discussing comes to grief through your malignity69, if these calumnies70 grow, and any evil happens to her through them or you, you will have to settle accounts with me!’
So saying he left the room, and rapidly descended71 the stairs into the street.
No sooner had he gone than Gavrolles, who with assumed sang-froid had with difficulty concealed72 a savage ferocity, sprang wildly up, crossed the room, and took from a sideboard an oblong mahogany box, which he opened with a small key. Inside was a set of delicately finished duelling pistols, with cartridges73 to match.
And now, with eyes flashing, mouth foaming74, all his body working in epileptiform rage, Gavrolles took up one of the weapons, and evoked75 an imaginary opponent in the air.
‘You would thrash me, you would profane76 me with a blow!’ he hissed77 aloud. ‘Ah, ruffian! bandit! devil! dog of an Englishman! if I had you before me—thus!—in my own country, I would put a bullet through your heart. Come again, with your bulldog face, and I shall be prepared!’
With these words the cosmic creature put the pistol back in its case, and proceeded to dress himself for his usual morning promenade78.
Meanwhile Sutherland was pursuing his way along the streets, in a brown study—or shall we rather say a black one—as expressed in a face of the blackest gloom. So! His ideal heroine, the idol he had set up in his heart as a type of all-patient and suffering woman, was a guilty creature, one who, to entrap79 an honourable man, had represented herself as single, whereas she knew that her husband lived! It was scarcely credible80, yet the tale, as he had said, seemed plausible enough, and the Frenchman seemed to have the courage of conviction.
A man less satisfied in his own mind of the superiority of the weaker sex over the stronger would doubtless have withdrawn81 from all interference in an affair so suspicious; but Sutherland, perhaps because he was a bachelor with very little practical experience of female baseness, took an optimistic view of womankind. He could scarcely conceive the idea of an utterly82 impure83 and wicked woman, though he had the strongest possible belief in the impurity84 and wickedness of men. He was thoroughly inexperienced, impartial85, and ideal. Having decided86 in his own mind that women are the victims of a social conspiracy87 (a terrible social truth, although one which he lacked the worldly philosophy to formulate88 truly), he never hesitated for a moment to battle upon their side, with all the deep enthusiasm and moral pugnacity89 of his nature. So there is little occasion for wonder in the fact that the more he thought over the matter the deeper grew his conviction that Madeline was a martyr90 and Gavrolles an even blacker scoundrel than he had at first believed.
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1
journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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intonations
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| n.语调，说话的抑扬顿挫( intonation的名词复数 )；（演奏或唱歌中的）音准 | |
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anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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diabolically
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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7
aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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innuendoes
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| n.影射的话( innuendo的名词复数 )；讽刺的话；含沙射影；暗讽 | |
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13
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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muse
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| n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感 | |
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18
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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19
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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20
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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22
sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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23
enraptured
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| v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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25
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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28
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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29
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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31
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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32
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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33
execration
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| n.诅咒，念咒，憎恶 | |
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34
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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35
scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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36
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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37
persecute
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| vt.迫害，虐待；纠缠，骚扰 | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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40
immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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41
consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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42
reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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44
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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45
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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46
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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48
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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supercilious
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| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
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50
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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52
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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53
accredited
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| adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于 | |
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54
defender
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| n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人 | |
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55
condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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56
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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57
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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58
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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59
avowal
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| n.公开宣称，坦白承认 | |
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60
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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61
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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62
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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64
creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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66
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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67
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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68
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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malignity
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| n.极度的恶意，恶毒；（病的）恶性 | |
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calumnies
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| n.诬蔑，诽谤，中伤（的话）( calumny的名词复数 ) | |
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71
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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72
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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73
cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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74
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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75
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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76
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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79
entrap
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| v.以网或陷阱捕捉，使陷入圈套 | |
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80
credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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81
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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83
impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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84
impurity
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| n.不洁，不纯，杂质 | |
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85
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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86
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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87
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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88
formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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pugnacity
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| n.好斗，好战 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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