Part 1 Book 3 Chapter 6 A Chapter in which they adore Each Other

Chat at table, the chat of love; it is as impossible to reproduce one as the other; the chat of love is a cloud; the chat at table is smoke.

Fameuil and Dahlia were humming. Tholomyes was drinking. Zephine was laughing, Fantine smiling, Listolier blowing a wooden trumpet¹ which he had purchased at Saint-Cloud.

Favourite gazed tenderly at Blachevelle and said:--

"Blachevelle, I adore you."

This called forth² a question from Blachevelle:--

"What would you do, Favourite, if I were to cease to love you?"

"I!" cried Favourite. "Ah! Do not say that even in jest! If you were to cease to love me, I would spring after you, I would scratch you, I should rend³ you, I would throw you into the water, I would have you arrested."

Blachevelle smiled with the voluptuous⁴ self-conceit of a man who is tickled⁵ in his self-love. Favourite resumed:--

"Yes, I would scream to the police! Ah! I should not restrain myself, not at all! Rabble⁶!"

Blachevelle threw himself back in his chair, in an ecstasy⁷, and closed both eyes proudly.

Dahlia, as she ate, said in a low voice to Favourite, amid the uproar:--

"So you really idolize him deeply, that Blachevelle of yours?"

"I? I detest⁸ him," replied Favourite in the same tone, seizing her fork again. "He is avaricious⁹. I love the little fellow opposite me in my house. He is very nice, that young man; do you know him? One can see that he is an actor by profession. I love actors. As soon as he comes in, his mother says to him: `Ah! mon Dieu! My peace of mind is gone. There he goes with his shouting. But, my dear, you are splitting my head!' So he goes up to rat-ridden garrets, to black holes, as high as he can mount, and there he sets to singing, declaiming, how do I know what? so that he can be heard down stairs! He earns twenty sous a day at an attorney's by penning quibbles. He is the son of a former precentor of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas. Ah! he is very nice. He idolizes me so, that one day when he saw me making batter<sup>10</sup> for some pancakes, he said to me: `Mamselle, make your gloves into fritters, and I will eat them.' It is only artists who can say such things as that. Ah! he is very nice. I am in a fair way to go out of my head over that little fellow. Never mind; I tell Blachevelle that I adore him--how I lie! Hey! How I do lie!"

Favourite paused, and then went on:--

"I am sad, you see, Dahlia. It has done nothing but rain all summer; the wind irritates me; the wind does not abate¹¹. Blachevelle is very stingy; there are hardly any green peas in the market; one does not know what to eat. I have the spleen, as the English say, butter is so dear! and then you see it is horrible, here we are dining in a room with a bed in it, and that disgusts me with life."

餐桌上的谈话和情侣们的谈话同样是不可捉摸的，情侣们的谈话是云霞，餐桌上的谈话是烟雾。

法梅依和大丽哼着歌儿，多罗米埃喝着酒，瑟芬笑着，芳汀微笑着。李士多里吹着在圣克鲁买来的木喇叭。宠儿脉脉含情地望着勃拉什维尔说道：

“勃拉什维尔。我爱你。”

这话引起了勃拉什维尔的一个问题。

“宠儿，假使我不爱你了，你将怎样呢？”

“我吗！”宠儿喊着说，“唉！不要说这种话，哪怕是开玩笑，也不要说这种话！假使你不爱我了，我就跳到你后面，抓你的皮，扯你的头发，把水淋到你的身上，叫你吃官司。”

勃拉什维尔自诩多情地微笑了一下，正如一个自尊心获得极端满足而感到舒服的人一样。宠儿又说：

“是呀！我会叫警察！哼！你以为我有什么事做不出的！

坏种！”

勃拉什维尔，受宠若惊，仰在椅上，沾沾自喜地闭上了眼睛。

大丽吃个不停，从喧杂的语声中对宠儿说：

“看来，你对你的勃拉什维尔不是很痴心吗？”

“我，我厌恶他，”宠儿用了同样的语调回答，重又拿起她的叉子。“他舍不得花钱。我爱着在我对面住的那个小伙子。那小子长得漂亮得很，你认得他吗？他很有做戏子的派头。我喜欢戏子。他一回家，他娘就说：‘呀！我的上帝！我又不得安静了。他要叫起来了。唉，我的朋友，你要叫破我的脑袋吗！’因为他一到家里，便到那些住耗子的阁楼上，那些黑洞里，越高越好，他在那里又唱又朗诵，谁知道他搞些什么！下面的人都听得见。他在一个律师家里写讼词，每天已能赚二十个苏了。他父亲是圣雅克教堂里的唱诗人。呀！他生得非常好。他已经爱我到这种地步，有一天，他看见我在调灰面做薄饼，他对我说：‘小姐，您拿您的手套做些饼，我全会吃下去。’世界上只有艺术家才会说这样的话。听！他生得非常好。我已要为那小白脸发疯了。这不打紧，我对勃拉什维尔还是说我爱他。

我多么会撒谎！你说是吗？我多么会撒谎！”

宠儿喘了口气，又继续说：

“大丽，你知道吗？我心里烦得很。落了一夏季的雨，这风真叫我受不了，风又熄不了我心头的火，勃拉什维尔是个小气鬼，菜场里又不大有豌豆卖，他只知道吃，正好象英国人说的，我害‘忧郁病’了，奶油又那么贵！并且，你瞧，真是笑话，我们竟会在有床铺的房间里吃饭，我还不如死了的好。”

1 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

2 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

3 rend   

vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取

参考例句：

• Her scrams would rend the heart of any man.她的喊叫声会撕碎任何人的心。
• Will they rend the child from his mother?他们会不会把这个孩子从他的母亲身边夺走呢？

4 voluptuous   

adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的

参考例句：

• The nobility led voluptuous lives.贵族阶层过着骄奢淫逸的生活。
• The dancer's movements were slow and voluptuous.舞女的动作缓慢而富挑逗性。

5 tickled   

（使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐

参考例句：

• We were tickled pink to see our friends on television. 在电视中看到我们的一些朋友，我们高兴极了。
• I tickled the baby's feet and made her laugh. 我胳肢孩子的脚，使她发笑。

6 rabble   

n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人

参考例句：

• They formed an army out of rabble.他们用乌合之众组成一支军队。
• Poverty in itself does not make men into a rabble.贫困自身并不能使人成为贱民。

7 ecstasy   

n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷

参考例句：

• He listened to the music with ecstasy.他听音乐听得入了神。
• Speechless with ecstasy,the little boys gazed at the toys.小孩注视着那些玩具，高兴得说不出话来。

8 detest   

vt.痛恨，憎恶

参考例句：

• I detest people who tell lies.我恨说谎的人。
• The workers detest his overbearing manner.工人们很讨厌他那盛气凌人的态度。

9 avaricious   

adj.贪婪的，贪心的

参考例句：

• I call on your own memory as witness:remember we have avaricious hearts.假使你想要保证和证明，你可以回忆一下我们贪婪的心。
• He is so avaricious that we call him a blood sucker.他如此贪婪，我们都叫他吸血鬼。

10 batter   

v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员

参考例句：

• The batter skied to the center fielder.击球手打出一个高飞球到中外野手。
• Put a small quantity of sugar into the batter.在面糊里放少量的糖。

11 abate   

vi.(风势，疼痛等)减弱，减轻，减退

参考例句：

• We must abate the noise pollution in our city.我们必须消除我们城里的噪音污染。
• The doctor gave him some medicine to abate the powerful pain.医生给了他一些药，以减弱那剧烈的疼痛。