Part 3 Book 2 Chapter 2 Like Master, Like House

He lived in the Marais, Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, No. 6. He owned the house. This house has since been demolished and rebuilt, and the number has probably been changed in those revolutions of numeration which the streets of Paris undergo. He occupied an ancient and vast apartment on the first floor, between street and gardens, furnished to the very ceilings with great Gobelins and Beauvais tapestries representing pastoral scenes; the subjects of the ceilings and the panels were repeated in miniature on the arm-chairs. He enveloped his bed in a vast, nine-leaved screen of Coromandel lacquer. Long, full curtains hung from the windows, and formed great, broken folds that were very magnificent. The garden situated immediately under his windows was attached to that one of them which formed the angle, by means of a staircase twelve or fifteen steps long, which the old gentleman ascended and descended with great agility. In addition to a library adjoining his

hamber, he had a boudoir of which he thought a great deal, a gallant and elegant retreat, with magnificent hangings of straw, with a pattern of flowers and fleurs-de-lys made on the galleys of Louis XIV. and ordered of his convicts by M. de Vivonne for hic mistress. M. Gillenormand ha` inherited it from a grim maternal great-aunt, who had died a centenarian. He had had two wives. His manners were something between those of the courtier, which he had never been, and the lawyer, which he might have been. He was gay, and caressing when he had a mind. In his youth he had been one of those men who are always deceived by their wives and never by their mistresses, because they are, at the same time, the most sullen of husbands and the most charming of lovers in existence. He was a connoisseur of painting. He had in his chamber a marvellous portrait of no one knows whom, painted by Jordaens, executed with great dashes of the brush, with millions of details, in a confused and hap-hazard manner. M. Gillenormand's attire was not the habit of Louis XIV. nor yet that of Louis XVI.; it was that of the Incroyables of the Directory. He had thought himself young up to that period and had followed the fashions. His coat was of light-weight cloth with voluminous revers, a long swallow-tail and large steel buttons. With this he wore knee-breeches and buckle shoes. He always thrust his hands into his fobs. He said authoritatively: "The French Revolution is a heap of blackguards."

他住在沼泽区受难修女街六号。房子是他自己的。那房子后来经过拆毁重建，门牌也许在巴黎街道大改号数时换过了。他在二楼占用一套宽大的老式房间，一面临街，一面对着花园，大幅大幅的哥白兰①绒毯和博韦②绒毯挂齐天花板，毯子上织的是牧羊图，天花板上和壁框里的画缩成小幅，又出现在每张围椅上。床前摆了一座九摺长屏风，上的是科罗曼德尔③漆。一幅辐长窗帘，襞褶舒徐，在窗口掩映，非常美观。紧靠在窗子下面的是花园，在两排窗子的转角处有窗门，开出去，便是一道台阶，大致有十二到十五级，是那健步如飞的老人经常上下的地方。在他的卧室隔壁，书房以外，还有一间最为他重视的起坐间，那是间款待女友的密室，墙上挂着一幅麦黄色的壁衣，上面有百合花和其他花朵，是路易十四时期大桡船上的产品，是德·维沃纳先生特为他的情妇向苦役犯定的货，也是吉诺曼先生从一个脾气古怪在一百岁上死去的姨祖母的遗产中继承来的。他结过两次婚。他从来没有当过朝臣，却几乎做了法官，他的神气介于朝臣和法官之间。他爱谈笑，他愿意的话，也能显得亲密温柔。他在少壮时是那样一个经常受到妻子的欺瞒而从来不受情妇欺瞒的人，因为这种人全是些最难相处的丈夫，同时又是些极为可爱的情夫。他是油画鉴赏家。在他的卧室里有一幅约尔丹斯④画的不知道是谁的绝妙肖像，笔触遒劲，却又有万千精微独到之处，下笔交错纷杂，仿佛是信手涂抹而得的。吉诺曼先生的衣着不是路易十五时期的，甚至也不是路易十六时期的，而是督政府时期⑤的那种“荒唐少年”⑥的款式。直至那时，他还自以为很年轻，仍在学时髦。他的上衣是薄呢的，大而阔的翻领，长燕尾，大钢钮。此外，短裤，带扣的浅帮鞋。两只手一贯插在坎肩的小口袋里。他经常横眉怒目地说：“法兰西革命是一堆土匪。”

①哥白兰，巴黎的一家绒毯工厂。

②博韦，城名，在巴黎以北。

③科罗曼德尔（Coromandel），印度东北滨海地带。

④约尔丹斯（Jordaens，1593-1678），佛兰德著名画家。

⑤督政府，一七九五年至一七九九年法国的资产阶级政府。如果吉诺曼先生在一八三一年有九十岁，他在督政府时期已是近六十岁的人了。

⑥“荒唐少年”（les　incroyables），当时和革命力量对抗的富家子弟，他们故意穿奇装异服招摇过市，说话走路装腔作势，以此来表示自己不同于人民大众。他们爱说“这真荒唐”，从而获得“荒唐少年”这一称号。