A girl of sixteen had a rosy complexion, and put on rouge.
POLIDORI
一个十六岁的姑娘,脸色红润得像玫瑰花,她还要搽胭脂。
波利多里
As for Julien, Fouque's offer had indeed destroyed all his happiness; he could not decide upon any course.
至于于连,富凯的建议的确剥夺了他全部的幸福,他什么主意也拿不定。
'Alas! Perhaps I am wanting in character, I should have made Napoleon a bad soldier. Anyhow,' he went on, 'my little intrigue with the lady of the house is going to distract me for the moment.'
“唉,也许我缺乏性格,我若是在拿破仑手下,一定是个很糟糕的士兵,至少,”他又想,“我与这家女主人之间的小小私通将给我带来片刻的欢娱。”
Fortunately for him, even in this minor incident, his inward feelings bore no relation to his cavalier language. He was afraid of Madame de Renal because of her pretty gown. This gown was in his eyes the advance guard of Paris. His pride was determined to leave nothing to chance and to the inspiration of the moment. Drawing upon Fouque's confessions and the little he had read about love in the Bible, he prepared a plan of campaign in great detail. Since, though he did not admit it to himself, he was extremely anxious, he committed this plan to writing.
他很幸运,就是在这种不起眼的小变故中,他的灵魂深处也和他那轻浮的言语不相一致。他害怕德·莱纳夫人,为的是她那如此漂亮的连衣裙。在他看来,这条裙子就是巴黎的先头部队。他的骄傲不想给偶然和一时的灵感留下任何机会。根据富凯的知心话和他在《圣经》中读到的一点点有关爱情的文字,他制订了一个很详细的作战计划。虽然他不承认,可他确实心慌意乱,就写下了这个计划。
The following morning, in the drawing-room, Madame de Renal was alone with him for a moment.
第二天早晨,德·莱纳夫人有一会儿和他单独在客厅里,她问他:
'Have you no other name besides Julien?' she asked him.
“您除了于连之外就没有别的名字了吗?”
Our hero did not know what answer to give to so flattering a question.
对于这一如此讨好的问话,我们的主人公竟不知如何回答。
No provision had been made in his plan for such an event. But for the stupid mistake of making a plan, Julien's quick mind would soon have come to his rescue, his surprise would only have added to the keenness of his perceptions.
这个情况是他的计划不曾料到的。如果没有制订计划这种载事的话,于连的灵活的头脑本可以派上用场,意外的情况只会使他的观察变得更加敏捷。
He was awkward and exaggerated his own awkwardness. Madame de Renal soon forgave him that. She saw in it the effect of a charming candour. And the one thing lacking, to her mind, in this man, who was considered so brilliant, was an air of candour.
他一下子变得很笨,而他自己又夸大了这种笨拙。德·柴纳夫人很快原谅了他。她认为这是一种迷人的天真产生的结果。在她看来,这个大家都认为才华横溢的人所缺少的,恰恰是天真的神态。
'I don't at all trust your little tutor,' Madame Derville said to her on several occasions. 'He seems to me to be always thinking and to act only from motives of policy. He's crafty.'
“我很不信任你那位小家庭教师,”德尔维夫人有几次对她说,“我发现他老是在打主意,一举一动都有心计。这是个阴险的人。”
Julien remained deeply humiliated by the disaster of not having known what answer to make to Madame de Renal.
于连不知如何回答德·莱纳夫人,真是不幸,他深感屈辱。
'A man of my sort owes it to himself to make up for this check'; and,seizing the moment at which she passed from one room to another, he did what he considered his duty by giving Madame de Renal a kiss.
“一个像我这样的人必须补救这一次失败,”他抓住从一间屋子进到另一间屋子的当儿,吻了吻德·莱纳夫人,他认为这是他的责任。
Nothing could have been less appropriate, less agreeable either to himself or to her, nor could anything have been more imprudent. They barely escaped being caught. Madame de Renal thought him mad. She was frightened and even more shocked. This stupidity reminded her of M. Valenod.
无论对他还是对她,没有比这更意外、更令人不快的了,也没有比这更冒失的了。他们险些被人撞见。德·莱纳夫人以为他疯了。她吓坏了,尤其是感到受了冒犯。这桩蠢举让她想到了瓦勒诺先主。
'What would happen to me,' she asked herself, 'if I were left alone with him?' All her virtue returned, for her love was in eclipse.She arranged matters so that there should always be one of her children with her.
她想:“我要是单独和他在一起,那会发生什么事呢?”她的种种贞操观念又全都回来了,因为爱情已然消失。于是她设法总是让一个孩子留在身边。
The day passed slowly for Julien, he spent the whole of it in clumsily carrying out his plan of seduction. He never once looked at Madame de Renal without embodying a question in his look; he was not, however,such a fool as not to see that he was failing completely to be agreeable,let alone seductive.
于连一整天都闷闷不乐,全部用来笨拙地实施他那引诱计划。他每看一眼德·莱纳夫人,目光中都带着一个为什么;不过,他还没有愚蠢到看不出他绝不能变得可爱,更没有做到能够把人迷住。
Madame de Renal could not get over her astonishment at finding him so awkward and at the same time so bold. 'It is the timidity of love in a man of parts!' she said to herself at length, with an inexpressible joy. 'Can it be possible that he has never been loved by my rival!'
德·莱纳夫人见他如此笨拙同时又如此大胆,惊讶得不得了。“这是一个有才智的人在爱情上的腼腆呀!”她终于对自己说,快乐得无法形容,“敢情他从未被我的情敌爱过呀!”
After luncheon, Madame de Renal returned to the drawing-room to entertain M. Charcot de Maugiron, the Sub-Prefect of Bray. She was working at a little tapestry frame on a tall stand. Madame Derville was by her side. It was in this position, and in the full light of day, that our hero thought fit to thrust forward his boot and press the pretty foot of Madame de Renal, whose openwork stocking and smart Parisian shoe were evidently attracting the gaze of the gallant Sub-Prefect.
吃罢午饭,德·莱纳夫人回客厅去接待博莱专区区长夏尔科·德·莫吉隆先生的来访。她在一个很高的小绣架上干活儿。德尔维夫人坐在她旁边。这样的位置,大白天,我们的主人公却认为可以把靴子伸过去踩德·莱纳夫人的秀足,那网眼长袜和巴黎来的美丽的鞋子显然吸引住了风流区长的目光。
Madame de Renal was extremely alarmed; she let fall her scissors, her ball of wool, her needles, and Julien's movement could thus pass for a clumsy attempt to prevent the fall of the scissors, which he had seen slipping down. Fortunately these little scissors of English steel broke, and Madame de Renal could not sufficiently express her regret that Julien had not been nearer at hand.
德·莱纳夫人吓坏了,她让剪刀、绒线团和针掉在地上,于连的动作就可以被看成是一种笨拙的企图了,他看见剪刀掉下来而想去挡住它。幸好这把英国钢制小剪刀摔断了,德·莱纳夫人好一阵遗憾,怪于连没有坐得更靠近她。
'You saw them falling before I did, you might have caught them; your zeal has only succeeded in giving me a violent kick.'
“您比我先看见剪子掉了,您本该挡住的,可您的热心没档住剪子,却给了我狠狠的一脚。”
All this play-acting took in the Sub-Prefect, but not Madame Derville.
这一切骗得了区长,却骗不了德尔维夫人。
'This pretty youth has very bad manners!' she thought; the worldly wisdom of a provincial capital can never pardon mistakes of this sort. Madame de Renal found an opportunity of saying to Julien:
“这个漂亮小伙子的举止可真蠢!”她想。外省首府的礼仪是绝不原谅此类错误的。德·莱纳夫人找到机会对于连说:
'Be careful, I order you.'
“谨慎点,我命令您。”
Julien realised his own clumsiness, and was annoyed. For a long time he debated within himself whether he ought to take offence at the words:
于连看出了自己的笨拙,心里很生气,他长久地和自己争论,想知道应否对我命令您这句话发火,他是够蠢的,居然想:
'I order you.' He was foolish enough to think: 'She might say to me "I order you" if it was something to do with the children's education; but in responding to my love, she assumes equality. One cannot love without equality'; and he lost himself in composing commonplaces on the subject of equality. He repeated angrily to himself the verse of Corneille which Madame Derville had taught him a few days earlier:
“如果事关孩子们的教育,她可说我命令;但要回答我的爱情,她该认为我们是平等的。没有平等就不能爱……”他的全部心思都用来翻腾那些关于平等的老生常谈了。他愤怒地默诵德尔维夫人几天前教给他的这句高乃依的诗:
Love creates equalities, it does not seek them.
爱情造就平等却不追求平等。
Julien, insisting upon playing the part of a Don Juan, he who had never had a mistress in his life, was deadly dull for the rest of the day. He had only one sensible idea; bored with himself and with Madame de Renal, he saw with alarm the evening approach when he would be seated in the garden, by her side and in the dark. He told M. de Renal that he was going to Verrieres to see the cure; he set off after dinner, and did not return until late at night.
于连执意扮演一个唐璜的角色,虽然他此生还不曾有过情妇,这一整天他真是蠢透了。他只有一个念头想对了,他对自己、对德·莱纳夫人都感到厌倦,怀着恐惧眼看着傍晚渐近,他又得坐在花园里,在黑暗中挨着她。他对德·莱纳先生说,他要去维里埃看神甫,吃罢晚饭就走,夜里才回来。
At Verrieres, Julien found M. Chelan engaged in packing up; he had at last been deprived of his benefice; the vicar Maslon was to succeed him.
在维里埃,于连看见谢朗神甫正忙着搬家,他果然被撤职了,马斯隆副本堂神甫接替他。
Julien helped the good cure, and it occurred to him to write to Fouque that the irresistible vocation which he felt for the sacred ministry had prevented him at first from accepting his friend's obliging offer, but that he had just witnessed such an example of injustice, that perhaps it would be more advantageous to his welfare were he not to take holy orders.
于连帮助善良的神甫搬家,他想写一封信给富凯,说他对从事圣职的不可抵抗的志向曾经阻止他接受他的好心提议,然而他刚刚看见一个不公的例子,也许不领受神品对他的灵魂得救更为有利。
Julien applauded his own deftness in making use of the deprivation of the cure of Verrieres to leave a door open for himself and so return to commerce, should the sad voice of prudence prevail, in his mind, over heroism.
于连庆幸自己的机灵,能够利用维里埃本堂神甫的撤职为自己留一条后路,再回头去经商,如果在他的心里可悲的谨慎终于战胜了英雄主义的话。