被遗弃的女人1

In the early spring of 1822，the Paris doctors sent to Lower Normandy a young man just recovering from an inflammatory complaint, brought on by overstudy, or perhaps by excess of some other kind.

1822年的初春，巴黎的大夫们把一位正从炎症中康复的小伙子送到下诺曼底来，他得这病是由于用功过度，或者其他什么方面的过度劳累。

His convalescence demanded complete rest, a light diet, bracing air, and freedom from excitement of every kind, and the fat lands of Bessin seemed to offer all these conditions of recovery. To Bayeux, a picturesque place about six miles from the sea, the patient therefore betook himself, and was received with the cordiality characteristic of relatives who lead very retired lives, and regard a new arrival as a godsend.

他的康复需要彻底的休息、清淡的饮食、清新爽人的空气以及避免受各种感情的刺激，而贝桑肥沃的土地似乎为他的康复提供了以上所有的便利条件。巴约是一个风景如画的城市，离海约六英里远，于是病人便前往此地。他受到了亲戚们的真挚欢迎，因为亲戚们在那里过着隐居的生活，有人来访不禁喜出望外，将其视为天赐之物。

All little towns are alike, save for a few local customs. When M. le Baron Gaston de Nueil, the young Parisian in question, had spent two or three evenings in his cousin's house, or with the friends who made up Mme. de Sainte—Severe's circle, he very soon had made the acquaintance of the persons whom this exclusive society considered to be "the whole town. " Gaston de Nueil recognized in them the invariable stock characters which every observer finds in every one of the many capitals of the little States which made up the France of an older day.

除了一些当地风俗不同之外，所有的小镇都是相似的。这位年轻的巴黎青年叫加斯东·德纽埃尔。在他表姐德圣塞韦尔夫人的家里，或者在她的那一伙朋友家里度过了两三个晚上之后，他便很快认识了这个僻静社会视为 “全镇” 代表的头面人物们。加斯东·德纽埃尔把这些人视为一成不变的人物，任何一个观察者都能够在昔日法国的许多藩候的首府里发现他们。

First of all comes the family whose claims to nobility are regarded as incontestable, and of the highest antiquity in the department, though no one has so much as heard of them a bare fifty leagues away. This species of royal family on a small scale is distantly, but unmistakably, connected with the Navarreins and the Grandlieu family, and related to the Cadignans, and the Blamont—Chauvrys. The head of the illustrious house is invariably a determined sportsman. He has no manners, crushes everybody else with his nominal superiority, tolerates the sub—prefect much as he submits to the taxes, and declines to acknowledge any of the novel powers created by the nineteenth century, pointing out to you as a political monstrosity the fact that the prime minister is a man of no birth. His wife takes a decided tone, and talks in a loud voice. She has had adorers in her time, but takes the sacrament regularly at Easter. She brings up her daughters badly, and is of the opinion that they will always be rich enough with their name.

这些人物中首屈一指的，是在这个省里被认为是无可争辩的贵族阶层，其历史也是源远流长的，虽然50里格之外的人根本就没有听说过他们。这种小型的皇室家族和纳瓦兰家族、葛朗利厄家族的确有着远亲关系，同卡迪央家族和布拉蒙—绍弗里家族也能沾上关系。这个望族的首领通常是一位果敢的冒险家。他不懂礼节，经常用这有名无实的姓氏优势来欺压别人，他像容忍捐税一样容忍县官的存在，他对19世纪建立起的新贵势力概不承认，还指出如果首相不是出身贵族，那便是政界的一件怪事。他的妻子说话斩钉截铁，嗓门很高。她在她的时代虽有很多崇拜者，却从不忘记每到复活节时举行圣礼。她不懂得教养女儿，总认为她们只要有了贵族姓氏便会永远富有。

Neither husband nor wife has the remotest idea of modern luxury. They retain a livery only seen elsewhere on the stage, and cling to old fashions in plate, furniture, and equipages, as in language and manner of life. This is a kind of ancient state, moreover, that suits passably well with provincial thrift. The good folk are, in fact, the lords of the manor of a bygone age, minus the quitrents and heriots, the pack of hounds and the laced coats; full of honor among themselves, and one and all loyally devoted to princes whom they only see at a distance. The historical house incognito is as quaint a survival as a piece of ancient tapestry. Vegetating somewhere among them there is sure to be an uncle or a brother, a lieutenant—general, an old courtier of the Kings's, who wears the red ribbon of the order of Saint—Louis, and went to Hanover with the Marechal de Richelieu: and here you will find him like a stray leaf out of some old pamphlet of the time of Louis Quinze.

丈夫和妻子对于现代的奢侈华贵可谓一无所知。他们依然保留着只有在戏台上才能看到的装束，坚持使用老式的餐盘、家具和马车，至于语言和生活习惯，他们也偏爱旧式的。而且，这种古老的排场跟外省的节俭风气也还算搭调。事实上，他们这些人是过去时代的领主，只是缺少征收免役税和租地继承税的权利、成群的猎犬以及镶着挂饰的制服罢了；在自己人中间，他们充满荣誉感，所有人都对那些只能远远看着的王公们忠心耿耿。就像一条古老的挂毯一样，这个历史上名不见经传的家族保留着古怪的特点。这个家族里一定出现过一位叔伯或兄弟，官至中将，出入宫廷，身上有圣路易下令佩戴的红丝带，曾经追随黎赛留将军出征汉诺威：在这里，你会发现，他就像路易十五时代某本旧册子上散落下来的一页纸。

This fossil greatness finds a rival in another house, wealthier, though of less ancient lineage. Husband and wife spend a couple of months of every winter in Paris, bringing back with them its frivolous tone and short—lived contemporary crazes. Madame is a woman of fashion, though she looks rather conscious of her clothes, and is always behind the mode. She scoffs, however, at the ignorance affected by her neighbors. Her plate is of modern fashion; she has "grooms, " Negroes, a valet—de—chambre, and what—not. Her oldest son drives a tilbury, and does nothing (the estate is entailed upon him), his younger brother is auditor to a Council of State. The father is well posted up in official scandals, and tells you anecdotes of Louis XVIII. and Madame du Cayla. He invests his money in the five per cents, and is careful to avoid the topic of cider, but has been known occasionally to fall a victim to the craze for rectifying the conjectural sums—total of the various fortunes of the department. He is a member of the Departmental Council, has his clothes from Paris, and wears the Cross of the Legion of Honor. In short, he is a country gentleman who has fully grasped the significance of the Restoration, and is coining money at the Chamber, but his Royalism is less pure than that of the rival house; he takes the Gazette and the Debats, the other family only read the Quotidienne.

跟这个古董似的家族相对立的是另一个家族，更富有，可世系没那么古老。丈夫和妻子每年冬天去巴黎度几个月假，然后带回来一些轻浮的腔调和转瞬即逝的流行爱好。夫人是一位时尚达人，虽然看上去打扮得相当用心，可是总跟不上潮流。但因为受邻居的影响，她还无知地嘲笑别人。她的餐具是新式的；她拥有几个 “小厮” 、几个黑奴、一位男侍从等诸如此类的人。他的长子驾驶一辆二轮轻便马车，无所事事（家族财产由他继承），次子是国务委员会的审理员。父亲对官场黑幕了如指掌，经常谈论路易十八与凯拉尔夫人的轶事。他购买五厘公债，谨慎避免有关苹果酒的话题，不过有时怪癖发作起来，就会对更正省内各大亨那被推测出的财产总数表现出狂热的兴趣。他是省议会议员之一，衣服都是在巴黎定制，身上还佩戴着荣誉军团十字勋章。总之，这位乡绅深知王朝复辟的意义，在议会里也是大发其财，不过他的忠君思想却不及那个敌对家族的那么纯粹；他订阅《法兰西新闻》和《辩论报》，而另一家族却只看《每日新闻》。

His lordship the Bishop, a sometime Vicar—General, fluctuates between the two powers, who pay him the respect due to religion, but at times they bring home to him the moral appended by the worthy Lafontaine to the fable of the Ass laden with Relics. The good man's origin is distinctly plebeian.

以前的代理主教，也是现在的主教大人，在这两大势力之间摇摆不定。他们因为宗教信仰对他非常尊重，但有时也会向他挑明著名的拉封丹在寓言《驮圣骨的驴子》的末尾所揭示的寓意。这个老好人显然出身平民。

Then come stars of the second magnitude, men of family with ten or twelve hundred livres a year, captains in the navy or cavalry regiments, or nothing at all. Out on the roads, on horseback, they rank half—way between the cure bearing the sacraments and the tax collector on his rounds. Pretty nearly all of them have been in the Pages or in the Household Troops, and now are peaceably ending their days in a faisance—valoir, more interested in felling timber and the cider prospects than in the Monarchy.

接下来是一些二等明星了，他们是每年收入一千到一千两百里弗赫的贵族，有的当过海军上校，有的当过骑兵上尉，有的什么也没当过。骑马在路上走时，他们的位置处于手捧圣杯的神甫和税务长官之间。几乎所有人都在侍卫队或者皇家军队里接受过训练，现在都悠闲地在自己的田庄里消磨时光，他们更关心木材和苹果酒，而非君主政体。

Still they talk of the Charter and the Liberals while the cards are making, or over a game at backgammon, when they have exhausted the usual stock of dots, and have married everybody off according to the genealogies which they all know by heart. Their womenkind are haughty dames, who assume the airs of Court ladies in their basket chaises. They huddle themselves up in shawls and caps by way of full dress; and twice a year, after ripe deliberation, have a new bonnet from Paris, brought as opportunity offers. Exemplary wives are they for the most part, and garrulous.

不过，当他们按照已烂熟于心的家谱安排完了每个人的婚事，打着牌或者玩着西洋双陆棋的时候，他们也会聊起宪章和自由党人。他们的妻子则是些傲慢的女人，在形状像篮子的轻便马车里摆出宫廷贵妇的神态。她们用披肩和帽子胡乱打扮一番，就认为是盛装华服了；一年仅两次，还是经过深思熟虑之后，她们才从巴黎买一顶新帽子，而且要看帽子有没有机会被捎过来。她们大都品行规范、喋喋不休。

These are the principal elements of aristocratic gentility, with a few outlying old maids of good family, spinsters who have solved the problem: given a human being, to remain absolutely stationary. They might be sealed up in the houses where you see them; their faces and their dresses are literally part of the fixtures of the town, and the province in which they dwell. They are its tradition, its memory, its quintessence, the genius loci incarnate. There is something frigid and monumental about these ladies; they know exactly when to laugh and when to shake their heads, and every now and then give out some utterance which passes current as a witticism.

这就是这帮文雅贵族的主要成员，其中有几个出身名门的老处女，她们已经解决了以下问题：作为人类如何保持绝对的静止不变。她们好像被密封在你见到她们的那所房子里，她们的面孔和服饰已经成为她们所居住的那个镇、那个省的固定成分之一。她们是该镇和该省的传统、记忆、典范和精神化身。这些女人身上都有些冰冷的、极端的东西；她们清楚地知道应该何时微笑、何时点头，也不时地说出几句被认为俏皮的话。

A few rich townspeople have crept into the miniature Faubourg Saint—Germain, thanks to their money or their aristocratic leanings. But despite their forty years, the circle still say of them, "Young So—and—so has sound opinions, " and of such do they make deputies. As a rule, the elderly spinsters are their patronesses, not without comment.

依仗着财产或偏向于贵族的政见，一些富有的镇民也混进了这个圣日耳曼区的小贵族圈子。尽管他们已经四十岁了，圈里人谈起他们时依旧说： “还是那样年轻，还是那样思想有见地。” 于是他们被选为议员。一般而言，这些老处女是他们的后台，有风言风语也是自然的了。

Finally, in this exclusive little set include two or three ecclesiastics, admitted for the sake of their cloth, or for their wit; for these great nobles find their own society rather dull, and introduce the bourgeois element into their drawing—rooms, as a baker puts leaven into his dough.

最后，两三个教士也被接纳到了这个唯我独尊的小圈子里，因为他们的服饰或者才智；这些贵族觉得自己的这个社交圈相当沉闷，所以他们把资产阶级成分带进了客厅，正如面包师要把酵母放到面团里一样。

The sum—total contained by all heads put together consists of a certain quantity of antiquated notions; a few new inflections brewed in company of an evening being added from time to time to the common stock. Like sea—water in a little creek, the phrases which represent these ideas surge up daily, punctually obeying the tidal laws of conversation in their flow and ebb; you hear the hollow echo of yesterday, to—day, to—morrow, a year hence, and for evermore. On all things here below they pass immutable judgments, which go to make up a body of tradition into which no power of mortal man can infuse one drop of wit or sense. The lives of these persons revolve with the regularity of clockwork in an orbit of use and wont which admits of no more deviation or change than their opinions on matters religious, political, moral, or literary.

这些头脑中所堆砌起来的全部思想都是由一定数量的迂腐观念组成的；其中也掺杂着一些新思想，这些思想是在晚上的集会中被不时地添加到这一普通思想库中的。代表这些观念的语句，正如小海湾中的海水一样每日汹涌澎湃，谈话中严格遵守潮涨潮落的自然法则；你会一直听到空洞的回声，昨天、今天、明天、一年后、永远。他们对世事的看法永远不变，这些看法已经形成一套传统，任何人都无权往里注入一丁点儿新思想和新见地。这些人的生活在习惯的轨道上规律运转着，正如他们对宗教、政治、道德和文学观念一样，这都是无法背离或变更的。

If a stranger is admitted to the cenacle, every member of it in turn will say (not without a trace of irony), "You will not find the brilliancy of your Parisian society here, " and proceed forthwith to criticise the life led by his neighbors, as if he himself were an exception who had striven, and vainly striven, to enlighten the rest. But any stranger so ill advised as to concur in any of their freely expressed criticism of each other, is pronounced at once to be an ill—natured person, a heathen, an outlaw, a reprobate Parisian "as Parisians mostly are. "

如果一个外地人被允许进入这个小团体，这里的每个成员就会轮番对他讲（带着嘲讽的意味）： “在这儿你可找不到巴黎社会的光彩。” 然后他们便斥责起邻里们的生活方式，似乎他们自己是曾徒劳设法开导大众的例外。可一个新来的人如果没脑筋到对他们互相之间的任何自由抨击予以随声附和，那么他就会被马上看成一个坏心眼的人，一个异教徒，一个歹徒，一个堕落的巴黎人—— “跟大多数巴黎人一样” 。

Before Gaston de Nueil made his appearance in this little world of strictly observed etiquette, where every detail of life is an integrant part of a whole, and everything is known; where the values of personalty and real estate is quoted like stocks on the vast sheet of the newspaper—before his arrival he had been weighed in the unerring scales of Bayeusaine judgment.

加斯东·德纽埃尔在这个小小的世界里露面之前，就已经被巴约那不会出错的天平称过斤两了。在这个小小的世界里一切都遵循礼节，生活中每个细节都是必不可少的一部分，任何事都一目了然；所有的动产和不动产都像报纸大幅刊登的债券一样报价。

His cousin, Mme. de Sainte—Severe, had already given out the amount of his fortune, and the sum of his expectations, had produced the family tree, and expatiated on the talents, breeding, and modesty of this particular branch. So he received the precise amount of attentions to which he was entitled; he was accepted as a worthy scion of a good stock; and, for he was but twenty—three, was made welcome without ceremony, though certain young ladies and mothers of daughters looked not unkindly upon him.

他的表姐——圣赛韦尔夫人，已经公布了他的财产数字、他的期望所得，也出示了他的家谱，还阐述了他这一支的才干、教养以及谦逊。因此他受到了他理应得到的众多关注；他被认为是优秀贵族的好苗子；尽管一些少女和几个有女儿的母亲对他钟爱有加，但因为他只有23岁，就没有为他准备欢迎仪式。

He had an income of eighteen thousand livres from land in the valley of the Auge; and sooner or later his father, as in duty bound, would leave him the chateau of Manerville, with the lands thereunto belonging. As for his education, political career, personal qualities, and qualifications—no one so much as thought of raising the questions. His land was undeniable, his rentals steady; excellent plantations had been made; the tenants paid for repairs, rates, and taxes; the apple—trees were thirty—eight years old; and, to crown all, his father was in treaty for two hundred acres of woodland just outside the paternal park, which he intended to enclose with walls. No hopes of a political career, no fame on earth, can compare with such advantages as these.

他在奥日谷地有着一万八千里弗赫的年地租收入；他的父亲早晚得遗留给他玛奈维尔古堡以及那里其他的附属田地。至于他所受的教育、政治生涯、个人品行以及才能——没有人会对此提出任何异议。他的土地肥沃，租金收入稳定；已开拓出优良的农场，佃户承担其维修、费用和捐税；苹果树已种植了38年；尤其是他的父亲还在谈一笔生意，他打算买下同他所继承的庭园相连的那两百英亩森林，并圈起围墙。这样的优势是任何政治前途、任何在人间的名望都无法与之媲美的。

Whether out of malice or design, Mme. de Sainte—Severe omitted to mention that Gaston had an elder brother; nor did Gaston himself say a word about him. But, at the same time, it is true that the brother was consumptive, and to all appearance would shortly be laid in earth, lamented and forgotten.

不知是出于恶意还是另有图谋，圣赛韦尔夫人避而不谈加斯东有个哥哥的事；加斯东自己对此也只字不提。可虽说如此，这位哥哥的确是患了肺病，似乎不久就要被埋葬、哀悼和遗忘了。

At first Gaston de Nueil amused himself at the expense of the circle. He drew, as it were, for his mental album, a series of portraits of these folk, with their angular, wrinkled faces, and hooked noses, their crotchets and ludicrous eccentricities of dress, portraits which possessed all the racy flavor of truth. He delighted in their "Normanisms, " in the primitive quaintness of their ideas and characters. For a short time he flung himself into their squirrel's life of busy gyrations in a cage. Then he began to feel the want of variety, and grew tired of it. It was like the life of the cloister, cut short before it had well begun. He drifted on till he reached a crisis, which is neither spleen nor disgust, but combines all the symptoms of both. When a human being is transplanted into an uncongenial soil, to lead a starved, stunted existence, there is always a little discomfort over the transition. Then, gradually, if nothing removes him from his surroundings, he grows accustomed to them, and adapts himself to the vacuity which grows upon him and renders him powerless. Even now, Gaston's lungs were accustomed to the air; and he was willing to discern a kind of vegetable happiness in days that brought no mental exertion and no responsibilities. The constant stirring of the sap of life, the fertilizing influences of mind on mind, after which he had sought so eagerly in Paris, were beginning to fade from his memory, and he was in a fair way of becoming a fossil with these fossils, and ending his days among them, content, like the companions of Ulysses, in his gross envelope.

加斯东·德纽埃尔拿这个圈子当消遣。可以说，他在脑子里都给这些家伙画了一系列肖像：棱角分明、布满皱纹的脸，鹰钩鼻、胸针、滑稽古怪的装束。这些肖像真是惟妙惟肖。他喜欢这些人的 “诺曼底式” 表达，非常喜欢他们守旧的观念和粗野的性格。他很快就习惯了这种像松鼠在笼中不停打转似的生活。不久，他又感到这生活缺少变化，于是慢慢厌烦起来。这就好比修道院里的生活，还没好好开始便已经中断了。他就这么一天天过着，直到发现自己陷入危机，这危机既非怨恨也非厌恶，但兼具两者的症状。当一个人被移植到一块与其志趣不投的土壤中，去过一种挨饿、成长受阻的生活时，这种转变总会带来点儿轻微的痛苦。然后，慢慢地，如果没有什么东西将他从周围环境中拉走，他就会变得习惯这样的生活，适应这样的空虚，而这种空虚会侵蚀他，使他变得无力。尽管这样，加斯东的肺部已经习惯了这种空气；他在这种无所用心和无所事事的日子里欣然领悟到了一种单调呆板的幸福。他在巴黎热切追寻的那种生命活力的不停骚动，像肥料一样助他成长的思想碰撞的东西，开始在他记忆里慢慢褪色了，他很有可能会变成这堆化石中的一块，然后像尤利塞斯的同伴们一样，被臃肿的皮囊包裹着，心满意足地死在这堆人中间。

One evening Gaston de Nueil was seated between a dowager and one of the vicars—general of the diocese, in a gray—paneled drawing—room, floored with large white tiles. The family portraits which adorned the walls looked down upon four card—tables, and some sixteen persons gathered about them, chattering over their whist. Gaston, thinking of nothing, digesting one of those exquisite dinners to which the provincial looks forward all through the day, found himself justifying the customs of the country.

一天晚上，在一间镶着灰色壁砖的客厅里，加斯东·德纽埃尔坐在一位贵妇遗孀和一位主教教区的牧师中间，客厅的地上铺着白色的大瓷砖。墙上挂着家族成员的肖像画，画里的人仿佛在看着下方摆着的四把牌桌，有大约16个人围坐在一起，他们边聊天边打着惠斯特纸牌。加斯东什么也不想，消化着吃下去的精致晚餐，这晚餐可是外省人期盼了一整天的，他发现自己已经认同了当地的风俗习惯。

He began to understand why these good folk continued to play with yesterday's pack of cards and shuffle them on a threadbare tablecloth, and how it was that they had ceased to dress for themselves or others. He saw the glimmerings of something like a philosophy in the even tenor of their perpetual round, in the calm of their methodical monotony, in their ignorance of the refinements of luxury. Indeed, he almost came to think that luxury profited nothing; and even now, the city of Paris, with its passions, storms, and pleasures, was scarcely more than a memory of childhood.

他开始理解为什么这些人继续玩昨天的旧纸牌，而且在同一张破旧的桌布上洗牌以及他们是如何停止打扮的，既不为自己也不为别人。在他们永远循环往复的平静生活里，在他们面对有条理的单调时的那种镇静里，在他们对奢侈高雅的一无所知里，他看到了一种像哲学一样的东西在闪着光。的确，他几乎开始认为奢华生活是毫无益处的；甚至那满是激情、风暴和快乐的巴黎城，此时对他来说也只跟童年记忆差不多。

He admired in all sincerity the red hands, and shy, bashful manner of some young lady who at first struck him as an awkward simpleton, unattractive to the last degree, and surprisingly ridiculous. His doom was sealed. He had gone from the provinces to Paris; he had led the feverish life of Paris; and now he would have sunk back into the lifeless life of the provinces, but for a chance remark which reached his ear—a few words that called up a swift rush of such emotion as he might have felt when a strain of really good music mingles with the accompaniment of some tedious opera.

他真心实意地赞美一个年轻姑娘红润的双手和害羞忸怩的姿态，而初次见面时，他觉得这个姑娘一脸蠢相，毫无魅力可言，可笑至极。他无药可救了。他以前从外省去过巴黎，在巴黎过着令他兴奋的生活；而如今，要是没有那么偶尔的几句话——几句能让他突然激动起来的话，这些话就像在一出沉闷歌剧的伴奏中突然迸出的一段非常优美的乐曲，让他兴奋不已。

"You went to call on Mme. de Beauseant yesterday, did you not? " The speaker was an elderly lady, and she addressed the head of the local royal family.

“你昨天不是去拜访过德鲍赛昂夫人吗？” 说话的是一位老太太，她在问当地的一位王室家族的主人。

"I went this morning. She was so poorly and depressed, that I could not persuade her to dine with us to—morrow. "

“我今天早晨去了。她身体不好，郁郁寡欢，所以我无法劝她明天来和我们一起吃饭。”

"With Mme. de Champignelles? " exclaimed the dowager with something like astonishment in her manner.

“是和德尚皮涅勒夫人一起去的吗？” 贵妇遗孀大声问道，脸上露出惊讶的神色。

"With my wife, " calmly assented the noble. "Mme. de Beauseant is descended from the House of Burgundy, on the spindle side, 't is true, but the name atones for everything. My wife is very much attached to the Vicomtesse, and the poor lady has lived alone for such a long while, that—"

“和我妻子一起，” 这位贵族平静地回答道， “德鲍赛昂夫人是勃艮第家族的人，虽然只是娘家亲戚，可是这个姓已足以洗刷一切了。我妻子很喜欢这位子爵夫人，况且这位可怜的夫人独自一人生活了这么长时间，——”

The Marquis de Champignelles looked round about him while he spoke with an air of cool unconcern, so that it was almost impossible to guess whether he made a concession to Mme. de Beauseant's misfortunes, or paid homage to her noble birth; whether he felt flattered to receive her in his house, or, on the contrary, sheer pride was the motive that led him to try to force the country families to meet the Vicomtesse.

德尚皮涅勒侯爵用漠不关心的冷酷神情环顾周围听他说话的人，因此几乎不可能猜出他所作出的让步是出于同情德鲍赛昂夫人的不幸遭遇呢，还是对她的贵族身份表示敬意；也不知道他是以接待她为荣呢，还是与此相反，只是出于傲慢的自尊心，试图强迫当地的贵族家庭去接见她。

The women appeared to take counsel of each other by a glance; there was a sudden silence in the room, and it was felt that their attitude was one of disapproval.

在场的贵妇们面面相觑，似乎在商量着什么；房间里突然安静下来，她们的态度看来是不同意。

"Does this Mme. de Beauseant happen to be the lady whose adventure with M. d 'Ajuda—Pinto made so much noise? " asked Gaston of his neighbor.

“这位德鲍赛昂夫人不会是和阿瞿达—平托先生恋爱而闹得沸沸扬扬的那位贵妇吧？” 加斯东问旁边一位女客。

"The very same, " he was told. "She came to Courcelles after the marriage of the Marquis d 'Ajuda; nobody visits her. She has, besides, too much sense not to see that she is in a false position, so she has made no attempt to see any one. M. de Champignelles and a few gentlemen went to call upon her, but she would see no one but M. de Champignelles, perhaps because he is a connection of the family. They are related through the Beauseants; the father of the present Vicomte married a Mlle. de Champignelles of the older branch. But though the Vicomtesse de Beauseant is supposed to be a descendant of the House of Burgundy, you can understand that we could not admit a wife separated from her husband into our society here. We are foolish enough still to cling to these old—fashioned ideas. There was the less excuse for the Vicomtesse, because M. de Beauseant is a well—bred man of the world, who would have been quite ready to listen to reason. But his wife is quite mad—" and so forth and so forth.

“正是，” 女客回答， “自从阿瞿达侯爵结婚以后，她就来到了库尔塞勒；没有人拜访她。而且，她很聪明，不可能不知道她的艰难处境，因此，她也从不拜访任何人。德尚皮涅勒先生和几位别的先生曾经拜访过她那里，不过她只接见了德尚皮涅勒先生，也许因为他们是亲戚吧。他们和鲍赛昂家庭有姻亲关系，老鲍赛昂娶过一位尚皮涅勒家长房的一位小姐。不过，虽说德鲍赛昂子爵夫人被认为是勃艮第家族的后代，你也该知道我们在这儿是不可能接受一位同丈夫分居的女人的。我们很笨，还保持着这种旧观念。这都是子爵夫人的错，因为德鲍赛昂先生是一位有教养的绅士，他一定会很讲道理。但他的妻子是个疯子——” 等等。

M. de Nueil, still listening to the speaker's voice, gathered nothing of the sense of the words; his brain was too full of thick—coming fancies. Fancies? What other name can you give to the alluring charms of an adventure that tempts the imagination and sets vague hopes springing up in the soul; to the sense of coming events and mysterious felicity and fear at hand, while as yet there is no substance of fact on which these phantoms of caprice can fix and feed? Over these fancies thought hovers, conceiving impossible projects, giving in the germ all the joys of love. Perhaps, indeed, all passion is contained in that thought—germ, as the beauty, and fragrance, and rich color of the flower is all packed in the seed.

德纽埃尔先生虽然仍在听着女客的讲话，但全然不知道她在说些什么；他满脑子都是想入非非的念头。幻想？现在艳遇正在向他的想象力微笑招手，灵魂正在孕育着渺茫的希望；他正预感到这即将到来的不可名状的幸福和恐惧，虽然没有什么东西可以向这些变化无常的幻想提供依据，固定下来，可是还能用什么样的语言来形容这种诱惑的魔力呢？这些心思飞到天外，萌生出很多不切实际的计划，爱情的幸福正在萌芽。也许这全部的爱情被包括在思想的萌芽里，就像花朵的美丽、芬芳、艳丽都包含在种子里一样。

M. de Nueil did not know that Mme. de Beauseant had taken refuge in Normandy, after a notoriety which women for the most part envy and condemn, especially when youth and beauty in some sort excuse the transgression. Any sort of celebrity bestows an inconceivable prestige. Apparently for women, as for families, the glory of the crime effaces the stain; and if such and such a noble house is proud of its tale of heads that have fallen on the scaffold, a young and pretty woman becomes more interesting for the dubious renown of a happy love or a scandalous desertion, and the more she is to be pitied, the more she excites our sympathies. We are only pitiless to the commonplace. If, moreover, we attract all eyes, we are to all intents and purposes great; how, indeed, are we to be seen unless we raise ourselves above other people's heads? The common herd of humanity feels an involuntary respect for any person who can rise above it, and is not over—particular as to the means by which they rise.

德纽埃尔先生根本就不知道德鲍赛昂夫人来诺曼底避难是由于她经历过一件被大多数女人嫉妒而又谴责的丑闻事件，尤其是当青春和美貌可以为这种过错开脱理由时。任何一种名声都会带来令人无法想象的声望。显然对于妇女而言，就像家庭一样，罪恶的光荣可以抹掉耻辱；一个家族可以拿自己的族人被砍了多少首级而引以为荣，一位年轻美貌的女子可以因为幸福的爱或者可耻的遗弃而获得可疑的名声，也就变得更加让人着迷，她越是叫人怜悯，就越是能引起人们的同情。我们只对平凡的事物毫不留情。况且，我们能够吸引别人的眼光，那么实际上我们就会在别人眼中显得伟大；的确，除了使自己高人一等，我们还能如何让自己得到关注呢？普通人本能地尊敬任何高于他们的人，而不会去关注这些人是用什么方法爬上去的。

It may have been that some such motives influenced Gaston de Nueil at unawares, or perhaps it was curiosity, or a craving for some interest in his life, or, in a word, that crowd of inexplicable impulses which, for want of a better name, we are wont to call "fatality, " that drew him to Mme. de Beauseant.

可能是受到上述因素的暗中影响，或者是出于好奇，或者是一种要在生活中寻求乐趣的渴望，或者简单地说，是那些一大堆不可名状的冲动和想法，无法说得清楚，我们通常只能用 “命中注定” 来解释是什么将他一步步推向德鲍赛昂夫人的。

The figure of the Vicomtesse de Beauseant rose up suddenly before him with gracious thronging associations. She was a new world for him, a world of fears and hopes, a world to fight for and to conquer. Inevitably he felt the contrast between this vision and the human beings in the shabby room; and then, in truth, she was a woman; what woman had he seen so far in this dull, little world, where calculation replaced thought and feeling, where courtesy was a cut—and—dried formality, and ideas of the very simplest were too alarming to be received or to pass current? The sound of Mme. de Beauseant's name revived a young man's dreams and wakened urgent desires that had lain dormant for a little.

子爵夫人的形象忽地出现在他的眼前，还带着一串串亲和高雅的形象。对他而言，她就是一个新世界，一个充满恐惧和希望的世界，一个值得他去奋斗、去征服的世界。不可避免地，他觉得她与这个庸俗的客厅里的人们形成了鲜明的对比；的确，她是一个女人；他在这个无趣而狭小的世界里，他见到过这样的女人吗？这个世界里，算计代替了思想和感觉，礼貌仅仅是一种俗套，连最简单的见解都带有伤害的成分，既不能被接受也不能被传播。德鲍赛昂夫人的名字唤起了这位年轻小伙子的梦想，也激起了他那曾一度蛰伏的强烈愿望。