【英文原著类】GOBSECK(高斯贝克).pdf

GOBSECK
GOBSECK
BY HONORE DE BALZAC
Translated By Ellen Marriage
1
GOBSECK
DEDICATION
To M. le Baron Barchou de all the pupils of the
Oratorian school at Vendome, we are, I think, the only two who have
afterwards met in mid-career of a life of letters--we who once were
cultivating Philosophy when by rights we should have been minding our
De viris. When we met, you were engaged upon your noble works on
German philosophy, and I upon this study. So neither of us has missed his
vocation; and you, when you see your name here, will feel, no doubt, as
much pleasure as he who inscribes his work to you.--Your old
schoolfellow,
1840
De Balzac
2
GOBSECK
GOBSECK
It was one o'clock in the morning, during the winter of 1829-30, but in
the tesse de Grandlieu's salon two persons stayed on who did not
belong to her family circle. A young and good-looking man heard the
clock strike, and took his leave. When the courtyard echoed with the
sound of a departing carriage, the tesse looked up, saw that no one
was present save her brother and a friend of the family finishing their
game of piquet, and went across to her daughter. The girl, standing by the
chimney-piece, apparently examining a transparent fire-screen, was
listening to the sounds from the courtyard in a way that justified certain
maternal fears.
"Camille," said the tesse, "if you continue to behave to young
Comte de Restaud as you have done this evening, you will oblige me to
see no more of him here. Listen, child, and if you have any confidence in
my love, let me guide you in life. At seventeen one cannot judge of past or
future, nor of certain social considerations. I have only one thing to say to
you. M. de Restaud has a mother, a mother who would waste millions of
francs; a woman of no birth, a Mlle. Goriot; people talked a good deal
about her at one time. She behaved so badly to her own father, that she
certainly does not deserve to have so good a son. The yo