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THE PINK OF FASHION
第二章 时尚之尊
Though the foregoing conversation affected the Comte de Manerville somewhat, he made it a point of duty to carry out his intentions, and he returned to Bordeaux during the winter of the year 1821.
虽然上述这一席谈话对德马内维尔伯爵略微产生了一些影响，但他仍将执行自己的这些计划当成是一种责任。于是，他在1821年冬天回到了波尔多。
The expenses he incurred in restoring and furnishing his family mansion sustained the reputation for elegance which had preceded him. Introduced through his former connections to the royalist society of Bordeaux, to which he belonged as much by his personal opinions as by his name and fortune, he soon obtained a fashionable preeminence. His knowledge of life, his manners, his Parisian acquirements enchanted the Faubourg Saint-Germain of Bordeaux. An old marquise made use of a term formerly in vogue at court to express the flowery beauty of the fops and beaux of the olden time, whose language and demeanor were social laws: she called him "the pink of fashion. " The liberal clique caught up the word and used it satirically as a nickname, while the royalist party continued to employ it in good faith.
他投入大量钱财修整和装饰自己的公馆，继续保持了他之前就享有的优雅名声。他之前的朋友把他引进了波尔多的保皇党社交圈。不论是个人观点、姓氏还是财产，他都属于保皇党。很快，他就成为了时髦的佼佼者了。他懂得人情世故，举止得体，又接受过巴黎式的教育，这一切使他在波尔多的圣日尔曼地区深受爱戴。曾经在宫廷中流行用 “时尚之尊” 形容俊俏风流的美男子，他们的言行举止都会成为社交准则。如今一位上了年纪的伯爵夫人也这样称呼德马内维尔。自由派用这个词作为讽刺的绰号，而保皇党则继续把这个词用作褒义。
Paul de Manerville acquitted himself gloriously of the obligations imposed by his flowery title. It happened to him, as to many a mediocre actor, that the day when the public granted him their full attention he became, one may almost say, superior. Feeling at his ease, he displayed the fine qualities which accompanied his defects. His wit had nothing sharp or bitter in it; his manners were not supercilious; his intercourse with women expressed the respect they like, -it was neither too deferential, nor too familiar; his foppery went no farther than a care for his personal appearance which made him agreeable; he showed consideration for rank; he allowed young men a certain freedom, to which his Parisian experience assigned due limits; though skilful with sword and pistol, he was noted for a feminine gentleness for which others were grateful. His medium height and plumpness （which had not yet increased into obesity, an obstacle to personal elegance）did not prevent his outer man from playing the part of a Bordelais Brummell. A white skin tinged with the hues of health, handsome hands and feet, blue eyes with long lashes, black hair, graceful motions, a chest voice which kept to its middle tones and vibrated in the listener's heart, harmonized well with his sobriquet. Paul was indeed that delicate flower which needs such careful culture, the qualities of which display themselves only in a moist and suitable soil, -a flower which rough treatment dwarfs, which the hot sun burns, and a frost lays low. He was one of those men made to receive happiness, rather than to give it; who have something of the woman in their nature, wishing to be divined, understood, encouraged; in short, a man to whom conjugal love ought to come as a providence.
保尔·德马内维尔对于这个华丽称号所带来的义务尽心竭力。正如一些原本平庸的演员一样，一旦观众开始注意他，他一下就差不多变成了一个优秀的演员。他感觉如鱼得水，即使是他的缺点，他也展示出了其中包含的优点。他的机智既不尖酸也不刻薄；他的举止也没有表现出盛气凌人；他与女性交往也会表现出她们喜欢的尊重--既不会太冷漠，也不会太随意；他的纨绔习气也只是对他外表的一种修饰，使他更加随和；他对门第表现出关注；他给予年轻人一定自由，但不能超过他的巴黎经历的尺度；他精通剑术和手枪，却以女性般的温柔而闻名，大家因此都很喜欢他。他中等身高，有点微胖，（倒也还没达到肥胖的程度，这本来是个人风度的一个障碍，）不过也不妨碍他扮演波尔多的布鲁梅尔这个纨绔子弟的角色。他皮肤白皙，透着健康的色泽，他有着漂亮的双手和双脚，碧蓝的眼睛配上长长的睫毛，黝黑的头发，优雅的举止，气沉于胸、波澜不惊的嗓音总是给听众留下深刻的印象，这一切都与他的绰号十分协调。保尔的确就是那娇嫩的花儿，需要细心地培育，只有在潮湿松软的土壤上才能茁壮成长--这朵花不尽心培植就会长不高，日照过多就会烤焦，霜冻来临就会凋零。他生来就是那种享福而不是赐福的人，与女性的天性相近，希望被揣测、被理解、被鼓励。总之，对这种人来说，夫妻恩爱是一种理所当然的天意。
If such a character creates difficulties in private life, it is gracious and full of attraction for the world. Consequently, Paul had great success in the narrow social circle of the provinces, where his mind, always, so to speak, in half-tints, was better appreciated than in Paris.
虽然这种性格在个人生活中会酿成一些困难，但在社会交际中却是优雅和极富吸引力的。所以保尔在外省这个狭小的社交圈子里非常成功。他的思想属于中间派，可以说，他在那里比在巴黎更受人欣赏。
The arrangement of his house and the restoration of the chateau de Lanstrac, where he introduced the comfort and luxury of an English country-house, absorbed the capital saved by the notary during the preceding six years. Reduced now to his strict income of forty-odd thousand a year, he thought himself wise and prudent in so regulating his household as not to exceed it.
在对房屋的修缮和重修朗斯特拉古堡中，他引进了英国乡村风格的舒适和豪华，把他的公证人之前替他存了六年的资金消耗殆尽。如今他只剩下每年四万法郎多一点儿的固定收入，再无盈余，他想应该是时候整顿一下财政了，不要入不敷出才算明智。
After publicly exhibiting his equipages, entertaining the most distinguished young men of the place, and giving various hunting parties on the estate at Lanstrac, Paul saw very plainly that provincial life would never do without marriage. Too young to employ his time in miserly occupations, or in trying to interest himself in the speculative improvements in which provincials sooner or later engage （compelled thereto by the necessity of establishing their children）, he soon felt the need of that variety of distractions a habit of which becomes at last the very life of a Parisian. A name to preserve, property to transmit to heirs, social relations to be created by a household where the principal families of the neighborhood could assemble, and a weariness of all irregular connections, were not, however, the determining reasons of his matrimonial desires. From the time he first returned to the provinces he had been secretly in love with the queen of Bordeaux, the great beauty, Mademoiselle Evangelista.
待他公开地驾着他的马车出行了一番，款待了一下当地最杰出的年轻人，并在朗斯特拉举行了几次狩猎集会以后，保尔非常清楚地了解到，外省的生活是不能没有婚姻的。保尔还太年轻了，不愿把他的时间用在一些贪婪敛财的职业上，或者试图从事投资生意，这是外省人迫于为了子女日后的福祉着想，迟早都会做的事。很快他就感觉到娱乐消遣需要多样化，这一习惯最终成为了巴黎人的生活方式。但是，传承姓氏，把遗产传给继承人，组建一个家庭好让邻里中的重要家庭能到自家集会，从而建立社会关系，以及厌倦了不长久的男女关系，这些都不算是他渴望婚姻关系的决定性因素。他第一次回到外省就偷偷地爱上了波尔多的王后，著名的美人埃旺热利斯塔女士。
About the beginning of the century, a rich Spaniard, named Evangelista, established himself in Bordeaux, where his letters of recommendation, as well as his large fortune, gave him an entrance to the salons of the nobility. His wife contributed greatly to maintain him in the good graces of an aristocracy which may perhaps have adopted him in the first instance merely to pique the society of the class below them. Madame Evangelista, who belonged to the Casa-Reale, an illustrious family of Spain, was a Creole, and, like all women served by slaves, she lived as a great lady, knew nothing of the value of money, repressed no whims, even the most expensive, finding them ever satisfied by an adoring husband who generously concealed from her knowledge the running-gear of the financial machine. Happy in finding her pleased with Bordeaux, where his interests obliged him to live, the Spaniard bought a house, set up a household, received in much style, and gave many proofs of possessing a fine taste in all things. Thus, from 1800to 1812, Monsieur and Madame Evangelista were objects of great interest to the community of Bordeaux.
大约在本世纪初，一个叫埃旺热利斯塔的西班牙富人来到波尔多，并在这里安顿下来。由于他有人引荐，并且非常有钱，所以很快就进入了贵族名流聚会的社交沙龙。他的妻子对他保持贵族阶层的魅力贡献不小。而贵族阶级一开始就接纳了他，仅仅是为了激怒位居他们之下的社会阶层。埃旺热利斯塔夫人是克里奥尔人，是西班牙一个著名家族的一员。像许多由奴隶伺候的贵妇一样，她对金钱的价值一无所知，也从不压抑任何购物的冲动，即使是价值颇为昂贵的东西也不例外。而对她痴情的丈夫总会慷慨地满足她，甚至向她隐瞒家中财物方面的运行状况。他发现妻子乐于住在波尔多，自己也很高兴，正好他的生意也需要他定居在波尔多。这个西班牙人便购置了一套房产，安了家，非常气派地款待宾友来客，在各方面都体现出了高雅的品味。于是，从1800年至1812年，埃旺热利斯塔先生和夫人在波尔多成了家喻户晓的人物。
The Spaniard died in 1813, leaving his wife a widow at thirty-two years of age, with an immense fortune and the prettiest little girl in the world, a child of eleven, who promised to be, and did actually become, a most accomplished young woman. Clever as Madame Evangelista was, the Restoration altered her position; the royalist party cleared its ranks and several of the old families left Bordeaux. Though the head and hand of her husband were lacking in the direction of her affairs, for which she had hitherto shown the indifference of a Creole and the inaptitude of a lackadaisical woman, she was determined to make no change in her manner of living. At the period when Paul resolved to return to his native town, Mademoiselle Natalie Evangelista was a remarkably beautiful young girl, and, apparently, the richest match in Bordeaux, where the steady diminution of her mother's capital was unknown. In order to prolong her reign, Madame Evangelista had squandered enormous sums. Brilliant fetes and the continuation of an almost regal style of living kept the public in its past belief as to the wealth of the Spanish family.
这个西班牙人死于1813年，留下三十二岁的妻子、巨大的财富和一个全世界最漂亮的女儿。这个女孩当时十一岁，必将成为一个最有教养的年轻女子，事实也证明正是如此。虽然埃旺热利斯塔夫人非常聪明，但是王室的复辟还是影响了她的地位。保皇党清理了贵族阶层，有几户老贵族家庭由此离开了波尔多。以前家中的事务都是有丈夫一手打理的，如今丈夫去世了，而埃旺热利斯塔夫人对这些事情仍然表现出克里奥尔人的漫不关心，以及一个无精打采的女人的无能为力。她决定不去改变自己的生活方式。当保尔下定决心回到家乡的时候，纳塔莉·埃旺热利斯塔小姐已经长成了一个远近闻名的美人，而且显然也是他在波尔多能找到的最富有的结婚对象，只是人们还不知道她母亲的资金正在慢慢地减少。她母亲为了延长自己的奢侈生活，已经挥霍掉了数目巨大的钱财。她照常举行豪华的宴会，继续过着皇室般的生活，使大家认为这个西班牙家庭仍然家财万贯。
Natalie was now in her nineteenth year, but no proposal of marriage had as yet reached her mother's ear. Accustomed to gratify her fancies, Mademoiselle Evangelista wore cashmeres and jewels, and lived in a style of luxury which alarmed all speculative suitors in a region and at a period when sons were as calculating as their parents. The fatal remark, "None but a prince can afford to marry Mademoiselle Evangelista, " circulated among the salons and the cliques. Mothers of families, dowagers who had granddaughters to establish, young girls jealous of Natalie, whose elegance and tyrannical beauty annoyed them, took pains to envenom this opinion with treacherous remarks. When they heard a possible suitor say with ecstatic admiration, as Natalie entered a ball-room, "Heavens, how beautiful she is! " "Yes, " the mammas would answer, "but expensive. " If some newcomer thought Mademoiselle Evangelista bewitching and said to a marriageable man that he couldn't do it better, "Who would be bold enough, " some woman would reply, "to marry a girl whose mother gives her a thousand francs a month for her toilet, -a girl who has horses and a maid of her own, and wears laces? Yes, her 'peignoirs' are trimmed with mechlin. The price of her washing would support the household of a clerk. She wears pelerines in the morning which actually cost six francs to get up. "
纳塔莉如今已经十九岁了，还没有任何人到她母亲那里去提亲。埃旺热利斯塔小姐习惯于所有的要求都被满足，她身着开司米衣衫、戴着各色首饰，过着奢华的生活。在一个无论父母还是儿子都精于算计的地区和时代中，这种奢侈的生活方式使所有精明的求婚者都望而却步。 “只有王子才娶得起埃旺热利斯塔小姐！” 这句致命的评价在沙龙和各个小圈子中被传得邻里皆知。家中做母亲的、有孙女要出嫁的贵妇遗孀，以及那些嫉妒纳塔莉的优雅气质和绝世美貌的姑娘们都用恶毒的言语渲染着这种观点。当纳塔莉莉走进舞会，他们听到一个打算求婚的人如痴如醉地赞叹道： “天啊，她真是太漂亮了！” “是啊，但是却代价昂贵！” 这些女人会如此作答。若是一个初来乍到的人被埃旺热利斯塔小姐深深迷住，并且说她是一个男人的最佳配偶时，一些女士会回答道： “谁敢娶她？她母亲每月光花在她妆饰上就要一千法郎--给她配有私人的马匹和贴身女佣，还穿着镶有花边的衣服。是的，连她的 “化妆衣” 上都镶有马林产的花边。她每月洗衣裳的钱都够养活一个普通职员的全家了。她早上披在身上的披肩都值六法郎呢。”
These, and other speeches said occasionally in the form of praise extinguished the desires that some men might have had to marry the beautiful Spanish girl. Queen of every ball, accustomed to flattery, "blasee" with the smiles and the admiration which followed her every step, Natalie, nevertheless, knew nothing of life. She lived as the bird which flies, as the flower that blooms, finding every one about her eager to do her will. She was ignorant of the price of things; she knew neither the value of money, nor whence it came, how it should be managed, and how spent. Possibly she thought that every household had cooks and coachmen, lady's-maids and footmen, as the fields have hay and the trees their fruits. To her, beggars and paupers, fallen trees and waste lands seemed in the same category. Pampered and petted as her mother's hope, no fatigue was allowed to spoil her pleasure. Thus she bounded through life as a courser on his steppe, unbridled and unshod.
这些话，加上其他偶尔以恭维的方式说出的话，熄灭了那些曾经想娶这个西班牙姑娘为妻的男人的欲望。纳塔莉是她出席的所有舞会的王后，她已经习惯了赞美之辞， “厌烦” 了如影随形的笑脸相陪和恭维之情。尽管如此，她对生活却一无所知。她活得像鸟儿飞翔、花儿绽放一般，她发现身边的每个人都迫切地希望满足她的愿望。她对于各种物品的价格一无所知；她不懂金钱的价值，也不知道怎么挣钱、怎么管理钱、怎么花钱。她可能认为每家每户都有自己的厨师、马倌、贴身女仆和其他打杂的，就像草地都长草、果树都结果一样天经地义。对于她来说，乞丐和贫民与倒塌的树木和荒废的土地似乎是一码子事。她是她母亲一切希望的寄托，母亲对她也百般溺爱，从不让她在享乐中感到疲倦。因此，她就像一匹没绑缰绳、没安蹄铁的骏马一样，在生活的草原上纵情驰骋。
Six month's after Paul's arrival the Pink of Fashion and the Queen of Balls met in presence of the highest society of the town of Bordeaux. The two flowers looked at each other with apparent coldness, and mutually thought each other charming. Interested in watching the effects of the meeting, Madame Evangelista divined in the expression of Paul's eyes the feelings within him, and she muttered to herself, "He will be my son-inlaw. " Paul, on the other hand, said to himself, as he looked at Natalie, "She will be my wife. "
保尔来到波尔多六个月之后，这位时尚之尊和舞会皇后曾在最上流的聚会中碰过面。这两朵花表面上冷面相对，实际上却暗自觉得对方魅力迷人。埃旺热利斯塔夫人热衷于看到这种结果，从保尔的眼神里推断出他内心的感情，暗自寻思道： “他将成为我的女婿。” 另一方面，保尔看到纳塔莉时也心中暗想： “她将成为我的妻子。”
The wealth of the Evangelistas, proverbial in Bordeaux, had remained in Paul's mind as a memory of his childhood. Thus the pecuniary conditions were known to him from the start, without necessitating those discussions and inquiries which are as repugnant to a timid mind as to a proud one. When some persons attempting to say to Paul a few flattering phrases as to Natalie's manner, language, and beauty, ending by remarks, cruelly calculated to deter him, on the lavish extravagance of the Evangelistas, the Pink of Fashion replied with a disdain that was well-deserved by such provincial pettiness. This method of receiving such speeches soon silenced them; for he now set the tone to the ideas and language as well as to the manners of those about him. He had imported from his travels a certain development of the Britannic personality with its icy barriers, also a tone of Byronic pessimism as to life, together with English plate, boot-polish, ponies, yellow gloves, cigars, and the habit of galloping.
埃旺热利斯塔家世显贵，人尽皆知，这种印象自从童年起就一直留存在他的头脑里。因此，他一开始就了解对方的财产状况，在此不必讨论和调查财产问题。无论是胆小的人还是傲慢的人都不愿意做这种事。有些人会试图向保尔好心进言，首先当然对纳塔莉的言谈举止和如花美貌说上一些褒扬之词，最后才对埃旺热利斯塔家那奢侈的排场颇有微词，进而通过精打细算阻止他，而时尚之尊对此总是回答得不屑一顾，觉得这些当地人斤斤计较，善于算计真是名不虚传。保尔这种接受意见的做法很快就使他们无话可说了。因为无论在思想、语言和举止上，周围的人都效仿他。他把那种不列颠式的个性和人际间冰冷的隔阂，还有对生活的拜伦式悲观主义，连同英国的餐碟、鞋油、马犊子、黄手套、雪茄和马背疾驰的习惯等等，一并带进了波尔多。
It thus happened that Paul escaped the discouragements hitherto presented to marriageable men by dowagers and young girls. Madame Evangelista began by asking him to formal dinners on various occasions. The Pink of Fashion would not, of course, miss festivities to which none but the most distinguished young men of the town were bidden. In spite of the coldness that Paul assumed, which deceived neither mother nor daughter, he was drawn, step by step, into the path of marriage. Sometimes as he passed in his tilbury, or rode by on his fine English horse, he heard the young men of his acquaintance say to one another: -
所以那些年老遗孀和姑娘们对适婚年龄的年轻人说的那些有关纳塔莉的泄气话都传不到保尔的耳朵里。埃旺热利斯塔夫人开始邀请他出席不同场合的正式宴会。时尚之尊当然不会缺席这种当地年轻精英汇聚一堂的欢宴。尽管保尔表面装得冷淡，但这骗不了母亲，也骗不了女儿，他被一步一步地拖上了婚姻的道路。有时，他坐在敞篷的二轮轻便马车里，或者骑着他的英式骏马路过时，他能听到与他相识的年轻男子互相议论：
"There's a lucky man. He is rich and handsome, and is to marry, so they say, Mademoiselle Evangelista. There are some men for whom the world seems made. "
“这个家伙真是幸运。既有钱又英俊，而且听说他要娶埃旺热利斯塔作妻子了。对于他们这样的人来说，世界就像是为他们而存在一样。”
When he met the Evangelistas he felt proud of the particular distinction which mother and daughter imparted to their bows. If Paul had not secretly, within his heart, fallen in love with Mademoiselle Natalie, society would certainly have married him to her in spite of himself. Society, which never causes good, is the accomplice of much evil; then when it beholds the evil it has hatched maternally, it rejects and revenges it. Society in Bordeaux, attributing a "dot" of a million to Mademoiselle Evangelista, bestowed it upon Paul without awaiting the consent of either party. Their fortunes, so it was said, agreed as well as their persons. Paul had the same habits of luxury and elegance in the midst of which Natalie had been brought up. He had just arranged for himself a house such as no other man in Bordeaux could have offered her. Accustomed to Parisian expenses and the caprices of Parisian women, he alone was fitted to meet the pecuniary difficulties which were likely to follow this marriage with a girl who was as much of a Creole and a great lady as her mother. Where they themselves, remarked the marriageable men, would have been ruined, the Comte de Manerville, rich as he was, could evade disaster. In short, the marriage was made. Persons in the highest royalist circles said a few engaging words to Paul which flattered his vanity: -
当他遇到埃旺热利斯塔一家时，母女两人会非常客气跟他打招呼，使他很受用，也以此为傲。即使保尔没有偷偷地倾心于埃旺热利斯塔小姐，社交圈肯定也会不等他同意就把他们两人凑成一对。社交圈从没做过好事，却是很多坏事的帮凶。然后，当眼看着他们一手孵化出的恶果时，社交圈又会拒绝它并且报复它。波尔多的上流社会认为埃旺热利斯塔小姐有百万 “嫁妆” ，没等双方同意就会赠送给保尔了。在众人看来，他们财貌相配、门当户对。保尔和纳塔莉都习惯于从小到大奢华、高雅的生活。他刚刚为自己安置了一套公馆，在波尔多没有别人会为纳塔莉这么做。他已经习惯了巴黎人的大手大脚和巴黎女人的反复无常。一个克里奥尔女孩和她贵妇人一般的母亲，必然让人婚后陷入金钱困境，而只有他适合应付这种困境。适婚男人都说自己娶了埃旺热利斯塔小姐会倾家荡产，但德马内维尔伯爵非常富裕，可以避免这种灾难。总之，这桩婚事是定下来了。保皇党的上流社会在谈论这桩婚事时，对保尔说了一些迎合他虚荣心的动听的话：
"Every one gives you Mademoiselle Evangelista. If you marry her you will do well. You could not find, even in Paris, a more delightful girl. She is beautiful, graceful, elegant, and takes after the Casa-Reales through her mother. You will make a charming couple; you have the same tastes, the same desires in life, and you will certainly have the most agreeable house in Bordeaux. Your wife need only bring her night-cap; all is ready for her. You are fortunate indeed in such a mother-inlaw. A woman of intelligence, and very adroit, she will be a great help to you in public life, to which you ought to aspire. Besides, she has sacrificed everything to her daughter, whom she adores, and Natalie will, no doubt, prove a good wife, for she loves her mother. You must soon bring the matter to a conclusion. "
“每个人都想把埃旺热利斯塔小姐送给你，如果你跟她结婚，那你就对了。甚至在巴黎，你都找不到比她更讨人喜欢的女孩了。她美丽动人、优雅妩媚，而且从她母亲那儿继承了卡萨-雷阿尔人的长相。你们将是最般配的一对。你们志趣相投，对生活的要求也类似，而且你们将肯定拥有波尔多最惬意的住宅。你妻子只需将睡帽带过来就可以，其他的都已经准备妥当了。能有埃旺热利斯塔夫人这样的岳母也算是你幸运。她头脑聪明、善于钻营，对你所向往的仕途发展也将很有帮助。而且，她视自己的女儿为心肝宝贝，并为之牺牲了一切。纳塔莉也肯定将是一个好妻子，因为她钟爱自己的母亲。你要快点作出决定。”
"That is all very well, " replied Paul, who, in spite of his love, was desirous of keeping his freedom of action, "but I must be sure that the conclusion shall be a happy one. "
“这种想法是很好，” 保尔答复道，他虽然也爱上了纳塔莉小姐，但仍然向往自由的行动权， “可是我必须保证有一个美满的结局。”
He now went frequently to Madame Evangelista's, partly to occupy his vacant hours, which were harder for him to employ than for most men. There alone he breathed the atmosphere of grandeur and luxury to which he was accustomed.
保尔频繁地到埃旺热利斯塔夫人家走动，有时只是想打发时间，他的空暇时间比大部分人都难以打发。只有在那里他才能闻到熟悉的气派和豪华的气息。
At forty years of age, Madame Evangelista was beautiful, with the beauty of those glorious summer sunsets which crown a cloudless day. Her spotless reputation had given an endless topic of conversation to the Bordeaux cliques; the curiosity of the women was all the more lively because the widow gave signs of the temperament which makes a Spanish woman and a Creole particularly noted. She had black eyes and hair, the feet and form of a Spanish woman, -that swaying form the movements of which have a name in Spain. Her face, still beautiful, was particularly seductive for its Creole complexion, the vividness of which can be described only by comparing it to muslin overlying crimson, so equally is the whiteness suffused with color. Her figure, which was full and rounded, attracted the eye by a grace which united nonchalance with vivacity, strength with ease. She attracted and she imposed, she seduced, but promised nothing. She was tall, which gave her at times the air and carriage of a queen. Men were taken by her conversation like birds in a snare; for she had by nature that genius; she advanced from concession to concession, strengthening herself with what she gained to ask for more, knowing well how to retreat with rapid steps when concessions were demanded in return. Though ignorant of facts, she had known the courts of Spain and Naples, the celebrated men of the two Americas, many illustrious families of England and the continent, all of which gave her so extensive an education superficially that it seemed immense. She received her society with the grace and dignity which are never learned, but which come to certain naturally fine spirits like a second nature; assimilating choice things wherever they are met. If her reputation for virtue was unexplained, it gave at any rate much authority to her actions, her conversation, and her character.
埃旺热利斯塔夫人年届四十，长得非常漂亮，她的美就像夏日傍晚落日的余晖笼罩着万里无云的天空一般。她那无可挑剔的名声给波尔多的各个小圈子提供了无尽的谈资。她身上体现出的西班牙女人，尤其是克里奥尔女人闻名的气质，更是激起了其他女人的好奇心。她有着深色的眼珠、黝黑的头发、西班牙女人的双脚和身材--她婀娜多姿的身段即使在西班牙也是极为出众的。她的脸庞风韵犹存，特别是那诱人的克里奥尔人的肌肤，犹如薄纱笼罩下的深红色，白里透红，分外动人。她身材丰满圆润，那冷漠中夹杂着活泼、随意中蕴含着力量的优雅气质引人注目。她迷人而又不怒自威，她诱人而又不给出任何许诺。她身材高挑，有时从神情和姿态看起来，就像一个女王。她的谈话很容易让男人们像落入陷阱的鸟儿一样上当，她生来就有这种天赋。她以退为进，得寸进尺，一旦别人反过来要求她作出让步时，她都能躲得远远的，这是她的拿手好戏。她虽然对现实很无知，但却懂得西班牙和那不勒斯的宫廷礼节，认识南美和北美的名人，还有英格兰以及欧洲的许多显赫家族。所有这一切都使得她至少看上去见多识广、知识渊博。她就用这种优雅和高贵的气质款待来宾，这种优雅和高贵是学不到的，只有那些生来美好的心灵，通过吸收所遇到的美好事物，将其变成自己的第二本能，才能形成这样的气质。如果她品德高尚的美名一直无法解释的话，它却赋予她行动、言语和性格上巨大的权威。
Mother and daughter had a true friendship for each other, beyond the filial and maternal sentiment. They suited one another, and their perpetual contact had never produced the slightest jar. Consequently many persons explained Madame Evangelista's actions by maternal love. But although Natalie consoled her mother's persistent widowhood, she may not have been the only motive for it. Madame Evangelista had been, it was said, in love with a man who recovered his titles and property under the Restoration. This man, desirous of marrying her in 1814had discreetly severed the connection in 1816. Madame Evangelista, to all appearance the best-hearted woman in the world, had, in the depths of her nature, a fearful quality, explainable only by Catherine de Medici's device: "Odiate e aspettate" - "Hate and wait. " Accustomed to rule, having always been obeyed, she was like other royalties, amiable, gentle, easy and pleasant in ordinary life, but terrible, implacable, if the pride of the woman, the Spaniard, and the Casa-Reale was touched. She never forgave. This woman believed in the power of her hatred; she made an evil fate of it and bade it hover above her enemy. This fatal power she employed against the man who had jilted her. Events which seemed to prove the influence of her "jettatura" -the casting of an evil eye-confirmed her superstitious faith in herself. Though a minister and peer of France, this man began to ruin himself, and soon came to total ruin. His property, his personal and public honor were doomed to perish. At this crisis Madame Evangelista in her brilliant equipage passed her faithless lover walking on foot in the Champes Elysees, and crushed him with a look which flamed with triumph. This misadventure, which occupied her mind for two years, was the original cause of her not remarrying. Later, her pride had drawn comparisons between the suitors who presented themselves and the husband who had loved her so sincerely and so well.
这对母女间除了母女亲情以外，两人还有着一种真正的友谊。她们相互适应，形影不离，也从没发生过哪怕最轻微的冲突。因此许多人用母爱来解释埃旺热利斯塔夫人的行为。虽然纳塔莉对母亲的寡妇生活是个慰藉，但并不是唯一的慰藉。有传言说埃旺热利斯塔夫人曾经爱上过一个男人，这个男人在法国复辟时，恢复了贵族的称号和财产。这个男人在1814年有意迎娶埃旺热利斯塔夫人，却在1816年慎重地斩断了这段关系。从表面上看，埃旺热利斯塔夫人是全世界最好心肠的女人，但是在她内心深处却有一种令人恐惧的天性。这种天性用卡特琳·德梅迪契的座右铭来诠释就是： “仇恨在心，耐心等待。” 她习惯于统治，让别人听命于她。在生活中，她像其他的皇室成员一样：在日常生活中和蔼亲切、温柔文雅、平易近人、讨人喜爱。但是作为一个女人，作为一个西班牙人，或是说作为卡萨-雷阿尔家族的成员，一旦尊严受到冒犯，她就会变得令人可怕、冷血无情。她从不原谅他人。这个女人相信仇恨的力量；她使仇恨变成一种厄运，并命令它在她的敌人的上空盘旋。她利用这种致命的威力来对付那个抛弃了她的男人。很多事都证明了她那 “巫术” --用目光将厄运抛给对方--的魔力，使她更加坚定了自己对迷信的信仰。虽然贵为内阁大臣和贵族议员，那个男人却开始走霉运，后来竟彻底地倒了大霉。他的产业，他个人和公众的威望都毁于一旦。在这个紧要关头，埃旺热利斯塔夫人坐着她那豪华马车经过爱丽舍田园大道时，遇到那个男人在街边踽踽独行。她用闪耀着幸灾乐祸的目光将他彻底击败。这一不幸的经历在她的内心占据了两年的时间，成为她没有再结婚的最初原因。后来，她的傲气又让她把那些向她求婚的人和已逝的曾深爱她的丈夫作比较。
She had thus reached, through mistaken calculations and disappointed hopes, that period of life when women have no other part to take in life than that of mother; a part which involves the sacrifice of themselves to their children, the placing of their interests outside of self upon another household, -the last refuge of human affections.
经过这一系列失算和失望以后，她青春老去，年华不再，到了这个年龄的女人除了尽母亲的职责之外没有别的事可以做；这时女人只能将自己全部贡献给子女，心思都不在自己身上，而是放在为儿女找个好人家上--这也是人类情感的最后寄托。