下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
W hen he saw Madame de Renal again, the next day, he decided that it was absolutely essential that this evening she should allow her hand to remain in his.
Night fell. At last they sat down, Madame de Renal next to Julien, and Madame Derville on the other side of her friend. Preoccupied with the attempt he must shortly make, Julien could think of nothing to say. The conversation suffered.
The violence of the effort which Julien had to make to control himself was such that his voice was entirely altered;presently, Madame de Renal's voice became shaky also, but Julien never noticed this. The quarter before ten had sounded from the tower clock. Julien, ashamed of his cowardice , told himself, “At the precise moment when ten o'clock strikes, I shall carry out my intention, or I shall go up to my room and blow my brains out.”
After a final interval of tension and anxiety, the strokes of ten sounded from the clock overhead. Each stroke of that fatal bell stirred an echo in his bosom .
Finally, while the air was still throbbing with the last stroke of ten, he put out his hand and took that of Madame de Renal,who at once withdrew it. Julien, without exactly knowing what he was doing, grasped her hand again. He pressed it with force;a last attempt was made to remove it from him, but finally the hand was left in his grasp.
His heart was flooded with joy, not because he loved Madame de Renal, but because a fearful torment was now at an end. So that Madame Derville should not notice anything,he felt himself obliged to speak; his voice, now, was loud and ringing. Madame de Renal's, on the other hand, betrayed such emotion that her friend thought she must be ill and suggested to her that they should go indoors.
Madame de Renal, who was preparing to rise, resumed her seat, saying in a faint tone, “I do, as a matter of fact, feel a little unwell , but the fresh air is doing me good.”
These words confirmed Julien's happiness, which, at this moment, was extreme; he talked and appeared the most charming of men to his two hearers. Fortunately for him, this evening, his touching and emphatic speeches found favour with Madame Derville. As for Madame de Renal, her hand lying clasped in Julien's, she had no thought of anything; she was allowing herself to live. The hours they spent beneath this huge lime were for her a time of happiness.
That night, happiness robbed Madame de Renal of sleep;while a sleep like lead carried off Julien, utterly worn out by the battle that had been raging all day in his heart between shyness and pride.
The next morning, he spent reading his book, thinking not at all of Madame de Renal. It was only at lunch time and in passing that the careless thought came to him: “I must tell this woman that I love her.”
Instead of that gaze charged with passion which he expected to meet, he found the stern face of Mr. de Renal, who,having arrived a couple of hours earlier from Verrieres, did not conceal his displeasure on finding that Julien was wasting the whole morning without attending to the children. Julien was still so absorbed with the great events he had been reading about in his book, that he could hardly pay attention to the voice of Mr. de Renal.
“I was unwell,” he eventually said coldly.
The only thing that prevented the Mayor from dismissing the young man then and there was the thought that Valenod may take him on, or else the boy will marry Elisa, and, in either case, he could afford to laugh at him in his heart.
As soon as the meal was ended, Madame de Renal asked Julien to give her his arm for their walk; she leaned upon it in a friendly way. Mr. de Renal kept close beside them; his presence increased Julien's anger. He noticed suddenly that Madame de Renal was leaning upon his arm in a marked manner; this action horrified him, he pushed her violently, freeing his arm from hers.
Fortunately, Mr. de Renal saw nothing of this; it was noticed only by Madame Derville. Madame de Renal burst into tears. At this moment, Mr. de Renal began flinging stones at a little peasant girl who was taking a short cut across a corner of his orchard.
“Mr. Julien, kindly control yourself,” Madame Derville said hastily .
Julien looked at her coldly with eyes in which the loftiest contempt was portrayed . This look astonished Madame Derville,and would have surprised her far more could she have guessed its full meaning; she would have read in it a vague hope of the most terrible revenge .
“Your Julien is very violent; he frightens me,” Madame Derville murmured to her friend.
“He has every reason to be angry,” the other replied.
Mr. de Renal called for his gardener, with whom for the rest of the time he busied himself with his orchard. As soon as Mr. de Renal had left them, the two ladies, on the plea that they were tired, had asked Julien each for an arm.
As he walked between these women whose cheeks were flushed with the embarrassment of an intense discomfort ,Julien's cool, decided air formed a striking contrast. He despised these women, and all tender feelings.
Later that day, while Julien was in the children's room, Mr. de Renal, who was visiting every room in the house, appeared in the children's room with the servants who brought in freshly refilled mattresses . The sudden entry of this man was the last straw to Julien. He sensed both disrespect and dissatisfaction in the interraption Paler, more serious than usual, he advanced towards him.
“Sir,” Julien began, “do you suppose that with any other tutor your children would have made the same progress that they have made with me? If your answer is no,” he went on without giving Mr. de Renal time to speak, “how dare you presume to reproach me with neglecting them?”
Mr. de Renal, who had barely recovered from his alarm,concluded from the strange tone which he saw this young peasant adopt that he had in his pocket some more attractive offer and was going to leave him.
“Very well, Sir,” he said at length with a sigh, and the air of a man calling in a surgeon to perform the most painful operation, “from the day after tomorrow, which is the first of the month, I shall give you fifty francs monthly.”
Julien wanted to laugh and remaining speechless , his anger had completely vanished. “This, no doubt, is the most ample apology so base a nature is capable of making,” he thought to himself.
“I have an important matter to discuss with Mr. Chelan,requiring me to be absent for some hours.”
“Ah, my dear Julien,” said Mr. de Renal, laughing in the most insincere manner, “take the whole day, if you wish, the whole of tomorrow, my worthy friend. Take the gardener's horse to go to Verrieres.”
“There,” Mr. de Renal said to himself, “he's going with an answer to Valenod; he's given me no promise, but we must let the young hothead cool down.”
Julien made a speedy escape and climbed up among the big woods through which one can go from Vergy to Verrieres.
“I have won a battle,” he said to himself as soon as he found himself in the shelter of the woods and out of sight of anyone, “I have really won a battle! Here I am with a salary of fifty francs a month; Mr. de Renal must be in a fine fright.But of what?”
His meditation as to what could have frightened the prosperous and powerful man, against whom, an hour earlier,he had been seething with rage, completely restored Julien's serenity .
“I have forced him, I do not know how, to make the greatest of sacrifices. I must try to discover the reason. But we can leave such research for tomorrow.”
Julien gazed at the sky. From time to time a hawk, risen from the bare cliffs above his head, caught his eye as it wheeled silently in its vast circles. Its calm, powerful motion impressed Julien, and he envied such strength, he envied such isolation.
It was the destiny of Napoleon. Would it one day be his own?
preoccupied /pri:ˈɒkjʊpaɪd/ a dj. 全神贯注的
shaky /ˈʃeɪkɪ/ adj. 颤抖的；虚弱的
cowardice /ˈkaʊədɪs/ n. 怯懦，胆小
bosom /bʊzəm/ n. 胸部，心中
throb /θrɒb/ vi. 跳动，搏动
unwell /ˌʌnˈwel/ adj. 不舒服的，有病的
emphatic /ɪmˈfætɪk/ adj. 强调的，着重的
clasp /klɑ:sp/ vt. 握紧，扣紧
utterly /ˈʌtəlɪ/ adv. 完全地，绝对地，彻底地
stern /stɜ:n/ adj. 严厉的，苛刻的
horrify /ˈhɒrɪfaɪ/ vt. 使极度厌恶；使恐怖
hastily /ˈheɪstɪlɪ/ adv. 急速地；慌忙地，草率地
lofty /ˈlɒftɪ/ adj. 高傲的；高耸的
portray /pɔ:ˈtreɪ/ vt. 描绘，描画
revenge /rɪˈvendʒ/ n. 报仇，复仇
plea /pli:/ n. 借口；恳求；辩解
discomfort /dɪsˈkʌmfət/ n. 不舒适，不方便，不自在
tender /ˈtendə/ adj. 温柔的；嫩的；软弱的
refi ll /ˌri:ˈfɪl/ vt. 再装满
mattress /ˈmætrəs/ n. 床垫，空气垫
presume /prɪˈzju:m/ vt. 假定，假设，认为
speechless /ˈspi:tʃlɪs/ adj. 缄默的，说不出话来的，哑的
ample /ˈæmpl/ adj. 充足的，丰富的
hothead /ˈhɒthed/ n. 性急的人，鲁莽的人
speedy /ˈspi:dɪ/ adj. 快的，迅速的
meditation /ˌmedɪˈteɪʃən/ n. 沉思，冥想
seethe /si:ð/ vi. 沸腾，涌动
serenity /sɪˈrenətɪ/ n. 宁静，平静，恬静
destiny /ˈdestɪnɪ/ n. 命运；天命