Part 3 Book 2 Chapter 6 In which Magnon and her Two Children

With M. Gillenormand, sorrow was converted into wrath; he was furious at being in despair. He had all sorts of prejudices and took all sorts of liberties. One of the facts of which his exterior relief and his internal satisfaction was composed, was, as we have just hinted, that he had remained a brisk spark, and that he passed energetically for such. This he called having "royal renown." This royal renown sometimes drew down upon him singular windfalls. One day, there was brought to him in a baske|d as though it ad been a basket of oysters, a stout, newly born boy, who was yelling like the deuce, and duly wrapped in swaddling-clothes, which a servant-maid, dismissed six months previously, attributed to him. M. Gillenormand had, at that time, fully completed his eighty-fourth year. Indignation and uproar in the establishment. And whom did that bold hussy think she could persuade to believe that? What audacity! What an abominable calumny! M. Gillenormand himself was not at all enraged. He gazed at the brat with the amiable smile of a good man who is flattered by the calumny, and said in an aside: "Well, what now? What's the matter? You are finely taken aback, and really, you are excessively ignorant. M. le Duc d'Angouleme, the bastard of his Majesty Charles IX., married a silly jade of fifteen when he was eighty-five; M. Virginal, Marquis d'Alluye, brother to the Cardinal de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux, had, at the age of eighty-three, by the maid of Madame la Presidente Jacquin, a son, a real child of love, who became a Chevalier of Malta and a counsellor of state; one of the great men of this century, the Abbe Tabaraud, is the son of a man of eighty-seven. There is nothing out of the ordinary in these things. And then, the Bible! Uthat I declare that this little gentleman is none of mine. Let him be taken care of. It is not his fault." This manner of procedure was good-tempered. The woman, whose name was Magnon, sent him another parcel in the following year. It was a boy again. Thereupon, M. Gillenormand capitulated. He sent the two brats back to their mother, promising to pay eighty francs a month for their maintenance, on the condition that the said mother would not do so any more. He added: "I insist upon it that the mother shall treat them well. I shall go to see them from time to time." And this he did. He had had a brother who was a priest, and who had been rector of the Academy of Poitiers for three and thirty years, and had died at seventy-nine. "I lost him young," said he. This brother, of whom but little memory remains, was a peaceable miser, who, being a priest, thought himself bound to bestow alms on the poor whom he met, but he never gave them anything except bad or demonetized sous, thereby discovering a means of going to hell by way of paradise. As for M. Gillenormand the elder, he never haggled over his alms-giving, but gave gladly and nobly. He was kindly, abrupt, charitable, and if he had been rich, his turn of mind would have been magnificent. He desired that all which concerned him should be done in a grand manner, even his rogueries. One day, having been cheated by a business man in a matter of inheritance, in a gross and apparent manner, he uttered this solemn exclamation: "That was indecently done! I am really ashamed of this pilfering. Everything has degenerated in this century, even the rascals. Morbleu! this is not the way to rob a man of my standing. I am robbed as though in a forest, but badly robbed. Silva, sint consule dignae!" He had had two wives, as we have already mentioned; by the first he had had a daughter, who had remained unmarried, and by the second another daughter, who had died at about the age of thirty, who had wedded, through love, or chance, or otherwise, a sler of fortune who had served in the armies of the Republic and of the Empire, who had won the cross at Austerlitz and had been made colonel at Waterloo. "He is the disgrace of my family," said the old bourgeois. He took an immense amount of snuff, and had a particularly graceful manner of plucking at his lace ruffle with the back of one hand. He believed very little in God.

吉诺曼先生的苦痛经常表现为愠怒，他在失望时老爱上火。他有各色各样的偏见，却又完全放诞妄为。他用来完成自己外表方面的特色和内心的满足的一种表现，便是一贯老风流。并且要装模作样把自己装成确是那样的神气。他管那样叫做有“大家风范”。那种大家风范有时会替他带来意外的奇福。一天，有人把一只筐子，盛牡蛎的那种筐子，送到他家里，筐里装着一个初生的壮男孩，大哭大叫，身上裹着温暖的衣被，那婴孩是一个在六个月前从他家里被撵走的女工托人送来归他的。当时吉诺曼先生已是不折不扣八十四岁的人了。左右邻居都异口同声表示愤慨。那种无耻的贱女人，她要谁来信她的鬼话？好大的胆！好卑鄙的诬蔑！而他，吉诺曼先生，却一点不生气。他和颜悦色，望着那婴孩对着旁边说：“怎么？干吗要这样？有什么事？有什么大不了的？你们竟那样大惊小怪，老实说，太无知了。昂古莱姆公爵先生，查理九世陛下的私生子，到八十五岁还和一个十五岁的娇娇结了婚；维吉纳尔先生，阿吕伊的侯爷，苏尔迪红衣主教的兄弟，波尔多的大主教，到八十三岁还和雅甘院长夫人的侍女生了一个儿子，一个真正的爱情的结晶，也就是日后的马耳他骑士和御前军事参赞；本世纪的伟人之一，达巴罗神甫，也是一个八十七岁的人的儿子。这些都是最平常的事。还有《圣经》里的呢！说了这些，我宣布这小爷不是我的。我们大家来照顾他吧。这不是他的过错。”这是烂好人的作法。那家伙，叫马依的，一年过后，又送了他一份礼。仍是一个男孩。这一下，吉诺曼先生要讲条件了。他把那两个孩儿交还给他们的母亲，答应每月给八十法郎作为他们的抚养费，但做娘的方面再也不许来这一手了。他还说：“我责成那做娘的必须好好照顾他们。我要随时去看他们的。”他也确实去探望过。他有一个当神甫的兄弟，在普瓦蒂埃学院当了三十三年的院长，活到七十九岁。“他那么年轻就丢下我走了。”他常那么说。那兄弟的生平事迹不多，为人恬静而吝啬，他认为自己既然当了神甫，就必须对遇到的穷人有所布施，可是他给的只是几个小钱，或是几个贬了值的苏，那是他发现的一条通过天堂去地狱的途径。至于吉诺曼大先生，他在布施方面毫不计较，给起钱来痛快慷慨。他的性格是恳切、直率、仁慈的，假使他有钱，也许会来得更大方些。他希望凡是和他有关的事都能做得冠冕堂皇，即使是偷盗欺诈方面的事。一天，在一次分配遗产的场合里，他被一个买卖人用明显的粗暴手法敲诈了一下，他喷出了这样一段愤慨而庄严的话：“啐！这做得太不高明！这种鸡鸣狗盗的把戏实在使我感到丢人。现在这时代，一切全退化了，连坏种也退化了。他妈的！竟会那样抢我这样一个人，太不象话。我好象是在树林里被人抢了，抢得我不痛不痒。有眼不识泰山！”我们说过，他结过两次婚。他的第一个妻子生了一个女儿，没有出嫁；第二个妻子也生了一个女儿，三十岁上就死了，她由于爱情、偶然或其他原因，和一个走运的军人结了婚，那军人在共和时期和帝国时期的军队里都服务过，得过奥斯特里茨勋章，并在滑铁卢被授予上校衔。“这是我的家丑。”那老绅士常说。他闻鼻烟闻得相当多，他用手背掸起他胸前的花边来有种独特的风度。他不怎么信上帝。