第 2 节
作者:散发弄舟      更新:2024-01-06 10:43      字数:9322
  girls themselves would have preferred a less virtuous and more amiable
  mother。 This education bore its natural fruits。 Religion; imposed as a
  yoke and presented under its sternest aspect; wearied with formal
  practice these innocent young hearts; treated as sinful。 It repressed
  their feelings; and was never precious to them; although it struck its
  roots deep down into their natures。 Under such training the two Maries
  would either have become mere imbeciles; or they must necessarily have
  longed for independence。 Thus it came to pass that they looked to
  marriage as soon as they saw anything of life and were able to compare
  a few ideas。 Of their own tender graces and their personal value they
  were absolutely ignorant。 They were ignorant; too; of their own
  innocence; how; then; could they know life? Without weapons to meet
  misfortune; without experience to appreciate happiness; they found no
  comfort in the maternal jail; all their joys were in each other。 Their
  tender confidences at night in whispers; or a few short sentences
  exchanged if their mother left them for a moment; contained more ideas
  than the words themselves expressed。 Often a glance; concealed from
  other eyes; by which they conveyed to each other their emotions; was
  like a poem of bitter melancholy。 The sight of a cloudless sky; the
  fragrance of flowers; a turn in the garden; arm in arm;these were
  their joys。 The finishing of a piece of embroidery was to them a
  source of enjoyment。
  Their mother's social circle; far from opening resources to their
  hearts or stimulating their minds; only darkened their ideas and
  depressed them; it was made up of rigid old women; withered and
  graceless; whose conversation turned on the differences which
  distinguished various preachers and confessors; on their own petty
  indispositions; on religious events insignificant even to the
  〃Quotidienne〃 or 〃l'Ami de la Religion。〃 As for the men who appeared
  in the Comtesse de Granville's salon; they extinguished any possible
  torch of love; so cold and sadly resigned were their faces。 They were
  all of an age when mankind is sulky and fretful; and natural
  sensibilities are chiefly exercised at table and on the things
  relating to personal comfort。 Religious egotism had long dried up
  those hearts devoted to narrow duties and entrenched behind pious
  practices。 Silent games of cards occupied the whole evening; and the
  two young girls under the ban of that Sanhedrim enforced by maternal
  severity; came to hate the dispiriting personages about them with
  their hollow eyes and scowling faces。
  On the gloom of this life one sole figure of a man; that of a music…
  master; stood vigorously forth。 The confessors had decided that music
  was a Christian art; born of the Catholic Church and developed within
  her。 The two Maries were therefore permitted to study music。 A
  spinster in spectacles; who taught singing and the piano in a
  neighboring convent; wearied them with exercises; but when the eldest
  girl was ten years old; the Comte de Granville insisted on the
  importance of giving her a master。 Madame de Granville gave all the
  value of conjugal obedience to this needed concession;it is part of
  a devote's character to make a merit of doing her duty。
  The master was a Catholic German; one of those men born old; who seem
  all their lives fifty years of age; even at eighty。 And yet; his
  brown; sunken; wrinkled face still kept something infantile and
  artless in its dark creases。 The blue of innocence was in his eyes;
  and a gay smile of springtide abode upon his lips。 His iron…gray hair;
  falling naturally like that of the Christ in art; added to his
  ecstatic air a certain solemnity which was absolutely deceptive as to
  his real nature; for he was capable of committing any silliness with
  the most exemplary gravity。 His clothes were a necessary envelope; to
  which he paid not the slightest attention; for his eyes looked too
  high among the clouds to concern themselves with such materialities。
  This great unknown artist belonged to the kindly class of the self…
  forgetting; who give their time and their soul to others; just as they
  leave their gloves on every table and their umbrella at all doors。 His
  hands were of the kind that are dirty as soon as washed。 In short; his
  old body; badly poised on its knotted old legs; proving to what degree
  a man can make it the mere accessory of his soul; belonged to those
  strange creations which have been properly depicted only by a German;
  by Hoffman; the poet of that which seems not to exist but yet has
  life。
  Such was Schmucke; formerly chapel…master to the Margrave of Anspach;
  a musical genius; who was now examined by a council of devotes; and
  asked if he kept the fasts。 The master was much inclined to answer;
  〃Look at me!〃 but how could he venture to joke with pious dowagers and
  Jansenist confessors? This apocryphal old fellow held such a place in
  the lives of the two Maries; they felt such friendship for the grand
  and simple…minded artist; who was happy and contented in the mere
  comprehension of his art; that after their marriage; they each gave
  him an annuity of three hundred francs a year;a sum which sufficed
  to pay for his lodging; beer; pipes; and clothes。 Six hundred francs a
  year and his lessons put him in Eden。 Schmucke had never found courage
  to confide his poverty and his aspirations to any but these two
  adorable young girls; whose hearts were blooming beneath the snow of
  maternal rigor and the ice of devotion。 This fact explains Schmucke
  and the girlhood of the two Maries。
  No one knew then; or later; what abbe or pious spinster had discovered
  the old German then vaguely wandering about Paris; but as soon as
  mothers of families learned that the Comtesse de Granville had found a
  music…master for her daughters; they all inquired for his name and
  address。 Before long; Schmucke had thirty pupils in the Marais。 This
  tardy success was manifested by steel buckles to his shoes; which were
  lined with horse…hair soles; and by a more frequent change of linen。
  His artless gaiety; long suppressed by noble and decent poverty;
  reappeared。 He gave vent to witty little remarks and flowery speeches
  in his German…Gallic patois; very observing and very quaint and said
  with an air which disarmed ridicule。 But he was so pleased to bring a
  laugh to the lips of his two pupils; whose dismal life his sympathy
  had penetrated; that he would gladly have made himself wilfully
  ridiculous had he failed in being so by nature。
  According to one of the nobler ideas of religious education; the young
  girls always accompanied their master respectfully to the door。 There
  they would make him a few kind speeches; glad to do anything to give
  him pleasure。 Poor things! all they could do was to show him their
  womanhood。 Until their marriage; music was to them another life within
  their lives; just as; they say; a Russian peasant takes his dreams for
  reality and his actual life for a troubled sleep。 With the instinct of
  protecting their souls against the pettiness that threatened to
  overwhelm them; against the all…pervading asceticism of their home;
  they flung themselves into the difficulties of the musical art; and
  spent themselves upon it。 Melody; harmony; and composition; three
  daughters of heaven; whose choir was led by an old Catholic faun drunk
  with music; were to these poor girls the compensation of their trials;
  they made them; as it were; a rampart against their daily lives。
  Mozart; Beethoven; Gluck; Paesiello; Cimarosa; Haydn; and certain
  secondary geniuses; developed in their souls a passionate emotion
  which never passed beyond the chaste enclosure of their breasts;
  though it permeated that other creation through which; in spirit; they
  winged their flight。 When they had executed some great work in a
  manner that their master declared was almost faultless; they embraced
  each other in ecstasy and the old man called them his Saint Cecilias。
  The two Maries were not taken to a ball until they were sixteen years
  of age; and then only four times a year in special houses。 They were
  not allowed to leave their mother's side without instructions as to
  their behavior with their partners; and so severe were those
  instructions that they dared say only yes or no during a dance。 The
  eye of the countess never left them; and she seemed to know from the
  mere movement of their lips the words they uttered。 Even the ball…
  dresses of these poor little things were piously irreproachable; their
  muslin gowns came up to their chins with an endless number of thick
  ruches; and the sleeves came down to their wrists。 Swathing in this
  way their natural charms; this costume gave them a vague resemblance
  to Egyptian hermae; though from these blocks of muslin rose enchanting
  little heads of tender melancholy。 They felt themselves the objects of
  pity; and inwardly resented it。 What woman; however innocent; does not
  desire to excite envy?
  No