Lucien had gone to Paris; and David Sechard, with the courage and intelligence of the ox which painters give the Evangelist for accompanying symbol, set himself to make the large fortune for which he had wished that evening down by the Charente, when he sat with Eve by the weir, and she gave him her hand and her heart. He wanted to make the money quickly, and less for himself than for Eve’s sake and Lucien’s. He would place his wife amid the elegant and comfortable surroundings that were hers by right, and his strong arm should sustain her brother’s ambitions—this was the programme that he saw before his eyes in letters of fire.
吕西安去了巴黎。大卫·赛夏怀着画家们给福音书作者配上的公牛一般的勇气和智慧，决心要赚大笔的财富，这是那天晚上他在夏朗德河的河边许愿要得到的，当时他和夏娃坐在堰堤上，她将她的手，连同她的心一起交给了他。他想快速赚到这笔钱，更多是为了夏娃和吕西安，而不是为了他自己。他要将妻子置于优雅、舒适的环境里，她有权得到这些，他有力的手臂应该支持她哥哥的雄心壮志，这就是他看到的眼前那个用火焰字母写成的计划。
Journalism and politics, the immense development of the book trade, of literature and of the sciences; the increase of public interest in matters touching the various industries in the country; in fact, the whole social tendency of the epoch following the establishment of the Restoration produced an enormous increase in the demand for paper. The supply required was almost ten times as large as the quantity in which the celebrated Ouvrard speculated at the outset of the Revolution. Then Ouvrard could buy up first the entire stock of paper and then the manufacturers; but in the year 1821 there were so many paper-mills in France, that no one could hope to repeat his success; and David had neither audacity enough nor capital enough for such speculation. Machinery for producing paper in any length was just coming into use in England. It was one of the most urgent needs of the time, therefore, that the paper trade should keep pace with the requirements of the French system of civil government, a system by which the right of discussion was to be extended to every man, and the whole fabric based upon continual expression of individual opinion; a grave misfortune, for the nation that deliberates is but little wont to act.
新闻界和政界，图书行业、文学、科学的巨大发展，以及公众对国内各行各业相关事物渐浓的兴趣，事实上，建立复辟政府之后新时代的整个社会趋势导致了对纸张需求的大幅增加。所需要的供应量几乎是革命开始时著名的乌弗拉尔做投机生意时数量的十倍之多。那时乌弗拉尔可以先买下全部纸张存货，然后买下生产商。可是，1821年法国有那么多的纸厂，没人能指望复制他的成功。大卫没有足够的胆量，也没有足够的资金做这种投机。用于生产任何长度纸张的机器刚刚在英国开始使用。因此，当时最为紧迫的需要之一就是使造纸行业跟上法国国民政府体系的需要。在这个体系里，每一个人都要享有讨论权，整个组织结构都基于个人意见的不断表达。这真是个大不幸，因为一个优柔寡断的民族总是不习惯于行动。
So, strange coincidence! while Lucien was drawn into the great machinery of journalism, where he was like to leave his honor and his intelligence torn to shreds, David Sechard, at the back of his printing-house, foresaw all the practical consequences of the increased activity of the periodical press. He saw the direction in which the spirit of the age was tending, and sought to find means to the required end. He saw also that there was a fortune awaiting the discoverer of cheap paper, and the event has justified his clearsightedness. Within the last fifteen years, the Patent Office has received more than a hundred applications from persons claiming to have discovered cheap substances to be employed in the manufacture of paper. David felt more than ever convinced that this would be no brilliant triumph, it is true, but a useful and immensely profitable discovery; and after his brother-in-law went to Paris, he became more and more absorbed in the problem which he had set himself to solve.
所以说，这是多么奇怪的巧合啊！当吕西安投身于新闻业这个庞大的机器，让自己的名誉和才智被彻底摧毁时，大卫·赛夏在他印刷所的后面，预见到了报刊出版活动增加的所有实际后果。他看到了时代精神的发展方向，并寻求找到达到最终目标的方式。他也看到，廉价造纸术的发明会带来一笔财富，事实也证明了他的先见之明。在最近的十五年里，专利局收到一百多人的申请，声称已经发现了可以在造纸中使用的廉价物质。大卫前所未有地确信，这虽然不是什么光彩夺目的成功，却是一个有用的、非常有利可图的发现。他的小舅子去了巴黎后，他对这个决心要解决的问题越来越入迷了。
The expenses of his marriage and of Lucien’s journey to Paris had exhausted all his resources; he confronted the extreme of poverty at the very outset of married life. He had kept one thousand francs for the working expenses of the business, and owed a like sum, for which he had given a bill to Postel the druggist. So here was a double problem for this deep thinker; he must invent a method of making cheap paper, and that quickly; he must make the discovery, in fact, in order to apply the proceeds to the needs of the household and of the business. What words can describe the brain that can forget the cruel preoccupations caused by hidden want, by the daily needs of a family and the daily drudgery of a printer’s business, which requires such minute, painstaking care; and soar, with the enthusiasm and intoxication of the man of science, into the regions of the unknown in quest of a secret which daily eludes the most subtle experiment? And the inventor, alas! as will shortly be seen, has plenty of woes to endure, besides the ingratitude of the many; idle folk that can do nothing themselves tell them, "Such a one is a born inventor; he could not do otherwise. He no more deserves credit for his invention than a prince for being born to rule! He is simply exercising his natural faculties, and his work is its own reward," and the people believe them.
他的婚礼开销以及吕西安去巴黎的路费已经用光了他所有的资金，婚姻生活刚开始，他就面临着极度的贫穷。他已经留下一千法郎用来作为印刷所的开销,可是他还给过药店的波斯特尔一张账单，欠下了和这个数目差不多的一笔钱。所以，对于这个深思熟虑者来说，这里就存在一个双重问题：他必须立刻发明一种制造廉价纸张的方法。事实上，他必须完成这项发明，好满足家里和生意上的需求。什么语言能够描写这样一副头脑呢？它能够忘记潜在的贫困、家庭日常需要、印刷所生意日常的苦差事等等造成的无情压迫，而这一切需要特别留神，还要有科学家的热情，并全身心投入到那个未知领域中，探求一个每天都从最精密的实验中逃离的秘密。而发明家，哎！就像很快就能看到的那样，除了许多人的忘恩负义以外，发明家要忍受足够多的痛苦。自己什么都干不了的懒惰分子告诉人们：“这样一个人是天生的发明家，他不会干别的。他不值得因为他的发明而受到称赞，就如一位君主天生就要统治国家，不值得称赞。他只是在发挥他天生的才能，他的工作本身就是回报。”人们相信他们的话。
Marriage brings profound mental and physical perturbations into a girl’s life; and if she marries under the ordinary conditions of lower middle-class life, she must moreover begin to study totally new interests and initiate herself in the intricacies of business. With marriage, therefore, she enters upon a phase of her existence when she is necessarily on the watch before she can act. Unfortunately, David’s love for his wife retarded this training; he dared not tell her the real state of affairs on the day after their wedding, nor for some time afterwards. His father’s avarice condemned him to the most grinding poverty, but he could not bring himself to spoil the honeymoon by beginning his wife’s commercial education and prosaic apprenticeship to his laborious craft. So it came to pass that housekeeping, no less than working expenses, ate up the thousand francs, his whole fortune. For four months David gave no thought to the future, and his wife remained in ignorance. The awakening was terrible! Postel’s bill fell due; there was no money to meet it, and Eve knew enough of the debt and its cause to give up her bridal trinkets and silver.
婚姻给一个姑娘的生活带来精神和肉体上的深刻变动。如果她嫁到了低于普通水平的中低阶层家庭，她还得必须开始研究全新的问题，让自己开始接触错综复杂的生意。因此，随着婚姻的到来，她进入生活的这样一个阶段，她在有所行动之前有必要进行一下旁观。不幸的是，大卫对妻子的爱延迟了这种训练，结婚的第二天和后来的一段时间，他没敢告诉她生活的真实状况。他父亲的贪财使他穷得难以为继，可是他不能让自己破坏蜜月期，从而开始对妻子的商业知识教育，让她开始枯燥的学徒期，学习他那门艰苦的技能。因此，维持家庭的日常开支花光了那一千法郎——那是他全部的财富——而没有将其花在工作开销上。大卫有四个月的时间都没有考虑未来，他的妻子一直一无所知。醒悟之后的感觉糟糕透了！波斯特尔的账单到期了，却没有钱支付，夏娃对欠债很清楚，这使她舍弃了新婚的饰品和银器。
That evening Eve tried to induce David to talk of their affairs, for she had noticed that he was giving less attention to the business and more to the problem of which he had once spoken to her. Since the first few weeks of married life, in fact, David spent most of his time in the shed in the backyard, in the little room where he was wont to mould his ink-rollers. Three months after his return to Angouleme, he had replaced the old fashioned round ink-balls by rollers made of strong glue and treacle, and an ink-table, on which the ink was evenly distributed, an improvement so obvious that Cointet Brothers no sooner saw it than they adopted the plan themselves.
那天晚上夏娃试图引导大卫谈谈他们的情形，因为她注意到，他对从前和她谈过的那个问题的注意已经超过了对印刷所生意的关注。事实上，从婚后的最初几周开始，大卫把大部分时间都花在后院的那个棚子里，他习惯于在那间小屋里浇灌墨辊。回到昂古莱姆三个月后，他就替换掉旧式的圆形蘸墨球，改用硬胶和糖浆做的辊子和墨台，在其上墨可以均匀地分布，这个改进非常显著，所以宽泰兄弟一看见就立刻也采用了这个办法。
By the partition wall of this kitchen, as it were, David had set up a little furnace with a copper pan, ostensibly to save the cost of fuel over the recasting of his rollers, though the moulds had not been used twice, and hung there rusting upon the wall. Nor was this all; a solid oak door had been put in by his orders, and the walls were lined with sheet-iron; he even replaced the dirty window sash by panes of ribbed glass, so that no one without could watch him at his work.
这间厨房的隔墙旁边，可以这么说，大卫安放了一个小炉子和一口铜锅，表面上是为了在浇铸墨辊的时候减少燃料的消耗，尽管墨辊的模子没用过两次，就被挂在墙上，在那里生锈。这还不是全部，按照他的决定，一扇结实的橡木门竖了起来，墙的边缘镶上了薄铁皮，他甚至用有棱纹的玻璃窗格替换了肮脏的玻璃窗，这样在他工作的时候就没人能看到他了。
When Eve began to speak about the future, he looked uneasily at her, and cut her short at the first word by saying, "I know all that you must think, child, when you see that the workshop is left to itself, and that I am dead, as it were, to all business interests; but see," he continued, bringing her to the window, and pointing to the mysterious shed, "there lies our fortune. For some months yet we must endure our lot, but let us bear it patiently; leave me to solve the problem of which I told you, and all our troubles will be at an end."
当夏娃开始谈论未来的时候，他不安地看着她，在她刚开始说话时就打断她说：“我知道你心里所有的想法，孩子，你看到工厂车间无人照管，可以说，我对所有的生意毫无兴趣，可是你看，”他把她拉到窗前，指着那个神秘的小屋继续说，“咱们的财富就在那里。在未来几个月里，咱们还要忍受自己的命运，可是就让我们耐心地忍受吧，让我去解决那个我和你说过的问题，然后我们所有的麻烦都将会结束。”
David was so good, his devotion was so thoroughly to be taken upon his word, that the poor wife, with a wife’s anxiety as to daily expenses, determined to spare her husband the household cares and to take the burden upon herself. So she came down from the pretty blue-and-white room, where she sewed and talked contentedly with her mother, took possession of one of the two dens at the back of the printing-room, and set herself to learn the business routine of typography. Was it not heroism in a wife who expected ere long to be a mother?
大卫那么好，他那么彻底投入，为的是实现说过的话。可怜的妻子尽管担心日常的开销，还是决定不让丈夫因家务琐事而烦恼，自己把这个担子挑了起来。所以她从漂亮的蓝白相见的房间里走了出来，她本来在房间里做针线活，并心满意足地和母亲说话。她占用了印刷所后面的两个小亭子之一，坐下来学习印刷生意的日常活计。一个不久就要做母亲的妻子，这样做难道不是很英勇吗？
During the past few months David’s workmen had left him one by one; there was not enough work for them to do. Cointet Brothers, on the other hand, were overwhelmed with orders; they were employing all the workmen of the department; the alluring prospect of high wages even brought them a few from Bordeaux, more especially apprentices, who thought themselves sufficiently expert to cancel their articles and go elsewhere. When Eve came to look into the affairs of Sechard’s printing works, she discovered that he employed three persons in all.
在过去的几个月里，大卫的工人们一个个离开了他，因为这里没有足够的活供他们干了。另一方面，宽泰兄弟的业务多得招架不住，他们雇佣了本地区所有的工人。诱人的高工资前景甚至把一些波尔多的工人也带到他们那里，尤其是带来更多的学徒，他们认为自己足够专业，就撤销了当学徒的契约，另谋高就。当夏娃前来察看赛夏的印刷车间时，她发现他总共雇佣着三个人。
First in order stood Cerizet, an apprentice of Didot’s, whom David had chosen to train. Most foremen have some one favorite among the great numbers of workers under them, and David had brought Cerizet to Angouleme, where he had been learning more of the business. Marion, as much attached to the house as a watch-dog, was the second; and the third was Kolb, an Alsacien, at one time a porter in the employ of the Messrs Didot.
按顺序，第一个是迪多的一个学徒赛里泽，是大卫挑来进行训练的。在手下众多的工人中，大多数工头都有某个最喜欢的工人，大卫将赛里泽带来昂古莱姆，他在这里学会了大多数的手艺。第二个是像看家狗一样依恋这所房子的马里翁。第三个是阿尔萨斯人科尔布，曾经有一段时间是迪多先生雇来的看门人。
Kolb had been drawn for military service, chance brought him to Angouleme, and David recognized the man’s face at a review just as his time was about to expire. Kolb came to see David, and was smitten forthwith by the charms of the portly Marion; she possessed all the qualities which a man of his class looks for in a wife—the robust health that bronzes the cheeks, the strength of a man (Marion could lift a form of type with ease), the scrupulous honesty on which an Alsacien sets such store, the faithful service which bespeaks a sterling character, and finally, the thrift which had saved a little sum of a thousand francs, besides a stock of clothing and linen, neat and clean, as country linen can be. Marion herself, a big, stout woman of thirty-six, felt sufficiently flattered by the admiration of a cuirassier, who stood five feet seven in his stockings, a well-built warrior, strong as a bastion, and not unnaturally suggested that he should become a printer. So, by the time Kolb received his full discharge, Marion and David between them had transformed him into a tolerably creditable "bear," though their pupil could neither read nor write.
科尔布是去服兵役的，碰巧来到昂古莱姆。在一次检阅中，大卫认出了他的脸，当时他的兵役期就快要结束了。科尔布来看望大卫，为魁梧的马里翁的魅力所倾倒。她具备他那个阶层的男人所追寻的妻子的所有品质——强健的身体，古铜色的面颊，男人的力气（马里翁能端起一盘铅字），阿尔萨斯人看中的谨慎和诚实，她忠诚的服务证明了她纯洁的心地。最后，她的节俭让她攒下为数不多的一千法郎。另外，她所有衣服用品整齐干净，是乡下亚麻布最干净的样子。马里翁三十六岁，高个子，身材魁梧，得到骑兵的倾慕，自己感到很得意。这个装甲兵五英尺六英寸高，穿着长袜，是个身体结实的战士，壮得像个堡垒。她建议他成为一名印刷工，倒也是自然而然的事。因此，当科尔布正式退役后，马里翁和大卫将他转变成了一个相当值得称赞的“大熊”，尽管他们这个学生既不会读也不会写。
Job printing, as it is called, was not so abundant at this season but that Cerizet could manage it without help. Cerizet, compositor, clicker, and foreman, realized in his person the "phenomenal triplicity" of Kant; he set up type, read proof, took orders, and made out invoices; but the most part of the time he had nothing to do, and used to read novels in his den at the back of the workshop while he waited for an order for a bill-head or a trade circular. Marion, trained by old Sechard, prepared and wetted down the paper, helped Kolb with the printing, hung the sheets to dry, and cut them to size; yet cooked the dinner, none the less, and did her marketing very early of a morning.
正如人们所说的那样，这个季节没有那么多印刷的工作，赛里泽无需帮忙就能应付。赛里泽既是排字工、拼版工，又是监工，实现了康德的“异常的三位一体”。他排版、校对、接订单、开发票。可是，大部分时间里他无事可做，常常呆在车间后面的小屋里，一边读小说，一边等待招贴或商务信函的订单。老赛夏训练出来的马里翁备纸、浸纸，帮科尔布印刷、悬挂纸张晾干、切割成一定尺寸，她还要做饭，并且一大早就去市场采购。
Eve told Cerizet to draw out a balance-sheet for the last six months, and found that the gross receipts amounted to eight hundred francs. On the other hand, wages at the rate of three francs per day—two francs to Cerizet, and one to Kolb—reached a total of six hundred francs; and as the goods supplied for the work printed and delivered amounted to some hundred odd francs, it was clear to Eve that David had been carrying on business at a loss during the first half-year of their married life. There was nothing to show for rent, nothing for Marion’s wages, nor for the interest on capital represented by the plant, the license, and the ink; nothing, finally, by way of allowance for the host of things included in the technical expression "wear and tear," a word which owes its origin to the cloths and silks which are used to moderate the force of the impression, and to save wear to the type; a square of stuff (the blanket) being placed between the platen and the sheet of paper in the press.
夏娃让赛里泽报出过去六个月的结算表，发现毛收入达到八百法郎。另一方面，每天要付的工资是三法郎——给赛里泽两法郎，给科尔布一法郎，总数是六百法郎；印刷进货和送货花了大约一百法郎。夏娃很清楚，在他们婚后的头半年里，大卫一直在做亏本生意。没有钱付房租，没有收回马里翁的工资，也没有赚回工厂、执照、油墨等投资的利息，说到底，所有这些的主人也没有得到他的利润，用行话叫做“正常损耗”。这个词源自为了缓解压力，不让铅字受损而使用的布和丝绸，是一块方形的绒布（类似于毯子），在印刷车上被置于铁板和纸张之间。
Eve made a rough calculation of the resources of the printing office and of the output, and saw how little hope there was for a business drained dry by the all-devouring activity of the brothers Cointet; for by this time the Cointets were not only contract printers to the town and the prefecture, and printers to the Diocese by special appointment—they were paper-makers and proprietors of a newspaper to boot. That newspaper, sold two years ago by the Sechards, father and son, for twenty-two thousand francs, was now bringing in eighteen thousand francs per annum. Eve began to understand the motives lurking beneath the apparent generosity of the brothers Cointet; they were leaving the Sechard establishment just sufficient work to gain a pittance, but not enough to establish a rival house.
夏娃对印刷所的资源和产出作了粗略的计算，看出来在宽泰兄弟毁灭性的排挤下，生意没有什么希望。因为此时宽泰兄弟不仅承包了市里和省里的印刷所，还被专门指定为主教公署印刷所的承包人，他们还从事造纸，并且拥有一家报纸。那家报纸是两年前赛夏父子以两万两千法郎出售的，现在每年带来一万八千法郎的收入。夏娃开始理解宽泰兄弟慷慨的表面下潜伏的动机了，他们给赛夏一家留一点活儿仅够勉强维系，但不足以成为竞争对手。
When Eve took the management of the business, she began by taking stock. She set Kolb and Marion and Cerizet to work, and the workshop was put to rights, cleaned out, and set in order. Then one evening when David came in from a country excursion, followed by an old woman with a huge bundle tied up in a cloth, Eve asked counsel of him as to the best way of turning to profit the odds and ends left them by old Sechard, promising that she herself would look after the business. Acting upon her husband’s advice, Mme. Sechard sorted all the remnants of paper which she found, and printed old popular legends in double columns upon a single sheet, such as peasants paste on their walls, the histories of The Wandering Jew, Robert the Devil, La Belle Maguelonne and sundry miracles. Eve sent Kolb out as a hawker.
当夏娃接管生意的时候，她从清查存货开始。她安排科尔布、马里翁和赛里泽去干活，车间被收拾妥当，整洁而有序。随后的一天晚上，大卫从野外散步回来，身后跟着一个老太太，背着个大布包。夏娃就如何最佳利用老赛夏留下的零七碎八与他进行商讨，并承诺说她要亲自照料生意。根据她丈夫的意见，赛夏太太将她找到的所有残存的纸张归类，把一张纸分两栏，印上古老的民间传说，比如农民粘在墙上的《流浪的犹太人》、《魔鬼罗伯特》、《美丽的玛葛洛纳》等历史故事和奇迹故事。夏娃把科尔布打发出去当小贩。
Cerizet had not a moment to spare now; he was composing the naive pages, with the rough cuts that adorned them, from morning to night; Marion was able to manage the taking off; and all domestic cares fell to Mme. Chardon, for Eve was busy coloring the prints. Thanks to Kolb’s activity and honesty, Eve sold three thousand broad sheets at a penny apiece, and made three hundred francs in all at a cost of thirty francs.
赛里泽现在没有一刻空闲，他从早到晚排那些幼稚的页面，配上粗俗的图版；马里翁负责往出印刷；所有的家务活都落在沙尔东太太的身上，因为夏娃忙着给画上色。多亏了科尔布的勤快和诚实，夏娃以每张一个便士的价格卖了足足三千张画，总共收入三百法郎，而成本是三十法郎。
But when every peasant’s hut and every little wine-shop for twenty leagues round was papered with these legends, a fresh speculation must be discovered; the Alsacien could not go beyond the limits of the department. Eve, turning over everything in the whole printing house, had found a collection of figures for printing a "Shepherd’s Calendar," a kind of almanac meant for those who cannot read, letterpress being replaced by symbols, signs, and pictures in colored inks, red, black and blue. Old Sechard, who could neither read nor write himself, had made a good deal of money at one time by bringing out an almanac in hieroglyph. It was in book form, a single sheet folded to make one hundred and twenty-eight pages.
可是，当方圆二十里格内的每个农户和每个小酒馆都贴上了这些传奇故事时，就必须寻找新的投机生意。这个阿尔萨斯人不能超越本省的界限。夏娃翻遍了整个印刷所的所有东西，找到一个印刷“牧羊人日历”人物的集子，这是一种给不识字的人看的年历，用红、黑、蓝的彩色符号、标记和图片代替字母的印刷。老赛夏自己既不会读也不会写，一度靠印制这种用符号表示的年历赚了一大笔钱。它是书的形式，一个印张折成一百二十八页。
Thoroughly satisfied with the success of the broad sheets, a piece of business only undertaken by country printing offices, Mme. Sechard invested all the proceeds in the Shepherd’s Calendar, and began it upon a large scale. Millions of copies of this work are sold annually in France. It is printed upon even coarser paper than the Almanac of Liege, a ream (five hundred sheets) costing in the first instance about four francs; while the printed sheets sell at the rate of a halfpenny apiece—twenty-five francs per ream.
赛夏太太对宽面纸生意的成功非常满意，而这种生意只有农村的印刷所做，赛夏太太将所有的收入投资于《牧羊人年历》，并开始大规模印刷。在法国，每年要卖出几百万册这样的东西。它被印在比《列日人年历》还要粗糙的纸张上，一令纸（五百张）的成本大约是四法郎，而印完的纸卖到每张半个便士的价格，也就是每令纸二十五法郎。
Mme. Sechard determined to use one hundred reams for the first impression; fifty thousand copies would bring in two thousand francs. A man so deeply absorbed in his work as David in his researches is seldom observant; yet David, taking a look round his workshop, was astonished to hear the groaning of a press and to see Cerizet always on his feet, setting up type under Mme. Sechard’s direction. There was a pretty triumph for Eve on the day when David came in to see what she was doing, and praised the idea, and thought the calendar an excellent stroke of business. Furthermore, David promised to give advice in the matter of colored inks, for an almanac meant to appeal to the eye; and finally, he resolved to recast the ink-rollers himself in his mysterious workshop, so as to help his wife as far as he could in her important little enterprise.
赛夏太太决定第一版要用一百令纸，五万册将会带来两千法郎的收入。像大卫这样一个深深着迷于自己的研究工作的人，观察力不强。然而，当大卫环顾他的车间时，他惊讶地听到印刷机的咯吱咯吱声，看见赛里泽在赛夏太太的指挥下奔忙着排字。那天大卫进来看到夏娃所做的事情，赞扬了她这个想法，认为印年历是个相当不错的生意，夏娃获得了了不起的胜利。还有，大卫承诺要对墨的颜色给予建议，因为年历要吸引人的目光。最后，他决定在他的秘密车间重新浇铸墨辊，这样就可以尽他所能帮助妻子做好她这笔重要的小生意。
But just as the work began with strenuous industry, there came letters from Lucien in Paris, heart-sinking letters that told his mother and sister and brother-inlaw of his failure and distress; and when Eve, Mme. Chardon, and David each secretly sent money to their poet, it must be plain to the reader that the three hundred francs they sent were like their very blood. The overwhelming news, the disheartening sense that work as bravely as she might, she made so little, left Eve looking forward with a certain dread to an event which fills the cup of happiness to the full. The time was coming very near now, and to herself she said, "If my dear David has not reached the end of his researches before my confinement, what will become of us? And who will look after our poor printing office and the business that is growing up?"
可是，就在紧张而辛劳地开始工作的时候，巴黎的吕西安来信了。几封令人泄气的信向他的母亲、妹妹和妹夫讲述了他的失败和不幸。当夏娃、沙尔东太太和大卫分别悄悄寄钱给他们的诗人时，读者就很清楚，他们所寄的三百法郎就像他们的鲜血。尽管听到令人打击的消息灰心丧气，夏娃还是尽可能卖力工作，可她赚到的钱却很少，这让夏娃在盼望那件充满幸福的事的同时，还怀有些许的害怕。现在日子日趋临近，她对自己说：“如果我亲爱的大卫在我生产之前没有获得他的研究结果，我们该怎么办呢？谁来照管我们那可怜的印刷所和刚有起色的生意呢？”
The Shepherd’s Calendar ought by rights to have been ready before the 1st of January, but Cerizet was working unaccountably slowly; all the work of composing fell to him; and Mme. Sechard, knowing so little, could not find fault, and was fain to content herself with watching the young Parisian.
《牧羊人年历》应该在一月一号前印好，可是赛里泽不知为什么干得很慢，所有的排版工作都落到他的肩上，赛夏太太不太懂，不能找茬，不得不在一旁观察着这个年轻的巴黎人。
Cerizet came from the great Foundling Hospital in Paris. He had been apprenticed to the MM. Didot, and between the ages of fourteen and seventeen he was David Sechard’s fanatical worshiper. David put him under one of the cleverest workmen, and took him for his copy-holder, his page. Cerizet’s intelligence naturally interested David; he won the lad’s affection by procuring amusements now and again for him, and comforts from which he was cut off by poverty. Nature had endowed Cerizet with an insignificant, rather pretty little countenance, red hair, and a pair of dull blue eyes; he had come to Angouleme and brought the manners of the Parisian street-boy with him. He was formidable by reason of a quick, sarcastic turn and a spiteful disposition. Perhaps David looked less strictly after him in Angouleme; or, perhaps, as the lad grew older, his mentor put more trust in him, or in the sobering influences of a country town; but be that as it may, Cerizet (all unknown to his sponsor) was going completely to the bad, and the printer’s apprentice was acting the part of a Don Juan among little work girls. His morality, learned in Paris drinking-saloons, laid down the law of self-interest as the sole rule of guidance; he knew, moreover, that next year he would be "drawn for a soldier," to use the popular expression, saw that he had no prospects, and ran into debt, thinking that soon he should be in the army, and none of his creditors would run after him. David still possessed some ascendency over the young fellow, due not to his position as master, nor yet to the interest that he had taken in his pupil, but to the great intellectual power which the sometime street-boy fully recognized.
赛里泽来自巴黎的大孤儿院。他曾在迪多那里当学徒，在十四岁到十七岁那段时间，他是大卫·赛夏的狂热崇拜者。大卫把他派到最聪明的一个工人手下，并把他当作自己的助手和跟班。赛里泽的聪明自然引起大卫的兴趣。大卫赢得了小伙子的好感，因为他不时给他带来娱乐和关切，由于穷苦，这些他都没有体验过。赛里泽天生有一副不引人注目但相当漂亮的面容，红色的头发，一双暗蓝色的眼睛。他来到昂古莱姆，随之带来了巴黎街头男孩子的习气。他脑子反应快、尖酸刻薄、性情恶毒、令人害怕。可能大卫在昂古莱姆对他的照管不那么严了，或者，可能随着这孩子的长大，他的管理者更加信任他，也可能是受到了农村小镇上冷静气氛的影响，可是无论如何，赛里泽彻底走向堕落（他的老师一无所知），这个印刷学徒在工厂的小女孩中间扮演着唐璜的角色。他在巴黎的酒馆里学到的品行，将自我利益原则作为唯一的指导原则。另外，他知道，用句俗话说，第二年就要“被抽签去服兵役”了，他看到没有出路，就疯狂欠债，心想，很快就要去部队了，没有哪个债主会在身后追他。大卫在这个年轻人的心里仍有一席之地，不是因为他作为老师的身份，也不是因为大卫对他的兴趣，而是因为这个曾经的街头混混完全看得出大卫杰出的智慧。
Before long Cerizet began to fraternize with the Cointets’ workpeople, drawn to them by the mutual attraction of blouse and jacket, and the class feeling, which is, perhaps, strongest of all in the lowest ranks of society. In their company Cerizet forgot the little good doctrine which David had managed to instil into him; but, nevertheless, when the others joked the boy about the presses in his workshop ("old sabots," as the "bears" contemptuously called them), and showed him the magnificent machines, twelve in number, now at work in the Cointets’ great printing office, where the single wooden press was only used for experiments, Cerizet would stand up for David and fling out at the braggarts.
不久以后，赛里泽就开始和宽泰工厂的工人们亲近起来，他们因彼此的工衣和外套而相互吸引，也许，在社会的最底层中，同属一个阶级的情感是最强的。在他们这群人中间，赛里泽忘记了大卫好不容易给他灌输的那一点点好的信条。可是，尽管这样，别人拿他车间的印刷生意和他开玩笑（就像“大熊”轻蔑地称他们“旧木屐”），并给他看宽泰巨大的印刷所里现在正在运行的十二部出色的机器——那里仅有的一架木制印刷机只用于试验——这时赛里泽会站起来替大卫说话，对这些夸夸其谈者暴跳如雷。
"My gaffer will go farther with his ’sabots’ than yours with their cast-iron contrivances that turn out mass books all day long," he would boast. "He is trying to find out a secret that will lick all the printing offices in France and Navarre."
“我东家凭他的旧木屐就比你们那些整天用铸铁机器印刷一大堆书本的老板们有出息。”他会吹牛说，“他正在寻找一个能够击溃法国和纳瓦拉所有印刷厂的秘密。”
"And meantime you take your orders from a washer-woman, you snip of a foreman, on two francs a day.”
“同时，你要听一个洗衣女人的号令，你是个监工，可是一天才挣两个法郎。”
"She is pretty though," retorted Cerizet; "it is better to have her to look at than the phizes of your gaffers."
“可是她非常漂亮。”赛里泽反驳道，“看着她可比看你东家的脸强多了。”
"And do you live by looking at his wife?"
“你能靠看着东家老婆的脸过活吗？”
From the region of the wineshop, or from the door of the printing office, where these bickerings took place, a dim light began to break in upon the brothers Cointet as to the real state of things in the Sechard establishment. They came to hear of Eve’s experiment, and held it expedient to stop these flights at once, lest the business should begin to prosper under the poor young wife’s management.
从发生这些争吵的酒馆周围，或者从印刷厂的门口，宽泰兄弟略微看出了些赛夏生意的真实状态。他们逐渐听说了夏娃的实验，认为权宜之计是立刻阻止这样的实验，以免在这个可怜的年轻妻子的经营下，生意兴旺起来。
"Let us give her a rap over the knuckles, and disgust her with the business," said the brothers Cointet.
“咱们好好敲打敲打她，让她讨厌做生意。”宽泰兄弟说。
One of the pair, the practical printer, spoke to Cerizet, and asked him to do the proof-reading for them by piecework, to relieve their reader, who had more than he could manage. So it came to pass that Cerizet earned more by a few hours’ work of an evening for the brothers Cointet than by a whole day’s work for David Sechard. Other transactions followed; the Cointets seeing no small aptitude in Cerizet, he was told that it was a pity that he should be in a position so little favorable to his interests.
兄弟俩的其中之一，也就是事实上的印刷工，和赛里泽交谈，要他为他们做校对的工作，计件取酬，以减轻他们校对的担子，他们的校对已经实在忙不过来了。因此他们商定，赛里泽每晚干几小时的活，挣的钱比他为大卫·赛夏干一整天挣的还要多。其他的交易随之而来，宽泰兄弟看出来赛里泽天分不小。他们告诉赛里泽，他所处的位置对他没什么帮助，这一点令人遗憾。
"You might be foreman some day in a big printing office, making six francs a day," said one of the Cointets one day, "and with your intelligence you might come to have a share in the business."
“有一天你会成为一家大印刷所的工头，一天挣六个法郎。”一天，宽泰兄弟之一对他说说，“凭你的才智，你可以在生意里拥有股份的。”
"Where is the use of my being a good foreman?" returned Cerizet. "I am an orphan, I shall be drawn for the army next year, and if I get a bad number who is there to pay some one else to take my place?"
“我当个好工头有什么用呢？”赛里泽回答说，“我是个孤儿，明年就要被抽签去服兵役了。如果我的号不好，被抽中，谁会替我付钱，再找一个人替代我呢？”
"If you make yourself useful," said the well-to-do printer, "why should not somebody advance the money?"
“你如果能让自己有用，”有钱的印刷商说，“怎么不会有人给你出钱呢？”
"It won’t be my gaffer in any case!" said Cerizet.
“不管怎么说，我的东家肯定不会！”赛里泽说。
"Pooh! Perhaps by that time he will have found out the secret."
“哦！到时候他可能已经发现了那个秘密。”
The words were spoken in a way that could not but rouse the worst thoughts in the listener; and Cerizet gave the papermaker and printer a very searching look. "I do not know what he is busy about," he began prudently, as the master said nothing, "but he is not the kind of man to look for capitals in the lower case!"
他说这些话的方式只能让听者产生最坏的想法。赛里泽朝这个造纸商兼印刷商探寻地看了一眼。“我不知道他在忙什么。”他开始说，而老板没说话，“可他不是那种只指望在铅字架上发财的人！”
"Look here, my friend," said the printer, taking up half-a-dozen sheets of the diocesan prayer-book and holding them out to Cerizet, "if you can correct these for us by tomorrow, you shall have eighteen francs tomorrow for them. We are not shabby here; we put our competitor’s foreman in the way of making money. As a matter of fact, we might let Mme. Sechard go too far to draw back with her Shepherd’s Calendar, and ruin her; very well, we give you permission to tell her that we are bringing out a Shepherd’s Calendar of our own, and to call her attention too to the fact that she will not be the first in the field.”
“看看，朋友。”印刷商说着，拿出六张教区的祈祷文递给赛里泽，“如果明天之前你能校对完这些，那你明天就可以拿到十八个法郎。我们一点儿都不吝啬，我们让自己竞争对手的工头赚钱。事实上，我们可以让赛夏太太尽可能印刷《牧羊人年历》，从而毁了她。好吧，我们允许你告诉她，我们正在印刷自己的《牧羊人年历》，也让她注意这样一个事实，她不会是第一个印年历的。”
Cerizet’s motive for working so slowly on the composition of the almanac should be clear enough by this time.
至此，赛里泽为什么在年历排版时如此拖拖拉拉，原因应该足够清楚了。
When Eve heard that the Cointets meant to spoil her poor little speculation, dread seized upon her; at first she tried to see a proof of attachment in Cerizet’s hypocritical warning of competition; but before long she saw signs of an over-keen curiosity in her sole compositor—the curiosity of youth, she tried to think.
当夏娃听说宽泰兄弟想破坏她那可怜的小笔投机生意时，她害怕了。起初，她试图将赛里泽虚伪地警告她注意竞争对手看作是对她的忠心，可是她很快就发现她这个唯一的排字工有着极其强烈的好奇心——她试图认为这是年轻人的好奇心。
"Cerizet," she said one morning, "you stand about on the threshold, and wait for M. Sechard in the passage, to pry into his private affairs; when he comes out into the yard to melt down the rollers, you are there looking at him, instead of getting on with the almanac. These things are not right, especially when you see that I, his wife, respect his secrets, and take so much trouble on myself to leave him free to give himself up to his work. If you had not wasted time, the almanac would be finished by now, and Kolb would be selling it, and the Cointets could have done us no harm."
“赛里泽，”一天早晨她说，“你站在门槛上等赛夏先生走过去，想窥探他的私事。当他走出来，进了院子浇墨辊时，你在那里看着他，却不去印年历。这些行为都是不对的，尤其是当你看到，我作为他的妻子，都很尊重他的秘密，自己不嫌麻烦，让他有自由全身心地投入他的工作。如果你没有浪费时间，现在年历已经印完了，科尔布已经在兜售了，宽泰兄弟也不会伤害到我们了。”
"Eh! madame," answered Cerizet. "Here am I doing five francs’ worth of composing for two francs a day, and don’t you think that that is enough? Why, if I did not read proofs of an evening for the Cointets, I might feed myself on husks.”
“哎哟！太太，”赛里泽回答道，“在这里我一天替你排的字值五法郎，而我一天挣两法郎，你认为这够吗？唉，如果我晚上不给宽泰兄弟校对的话，我也许要给自己吃糠了。”
"You are turning ungrateful early," said Eve, deeply hurt, not so much by Cerizet’s grumbling as by his coarse tone, threatening attitude, and aggressive stare; "you will get on in life."
“你这么小就变得忘恩负义了。”夏娃说，她深深地受到了伤害，不是因为赛里泽的怨言，而是因为他粗野的声调、威胁的神情和恶狠狠的目光，“你还要继续生活下去呢。”
"Not with a woman to order me about though, for it is not often that the month has thirty days in it then."
“然而并不是靠一个对我指手划脚的女人活下去，因为经常是一个月的工钱不够维持三十天。”
Feeling wounded in her womanly dignity, Eve gave Cerizet a withering look and went upstairs again. At dinner-time she spoke to David.
夏娃觉得自己女性的尊严受到了伤害，她狠狠瞪了赛里泽一眼，然后上了楼。吃晚饭时，她和大卫说了起来。
"Are you sure, dear, of that little rogue Cerizet?"
“亲爱的，你信得过赛里泽那个小流氓吗？”
"Cerizet!" said David. "Why, he was my youngster; I trained him, I took him on as my copy-holder. I put him to composing; anything that he is he owes to me, in fact! You might as well ask a father if he is sure of his child.”
“赛里泽！”大卫说，“怎么啦，他是我的徒弟，是我把他训练出来的，我让他给我念原稿。我还安排他去排字，事实上，他的每一样本事都是我的功劳！你这话就像问一个父亲是否信得过他的孩子。”
Upon this, Eve told her husband that Cerizet was reading proofs for the Cointets.
听到这话，夏娃告诉丈夫，赛里泽在给宽泰兄弟做校对。
"Poor fellow! he must live," said David, humbled by the consciousness that he had not done his duty as a master.
“可怜的家伙！他得生存啊。”大卫说，他因为意识到自己没有尽到师傅的责任而感到自责。
"Yes, but there is a difference, dear, between Kolb and Cerizet—Kolb tramps about twenty leagues every day, spends fifteen or twenty sous, and brings us back seven and eight and sometimes nine francs of sales; and when his expenses are paid, he never asks for more than his wages. Kolb would sooner cut off his hand than work a lever for the Cointets; Kolb would not peer among the things that you throw out into the yard if people offered him a thousand crowns to do it; but Cerizet picks them up and looks at them.”
“对，可是亲爱的，科尔布和赛里泽之间的确有差别——科尔布每天徒步走大约二十里格，花费十五到二十个苏，而给我们拿回来七、八个，有时九个法郎的卖货钱，除了他的开销，他从不要求工资以外的钱。科尔布宁可把手割掉，也不愿为宽泰兄弟工作；即便有人给他一千个克朗，科尔布也不会偷看一眼你扔在院子里的东西。可是赛里泽却将它们捡起来查看。”
It is hard for noble natures to think evil, to believe in ingratitude; only through rough experience do they learn the extent of human corruption; and even when there is nothing left them to learn in this kind, they rise to an indulgence which is the last degree of contempt.
天性高尚的人很难想到邪恶，很难相信忘恩负义。只有经过惨痛的经历，他们才知道人心堕落的程度。即便这时他们对此无所不知，也会表现出纵容的态度，而这是最低程度的轻蔑。
"Pooh! pure Paris street-boy’s curiosity," cried David.
“哦！这纯粹是巴黎街头混混的好奇心。”大卫喊道。
"Very well, dear, do me the pleasure to step downstairs and look at the work done by this boy of yours, and tell me then whether he ought not to have finished our almanac this month."
“好吧，亲爱的，请你下楼看看你的这个混混干的活，然后告诉我他是否本应该在这个月内完成我们的年历。”
David went into the workshop after dinner, and saw that the calendar should have been set up in a week. Then, when he heard that the Cointets were bringing out a similar almanac, he came to the rescue. He took command of the printing office, Kolb helped at home instead of selling broadsheets. Kolb and Marion pulled off the impressions from one form while David worked another press with Cerizet, and superintended the printing in various inks. Every sheet must be printed four separate times, for which reason none but small houses will attempt to produce a Shepherd’s Calendar, and that only in the country where labor is cheap, and the amount of capital employed in the business is so small that the interest amounts to little. Wherefore, a press which turns out beautiful work cannot compete in the printing of such sheets, coarse though they may be.
晚饭后大卫去了车间，看到年历在一周内就应该完成。然后，当他听说宽泰兄弟在印制类似的年历时，他赶来帮忙。他统领印刷厂，科尔布在家帮忙，没有去兜售大幅的图片了。科尔布和马里翁印刷一版，而大卫和赛里泽印另一版，并照管各种印墨。每一张必须分别印四次，由于这个原因，只有小印刷厂才会尝试印制《牧羊人年历》，而且只能在乡下，因为这里劳动力廉价，买卖中用于雇佣工人的资金很少，所以利息加起来没有多少。因此，这类纸张或许粗糙，但是，能印制精美图片的印刷厂在印制这样的纸张方面不具备竞争力。
So, for the first time since old Sechard retired, two presses were at work in the old house. The calendar was, in its way, a masterpiece; but Eve was obliged to sell it for less than a halfpenny, for the Cointets were supplying hawkers at the rate of three centimes per copy. Eve made no loss on the copies sold to hawkers; on Kolb’s sales, made directly, she gained; but her little speculation was spoiled. Cerizet saw that his fair employer distrusted him; in his own conscience he posed as the accuser, and said to himself, "You suspect me, do you? I will have my revenge," for the Paris street-boy is made on this wise. Cerizet accordingly took pay out of all proportion to the work of proof-reading done for the Cointets, going to their office every evening for the sheets, and returning them in the morning. He came to be on familiar terms with them through the daily chat, and at length saw a chance of escaping the military service, a bait held out to him by the brothers. So far from requiring prompting from the Cointets, he was the first to propose the espionage and exploitation of David’s researches.
所以，自从老赛夏退休以来，这还是老厂房里两台印刷机第一次同时开动。年历本身印得很好，可是夏娃被迫只卖不到半个便士的价格，因为宽泰兄弟提供给小贩的价格是每本三分钱。夏娃卖给小贩的年历没有亏本，科尔布直接销售的，她赚了钱，可是，她这笔小买卖被毁了。赛里泽看到他漂亮的雇主不相信他，在他自己的良知里，他以控告者自居，并对自己说：“你怀疑我，是吗？我会为自己复仇的。”因为这个巴黎街头的混混在这方面很有天赋。赛里泽替宽泰兄弟做校对拿的钱比他应得的要多，他每晚去他们的办公室取校样，第二天早晨送回。通过每天的闲谈，他逐渐和他们熟悉起来，并清楚地看到了逃避兵役的机会，而这正是兄弟俩给他抛出的诱饵。如今根本不用宽泰兄弟询问和启发，他就首先提出要刺探一下，搞清楚大卫研究的情况。
Eve saw how little she could depend upon Cerizet, and to find another Kolb was simply impossible; she made up her mind to dismiss her one compositor, for the insight of a woman who loves told her that Cerizet was a traitor; but as this meant a deathblow to the business, she took a man’s resolution. She wrote to M. Metivier, with whom David and the Cointets and almost every papermaker in the department had business relations, and asked him to put the following advertisement into a trade paper:
夏娃看到她不能依靠赛里泽，并且不可能找到另一个科尔布，她下定决心辞退她唯一的排字工，因为她这个富于爱心的女子的洞察力告诉她，赛里泽是个叛徒。可是由于这对生意意味着致命的打击，她下了男人一样的狠心。她写信给梅蒂维耶，大卫、宽泰兄弟以及省内的几乎每个造纸商都和他有业务关系，她请他将以下广告登在一家行业报纸上：
"FOR SALE, as a going concern, a Printing Office, with License and Plant; situated at Angouleme. Apply for particulars to M. Metivier, Rue Serpente."
“印刷厂待售，持续经营中，执照设备齐全，位于昂古莱姆。详情请与赛尔邦特街梅蒂维耶先生联系。”
The Cointets saw the advertisement. "That little woman has a head on her shoulders," they said. "It is time that we took her business under our own control, by giving her enough work to live upon; we might find a real competitor in David’s successor; it is in our interest to keep an eye upon that workshop.”
宽泰兄弟看见了这则广告。“那个小女人还算有脑子。”他们说，“到了我们把她的生意控制起来的时候了，我们要给她足够的活儿维持下去。不然的话，我们会发现接手大卫工厂的人是真正的竞争对手，留意一下这个厂子对我们是有利的。”
The Cointets went to speak to David Sechard, moved thereto by this thought. Eve saw them, knew that her stratagem had succeeded at once, and felt a thrill of the keenest joy. They stated their proposal. They had more work than they could undertake, their presses could not keep pace with the work, would M. Sechard print for them? They had sent to Bordeaux for workmen, and could find enough to give full employment to David’s three presses.
宽泰兄弟有这个想法作动机，便去和大卫谈话。夏娃见到他们，知道自己的计谋这么快就取得了成功，便感到喜悦而激动。他们陈述了自己的提议。他们的活多得干不过来，他们的机器跟不上工作量增加的速度，赛夏先生愿意为他们印刷吗？他们已经派人到波尔多去找工人了，能找到足够的工人全天操作大卫的三台机器。
"Gentlemen," said Eve, while Cerizet went across to David’s workshop to announce the two printers, "while my husband was with the MM. Didot he came to know of excellent workers, honest and industrious men; he will choose his successor, no doubt, from among the best of them. If he sold his business outright for some twenty thousand francs, it might bring us in a thousand francs per annum; that would be better than losing a thousand yearly over such trade as you leave us. Why did you envy us the poor little almanac speculation, especially as we have always brought it out?"
“先生们，”夏娃说，当时赛里泽去大卫的车间报告两位印刷商人的来访，“我丈夫在迪多先生那里工作的时候，他就认识一些出色的工人，是诚实而勤奋的人。他会挑一个人接手工厂，毫无疑问，他会从最好的工人里挑。如果他直接将生意卖到约两万法郎，我们每年能拿到一千法郎的利息，这比在你们的欺压下干这个行当，每年损失一千法郎强多了。你们为什么要嫉妒我们那一小笔可怜的年历生意呢，尤其是我们一直在做这个生意？”
"Oh, why did you not give us notice, madame? We would not have interfered with you," one of the brothers answered blandly (he was known as the "tall Cointet").
“哎，太太，你为什么不通知我们呢？那样我们就不会妨碍你了。”兄弟之一殷勤地回答（他被称为“高个子宽泰”）。
"Oh, come gentlemen! you only began your almanac after Cerizet told you that I was bringing out mine."
“哦，算了吧，先生们！是赛里泽告诉你们我在印我的年历，然后你们才开始印的。”
She spoke briskly, looking full at "the tall Cointet" as she spoke. He lowered his eyes; Cerizet’s treachery was proven to her.
她尖刻地说，说话间死死盯着“高个子宽泰”。他垂下了眼睛，赛里泽的背叛行为在她那里得到了证实。
This brother managed the business and the paper-mill; he was by far the cleverer man of business of the two. Jean showed no small ability in the conduct of the printing establishment, but in intellectual capacity he might be said to take colonel’s rank, while Boniface was a general. Jean left the command to Boniface. This latter was thin and spare in person; his face, sallow as an altar candle, was mottled with reddish patches; his lips were pinched; there was something in his eyes that reminded you of a cat’s eyes. Boniface Cointet never excited himself; he would listen to the grossest insults with the serenity of a bigot, and reply in a smooth voice. He went to mass, he went to confession, he took the sacrament. Beneath his caressing manners, beneath an almost spiritless look, lurked the tenacity and ambition of the priest, and the greed of the man of business consumed with a thirst for riches and honors. In the year 1820 "tall Cointet" wanted all that the bourgeoisie finally obtained by the Revolution of 1830. In his heart he hated the aristocrats, and in religion he was indifferent; he was as much or as little of a bigot as Bonaparte was a member of the Mountain; yet his vertebral column bent with a flexibility wonderful to behold before the noblesse and the official hierarchy; for the powers that be, he humbled himself, he was meek and obsequious. One final characteristic will describe him for those who are accustomed to dealings with all kinds of men, and can appreciate its value—Cointet concealed the expression of his eyes by wearing colored glasses, ostensibly to preserve his sight from the reflection of the sunlight on the white buildings in the streets; for Angouleme, being set upon a hill, is exposed to the full glare of the sun. Tall Cointet was really scarcely above middle height; he looked much taller than he actually was by reason of the thinness, which told of overwork and a brain in continual ferment. His lank, sleek gray hair, cut in somewhat ecclesiastical fashion; the black trousers, black stockings, black waistcoat, and long puce-colored greatcoat (styled a levite in the south), all completed his resemblance to a Jesuit.
兄弟中的这个人管理生意和纸厂，生意方面，他在兄弟二人中聪明得多。让在管理印刷厂上表现出的能力不小，但是在才智上他或许可以抵得上一个上校，而博尼法斯却是个将军。让愿意由博尼法斯来指挥。后者身体瘦削、脸色灰黄，像圣坛上的蜡烛，布满了红斑；他的嘴唇紧闭；他目光里的某种东西让你想起猫的眼睛。博尼法斯·宽泰从来不激动，他会以一种执拗的平静倾听最粗野的*辱侮**，并用柔和的声音作答。他去参加弥撒，去忏悔，还去领圣体。在他亲切举止的表面下，在他几乎沉闷的外表下，潜伏着神父一样的坚韧和野心。他这个生意人贪婪成性，充满了对财富和名誉的渴望。在1820年，“高个子宽泰”就想得到资产阶级在1830年的革命后最终获得的好处了。在他的心里，他痛恨贵族，对宗教漠不关心，就像波拿巴加入山岳*党**一样，他对宗教根本不虔诚。然而，他的脊柱具有相当出色的灵活性，在贵族和官员面前弯了下去，对于任何权威，他都让自己显得卑微、温顺、殷勤。对于那些习惯和各种人打交道的人来说，还有一个特征可以描述他，因为他们能够体会这个特征的价值——宽泰戴上墨镜以掩盖自己的眼睛所表达的内容，表面上是要保护眼睛，街上白色建筑物反射的阳光很刺眼，因为昂古莱姆建在山上，完全暴露在阳光的照射下。高个子宽泰其实比中等身材高不了多少。因为瘦的缘故，他看起来比实际身高要高，这说明他过度操劳，大脑在持续运行。他长长的、溜光的灰色头发剪成多少像神父的发型；黑裤子、黑袜子、黑马甲、深褐色长外套（在南方就是利未人的风格），这一切都让人觉得他像个阴险的人。
Boniface was called "tall Cointet" to distinguish him from his brother, "fat Cointet," and the nicknames expressed a difference in character as well as a physical difference between a pair of equally redoubtable personages. As for Jean Cointet, a jolly, stout fellow, with a face from a Flemish interior, colored by the southern sun of Angouleme, thick-set, short and paunchy as Sancho Panza; with a smile on his lips and a pair of sturdy shoulders, he was a striking contrast to his older brother. Nor was the difference only physical and intellectual. Jean might almost be called Liberal in politics; he belonged to the Left Centre, only went to mass on Sundays, and lived on a remarkably good understanding with the Liberal men of business. There were those in L’Houmeau who said that this divergence between the brothers was more apparent than real. Tall Cointet turned his brother’s seeming good nature to advantage very skilfully. Jean was his bludgeon. It was Jean who gave all the hard words; it was Jean who conducted the executions which little beseemed the elder brother’s benevolence. Jean took the storms department; he would fly into a rage, and propose terms that nobody would think of accepting, to pave the way for his brother’s less unreasonable propositions. And by such policy the pair attained their ends, sooner or later.
为了和他的兄弟“胖子宽泰”区分开来，博尼法斯被称为“高个子宽泰”，这两个绰号既能表达这两个同样可怕的人之间身体上的差别，也说明了性格的差别。至于让·宽泰，他是个快乐的矮胖子，长着一张弗朗徳勒人的脸；皮肤被昂古莱姆南方的阳光晒成深色，身材矮粗，大腹便便，就像堂吉诃德的侍者桑丘·潘沙；他的嘴唇上带着微笑，肩膀厚实，和他的哥哥形成强烈的对比。他们俩的区别不仅仅是在外形和才干方面。在政治上，让几乎可以被称为是自由*党**，他属于中间偏左派，只有星期日去参加弥撒，而且非常理解他这一行的自由*党**人。乌莫镇有人说，两兄弟之间的这种分歧与其说是真实存在的，不如说是表面上的。高个子宽泰很巧妙地利用了他弟弟表面上的好脾气。让就是他的棍棒。总是让说出难听的话，实行不客气的手段，而这与他兄长的仁慈是不相符的。让总是狂风暴雨一般，他会勃然大怒，提出谁都不愿接受的条件，这样就给他兄弟更加合理的条件铺了路。本着这样的原则，这对兄弟迟早会实现他们的目的。
Eve, with a woman’s tact, had soon divined the characters of the two brothers; she was on her guard with foes so formidable. David, informed beforehand of everything by his wife, lent a profoundly inattentive mind to his enemies’ proposals.
夏娃具有女人的机智，很快就捕捉到两兄弟的性格。她非常警惕如此可怕的敌人。大卫提前从妻子那里得知了这一切，所以对敌人的条件一点儿也没有关注。
"Come to an understanding with my wife," he said, as he left the Cointets in the office and went back to his laboratory. "Mme. Sechard knows more about the business than I do myself. I am interested in something that will pay better than this poor place; I hope to find a way to retrieve the losses that I have made through you—”
“来和我的妻子谈吧。”他说着离开了宽泰兄弟所呆的办公室，回到他的实验室。“赛夏太太比我更了解这门生意。我感兴趣的是比这个破地方更能赚钱的事，我希望找到一个方法挽回因为你们而蒙受的损失——”
"And how?" asked the fat Cointet, chuckling.
“那怎么挽回呢？”胖子宽泰咯咯笑着问。
Eve gave her husband a look that meant, "Be careful!"
夏娃看了她丈夫一眼，意思是：“小心！”
"You will be my tributaries," said David, "and all other consumers of papers besides."
“你们会离不开我的。”大卫说，“还有其他所有消耗纸张的人。”
"Then what are you investigating?" asked the hypocritical Boniface Cointet.
“那么，你在研究什么啊？”虚伪的博尼法斯·宽泰问道。
Boniface’s question slipped out smoothly and insinuatingly, and again Eve’s eyes implored her husband to give an answer that was no answer, or to say nothing at all.
博尼法斯谄媚地、流畅地问出了这个问题，夏娃的眼睛再次恳求丈夫给他一个不是答案的答案，或者压根什么都不说。
"I am trying to produce paper at fifty per cent less than the present cost price," and he went. He did not see the glances exchanged between the brothers. "That is an inventor, a man of his build cannot sit with his hands before him.—Let us exploit him," said Boniface’s eyes. "How can we do it?" said Jean’s.
“我在试图以低于现在成本一半的价格造出纸来。”他说完就离开了。他没有看到兄弟俩之间交换眼神。“这是个发明家，这样的人不可能把手放在身前没事做。咱们就来利用他吧。”博尼法斯的眼神似乎在说。“咱们怎么办呢？”让的眼神说道。
Mme. Sechard spoke. "David treats me just in the same way," she said. "If I show any curiosity, he feels suspicious of my name, no doubt, and out comes that remark of his; it is only a formula, after all."
赛夏太太说话了。“大卫也用同样的方式对待我。”她说，“如果我表现出好奇心，他就对我的名字起疑心，毫无疑问，他就会说出那样的话。毕竟，这只不过是他的一个方案罢了。”
"If your husband can work out the formula, he will certainly make a fortune more quickly than by printing; I am not surprised that he leaves the business to itself," said Boniface, looking across the empty workshop, where Kolb, seated upon a wetting-board, was rubbing his bread with a clove of garlic; "but it would not suit our views to see this place in the hands of an energetic, pushing, ambitious competitor," he continued, "and perhaps it might be possible to arrive at an understanding. Suppose, for instance, that you consented for a consideration to allow us to put in one of our own men to work your presses for our benefit, but nominally for you; the thing is sometimes done in Paris. We would find the fellow work enough to enable him to rent your place and pay you well, and yet make a profit for himself."
“如果你丈夫的方案成功了，他当然会比做印刷更快地发财，那我就不奇怪他不理会生意了。”博尼法斯说着，向空荡荡的车间看过去，在那里，科尔布正坐在一张木板上，用一瓣大蒜涂面包，“但是我们也不愿意看到这个地方落在一个精力充沛、有进取心、雄心勃勃的竞争者手里。”他继续说，“或许我们有可能达成共识。比如，设想一下，你是否考虑同意让我们的一个工人用你的印刷机给我们干活，但名誉上是给你干。在巴黎，人们有时候会这么做。我们会给他找足够的活儿来租用你的地方，支付你合理的租金，还要让他自己获利。”
"It depends on the amount," said Eve Sechard. "What is your offer?" she added, looking at Boniface to let him see that she understood his scheme perfectly well.
“这取决于租金的数量。”夏娃·赛夏说，“你出什么价？”她又问，看着博尼法斯，让他知道她非常清楚他的计划。
"What is your own idea?" Jean Cointet put in briskly.
“你自己有什么想法呢？”让·宽泰用轻快的语气插话道。
"Three thousand francs for six months," said she.
“六个月三千法郎。”她说。
"Why, my dear young lady, you were proposing to sell the place outright for twenty thousand francs," said Boniface with much suavity. "The interest on twenty thousand francs is only twelve hundred francs per annum at six per cent."
“哎哟！我亲爱的女士，你刚才还提议将这地方直接卖两万法郎呢。”博尼法斯非常温和地说，“两万法郎的利息按照六厘计算也仅仅是一年一千二百法郎。”
For a moment Eve was thrown into confusion; she saw the need for discretion in matters of business.
夏娃一时间有点迷糊，她意识到了做生意时谨慎的必要性。
"You wish to use our presses and our name as well," she said; "and, as I have already shown you, I can still do a little business. And then we pay rent to M. Sechard senior, who does not load us with presents." After two hours of debate, Eve obtained two thousand francs for six months, one thousand to be paid in advance. When everything was concluded, the brothers informed her that they meant to put in Cerizet as lessee of the premises. In spite of herself, Eve started with surprise.
“除了使用我们的机器外，你还想使用我们的名号。”她说，“另外，正如我给你们看的，我仍然能够做一点小生意的。并且，我们还要给老赛夏先生付租金，他并没有白白将厂子当礼物送给我们。”两个小时的争论过后，夏娃争得六个月两千法郎，先付一千法郎。当一切有了结论，兄弟俩通知她说，他们想让赛里泽担任厂子的承租人。夏娃不免吃了一惊。
"Isn’t it better to have somebody who knows the workshop?" asked the fat Cointet.
“交给一个了解厂子的人不是更好吗？”胖子宽泰问。
Eve made no reply; she took leave of the brothers, vowing inwardly to look after Cerizet.
夏娃没有回答，她送走了兄弟俩，在心里发誓要监视赛里泽。
"Well, here are our enemies in the place!" laughed David, when Eve brought out the papers for his signature at dinner-time.
“哎哟，我们的敌人就位了！”晚饭时，当夏娃拿出文件让大卫签字时，他大笑着说。
"Pshaw!" said she, "I will answer for Kolb and Marion; they alone would look after things. Besides, we shall be making an income of four thousand francs from the workshop, which only costs us money as it is; and looking forward, I see a year in which you may realize your hopes."
“哼！”她说，“我让科尔布和马里翁来应付，他们会看好厂子的。另外，我们从厂房里能获得四千法郎的收入，而厂房原本是让我们赔钱的，想想未来，我觉得你可能要一年的时间才能实现你的愿望。”
"You were born to be the wife of a scientific worker, as you said by the weir," said David, grasping her hand tenderly.
“你天生就是发明家的妻子，正如你在堰坝旁说的那样。”大卫说着，温柔地抓住她的手。
But though the Sechard household had money sufficient that winter, they were none the less subjected to Cerizet’s espionage, and all unconsciously became dependent upon Boniface Cointet.
可是，尽管赛夏一家那年冬天有了足够的钱过活，然而他们仍然受到赛里泽的监视，一切都在不知不觉中依赖着博尼法斯·宽泰。
"We have them now!" the manager of the paper-mill had exclaimed as he left the house with his brother the printer. "They will begin to regard the rent as regular income; they will count upon it and run themselves into debt. In six months’ time we will decline to renew the agreement, and then we shall see what this man of genius has at the bottom of his mind; we will offer to help him out of his difficulty by taking him into partnership and exploiting his discovery.”
“现在，咱们把他们掌控在手了！”这个造纸厂老板和他专管印刷厂的兄弟离开厂子的时候大喊，“他们会认为租金是日常收入，他们会依赖于租金并开始欠债了。六个月后，我们会拒绝续订合同，然后我们就会看到这个天才的男人脑子里到底想的是什么。我们会提出帮他走出困境，让他成为合伙人，并利用他的发明。”
Any shrewd man of business who should have seen tall Cointet’s face as he uttered those words, "taking him into partnership," would have known that it behooves a man to be even more careful in the selection of the partner whom he takes before the Tribunal of Commerce than in the choice of the wife whom he weds at the Mayor’s office. Was it not enough already, and more than enough, that the ruthless hunters were on the track of the quarry? How should David and his wife, with Kolb and Marion to help them, escape the toils of a Boniface Cointet?
任何精明的商人看到高个子宽泰说“让他成为合伙人”这话时脸上的表情，准会知道，一个人在商业法庭前选择合作伙伴时，理应比他在市长办公室选择结婚对象时更加小心。无情的猎人已经得到了猎物的踪迹，这还远远不够吗？有了科尔布和马利翁的帮助，大卫和他的妻子怎么逃脱博尼法斯·宽泰的圈套呢？
A draft for five hundred francs came from Lucien, and this, with Cerizet’s second payment, enabled them to meet all the expenses of Mme. Sechard’s confinement. Eve and the mother and David had thought that Lucien had forgotten them, and rejoiced over this token of remembrance as they rejoiced over his success, for his first exploits in journalism made even more noise in Angouleme than in Paris.
有了吕西安寄来的五百法郎汇票和赛里泽的第二笔租金，他们能够支付赛夏太太分娩的所有花销。夏娃、她的母亲、大卫都以为吕西安忘记了他们，这笔象征着他记着他们的钱使他们欢欣鼓舞，就像得知他的成功一样，因为他在杂志上最初的业绩在昂古莱姆的反响比在巴黎还要大。
But David, thus lulled into a false security, was to receive a staggering blow, a cruel letter from Lucien:—
当大卫被安全感的假象蒙蔽时，他却受到了令人惊愕的打击，那是一封吕西安寄来的残酷的信：
Lucien to David.
吕西安致大卫
"MY DEAR DAVID,—I have drawn three bills on you, and negotiated them with Metivier; they fall due in one, two, and three months’ time. I took this hateful course, which I know will burden you heavily, because the one alternative was suicide.
“我亲爱的大卫，我以你的名义签了三张期票，和梅蒂维耶协商好了，它们分别在一个月、两个月、三个月后到支付期。我知道这么做会给你带来沉重的负担，我采用这个令人憎恶的手段，是因为另一个选择就是自杀。
I will explain my necessity some time, and I will try besides to send the amounts as the bills fall due.
到时候我会解释这么做的必要性，另外，当期票到期时，我会把钱如数寄去。
"Burn this letter; say nothing to my mother and sister; for, I confess it, I have counted upon you, upon the heroism known so well to your despairing brother,
“烧掉这封信，不要对我母亲和妹妹说，因为，我承认，我一直依赖你，依赖你绝望的哥哥所熟知的英雄气概。
"LUCIEN DE RUBEMPRE."
“吕西安·德吕邦泼雷。”
By this time Eve had recovered from her confinement.
到这时，夏娃已经从分娩中恢复过来。
"Your brother, poor fellow, is in desperate straits," David told her. "I have sent him three bills for a thousand francs at one, two, and three months; just make a note of them," and he went out into the fields to escape his wife’s questionings.
“你的弟弟，可怜的家伙，陷入了绝望的窘境。”大卫告诉她，“我给他寄了三张一千法郎的期票，分别是一个月、两个月和三个月的，把它们记下来。”他出门去了野外，为的是躲避他妻子的盘问。
But Eve had felt very uneasy already. It was six months since Lucien had written to them. She talked over the news with her mother till her forebodings grew so dark that she made up her mind to dissipate them. She would take a bold step in her despair.
可是，夏娃已经感到非常不安。从吕西安上次给他们写信，已经有六个月的时间了。她和她的母亲反复谈论了这个消息，直到她预感到形势不妙，她下定决心驱散这些不好的预感。她要绝望地迈出大胆的一步。
Young M. de Rastignac had come to spend a few days with his family. He had spoken of Lucien in terms that set Paris gossip circulating in Angouleme, till at last it reached the journalist’s mother and sister. Eve went to Mme. de Rastignac, asked the favor of an interview with her son, spoke of all her fears, and asked him for the truth. In a moment Eve heard of her brother’s connection with the actress Coralie, of his duel with Michel Chrestien, arising out of his own treacherous behavior to Daniel d’Arthez; she received, in short, a version of Lucien’s history, colored by the personal feeling of a clever and envious dandy. Rastignac expressed sincere admiration for the abilities so terribly compromised, and a patriotic fear for the future of a native genius; spite and jealousy masqueraded as pity and friendliness. He spoke of Lucien’s blunders. It seemed that Lucien had forfeited the favor of a very great person, and that a patent conferring the right to bear the name and arms of Rubempre had actually been made out and subsequently torn up.
德拉斯蒂涅先生的儿子回来和他的家人住几天。他说到了吕西安，将巴黎的流言蜚语在昂古莱姆传开来，直到最后传到了这个记者的母亲和妹妹耳朵里。夏娃去德拉斯蒂涅太太那里，请她帮忙让自己见她儿子一面，和他说说自己所有的担忧，问问他真实的情况。片刻后，夏娃听说了她哥哥与女演员柯拉莉的关系，他和米歇尔·克雷斯蒂安的决斗，决斗来源于他自己对丹尼尔·阿泰兹的背叛行为。简单地说，她知道了吕西安前前后后的事情，充满了他的个人色彩——一个聪明却嫉妒心强的花花公子。拉斯蒂涅表达了他真诚的羡慕之情，说这个身陷困境之人很有能力，另外，作为同乡，他很担心这个当地天才的未来。他用遗憾和友好来掩饰他的怨恨和嫉妒。他说起了吕西安所做的错事。看起来，吕西安似乎是失去了一个非常重要的人物的帮助，一张授权使用吕邦泼雷姓名和纹章的上谕已经发出，最终还是被撕毁了。
"If your brother, madame, had been well advised, he would have been on the way to honors, and Mme. de Bargeton’s husband by this time; but what can you expect? He deserted her and insulted her. She is now Mme. la Comtesse Sixte du Chatelet, to her own great regret, for she loved Lucien.”
“太太，如果有人给你的哥哥好好提提建议，他现在早已走上成名的路，并成了德巴热东太太的丈夫了。可是，你猜怎么着？他不要她，还*辱侮**了她。她现在是西克斯特·迪夏特莱伯爵夫人了，这让她非常遗憾，因为她爱吕西安。”
"Is it possible!" exclaimed Mme. Sechard.
“这怎么可能！”赛夏太太惊呼。
"Your brother is like a young eagle, blinded by the first rays of glory and luxury. When an eagle falls, who can tell how far he may sink before he drops to the bottom of some precipice? The fall of a great man is always proportionately great."
“你的哥哥就像一只年轻的鹰，被最初的荣誉和奢华的光彩刺瞎了眼睛。当一只鹰摔下来，谁能说得出在他摔到某个悬崖底部之前要跌落多远呢？一个伟大人物越是伟大，摔得就越重。”
Eve came away with a great dread in her heart; those last words pierced her like an arrow. She had been wounded to the quick. She said not a word to anybody, but again and again a tear rolled down her cheeks, and fell upon the child at her breast. So hard is it to give up illusions sanctioned by family feeling, illusions that have grown with our growth, that Eve had doubted Eugene de Rastignac. She would rather hear a true friend’s account of her brother. Lucien had given them d’Arthez’s address in the days when he was full of enthusiasm for the brotherhood; she wrote a pathetic letter to d’Arthez, and received the following reply:—
夏娃离开时心里很害怕，最后的那些话像箭一样刺着她。她被伤到了要害。她对任何人都没说一个字，可是，眼泪一次次从脸颊上滚落下来，掉在怀里的孩子身上。放弃由家人情感所支持的幻想如此之难，这种幻想伴随我们长大。夏娃对欧仁·德拉斯蒂涅产生了怀疑。她宁愿听听一个真正的朋友对她哥哥的描述。吕西安对兄弟情充满热情的时候，曾给过他们阿泰兹的地址。她给阿泰兹写了一封伤感的信，并收到了以下的回复：
D’Arthez to Mme.Sechard.
阿泰兹致赛夏太太。
"MADAME,—You ask me to tell you the truth about the life that your brother is leading in Paris; you are anxious for enlightenment as to his prospects; and to encourage a frank answer on my part, you repeat certain things that M. de Rastignac has told you, asking me if they are true. With regard to the purely personal matter, madame, M. de Rastignac’s confidences must be corrected in Lucien’s favor. Your brother wrote a criticism of my book, and brought it to me in remorse, telling me that he could not bring himself to publish it, although obedience to the orders of his party might endanger one who was very dear to him. Alas! madame, a man of letters must needs comprehend all passions, since it is his pride to express them; I understood that where a mistress and a friend are involved, the friend is inevitably sacrificed. I smoothed your brother’s way; I corrected his murderous article myself, and gave it my full approval.
“太太，你要我给你讲讲你哥哥在巴黎所过的生活，你急于知道他的前途如何。为了鼓励我做出坦诚回答，你还重复了德拉蒂斯涅先生告诉你的事，问我这些事是否属实。考虑到这纯粹是私事，太太，为了吕西安，德拉蒂斯涅先生的话必须加以更正。你哥哥写了一篇文章批评我的书，并懊悔地把它拿给我，告诉我说他下不了决心将它发表，尽管服从他*党**派的命令可能会使一个对他很重要的人处于危险之中。哎哟！太太，一个作家必须理解所有的感情，因为表达这些感情是他的骄傲。我理解，在一个*妇情**和一个朋友之间，牺牲这个朋友是不可避免的。我平复了你哥哥的心情，亲自修改了他这篇有*伤杀**力的文章，并且表示我完全认同。
"You ask whether Lucien has kept my friendship and esteem; to this it is difficult to make an answer. Your brother is on a road that leads him to ruin. At this moment I still feel sorry for him; before long I shall have forgotten him, of set purpose, not so much on account of what he has done already as for that which he inevitably will do. Your Lucien is not a poet, he has the poetic temper; he dreams, he does not think; he spends himself in emotion, he does not create. He is, in fact—permit me to say it—a womanish creature that loves to shine, the Frenchman’s great failing. Lucien will always sacrifice his best friend for the pleasure of displaying his own wit. He would not hesitate to sign a pact with the Devil tomorrow if so he might secure a few years of luxurious and glorious life. Nay, has he not done worse already? He has bartered his future for the short-lived delights of living openly with an actress. So far, he has not seen the dangers of his position; the girl’s youth and beauty and devotion (for she worships him) have closed his eyes to the truth; he cannot see that no glory or success or fortune can induce the world to accept the position. Very well, as it is now, so it will be with each new temptation—your brother will not look beyond the enjoyment of the moment. Do not be alarmed: Lucien will never go so far as a crime, he has not the strength of character; but he would take the fruits of a crime, he would share the benefit but not the risk—a thing that seems abhorrent to the whole world, even to scoundrels. Oh, he would despise himself, he would repent; but bring him once more to the test, and he would fail again; for he is weak of will, he cannot resist the allurements of pleasure, nor forego the least of his ambitions. He is indolent, like all who would fain be poets; he thinks it clever to juggle with the difficulties of life instead of facing and overcoming them. He will be brave at one time, cowardly at another, and deserves neither credit for his courage, nor blame for his cowardice. Lucien is like a harp with strings that are slackened or tightened by the atmosphere. He might write a great book in a glad or angry mood, and care nothing for the success that he had desired for so long.
“你问吕西安是否还拥有我的友谊和尊重，这个问题很难回答。你哥哥正走在一条将他引向毁灭的道路上。此刻我仍为他感到惋惜，不久后我就会有意去忘掉他，不是因为他已经做过的事，而是因为他以后免不了还会做的事。你的吕西安不是个诗人，他有诗人的脾气；他只做梦，他不思考；他情感丰富，他从不创造。事实上，他是个——请允许我说出来——喜欢卖弄的娘娘腔，这是法国人最大的毛病。吕西安总是卖弄自己的才智来得到乐趣，却要牺牲他最好的朋友。如果他可以过几年奢华、辉煌的生活，明天他就会毫不犹豫地和魔鬼签订一份契约。再说，他不是已经做过更糟糕的事了吗？他用自己的未来换取了和一个女演员公开同居的短暂快乐。到目前为止，他没有看到自己所处的险境。那女孩的年轻、美丽和忠诚（因为她崇拜他）蒙蔽了他的双眼，使他看不到实情。他看不出来，没有任何一种荣誉、成功或财富可以诱惑世人接受他的生活方式。好极了，正如现在这样，每次有新的诱惑都是如此——你的哥哥看不到片刻快乐之后的情形。不要惊恐，吕西安永远不会走向犯罪，他没有这种胆量。可是他会承担犯罪的后果，他会分享利益而不是风险——这种行为似乎是全世界都憎恶的，即便恶棍也是如此。哦，他也鄙视自己，他也会后悔。可是，再让他试一次，他还会犯错，因为他意志力薄弱，他抵御不了快乐的诱惑，也不能放弃他的一点点野心。他很懒惰，就像所有想当诗人的人一样。他认为，歪曲生活中的困难，而不是面对并克服困难是聪明的做法。他一时勇敢，一时怯懦，既不值得人们称赞他的勇气，也不值得人们责备他的怯懦。吕西安就像一把竖琴，它的弦随着空气而松弛或绷紧。在高兴或盛怒的情绪中，他可能写出一部伟大的书，并不在乎他期盼已久的成功。
"When he first came to Paris he fell under the influence of an unprincipled young fellow, and was dazzled by his companion’s adroitness and experience in the difficulties of a literary life. This juggler completely bewitched Lucien; he dragged him into a life which a man cannot lead and respect himself, and, unluckily for Lucien, love shed its magic over the path. The admiration that is given too readily is a sign of want of judgment; a poet ought not to be paid in the same coin as a dancer on the tight-rope. We all felt hurt when intrigue and literary rascality were preferred to the courage and honor of those who counseled Lucien rather to face the battle than to filch success, to spring down into the arena rather than become a trumpet in the orchestra.
“当他初来巴黎的时候，就受到了一个毫无品德的年轻人的影响，被他的同伴在文学圈的机敏和老练搞得眼花缭乱。这个*子骗**让吕西安完全着了魔，他把他拖入一种谁都适应不了的、得不到尊重的生活，并且，对于吕西安来说，不幸的是，爱情又在这条路上施了魔法。太容易钦佩别人是缺少辨别力的标志。不应该用同样的尺度去评判一个诗人和一个绳索上的舞者。我们劝吕西安面对战斗，而不要窃取成功；要跳上竞技场，而不要成为乐队里的一只喇叭；可他选择了使用阴谋诡计和文坛的卑鄙行为，我们都觉得很受伤害。