登陆注册
19303700000032

第32章 LES TOUCHES(2)

Mademoiselle des Touches has taken for herself the one that looks toward the sea and the marshes, and arranged it with a small salon, a large chamber, and two cabinets, one for a dressing-room, the other for a study and writing-room. The other suite, she has made into two separate apartments for guests, each with a bedroom, an antechamber, and a cabinet. The servants have rooms in the attic. The rooms for guests are furnished with what is strictly necessary, and no more. Acertain fantastic luxury has been reserved for her own apartment. In that sombre and melancholy habitation, looking out upon the sombre and melancholy landscape, she wanted the most fantastic creations of art that she could find. The little salon is hung with Gobelin tapestry, framed in marvellously carved oak. The windows are draped with the heavy silken hangings of a past age, a brocade shot with crimson and gold against green and yellow, gathered into mighty pleats and trimmed with fringes and cords and tassels worthy of a church. This salon contains a chest or cabinet worth in these days seven or eight thousand francs, a carved ebony table, a secretary with many drawers, inlaid with arabesques of ivory and bought in Venice, with other noble Gothic furniture. Here too are pictures and articles of choice workmanship bought in 1818, at a time when no one suspected the ultimate value of such treasures. Her bedroom is of the period of Louis XV. and strictly exact to it. Here we see the carved wooden bedstead painted white, with the arched head-board surmounted by Cupids scattering flowers, and the canopy above it adorned with plumes; the hangings of blue silk; the Pompadour dressing-table with its laces and mirror; together with bits of furniture of singular shape,--a "duchesse," a chaise-longue, a stiff little sofa,--with window-curtains of silk, like that of the furniture, lined with pink satin, and caught back with silken ropes, and a carpet of Savonnerie;in short, we find here all those elegant, rich, sumptuous, and dainty things in the midst of which the women of the eighteenth century lived and made love.

The study, entirely of the present day, presents, in contrast with the Louis XV. gallantries, a charming collection of mahogany furniture; it resembles a boudoir; the bookshelves are full, but the fascinating trivialities of a woman's existence encumber it; in the midst of which an inquisitive eye perceives with uneasy surprise pistols, a narghile, a riding-whip, a hammock, a rifle, a man's blouse, tobacco, pipes, a knapsack,--a bizarre combination which paints Felicite.

Every great soul, entering that room, would be struck with the peculiar beauty of the landscape which spreads its broad savanna beyond the park, the last vegetation on the continent. The melancholy squares of water, divided by little paths of white salt crust, along which the salt-makers pass (dressed in white) to rake up and gather the salt into /mulons/; a space which the saline exhalations prevent all birds from crossing, stifling thus the efforts of botanic nature;those sands where the eye is soothed only by one little hardy persistent plant bearing rosy flowers and the Chartreux pansy; that lake of salt water, the sandy dunes, the view of Croisic, a miniature town afloat like Venice on the sea; and, finally the mighty ocean tossing its foaming fringe upon the granite rocks as if the better to bring out their weird formations--that sight uplifts the mind although it saddens it; an effect produced at last by all that is sublime, creating a regretful yearning for things unknown and yet perceived by the soul on far-off heights. These wild and savage harmonies are for great spirits and great sorrows only.

This desert scene, where at times the sun rays, reflected by the water, by the sands, whitened the village of Batz and rippled on the roofs of Croisic with pitiless brilliancy, filled Camille's dreaming mind for days together. She seldom looked to the cool, refreshing scenes, the groves, the flowery meadows around Guerande. Her soul was struggling to endure a horrible inward anguish.

No sooner did Calyste see the vanes of the two gables shooting up beyond the furze of the roadside and the distorted heads of the pines, than the air seemed lighter; Guerande was a prison to him; his life was at Les Touches. Who will not understand the attraction it presented to a youth in his position. A love like that of Cherubin, had flung him at the feet of a person who was a great and grand thing to him before he thought of her as a woman, and it had survived the repeated and inexplicable refusals of Felicite. This sentiment, which was more the need of loving than love itself, had not escaped the terrible power of Camille for analysis; hence, possibly, her rejection,--a generosity unperceived, of course, by Calyste.

At Les Touches were displayed to the ravished eyes of the ignorant young countryman, the riches of a new world; he heard, as it were, another language, hitherto unknown to him and sonorous. He listened to the poetic sounds of the finest music, that surpassing music of the nineteenth century, in which melody and harmony blend or struggle on equal terms,--a music in which song and instrumentation have reached a hitherto unknown perfection. He saw before his eyes the works of modern painters, those of the French school, to-day the heir of Italy, Spain, and Flanders, in which talent has become so common that hearts, weary of talent, are calling aloud for genius. He read there those works of imagination, those amazing creations of modern literature which produced their full effect upon his unused heart. In short, the great Nineteenth Century appeared to him, in all its collective magnificence, its criticising spirit, its desires for renovation in all directions, and its vast efforts, nearly all of them on the scale of the giant who cradled the infancy of the century in his banners and sang to it hymns with the lullaby of cannon.

同类推荐
  • 绿珠传

    绿珠传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 浦峰长明炅禅师语录

    浦峰长明炅禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 庚子国变记

    庚子国变记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Commission in Lunacy

    The Commission in Lunacy

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 言兵事疏

    言兵事疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 他是他的城

    他是他的城

    他是阳光,而他是黑暗。他是一名普普通通的高中生,而他是统领整个黑帮的老大。
  • 独家密爱:男神老公拐回家

    独家密爱:男神老公拐回家

    多多支持新文文:狼性老公,求放过!恋上监护人?那又如何,反正没血缘!他拿着闪的晃眼的鸽子蛋跪地问,看在我这么英俊潇洒,带出去能给你长面子带回来给你暖被窝,一心一意只爱你一人的份上,做我的女人如何?她答曰:太帅被人抢危机太大,被窝有暖宝宝,为何我要答应?他略带深意的笑了,“没有安浅的明天何来锦翊的未来?”好吧,把这份一生一世只爱安浅一个的协议签了,咱俩就成了!
  • 弃妃好得很

    弃妃好得很

    一朝穿越,她成草包下堂王妃,嘿嘿,这个身份她喜欢,王爷出了事,她乐得屁颠屁颠,谁让他整天没事找她茬,本以为只要不打扮不吟诗,不逛花楼和赌坊,她就能平凡过一生,可谁知,她都这样低调了,那些个桃花还是找上门!情节虚构,请勿模仿!
  • 乱世之地球来客

    乱世之地球来客

    他是一个宇航员,遭遇事故返航后发现自己到了一个全新的世界!这——是个什么样的世界?这里有红颜多情,却孤零对芳影暗叹世事无情;这里有武士智者,欲只身事强主但求名扬天下;这里有旷世奸雄,能权谋霸一方占据锦绣河山。尔虞我诈,刀光剑影。这——是一个乱世。是乱世造就英雄?还是英雄生于乱世?他该怎样去了解,融入,并最终——驾驭这个世界?请看本书——乱世之地球来客。
  • 唐诗三百首大师导读

    唐诗三百首大师导读

    华夏国学书院主编的《唐诗三百首大师导读》遴选的唐诗囊括自初唐伊始至唐代末年近百位诗人的三百余首作品,其中不乏各时期为人耳熟能详的名篇,亦有此前为其他选本所忽略的佳作。解读语言晓畅明白,深入浅出,兼顾文学性和权威性,是一部普及性强的唐诗选本。在选编时,本书除了考虑唐诗自身的影响力与地位外,还参考了中学教材中的唐诗选用情况。因此本书的赏析注重配合中学生的阅读习惯和阅读需要,注释详尽,诠释到位,有利于读者把握唐诗语言的准确意义与其使用的修辞技巧。
  • 杀手穿越:亡国公主倾天下

    杀手穿越:亡国公主倾天下

    现代杀手楚雪穿越成楚国亡国公主楚嫣然,不想大行桃花运,什么?她是秦国太子最爱的女人,还是齐国太子的未婚妻?这还不算,在这个大国小国数十个的古代,她还是各国皇子的梦中情人?谁说亡国公主就暗无天日?她打个喷嚏,都会让各国皇子紧张半天,谁再说亡国公主的生活暗无天日,她让天上的雷劈了他!天下的好男人帅男人,都让一个亡国公主占了,还有天理吗?还让其他女人怎么活?于是,各位公主郡主小姐,阴谋明谋,宫斗宅斗一起上,斗的就是她这个亡国公主!老虎不发威,别人还以为是病猫!老娘爱的就是阴谋明谋,宫斗宅斗,最好斗个天翻地覆,谁怕了谁?
  • 武魂独尊

    武魂独尊

    亘古一直流传的古老传说,当昊天的武魂重临人间之时,玄天大陆的武者将会迎来黎明的曙光!(新书期间求收藏求推荐!谢谢朋友支持!)
  • 天后养成攻略

    天后养成攻略

    他努力帮她获得一切她想要的,即使牺牲所有,他也愿意。她却只想依靠自己,斩荆披棘,成为足以与他相配的女人。没有算计,没有利用,没有上位。在最险恶的娱乐圈里,他们保持着初心,给对方最纯净的爱。
  • 芝麻开花节节高

    芝麻开花节节高

    站在生命的起跑线上,开始一场人生的马拉松赛跑,为什么起点相同,结局却迥然不同?秘诀就在于学习。学习能够点石成金、削璞为玉。提高学习能力,会让你从平庸中脱颖而出,踏上人生闪光大道,奔赴心中远大前程。
  • 青天皇朝

    青天皇朝

    穿越了?!还好我也有金手指!刚刚打了一个圣地的圣子,看了看身后的吕布、赵云几人,石青一脸严肃心中暗道:系统啊,这次能不能给力点,给我抽一个二郎神,让我直接灭了那个圣地。