In vain Pons tried to put in a word; La Cibot talked as the wind blows. Means of arresting steam-engines have been invented, but it would tax a mechanician's genius to discover any plan for stopping a portress' tongue.
I know what you mean, continued she. "But it does not kill you, my dear gentleman, to make a will when you are out of health; and in your place I might not leave that poor dear alone, for fear that something might happen; he is like God Almighty's lamb, he knows nothing about nothing, and I should not like him to be at the mercy of those sharks of lawyers and a wretched pack of relations. Let us see now, has one of them come here to see you in twenty years? And would you leave your property to them? Do you know, they say that all these things here are worth something."
Why, yes, said Pons.
Remonencq, who deals in pictures, and knows that you are an amateur, says that he would be quite ready to pay you an annuity of thirty thousand francs so long as you live, to have the pictures afterwards.... There is a change! If I were you, I should take it. Why, I thought he said it for a joke when he told me that. You ought to let M. Schmucke know the value of all those things, for he is a man that could be cheated like a child. He has not the slightest idea of the value of these fine things that you have! He so little suspects it, that he would give them away for a morsel of bread if he did not keep them all his life for love of you, always supposing that he lives after you, for he will die of your death. But I am here; I will take his part against anybody and everybody!... I and Cibot will defend him.
Dear Mme. Cibot! said Pons, "what would have become of me if it had not been for you and Schmucke?" He felt touched by this horrible prattle; the feeling in it seemed to be ingenuous, as it usually is in the speech of the people.
Ah! we really are your only friends on earth, that is very true, that is. But two good hearts are worth all the families in the world.—Don't talk of families to me! A family, as the old actor said of the tongue, is the best and the worst of all things.... Where are those relations of yours now? Have you any? I have never seen them—
They have brought me to lie here, said Pons, with intense bitterness.
So you have relations!... cried La Cibot, springing up as if her easy-chair had been heated red-hot. "Oh, well, they are a nice lot, are your relations! What! these three weeks—for this is the twentieth day, to-day, that you have been ill and like to die—in these three weeks they have not come once to ask for news of you? That's a trifle too strong, that is!... Why, in your place, I would leave all I had to the Foundling Hospital sooner than give them one farthing!"
Well, my dear Mme. Cibot, I meant to leave all that I had to a cousin once removed, the daughter of my first cousin, President Camusot, you know, who came here one morning nearly two months ago.
Oh! a little stout man who sent his servants to beg your pardon—for his wife's blunder?—The housemaid came asking me questions about you, an affected old creature she is, my fingers itched to give her velvet tippet a dusting with my broom handle! A servant wearing a velvet tippet! did anybody ever see the like? No, upon my word, the world is turned upside down; what is the use of making a Revolution? Dine twice a day if you can afford it, you scamps of rich folk! But laws are no good, I tell you, and nothing will be safe if Louis-Philippe does not keep people in their places; for, after all, if we are all equal, eh, sir? a housemaid didn't ought to have a velvet tippet, while I, Mme. Cibot, haven't one, after thirty years of honest work.—There is a pretty thing for you! People ought to be able to tell who you are. A housemaid is a housemaid, just as I myself am a portress. Why do they have silk epaulettes in the army? Let everybody keep their place. Look here, do you want me to tell you what all this comes to? Very well, France is going to the dogs.... If the Emperor had been here, things would have been very different, wouldn't they, sir?... So I said to Cibot, I said, 'See here, Cibot, a house where the servants wear velvet tippets belongs to people that have no heart in them—'
No heart in them, that is just it, repeated Pons.
And with that he began to tell Mme. Cibot about his troubles and mortifications, she pouring out abuse of the relations the while and showing exceeding tenderness on every fresh sentence in the sad history. She fairly wept at last.
To understand the sudden intimacy between the old musician and Mme. Cibot, you have only to imagine the position of an old bachelor lying on his bed of pain, seriously ill for the first time in his life. Pons felt that he was alone in the world; the days that he spent by himself were all the longer because he was struggling with the indefinable nausea of a liver complaint which blackens the brightest life. Cut off from all his many interests, the sufferer falls a victim to a kind of nostalgia; he regrets the many sights to be seen for nothing in Paris.
The isolation, the darkened days, the suffering that affects the mind and spirits even more than the body, the emptiness of the life,—all these things tend to induce him to cling to the human being who waits on him as a drowned man clings to a plank; and this especially if the bachelor patient's character is as weak as his nature is sensitive and incredulous. Pons was charmed to hear La Cibot's tittle-tattle. Schmucke, Mme. Cibot, and Dr. Poulain meant all humanity to him now, when his sickroom became the universe. If invalid's thoughts, as a rule, never travel beyond in the little space over which his eyes can wander; if their selfishness, in its narrow sphere, subordinates all creatures and all things to itself, you can imagine the lengths to which an old bachelor may go. Before three weeks were out he had even gone so far as to regret, once and again, that he had not married Madeleine Vivet! Mme. Cibot, too, had made immense progress in his esteem in those three weeks; without her he felt that he should have been utterly lost; for as for Schmucke, the poor invalid looked upon him as a second Pons. La Cibot's prodigious art consisted in expressing Pons' own ideas, and this she did quite unconsciously.
Ah! here comes the doctor! she exclaimed, as the bell rang, and away she went, knowing very well that Remonencq had come with the Jew.
Make no noise, gentlemen, said she, "he must not know anything. He is all on the fidget when his precious treasures are concerned."
A walk round will be enough, said the Hebrew, armed with a magnifying-glass and a lorgnette.
邦斯再三想回答,總是無(wú)法插嘴,西卜女人拉不斷扯不斷的話好比刮大風(fēng)。蒸汽機(jī)還有方法教它停止,要攔住一個(gè)看門(mén)女人的舌頭,恐怕發(fā)明家絞盡腦汁也想不出好辦法。
“我知道你要說(shuō)什么,”她搶著往下說(shuō),“好先生,一個(gè)人害了病,立張遺囑并不會(huì)送命的;我要是你啊,我就要防個(gè)萬(wàn)一,我不愿意丟下那可憐的綿羊,真的,他是好天爺腳下的綿羊,一點(diǎn)兒事都不懂;我才不讓他給吃公事飯的黑心人擺布,不讓他落在那些壞蛋的家屬手里呢!你說(shuō),二十天到現(xiàn)在,可有誰(shuí)來(lái)看過(guò)你?……你還想把遺產(chǎn)送給他們!你可知道,有人說(shuō)這里的東西值點(diǎn)兒錢(qián)嗎?”
“我知道。”
“雷蒙諾克知道你是收藏家,他自己也在買(mǎi)進(jìn)賣(mài)出,他說(shuō)愿意給你三萬(wàn)法郎終身年金,只要你百年之后讓他把畫(huà)拿走……這倒是樁買(mǎi)賣(mài)!要是我,就答應(yīng)下來(lái)了!可是他這么說(shuō),我以為他跟我開(kāi)玩笑……你得把這些東西的價(jià)值告訴許??讼壬?yàn)槿思乙逅?,就像哄孩子一般容易;你這些好東西能值多少,他一點(diǎn)兒念頭都沒(méi)有,連值錢(qián)兩個(gè)字也沒(méi)想到!他會(huì)三錢(qián)不值兩文地給了人,倘使他不是為了愛(ài)你而一輩子留著,倘使他在你身后還能活著,因?yàn)槟阋凰?,他也?huì)死的!可是放心,有我在這兒,我會(huì)保護(hù)他,抵抗所有的人!……我跟西卜兩個(gè)。”
邦斯被她這一陣胡說(shuō)八道感動(dòng)了,覺(jué)得像所有平民階級(jí)的人一樣,她的感情的確很天真,便回答道:“好西卜太太,要沒(méi)有你跟許??耍艺娌恢酪涞绞裁刺锏啬?!”
“哦!世界上只有我們兩個(gè)是你的朋友!那是不錯(cuò)的!兩顆好心就勝過(guò)所有的家屬……哼,甭提什么家屬啦!家屬好比一個(gè)人的舌頭,像那個(gè)有名的戲子說(shuō)的,最好的是它,最壞的也是它……你的親人,他們?cè)谀膬??你有親人嗎?……我從來(lái)沒(méi)有見(jiàn)過(guò)……”
“就是他們把我氣成這樣的!……”邦斯不勝悲痛地嚷著。
“哦!你還有親人……”西卜女人站起身子,仿佛她的沙發(fā)是一塊突然燒紅了的鐵,“哎!好,他們真好,你的親人!怎么!二十天了,對(duì),到今兒早上已經(jīng)二十天了,你病得死去活來(lái),他們還沒(méi)來(lái)問(wèn)過(guò)一聲!那可心腸太狠了!……我做了你,寧可把財(cái)產(chǎn)捐給育嬰堂,決不給他們一個(gè)子兒!”
“好西卜太太,我本想把所有的東西都給我的外孫女的,她的父親是我的嫡堂外甥加繆索庭長(zhǎng),你知道,就是兩個(gè)月以前,有天早上來(lái)看我的那個(gè)法官……”
“哦!那個(gè)矮胖子,打發(fā)當(dāng)差們來(lái)代他的女人向你賠罪的!……他的老媽子還跟我打聽(tīng)你呢,那只老妖精,我恨不得把掃帚柄在她的絲絨短斗篷上掃它兩下呢。哪有一個(gè)老媽子穿絲絨斗篷的!,真是世界翻身了!革命,革命,干嗎革命的?你們有辦法,你們?nèi)コ詢(xún)深D夜飯吧,有錢(qián)的渾蛋!我說(shuō),法律是沒(méi)用的,倘使路易·菲利普就讓人家沒(méi)大沒(méi)小地不分上下,那還有什么王法?因?yàn)椋覀冋嬉瞧降鹊脑?,不是嗎,先生,一個(gè)老媽子就不該穿絲絨斗篷,因?yàn)槲椅鞑诽?,做了三十年老?shí)人還穿不上……這算哪一門(mén)的玩意兒?你總得教人看出你的身份。老媽子就是老媽子,就像咱家我是個(gè)看門(mén)的!要不軍人戴那些肩章干嗎?各人有各人的等級(jí),怎么能胡來(lái)!這些七顛八倒的事,先生,要不要我告訴你最后一句話,那就是,法蘭西是完了!……拿破侖在的時(shí)候,可不是這樣的,你說(shuō)是不是,先生?所以我對(duì)西卜說(shuō):‘你瞧,家里有了穿絲絨斗篷的老媽子,那家人準(zhǔn)是沒(méi)有心肝的……’”
“對(duì)啦,就是沒(méi)有心肝!”邦斯回答。
于是他把心里的委屈跟痛苦講給西卜太太聽(tīng),她把那些親戚盡量地咒罵,對(duì)每一句傷心的敘述都不怕過(guò)火地表示同情。末了她哭了。
要想象老音樂(lè)家與西卜太太之間突如其來(lái)的親密,先得了解老鰥夫的處境。他生平第一遭害著重病,躺在床上受罪,舉目無(wú)親,孤零零地消磨日子;而他的日子特別來(lái)得長(zhǎng),因?yàn)樗煤透闻K炎那種說(shuō)不出的痛苦掙扎,那是連最美滿(mǎn)的生活也要給破壞完的,何況他沒(méi)有了事做,惦記著不花一錢(qián)就能看到的巴黎景象,更是意氣消沉,像害了相思病。
這種孤獨(dú),這種暗淡的日子,這種生活的空虛,打擊精神比打擊肉體更厲害的痛苦,一切都逼得單身漢去依賴(lài)那個(gè)招呼他的人,好比淹在水里的人抓著一塊木板;尤其他是生性懦弱,軟心腸而又軟耳朵的。所以邦斯對(duì)西卜女人的胡扯聽(tīng)得津津有味。在他心目中,全世界的人只有許模克、西卜太太和波冷醫(yī)生,而他的臥室便是他整個(gè)的天地。普通的病人,精神只集中于目光所及的小范圍,自私的心理只關(guān)切身邊瑣事,所依賴(lài)的只有一間屋子里的人和物;現(xiàn)在邦斯又是個(gè)老鰥夫,沒(méi)有親人,沒(méi)嘗過(guò)愛(ài)情的滋味,他的心境更可想而知了。病了二十天,他有時(shí)竟后悔沒(méi)有娶瑪特蘭納·維凡!所以二十天之內(nèi),西卜太太就在病人心中成為了不起的人物,仿佛沒(méi)有她就沒(méi)有命了。至于許??耍诳蓱z的病人旁邊不過(guò)等于另外一個(gè)邦斯。西卜女人的巧妙,是在于無(wú)意之間代邦斯說(shuō)出了心里的話。
“哦!醫(yī)生來(lái)啦?!彼?tīng)見(jiàn)門(mén)鈴響,就一邊說(shuō)著一邊丟下了邦斯,明知那是猶太人和雷蒙諾克上門(mén)了。
“你們兩位輕聲點(diǎn)兒!”她說(shuō),“別讓他聽(tīng)見(jiàn)什么!一牽涉到他的寶貝,他火氣就大啦?!?/p>
“只要繞一轉(zhuǎn)就夠了?!豹q太人回答。他手里拿著一個(gè)放大鏡和一個(gè)手眼鏡。
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