登陆注册
15442100000083

第83章 Chapter Fifteen(2)

The theatre rang with cheers; they recommenced the entire movement; the lovers spoke of the flowers on their tomb, of vows, exile, fate, hopes; and when they uttered the final adieu, Emma gave a sharp cry that mingled with the vibrations of the last chords.

"But why," asked Bovary, "does that gentleman persecute her?"

"No, no!" she answered; "he is her lover!"

"Yet he vows vengeance on her family, while the other one who came on before said, 'I love Lucie and she loves me!' Besides, he went off with her father arm in arm. For he certainly is her father, isn't he--the ugly little man with a cock's feather in his hat?"

Despite Emma's explanations, as soon as the recitative duet began in which Gilbert lays bare his abominable machinations to his master Ashton, Charles, seeing the false troth-ring that is to deceive Lucie, thought it was a love-gift sent by Edgar. He confessed, moreover, that he did not understand the story because of the music, which interfered very much with the words.

"What does it matter?" said Emma. "Do be quiet!"

"Yes, but you know," he went on, leaning against her shoulder, "I like to understand things."

"Be quiet! be quiet!" she cried impatiently.

Lucie advanced, half supported by her women, a wreath of orange blossoms in her hair, and paler than the white satin of her gown.

Emma dreamed of her marriage day; she saw herself at home again amid the corn in the little path as they walked to the church.

Oh, why had not she, like this woman, resisted, implored? She, on the contrary, had been joyous, without seeing the abyss into which she was throwing herself. Ah! if in the freshness of her beauty, before the soiling of marriage and the disillusions of adultery, she could have anchored her life upon some great, strong heart, then virtue, tenderness, voluptuousness, and duty blending, she would never have fallen from so high a happiness.

But that happiness, no doubt, was a lie invented for the despair of all desire. She now knew the smallness of the passions that art exaggerated. So, striving to divert her thoughts, Emma determined now to see in this reproduction of her sorrows only a plastic fantasy, well enough to please the eye, and she even smiled internally with disdainful pity when at the back of the stage under the velvet hangings a man appeared in a black cloak.

His large Spanish hat fell at a gesture he made, and immediately the instruments and the singers began the sextet. Edgar, flashing with fury, dominated all the others with his clearer voice;

Ashton hurled homicidal provocations at him in deep notes; Lucie uttered her shrill plaint, Arthur at one side, his modulated tones in the middle register, and the bass of the minister pealed forth like an organ, while the voices of the women repeating his words took them up in chorus delightfully. They were all in a row gesticulating, and anger, vengeance, jealousy, terror, and stupefaction breathed forth at once from their half-opened mouths. The outraged lover brandished his naked sword; his guipure ruffle rose with jerks to the movements of his chest, and he walked from right to left with long strides, clanking against the boards the silver-gilt spurs of his soft boots, widening out at the ankles. He, she thought must have an inexhaustible love to lavish it upon the crowd with such effusion. All her small fault-findings faded before the poetry of the part that absorbed her; and, drawn towards this man by the illusion of the character, she tried to imagine to herself his life--that life resonant, extraordinary, splendid, and that might have been hers if fate had willed it. They would have known one another, loved one another. With him, through all the kingdoms of Europe she would have travelled from capital to capital, sharing his fatigues and his pride, picking up the flowers thrown to him, herself embroidering his costumes. Then each evening, at the back of a box, behind the golden trellis-work she would have drunk in eagerly the expansions of this soul that would have sung for her alone; from the stage, even as he acted, he would have looked at her. But the mad idea seized her that he was looking at her; it was certain. She longed to run to his arms, to take refuge in his strength, as in the incarnation of love itself, and to say to him, to cry out, "Take me away! carry me with you! let us go!

Thine, thine! all my ardour and all my dreams!"

The curtain fell.

The smell of the gas mingled with that of the breaths, the waving of the fans, made the air more suffocating. Emma wanted to go out; the crowd filled the corridors, and she fell back in her arm-chair with palpitations that choked her. Charles, fearing that she would faint, ran to the refreshment-room to get a glass of barley-water.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 神帝雷魂

    神帝雷魂

    天地之魂,万物生长!本是天才的少年,被雷电击中,三魂七魄剩下了一魂一魄!灵武大陆,修魂者,以魂为主,天下无敌,成立一神魂帝者!
  • 爱上极品大叔

    爱上极品大叔

    她被初恋表白,却又在表白之后形同陌路,她大学毕业初入职场,却被大公司领导忽悠成了总裁保姆。她尽职尽责伺候总裁大叔,不敢起丝毫男色之心,却被误认为是蕾丝。好不容易让大叔和睦相处,却被大叔初恋情人横刀杀入,一败涂地。初恋陨落,大叔背离……傻白甜如何成功逆袭爱情……总裁大叔……你别跑!
  • 大神的极品萌宠

    大神的极品萌宠

    只是想一个人静静地把网络游戏当成单机游戏玩,哪知道过个转职任务就死了99次,机缘巧合触发重生仙缘,可,可,可……为毛我重生后居然变成一只宠!物!一只某人的宠物!好吧,张小可认了,都说游戏场失意情场得意,为什么会被指派了这么一个恶毒腹黑的导师?仗着自己帅就能随便欺负人么?哼,我要让你们知道萌宠也能进化成大神!
  • 猎魔剑

    猎魔剑

    杀人与猎魔不过是一剑两断而已!--什么?没死!--那就再来几剑,劈成碎块吧!新人,新书,很稚嫩,需要大家的呵护,如果您喜欢它,请投上您的推荐票,同时,收藏此书,与它一起成长,谢谢~~~
  • 重生之最强学生

    重生之最强学生

    一个前世过的浑浑噩噩的混小子,意外重生17岁,从此一个传奇就诞生了。
  • Alexandria and her Schools

    Alexandria and her Schools

    I should not have presumed to choose for any lectures of mine such a subject as that which I have tried to treat in this book. The subject was chosen by the Institution where the lectures were delivered.
  • 爱你的漫长时光

    爱你的漫长时光

    是什么改变我这一生,没有永世的轮回,只有无尽的等待…如果我知道时间是如此漫长的存在,我能改写过去,改写历史,改写一切我以为不完美的部分吗?就算一切能改变,我唯一不愿改变的是这份对你倾力付出一切的爱…
  • 敢碰我妈,剁了你!

    敢碰我妈,剁了你!

    他不过是不小心弄丢了老婆,再见面时,却凭空多了个聪明绝顶、恶贯满盈的儿子,时不时跳出来,教唆他纯洁的老婆跟他决裂。讨好他,不屑;威胁他,不理;揍他,不敢……还给他的亲亲老婆找些破男人!他发誓,追回老婆后,再也不生孩子了!
  • 误惹邪王:人家偏不要

    误惹邪王:人家偏不要

    穆清乃是现代一名白领女屌丝,胎穿为户部侍郎穆庆元的嫡女儿。过来十五年炮龙套的生活,本来也没什么不好……此时,穆清瞪大眼睛看着不远处正搂在一起干坏事的一男一女,使劲捂着自己的嘴,大气都不敢出。她现在想死的心都有了。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • TFBOYS之请你爱我

    TFBOYS之请你爱我

    夏沫雪,田惜儿,肖婉琳是他们的未婚妻。以前失忆忘记了以前的生活与身份,遇到了他们,雪,惜,琳都陷入了爱情的漩涡,因为身份原因被迫离开,不久再次遇到……