登陆注册
15470200000021

第21章

The first year every thing went on tolerably. He enjoyed as much freedom as he cared to. His father did not allow him one centime for his pocket-money; but the attorney, in his capacity of an old friend of the family, did for him what he had never done before for an amateur clerk, and allowed him twenty francs a month. Mme.

Favoral adding to this a few five-franc pieces, Maxence declared himself entirely satisfied.

Unfortunately, with his lively imagination and his impetuous temper, no one was less fit than himself for that peaceful existence, that steady toil, the same each day, without the stimulus of difficulties to overcome, or the satisfaction of results obtained.

Before long he became tired of it.

He had found at the law-school a number of his old schoolmates whose parents resided in the provinces, and who, consequently, lived as they pleased in the Latin quarter, less assiduous to the lectures than to the Spring Brewery and the Closerie des Lilas.*

[ * A noted dancing-garden. ]

He envied them their joyous life, their freedom without control, their facile pleasures, their furnished rooms, and even the low eating-house where they took their meals. And, as much as possible, he lived with them and like them.

But it is not with M. Chapelain's twenty francs that it would have been possible for him to keep up with fellows, who, with superb recklessness, took on credit everything they could get, reserving the amount of their allowance for those amusements which had to be paid for in cash.

But was not Mme. Favoral here?

She had worked so much, the poor woman, especially since Mme.

Gilberte had become almost a young lady; she had so much saved, so much stinted, that her reserve, notwithstanding repeated drafts, amounted to a good round sum.

When Maxence wanted two or three napoleons, he had but a word to say; and he said it often. Thus, after a while, he became an excellent billiard-player; he kept his colored meerschaum in the rack of a popular brewery; he took absinthe before dinner, and spent his evenings in the laudable effort to ascertain how many mugs of beer he could "put away." Gaining in audacity, he danced at Bullier's, dined at Foyd's, and at last had a mistress.

So much so, that one afternoon, M. Favoral having to visit on business the other side of the water, found himself face to face with his son, who was coming along, a cigar in his mouth, and having on his arm a young lady, painted in superior style, and harnessed with a toilet calculated to make the cab-horses rear.

He returned to the Rue St. Gilles in a state of indescribable rage.

"A woman!" he exclaimed in a tone of offended modesty. "A woman!

- he, my son!"

And when that son made his appearance, looking quite sheepish, his first impulse was to resort to his former mode of correction.

But Maxence was now over nineteen years of age.

At the sight of the uplifted cane, he became whiter than his shirt; and, wrenching it from his father's hands, he broke it across his knees, threw the pieces violently upon the floor, and sprang out of the house.

"He shall never again set his foot here!" screamed the cashier of the Mutual Credit, thrown beside himself by an act of resistance which seemed to him unheard of. "I banish him. Let his clothes be packed up, and taken to some hotel: I never want to see him again."

For a long time Mme. Favoral and Gilberte fairly dragged themselves at his feet, before he consented to recall his determination.

"He will disgrace us all!" he kept repeating, seeming unable to understand that it was himself who had, as it were, driven Maxence on to the fatal road which he was pursuing, forgetting that the absurd seventies of the father prepared the way for the perilous indulgence of the mother, unwilling to own that the head of a family has other duties besides providing food and shelter for his wife and children, and that a father has but little right to complain who has not known how to make himself the friend and the adviser of his son.

At last, after the most violent recriminations, he forgave, in appearance at least.

But the scales had dropped from his eyes. He started in quest of information, and discovered startling enormities.

He heard from M. Chapelain that Maxence remained whole weeks at a time without appearing at the office. If he had not complained before, it was because he had yielded to the urgent entreaties of Mme. Favoral; and he was now glad, he added, of an opportunity to relieve his conscience by a full confession.

Thus the cashier discovered, one by one, all his son's tricks. He heard that he was almost unknown at the law-school, that he spent his days in the cafes, and that, in the evening, when he believed him in bed and asleep, he was in fact running out to theatres and to balls.

"Ah! that's the way, is it?" he thought. "Ah, my wife and children are in league against me, - me, the master. Very well, we'll see."

同类推荐
  • 用耳朵听最优美的名著

    用耳朵听最优美的名著

    系列图书精选的各类故事、散文、演讲、时文及名著片段,均用词精准简洁,语句流畅优美,将引领你进入趣、情、爱与理的博大世界,使你更加充满信心地去追求梦想。这里有嘻嘻哈哈的幽默故事,有体会幸福与生活的感悟故事,有帮你战胜挫折给你勇气的故事,有闪烁着人性光辉的美德故事,有发人深省的智慧故事,也有在成长路上给你动力的哲理故事。相信本系列图书能为你展现一个美丽新世界并使您的英语学习更上一层楼。
  • 儿子和情人

    儿子和情人

    矿工瓦尔特原本性格开朗,充满活力,后因酗酒而日渐沉沦。妻子格特鲁德失望之余,转而将希望寄托在两个儿子身上,长子威廉又不幸早夭,遂对次子保罗产生了强烈的感情。面对情感变态的母亲,以及两个各有其不同恋爱观的女友,年轻的保罗一时颇感迷惘。
  • 日常286词玩转英语口语

    日常286词玩转英语口语

    作者在本书中收录了英美人日常生活交流中使用最高频的数近300个英语单词,再由单词引申到常用短语、俚语,进而由每个短语,俚语引出句子,然后是实用场景对话范例。这样把我们记忆中的两三个单词系统有效地转换成句子和情景对话,从而达到与老外交流的目的。学一次就要学透彻! 本书的中文引导句表现了每个词要表达的基本意思,只要从引导词出发,就能轻易地延伸出具体的表达方式,从而进行交流对话。完成单词、句子和对话的三重记忆。作者希望本书可以提升读者英语会话沟通技巧,在各位开口说英语、与人交流的时候,能联想到本书中的场景单词直接索引, 让您的英语口语表达跟英美人一样的地道。
  • 用英语介绍中国:这里是上海

    用英语介绍中国:这里是上海

    阅读可以提升人格情操,增长知识,提高语言文化的综合素质,其更本质、更核心的意义在于培养学习者的兴趣,而兴趣才是一切学习者的学习动力、成功源泉。本书为读者奉上原汁原味的人文阅读精华,详细介绍了人们最感兴趣的上海历史文化、城市风景、上海生活、名人逸事等,带您全方位地了解上海。读者在学习英语的同时,又能品味这座东方文化名城的独特魅力。
  • 大学英语六级词汇新解

    大学英语六级词汇新解

    本书对对新大纲中单词词义进行了英、汉两种释义。特别是英语释义,使学生更容易对词义有直观、深刻的理解,在无形中提高读者的英语表达能力。对大学六级考试中单词的用法进行了详细、全面的讲解。只有掌握了这些用法,才能真正学以致用,克服英语用词中不知所措的弱点。
热门推荐
  • 地亡

    地亡

    地底埋骸万年,只为一朝傲立世间,万年孤独,只为人族的兴起!
  • 愿你的世界春暖花开

    愿你的世界春暖花开

    我要的不过是一个护我周全,免我惊慌,舍不得我受半点委屈难过,舍不得放弃我的人你和你的声色犬马,我和我的各安天涯我们都需要一个把自己当成全世界的人知足常乐,你会发现快乐其实没那么难他有他的生活,就这样,不插手
  • 我的腹黑大魔王

    我的腹黑大魔王

    一张契约独占宠爱,她进入了婚姻的坟墓,日日夜夜被腹黑总裁吃干抹净,有一天她终于忍受不住,对着苏家大少爷说我们离婚吧,三年后她华丽回归,可是带了两个小奶球,
  • 血雨之城

    血雨之城

    地狱,在这里,只有无法言喻的冰冷,你不会得到任何感情,等待你的只会是寒冷的无底深渊······你只能自己舔舐伤口,你只能将心一层层包裹,剩下的只有一具没有灵魂的躯壳任人宰割······
  • 三年同桌三年愁

    三年同桌三年愁

    高俊熙:“哈比!数学作业借偶抄抄,谢谢,不用谢”李梓薇:心中一万只草泥马奔过张昊泽:“这你都能错!脑子没救了”李梓薇:“说的好像你的好使似得”墨静凌:“我给你发物理,你给我发生物哈!”李梓薇:“够够的了”(不算是虚构了,我的真实校园生活,改编而来,纯属搞笑)【不喜勿喷,谢谢合作】
  • 异界苍穹

    异界苍穹

    无意中落下凡界的异界之王亚嘶在一个暗黑的夜里带走了一个正在逃亡的明族圣女,面临着暗黑魔族的穷追不舍,恼怒的他终于在一个天降灾难的夜里一举歼灭了这些在世为恶的暗黑魔族。
  • 网游之女王的高优雅

    网游之女王的高优雅

    HID谋,一个真实虚拟的古风游戏!第一代简陋沉重的头盔时代已经过去,到来的是最新版第二代,精致漂亮的手镯子时代,只要轻轻按开启,分分秒秒任何场所下都可体验穿越现代玩到古代的爽感!某场面某男:亲爱的,你就试试嘛~试试嘛~某女:不要,别再找我了,你堂堂一个NHI别再追问我这个小老百姓了。某男(严肃):我这是在为人民服务,完善HID谋。老公不是大神,但却是游戏的上帝(创造人类的那种),马里奥啊~上帝来求婚啦~我不要变帝母啊!
  • 原始人在都市

    原始人在都市

    一个有些自以为是的原始人,一个买来的外星人奴隶,一对逗傻的野猪兄弟,有天突然闯进了停靠在草屋外的时空飞船中,居然穿越到了现代。一段说学逗唱的搞笑穿越之旅拉开了帷幕。
  • 拒嫁豪门:总裁猎心游戏

    拒嫁豪门:总裁猎心游戏

    一场误会,一夜贪欢。她逃千百次,他追千万次。猎心游戏,究竟猎了谁的心?
  • 轮回天劫

    轮回天劫

    天启年间,神州世界暗潮涌动,风雨欲来。好食人肉的巫族蠢蠢欲动,大秦余孽似欲卷土重来。一个背负着巫族和秦国命运的少年,与整个世界为敌,探寻着,传说与历史的真相。