Lady of the Camellias lll.docx

1、Lady of the Camellias lllOn the 16th, at one oclock, I made my way to the rue dAntin.The raised voices of the auctioneers could be heard from the carriage entrance.The apartment was filled with inquisitive spectators.All the famous names from the world of fashionable vice were there. They were being

2、 slyly observed by a number of ladies who had again used the sale as a pretext for claiming the right to see, at close quarters, women in whose company they would not otherwise have had occasion to find themselves, and whose easy pleasures they perhaps secretly envied.The Duchesse de F* rubbed shoul

3、ders with Mademoi selle A*, one of the sorriest(最卑鄙的) specimens of our modern courtesans; the Marquise de T* shrank from buying an item (款)of furniture for which the bidding was led by Madame D* , the most elegant and most celebrated adulteress of our age; the Duc dY*, who is believed in Madrid to b

4、e ruining himself in Paris, and in Paris to be ruining himself in Madrid, and who, when all is said and done, cannot even(实际上) spend all his income, while continuing to chat with Madame M*, one of our wittiest tale-teller, who occasionally agrees to write down what she says and to sign what she writ

5、es, was exchanging confidential glances with Madame de N*, the beauty who may be regularly seen driving on the ChampsElysees, dressed almost invariably in pink or blue, in a carriage drawn by two large black horses sold to her by Tony for ten thousand francsand paid in full; lastly, Mademoiselle R*,

6、 who by sheer(absolute) talent makes twice what ladies of fashion make with their dowries, and three times as much as what the rest make out of their love affairs, had come in spite of the cold to make a few purchases, and it was not she who attracted the fewest eyes.We could go on quoting the initi

7、als of many of those who had gathered in that drawing-room and who were not a little astonished at the company (Marguerite Gautier or courtesans) they kept; but we should, we fear, weary the reader.There was much loud laughter; the auctioneers shouted at the tops of their voices; the dealers(商人) who

8、 had crowed on to the benches placed in front of the auction tables called vainly for silence in which to conduct their business in peace. Never was a gathering(聚会) more varied and more uproarious.I slipped unobtrusively into the middle of the distressing tumult, saddened to think that all this was

9、taking place next to the room where the unfortunate creature whose furniture was being sold up to pay her debts, had breathed her last. Having come to observe rather than to buy, I watched the faces of the tradesmen who had forced (强力进行) the sale, and whose features lit up each time an item reached

10、a price they had never dared hope for.Honest men all, who had speculated in the prostitution of this woman, had obtained a one-hundred percent return on her, had dogged the last moments of her life with writs, and came after she was dead to claim both the fruits of their honourable calculations and

11、the interest accruing on the shameful credit(贷款) they had given her.How right were the Ancients who had one God for merchants and thieves!Dresses, Indian shawls, jewels, came under the hammer(be sold at an auction) at an unbelievable rate(价格). None of it took my fancy, and I waited on.Suddenly I hea

12、rd a voice shout: A book, fully bound, gilt-edges, entitled: Manon Lescaut. Theres something written on the first page: ten francs!Twelve, said a voice, after a longish silence.Fifteen, I said.Why? I had no idea. No doubt for that something written.Fifteen, repeated the auctioneer.Thirty-five! I cri

13、ed, in the same tone of voice.Forty.Fifty.Sixty.A hundred.I confess that if I had sent out to cause a stir, I would have succeeded completely, for my last bid was followed by a great silence, and people stared at me to see who this man was who seemed so intent on possessing the volume.Apparently the

14、 tone in which I had made my latest bid was enough for my opponent: he chose therefore to abandon a struggle which would have served(advanced English) only to cost me ten times what the book was worth and, with a bow, he said very graciously but a little late:Its yours, sir.No other bids were forthc

15、oming, and the book was knocked down (at an auction sell an article to a bidder by a knock with a hammer) to me.Since I feared a new onset of obstinacy which my vanity might conceivably have borne but which would have assuredly proved too much for my purse, I gave my name, asked for the volume to be

16、 put aside and left by the stairs. I must have greatly intrigued (引起好奇心)the onlookers who, having witnessed this scene, doubtless wondered why on earth I had gone there to pay a hundred francs for a book that I could have got anywhere for ten or fifteen at most.An hour later, I had sent found for my

17、 purchase.On the first page, written in ink in an elegant hand, was the dedication of the person who had given the book. This dedication consisted simply of these words: Manon to Marguerite, Humility . It was signed: Armand Duval.What did this world humility mean?Was it that Manon, in the opinion of

18、 this Monsier Armand Duval, acknowledged Marguerite as her superior in debauchery or in true love?(Marguerite is better than Manon in debauchery or in love?)The second interpretation seemed the more likely, for the first was impertinently frank, and Marguerite could never have accepted it, whatever

19、opinion she had of herself.( Authors logical conjecture)I went out again and thought no more of book until that night, when I retired to bed.Manon lescaut is a truly touching story every detail of which is familiar to me and yet, whenever I hold a copy in my hand, an instinctive feeling for it draws

20、 me on. I open it and for the hundred time I live again with the abbe prevosts heroine. Now, his heroine is so lifelike that I feel that I have met her. In my new circumstances, the kind of comparison drawn(得到) between her and Marguerite added an unexpected edge to my reading, and my forbearance was

21、 swelled with pity, almost love, for the poor girl, the disposal of whose estate I could thank for possessing the volume. Manon died in a desert, it is true, but in the arms of the man who loved her with all the strength of his soul and who, when she was dead, dug a grave for her, watered it with hi

22、s tears and buried his heart with her; whereas Marguerite, a sinner like Manon, and perhaps as truly converted as she, had died surrounded by fabulous luxury, if I could believe what I had seen, on the bed of her own past, but no less(居然) lost in the desert of the heart which is much more arid, much

23、 vaster and far more pitiless than the one in which Manon had been interred. Indeed Marguerite, as I had learned from friends informed of the circumstances of her final moments, had seen no true consolation settle at her beside during the two months when she lay slowly and painfully dying.(从后面作者的叙述中

24、，可以看到：玛格丽特在最后的两个月里乎没有得到安慰)Then, from Manon and Marguerite, my thoughts turned to those women whom I knew and whom I could see rushing gaily towards the same almost invariable death.Poor creatures! If it is wrong to love them, the least one can do is to pity them. You pity the blind man who has never

25、 seen the sight of day, the deaf man who has never heard the harmonies of nature, the mute who has never found a voice for his soul, and yet, under the specious pretext of decency, you will not pity that blindness of heart, deafness of soul and dumbness of conscience which turn the brains of poor, d

26、esperate women and prevent them, despite themselves, from seeing goodness, hearing the Lord and speaking the pure language of love and religion.Hugo wrote Marion Delorme, Musset wrote Bernerette, Alexandre Dumas wrote Fernande. Thinkers and poets throughout the ages have offered the courtesan the ob

27、lation of their mercy and, on occasion, some great man has brought them back to the fold thought the gift of his love and even his name. If I dwell on this point, it is because among those who will read these pages, many may already be about to throw down a book in which they fear they will see noth

28、ing but an apology for vice and prostitution, and doubtless the youth of the present author is a contributing factor in providing grounds for their fears. Let those who are of such a mind be undeceived. Let them read on, if such fears alone gave them pause.I am quite simply persuaded of a principle

29、which states that: To any woman whose eduation has not imparted knowledge of goodness. God almost invariably opens up two paths which will lead her back to it; these paths are suffering and love. They are rocky paths; women who follow them will cut their feet and graze their hands, but will at the s

30、ame time leave the gaudy rags of vice hanging on the briars which line the road, and shall reach their journeys end in that naked state for which no one need feel shame in the sight of the Lord. Any who encounter these brave wayfarers are duty bound to comfort them and to say to all the world that t

31、hey have encountered them, for by proclaiming the news they show the way.It is not a simple matter of erecting two signposts at the gateway to life, one bearing the inscription: The Way of Goodness and the other carrying this warning: The Way of Evil, and of saying to those who come: choose! Each of

32、 us , like Christ himself, must point to those paths which will redirect from the second way to the first the steps of those who have allowed themselves to be tempted by the approach roads; and above all let not the beginning of these paths be too painful, nor appear too difficult of access.Christianity is ever-present, with its wonderful parable of the prodigal son, to urge（advanced: advocate） us to counsels of forbearance and forgiveness. Jesus was full of love for souls of women wounded by the passions of men, and He loved to bind their wounds,