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第63章

sons of the soil-第63章

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wearing corsets。 The imagination of a poet or; better still; that of

an inventor; could not have found on Bebelle's back the slightest

trace of that seductive sinuosity which the vertebrae of all women who

are women usually produce。 Bebelle; round as a tortoise; belonged to

the genus of invertebrate females。 This alarming development of

cellular tissue no doubt reassured Lupin on the subject of the

platonic passion of his fat wife; whom he boldly called Bebelle

without raising a laugh。



〃Your wife; what is she?〃 said Sarcus the rich; one day; when unable

to digest the fatal word 〃superannuated;〃 applied to a piece of

furniture he had just bought at a bargain。



〃My wife is not like yours;〃 replied Lupin; 〃she is not defined as

yet。〃



Beneath his rosy exterior the notary possessed a subtle mind; and he

had the sense to say nothing about his property; which was fully as

large as that of Rigou。



Monsieur Lupin's son; Amaury; was a great trouble to his father。 An

only son; and one of the Don Juans of the valley; he utterly refused

to follow the paternal profession。 He took advantage of his position

as only son to bleed the strong…box cruelly; without; however;

exhausting the patience of his father; who would say after every

escapade; 〃Well; I was like that in my young days。〃 Amaury never came

to Madame Soudry's; he said she bored him; for; with a recollection of

her early days; she attempted to 〃educate〃 him; as she called it;

whereas he much preferred the pleasures and billiards of the Cafe de

la Paix。 He frequented the worst company of Soulanges; even down to

Bonnebault。 He continued sowing his wild oats; as Madame Soudry

remarked; and replied to all his father's remonstrances with one

perpetual request: 〃Send me back to Paris; for I am bored to death

here。〃



Lupin ended; alas! like other gallants; by an attachment that was

semi…conjugal。 His known passion; in spite of his former liaison with

Madame Sarcus; was for the wife of the under…sheriff of the municipal

court;Madame Euphemie Plissoud; daughter of Wattebled the grocer;

who reigned in the second…class society as Madame Soudry did in the

first。 Monsieur Plissoud; a competitor of Brunet; belonged to the

under…world of Soulanges on account of his wife's conduct; which it

was said he authorized;a report that drew upon him the contempt of

the leading society。



If Lupin was the musician of the leading society; Monsieur Gourdon;

the doctor; was its man of science。 The town said of him; 〃We have

here in our midst a scientific man of the first order。〃 Madame Soudry

(who believed she understood music because she had ushered in Piccini

and Gluck and had dressed Mademoiselle Laguerre for the Opera)

persuaded society; and even Lupin himself; that he might have made his

fortune by his voice; and; in like manner; she was always regretting

that the doctor did not publish his scientific ideas。



Monsieur Gourdon merely repeated the ideas of Cuvier and Buffon; which

might not have enabled him to pose as a scientist before the Soulanges

world; but besides this he was making a collection of shells; and he

possessed an herbarium; and he knew how to stuff birds。 He lived upon

the glory of having bequeathed his cabinet of natural history to the

town of Soulanges。 After this was known he was considered throughout

the department as a great naturalist and the successor of Buffon。 Like

a certain Genevese banker; whose pedantry; coldness; and puritan

propriety he copied; without possessing either his money or his

shrewdness; Monsieur Gourdon exhibited with great complacency the

famous collection; consisting of a bear and a monkey (both of which

had died on their way to Soulanges); all the rodents of the

department; mice and field…mice and dormice; rats; muskrats; and

moles; etc。; all the interesting birds ever shot in Burgundy; and an

Alpine eagle caught in the Jura。 Gourdon also possessed a collection

of lepidoptera;a word which led society to hope for monstrosities;

and to say; when it saw them; 〃Why; they are only butterflies!〃

Besides these things he had a fine array of fossil shells; mostly the

collections of his friends which they bequeathed to him; and all the

minerals of Burgundy and the Jura。



These treasures; laid out on shelves with glass doors (the drawers

beneath containing the insects); occupied the whole of the first floor

of the doctor's house; and produced a certain effect through the

oddity of the names on the tickets; the magic effect of the colors;

and the gathering together of so many things which no one pays the

slightest attention to when seen in nature; though much admired under

glass。 Society took a regular day to go and look at Monsieur Gourdon's

collection。



〃I have;〃 he said to all inquirers; 〃five hundred ornithological

objects; two hundred mammifers; five thousand insects; three thousand

shells; and seven thousand specimens of minerals。〃



〃What patience you have had!〃 said the ladies。



〃One must do something for one's country;〃 replied the collector。



He drew an enormous profit from his carcasses by the mere repetition

of the words; 〃I have bequeathed everything to the town by my will。〃

Visitors lauded his philanthropy; the authorities talked of devoting

the second floor of the town hall to the 〃Gourdon Museum;〃 after the

collector's death。



〃I rely upon the gratitude of my fellow…citizens to attach my name to

the gift;〃 he replied; 〃for I dare not hope they would place a marble

bust of me〃



〃It would be the very least we could do for you;〃 they rejoined; 〃are

you not the glory of our town?〃



Thus the man actually came to consider himself one of the celebrities

of Burgundy。 The surest incomes are not from consols after all; those

our vanity obtains for us have better security。 This man of science

was; to employ Lupin's superlatives; happy! happy!! happy!!!



Gourdon; the clerk of the court; brother of the doctor; was a pitiful

little creature; whose features all gathered about his nose; so that

the nose seemed the point of departure for the forehead; the cheeks;

and the mouth; all of which were connected with it just as the ravines

of a mountain begin at the summit。 This pinched little man was thought

to be one of the greatest poets in Burgundy;a Piron; it was the

fashion to say。 The dual merits of the two brothers gave rise to the

remark: 〃We have the brothers Gourdon at Soulangestwo very

distinguished men; men who could hold their own in Paris。〃



Devoted to the game of cup…and…ball; the clerk of the court became

possessed by another mania;that of composing an ode in honor of an

amusement which amounted to a passion in the eighteenth century。

Manias among mediocrats often run in couples。 Gourdon junior gave

birth to his poem during the reign of Napoleon。 That fact is

sufficient to show the sound and healthy school of poesy to which he

belonged; Luce de Lancival; Parny; Saint…Lambert; Rouche; Vigee;

Andrieux; Berchoux were his heroes。 Delille was his god; until the day

when the leading society of Soulanges raised the question as to

whether Gourdon were not superior to Delille; after which the clerk of

the court always called his competitor 〃Monsieur l'Abbe Delille;〃 with

exaggerated politeness。



The poems manufactured between 1780 and 1814 were all of one pattern;

and the one which Gourdon composed upon the Cup…and…Ball will give an

idea of them。 They required a certain knack or proficiency in the art。

〃The Chorister〃 is the Saturn of this abortive generation of jocular

poems; all in four cantos or thereabouts; for it was generally

admitted that six would wear the subject threadbare。



Gourdon's poem entitled 〃Ode to the Cup…and…Ball〃 obeyed the poetic

rules which governed these works; rules that were invariable in their

application。 Each poem contained in the first canto a description of

the 〃object sung;〃 preceded (as in the case of Gourdon) by a species


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