Justine 淑女的眼泪 Chapter 5

The consequence was Dubourg became nothing if not more insolent ¹; he laid upon me the blame for his weakness' mistakes, wanted to repair them with new outrages ³ and yet more mortifying ⁴ invectives; there was nothing he did not say to me, nothing he did not attempt, nothing his perfidious ⁵ imagination, his adamantine character and the depravation of his manners did not lead him to undertake. My clumsiness made him impatient: I was far from wishing to participate in the thing, to lend myself to it was as much as I could do, my remorse ⁶ remained lively. However, it was all for naught ⁷, submitting to him, I ceased to inflame ⁸ him; in vain he passed successively from tenderness to rigor ⁹... from groveling to tyranny... from an air of decency ¹⁰ to the profligate's excesses, in vain, I say, there was nothing for it, we were both exhausted ¹¹, and happily he was unable to recover what he needed to deliver more dangerous assaults. He gave it up, made me promise to come the next day, and to be sure of me he refused absolutely to give me anything above the sum I owed Desroches. Greatly humiliated ¹² by the adventure and firmly resolved, whatever might happen to me, not to expose myself a third time, I returned to where I was lodging ¹³. I announced my intentions to Desroches, paid her, and heaped maledictions upon the criminal capable of so cruelly exploiting my misery ¹⁶. But my imprecations, far from drawing the wrath ¹⁷ of God down upon him, only added to his good fortune; and a week later I learned this signal libertine ¹⁸ had just obtained a general trusteeship from the Government, which would augment ¹⁹ his revenues by more than five hundred thousand pounds per annum. I was absorbed in the reflections such unexpected inconsistencies of fate inevitably ²⁰ give rise to, when a momentary ²¹ ray of hope seemed to shine in my eyes., ,Desroches came to tell me one day that she had finally located a house into which I could be received with pleasure provided my comportment remained of the best. "Great Heaven, Madame," I cried, transported, throwing myself into her arms, "that condition is the one I would stipulate ²³ myself you may imagine how happy I am to accept it." The man I was to serve was a famous Parisian usurer who had become rich, not only by lending money upon collateral ²⁴, but even by stealing from the public every time he thought he could do so in safety. He lived in the rue ¹⁴ Quincampoix, had a third-story flat, and shared it with a creature of fifty years he called his wife and who was at least as wicked as he., ,"Therese," this miser ¹⁵ said to me (such was the name I had taken in order to hide my own), "Therese, the primary virtue ²⁵ in this house is probity ²⁶; if ever you make off with the tenth part of a penny, I'll have you hanged, my child, d'ye see. The modest ease my wife and I enjoy is the fruit of our immense labors ²⁷, and of our perfect sobriety.... Do you eat much, little one?", , ,"Soup! Bleeding Christ! Soup! Behold ²⁸, deary," said the usurer to his dame ²², "behold and tremble at the progress of luxury: it's looking for circumstances, it's been dying of hunger for a year, and now it wants to eat soup; we scarcely have it once a week, on Sunday, we who work like galley ²⁹ slaves: you'll have three ounces of bread a day, my daughter, plus half a bottle of river water, plus one of my wife's old dresses every eighteen months, plus three crowns' wages at the end of each year, if we are content with your services, if your economy responds to our own and if, finally, you make the house prosper ³⁰ through orderliness and arrangement. Your duties are mediocre ³¹, they're done in jig ³² time; 'tis but a question of washing and cleaning this six-room apartment thrice a week, of making our beds, answering the door, powdering my wig ³³, dressing ³⁴ my wife's hair, looking after the dog and the parakeet, lending a hand in the kitchen, washing the utensils ³⁵, helping ³⁶ my wife whenever she prepares us a bite to eat, and daily devoting four or five hours to the washing, to mending stockings, hats, and other little house-hold odds ³⁷ and ends; you observe, Therese, 'tis nothing at all, you will have ample free time to yourself, we will permit you to employ it to your own interest, provided, my child, you are good, discreet ³⁸ and, above all, thrifty ³⁹, that's of the essence.", ,You may readily imagine, Madame, that one had to be in the frightful ⁴⁰ state I indeed was in to accept such a position; not only was there infinitely ⁴¹ more work to be done than my strength permitted me to undertake, but should I be able to live upon what was offered me? However, I was careful to raise no difficulties and was installed that same evening., ,It was insolent of them to demand special treatment.他们要求给予特殊待遇 ，脸皮真厚 。,The lame man needs a stick when he walks.那跛脚男子走路时需借助拐棍
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