Justine 淑女的眼泪 Chapter 18

"Listen," said that charming girl, speaking with all the candor ¹ proper to her age, and all the naivete of her amiable ² character; "listen to me, Therese, I am going to tell you everything, for I see you are a well brought up girl... incapable ³ of betraying the secret I am going to confide ⁴ to you., ,"Certainly, dear friend, my father could make ends meet without pursuing either of these two occupations; and if he pursues both at once, it is because of the two motives ⁵ I am going to reveal to you. He practices medicine because he has a liking ⁶ for it; he takes keen pleasure in using his skill to make new discoveries, he has made so many of them, he has written so many authoritative ⁷ texts based upon his investigations ⁸ that he is generally acknowledged the most accomplished ⁹ man in France at the present time; he worked for twenty years in Paris, and for the sake of his amusements he retired ¹⁰ to the country. The real surgeon at Saint-Marcel is someone named Rombeau whom he has taken under his tutelage and with whom he collaborates ¹¹ upon experiments; and now, Therese, would you know why he runs a school?... Libertinage ¹², my child, libertinage alone, a passion he carries to its extremes. My father finds in his pupils of either sex objects whose dependence ¹³ submits them to his inclinations ¹⁴, and he exploits them.... But wait a moment ... come with me," said Rosalie, "today is Friday, one of the three days during the week when he corrects those who have misbehaved; it is in this kind of punishment my father takes his pleasure; follow me, I tell you, you shall see how he behaves. Everything is visible from a closet in my room which adjoins the one where he concludes his business; let's go there without making any noise, and above all be careful not to say a word both about what I am telling you and about what you are going to witness.", ,It was a matter of such great importance to familiarize myself with the customs of this person who had offered me asylum ¹⁵, that I felt I could neglect nothing which might discover them to me; I follow hard upon Rosalie's heels, she situates me near a partition, through cracks between its ill-joined boards one can view everything going on in the neighboring room., , ,"Why, no, no," he cries, "not for one minute, this happens far too frequently, Julie, I repent ²¹ my forbearance and leniency ²², their sole result has been repeated misconduct on your part, but could the gravity of this most recent example of it possibly allow me to show clemency ²³, even supposing I wished to? A note passed to a boy upon entering the classroom!", ,"Sir, I protest to you, I did not -", ,He and his wife had avoided candor,and they had drained their marriage.他们夫妻间不坦率 ，已使婚姻奄奄一息 。,She was a very kind and amiable old woman.她是个善良和气的老太太。