登陆注册
19856700000070

第70章

The exclamation, formerly quoted, of the countess, "Piccina!" when she first saw Genevieve by the roadside, open-mouthed at sight of the carriage and the elegantly dressed woman within it, will be understood.This girl, almost a dwarf, of Montenegrin vigor, loved the handsome, noble bailiff, as children of her age love, when they do love, that is to say, with childlike passion, with the strength of youth, with the devotion which in truly virgin souls gives birth to divinest poesy.Catherine had just swept her coarse hands across the sensitive strings of that choice harp, strung to the breaking-point.

To dance before Michaud, to shine at the Soulanges ball and inscribe herself on the memory of that adored master! What glorious thoughts!

To fling them into that volcanic head was like casting live coals upon straw dried in the August sun.

"No, Catherine," replied La Pechina, "I am ugly and puny; my lot is to sit in a corner and never to be married, but live alone in the world."

"Men like weaklings," said Catherine."You see me, don't you?" she added, showing her handsome, strong arms."I please Godain, who is a poor stick; I please that little Charles, the count's groom; but Lupin's son is afraid of me.I tell you it is the small kind of men who love me, and who say when they see me go by at Ville-aux-Fayes and at Soulanges, 'Ha! what a fine girl!' Now YOU, that's another thing;

you'll please the fine men."

"Ah! Catherine, if it were true--that!" cried the bewitched child.

"It is true, it is so true that Nicolas, the handsomest man in the canton, is mad about you; he dreams of you, he is losing his mind; and yet all the other girls are in love with him.He is a fine lad! If you'll put on a white dress and yellow ribbons, and come to Socquard's for the midsummer ball, you'll be the handsomest girl there, and all the fine people from Ville-aux-Fayes will see you.Come, won't you?--

See here, I've been cutting grass for the cows, and I brought some boiled wine in my gourd; Socquard gave it me this morning," she added quickly, seeing the half-delirious expression in La Pechina's eyes which women understand so well."We'll share it together, and you'll fancy the men are in love with you."

During this conversation Nicolas, choosing the grassy spots to step on, had noiselessly slipped behind the trunk of an old oak near which his sister had seated La Pechina.Catherine, who had now and then cast her eyes behind her, saw her brother as she turned to get the boiled wine.

"Here, take some," she said, offering it.

"It burns me!" cried Genevieve, giving back the gourd, after taking two or three swallows from it.

"Silly child!" replied Catherine; "see here!" and she emptied the rustic bottle without taking breath."See how it slips down; it goes like a sunbeam into the stomach."

"But I ought to be carrying the milk to Mademoiselle Gaillard," cried Genevieve; "and it is all spilt! Nicolas frightened me so!"

"Don't you like Nicolas?"

"No," answered Genevieve."Why does he persecute me? He can get plenty other girls, who are willing."

"But if he likes you better than all the other girls in the valley--"

"So much the worse for him."

"I see you don't know him," answered Catherine, as she seized the girl rapidly by the waist and flung her on the grass, holding her down in that position with her strong arms.At this moment Nicolas appeared.

Seeing her odious persecutor, the child screamed with all her might, and drove him five feet away with a violent kick in the stomach; then she twisted herself like an acrobat, with a dexterity for which Catherine was not prepared, and rose to run away.Catherine, still on the ground, caught her by one foot and threw her headlong on her face.

This frightful fall stopped the brave child's cries for a moment.

Nicolas attempted, furiously, to seize his victim, but she, though giddy from the wine and the fall, caught him by the throat in a grip of iron.

"Help! she's strangling me, Catherine," cried Nicolas, in a stifled voice.

La Pechina uttered piercing screams, which Catherine tried to choke by putting her hands over the girl's mouth, but she bit them and drew blood.It was at this moment that Blondet, the countess, and the abbe appeared at the edge of the wood.

"Here are those Aigues people!" exclaimed Catherine, helping Genevieve to rise.

"Do you want to live?" hissed Nicolas in the child's ear.

"What then?" she asked.

"Tell them we were all playing, and I'll forgive you," said Nicolas, in a threatening voice.

"Little wretch, mind you say it!" repeated Catherine, whose glance was more terrifying than her brother's murderous threat.

"Yes, I will, if you let me alone," replied the child."But anyhow I will never go out again without my scissors."

"You are to hold your tongue, or I'll drown you in the Avonne," said Catherine, ferociously.

"You are monsters," cried the abbe, coming up; "you ought to be arrested and taken to the assizes."

"Ha! and pray what do you do in your drawing-rooms?" said Nicolas, looking full at the countess and Blondet."You play and amuse yourselves, don't you? Well, so do we, in the fields which are ours.

We can't always work; we must play sometimes,--ask my sister and La Pechina."

"How do you fight if you call that playing?" cried Blondet.

Nicolas gave him a murderous look.

"Speak!" said Catherine, gripping La Pechina by the forearm and leaving a blue bracelet on the flesh."Were not we amusing ourselves?"

"Yes, madame, we were amusing ourselves," said the child, exhausted by her display of strength, and now breaking down as though she were about to faint.

"You hear what she says, madame," said Catherine, boldly, giving the countess one of those looks which women give each other like dagger thrusts.

同类推荐
  • 陆稼书先生问学录

    陆稼书先生问学录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 太上三生解冤妙经

    太上三生解冤妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 石隐园藏稿

    石隐园藏稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 阿弥陀经义述

    阿弥陀经义述

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 谈薮

    谈薮

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 贵家公子的元气公主

    贵家公子的元气公主

    当金光闪闪的贵族公子遇到邂逅家族的小小姐……他和她之间会发生怎样的故事。
  • 退魔事务所

    退魔事务所

    我是个孤儿,从小被唐山捡回来,他是个瞎子,在我们村很出名,是个阴阳先生,我本来是不信迷信的,但是有一次在家做饭时,发现米缸下的长方形洞穴,里面藏着一本无字天书,名为退魔录,这本书给我的人生带来巨大的变化,当一些不为人知的秘密破解后,我该何去何从…
  • 银色之夜

    银色之夜

    “方羽,你是星月家族最后一只吸血鬼,这是一段已经注定的旅程。”十三夜站在我的面前对我说道,清冽的月光照耀在她那随风而舞的秀发上,泛起点点荧光。......我叫方羽,是一名普通的高中学生,有天突然收到了一封奇怪的包裹。盒子里面是一支洁白的羽毛和一封绢丝信件。就在这个暑假即将到来的夏天,突然转来了一名漂亮的女孩儿,做了我的同桌——她的名字叫做十三夜。在十三夜介入我的生活之后,一系列的奇异的事情被渐渐揭开,我发现了我特殊的身世之谜,原来这个世界并不像我们所看到的那样。我是一只吸血鬼......
  • 再生之网络帝国

    再生之网络帝国

    都市小白领被保时捷跑车撞飞,结果却意外重生,并附身在堂哥身上。重活之后的人生自然别样精彩,把握住机会成就一番事业,捍卫中国的互联网行业!和美女们探讨下人生,与世界首富商们讨商讨金融形式,与国家领导握握手交流发展大计……这样的重活人生,难道会不精彩?获得重生的机会,抵制外国人赚中国人的钱,争取多赚外国人的钱,弥补前世想做缺又无法实现的遗憾!——————————特别提醒:从今天开始,未来七天,每天保底更新一章,每涨100收藏,加更一章,说到做到!(2010-7-4)
  • 妖妃逆袭之宠你别逃

    妖妃逆袭之宠你别逃

    一朝重生,本是一名现代的的天才神医却不料穿越到白家不受宠的庶女——白沫筱。在这异世里,风起云涌,她成长蜕变。在成长道路突然有一个身影闯进她的视线,不知从何时起迷失自己,在他有力的怀抱沉沦。他是她伟大的后盾,也是她心中的归宿
  • 石板塘(上卷)

    石板塘(上卷)

    洞庭湖南岸那一大片低矮的丘陵上,有一座孤零零的高山突兀而起。那山呈带状,高低起伏,绵延百里,很像一条卧伏的蚕虫,故名卧蚕山。但卧蚕山只是地图上的名字,老百姓并不这么叫她。当地人最重风水,起房盖屋时,讲究“前有照,后有靠,左右山环水抱”。卧蚕山巍然耸立,气势雄伟,形状颇有点像照壁,且终年郁郁葱葱,风光秀丽,还有许多历史遗迹、离奇传说以及名人的活动踪影。
  • 佛说因缘僧护经

    佛说因缘僧护经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 限时逼婚:萌妻宝贝来袭

    限时逼婚:萌妻宝贝来袭

    五年前,她喝醉装疯,强拉扯着他,就是不放;彼时他们连彼此的脸都没看清;五年后,她逗比抽风,不知不觉把他拉入了坑;此时他们已经有了个比他们还聪明的儿子;谭晨光是个折磨人的单亲妈妈,可以上刀山下火海,却爬不出谈景述的温柔陷阱;谈景述是个老实腹黑的年轻中医,可以治疗疑难杂症,却偏偏中了谭晨光的毒,戒不掉也解不了~谭墨默:其实这就是个老爹找回老娘,然后顺便发现还有个拖油瓶的故事……
  • 那时花开嗅到阳光

    那时花开嗅到阳光

    一个名叫方可馨是单纯善良的妹妹,一个叫方明杰是温暖温柔的哥哥,本是幸福美好的家庭却因为一个谎言支离破碎。从此哥哥不再是哥哥,妹妹不再是妹妹。妹妹带着复仇归来却无法抵挡心里那份悸动的爱情,是分离还是永恒,他们就将何去何从?
  • 穿越之风流民国

    穿越之风流民国

    一次飞机失事,一个特种兵,穿越到民国,面对那个年代的一个个军事大家,毫不露怯,指点江山,也不忘对美女垂涎三尺,小日子过的有滋有味,真是羡煞旁人啊!