old man goriot

Chapter 11 Civilian Apartments (10)
"Do you want a sincere man to order explosives?" Eugene interrupted her.

"So what?" she asked.

He patted his chest, his cousin smiled, he smiled back, and left.It was five o'clock by then; Eugene was hungry, and I feared he would not be in time for supper.Apart from worrying, he also felt the joy of being successful in Paris.This kind of purely instinctive pleasure made him fall into the harassment of cranky thoughts.A young man of his age would go mad with rage if he was looked down upon, and would stretch out his fists at the whole society, wanting to take revenge but lacking in self-confidence.Rastignac, at the moment when he shuts the door of the countess's house for you, feels uncomfortable, and thinks: "I will go! If Madame de Beauseant's words are true, if I am really blocked. ... I ... then Madame de Restore will meet me in every salon she goes to. I will learn how to fencing, how to shoot a gun, and kill her Maxime! But what about the money?" he cried out in his heart. , "Where can I get money?"

The extravagant wealth of the Countess de Resto's house suddenly gleamed before her eyes.There he had seen Mademoiselle Goriot's beloved luxury, the resplendent house, the obviously valuable objects, the vulgar ostentation of the nouveau riche, and the extravagance of a lady-in-waiting.This charming and dazzling picture suddenly overwhelmed everyone in the Baosaiang residence.His imagination flew to the upper class of Paris, and a thousand bad thoughts popped up in his mind, and his mind suddenly brightened.He saw the true face of society: law and morality are powerless to the rich, and property is the ultima ratio mundi[27]. "Vautrin is right, wealth is virtue!" he said in his heart.

At the Rue Neuve Saint-Geneviève, he hurried upstairs to his room, went downstairs to pay the coachman ten francs, and then came to the disgusting dining-room; there were only eighteen diners, like cattle before a trough, eating.He felt that this poor appearance and the scene of the dining room were really unbearable.The gap is too abrupt, the contrast is too strong, and his ambition can't help but overinflate.One side is extremely elegant, the society is fresh and charming, the face is full of vigor and poetry, art and luxury are a wonderful atmosphere; the other side is bleak and bleak, surrounded by dirt, and the faces of the characters are only the remains of the tossed by lust .Madame de Beauseant, with the wrath of a deserted woman, had given him instruction, offered him specious strategies, and he recalled them all at once;Rastignac decided to pursue a career in two ways: relying on knowledge and at the same time relying on love, becoming a learned doctor and being a fashionable person at the same time.He is still very childish!These two routes seem to be close, but they will never intersect.

"You don't look well, Monsieur the Marquis," Vautrin said to him, with a glance that seemed to catch a glimpse of someone's deepest secret.

"Just kidding, call me Monsieur the Marquis, I can't stand it," he replied. "If you really want to be a Marquis here, you have to pay a hundred thousand francs a year; the man who lives in the Vauguet apartment is not the favorite of fate."

Vautrin looked at Rastignac, and said with an old-fashioned and contemptuous air: "Boy! There's only enough for me!" Madame didn't get it there."

"I will never knock on her door again, because I blurted out that her father dined with us," Eugene said loudly.

Everyone at the dinner table looked at each other.Old man Gao lowered his eyes, turned his head and wiped away.

"You got snuff in my eye," he said to his neighbor.

"Whoever bullies old man Goriot will bully me again," Eugene said, glaring at the old noodle merchant's neighbor, "he's better than us. Of course I'm not talking about the ladies." He turned to Miss Taifan Said.

The words were settled; Eugene spoke in such a way that the people at the table were silenced.Only Volt said to him sarcastically: "If you want to protect old man Gao and be his backstage, you must first learn how to fencing and shooting a gun."

"That's what I want to do," Eugene said.

"So, you are going to fight today?"

"Perhaps," replied Rastignac, "but mine is nobody's business, since I don't want to guess what other people do in the middle of the night."

Vautrin looked sideways at Rastignac.

"My brother, if you want to see through the puppet show, you have to go into the shed instead of just peering through the gaps in the curtains. Enough chat," he added, seeing that Eugene was about to lose his temper. "If you want to talk in the future, we can talk together."

The atmosphere of the dinner became gloomy and deserted.Hearing what the college student said, old man Gao still felt uncomfortable deep inside. He didn't know that everyone's attitude towards him had changed, and he didn't know that a young man who could stop others from bullying him stepped forward to protect him.

"So M. Goriot is really the father of a countess?" asked Madame Vauquer in a low voice.

"And the father of a baroness," Rastignac said after her.

"He is only fit for this role," Bianchon said to Rastignac. "I have photographed his head: there is only one bump, which is the appearance of a father who will become a heavenly father."

Eugene looked serious, and did not laugh at Bianchon's witty remark.He would follow Madame de Beauseant's advice, thinking where and how to get the money.The prairie of society unfolded before his eyes one by one, both empty and full, and he was fascinated by it.Everyone left after dinner, but he remained in the dining room.

"So you saw my daughter?" Old Man Gao asked him excitedly.

Eugene woke up suddenly from his meditation, took the old man's hand, and looked at him affectionately: "You are a good man, a noble man," he replied, "let us talk about your daughter later." He stood up, Not wanting to listen to Old Man Gao, he went back to his room and wrote the following letter to his mother:
Dear mother, please consider whether you can give me the grace of nurturing again.In my present state, I can make a fortune quickly; but it will cost twelve hundred francs, and I must.Don't say a word about it to my father, he might object; and if I didn't have the money, I'd be so desperate that I'd shoot myself.I will tell you my intentions next time we meet, because it would take several books for you to understand my current situation.My dear mother, I play no money, and I am not in debt; but the life you gave me, If you want to keep it, you must raise it for me.In short, I am going to the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, who has promised to accompany me.I've got to socialize and I don't have the money to buy a pair of proper gloves.I can only eat bread and drink water, and I can skip it when necessary; but to grow grapes here, I cannot live without tools for digging the ground.Whether I forge ahead, or stay in the mud, is all in one fell swoop.I know all about your expectations of me, and I want to realize them as soon as possible.Good mother, sell some of your old jewellery, and I'll buy you new ones soon.I am well aware of the situation at home, so your sacrifice is in my heart; you should also believe that I am not asking you to make unnecessary sacrifices, otherwise I would be a beast.You have to know that I only ask for urgent needs.Our future depends on this money, and I have to fight with it, because life in Paris is a never-ending battle.If there is no other way to make up the amount and you have to sell your aunt's lace, please tell her that I will send her more beautiful ones in the future...

He wrote to his two younger sisters separately, asking for money from their private houses, knowing that they would be willing to contribute to him.In order to keep them silent at home, he plucked at the taut and resounding heartstrings of the young people, and let them act in secret.But after writing these letters, he still couldn't help trembling, his heart skipped a beat.The smug young man knew that his reclusive sister had a pure and noble heart, and he knew how much pain and joy he would give them, and with what joy they would whisper about their beloved brother in the seclusion of the manor.His heart suddenly brightened, as if he saw them counting their small savings in private, seeing them displaying their girlish cleverness, and for the first time, for the sake of nobility, they sent the money to him anonymously without telling anyone.

He thought to himself: "A younger sister's heart is as pure as a diamond and as deep as the sea!"

He wrote that letter and felt ashamed.How powerful are their words!They look at the sky, how pure their impulsive hearts are!Can they not be happy when they sacrifice?How painful it would be if the mother could not send the money in full!These beautiful emotions, these great sacrifices, would soon be the ladder for him to reach Danfina de Nucingen.A few tears fell from his eyes like the last sticks of incense on the family altar.He paced up and down, distracted.Seeing his appearance through the gap in the door, the old man walked in and said to him, "What's the matter with you, sir?"

(End of this chapter)