Louis Lambert — Honoré de Balzac, trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley
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The translator’s English as printed (Katharine Prescott Wormeley). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
‘‘You are very pensive this evening, gentlemen. You treat me and Minna like men to whom you would talk politics or discuss trade, while we are but girls to whom you should tell fairy-tales while drinking tea, as is the custom in our evenings in Norway.—Come, Pastor Becker, tell me some Saga which I do not know. That of Frithiof, in which you believe, and which you promised to tell me, or the story of the peasant’s son who has a ship that speaks and hasasoul? I dream of the frigate ‘Ellida.’ Is it not on that fairy vessel that girls should sail the seas ?”’
‘‘Since we have come down to Jarvis again,’’ said Wilfrid, whese eyes were fixed on Seraphita as those of a robber hidden in the gloom are fixed on the spot where treasure lies, ‘‘tell me why you do not marry ?”’
’
‘You are all born widowers or widows,’’ replied she.
“has
p. 1389
“My marriage was decided on at my birth; I am_ betrothed—”’
‘To whom ?”’ they all asked in a breath.
‘‘Allow me to keep my secret,’’ said she. ‘‘I promise, if our father will grant it, to invite you to that mysterious wedding.”’
‘Ts it to be soon ?”’
‘‘Tam waiting.”
A long silence ensued.
‘‘The spring is come,’’
said Seraphita. ‘‘The noise of waters and of breaking ice has begun; will you not come to hail the first springtime of the new century ?”’
She rose and, followed by Wilfrid, went to a window which David had thrown open. After the long stillness of winter, the vast waters were stirring beneath the ice, and sang through the fiord like music; for there are sounds which distance glorifies, and which reach the ear in waves that seem to bring refreshment and light. .
‘‘Cease, Wilfrid,’’ said she, ‘‘cease to cherish evil thoughts whose triumph will be a torment to endure. Who could fail to read your wishes in the sparkle of your eyes? Be good; take a step in well-doing! Is it not a step beyond the mere love of men to sacrifice yourself entirely to the happiness of the one you love? Submit to me, and I will lead you into a path where you will attain to all the greatness you dream of, and where love will be really infinite.”’
She left Wilfrid lost in thought. :
‘‘Can this gentle creature really be the prophetess who but now flashed lightnings from her eyes, whose words thundered about the worlds, whose hand wielded the axe of Doubt in defiance of our sciences?’’ said he to himself. ‘‘Have we been asleep for these few minutes ?”’
p. 140
‘*Minna,”’ said Seraphitus, returning to the pastor’s daughter, ‘‘the eagles gather where the dead lie, the turtle-dove flies to the springs of living water under green and peaceful groves. The eagle soars to the skies, the dove descends from them. Venture no more into regions where you will find neither fountains nor shade. If this morning you could not look into the gulf without destruction, keep your powers”
for him who will love you. Go, poor child, I am betrothed, as you know.”’
Minna rose and went with Seraphitus to the window, where Wilfrid still was standing. They could all three hear the Sieg leaping under the force of the upper waters, which were bringing down tke trees that had been frozen - into the ice. The fiord had found its voice again. LIllusion was over. They wondered at Nature bursting her bonds, and answering in noble harmonies to the Spirit whose call had awakened her. t
When the three guests had left this mysterious being, they were filled with an indefinable feeling which was not sleep, nor torpor, nor astonishment, but a mixture of all three, which was neither twilight nor daybreak, but which made them long for light. They were all very thoughtful.
‘‘T begin to think that she is a spirit veiled in human form,’’ said the pastor.
Wilfrid, in his own room again, calmed and convinced, knew not how to contend with powers so divinely majestic.
Minna said to herself—
‘“Why will he not allow me to love him?”
p. 3
SERAPHITA - mt 5S Sa
Vv
THE FAREWELL
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