登陆注册
5441900000032

第32章 CHAPTER VI(5)

Etienne brought flowers on the morrow, ordering his people to find rare ones, as his mother had done in earlier days for him. Who knows the depths to which the roots of a feeling reach in the soul of a solitary being thus returning to the traditions of mother-love in order to bestow upon a woman the same caressing devotion with which his mother had charmed his life? To him, what grandeur in these nothings wherein were blended his only two affections. Flowers and music thus became the language of their love. Gabrielle replied to Etienne's gifts by nosegays of her own,--nosegays which told the wise old doctor that his ignorant daughter already knew enough. The material ignorance of these two lovers was like a dark background on which the faintest lines of their all-spiritual intercourse were traced with exquisite delicacy, like the red, pure outlines of Etruscan figures. Their slightest words brought a flood of ideas, because each was the fruit of their long meditations. Incapable of boldly looking forward, each beginning seemed to them an end. Though absolutely free, they were imprisoned in their own simplicity, which would have been disheartening had either given a meaning to their confused desires. They were poets and poem both. Music, the most sensual of arts for loving souls, was the interpreter of their ideas;they took delight in repeating the same harmony, letting their passion flow through those fine sheets of sound in which their souls could vibrate without obstacle.

Many loves proceed through opposition; through struggles and reconciliations, the vulgar struggle of mind and matter. But the first wing-beat of true love sends it far beyond such struggles. Where all is of the same essence, two natures are no longer to be distinguished;like genius in its highest expression, such love can sustain itself in the brightest light; it grows beneath the light, it needs no shade to bring it into relief. Gabrielle, because she was a woman, Etienne, because he had suffered much and meditated much, passed quickly through the regions occupied by common passions and went beyond it.

Like all enfeebled natures, they were quickly penetrated by Faith, by that celestial glow which doubles strength by doubling the soul. For them their sun was always at its meridian. Soon they had that divine belief in themselves which allows of neither jealousy nor torment;abnegation was ever ready, admiration constant.

Under these conditions, love could have no pain. Equal in their feebleness, strong in their union, if the noble had some superiority of knowledge and some conventional grandeur, the daughter of the physician eclipsed all that by her beauty, by the loftiness of her sentiments, by the delicacy she gave to their enjoyments. Thus these two white doves flew with one wing beneath their pure blue heaven;Etienne loved, he was loved, the present was serene, the future cloudless; he was sovereign lord; the castle was his, the sea belonged to both of them; no vexing thought troubled the harmonious concert of their canticle; virginity of mind and senses enlarged for them the world, their thoughts rose in their minds without effort; desire, the satisfactions of which are doomed to blast so much, desire, that evil of terrestrial love, had not as yet attacked them. Like two zephyrs swaying on the same willow-branch, they needed nothing more than the joy of looking at each other in the mirror of the limpid waters;immensity sufficed them; they admired their Ocean, without one thought of gliding on it in the white-winged bark with ropes of flowers, sailed by Hope.

Love has its moment when it suffices to itself, when it is happy in merely being. During this springtime, when all is budding, the lover sometimes hides from the beloved woman, in order to enjoy her more, to see her better; but Etienne and Gabrielle plunged together into all the delights of that infantine period. Sometimes they were two sisters in the grace of their confidences, sometimes two brothers in the boldness of their questionings. Usually love demands a slave and a god, but these two realized the dream of Plato,--they were but one being deified. They protected each other. Caresses came slowly, one by one, but chaste as the merry play--so graceful, so coquettish--of young animals. The sentiment which induced them to express their souls in song led them to love by the manifold transformations of the same happiness. Their joys caused them neither wakefulness nor delirium. It was the infancy of pleasure developing within them, unaware of the beautiful red flowers which were to crown its shoots. They gave themselves to each other, ignorant of all danger; they cast their whole being into a word, into a look, into a kiss, into the long, long pressure of their clasping hands. They praised each other's beauties ingenuously, spending treasures of language on these secret idylls, inventing soft exaggerations and more diminutives than the ancient muse of Tibullus, or the poesies of Italy. On their lips and in their hearts love flowed ever, like the liquid fringes of the sea upon the sands of the shore,--all alike, all dissimilar. Joyous, eternal fidelity!

If we must count by days, the time thus spent was five months only; if we may count by the innumerable sensations, thoughts, dreams, glances, opening flowers, realized hopes, unceasing joys, speeches interrupted, renewed, abandoned, frolic laughter, bare feet dabbling in the sea, hunts, childlike, for shells, kisses, surprises, clasping hands,--call it a lifetime; death will justify the word. There are existences that are ever gloomy, lived under ashen skies; but suppose a glorious day, when the sun of heaven glows in the azure air,--such was the May of their love, during which Etienne had suspended all his griefs,--griefs which had passed into the heart of Gabrielle, who, in turn, had fastened all her joys to come on those of her lord. Etienne had had but one sorrow in his life,--the death of his mother; he was to have but one love--Gabrielle.

同类推荐
  • 游杭州诸胜记

    游杭州诸胜记

    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。
  • 侯鲭录

    侯鲭录

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Majorie Daw

    Majorie Daw

    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。
  • 最胜佛顶陀罗尼经

    最胜佛顶陀罗尼经

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说四人出现世间经

    佛说四人出现世间经

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 绿光之龙

    绿光之龙

    新书《不正常龙类养成日记》正在火热更新中……求投资,求收藏,求票票啊! 啊!您是地精、蜥蜴人、鱼人和娜迦的王,黑暗精灵和精类生物的保护者,黑森林的主人,绿光城的统治者,梦境主神,森林之龙,自然龙神,柯林冕下。柯林:咳咳,其实我只是个天朝穿越者~轻松搞笑欢乐文,作者新手喜欢玩梗,请勿太计较!
  • 红包请小心

    红包请小心

    我们只是一群普通的学生,却因为抢了一个红包而被拉进了恐怖的游戏中,在死亡的游戏中,我们不断的寻找生的契机,寻找为什么会选择我们的理由,不想更深的谜团还在等着我们,更多的恐惧还在不断的袭来……
  • 封少,我穿书了!

    封少,我穿书了!

    【1V1甜宠】好不容易混成影后的颜书予,却连奖杯都没摸到,就一命呜呼。再次醒来,就成了书中和自己同名的下场凄惨的恶毒女配。颜书予表示,能怎么办,当然是命最重要啊!从被全网黑的十八线小艺人,到参演的影视剧成为现象级,常驻综艺全网好评,日常热搜不断……颜书予表示,穿书的生活,还不赖!只是,一直不停在身边打转的某人,你不累么?粉丝日常彩虹屁,日常打榜,日常吃瓜,然后——卧槽,瓜裂了。#新晋小花颜书予恋情曝光!##不,我不信,予予永远都是小羽毛的!##予予小仙女那么美,那么好,没有人能配得上,没有人!#后来——真香。#啊啊啊,这是什么绝美爱情啊##请两位原地结婚,九块钱我出了##今天又是为神仙爱情流泪的一天#【读者群号:786762195,欢迎小可爱们加入~~~】
  • 美梦如昨

    美梦如昨

    话说初恋是什么柑橘,是爱而不得!或是卑微的拱手!
  • 一草文集:年少三部曲(新版·全3册)

    一草文集:年少三部曲(新版·全3册)

    本套装共3册——《致年少回不去的爱》《那时年少》和《毕业了,我们一无所有》。愿你历经风帆,归来仍是少年。
  • 今天又填了一个坑

    今天又填了一个坑

    【因你,才有活下去的念头,不要离开我,可好?——易邯辰】【爱为何物?你能教我吗?——白汐】#邪魅大少#温柔皇帝阴冷一笑,“救了我,也该我‘报答’你了。”#黑化王子抚上她的脸,亲昵又温柔且毒厉,“失忆了?没关系,我帮你好好回忆……”#变态哥哥、黑化弟弟、狼性校草、高冷医生……白汐:“……”等她发现这些人都是一个人时,毫不犹豫地……跑了……
  • 现代都市修行记

    现代都市修行记

    这是一个科学的世界,哦,不、这是一个表面是科学的世界,在世界里普通人都崇尚科学,也只知道科学;但是有那么一群人,他们与普通人不同,有的是古武者,有的是修行者,有的是一些异能者,...,既然存在就有其因果。一座寺庙,可能有着佛家的修行者。一个道观,说不定有道家的修行者。一个公司老板的保镖是某个古武的传人或者古武世家的人。校园竞赛比拼,古武者与修行者的对决,在外人眼里不过是普通的功夫比赛。寺庙的千年建筑,底下有着被镇压的千年的妖魔。校园的成立是为了代替寺庙的镇压功能。死去多年的少女,因为一个玉镯,竟然重获新生。一个被迫离开学校的少年‘吴擎’,机缘巧合的开始了修行,不过世界已经变了,修行是不能...
  • 有关你的地方

    有关你的地方

    每个人的青春都是一场梦,梦中的自己都渴望着成长为最好的样子。我们身边出现的人,都只是我们成长过程中的镜子,他们会让我们更好的成长,直到我们成为最好的自己。林秒说,遇到许木是她做过最美的梦,并且她的梦一直在继续。
  • 行走在诸天科幻

    行走在诸天科幻

    以科技证道,走科幻之路,科技类型的异能一念天崩地裂,科技类型的基因工程,一剑斩裂星辰,科技类型的降维攻击,一击降维宇宙,怼上仙侠会怎样……,预知下回分解,敬请期待更新吧!
  • 星空的畅想

    星空的畅想

    浩瀚的宇宙,璀璨的群星,未知的奥秘在等待我们。别怕,我们有猪脚。一位拥有无数尊称的帝王历尽千辛万苦回到家乡,他想再重新过一次平凡的生活,可是总有不开眼的极品在制造麻烦。没办法,见一个清理一个,清理干净了,自己的家乡也就安静了。声明:平行宇宙,与现实无关。