Justine 淑女的眼泪 Chapter 41

"Superfluous¹ efforts," he cries, "this is not what I must have... to the business... the business... however pitiable my state... I can hold back no longer... come, Countess, your arms!"

 

He seizes her ferociously², places her as I was placed, arms suspended by two black straps³; mine is the task of securing the bands; he inspects the knots: finding them too loose, he tightens⁴ them, "So that," he says, "the blood will spurt⁵ out under greater pressure"; he feels the veins⁶, and lances them, on each arm, at almost the same moment. Blood leaps far: he is in an ecstasy⁷; and adjusting himself so that he has a clear view of these two fountains, he has me kneel between his legs so I can suck him; he does as much for first one and then the other of his little friends, incessantly⁸ eyeing the jets of blood which inflame⁹ him. For my part, certain the instant at which the hoped for crisis occurs will bring a conclusion to the Countess' torments¹⁰, I bring all my efforts to bear upon precipitating¹¹ this denouement¹², and I become, as, Madame, you observe, I become a whore from kindness, a libertine¹³ through virtue¹⁴. The much awaited moment arrives at last; I am not familiar with its dangers or violence, for the last time it had taken place I had been unconscious... Oh, Madame! what extravagance! Gernande remained delirious¹⁵ for ten minutes, flailing¹⁶ his arms, staggering, reeling like one falling in a fit of epilepsy, and uttering screams which must have been audible for a league around; his oaths were excessive; lashing¹⁷ out at everyone at hand, his strugglings were dreadful. The two little ones are sent tumbling head over heels; he wishes to fly at his wife, I restrain him: I pump the last drop from him, his need of me makes him respect me; at last I bring him to his senses by ridding him of that fiery¹⁸ liquid, whose heat, whose viscosity¹⁹, and above all whose abundance puts him in such a frenzy²⁰ I believe he is going to expire; seven or eight tablespoons would scarcely have contained the discharge, and the thickest gruel²¹ would hardly give a notion of its consistency²²; and with all that, no appearance of an erection at all, rather, the limp look and feel of exhaustion²³: there you have the contrarieties which, better than might I, explain artists of the Count's breed. The Count ate excessively and only dissipated each time he bled his wife, every four days, that is to say. Would this be the cause of the phenomenon? I have no idea, and not daring to ascribe a reason to what I do not understand, I will be content to relate what I saw.

 

However, I rush to the Countess, I stanch²⁴ her blood, untie²⁵ her, and deposit her upon a couch in a state of extreme weakness; but the Count, totally indifferent to her, without condescending²⁷ to cast even a glance at this victim stricken by his rage, abruptly²⁸ goes out with his aides, leaving me to put things in whatever order I please. Such is the fatal apathy²⁹ which better than all else characterizes the true libertine soul: if he is merely carried away by passion's heat, limned³⁰ with remorse³¹ will be his face when, calmed again, he beholds³² the baleful effects of delirium³³; but if his soul is utterly³⁴ corrupt³⁵? then such consequences will affright him not: he will observe them with as little trouble as regret, perhaps even with some of the emotion of those infamous³⁶ lusts³⁷ which produced them.

 

I put Madame de Gernande to bed. She had, so she said, lost much more this time than she ordinarily did; but such good care and so many restoratives were lavished³⁸ upon her, that she appeared well two days later. That same evening, when I had completed all my chores in the Countess' apartment, word arrived that the Count desired to speak to me; Gernande was taking supper; I was obliged to wait upon him while he fed with a much greater intemperance³⁹ than at dinner; four of his pretty little friends were seated round the table with him and there, every evening, he regularly drank himself into drunkenness; but to that end, twenty bottles of the most excellent wine were scarcely sufficient and I often saw him empty thirty. And every evening, propped⁴⁰ up by his minions⁴¹, the debauchee went to bed, and took one or two of the boys with him; these were nothing but vehicles which disposed him for the great scene.

 

But I had discovered the secret of winning this man's very highest esteem⁴²: he frankly⁴³ avowed⁴⁴ to me that few women had pleased him so much; and thereby⁴⁵ I acquired the right to his confidence, which I only exploited in order to serve my mistress.

 

One morning Gernande called me to his room to inform me of some new libertine schemes; after having listened closely and approved enthusiastically, and seeing him in a relatively⁴⁶ calm state, I undertook to persuade him to mitigate⁴⁷ his poor wife's fate. "Is it possible, Monsieur," I said to him, "that one may treat a woman in this manner, even setting aside all the ties which bind⁴⁸ you to her ? Condescend²⁶ to reflect upon her sex's touching⁴⁹ graces."

 

"Oh Therese!" the Count answered with alacrity⁵⁰, "why in order to pacify⁵¹ me do you bring me arguments which could not more positively⁵² arouse me? Listen to me, my dear girl," he continued, having me take a place beside him, "and whatever the invectives you may hear me utter against your sex, don't lose your temper; no, a reasoned discussion; I'll yield to your arguments if they're logically sound.

 

"How are you justified⁵³, pray tell me, Therese, in asserting that a husband lies under the obligation to make his wife happy? and what titles dares this woman cite in order to extort⁵⁴ this happiness from her husband? The necessity mutually to render one another happy cannot legitimately⁵⁶ exist save between two persons equally furnished with the capacity to do one another hurt and, consequently, between two persons of commensurate strength: such an association can never come into being unless a contract is immediately formed between these two persons, which obligates each to employ against the other no kind of force but what will not be injurious to either; but this ridiculous convention assuredly can never obtain between two persons one of whom is strong and the other weak. What entitles the latter to require the former to treat kindly⁵⁷ with him? and what sort of a fool would the stronger have to be in order to subscribe⁵⁸ to such an agreement? I can agree not to employ force against him whose own strength makes him to be feared; but what could motivate me to moderate the effects of my strength upon the being Nature subordinates to me? Pity, do you say? That sentiment is fitting for no one but the person who resembles me and as he is an egoist too, pity's effects only occur under the tacit circumstances in which the individual who inspires my commiseration⁵⁹ has sympathy for me in his turn; but if my superiority assures me a constant ascendancy⁶⁰ over him, his sympathy becoming valueless to me, I need never, in order to excite it, consent to any sacrifice. Would I not be a fool to feel pity for the chicken they slaughtered⁶¹ for my dinner? That object, too inferior to me, lacking any relation to me, can never excite any feelings in me; well, the relationships of a wife to her husband and that of the chicken to myself are of identical consequence, the one and the other are household chattels⁶² which one must use, which one must employ for the purpose indicated by Nature, without any differentiation⁶³ whatsoever⁶⁴. But, I ask, had it been Nature's intention to create your sex for the happiness of ours and vice⁶⁵ versa, would this blind Nature have caused the existence of so many ineptitudes in the construction of the one and the other of those sexes? Would she have implanted faults so grave in each that mutual⁵⁵ estrangement⁶⁶ and antipathy⁶⁷ were bound infallibly to be their result? Without going any further in search of examples, be so good as to tell me, Therese, knowing my organization to be what it is, what woman could I render happy? and, reversibly, to what man can the enjoyment⁶⁸ of a woman be sweet when he is not endowed with the gigantic proportions necessary to satisfy her? In your opinion, will they be moral qualities which will compensate⁶⁹ his physical shortcomings? And what thinking being, upon knowing a woman to her depths, will not cry with Euripides: 'That one amongst the Gods who brought women into the world may boast of having produced the worst of all creatures and the most afflicting⁷⁰ to man.' If then it is demonstrated that the two sexes do not at all sort agreeably with each other and that there is not one well-founded grievance⁷¹ of the one which could not equally and immediately be voiced by the other, it is therefore false, from this moment, to say that Nature created them for their reciprocal happiness. She may have permitted them the desire to attain⁷² each other's vicinity in order to conjugate⁷³ in the interests of propagation, but in no wise in order to form attachments⁷⁴ with the design of discovering a mutual felicity. The weaker therefore having no right to mouth complaints with the object of wresting⁷⁵ pity from the stronger and no longer being able to raise the objection that the stronger depends for his happiness upon her, the weaker, I say, has no alternative but to submit; and as, despite the difficulty of achieving that bilateral⁷⁶ happiness, it is natural that individuals of both sexes labor⁷⁷ at nothing but to procure⁷⁸ it for themselves, the weaker must reconcile herself to distilling⁷⁹ from her submissiveness the only dose of happiness she can possibly hope to cull⁸⁰, and the stronger must strive after his by whatever oppressive methods he is pleased to employ, since it is proven that the mighty's sole happiness is yielded him by the exercise of his strong faculties⁸¹, by, that is to say, the most thorough-going tyranny; thus, that happiness the two sexes cannot find with each other they will find, one in blind obedience⁸², the other in the most energetic expression of his domination. Why! were it not Nature's intention that one of the sexes tyrannize the other, would she not have created them equally strong? By rendering⁸³ one in every particular inferior to the other, has she not adequately indicated that she wills the mightier⁸⁴ to exploit the rights she has given him? the more the latter broadens his authority, the more, by means of his preponderance, he worsens the misery⁸⁵ of the woman enthralled⁸⁶ by her destiny, the better he answers Nature's intentions; the frail⁸⁷ being's complaints do not provide a correct basis for analyzing⁸⁸ the process; judgments⁸⁹ thus come by would be nothing if not vicious, since, to reach them, you would have to appropriate none but the feeble's ideas: the suit must be judged upon the stronger party's power, upon the scope he has given to his power, and when this power's effects are brought to bear upon a woman, one must examine the question, What is a woman? and how has this contemptible⁹⁰ sex been viewed in ancient times and in our own by seventy-five per cent of the peoples of this earth?

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