The Mysterious Island — Chapter 39 in French
By Jules Verne
Ces dernières paroles justifiaient les pressentiments des colons. These last words justified the colonists' presentiment. Il y avait dans la vie de ce malheureux quelque funeste passé, expié peut-être aux yeux des hommes, mais dont sa conscience ne l’avait pas encore absous. There had been some mournful past, perhaps expiated in the sight of men, but from which his conscience had not yet absolved him. En tout cas, le coupable avait des remords, il se repentait, et, cette main qu’ils lui demandaient, ses nouveaux amis l’eussent cordialement pressée, mais il ne se sentait pas digne de la tendre à d’honnêtes gens ! At any rate the guilty man felt remorse, he repented, and his new friends would have cordially pressed the hand which they sought; but he did not feel himself worthy to extend it to honest men! Toutefois, après la scène du jaguar, il ne retourna pas dans la forêt, et depuis ce jour il ne quitta plus l’enceinte de Granite-house. However, after the scene with the jaguar, he did not return to the forest, and from that day did not go beyond the enclosure of Granite House.
Quel était le mystère de cette existence ? What was the mystery of his life? L’inconnu parlerait-il un jour ? Would the stranger one day speak of it? Le temps seul pouvait le montrer. Time alone could show. En tout cas, il fut bien convenu que son secret ne lui serait jamais demandé et que l’on vivrait avec lui comme si l’on n’eût rien soupçonné. At any rate, it was agreed that his secret should never be asked from him, and that they would live with him as if they suspected nothing.
Pendant quelques jours, la vie commune continua donc d’être ce qu’elle avait été. For some days their life continued as before. Cyrus Smith et Gédéon Spilett travaillaient ensemble, tantôt chimistes, tantôt physiciens. Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett worked together, sometimes chemists, sometimes experimentalists. Le reporter ne quittait l’ingénieur que pour chasser avec Harbert, car il n’eût pas été prudent de laisser le jeune garçon courir seul la forêt, et il fallait se tenir sur ses gardes. The reporter never left the engineer except to hunt with Herbert, for it would not have been prudent to allow the lad to ramble alone in the forest; and it was very necessary to be on their guard. Quant à Nab et à Pencroff, un jour aux étables ou à la basse-cour, un autre au corral, sans compter les travaux à Granite-house, ils ne manquaient pas d’ouvrage. As to Neb and Pencroft, one day at the stables and poultry-yard, another at the corral, without reckoning work in Granite House, they were never in want of employment.
L’inconnu travaillait à l’écart, et il avait repris son existence habituelle, n’assistant point aux repas, couchant sous les arbres du plateau, ne se mêlant jamais à ses compagnons. The stranger worked alone, and he had resumed his usual life, never appearing at meals, sleeping under the trees in the plateau, never mingling with his companions. Il semblait vraiment que la société de ceux qui l’avaient sauvé lui fût insupportable ! It really seemed as if the society of those who had saved him was insupportable to him!