Early Autumn

EARLY AUTUMN

初秋

_Louis Bromfield_

_路易斯·布罗姆菲尔德_

EARLY AUTUMN

初秋

_Copyright, 1926, by_ FREDERICK A.

_版权所有，1926 年，作者：FREDERICK A.

STOKES COMPANY

斯托克斯公司

_All rights reserved_

_保留所有权利_

LAURA CANFIELD WOOD

劳拉·坎菲尔德·伍德

EARLY AUTUMN

初秋

CHAPTER I

第一章

There was a ball in the old Pentland house because for the first time in nearly forty years there was a young girl in the family to be introduced to the polite world of Boston and to the elect who had been asked to come on from New York and Philadelphia.

在彭特兰的老房子里举行了一场舞会，因为近四十年来，家里第一次有一个年轻的女孩被介绍给波士顿的礼貌世界和被邀请从纽约和费城前来的选民。

So the old house was all bedizened with lanterns and bunches of late spring flowers, and in the bare, white-painted, dignified hallway a negro band, hidden discreetly by flowers, sat making noisy, obscene music.

于是，老房子里就挂满了灯笼和一束束晚春的花朵，在光秃秃的、粉刷成白色的、庄严的走廊里，一支黑人乐队小心翼翼地隐藏在鲜花后面，坐着演奏着喧闹、淫秽的音乐。

Sybil Pentland was eighteen and lately returned from School in Paris, whither she had been sent against the advice of the conservative members of her own family, which, it might have been said, included in its connections most of Boston.

西比尔·彭特兰当时十八岁，最近从巴黎的学校回来，她不顾自己家庭中保守派成员的建议被送到那里，可以说，她的家庭与波士顿的大部分地区都有联系。

Already her great-aunt, Mrs. Cassandra Struthers, a formidable woman, had gone through the list of eligible young men--the cousins and connections who were presentable and possessed of fortunes worthy of consideration by a family so solidly rich as the Pentlands.

她的姨婆卡桑德拉·斯特拉瑟斯夫人是一位令人敬畏的女人，她已经仔细检查了合格的年轻男子的名单——这些表兄弟和亲戚都体面且拥有财富，值得像彭特兰这样富裕的家庭考虑。

It was toward this end that the ball had been launched and the whole countryside invited, young and old, spry and infirm, middle-aged and dowdy--toward this end and with the idea of showing the world that the family had lost none of its prestige for all the lack of young people in its ranks.

正是为了这个目的，舞会才开始，邀请了整个乡村，无论年轻的还是年老的，精力充沛的还是体弱多病的，中年的还是邋遢的——就是为了这个目的，目的是向世界表明，这个家族并没有因为家族中缺少年轻人而失去威望。

For this prestige had once been of national proportions, though now it had shrunk until the Pentland name was little known outside New England.

因为这种威望曾经是全国性的，尽管现在它已经萎缩，直到彭特兰这个名字在新英格兰以外的地方鲜为人知。

Rather, it might have been said that the nation had run away from New England and the Pentland family, leaving it stranded and almost forgotten by the side of the path which marked an unruly, almost barbaric progress away from all that the Pentland family and the old house represented.

相反，可以说这个国家已经逃离了新英格兰和彭特兰家族，让它陷入困境，几乎被遗忘在路边，这标志着远离彭特兰家族和老房子所代表的一切的不守规矩、近乎野蛮的进步。

Sybil’s grandfather had seen to it that there was plenty of champagne; and there were tables piled with salads and cold lobster and sandwiches and hot chicken in chafing-dishes.

西比尔的祖父确保了充足的香槟。桌子上堆满了沙拉、冷龙虾、三明治和火锅里的热鸡肉。

It was as if a family whose whole history had been marked by thrift and caution had suddenly cast to the winds all semblance of restraint in a heroic gesture toward splendor.

就好像一个历史上一直以节俭和谨慎为标志的家族突然将所有表面上的克制抛诸脑后，以一种走向辉煌的英雄姿态。

But in some way, the gesture seemed to be failing.

但从某种程度上来说，这一举动似乎失败了。

The negro music sounded wild and spirited, but also indiscreet and out of place in a house so old and solemn.

黑人音乐听起来狂野而热烈，但在一座如此古老而庄严的房子里却显得轻率和格格不入。

A few men and one or two women known for their fondness for drink consumed a great deal of champagne, but only dulness came of it, dulness and a kind of dead despair.

几个男人和一两个爱喝酒的女人喝了很多香槟，但随之而来的却是乏味，乏味和一种死一般的绝望。

The rich, the splendorous, the gorgeous, the barbaric, had no place in rooms where the kind Mr. Longfellow and the immortal Messrs.

富有、富丽堂皇、华丽、野蛮，在善良的朗费罗先生和不朽的先生们的房间里没有容身之地。

Emerson and Lowell had once sat and talked of life.

爱默生和洛厄尔曾经坐下来谈论生活。

In a hallway, beneath the gaze of a row of ancestors remarkable for the grimness of their faces, the music appeared to lose its quality of abandon; it did not belong in this genteel world.

走廊里，在一排面容严峻的祖先的注视下，音乐似乎失去了放纵的品质；它不属于这个上流社会。

On the fringes of the party there was some drunkenness among the undergraduates imported from Cambridge, but there was very little gaiety.

在聚会的边缘，从剑桥引进的本科生中有一些喝醉了，但很少有欢乐的气氛。

The champagne fell upon barren ground.

香槟落在贫瘠的土地上。

The party drooped.

聚会低落了。

Though the affair was given primarily to place Sybil Pentland upon the matrimonial market of this compact world, it served, too, as an introduction for Thérèse Callendar, who had come to spend the summer at Brook Cottage across the stony meadows on the other side of the river from Pentlands; and as a reintroduction of her mother, a far more vivid and remarkable person.

虽然这件事主要是为了将西比尔·彭特兰置于这个紧凑世界的婚姻市场上，但它也为泰蕾兹·卡伦达尔提供了介绍，她从彭特兰穿过河对岸的石质草地来到布鲁克小屋避暑。并重新介绍了她的母亲，一个更加生动和非凡的人。

Durham and the countryside thereabouts was familiar enough to her, for she had been born there and passed her childhood within sight of the spire of the Durham town meeting-house.

达勒姆及其附近的乡村对她来说非常熟悉，因为她出生在那里，并在达勒姆镇教堂的尖塔的视野中度过了童年。

And now, after an absence of twenty years, she had come back out of a world which her own people--the people of her childhood--considered strange and ungenteel.

而现在，阔别二十年之后，她又从一个被她的同胞——她童年时代的人——视为陌生和不礼貌的世界里回来了。

Her world was one filled with queer people, a world remote from the quiet old house at Pentlands and the great brownstone houses of Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street.

她的世界充满了酷儿，这个世界远离彭特兰安静的老房子以及联邦大道和灯塔街的宏伟的褐砂石房屋。

Indeed, it was this woman, Sabine Callendar, who seemed to have stolen all the thunder at the ball; beside her, neither of the young girls, her own daughter nor Sybil Pentland, appeared to attract any great interest.

事实上，正是这个女人，萨宾·卡伦达尔，似乎抢走了舞会上所有的风头。在她旁边，无论是她自己的女儿还是西比尔·彭特兰，这两个年轻女孩似乎都没有引起任何太大的兴趣。

It was Sabine whom every one noticed, acquaintances of her childhood because they were devoured by curiosity concerning those missing twenty years, and strangers because she was the most picturesque and arresting figure at the ball.

每个人都注意到了萨宾，她是童年时代的熟人，因为他们对失踪二十年的人充满了好奇；而陌生人，是因为她是舞会上最美丽、最引人注目的人物。

It was not that she surrounded herself by adoring young men eager to dance with her.

这并不是说她周围都是渴望与她跳舞的崇拜的年轻人。

She was, after all, a woman of forty-six, and she had no tolerance for mooning boys whose conversation was limited to bootlegging and college clubs.

毕竟，她是一个四十六岁的女人，她不能容忍那些只谈论私酒和大学俱乐部的闷闷不乐的男孩。

It was a success of a singular sort, a triumph of indifference.

这是一次非凡的成功，一次冷漠的胜利。

People like Aunt Cassie Struthers remembered her as a shy and awkward young girl with a plain face, a good figure and brick-red hair which twenty years ago had been spoken of as “Poor Sabine’s ugly red hair.” She was a girl in those days who suffered miserably at balls and dinners, who shrank from all social life and preferred solitude.

像卡西·斯特拉瑟斯阿姨这样的人记得她是一个害羞而笨拙的年轻女孩，有着一张朴素的脸，一个美好的身材和二十年前被称为“可怜的萨宾丑陋的红发”的砖红色头发。那时，她是一个在舞会和晚宴上受尽折磨的女孩，她回避一切社交生活，更喜欢孤独。

And now, here she was--returned--a tall woman of forty-six, with the same splendid figure, the same long nose and green eyes set a trifle too near each other, but a woman so striking in appearance and the confidence of her bearing that she managed somehow to dim the success even of younger, prettier women and virtually to extinguish the embryonic young things in pink-and-white tulle.

而现在，她又回来了，一个四十六岁的高个子女人，有着同样出色的身材、同样的长鼻子和绿色的眼睛，彼此之间显得有点太近了，但她的外表和举止如此引人注目，以至于她设法让甚至更年轻、更漂亮的女性的成功黯然失色，几乎消灭了粉色和白色薄纱中正在萌芽的年轻事物。

Moving about indolently from room to room, greeting the people who had known her as a girl, addressing here and there an acquaintance which she had made in the course of the queer, independent, nomadic life she had led since divorcing her husband, there was an arrogance in her very walk that frightened the young and produced in the older members of Durham community (all the cousins and connections and indefinable relatives), a sense of profound irritation.

懒洋洋地从一个房间走到另一个房间，向那些小时候认识她的人打招呼，到处向她在与丈夫离婚后过着奇怪、独立、游牧生活的过程中结识的熟人打招呼，她的举止中透着一种傲慢，让年轻人感到害怕，也让达勒姆社区的年长成员（所有的堂兄弟姐妹、亲戚和无法确定的亲戚）产生了一种深深的恼怒感。

Once she had been one of them, and now she seemed completely independent of them all, a traitress who had flung to the winds all the little rules of life drilled into her by Aunt Cassie and other aunts and cousins in the days when she had been an awkward, homely little girl with shocking red hair.

她曾经是他们中的一员，而现在，她似乎完全独立于他们所有人，是一个叛徒，当她还是一个笨拙、相貌平平、红头发令人震惊的小女孩时，卡西姨妈和其他姨妈以及表兄弟姐妹灌输给她的所有生活小规则都被抛到了九霄云外。

Once she had belonged to this tight little world, and now she had returned--a woman who should have been defeated and a little declassée and somehow, irritatingly, was not.

她曾经属于这个狭小的世界，现在她回来了——一个本应被击败、有点失落的女人，但令人恼火的是，她却没有。

Instead, she was a “figure” much sought after in the world, enveloped by the mysterious cloud of esteem which surrounds such persons--a woman, in short, who was able to pick her friends from the ranks of distinguished and even celebrated people.

相反，她是一个在世界上备受追捧的“人物”，被围绕在这些人周围的神秘的尊重之云所笼罩——简而言之，她是一个能够从杰出的甚至是著名的人中挑选朋友的女人。

It was not only because this was true, but because people like Aunt Cassie _knew_ it was true, that she aroused interest and even indignation.

不仅因为这是真的，而且因为像卡西阿姨这样的人都知道这是真的，所以她引起了人们的兴趣，甚至愤慨。

She had turned her back upon them all and no awful fate had overtaken her; instead, she had taken a firm hold upon life and made of it a fine, even a glittering, success; and this is a thing which is not easily forgiven.

她背弃了他们所有人，可怕的命运并没有降临到她身上。相反，她牢牢地抓住了生活，并使它成为一种美好的、甚至是闪闪发光的成功。这是一件不容易被原谅的事情。

As she moved through the big rooms--complete and perfect from her superbly done, burnished red hair to the tips of her silver slippers--there was about her an assurance and an air of confidence in her own perfection that bordered upon insolence.

当她穿过大房间时——从她精心修饰的闪亮红发到银色拖鞋的尖端，一切都完美无缺——她对自己的完美充满了自信和自信，近乎傲慢。

There was a hard radiance and beauty in the brilliant green dress and the thin chain of diamonds that dimmed all of the others, that made most of the women seem dowdy and put together with pins.

明亮的绿色连衣裙和细细的钻石链散发出一种坚硬的光芒和美丽，使其他所有的一切都黯然失色，这使得大多数女人看起来邋遢，用别针组合在一起。

Undoubtedly her presence also served to dampen the gaiety.

毫无疑问，她的出现也削弱了欢乐气氛。

One knew from the look in the disdainful green eyes and the faint mocking smile on the frankly painted red mouth that she was aware of the effect she made and was delighted with her triumph.

从那双轻蔑的绿眼睛和坦率地涂着红色的嘴唇上淡淡的嘲讽的笑容中，我们可以看出她意识到了自己所造成的效果，并对自己的胜利感到高兴。

Wherever she went, always escorted by some man she had chosen with the air of conferring a favor, a little stir preceded her.

无论她走到哪里，总是由她选择的某个男人带着，带着施恩的神情，在她面前都会引起一些骚动。

She was indeed very disagreeable....

她确实很不爽……

If she had a rival in all the crowd that filled the echoing old house, it was Olivia Pentland--Sybil’s mother--who moved about, alone most of the time, watching her guests, acutely conscious that the ball was not all it should have been.

如果说在充满回声的老房子里的人群中她有一个竞争对手的话，那就是奥利维亚·彭特兰——西比尔的母亲——她大部分时间都独自走动，看着她的客人，敏锐地意识到舞会并不像它应该的那样。

There was about her nothing flamboyant and arresting, nothing which glittered with the worldly hardness of the green dress and the diamonds and burnished red hair of Sabine Callendar; she was, rather, a soft woman, of gentleness and poise, whose dark beauty conquered in a slower, more subtle fashion.

她身上没有任何华丽和引人注目的东西，没有任何东西像萨宾·卡伦达尔的绿色裙子、钻石和闪亮的红发那样闪闪发光。相反，她是一个温柔的女人，温柔而泰然，她的黑暗之美以一种缓慢而微妙的方式征服了人们。

You did not notice her at once among all the guests; you became aware of her slowly, as if her presence had the effect of stealing over you with the vagueness of a perfume.

在所有客人中你并没有立刻注意到她；你慢慢地意识到了她，仿佛她的存在以香水般的模糊性偷偷地笼罩着你。

Suddenly you marked her from among all the others ...

突然间，你从众多人中脱颖而出……

with a sense of faint excitement ...

带着一丝淡淡的兴奋……

a pale white face, framed by smooth black hair drawn back low over the brows in a small knot at the back of her head.

一张苍白的脸，光滑的黑发低垂到眉毛上方，在脑后打成一个小结。

You noticed the clear, frank blue eyes, that in some lights seemed almost black, and most of all you noticed when she spoke that her voice was low, warm, and in a way irresistible, a voice with a hundred shades of color.

你注意到她那双清澈、坦率的蓝眼睛，在某些灯光下看起来几乎是黑色的，最重要的是，你注意到她说话时的声音低沉、温暖，在某种程度上令人无法抗拒，声音有一百种色调。

She had a way, too, of laughing, when she was struck by the absurdity of something, that was like a child.

当她被某件事的荒谬感震惊时，她也有一种笑的方式，就像一个孩子一样。

One knew her at once for a great lady.

人们立刻就知道她是一位伟大的女士。

It was impossible to believe that she was nearly forty and the mother of Sybil and a boy of fifteen.

令人难以置信的是，她已经快四十岁了，而且是西比尔和一个十五岁男孩的母亲。

Circumstance and a wisdom of her own had made of her a woman who seemed inactive and self-effacing.

环境和她自己的智慧使她成为一个看似消极、谦逊的女人。

She had a manner of doing things effortlessly, with a great quietness, and yet, after one came to know her, one felt that she missed little which took place within sight or hearing--not only the obvious things which any stupid person might have noticed, but the subtle, indefinite currents which passed from one person to another.

她做事有一种毫不费力、非常安静的态度，然而，当人们认识她之后，人们会觉得她几乎不会错过任何在视觉或听觉范围内发生的事情——不仅是任何愚蠢的人可能注意到的明显的事情，还有从一个人传递到另一个人的微妙的、不确定的电流。

She possessed, it seemed, a marvelous gift for smoothing out troubles.

她似乎拥有消除麻烦的奇妙天赋。

A security, of the sort which often marks those who suffer from a too great awareness, enveloped and preceded her, turning to calm all the troubled world about her.

一种安全感，这种安全感通常是那些因意识太强而遭受痛苦的人所特有的，它笼罩并先于她，使她周围所有烦恼的世界平静下来。

Yet she was disturbing, too, in an odd, indefinable way.

然而她也以一种奇怪的、难以定义的方式令人不安。

There was always a remoteness and a mystery, a sense almost of the _fey_.

总是有一种遥远和神秘，一种几乎是_fey_的感觉。

It was only after one had known her for a long time, enveloped in the quietness of her pleasant presence, that a faint sense of uneasiness was born.

直到与她认识久了，笼罩在她怡然自得的安静之中，才生出一丝淡淡的不安。

It would occur to you, with the surprise almost of a shock, that the woman you saw before you, the woman who was so gentle and serene, was not Olivia Pentland at all, but a kind of clay figure which concealed, far beneath the veneer of charm, a woman you did not know at all, who was remote and sad and perhaps lonely.

你会惊奇地发现，在你面前看到的那个如此温柔、安详的女人根本不是奥利维娅·彭特兰，而是一个陶土人物，在魅力的外表下，隐藏着一个你根本不认识的女人，她遥远、悲伤，也许还孤独。

In the end, she disturbed the person of discernment far more profoundly than the glittering, disagreeable Sabine Callendar.

最终，她对有洞察力的人的困扰远比闪闪发光、令人讨厌的萨宾·卡伦达尔更深。

In the midst of the noise and confusion of the ball, she had been moving about, now in this big room, now in that one, talking quietly to her guests, watching them, seeing that all went well; and, like all the others, she was fascinated at the spectacle of Sabine’s rebellion and triumph, perhaps even a little amused at the childishness of such defiance in a woman of forty-six who was clever, independent and even distinguished, who need not have troubled to flaunt her success.

在舞会的喧闹和混乱中，她一直走来走去，时而在这个大房间，时而在那个房间，轻声地与她的客人交谈，看着他们，看到一切顺利；和其他所有人一样，她对萨宾的反抗和胜利的景象着迷，甚至可能对一个四十六岁的女人如此幼稚的反抗感到有点好笑，她聪明、独立，甚至是杰出的，不需要费力去炫耀自己的成功。

Watching Sabine, whom she knew intimately enough, she had guessed that underneath the shell made so superbly by hairdresser, couturier and jeweler there lay hidden an awkward, red-haired little girl who was having her revenge now, walking roughshod over all the prejudices and traditions of such people as Aunt Cassie and John Pentland and Cousin Struthers Smallwood, D.D., whom Sabine always called “the Apostle to the Genteel.” It was almost, thought Olivia, as if Sabine, even after an exile of twenty years, was still afraid of them and that curious, undefeatable power which they represented.

看着她熟悉的萨宾，她猜想，在理发师、女装师和珠宝商精心制作的外壳下，隐藏着一个笨拙的红发小女孩，她现在正在报复，粗暴地践踏卡西阿姨、约翰·彭特兰和表弟斯特拉瑟斯·斯莫伍德等人的所有偏见和传统，D.D.萨宾总是称他们为“上流社会的使徒”。奥莉薇娅心想，就好像萨宾即使在流放了二十年之后，仍然害怕他们以及他们所代表的那种奇怪的、不可战胜的力量。

But Sabine, she knew, was observing the party at the same time.

但她知道，萨宾同时也在观察聚会。

She had watched her all the evening in the act of “absorbing” it; she knew that when Sabine walked across from Brook Cottage the next day, she would know everything that had happened at the ball, for she had a passion for inspecting life.

她整个晚上都在看着她“吸收”它。她知道，当萨宾第二天从布鲁克小屋走过时，她会知道舞会上发生的一切，因为她热衷于审视生活。

Beneath the stony mask of indifference there boiled a perpetual and passionate interest in the intricacies of human affairs.

在冷漠的冷漠面具下，沸腾着对人类事务错综复杂的永恒而热情的兴趣。

Sabine herself had once described it as “the curse of analysis which took all the zest out of life.”

萨宾本人曾将其描述为“分析的诅咒，它剥夺了生活的所有热情”。

She was fond of Sabine as a creature unique in the realm of her experience, one who was amusing and actually made fetishes of truth and reality.

她喜欢萨宾，因为她认为她是一个在她的经历领域中独一无二的生物，一个有趣的人，而且实际上迷恋真理和现实。

She had a way of turning her intellect (for it was really a great intellect) upon some tangled, hopeless situation to dissolve it somehow into its proper elements and make it appear suddenly clear, uncomplicated and, more often than not, unpleasant; because the truth was not always a sweet and pleasant thing.

她有办法将自己的才智（因为这确实是一种伟大的才智）转化为某种纠缠不清、绝望的处境，以某种方式将其分解为适当的元素，并使其突然显得清晰、简单，而且往往令人不快；因为真相并不总是一件甜蜜而令人愉快的事情。

No one suffered more keenly from Sabine’s triumphant return than the invincible Aunt Cassie.

没有人比无敌的卡西阿姨对萨宾凯旋归来的痛苦更强烈了。

In a way, she had always looked upon Sabine, even in the long years of her voluntary exile from the delights of Durham, as her own property, much as she might have looked upon a dog, if, indeed, the old lady had been able to bear the society of anything so untidy as a dog.

在某种程度上，她一直把萨宾视为自己的财产，即使是在她自愿远离达勒姆的快乐的漫长岁月里，就像她看待一只狗一样，如果老太太确实能够忍受像狗这样不整洁的东西的交往的话。

Childless herself, she had exercised all her theories of upbringing upon the unfortunate orphaned little daughter of her husband’s brother.

她自己没有孩子，她把所有的养育理论都用在了她丈夫兄弟的不幸的孤儿小女儿身上。

At the moment, the old lady sat half-way down the white stairs, her sharp, black eyes surveying the ball with a faint air of disapproval.

此刻，老太太坐在白色楼梯的中间，锐利的黑眸扫视着球，带着淡淡的不以为然。

The noisy music made her nervous and uneasy, and the way young girls had of using paint and powder seemed to her cheap and common.

喧闹的音乐让她紧张不安，年轻女孩使用颜料和粉末的方式在她看来廉价而普通。

“One might as well brush one’s teeth at the dinner-table.” Secretly, she kept comparing everything with the ball given for herself forty years earlier, an event which had resulted at length in the capture of Mr. Struthers.

“还不如在餐桌上刷牙呢。”私下里，她不断地将一切与四十年前送给自己的舞会进行比较，这一事件最终导致了斯特拉瑟斯先生的被捕。

Dressed economically (for she made it a point of honor to live on the income of her income), and in mourning for a husband dead eight years earlier, she resembled a dignified but slightly uneasy crow perched on a fence.

衣着经济（因为她把靠自己的收入生活作为一种荣誉），在哀悼八年前去世的丈夫时，她就像一只栖息在栅栏上的庄严但有点不安的乌鸦。

It was Sabine who observed that Aunt Cassie and her “lady companion,” Miss Peavey, sitting on the steps together, resembled a crow and a pouter pigeon.

萨宾观察到，卡西姨妈和她的“女伴”皮维小姐一起坐在台阶上，就像一只乌鸦和一只噘嘴的鸽子。

Miss Peavey was not only fat, she was actually bulbous--one of those women inclined by nature toward “flesh,” who would have been fat on a diet of sawdust and distilled water; and she had come into the family life nearly thirty years earlier as a companion, a kind of slave, to divert Aunt Cassie during the long period of her invalidism.

皮维小姐不仅胖，而且实际上是球根状的——她是那种天生倾向于“肉”的女人，她们靠锯末和蒸馏水的饮食会发胖；她是那种天生就喜欢吃“肉”的女人。大约三十年前，她就以同伴、奴隶的身份进入了家庭生活，以便在卡西姨妈长期患病期间转移注意力。

She had remained there ever since, taking the place of a husband who was dead and children who had never been born.

从那时起，她就一直留在那里，取代了已故的丈夫和从未出生的孩子。

There was something childlike about Miss Peavey--some people said that she was not quite bright--but she suited Aunt Cassie to a T, for she was as submissive as a child and wholly dependent in a financial sense.

皮维小姐身上有一种孩子气的感觉——有人说她不太聪明——但她很适合卡西姨妈，因为她像个孩子一样顺从，在经济上完全依赖她。

Aunt Cassie even gave her enough to make up for the losses she incurred by keeping a small shop in Boston devoted to the sale of “artistic” pottery.

卡西阿姨甚至给了她足够的钱来弥补她在波士顿开一家专门销售“艺术”陶器的小店所造成的损失。

Miss Peavey was a lady, and though penniless, was “well connected” in Boston.

皮维小姐是一位女士，虽然身无分文，但在波士顿“人脉广泛”。

At sixty she had grown too heavy for her birdlike little feet and so took very little exercise.

六十岁的时候，她的体重已经超过了鸟儿般的小脚，所以很少运动。

To-night she was dressed in a very fancy gown covered with lace and sequins and passementerie, rather in the mode which some one had told her was her style in the far-off days of her girlhood.

今晚，她穿着一件非常华丽的礼服，上面覆盖着蕾丝、亮片和金饰，有人告诉她这是她遥远的少女时代的风格。

Her hair was streaked with gray and cut short in a shaggy, uneven fashion; not, however, because short hair was _chic_, but because she had cut it ten years before short hair had been heard of, in a sudden futile gesture of freedom at the terrible moment she made her one feeble attempt to escape Aunt Cassie and lead her own life.

她的头发有些灰白，剪得很短，蓬松、参差不齐。然而，并不是因为短发很时髦，而是因为她在短发被听说之前十年就剪了头发，在这可怕的时刻，她突然做出了徒劳的自由姿态，徒劳地试图逃离卡西姨妈，过自己的生活。

She had come back in the end, when her poor savings gave out and bankruptcy faced her, to be received by Aunt Cassie with dignified sighs and flutters as a returned and repentant prodigal.

最后，当她的积蓄花光了，面临破产的时候，她又回来了，卡西姨妈带着庄重的叹息和颤抖的态度迎接她，就像一个回来的悔过的浪子。

In this rôle she had lived ever since in a state of complete subjection.

从那时起，她就一直生活在这个角色中，处于完全服从的状态。

She was Aunt Cassie’s creature now, to go where Aunt Cassie ordered, to do as she was bid, to be an ear-piece when there was at hand no one more worthy of address.

她现在是卡西姨妈的宠儿了，去卡西姨妈吩咐的地方，按照她的吩咐去做，当手边没有人更值得说话时，她就充当她的听筒。

At the sight of Sabine’s green dress and red hair moving through the big hall below them, Aunt Cassie said, with a gleam in her eye: “Sabine seems to be worried about her daughter.

看到下面大厅里，萨宾的绿衣红发在大厅里移动，卡西阿姨眼中闪过一丝光芒：“萨宾似乎很担心她的女儿。

The poor child doesn’t seem to be having a success, but I suppose it’s no wonder.

这个可怜的孩子似乎没有取得成功，但我想这也不足为奇。

The poor thing is very plain.

可怜的事情很简单。

I suppose she got the sallow skin from her father.

我想她的蜡黄皮肤是从她父亲那里遗传的。

He was part Greek and French....

他有希腊血统和法国血统……

Sabine was never popular as a young girl herself.”

萨宾本人在年轻时并不受欢迎。”

And she fell to speculating for the hundredth time on the little-known circumstances of Sabine’s unhappy marriage and divorce, turning the morsels over and over again with a variety of speculation and the interjection of much pious phraseology; for in Aunt Cassie’s speech God seemed to have a hand in everything.

她第一百次开始猜测萨宾不幸福的婚姻和离婚的鲜为人知的情况，一遍又一遍地翻来覆去，用各种猜测和插入许多虔诚的措辞；因为在卡西姨妈的讲话中，上帝似乎参与了一切。

He had a way of delivering trials and blessings indiscriminately, and so in the end became responsible for everything.

他有一种不分青红皂白地传递考验和祝福的方式，所以最终承担了一切。

Indeed, she grew a bit spiteful about Sabine, for there was in the back of her mind the memory of an encounter, a day or two earlier, when she had been put completely to rout.

确实，她对萨宾有点怨恨，因为她的脑海深处还记得一两天前的一次遭遇，当时她被彻底击溃了。

It was seldom that Aunt Cassie met any one who was a match for her, and when such an encounter took place the memory of it rankled until she found some means of subduing the offender.

卡西姨妈很少遇到能与她相匹敌的人，当这样的遭遇发生时，她的记忆就会变得痛苦，直到她找到一些方法来制服这个罪犯。

With Miss Peavey she was completely frank, for through long service this plump, elderly virgin had come to be a sort of confessor in whose presence Aunt Cassie wore no mask.

对于皮维小姐，她是完全坦白的，因为经过长期的服务，这位肥胖、年老的处女已经成为一种告解神父，在她面前，卡西姨妈没有戴面具。

She was always saying, “Don’t mind Miss Peavey.

她总是说：“别介意皮维小姐。

She doesn’t matter.”

她并不重要。”

“I find Sabine extremely hard and worldly,” she was saying.

“我发现萨宾非常冷酷、世俗，”她说。

“I would never know her for the same modest young girl she was on leaving me.” She sighed abysmally and continued, “But, then, we mustn’t judge.

“我永远不会认识她，因为她离开我时还是那个谦虚的年轻女孩。”她深深地叹了口气，继续说道：“但是，那么，我们就不能评判了。

I suppose the poor girl has had a great deal of misery.

我想这个可怜的女孩经历了很多痛苦。

I pity her to the depths of my heart!”

我从心底里可怜她！”

In Aunt Cassie’s speeches, in every phrase, there was always a certain mild theatrical overtone as if she sought constantly to cast a sort of melodramatic haze over all she said.

卡西姨妈的演讲中，每一个短语都带有某种温和的戏剧色彩，仿佛她总是试图给自己所说的一切蒙上一层戏剧性的阴霾。

Nothing was ever stated simply.

没有什么是简单明了的。

Everything from the sight of a pot of sour cream to the death of her husband affected her extravagantly, to the depths of her soul.

从看到一锅酸奶油到丈夫的去世，一切都对她产生了强烈的影响，直达她的灵魂深处。

But this brought no response from Miss Peavey, who seemed lost in the excitement of watching the young people, her round candid eyes shining through her pince-nez with the eagerness of one who has spent her whole life as a “lady companion.” At moments like this, Aunt Cassie felt that Miss Peavey was not quite bright, and sometimes said so.

但这并没有得到皮维小姐的回应，她似乎沉浸在看着年轻人的兴奋之中，她圆圆的、坦诚的眼睛透过夹鼻眼镜闪烁着渴望，就像她一生都在做“女士伴侣”。在这种时候，卡西姨妈就觉得皮维小姐不太聪明，有时也会这么说。

Undiscouraged, she went on.

她没有灰心，继续前行。

“Olivia looks bad, too, to-night ...

“奥利维亚今晚看起来也很糟糕......

very tired and worn.

非常疲倦和疲惫。

I don’t like those circles under her eyes....

我不喜欢她眼睛下面的那些黑眼圈……

I’ve thought for a long time that she was unhappy about something.”

很长一段时间以来，我一直以为她是因为什么事情不开心。”

But Miss Peavey’s volatile nature continued to lose itself completely in the spectacle of young girls who were so different from the girls of her day; and in the fascinating sight of Mr. Hoskins, a fat, sentimental, middle-aged neighbor who had taken a glass too much champagne and was talking archly to the patient Olivia.

但皮维小姐反复无常的天性继续在与她那个时代的女孩截然不同的年轻女孩的景象中完全消失。在霍斯金斯先生迷人的视线中，他是一位肥胖、多愁善感的中年邻居，他喝了太多的香槟，正对耐心的奥利维亚调皮地说话。

Miss Peavey had quite forgotten herself in the midst of so much gaiety.

皮维小姐在如此欢乐的气氛中完全忘记了自己。

She did not even see the glances of Aunt Cassie in her direction--glances which plainly said, “Wait until I get you alone!”

她甚至没有看到卡西姨妈朝她的方向投来的目光——那眼神显然是在说：“等我单独解决你！”

For a long time Aunt Cassie had been brooding over what she called “Olivia’s strange behavior.” It was a thing which she had noticed for the first time a month or two earlier when Olivia, in the midst of one of Aunt Cassie’s morning calls, had begun suddenly, quietly, to weep and had left the room without a word of explanation.

很长一段时间以来，卡西姨妈一直在思考她所谓的“奥利维亚的奇怪行为”。这是她在一两个月前第一次注意到的事情，当时奥莉维亚在卡西姨妈的一次叫醒中突然开始悄悄地哭泣，并且没有任何解释就离开了房间。

It had gone from bad to worse lately; she felt Olivia slipping away from all control directly in opposition to her own benevolent advice.

最近情况变得越来越糟。她觉得奥利维亚直接违背了她自己的善意建议，失去了所有的控制。

There was the matter of this very ball.

正是这个球的问题。

Olivia had ignored her counsels of economy and thrift, and now Aunt Cassie was suffering, as if the champagne which flowed so freely were blood drawn from her own veins.

奥利维亚忽视了她关于节约和节俭的劝告，现在卡西姨妈正在受苦，仿佛那肆意流淌的香槟是从她自己的血管中抽出的血液。

Not for a century, since Savina Pentland purchased a parure of pearls and emeralds, had so much Pentland money been expended at one time on mere pleasure.

自从萨维娜·彭特兰 (Savina Pentland) 购买了一套珍珠和祖母绿以来，一个世纪以来，彭特兰还没有在纯粹的享乐上一次性花费过如此多的钱。

She disapproved, too, of the youthfulness of Olivia and of Sabine.

她也不赞成奥利维亚和萨宾的年轻。

Women of their ages ought not to look so fresh and young.

这个年龄段的女性不应该显得那么清新、年轻。

There was something vulgar, even a little improper, in a woman like Sabine who at forty-six looked thirty-five.

像萨宾这样四十六岁看起来三十五岁的女人身上有一些粗俗，甚至有点不雅。

At thirty, Aunt Cassie herself had settled down as a middle-aged woman, and since then she had not changed greatly.

三十岁了，卡西阿姨自己也安定下来，成了一个中年妇女，从那以后，她并没有发生太大的变化。

At sixty-five, “childless and alone in the world” (save, of course, for Miss Peavey), she was much the same as she had been at thirty in the rôle of wife to the “trying Mr. Struthers.” The only change had been her recovery from a state of semi-invalidism, a miracle occurring simultaneously with the passing of Mr. Struthers.

六十五岁时，“没有孩子，在这个世界上孤身一人”（当然，皮维小姐除外），她和三十岁时一样，扮演“努力的斯特拉瑟斯先生”的妻子角色。唯一的变化是她从半残疾状态中恢复过来，这是与斯特拉瑟斯先生去世同时发生的奇迹。

She had never quite forgiven Olivia for being an outsider who had come into the intricate web of life at Pentlands out of (of all places) Chicago.

她从来没有完全原谅奥利维亚作为一个局外人，从（所有地方）芝加哥进入彭特兰错综复杂的生活网络。

Wisps of mystery and a faint sense of the alien had clung to her ever since.

从那时起，一丝神秘感和一丝外星人的感觉就一直萦绕在她的心头。

Of course, it wasn’t to be expected that Olivia could understand entirely what it meant to marry into a family whose history was so closely woven into that of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the life of Boston.

当然，不能指望奥利维亚能够完全理解嫁给一个与马萨诸塞湾殖民地的历史和波士顿的生活紧密相连的家庭意味着什么。

What could it mean to Olivia that Mr. Longfellow and Mr. Lowell and Dr. Holmes had often spent weeks at Pentlands?

朗费罗先生、洛厄尔先生和福尔摩斯医生经常在彭特兰待上几个星期，这对奥利维亚来说意味着什么？

That Mr. Emerson himself had come there for week-ends?

艾默生先生亲自来过周末吗？

Still (Aunt Cassie admitted to herself), Olivia had done remarkably well.

尽管如此（卡西姨妈自己承认），奥利维亚还是做得非常好。

She had been wise enough to watch and wait and not go ahead strewing her path with blunders.

她足够明智，能够观察和等待，而不是继续让自己的道路布满错误。

Into the midst of these thoughts the figure of Olivia herself appeared, moving toward the stairway, walking beside Sabine.

正当这些想法之中，奥莉薇娅本人的身影出现了，她走向楼梯，与萨宾并肩而行。

They were laughing over something, Sabine in the sly, mocking way she had, and Olivia mischievously, with a suspicious twinkle in her eyes.

他们正在因为什么事情而大笑，萨宾以她一贯的狡猾、嘲讽的方式大笑，而奥莉薇娅则是顽皮地，眼中闪烁着怀疑的光芒。

Aunt Cassie was filled with an awful feeling that they were sharing some joke about the people at the ball, perhaps even about herself and Miss Peavey.

卡西姨妈心里充满了一种可怕的感觉，他们正在分享一些关于舞会上人们的笑话，甚至可能是关于她自己和皮维小姐的笑话。

Since Sabine had returned, she felt that Olivia had grown even more strange and rebellious; nevertheless, she admitted to herself that there was a distinction about them both.

自从萨宾回来之后，她就觉得奥莉薇娅变得更加陌生和叛逆了；尽管如此，她对自己承认，他们两人之间还是有区别的。

She preferred the quiet distinction of Olivia to the violence of the impression made by the glittering Sabine.

她更喜欢奥利维亚安静的独特性，而不是闪闪发光的萨宾给人留下的暴力印象。

The old lady sensed the distinction, but, belonging to a generation which lived upon emotion rather than analysis, she did not get to the root of it.

老太太感觉到了这种区别，但是，她属于依靠情感而不是分析生活的一代，所以没有找到根源。

She did not see that one felt at once on seeing Olivia, “Here is a lady!”--perhaps, in the true sense of the word, the only lady in the room.

她没有看到人们一看到奥利维亚就会立刻感觉到：“这是一位女士！”——也许，从这个词的真正意义上来说，她是房间里唯一的女士。

There was a gentleness about her and a softness and a proud sort of poise--all qualities of which Aunt Cassie approved; it was the air of mystery which upset the old lady.

她身上有一种温柔、温柔和一种骄傲的泰然自若——所有这些品质都得到了卡西姨妈的认可。正是这种神秘的气氛让老太太心烦意乱。

One never knew quite what Olivia was thinking.

人们永远不知道奥利维亚在想什么。

She was so gentle and soft-spoken.

她是如此温柔，说话轻声细语。

Sometimes of late, when pressing Olivia too hotly, Aunt Cassie, aware of rousing something indefinably perilous in the nature of the younger woman, drew back in alarm.

近来有时，当卡西阿姨用力逼迫奥莉薇娅时，她意识到这个年轻女人的本性中激起了某种难以言喻的危险，于是她惊慌地后退了一步。

Rising stiffly, the old lady groaned a little and, moving down the stairs, said, “I must go, Olivia dear,” and, turning, “Miss Peavey will go with me.”

老太太僵硬地站起来，轻轻地呻吟了一声，走下楼梯，说道：“我必须走了，亲爱的奥利维亚。”然后转身说，“皮维小姐会和我一起走。”

Miss Peavey would have stayed, because she was enjoying herself, looking down on all those young people, but she had obeyed the commands of Aunt Cassie for too long, and now she rose, complaining faintly, and made ready to leave.

皮维小姐本想留下来，因为她玩得很开心，看不起那些年轻人，但她听从卡西姨妈的命令太久了，现在她站起来，微弱地抱怨着，准备离开。

Olivia urged them to stay, and Sabine, looking at the old lady out of green eyes that held a faint glitter of hatred, said abruptly: “I always thought you stayed until the bitter end, Aunt Cassie.”

奥莉薇娅劝他们留下来，萨宾用泛着淡淡仇恨光芒的绿眼睛看着老太太，突然说道：“我一直以为你会留下来，直到最后，卡西阿姨。”

A sigh answered her ...

回应她的是一声叹息……

a sigh filled with implications regarding Aunt Cassie’s position as a lonely, ill, bereft, widowed creature for whom life was finished long ago.

一声叹息，充满了对卡西姨妈的暗示，她是一个孤独、患病、失去亲人、丧偶的人，对她来说，生命早已结束了。

“I am not young any longer, Sabine,” she said.

“我不再年轻了，萨宾，”她说。

“And I feel that the old ought to give way to the young.

“我觉得老年人应该让位给年轻人。

There comes a time....”

到了某个时候……”

Sabine gave an unearthly chuckle.

萨宾发出诡异的笑声。

“Ah,” she said, in her hard voice, “I haven’t begun to give up yet.

“啊，”她用严厉的声音说道，“我还没有开始放弃。

I am still good for years.”

多年来我仍然保持良好状态。”

“You’re not a child any more, Sabine,” the old lady said sharply.

“你不再是个孩子了，萨宾，”老太太严厉地说。

“No, certainly I’m not a child any more.” And the remark silenced Aunt Cassie, for it struck home at the memory of that wretched scene in which she had been put to rout so skilfully.

“不，我当然不再是小孩子了。”这句话让卡西姨妈沉默了，因为这让她想起了她被如此巧妙地击溃的悲惨场景。

There was a great bustle about getting the two old ladies under way, a great search for cloaks and scarfs and impedimenta; but at last they went off, Aunt Cassie saying over her thin, high shoulder, “Will you say good-by to your dear father-in-law, Olivia?

为了让两位老太太上路，大家忙得不可开交，到处寻找斗篷、围巾和障碍物。但最后他们还是走了，卡西阿姨在她瘦弱的高耸肩膀上说道：“你愿意向你亲爱的岳父奥利维亚告别吗？

I suppose he’s playing bridge with Mrs. Soames.”

我想他正在和索姆斯夫人打桥牌。”

“Yes,” replied Olivia from the terrace, “he’s playing bridge with Mrs. Soames.”

“是的，”奥利维亚在露台上回答，“他正在和索姆斯太太打桥牌。”

Aunt Cassie merely cleared her throat, forcibly, and with a deep significance.

卡西姨妈只是用力地清了清嗓子，而且意味深长。

In her look, as in the sound of her voice, she managed to launch a flood of disapproval upon the behavior of old John Pentland and old Mrs. Soames.

从她的表情和声音中，她成功地对老约翰·彭特兰和老索姆斯太太的行为表示了强烈的不满。

Bidding the driver to go very slowly, she climbed into her shabby, antiquated motor, followed respectfully by Miss Peavey, and drove off down the long elm-bordered drive between the lines of waiting motors.

她吩咐司机开得很慢，然后钻进那辆破旧的、过时的汽车，皮维小姐恭敬地跟在后面，沿着两排等待的汽车之间的长长的榆树边车道开走了。

Olivia’s “dear father-in-law” was Aunt Cassie’s own brother, but she chose always to relate him to Olivia, as if in some way it bound Olivia more closely, more hopelessly, into the fabric of the family.

奥利维亚的“亲爱的岳父”是卡西阿姨自己的兄弟，但她总是选择把他与奥利维亚联系起来，仿佛在某种程度上，这将奥利维亚更紧密、更绝望地融入到了家庭的结构中。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

As the two younger women reentered the house, Olivia asked, “Where’s Thérèse?

当两个年轻女子重新进入房子时，奥利维亚问道：“特蕾莎在哪里？

I haven’t seen her for more than an hour.”

我已经一个多小时没见到她了。”

“She’s gone home.”

“她回家了。”

“Thérèse ...

“特蕾莎...

gone home ...

回家了...

from a ball given for her!”

来自为她准备的球！”

Olivia halted in astonishment and stood leaning against the wall, looking so charming and lovely that Sabine thought, “It’s a sin for a woman so beautiful to have such a life.”

奥莉薇娅惊讶地停了下来，靠在墙上，显得那么迷人可爱，让萨宾心想：“这么美丽的女人，却有这样的生活，真是罪过。”

Aloud Sabine said, “I caught her stealing away.

萨宾大声说道：“我发现她偷走了。

She walked across to the cottage.

她走到对面的小屋。

She said she hated it and was miserable and bored and would rather be in bed.” Sabine shrugged her handsome shoulders and added, “So I let her go.

她说她讨厌这样，感到痛苦和无聊，宁愿躺在床上。”萨宾耸了耸她英俊的肩膀，补充道：“所以我让她走了。

What difference does it make?”

这有什么区别呢？”

“None, I suppose.”

“我想没有。”

“I never force her to do things of this sort.

“我从不强迫她做这类事情。

I had too much forcing when I was young; Thérèse is to do exactly as she likes and be independent.

年轻时受的逼迫太多；特蕾莎要做自己喜欢做的事，并且要独立。

The trouble is, she’s been spoilt by knowing older men and men who talk intelligently.” She laughed and added, “I was wrong about coming back here.

问题是，她被那些年长的男人和说话聪明的男人宠坏了。”她笑着补充道：“我回到这里是错误的。

I’ll never marry her off in this part of the world.

我永远不会把她嫁到世界的这个地方。

The men are all afraid of her.”

男人们都怕她。”

Olivia kept seeing the absurd figure of Sabine’s daughter, small and dark, with large burning eyes and an air of sulky independence, striding off on foot through the dust of the lane that led back to Brook Cottage.

奥利维亚不断地看到萨宾女儿的荒诞身影，她娇小而黝黑，一双大眼睛闪闪发亮，一副阴郁独立的样子，在通往布鲁克小屋的小巷的尘土中大步走去。

She was so different from her own daughter, the quiet, well-mannered Sybil.

她与她自己的女儿、安静、彬彬有礼的西比尔截然不同。

“I don’t think she’s properly impressed by Durham,” said Olivia, with a sudden mischievous smile.

“我认为达勒姆给她留下的印象不太好，”奥利维亚说，突然露出顽皮的微笑。

“No ...

“不……

she’s bored by it.”

她对此感到无聊。”

Olivia paused to say good-night to a little procession of guests ...

奥利维亚停下来向一小群客人道晚安……

the Pingree girls dressed alike in pink tulle; the plump Miss Perkins, who had the finest collection of samplers in New England; Rodney Phillips, whose life was devoted to breeding springers and behaving like a perfect English gentleman; old Mr. Tilney, whose fortune rested on the mills of Durham and Lynn and Salem; and Bishop Smallwood, a cousin of the Pentlands and Sabine (whom Sabine called the Apostle of the Genteel).

Pingree 女孩们都穿着同样的粉色薄纱；丰满的帕金斯小姐，她拥有新英格兰最好的采样器收藏；罗德尼·菲利普斯 (Rodney Phillips)，一生致力于繁殖史宾格犬，并表现得像一位完美的英国绅士；老蒂尔尼先生，他的财富依赖于达勒姆、林恩和塞勒姆的工厂。还有斯莫尔伍德主教，彭特兰家族和萨宾的表弟（萨宾称其为上流社会的使徒）。

The Bishop complimented Olivia on the beauty of her daughter and coquetted heavily with Sabine.

主教称赞奥莉薇娅女儿漂亮，并对萨宾重重地撒娇。

Motors rushed out from among the lilacs and syringas and bore them away one by one.

发动机从紫丁香和丁香花丛中冲出来，把它们一一带走。

When they had gone Sabine said abruptly, “What sort of man is this Higgins ...

他们走后，萨宾突然说道：“这个希金斯是个什么样的人……

I mean your head stableman?”

我是说你的马厩长？”

“A good sort,” replied Olivia.

“很好，”奥利维亚回答道。

“The children are very fond of him.

“孩子们非常喜欢他。

Why?”

为什么？

“Oh ...

“哦……

no reason at all.

根本没有理由。

I happened to think of him to-night because I noticed him standing on the terrace just now looking in at the ball.”

今晚我碰巧想起了他，因为我注意到他刚才站在露台上看着球。”

“He was a jockey once ...

“他曾经是一名骑师......

a good one, I believe, until he got too heavy.

我相信，这是一件好事，直到他变得太重为止。

He’s been with us ten years.

他已经和我们在一起十年了。

He’s good and reliable and sometimes very funny.

他人很好，很可靠，有时还很有趣。

Old Mr. Pentland depends on him for everything....

老彭特兰先生一切都依赖他......

Only he has a way of getting into scrapes with the girls from the village.

只有他有办法和村里的女孩们发生争执。

He seems irresistible to them ...

他对他们来说似乎无法抗拒......

and he’s an immoral scamp.”

他是一个不道德的流氓。”

Sabine’s face lighted up suddenly, as if she had made a great discovery.

萨宾的脸色突然一亮，仿佛有了重大发现。

“I thought so,” she observed, and wandered away abruptly to continue the business of “absorbing” the ball.

“我也是这么想的，”她说道，然后突然走开，继续“吸收”球的事情。

She had asked about Higgins because the man was stuck there in her brain, set in the midst of a strange, confused impression that disturbed a mind usually marked by precision and clarity.

她之所以问起希金斯，是因为这个男人深深地印在她的大脑里，给她留下了一种奇怪而混乱的印象，扰乱了她通常以精确和清晰为特征的思维。

She did not understand why it was that he remained the most vivid of all the kaleidoscopic procession of the ball.

她不明白为什么他仍然是舞会上万花筒般的游行中最生动的一个。

He had been an outsider, a servant, looking in upon it, and yet there he was--a man whom she had never noticed before--vivid and clear-cut, dominating the whole evening.

他一直是一个局外人，一个仆人，旁观着这一切，但他却在那里——一个她以前从未注意到的男人——生动而清晰，主导了整个晚上。

It had happened a little earlier when, standing in the windowed alcove of the old red-paneled writing-room, she had turned her back for a moment on the ball, to look out upon the distant marshes and the sea, across meadows where every stone and tree and hedge was thrown into a brilliant relief by the clarity of the moonlight and the thin New England air.

事情发生得稍早一些，当时，她站在那间古老的红镶板写作室的窗户壁龛里，背对着球，眺望着远处的沼泽和大海，越过草地，那里的每一块石头、每棵树和树篱都被清澈的月光和稀薄的新英格兰空气映衬得熠熠生辉。

And trapped suddenly by the still and breathless beauty of the meadows and marshes and distant white dunes, lost in memories more than twenty years old, she had found herself thinking: “It was always like this ...

突然，她被草地、沼泽和遥远的白色沙丘那静谧而令人窒息的美丽所困，迷失在二十多年前的记忆中，她发现自己在想：“总是这样……

rather beautiful and hard and cold and a little barren, only I never saw it before.

相当美丽、坚硬、寒冷，还有点贫瘠，只是我以前从未见过。

It’s only now, when I’ve come back after twenty years, that I see my own country exactly as it is.”

直到现在，二十年后我回来时，我才真正看到了自己的国家。”

And then, standing there quite alone, she had become aware slowly that she was being watched by some one.

然后，她独自站在那里，慢慢地意识到有人正在注视着她。

There was a sudden movement among the lilacs that stood a little way off wrapped in thick black shadows ...

不远的地方，被浓浓黑影包裹着的紫丁香突然有了动静……

the faintest stirring of the leaves that drew her sharply back to a consciousness of where she was and why she was there; and, focusing all her attention, she was able to make out presently a short, stocky little figure, and a white face peering out from among the branches, watching the dancers who moved about inside the house.

树叶最微弱的震动让她猛地回想起自己在哪里以及为什么在那里；她全神贯注，很快就看到了一个矮胖的小身影，一张白色的脸从树枝间探出头来，注视着屋内走来走去的舞者。

The sight produced in her suddenly a sensation of uneasiness and a faint prickling of the skin, which slipped away presently when she recognized the odd, prematurely wrinkled face of Higgins, the Pentland groom.

这一景象突然让她产生一种不安的感觉，皮肤微微刺痛，当她认出彭特兰新郎希金斯那张奇怪的、过早起皱纹的脸时，这种感觉立刻消失了。

She must have seen him a dozen times before, barely noticing him, but now she saw him with a kind of illuminating clarity, in a way which made his face and figure unforgettable.

她之前一定见过他十几次，几乎没有注意到他，但现在她看到他时有一种明亮的清晰度，让他的脸和身材令人难忘。

He was clad in the eternal riding-breeches and a sleeveless cotton shirt that exposed the short, hairy, muscular arms.

他穿着永恒的马裤和无袖棉衬衫，露出短而毛茸茸的肌肉发达的手臂。

Standing there he seemed, with his arched, firmly planted legs, like some creature rooted into the soil ...

他站在那里，双腿呈拱形，牢固地固定在地上，就像某种扎根于土壤中的生物……

like the old apple-tree which stood in the moonlight showering the last of its white petals on the black lawn.

就像那棵矗立在月光下的老苹果树，将最后一片白色的花瓣洒在黑色的草坪上。

There was something unpleasant in the sight, as if (she thought afterwards) she had been watched without knowing it by some animal of an uncanny intelligence.

眼前的景象有些令人不快，就好像（她事后想的）她被某种具有不可思议的智慧的动物在不知不觉中注视着。

And then abruptly he had slipped away again, shyly, among the branches of the lilacs ...

突然间，他又害羞地溜进了丁香花枝间……

like a faun.

像一个农牧神。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

Olivia, looking after Sabine as she walked away, smiled at the knowledge of where she was bound.

奥利维亚看着萨宾走开，知道自己被绑在哪里，笑了。

Sabine would go into the old writing-room and there, sitting in a corner, would pretend that she was interested in the latest number of the _Mercure de France_ or some fashion paper, and all the time she would be watching, listening, while old John Pentland and poor battered old Mrs. Soames sat playing bridge with a pair of contemporaries.

萨宾会走进旧的写作室，坐在角落里，假装她对最新一期的《法国美居》或某些时尚报纸感兴趣，而她一直在观看、聆听，而老约翰·彭特兰和可怜的饱受摧残的老索姆斯太太则坐在一边和一对同时代的人打桥牌。

Sabine, she knew, wanted to probe the lives of the two old people.

她知道，萨宾想要探查两位老人的生活。

She wasn’t content like the others at Pentlands to go on pretending that there had never been anything between them.

她不像彭特兰的其他人那样满足于继续假装他们之间从来没有任何关系。

She wanted to get to the root of the story, to know the truth.

她想找出故事的根源，了解真相。

It was the truth, always the truth, which fascinated Sabine.

这是真相，永远是真相，这让萨宾着迷。

And Olivia felt a sudden, swift, almost poignant wave of affection for the abrupt, grim woman, an affection which it was impossible to express because Sabine was too scornful of all sentiment and too shut in ever to receive gracefully a demonstration; yet she fancied that Sabine knew she was fond of her, in the same shy, silent way that old John Pentland knew she was fond of him.

奥利维亚突然对这个突然、冷酷的女人产生了一股强烈的、迅速的、近乎辛酸的感情，这种感情是无法表达的，因为萨宾太蔑视所有的情感，而且太封闭，无法接受优雅的表现；但她却无法表达出来。然而她觉得萨宾知道她喜欢她，就像老约翰·彭特兰知道她喜欢他一样害羞、沉默。

It was impossible for either of them ever to speak of such simple things as affection.

他们两个人根本不可能谈论感情这种简单的事情。

Since Sabine had come to Durham, it seemed to Olivia that life was a little less barren and not quite so hopeless.

自从萨宾来到达勒姆后，奥利维亚觉得生活不再那么贫瘠，也不再那么绝望了。

There was in Sabine a curious hard, solid strength which the others, save only the old man, lacked completely.

萨宾身上有一种奇怪的坚强、坚实的力量，这是其他人（除了老人以外）完全缺乏的。

Sabine had made some discovery in life that had set her free ...

萨宾在生活中的一些发现让她获得了自由……

of everything but that terrible barrier of false coldness.

除了那可怕的假冷屏障之外，什么都没有。

In the midst of these thoughts came another procession of retreating guests, and the sadness, slipping away from Olivia’s face, gave way to a perfect, artificial sort of gaiety.

就在这些想法之中，又有一队客人陆续离去，奥利维亚脸上的悲伤渐渐消失，取而代之的是一种完美的、人为的欢乐。

She smiled, she murmured, “Good-night, must you go,” and, “Good-night, I’m so glad that you liked the ball.” She was arch with silly old men and kind to the shy young ones and repeated the same phrases over and over again monotonously.

她微笑着，低声说道，“晚安，你必须走了，”还有，“晚安，我很高兴你喜欢这个舞会。”她对愚蠢的老人很友善，对害羞的年轻人很友善，单调地一遍又一遍地重复同样的短语。

People went away saying, “What a charming woman Olivia Pentland is!”

人们离开时说：“奥利维亚·彭特兰是多么迷人的女人啊！”

Yet immediately afterward she did not remember who had passed by her.

但紧接着她就不记得是谁从她身边经过了。

One by one the guests departed, and presently the black musicians packed up their instruments and went away, and at last Sybil appeared, shy and dark, looking a little pale and tired in her clinging gown of pale green.

客人们一一离去，不久黑人音乐家们就收拾好乐器走了，最后西比尔出现了，她害羞而黝黑，穿着淡绿色的紧身长袍，显得有点苍白和疲倦。

At sight of her daughter a little thrill of pride ran through Olivia.

看到女儿，奥莉维亚心中涌起一丝自豪的激动。

She was the loveliest of all the girls at the ball, not the most flamboyant, but the gentlest and really the most beautiful.

她是舞会上所有女孩中最可爱的一个，不是最华丽的，而是最温柔的，而且确实是最美丽的。

She possessed the same slow beauty of her mother, which enveloped one in a kind of mist that lingered long after she herself had gone away.

她拥有与她母亲同样的缓慢的美感，这种美感将人们笼罩在一种薄雾之中，这种薄雾在她本人离开后很长一段时间里仍然挥之不去。

She was neither loud and mannish and vulgar like the “horsey” women nor common like the girls who used too much paint and tried to behave like women of the world.

她既不像那些“马”女人那样吵闹、男子气概、粗俗，也不像那些用太多颜料、试图表现得像世界女人的女孩那样普通。

There was already about her the timelessness that envelops a lady no matter the generation in which she appears; there was a mystery, a sophistication and knowledge of life which put to rout all the cheap flashiness of the others.

她身上已经散发出一种永恒的气质，无论她出现在哪个年代，一位女士都具有这种气质。这里有一种神秘感、一种复杂性和对生活的了解，足以击败其他人的所有廉价浮华。

And yet, somehow, that same cool, shy poise and beauty frightened people.

然而，不知何故，同样的冷静、害羞的姿态和美丽却让人们感到害怕。

Boys who were used to calling young girls “Good old So-and-so” found themselves helpless before the dignity of a young girl who looked in her green gown a little like a cool wood-nymph.

那些习惯称呼年轻女孩为“好老某某”的男孩发现自己在一个穿着绿色长袍看起来有点像酷木仙女的年轻女孩的尊严面前束手无策。

It troubled Olivia profoundly, not for herself, but because she wanted the girl to be happy--more than that, to know the depths of happiness which she herself had sensed but never found.

这让奥利维亚深感困扰，不是为了她自己，而是因为她希望这个女孩幸福——更重要的是，她希望知道她自己已经感受到但从未发现的幸福有多深。

It was in a way as if she saw herself again in Sybil, as if looking back now from the pinnacle of her own experience she could guide this younger self, standing on the brink of life, along paths less barren than those trod by her own feet.

在某种程度上，她仿佛在西比尔身上再次看到了自己，仿佛现在从自己经历的顶峰回望，她可以引导这个年轻的自己，站在生命的边缘，沿着比她自己脚踩过的道路更加贫瘠的道路前进。

It was so necessary that Sybil should fall in love with a man who would make her happy.

西比尔必须爱上一个能让她幸福的男人。

With most girls it would make little difference one way or another, so long as they had money; if they were unhappy or bored they would divorce their husbands and try again because that was the rule in their world.

对于大多数女孩来说，只要有钱，无论怎样都没有什么区别。如果她们不快乐或无聊，她们就会和丈夫离婚，然后再尝试，因为这是她们世界的规则。

But with Sybil, marriage would be either an immense, incalculable happiness or a profound and hopeless tragedy.

但对于西比尔来说，婚姻要么是一种巨大的、无法估量的幸福，要么是一场深刻而无望的悲剧。

She thought suddenly of what Sabine had said of Thérèse a little while before.

她突然想起不久前萨宾对泰蕾兹所说的话。

“I was wrong about coming back here.

“我回到这里是错误的。

I’ll never marry her off in this part of the world.”

我永远不会把她嫁给这个世界的这个地方。”

It was true somehow of Sybil.

西比尔的情况确实如此。

The girl, in some mysterious fashion, knew what it was she wanted; and this was not a life which was safe and assured, running smoothly in a rigid groove fixed by tradition and circumstance.

这个女孩以某种神秘的方式知道她想要什么；她知道自己想要什么。这并不是一种安全可靠的生活，也不是在传统和环境所规定的严格轨道上平稳运行的生活。

It was not marriage with a man who was like all the other men in his world.

这不是与一个和他世界上所有其他男人一样的男人结婚。

It went deeper than all that.

它比这一切更深入。

She wanted somehow to get far down beneath the surface of that life all about her, deep down where there was a savor to all she did.

她想以某种方式深入到她生活的表面之下，深入到她所做的一切都有品味的地方。

It was a hunger which Olivia understood well enough.

奥利维亚非常理解这种饥饿。

The girl approached her mother and, slipping her arm about her waist, stood there, looking for all the world like Olivia’s sister.

女孩走近她的母亲，用手臂搂住她的腰，站在那里，像奥利维亚的妹妹一样寻找着整个世界。

“Have you enjoyed it?” asked Olivia.

“你享受过吗？”奥利维亚问道。

“Yes....

“是的……

It’s been fun.”

这很有趣。”

Olivia smiled.

奥利维亚微笑着。

“But not too much?”

“但也不算太多吧？”

“No, not too much.” Sybil laughed abruptly, as if some humorous memory had suddenly come to life.

“不，不算太多。”西比尔突然大笑起来，仿佛某些幽默的记忆突然活了过来。

“Thérèse ran away,” said her mother.

“特蕾莎逃跑了，”她的母亲说。

“I know ...

“我知道……

she told me she was going to.”

她告诉我她要去。”

“She didn’t like it.”

“她不喜欢。”

“No ...

“不……

she thought the boys stupid.”

她认为这些男孩很愚蠢。”

“They’re very much like all boys of their age.

“他们非常像所有同龄的男孩。

It’s not an interesting time.”

这不是一个有趣的时刻。”

Sybil frowned a little.

西比尔皱起了眉头。

“Thérèse doesn’t think so.

“特蕾莎不这么认为。

She says all they have to talk about is their clubs and drinking ...

她说他们所要谈论的就是他们的俱乐部和喝酒......

neither subject is of very much interest.”

这两个主题都不太有趣。”

“They might have been, if you’d lived here always ...

“如果你一直住在这里，他们可能会……

like the other girls.

像其他女孩一样。

You and Thérèse see it from the outside.” The girl didn’t answer, and Olivia asked: “You don’t think I was wrong in sending you to France to school?”

你和特蕾莎从外面看到了这一点。”女孩没有回答，奥利维亚问道：“你不觉得我送你去法国上学有错吗？”

Quickly Sybil looked up.

西比尔很快抬起头来。

“Oh, no ...

“哦，不……

no,” she said, and then added with smoldering eagerness, “I wouldn’t have changed it for anything in the world.”

不，”她说，然后带着压抑的渴望补充道，“我无论如何也不会改变它。”

“I thought you might enjoy life more if you saw a little more than one corner of it....

“我想，如果你能看到生活的不止一个角落，你可能会更享受生活......

I wanted you to be away from here for a little time.” (She did not say what she thought--“because I wanted you to escape the blight that touches everything at Pentlands.”)

我想让你离开这里一段时间。” （她没有说出她的想法——“因为我想让你逃离彭特兰一切都受到影响的瘟疫。”）

“I’m glad,” the girl replied.

“我很高兴，”女孩回答。

“I’m glad because it makes everything different....

“我很高兴，因为这让一切都变得不同......

I can’t explain it....

我无法解释......

Only as if everything had more meaning than it would have otherwise.”

就好像一切都比其他情况更有意义。”

Suddenly Olivia kissed her daughter and said: “You’re a clever girl; things aren’t wasted on you.

突然，奥利维亚亲吻了女儿，说道：“你是一个聪明的女孩，事情不会浪费在你身上。

And now go along to bed.

现在去睡觉吧。

I’ll stop in to say good-night.”

我会过来道晚安。”

She watched the girl as she moved away through the big empty hall past the long procession of Pentland family portraits, thinking all the while that beside them Sybil seemed so fresh and full of warm eager life; and when at last she turned, she encountered her father-in-law and old Mrs. Soames moving along the narrow passage that led from the writing-room.

她看着女孩穿过空荡荡的大厅，经过一长串彭特兰全家福，心里一直想着，在他们身边，西比尔显得那么新鲜，充满了温暖而渴望的生活；当她最后转身时，她遇到了她的公公和老索姆斯太太，他们正沿着从写作室通向的狭窄通道走着。

It struck her sharply that the gaunt, handsome old John Pentland seemed really old to-night, in a way he had never been before, old and a little bent, with purplish circles under his bright black eyes.

她突然意识到，憔悴、英俊的老约翰·彭特兰今晚看起来真的很老，以一种他以前从未有过的方式，老了，有点驼背，明亮的黑眼睛下有紫色的眼圈。

Old Mrs. Soames, with her funny, intricate, dyed-black coiffure and rouged cheeks and sagging chin supported by a collar of pearls, leaned on his arm--the wreck of a handsome woman who had fallen back upon such silly, obvious tricks as rouge and dye--a vain, tragic old woman who never knew that she was a figure of fun.

索姆斯老太太靠在他的手臂上，留着滑稽、复杂的染黑发型，脸颊涂着胭脂，下垂的下巴用珍珠项圈托着。她是一位英俊的女人，却陷入了胭脂和染料等愚蠢、明显的把戏，她是一个虚荣、悲惨的老妇人，她从来不知道自己是一个有趣的人物。

At sight of her, there rose in Olivia’s mind a whole vista of memories--assembly after assembly with Mrs. Soames in stomacher and tiara standing in the reception line bowing and smirking over rites that had survived in a provincial fashion some darker, more barbaric, social age.

一看到她，奥利维亚的脑海中就浮现出一幅幅回忆的景象——一次又一次的聚会，索米斯夫人穿着抹胸，戴着王冠，站在接待队伍里，鞠躬，傻笑，这些仪式在更黑暗、更野蛮的社会时代以乡土方式幸存下来。

And the sight of the old man walking gently and slowly, out of deference to Mrs. Soames’ infirmities, filled Olivia with a sudden desire to weep.

看到老人出于对索米斯夫人体弱的尊重而轻轻地、缓慢地走着，奥利维亚突然想哭。

John Pentland said, “I’m going to drive over with Mrs. Soames, Olivia dear.

约翰·彭特兰说：“我要和索姆斯太太一起开车过去，亲爱的奥利维亚。

You can leave the door open for me.” And giving his daughter-in-law a quick look of affection he led Mrs. Soames away across the terrace to his motor.

你可以给我留门。”他快速地向儿媳看了一眼，充满了爱意，领着索姆斯太太穿过露台，朝他的汽车走去。

It was only after they had gone that Olivia discovered Sabine standing in the corridor in her brilliant green dress watching the two old people from the shadow of one of the deep-set windows.

他们走后，奥利维亚才发现萨宾穿着亮绿色的裙子站在走廊里，从一扇深陷的窗户的阴影里注视着两位老人。

For a moment, absorbed in the sight of John Pentland helping Mrs. Soames with a grim courtliness into the motor, neither of them spoke, but as the motor drove away down the long drive under the moon-silvered elms, Sabine sighed and said, “I can remember her as a great beauty ...

有那么一会儿，萨宾全神贯注地看着约翰·彭特兰以一种冷酷的礼貌帮助索姆斯太太上了汽车，两人都没有说话，但是当汽车沿着月光银色的榆树下的长车道行驶时，萨宾叹了口气，说道：“我记得她是一位伟大的美人......

a really great beauty.

真是一位大美人。

There aren’t any more like her, who make their beauty a profession.

再也没有像她这样以美丽为职业的人了。

I used to see her when I was a little girl.

当我还是个小女孩的时候，我曾经见过她。

She was beautiful--like Diana in the hunting-field.

她很美丽——就像狩猎场上的戴安娜一样。

They’ve been like that for ...

他们一直这样……

for how long....

多久....

It must be forty years, I suppose.”

我想，一定有四十年了。”

“I don’t know,” said Olivia quietly.

“我不知道。”奥利维亚轻声说道。

“They’ve been like that ever since I came to Pentlands.” (And as she spoke she was overcome by a terrible feeling of sadness, of an abysmal futility.

“自从我来到彭特兰，他们就一直这样。” （当她说话时，她感到一种可怕的悲伤和极度的徒劳感。

It had come to her more and more often of late, so often that at times it alarmed her lest she was growing morbid.)

最近，这种感觉越来越频繁地出现在她的脑海中，以至于有时她会感到惊慌，以免自己变得病态。）

Sabine was speaking again in her familiar, precise, metallic voice.

萨宾再次用她熟悉、精确、金属般的声音说话。

“I wonder,” she said, “if there has ever been anything....”

“我想知道，”她说，“是否曾经有过什么……”

Olivia, divining the rest of the question, answered it quickly, interrupting the speech.

奥利维亚猜到了剩下的问题，很快就回答了，打断了演讲。

“No ...

“不 ...

I’m sure there’s never been anything more than we’ve seen....

我相信从来没有比我们见过的更多的事情......

I know him well enough to know that.”

我很了解他，知道这一点。”

For a long time Sabine remained thoughtful, and at last she said: “No ...

萨宾沉思了很长时间，最后说道：“不……

I suppose you’re right.

我想你是对的。

There couldn’t have been anything.

不可能有什么。

He’s the last of the Puritans....

他是最后一个清教徒......

The others don’t count.

其他的不算。

They go on pretending, but they don’t believe any more.

他们继续假装，但他们不再相信。

They’ve no vitality left.

他们已经没有活力了。

They’re only hypocrites and shadows....

他们只是伪君子和影子……

He’s the last of the royal line.”

他是最后一位皇室成员。”

She picked up her silver cloak and, flinging it about her fine white shoulders, said abruptly: “It’s almost morning.

她拿起银色斗篷，披在她白皙的肩膀上，突然说道：“快天亮了。

I must get some sleep.

我必须睡一会儿。

The time’s coming when I have to think about such things.

我必须考虑这些事情的时候到了。

We’re not as young as we once were, Olivia.”

我们不再像以前那么年轻了，奥利维亚。”

On the moonlit terrace she turned and asked: “Where was O’Hara?

在月光照射下的露台上，她转身问道：“奥哈拉在哪里？

I didn’t see him.”

我没有看到他。”

“No ...

“不……

he was asked.

有人问他。

I think he didn’t come on account of Anson and Aunt Cassie.”

我认为他不是因为安森和卡西阿姨才来的。”

The only reply made by Sabine was a kind of scornful grunt.

萨宾唯一的回答是一声轻蔑的咕哝。

She turned away and entered her motor.

她转过身，开进了汽车。

The ball was over now and the last guest gone, and she had missed nothing--Aunt Cassie, nor old John Pentland, nor O’Hara’s absence, nor even Higgins watching them all in the moonlight from the shadow of the lilacs.

舞会现在结束了，最后一位客人也走了，她什么也没错过——卡西姨妈，老约翰·彭特兰，奥哈拉的缺席，甚至希金斯在月光下丁香花的影子里看着他们。

The night had turned cold as the morning approached and Olivia, standing in the doorway, shivered a little as she watched Sabine enter her motor and drive away.

随着早晨的临近，夜晚变得寒冷，奥利维亚站在门口，看着萨宾进入汽车开走，她有点颤抖。

Far across the meadows she saw the lights of John Pentland’s motor racing along the lane on the way to the house of old Mrs. Soames; she watched them as they swept out of sight behind the birch thicket and reappeared once more beyond the turnpike, and as she turned away at last it occurred to her that the life at Pentlands had undergone some subtle change since the return of Sabine.

远远地穿过草地，她看到约翰·彭特兰的赛车沿着小路飞驰，驶向索姆斯老太太的家。她看着他们消失在白桦林后面，然后再次出现在收费公路之外，当她转身离开时，她突然意识到，自从萨宾回来后，彭特兰的生活发生了一些微妙的变化。

CHAPTER II

第二章

It was Olivia’s habit (and in some way every small action at Pentlands came inevitably to be a habit) to go about the house each night before climbing the paneled stairs, to see that all was in order, and by instinct she made the little tour as usual after Sabine had disappeared, stopping here and there to speak to the servants, bidding them to go to bed and clear away in the morning.

奥利维亚的习惯是（在某种程度上，彭特兰的每一个小动作都不可避免地成为一种习惯）每天晚上在爬镶板楼梯之前，她都会在房子里走一圈，看看一切是否都井井有条，在萨宾消失后，出于本能，她像往常一样进行了短暂的巡视，时不时地停下来与仆人们交谈，吩咐他们去睡觉，早上收拾干净。

On her way she found that the door of the drawing-room, which had been open all the evening, was now, for some reason, closed.

路上她发现客厅的门整晚都开着，不知为何现在关上了。

It was a big square room belonging to the old part of the house that had been built by the Pentland who made a fortune out of equipping privateers and practising a sort of piracy upon British merchantmen--a room which in the passing of years had come to be a museum filled with the relics and souvenirs of a family which could trace its ancestry back three hundred years to a small dissenting shopkeeper who had stepped ashore on the bleak New England coast very soon after Miles Standish and Priscilla Alden.

这是一个大方形房间，属于房子的旧部分，是彭特兰人建造的，他们通过装备私掠船和对英国商船实施某种海盗行为而发了财——随着时间的推移，这个房间已经变成了一个博物馆，里面装满了一个家庭的遗物和纪念品，这个家庭的祖先可以追溯到三百年前，一个持不同政见的小店主，在迈尔斯·斯坦迪什和普里西拉·奥尔登。

It was a room much used by all the family and had a worn, pleasant look that compensated for the monstrous and incongruous collection of pictures and furniture.

这是一个全家人都经常使用的房间，看起来破旧但令人愉悦，弥补了那些巨大而不协调的图片和家具的不足。

There were two or three Sheraton and Heppelwhite chairs and a handsome old mahogany table, and there were a plush sofa and a vast rocking-chair of uncertain ancestry, and a hideous bronze lamp that had been the gift of Mr. Longfellow to old John Pentland’s mother.

里面有两三张喜来登和赫佩尔怀特椅子，一张漂亮的旧红木桌子，还有一张豪华沙发和一张来历不明的巨大摇椅，还有一盏丑陋的青铜灯，那是朗费罗先生送给老约翰·彭特兰母亲的礼物。

There were two execrable water-colors--one of the Tiber and the Castle San Angelo and one of an Italian village--made by Miss Maria Pentland during a tour of Italy in 1846, and a stuffed chair with tassels, a gift from old Colonel Higginson, a frigid steel engraving of the Signing of the Declaration which hung over the white mantelpiece, and a complete set of Woodrow Wilson’s History of the United States given by Senator Lodge (whom Aunt Cassie always referred to as “dear Mr. Lodge”).

里面有两幅令人厌恶的水彩画——一幅是台伯河和圣安吉洛城堡，一幅是意大利村庄——是玛丽亚·彭特兰小姐在1846年意大利之旅期间制作的，还有一把带流苏的毛绒椅子，是希金森老上校送的礼物，挂在白色壁炉架上的冰冷的钢版画《宣言》的签署，还有洛奇参议员赠送的一套完整的伍德罗·威尔逊的《美国史》 （卡西阿姨总是称其为“亲爱的洛奇先生”）。

In this room were collected mementoes of long visits paid by Mr. Lowell and Mr. Emerson and General Curtis and other good New Englanders, all souvenirs which Olivia had left exactly as she found them when she came to the big house as the bride of Anson Pentland; and to those who knew the room and the family there was nothing unbeautiful or absurd about it.

这个房间里收藏着洛厄尔先生、爱默生先生、柯蒂斯将军和其他善良的新英格兰人长期访问的纪念品，所有这些纪念品都是奥利维亚作为安森·彭特兰的新娘来到这座大房子时发现的，一模一样。对于那些了解这个房间和这个家庭的人来说，这并没有什么不美或荒谬的地方。

The effect was historical.

其影响是历史性的。

On entering it one almost expected a guide to step forward and say, “Mr. Longfellow once wrote at this desk,” and, “This was Senator Lodge’s favorite chair.” Olivia knew each tiny thing in the room with a sharp sense of intimacy.

一进门，人们几乎以为会有一位导游上前说道：“先生。”朗费罗曾经在这张桌子上写过书，”并且，“这是洛奇参议员最喜欢的椅子。”奥利维亚对房间里的每一件小事都了如指掌，有着敏锐的亲密感。

She opened the door softly and found that the lights were still burning and, strangest of all, that her husband was sitting at the old desk surrounded by the musty books and yellowed letters and papers from which he was compiling laboriously a book known as “The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.” The sight of him surprised her, for it was his habit to retire punctually at eleven every night, even on such an occasion as this.

她轻轻地打开门，发现灯还亮着，最奇怪的是，她丈夫坐在那张旧桌子旁，周围是发霉的书本、发黄的信件和文件，他正在费力地编写一本名为《彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地》的书。看到他让她吃了一惊，因为他习惯每天晚上十一点准时睡觉，即使是在这样的场合。

He had disappeared hours earlier from the ball, and he still sat here in his dinner coat, though it was long after midnight.

他几个小时前就从舞会上消失了，尽管已经过了午夜很久了，但他仍然穿着晚礼服坐在这里。

She had entered the room so softly that he did not hear her and for a moment she remained silently looking down at him, as if undetermined whether to speak or to go quietly away.

她走进房间的声音如此轻柔，以至于他没有听到她的声音，有那么一会儿，她静静地低头看着他，似乎不确定是该说话还是静静地走开。

He sat with his back to her so that the sloping shoulders and the thin, ridged neck and partly bald head stood outlined against the white of the paneling.

他背对着她坐着，倾斜的肩膀、瘦削、隆起的脖子和半秃的头在白色的镶板衬托下轮廓分明。

Suddenly, as if conscious of being watched, he turned and looked at her.

突然，他像是意识到被人注视一样，转过身来看着她。

He was a man of forty-nine who looked older, with a long horse-face like Aunt Cassie’s--a face that was handsome in a tired, yellow sort of way--and small, round eyes the color of pale-blue porcelain.

他是个四十九岁的男人，看上去年纪更大，长着一张像卡西姨妈一样的长马脸——一张带着疲倦、泛黄的英俊脸——一双又小又圆的眼睛，颜色像淡蓝色的瓷器。

At the sight of Olivia the face took on a pouting expression of sourness ...

看到奥莉薇娅，脸上就露出了酸涩的表情……

a look which she knew well as one that he wore when he meant to complain of something.

她很熟悉他在抱怨什么时的表情。

“You are sitting up very late,” she observed quietly, with a deliberate air of having noticed nothing unusual.

“你熬夜太晚了。”她轻声说道，一副故意没有注意到任何异常的样子。

“I was waiting to speak to you.

“我正等着和你说话呢。

I want to talk with you.

我想和你谈谈。

Please sit down for a moment.”

请坐一会儿。”

There was an odd sense of strangeness in their manner toward each other, as if there had never been, even years before when the children were babies, any great intimacy between them.

他们对待彼此的态度有一种奇怪的陌生感，就好像他们之间从未有过任何亲密的关系，甚至在孩子们还是婴儿的时候。

On his part there was, too, a sort of stiff and nervous formality, rather quaint and Victorian, and touched by an odd air of timidity.

他身上也有一种僵硬而紧张的拘谨，相当古怪和维多利亚时代的风格，并带有一种奇怪的胆怯气氛。

He was a man who would always do not perhaps the proper thing, but the thing accepted by his world as “proper.”

他是一个永远不会做正确事情的人，但却总是做被他的世界视为“正确”的事情。

It was the first time since morning that the conversation between them had emerged from the set pattern which it had followed day after day for so many years.

从早上开始，他们之间的对话第一次脱离了多年来日复一日遵循的既定模式。

When he said that he wanted to speak to her, it meant usually that there was some complaint to be made against the servants, more often than not against Higgins, whom he disliked with an odd, inexplicable intensity.

当他说他想和她说话时，通常意味着有人要对仆人们提出一些抱怨，通常是针对希金斯，他对希金斯有一种奇怪的、莫名其妙的强烈厌恶。

Olivia sat down, irritated that he should have chosen this hour when she was tired, to make some petty comment on the workings of the house.

奥利维亚坐下来，很恼火，因为他竟然选择在她疲倦的这个时间，对家里的运作发表一些琐碎的评论。

Half without thinking and half with a sudden warm knowledge that it would annoy him to see her smoking, she lighted a cigarette; and as she sat there, waiting until he had blotted with scrupulous care the page on which he had been writing, she became conscious slowly of a strange, unaccustomed desire to be disagreeable, to create in some way an excitement that would shatter for a moment the overwhelming sense of monotony and so relieve her nerves.

她半不假思索地点了一根烟，半是突然意识到看到她抽烟会让他很恼火。当她坐在那里，等待他小心翼翼地擦掉正在写的纸时，她慢慢地意识到一种奇怪的、不习惯的欲望，想要变得不愉快，想要以某种方式创造一种兴奋，暂时打破压倒性的单调感，从而缓解她的紧张。

She thought, “What has come over me?

她想：“我怎么了？

Am I one of those women who enjoys working up scenes?”

我是那些喜欢工作场景的女性之一吗？”

He rose from his chair and stood, very tall and thin, with drooping shoulders, looking down at her out of the pale eyes.

他从椅子上站起来，站起来，身材又高又瘦，肩膀下垂，用苍白的眼睛俯视着她。

“It’s about Sybil,” he said.

“这是关于西比尔的，”他说。

“I understand that she goes riding every morning with this fellow O’Hara.”

“我知道她每天早上都会和奥哈拉这个家伙一起骑马。”

“That’s true,” replied Olivia quietly.

“确实如此。”奥莉薇娅平静地回答道。

“They go every morning before breakfast, before the rest of us are out.”

“他们每天早上早餐前、我们其他人出去之前就去。”

He frowned and assumed almost mechanically a manner of severe dignity.

他皱起眉头，几乎机械地表现出一种严肃的尊严。

“And you mean to say that you have known about it all along?”

“你的意思是说你一直都知道这件事？”

“They meet down in the meadows by the old gravel-pit because he doesn’t care to come up to the house.”

“他们在旧砾石坑旁的草地上见面，因为他不想到房子里来。”

“He knows, perhaps, that he wouldn’t be welcome.”

“也许他知道他不会受到欢迎。”

Olivia smiled a little ironically.

奥莉薇娅有些讽刺地笑了笑。

“I’m sure that’s the reason.

“我确信这就是原因。

That’s why he didn’t come to-night, though I asked him.

这就是为什么他今晚没有来，尽管我问了他。

You must know, Anson, that I don’t feel as you do about him.”

安森，你一定知道，我对他的感觉与你不同。”

“No, I suppose not.

“不，我想不是。

You rarely do.”

你很少这样做。”

“There’s no need to be unpleasant,” she said quietly.

“没必要不高兴。”她轻声说道。

“You seem to know a great deal about it.”

“看来你对这件事了解甚多。”

“Sybil tells me everything she does.

“西比尔告诉我她所做的一切。

It is much better to have it that way, I think.”

我认为这样更好。”

Watching him, it gave her a faint, warm sense of satisfaction to see that Anson was annoyed by her calmness, and yet she was a little ashamed, too, for wanting the excitement of a small scene, just a tiny scene, to make life seem a little more exciting.

看着他，看到安森被她的冷静惹恼了，她有一种淡淡的、温暖的满足感，但她也有点羞愧，因为想要一个小场景的刺激，只是一个小场景，让生活看起来更刺激一点。

He said, “But you know how Aunt Cassie and my father feel about O’Hara.”

他说：“但你知道卡西阿姨和我父亲对奥哈拉的看法。”

Then, for the first time, Olivia began to see light in the darkness.

然后，奥利维亚第一次开始在黑暗中看到光明。

“Your father knows all about it, Anson.

“你父亲知道这一切，安森。

He has gone with them himself on the red mare, once or twice.”

他曾亲自骑着红母马跟他们一起去过一两次。”

“Are you sure of that?”

“你确定吗？”

“Why should I make up such a ridiculous lie?

“我为什么要编造这么可笑的谎言？

Besides, your father and I get on very well.

而且，我和你父亲相处得很好。

You know that.” It was a mild thrust which had its success, for Anson turned away angrily.

你知道这一点。”这是一次温和的推击，却取得了成功，因为安森愤怒地转过身去。

She had really said to him, “Your father comes to _me_ about everything, not to you.

她确实对他说过，“你父亲什么事情都会来找我，而不是你。

He is not the one who objects or I should have known.” Aloud she said, “Besides, I have seen him with my own eyes.”

他不是反对的人，或者我应该知道的。”她大声说道：“而且，我亲眼见过他。”

“Then I will take it on my own responsibility.

“那我就自己承担起这件事的责任。

I don’t like it and I want it stopped.”

我不喜欢它，我希望它停止。”

At this speech Olivia’s brows arched ever so slightly with a look which might have been interpreted either as one of surprise or one of mockery or perhaps a little of both.

听完这番讲话，奥莉薇娅的眉毛微微皱起，她的表情要么是惊讶，要么是嘲讽，或者两者兼而有之。

For a moment she sat quite still, thinking, and at last she said, “Am I right in supposing that Aunt Cassie is at the bottom of this?” When he made no reply she continued, “Aunt Cassie must have gotten up very early to see them off.” Again a silence, and the dark little devil in Olivia urged her to say, “Or perhaps she got her information from the servants.

她一动不动地坐了一会儿，思考着，最后她说道：“我认为卡西姨妈是这一切的罪魁祸首，对吗？”当他没有回答时，她继续说：“卡西阿姨一定起得很早去送他们。”又是一阵沉默，奥莉薇娅身上阴暗的小恶魔催促她说：“或许她是从仆人那里得到的消息。

She often does, you know.”

她经常这样做，你知道的。”

Slowly, while she was speaking, her husband’s face had grown more and more sour.

慢慢地，她说话间，丈夫的脸色越来越难看。

The very color of the skin seemed to have changed so that it appeared faintly green in the light from the Victorian luster just above his narrow head.

皮肤的颜色似乎已经发生了变化，在他狭窄的头顶上方维多利亚时代光泽的光芒下，皮肤呈现出淡淡的绿色。

“Olivia, you have no right to speak of my aunt in that way.”

“奥莉薇娅，你没有资格这样谈论我的姨妈。”

“We needn’t go into that.

“我们不需要深究这个问题。

I think you know that what I said was the truth.” And a slow warmth began to steal over her.

我想你知道我说的是实话。”一股温暖慢慢地袭遍了她的全身。

She was getting beneath his skin.

她已经深入他的心底了。

After all those long years, he was finding that she was not entirely gentle.

这么多年过去了，他发现她并不完全温柔。

He was exasperated now and astonished.

他现在感到愤怒和惊讶。

In a more gentle voice he said, “Olivia, I don’t understand what has come over you lately.”

他用更温和的声音说道：“奥利维亚，我不明白你最近发生了什么。”

She found herself thinking, wildly, “Perhaps he is going to soften.

她发现自己疯狂地想：“也许他会软化。

Perhaps there is still a chance of warmth in him.

或许他的身上还有一丝温暖的机会。

Perhaps even now, after so long, he is going to be pleasant and kind and perhaps ...

也许即使是现在，过了这么久，他也会变得愉快、友善，也许……

perhaps ...

也许……

more.”

更多。”

“You’re very queer,” he was saying.

“你很奇怪，”他说。

“I’m not the only one who finds you so.”

“我不是唯一一个这么认为你的人。”

“No,” said Olivia, a little sadly.

“不，”奥利维亚有点悲伤地说。

“Aunt Cassie does, too.

“卡西阿姨也这么认为。

She’s been telling all the neighborhood that I seem to be unhappy.

她一直告诉邻居们我似乎不高兴。

Perhaps it’s because I’m a little tired.

也许是因为我有点累了。

I’ve not had much rest for a long time now ...

我已经很久没有好好休息了...

from Jack, from Aunt Cassie, from your father ...

来自杰克、来自卡西阿姨、来自你父亲……

and ...

和...

from _her_.” At the last word she made a curious little half-gesture in the direction of the dark north wing of the big house.

来自_她_。”说完最后一句话，她朝大房子黑暗的北翼方向做了一个奇怪的半手势。

She watched him, conscious that he was shocked and startled by her mentioning in a single breath so many things which they never discussed at Pentlands, things which they buried in silence and tried to destroy by pretending that they did not exist.

她看着他，意识到他对她一口气提到的许多事情感到震惊和惊讶，而这些事情他们在彭特兰从未讨论过，他们默默地埋葬了这些事情，并试图假装它们不存在来摧毁它们。

“We ought to speak of those things, sometimes,” she continued sadly.

“有时我们应该谈论这些事情，”她悲伤地继续说道。

“Sometimes when we are entirely alone with no one about to hear, when it doesn’t make any difference.

“有时候，当我们完全独自一人，没有人听到时，这没有任何区别。

We can’t pretend forever that they don’t exist.”

我们不能永远假装它们不存在。”

For a time he was silent, groping obviously, in a kind of desperation for something to answer.

有一段时间他沉默了，显然是在摸索，迫切地想要找到答案。

At last he said feebly, “And yet you sit up all night playing bridge with Sabine and old Mrs. Soames and Father.”

最后他有气无力地说：“可你却整晚都坐着和萨宾、索姆斯老太太和父亲打桥牌。”

“That does me good.

“这对我有好处。

You must admit that it is a change at least.”

你必须承认，至少这是一个改变。”

But he only answered, “I don’t understand you,” and began to pace up and down in agitation while she sat there waiting, actually waiting, for the thing to work itself up to a climax.

但他只回答说：“我不明白你的意思。”然后开始焦躁地来回踱步，而她则坐在那里等待，实际上是在等待，等待事情自行发展到高潮。

She had a sudden feeling of victory, of intoxication such as she had not known in years, not since she was a young girl; and at the same time she wanted to laugh, wildly, hysterically, at the sight of Anson, so tall and thin, prancing up and down.

她突然有一种胜利的感觉，一种陶醉的感觉，这是她多年来从未体验过的，自从她还是个小女孩以来就没有了。与此同时，一看到安森那么高瘦，上蹿下跳，她就想疯狂地、歇斯底里地大笑。

Opposite her he halted abruptly and said, “And I can see no good in inviting Mrs. Soames here so often.”

他在她对面突然停了下来，说道：“我看不出如此频繁地邀请索姆斯夫人来这里有什么好处。”

She saw now that the tension, the excitement between them, was greater even than she had imagined, for Anson had spoken of Mrs. Soames and his father, a thing which in the family no one ever mentioned.

她现在发现，他们之间的紧张和兴奋甚至比她想象的还要严重，因为安森谈到了索姆斯夫人和他的父亲，而家里从来没有人提到过这一件事。

He had done it quite openly, of his own free will.

他是完全公开地、自愿地这样做的。

“What harm can it do now?

“现在它能造成什么危害？

What difference can it make?” she asked.

这能有什么不同呢？”她问道。

“It is the only pleasure left to the poor battered old thing, and one of the few left to your father.”

“这是这个可怜的、饱受摧残的老东西剩下的唯一乐趣，也是你父亲留给的为数不多的乐趣之一。”

Anson began to mutter in disgust.

安森开始厌恶地嘀咕起来。

“It is a silly affair ...

“这是一件愚蠢的事情......

two old ...

两个老...

old....” He did not finish the sentence, for there was only one word that could have finished it and that was a word which no gentleman and certainly no Pentland ever used in referring to his own father.

老……”他没有把这句话说完，因为只有一个词可以结束这句话，那就是没有一位绅士，当然也没有彭特兰用来指代他自己的父亲的词。

“Perhaps,” said Olivia, “it is a silly affair now....

“也许，”奥利维亚说，“现在这是一件愚蠢的事情……

I’m not so sure that it always was.”

我不太确定一直都是这样。”

“What do you mean by that?

“你这是什么意思？

Do you mean....” Again he fumbled for words, groping to avoid using the words that clearly came into his mind.

你的意思是……”他再次摸索着词语，摸索着避免使用那些清楚地出现在他脑海中的词语。

It was strange to see him brought face to face with realities, to see him grow so helpless and muddled.

看到他面对现实，看到他变得如此无助和困惑，感觉很奇怪。

“Do you mean,” he stammered, “that my father has ever behaved ...” he choked and then added, “dishonorably.”

“你的意思是，”他结结巴巴地说，“我父亲的行为曾经……”他哽咽了，然后补充道，“不光彩。”

“Anson ...

“安森……

I feel strangely like being honest to-night ...

今晚我感觉很奇怪，想要诚实……

just for once ...

就一次...

just for once.”

就一次。”

“You are succeeding only in being perverse.”

“你只有乖僻才能成功。”

“No ...” and she found herself smiling sadly, “unless you mean that in this house ...

“不……”她发现自己悲伤地微笑着，“除非你的意思是在这所房子里……

in this room....” She made a gesture which swept within the circle of her white arm all that collection of Victorian souvenirs, all the mementoes of a once sturdy and powerful Puritan family, “...in this room to be truthful and honest is to be perverse.”

在这个房间里……”她做了一个手势，用白皙的手臂扫过所有维多利亚时代的纪念品，以及曾经坚固而强大的清教徒家庭的所有纪念品，“……在这个房间里，诚实和诚实就是乖僻。”

He would have interrupted her here, angrily, but she raised her hand and continued, “No, Anson; I shall tell you honestly what I think ...

他本来会生气地打断她，但她举起手继续说：“不，安森；我会诚实地告诉你我的想法......

whether you want to hear it or not.

不管你想不想听。

I don’t hope that it will do any good....

我不希望它有什么好处......

I do not know whether, as you put it, your father has behaved dishonorably or not.

我不知道你的父亲是否像你所说的那样，表现得不光彩。

I hope he has....

我希望他有……

I hope he was Mrs. Soames’ lover in the days when love could have meant something to them....

我希望他是索姆斯夫人的情人，那时爱情对他们来说意义重大……

Yes ...

是的...

something fleshly is exactly what I mean....

肉体的东西正是我的意思......

I think it would have been better.

我想这样会更好。

I think they might have been happy ...

我想他们可能会很幸福...

really happy for a little time ...

真的很开心一段时间...

not just living in a state of enchantment when one day is exactly like the next....

不仅仅是生活在一天与下一天一模一样的迷幻状态......

I think your father, of all men, has deserved that happiness....” She sighed and added in a low voice, “There, now you know!”

我想你的父亲，在所有的男人中，应该得到这样的幸福……”她叹了口气，低声补充道，“好了，现在你知道了！”

For a long time he simply stood staring at the floor with the round, silly blue eyes which sometimes filled her with terror because they were so like the eyes of that old woman who never left the dark north wing and was known in the family simply as _she_, as if there was very little that was human left in her.

有很长一段时间，他只是站在那儿，用那双圆圆的、傻乎乎的蓝眼睛盯着地板，有时这双眼睛让她充满恐惧，因为它们很像那个老妇人的眼睛，她从未离开过黑暗的北翼，在家里被简单地称为“她”，仿佛她身上已经没有多少人性了。

At last he muttered through the drooping mustache, as if speaking to himself, “I can’t imagine what has happened to you.”

最后，他透过下垂的小胡子嘟囔着，仿佛自言自语：“我无法想象你发生了什么事。”

“Nothing,” said Olivia.

“没什么，”奥利维亚说。

“Nothing.

“没什么。”

I am the same as I have always been, only to-night I have come to the end of saying ‘yes, yes’ to everything, of always pretending, so that all of us here may go on living undisturbed in our dream ...

我还是一如既往，只是到了今天晚上，我才不再对一切都说“是的，是的”，永远假装，以便我们所有人都能不受干扰地生活在我们的梦中……

believing always that we are superior to every one else on the earth, that because we are rich we are powerful and righteous, that because ...

始终相信我们比地球上的其他人都优越，因为我们富有，所以我们强大而正义，因为……

oh, there is no use in talking....

哎呀，说话是没有用的……

I am just the same as I have always been, only to-night I have spoken out.

我还是一如既往，只是今晚我才说出来。

We all live in a dream here ...

我们都生活在梦想中......

a dream that some day will turn sharply into a nightmare.

有一天，梦想会急剧变成噩梦。

And then what will we do?

然后我们该怎么办？

What will you do ...

你会做什么...

and Aunt Cassie and all the rest?”

还有卡西姨妈还有其他人吗？”

In her excitement her cheeks grew flushed and she stood up, very tall and beautiful, leaning against the mantelpiece; but her husband did not notice her.

她兴奋地脸颊涨得通红，站了起来，身子又高又漂亮，靠在壁炉架上。但她的丈夫没有注意到她。

He appeared to be lost in deep thought, his face contorted with a kind of grim concentration.

他似乎陷入了沉思，脸色因专注而扭曲。

“I know what has happened,” he said presently.

“我知道发生了什么事，”他立即说道。

“It is Sabine.

“是萨宾。

She should never have come back here.

她根本不应该回到这里。

She was like that always ...

她一直都是这样的……

stirring up trouble ...

惹事生非...

even as a little girl.

即使作为一个小女孩。

She used to break up our games by saying: ‘I won’t play house.

她常常在结束我们的游戏时说：‘我不会玩过家家。

Who can be so foolish as to pretend muddy water is claret!

谁会愚蠢到把浑水假装成红葡萄酒！

It’s a silly game.’”

这是一场愚蠢的游戏。’”

“Do you mean that she is saying it again now ...

“你的意思是她现在又说了一遍……”

that it’s a silly game to pretend muddy water is claret?”

假装浑水是红葡萄酒是一个愚蠢的游戏？”

He turned away without answering and began again to pace up and down over the enormous faded roses of the old Victorian carpet.

他没有回答，转过身去，又开始在维多利亚时代旧地毯上巨大的褪色玫瑰花上来回踱步。

“I don’t know what you’re driving at.

“我不知道你在想什么。

All I know is that Sabine ...

我只知道萨宾...

Sabine ...

萨宾...

is an evil woman.”

是个邪恶的女人。”

“Do you hate Sabine because she is a friend of mine?”

“你讨厌萨宾，因为她是我的朋友吗？”

She had watched him for so many years disliking the people who were her friends, managing somehow to get rid of them, to keep her from seeing them, to force her into those endless dinners at the houses of the safe men he knew, the men who had gone to his college and belonged to his club, the men who would never do anything that was unexpected.

多年来，她一直看着他不喜欢她的朋友，设法摆脱他们，不让她见到他们，强迫她去他认识的安全男人家里没完没了地吃晚饭，这些男人上过他的大学，属于他的俱乐部，这些男人永远不会做任何出乎意料的事情。

And in the end she had always done as he wanted her to do.

最终她总是按照他的意愿去做。

It was perhaps a manifestation of his resentment toward all those whom he could not understand and even (she thought) feared a little--the attitude of a man who will not allow others to enjoy what he could not take for himself.

这也许是他对所有他无法理解甚至（她认为）有点害怕的人的怨恨的表现——这是一个不允许别人享受他自己无法获得的东西的人的态度。

It was the first time she had ever spoken of this dog-in-the-manger game, but she found herself unable to keep silent.

她还是第一次说起这种狗进马槽的游戏，却发现自己无法保持沉默。

It was as if some power outside her had taken possession of her body.

仿佛有某种外在的力量占据了她的身体。

She had a strange sensation of shame at the very moment she spoke, of shame at the sound of her own voice, a little strained and hysterical.

在她说话的那一刻，她有一种奇怪的羞耻感，对自己的声音感到羞耻，有点紧张和歇斯底里。

There was something preposterous, too, in the sight of Anson prancing up and down the old room filled with all the souvenirs of that decayed respectability in which he wrapped himself ...

看到安森在这间旧房间里蹦蹦跳跳地走来走去，里面装满了他包裹自己的那种腐朽的体面的所有纪念品，这也有些荒谬……

prancing up and down with all his prejudices and superstitions bristling.

带着他所有的偏见和迷信，上蹿下跳。

And now Olivia had dragged the truth uncomfortably into the light.

现在，奥利维亚不安地把真相暴露在阳光下。

“What an absurd thing to say!” he said bitterly.

“这话多荒唐啊！”他苦涩地说。

Olivia sighed.

奥利维亚叹了口气。

“No, I don’t think so....

“不，我不这么认为......

I think you know exactly what I mean.” (She knew the family game of pretending never to understand a truthful, unpleasant statement.)

我想你很清楚我的意思。” （她知道假装永远不理解真实的、令人不快的陈述的家庭游戏。）

But this, too, he refused to answer.

但对于这一点，他也拒绝回答。

Instead, he turned to her, more savage and excited than she had ever seen him, so moved that he seemed for a second to attain a pale flash of power and dignity.

相反，他转向她，比她见过的他更加野蛮和兴奋，如此感动，以至于他似乎有一瞬间获得了苍白的力量和尊严的闪光。

“And I don’t like that Fiji Islander of a daughter of hers, who has been dragged all over the world and had her head filled with barbaric ideas.”

“我不喜欢那个斐济岛民的女儿，她被拖到世界各地，脑子里充满了野蛮的想法。”

At the sight of him and the sound of his voice Olivia experienced a sudden blinding flash of intuition that illuminated the whole train of their conversation, indeed, the whole procession of the years she had spent here at Pentlands or in the huge brownstone house in Beacon Street.

一看到他，听到他的声音，奥莉薇娅突然闪现出一种令人眼花缭乱的直觉，照亮了他们谈话的整个过程，事实上，照亮了她在彭特兰或灯塔街那座巨大的褐砂石房子里度过的所有岁月。

She knew suddenly what it was that frightened Anson and Aunt Cassie and all that intricate world of family.

她突然知道是什么让安森、卡西姨妈以及所有错综复杂的家庭世界感到害怕。

They were terrified lest the walls, the very foundations, of their existence be swept away leaving them helpless with all their little prides and vanities exposed, stripped of all the laws and prejudices which they had made to protect them.

他们害怕他们存在的墙壁、根基被冲走，让他们无助地暴露自己所有的小傲慢和虚荣，剥夺他们为保护他们而制定的所有法律和偏见。

It was why they hated O’Hara, an Irishman and a Roman Catholic.

这就是为什么他们讨厌奥哈拉这个爱尔兰人和罗马天主教徒。

He had menaced their security.

他威胁了他们的安全。

To be exposed thus would be a calamity, for in any other world save their own, in a world where they stood unprotected by all that money laid away in solid trust funds, they would have no existence whatever.

暴露在这种情况下将是一场灾难，因为除了他们自己的世界之外，在任何其他世界，在一个他们不受存入可靠信托基金的所有资金保护的世界中，他们将根本不存在。

They would suddenly _be_ what they _really_ were.

他们会突然成为他们真正的样子。

She saw sharply, clearly, for the first time, and she said quietly, “I think you dislike Thérèse for reasons that are not fair to the girl.

她第一次看得敏锐、清晰，她平静地说：“我认为你不喜欢特蕾莎的原因对这个女孩不公平。

You distrust her because she is different from all the others ...

你不信任她，因为她与其他人不同......

from the sort of girls that you were trained to believe perfect.

来自那种你被训练相信完美的女孩。

Heaven knows there are enough of them about here ...

天知道这里有足够多的人......

girls as like as peas in a pod.”

女孩们就像豆荚里的豌豆一样。”

“And what about this boy who is coming to stay with Sabine and her daughter ...

“那么这个要来和萨宾及其女儿住在一起的男孩呢……

this American boy with a French name who has never seen his own country until now?

这个有法国名字的美国男孩迄今为止从未见过自己的国家？

I suppose he’ll be as queer as all the others.

我想他会和其他人一样古怪。

Who knows anything about him?”

谁知道他的事？”

“Sabine,” began Olivia.

“萨宾，”奥利维亚开始说道。

“Sabine!” he interrupted.

“萨宾！”他打断道。

“Sabine!

“萨宾！

What does she care who he is or where he comes from?

她关心他是谁或他来自哪里？

She’s given up decent people long ago, when she went away from here and married that Levantine blackguard of a husband.

当她离开这里，嫁给了黎凡特的流氓丈夫时，她早就放弃了正派的人。

Sabine!...

撒贝宁！...

Sabine would only like to bring trouble to us ...

萨宾只是想给我们带来麻烦……

the people to whom she belongs.

她所属的人。

She hates us....

她讨厌我们……

She can barely speak to me in a civil fashion.”

她几乎无法用文明的方式跟我说话。”

Olivia smiled quietly and tossed her cigarette into the ashes beneath the cold steel engraving of the Signing.

奥利维亚静静地微笑着，把香烟扔进冰冷的钢刻签名下的灰烬里。

“You are beginning to talk nonsense, Anson.

“你开始胡说八道了，安森。

Let’s stick to facts, for once.

让我们一次坚持事实。

I’ve met the boy in Paris....

我在巴黎遇见了那个男孩......

Sybil knew him there.

西比尔在那里认识他。

He is intelligent and handsome and treats women as if they were something more than stable-boys.

他聪明又英俊，对待女人就像对待马童一样。

There are still a few of us left who like to be treated thus ...

我们中仍然有一些人喜欢被这样对待......

as women ...

作为女性...

a few of us even here in Durham.

我们中的一些人甚至在达勒姆。

No, I don’t imagine you’ll care for him.

不，我不认为你会关心他。

He won’t belong to your club or to your college, and he’ll see life in a different way.

他不会属于你的俱乐部或你的大学，他会以不同的方式看待生活。

He won’t have had his opinions all ready made, waiting for him.”

他不会把自己的意见都准备好，等着他。”

“It’s my children I’m thinking of....

“我想的是我的孩子们......

I don’t want them picking up with any one, with the first person who comes along.”

我不希望他们与任何人搭讪，尤其是第一个出现的人。”

Olivia did not smile.

奥利维亚没有笑。

She turned away now and said softly, “If it’s Jack you’re worrying about, you needn’t fuss any longer.

她转过身来，轻声说道：“如果你担心的是杰克，那你就不用再大惊小怪了。

He won’t marry Thérèse.

他不会娶特蕾莎。

I don’t think you know how ill he is....

我想你不知道他病得有多严重......

I don’t think, sometimes, that you really know anything about him at all.”

有时我认为你根本不了解他。”

“I always talk with the doctors.”

“我总是和医生交谈。”

“Then you ought to know that they’re silly ...

“那你应该知道他们很傻......

the things you’re saying.”

你说的那些事。”

“All the same, Sabine ought never to have come back here....”

“尽管如此，萨宾根本不应该回到这里……”

She saw now that the talk was turning back into the inevitable channel of futility where they would go round and round, like squirrels in a cage, arriving nowhere.

她现在发现谈话又回到了不可避免的徒劳的渠道，他们会像笼子里的松鼠一样转来转去，却无处可去。

It had happened this way so many times.

这样的事已经发生过很多次了。

Turning with an air of putting an end to the discussion, she walked over to the fireplace ...

她带着结束讨论的神情转身，走到了壁炉前……

pale once more, with faint, mauve circles under her dark eyes.

她的脸色再次变得苍白，黑眼睛下面有淡淡的紫红色眼圈。

There was a fragility about her, as if this strange spirit which had flamed up so suddenly were too violent for the body.

她的身上有一种脆弱的感觉，仿佛这股突然燃烧起来的奇异灵魂对于身体来说太猛烈了。

“Anson,” she said in a low voice, “please let’s be sensible.

“安森，”她低声说道，“请我们理智一点。

I shall look into this affair of Sybil and O’Hara and try to discover whether there is anything serious going on.

我将调查西比尔和奥哈拉的事件，并试图查明是否有严重的事情发生。

If necessary, I shall speak directly to both of them.

如有必要，我将直接与他们两人交谈。

I don’t approve, either, but not for the same reason.

我也不同意，但出于同样的原因。

He is too old for her.

他对她来说太老了。

You won’t have any trouble.

你不会有任何麻烦。

You will have to do nothing....

你将不必做任何事......

As to Sabine, I shall continue to see as much of her as I like.”

至于萨宾，我将继续尽可能多地见到她。”

In the midst of the speech she had grown suddenly, perilously, calm in the way which sometimes alarmed her husband and Aunt Cassie.

在演讲过程中，她突然变得危险而平静，有时这让她的丈夫和卡西姨妈感到惊慌。

Sighing a little, she continued, “I have been good and gentle, Anson, for years and years, and now, to-night ...

她轻轻叹了口气，继续说道：“多年来，安森，我一直都很善良、温柔，而现在，今晚……

to-night I feel as if I were coming to the end of it....

今晚我感觉我的生活即将结束......

I only say this to let you know that it can’t go on forever.”

我这么说只是想让你知道，这种情况不可能永远持续下去。”

Picking up her scarf, she did not wait for him to answer her, but moved away toward the door, still enveloped in the same perilous calm.

她拿起围巾，不等他回答，就向门口走去，依然笼罩着同样危险的平静。

In the doorway she turned.

在门口她转身。

“I suppose we can call the affair settled for the moment?”

“我想我们可以暂时解决这件事了吗？”

He had been standing there all the while watching her out of the round cold blue eyes with a look of astonishment as if after all those years he had seen his wife for the first time; and then slowly the look of astonishment melted into one of slyness, almost of hatred, as if he thought, “So this is what you really are!

他一直站在那儿，用那双冰冷的蓝眼睛看着她，脸上带着惊讶的表情，仿佛这么多年以来他第一次见到他的妻子一样。然后慢慢地，惊讶的表情变成了一种狡猾，几乎是仇恨，仿佛他在想：“原来你就是这样的！

So you have been thinking these things all these years and have never belonged to us at all.

所以这些年来你一直在想这些事情，根本就不属于我们。

You have been hating us all the while.

你一直都在恨我们。

You have always been an outsider--a common, vulgar outsider.”

你一直都是一个局外人，一个普通的、庸俗的局外人。”

His thin, discontented lips had turned faintly gray, and when he spoke it was nervously, with a kind of desperation, like a small animal trapped in a corner.

他薄薄的嘴唇不满地变成了淡淡的灰色，说话的时候紧张兮兮，带着一种绝望，就像一只被困在角落里的小动物。

The words came out from the thin lips in a sharp, quick torrent, like the rush of white-hot steel released from a cauldron ...

这句话从薄唇中吐出，尖锐而迅捷，如鼎中白热钢的奔腾……

words spoken in a voice that was cold and shaken with hatred.

说话的声音冰冷且因仇恨而颤抖。

“In any case,” he said, “in any case ...

“无论如何，”他说，“无论如何……

I will not have my daughter marry a shanty Irishman....

我不会让我的女儿嫁给一个贫民窟的爱尔兰人......

There is enough of that in the family.”

家里有这样的事就够了。”

For a moment Olivia leaned against the door-sill, her dark eyes wide with astonishment, as if she found it impossible to believe what she had heard.

有那么一会儿，奥莉薇娅靠在门槛上，她的黑眼睛因惊讶而睁大，似乎无法相信自己所听到的。

And then quietly, with a terrible sadness and serenity in her voice, she murmured almost to herself, “What a rotten thing to say!” And after a little pause, as if still speaking to herself, “So that is what you have been thinking for twenty years!” And again, “There is a terrible answer to that....

然后，她的声音里带着可怕的悲伤和平静，静静地几乎自言自语道：“这真是太糟糕了！”停顿了一下，仿佛仍在自言自语，“原来你二十年来一直这么想！”再说一次，“对此有一个可怕的答案......

It’s so terrible that I shan’t say it, but I think you ...

太可怕了，我不敢说，但我想你……

you and Aunt Cassie know well enough what it is.”

你和卡西阿姨很清楚那是什么。”

Closing the door quickly, she left him there, startled and exasperated, among all the Pentland souvenirs, and slowly, in a kind of nightmare, she made her way toward the stairs, past the long procession of Pentland ancestors--the shopkeeping immigrant, the witch-burner, the professional evangelist, the owner of clipper ships, and the tragic, beautiful Savina Pentland--and up the darkened stairway to the room where her husband had not followed her in more than fifteen years.

她迅速关上门，把他留在那儿，在彭特兰的所有纪念品中，既震惊又愤怒，然后慢慢地，在一种噩梦中，她走向楼梯，经过彭特兰祖先的长队——开店的移民、烧巫师、职业传教士、快艇的主人，以及悲惨而美丽的萨维娜·彭特兰——然后走上黑暗的楼梯，来到房间，她的丈夫已经十五年多没有跟着她了。年。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

Once in her own room she closed the door softly and stood in the darkness, listening, listening, listening....

回到自己的房间后，她轻轻地关上了门，站在黑暗中，听着，听着，听着……

There was at first no sound save the blurred distant roar of the surf eating its way into the white dunes and the far-off howling of a beagle somewhere in the direction of the kennels, and then, presently, there came to her the faint sound of soft, easy breathing from the adjoining room.

起初，除了海浪冲进白色沙丘的远处模糊的轰鸣声和远处狗舍方向某处小猎犬的嚎叫声外，什么声音也没有，然后，不久，隔壁房间里传来微弱的轻柔、轻松的呼吸声。

It was regular, easy and quiet, almost as if her son had been as strong as O’Hara or Higgins or that vigorous young de Cyon whom she had met once for a little while at Sabine’s house in Paris.

这是有规律的、轻松的、安静的，几乎就像她的儿子像奥哈拉或希金斯或她在巴黎萨宾家见过一次的那个充满活力的年轻德西昂一样坚强。

The sound filled her with a wild happiness, so that she forgot even what had happened in the drawing-room a little while before.

这声音让她心里充满了狂喜，让她忘记了刚才客厅里发生的事情。

As she undressed in the darkness she stopped now and then to listen again in a kind of fierce tension, as if by wishing it she could keep the sound from ever dying away.

当她在黑暗中脱掉衣服时，她时不时地停下来，以一种强烈的紧张感再次聆听，仿佛希望她可以让声音永远消失。

For more than three years she had never once entered this room free from the terror that there might only be silence to welcome her.

三年多来，她每次走进这个房间，都会感到恐惧，害怕迎接她的只有寂静。

And at last, after she had gone to bed and was falling asleep, she was wakened sharply by another sound, quite different, the sound of a wild, almost human cry ...

最后，当她上床睡觉时，她被另一种完全不同的声音猛地惊醒，那是一种狂野的、几乎是人类的哭声……

savage and wicked, and followed by the thud thud of hoofs beating savagely against the walls of a stall, and then the voice of Higgins, the groom, cursing wickedly.

野蛮而邪恶，接着是马蹄猛烈地敲打马厩墙壁的声音，然后是马夫希金斯恶毒地咒骂的声音。

She had heard it before--the sound of old John Pentland’s evil, beautiful red mare kicking the walls of her stall and screaming wildly.

她以前听过——老约翰·彭特兰那匹邪恶而美丽的红色母马踢着马厩的墙壁，疯狂地尖叫着。

There was an unearthly, implacable hatred between her and the little apelike man ...

她和小猿人之间，有着一种超凡脱俗、不解之恨……

and yet a sort of fascination, too.

但也有一种迷恋。

As she sat up in her bed, listening, and still startled by the wild sound, she heard her son saying:

当她从床上坐起来，听着，仍然被这狂野的声音吓了一跳时，她听到儿子说：

“Mama, are you there?”

“妈妈，你在吗？”

“Yes.”

“是的。”

She rose and went into the other room, where, in the dim light from the night-lamp, the boy was sitting up in bed, his pale blond hair all rumpled, his eyes wide open and staring a little.

她站起身，走进另一个房间，在夜灯昏暗的灯光下，男孩坐在床上，浅金色的头发乱糟糟的，眼睛睁得大大的，有点凝视。

“You’re all right, Jack?” she whispered.

“你还好吗，杰克？”她低声说道。

“There’s nothing the matter?”

“没什么事吧？”

“No--nothing.

“不——没什么。

I had a bad dream and then I heard the red mare.”

我做了一个噩梦，然后我听到了红母马的声音。”

He looked pale and ill, with the blue veins showing on his temples; yet she knew that he was stronger than he had been for months.

他看上去脸色苍白，病恹恹的，太阳穴上青筋暴起。但她知道他比几个月前更坚强了。

He was fifteen, and he looked younger than his age, rather like a boy of thirteen or fourteen, but he was old, too, in the timeless fashion of those who have always been ill.

他十五岁了，看起来比实际年龄要年轻，更像是十三岁或十四岁的男孩，但他也很老，就像那些总是生病的人一样。

“Is the party over?...

“聚会结束了吗？...

Have they all gone?” he asked.

他们都走了吗？”他问道。

“Yes, Jack....

“是的，杰克……

It’s almost daylight.

天快亮了。

You’d better try to sleep again.”

你最好还是再睡一会吧。”

He lay down without answering her, and as she bent to kiss him good-night, she heard him say softly, “I wish I could have gone to the party.”

他躺了下来，没有回答她，当她弯腰吻他道晚安时，她听到他轻轻地说：“我希望我能去参加聚会。”

“You will, Jack, some day--before very long.

“你会的，杰克，有一天——不久之后。

You’re growing stronger every day.”

你每天都在变得更强。”

Again a silence, while Olivia thought bitterly, “He knows that I’m lying.

又是一阵沉默，奥莉薇娅苦涩地想道：“他知道我在撒谎。

He knows that what I’ve said is not the truth.”

他知道我说的不是事实。”

Aloud she said, “You’ll go to sleep now--like a good boy.”

她大声说道：“你现在就去睡觉吧——像个好孩子一样。”

“I wish you’d tell me about the party.”

“我希望你能告诉我关于聚会的事。”

Olivia sighed.

奥利维亚叹了口气。

“Then I must close Nannie’s door, so we won’t waken her.” And she closed the door leading to the room where the old nurse slept, and seating herself on the foot of her son’s bed, she began a recital of who had been at the ball, and what had happened there, bit by bit, carefully and with all the skill she was able to summon.

“那我必须关上保姆的门，这样才不会吵醒她。”她关上通往老护士睡觉的房间的门，坐在儿子的床脚上，开始详细地、用她所能运用的所有技巧，一点一滴地讲述谁参加了舞会，以及那里发生的事情。

She wanted to give him, who had so little chance of living, all the sense of life she was able to evoke.

她想给他这个几乎没有生存机会的人，她所能唤起的所有生活感。

She talked on and on, until presently she noticed that the boy had fallen asleep and that the sky beyond the marshes had begun to turn gray and rose and yellow with the rising day.

她滔滔不绝地讲着，直到不久她注意到男孩已经睡着了，沼泽地那边的天空随着日出而开始变成灰色、玫瑰色和黄色。

CHAPTER III

第三章

When Olivia first came to the old house as the wife of Anson Pentland, the village of Durham, which lay inland from Pentlands and the sea, had been invisible, lying concealed in a fold of the land which marked the faint beginnings of the New Hampshire mountains.

当奥利维亚作为安森·彭特兰的妻子第一次来到老房子时，达勒姆村位于彭特兰和大海的内陆，是看不见的，隐藏在一块土地的褶皱中，这片土地标志着新罕布什尔山脉的隐约起点。

There had been in the view a certain sleepy peacefulness: one knew that in the distant fold of land surmounted by a single white spire there lay a quiet village of white wooden houses built along a single street called High Street that was dappled in summer with the shadows of old elm-trees.

景色中有一种令人昏昏欲睡的宁静：人们知道，在远处的一片土地上，有一座白色的尖顶，那里有一个安静的村庄，村庄里有白色的木屋，沿着一条叫做高街的街道而建，在夏天，老榆树的影子斑驳地洒在这条街上。

In those days it had been a country village, half asleep, with empty shuttered houses here and there falling into slow decay--a village with fewer people in it than there had been a hundred years before.

那些日子里，它是一个半睡半醒的乡村，到处都是空荡荡的、紧闭着百叶窗的房子，正在慢慢腐烂——这个村庄的人口比一百年前要少。

It had stayed thus sleeping for nearly seventy-five years, since the day when a great migration of citizens had robbed it of its sturdiest young people.

自从公民大迁徙夺走了它最强壮的年轻人的那天起，它就这样沉睡了近七十五年。

In the thick grass that surrounded the old meeting-house there lay a marble slab recording the event with an inscription which read:

在旧会议室周围的茂密草丛中，有一块大理石板记录了这一事件，上面刻着这样的铭文：

FROM THIS SPOT ON THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF AUGUST, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN, THE REVEREND JOSIAH MILFORD, PASTOR OF THIS CHURCH, WITH ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY MEMBERS OF HIS CONGREGATION--MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN--SET OUT, SECURE IN THEIR FAITH IN ALMIGHTY GOD, TO ESTABLISH HIS WILL AND POWER IN THE WILDERNESS OF THE WESTERN RESERVE.

八月十四日，即一千八百十八岁，本堂牧师约西亚·米尔福德带着一百九十名会众成员——男人、女人和儿童——出发，坚定地信仰全能的上帝，在西部保留地的荒野中确立他的意志和权力。

Beneath the inscription were cut the names of those families who had made the journey to found a new town which had since surpassed sleepy Durham a hundred times in wealth and prosperity.

铭文下方刻着那些踏上旅程建立新城镇的家庭的名字，这座新城镇的财富和繁荣程度后来超过了沉睡的达勒姆一百倍。

There was no Pentland name among them, for the Pentlands had been rich even in the year eighteen hundred and eighteen, and lived in winter in Boston and in summer at Durham, on the land claimed from the wilderness by the first of the family.

他们中间没有彭特兰这个名字，因为即使在一千八百一十八年，彭特兰人就已经很富裕了，冬天住在波士顿，夏天住在达勒姆，这片土地是家族长子从荒野中夺取的。

From that day until the mills came to Durham the village sank slowly into a kind of lethargy, and the church itself, robbed of its strength, died presently and was changed into a dusty museum filled with homely early American furniture and spinning-wheels--a place seldom visited by any one and painted grudgingly every five years by the town council because it was popularly considered an historical monument.

从那天起，直到磨坊来到达勒姆，这个村庄慢慢地陷入了一种昏昏欲睡的状态，而教堂本身，失去了它的力量，很快就死了，变成了一个布满灰尘的博物馆，里面摆满了美国早期的普通家具和纺车——一个很少有人参观的地方，镇议会每五年勉强粉刷一次，因为它被普遍认为是一个历史古迹。

The Pentland family long ago had filtered away into the cold faith of the Unitarians or the more compromising and easy creeds of the Episcopal church.

彭特兰家族很久以前就已经融入了冷酷的一神论者信仰或圣公会的更加妥协和轻松的信条。

But now, nearly twenty years after Olivia had come to Pentlands, the village was alive again, so alive that it had overflowed its little fold in the land and was streaming down the hill on the side next to the sea in straight, plain columns of ugly stucco bungalows, each filled with its little family of Polish mill-workers.

但现在，在奥利维亚来到彭特兰近二十年之后，这个村庄又恢复了生机，生机勃勃，以至于它已经溢出了土地上的小褶皱，沿着海边的山坡，笔直、朴素的一排排丑陋的灰泥平房顺流而下，每一栋都挤满了波兰磨坊工人的小家庭。

And in the town, across High Street from the white-spired old meeting-house, there stood a new church, built of stucco and green-painted wood and dedicated to the great Church of Rome.

在镇上，在白色尖顶的老教堂对面的大街上，矗立着一座新教堂，用灰泥和绿漆木材建造，供奉伟大的罗马教堂。

In the old wooden houses along High Street there still lingered remnants of the old families ...

大街两旁的老木屋里，依然残留着古老家族的痕迹……

old Mrs. Featherstone, who did washing to support four sickly grandchildren who ought never to have been born; Miss Haddon, a queer old woman who wore a black cape and lived on a dole from old John Pentland as a remote cousin of the family; Harry Peckhan, the village carpenter; old Mrs. Malson, living alone in a damp, gaunt and beautiful old house filled with bits of jade and ivory brought back from China by her grandfather’s clippers; Miss Murgatroyd, who had long since turned her bullfinch house into a shabby tea-room.

老费瑟斯通太太负责洗衣养活四个本不应该出生的体弱多病的孙子。哈登小姐是一位古怪的老妇人，穿着黑色斗篷，靠着老约翰·彭特兰作为家里远房表亲的救济金过活。哈里·佩克汉 (Harry Peckhan)，乡村木匠；老马尔森太太独自住在一栋潮湿、荒凉而美丽的老房子里，里面装满了她祖父的快船从中国带回来的玉石和象牙碎片；默加特罗伊德小姐早已把她的红腹灰雀屋变成了一间破旧的茶室。

They remained here and there, a few worn and shabby-genteel descendants of those first settlers who had come into the country with the Pentlands.

他们到处都是，是随彭特兰人来到这个国家的第一批定居者的后裔，他们是一些疲惫不堪、举止文雅的人。

But the mills had changed everything, the mills which poured wealth into the pockets of a dozen rich families who lived in summer within a few miles of Durham.

但磨坊改变了一切，磨坊将财富注入到夏季居住在达勒姆附近几英里范围内的十几个富裕家庭的口袋里。

Even the countryside itself had changed.

甚至乡村本身也发生了变化。

There were no longer any of the old New Englanders in possession of the land.

老新英格兰人不再拥有这片土地。

Sometimes in riding along the lanes one encountered a thin, silly-faced remnant of the race sitting on a stone wall chewing a bit of grass; but that was all; the others had been swallowed up long ago in the mills of Salem and Lynn or died away, from too much inbreeding and too little nourishment.

有时，沿着小路骑行时，人们会遇到一个瘦弱的、一脸傻乎乎的种族残骸，坐在石墙上嚼着一点草。但仅此而已；其他的则由于近亲繁殖过多和营养太少，很早以前就被塞勒姆和林恩的磨坊吞没了，或者灭绝了。

The few farms that remained fell into the hands of Poles and Czechs, solid, square people who were a little pagan in their closeness to the earth and the animals which surrounded them, sturdy people, not too moral, who wrought wonders with the barren, stony earth of New England and stood behind their walls staring wide-eyed while the grand people like the Pentlands rode by in pink coats surrounded by the waving nervous tails of foxhounds.

剩下的几块农场落入了波兰人和捷克人的手中，他们是坚固、方正的民族，他们对土地和周围动物的亲近程度有点异教，他们是坚强的人，不太道德，他们在新英格兰贫瘠、多石的土地上创造了奇迹，站在墙后睁大眼睛凝视着，而彭特兰等伟大的人们穿着粉红色的外套，周围是猎狐犬紧张地摇着尾巴。

And, one by one, other old farms were being turned back into a wilderness once more so that there would be plenty of room for the horses and hounds to run after foxes and bags of aniseed.

而且，其他古老的农场也一一被重新变成了荒野，这样就有足够的空间让马和猎犬追赶狐狸和一袋袋茴香。

It had all changed enormously.

一切都发生了巨大的变化。

From the upper windows of the big Georgian brick house where the Pentlands lived, one could see the record of all the changes.

从彭特兰夫妇居住的乔治亚风格大砖房的楼上窗户，人们可以看到所有变化的记录。

The windows commanded a wide view of a landscape composed of grubby meadows and stone walls, thickets of pine and white birches, marshes, and a winding sluggish brown river.

透过窗户，可以看到广阔的风景，包括肮脏的草地和石墙、松树和白桦树丛、沼泽和蜿蜒缓慢的棕色河流。

Sometimes in the late autumn the deer wandered down from the mountains of New Hampshire to spoil the fox-hunting by leading the hounds astray after game that was far too fleet for them.

有时在深秋，鹿会从新罕布什尔州的山区漫步下来，在一场对它们来说太快的比赛结束后，把猎犬引入歧途，从而破坏猎狐活动。

And nearer at hand, nestled within a turn of the river, lay the land where Sabine Callender had been born and had lived until she was a grown woman--the land which she had sold carelessly to O’Hara, an Irish politician and a Roman Catholic, come up from nowhere to take possession of it, to clip its hedges, repair its sagging walls, paint its old buildings and put up gates and fences that were too shiny and new.

近处，在河的拐弯处，坐落着萨宾·卡伦德出生并一直生活到成年的那片土地——她不小心把这片土地卖给了爱尔兰政客和罗马天主教徒奥哈拉，不知从哪里冒出来占有它，修剪它的树篱，修复它下垂的墙壁，粉刷它的旧建筑，并盖上过于闪亮和新的大门和栅栏。

Indeed, he had done it so thoroughly and so well that the whole place had a little the air of a suburban real estate development.

确实，他做得这么彻底，做得这么好，整个地方都有点郊区房地产开发的气息了。

And now Sabine had returned to spend the summer in one of his houses and to be very friendly with him in the face of Aunt Cassie and Anson Pentland, and a score of others like them.

现在萨宾回来了，在他的一所房子里度过了夏天，并且当着卡西姨妈和安森·彭特兰以及其他像她们这样的人的面，对他非常友好。

Olivia knew this wide and somberly beautiful landscape, every stick and stone of it, from the perilous gravel-pit, half-hidden by its fringe of elder-bushes, to the black pine copse where Higgins had discovered only a day or two before a new litter of foxes.

奥利维亚熟悉这片广阔而阴郁的美丽风景，它的每一根树枝和石头，从危险的砾石坑，半隐藏在接骨木灌木丛的边缘，到黑松树林，希金斯在一两天前才发现了一窝新的狐狸。

She knew it on gray days when it was cold and depressing, on those bright, terribly clear New England days when every twig and leaf seemed outlined by light, and on those damp, cold days when a gray fog swept in across the marshes from the sea to envelop all the countryside in gray darkness.

她知道那些寒冷而压抑的灰暗日子，那些明亮、极其晴朗的新英格兰日子，每根树枝和树叶似乎都被光线勾勒出轮廓，那些潮湿、寒冷的日子，灰雾从海上席卷沼泽，将整个乡村笼罩在灰色的黑暗中。

It was a hard, uncompromising, stony country that was never too cheerful.

这是一个艰苦、不妥协、石头般的国家，但从来都不太快乐。

It was a country, too, which gave her an old feeling of loneliness ...

这也是一个国家，给了她一种古老的孤独感……

a feeling which, strangely enough, seemed to increase rather than diminish as the years passed.

奇怪的是，随着岁月的流逝，这种感觉似乎非但没有减弱，反而增强了。

She had never accustomed herself to its occasional dreariness.

她从来不习惯这种偶尔的沉闷。

In the beginning, a long while ago, it had seemed to her green and peaceful and full of quiet, a place where she might find rest and peace ...

当初，很久以前，这里在她看来，是青翠、安宁、充满静谧，是一个可以让她得到休息与安宁的地方……

but she had come long since to see it as it was, as Sabine had seen it while she stood in the window of the writing-room, frightened by the sudden queer apparition of the little groom--a country beautiful, hard and cold, and a little barren.

但她很久以前就来看看它的本来面目，就像萨宾站在写作室的窗户前所看到的那样，她被小新郎突然出现的奇怪幽灵吓坏了——一个美丽、坚硬、寒冷、有点贫瘠的国家。

There were times when the memories of Olivia’s youth seemed to sharpen suddenly and sweep in upon her, overwhelming all sense of the present, times when she wanted suddenly and fiercely to step back into that far-off past which had seemed then an unhappy thing, and these were the times when she felt most lonely, the times when she knew how completely, with the passing of years, she had drawn into herself; it was a process of protection like a tortoise drawing in its head.

有时候，奥莉薇娅年轻时的记忆似乎突然变得敏锐，席卷了她，压倒了所有现在的感觉，有时候，她突然强烈地想要回到那段遥远的过去，那段在当时似乎是一件不愉快的事情，而这些时候，是她感到最孤独的时候，也是她完全知道，随着岁月的流逝，她已经完全陷入了自我之中的时候；这是一个保护的过程，就像乌龟在头上画画一样。

And all the while, in spite of the smiles and the politeness and the too facile amiability, she felt that she was really a stranger at Pentlands, that there were certain walls and barriers which she could never break down, past which she could never penetrate, certain faiths in which it was impossible for her to believe.

一直以来，尽管有微笑、礼貌和过于轻率的和蔼可亲，但她觉得自己在彭特兰确实是个陌生人，有某些她永远无法打破的墙和障碍，她永远无法穿透的某些墙和障碍，有某些她不可能相信的信仰。

It was difficult now for her to remember very clearly what had happened before she came to Durham; it all seemed lost, confused, buried beneath the weight of her devotion to the vast family monument of the Pentlands.

现在她很难清楚地记得来到达勒姆之前发生的事情；这一切似乎都迷失了、困惑了，并被她对彭特兰巨大家族纪念碑的奉献精神所淹没。

She had forgotten the names of people and places and confused the days and the years.

她忘记了人名和地名，也忘记了日子和年月。

At times it was difficult for her to remember the endless confusing voyages back and forth across the Atlantic and the vast, impersonal, vacuous hotels which had followed each other in the bleak and unreal procession of her childhood.

有时，她很难回忆起那些无休无止、令人困惑的横渡大西洋的航行，以及在她童年的凄凉和不真实的过程中相继出现的那些巨大的、没有人情味的、空荡荡的旅馆。

She could remember with a certain pitiful clarity two happy years spent at the school in Saint-Cloud, where for months at a time she had lived in a single room which she might call her own, where she had rested, free from the terror of hearing her mother say, “We must pack to-day.

她清晰地记得在圣克劳德学校度过的两年快乐时光，有好几个月，她都住在一个她可以称之为自己的单间里，她在那里休息，不用担心听到母亲说：“我们今天必须收拾行李。

We are leaving to-morrow for St. Petersburg or London or San Remo or Cairo....”

我们明天就要出发前往圣彼得堡、伦敦、圣雷莫或开罗……”

She could scarcely remember at all the immense house of chocolate-colored stone fitted with fantastic turrets and balconies that overlooked Lake Michigan.

她几乎不记得那座巨大的巧克力色石头房子，配有奇妙的塔楼和俯瞰密歇根湖的阳台。

It had been sold and torn down long ago, destroyed like all else that belonged to the far-off past.

它很久以前就被卖掉并拆毁了，就像其他属于遥远过去的东西一样被毁坏了。

She could not remember the father who had died when she was three; but of him there remained at least a yellowing photograph of a great, handsome, brawny man with a humorous Scotch-Irish face, who had died at the moment when his name was coming to be known everywhere as a power in Washington.

她不记得在她三岁时去世的父亲。但他身上至少还留着一张发黄的照片，照片上是一位伟大、英俊、体格健硕、长着一张幽默的苏格兰爱尔兰人面孔的男人，当他的名字在华盛顿成为举世闻名的权力人物时，他就去世了。

No, nothing remained of him save the old photograph, and the tenuous, mocking little smile which had come down to her, the way she had of saying, “Yes!

不，除了那张旧照片，还有她脸上那微弱的、嘲讽的微笑，还有她说“是的！

Yes!” pleasantly when she meant to act in quite the contrary fashion.

是的！当她打算以完全相反的方式行事时，她感到很愉快。

There were times when the memory of her own mother became vague and fantastic, as if she had been no more than a figure out of some absurd photograph of the early nineteen hundreds ...

有时候，她对自己母亲的记忆变得模糊而荒诞，仿佛她只不过是十九世纪早期一些荒谬照片中的一个人物……

the figure of a pretty woman, dressed fashionably in clothes that flowed away in both directions, from a wasp waist.

一个漂亮女人的身影，穿着时髦的衣服，从黄蜂腰开始向两个方向飘逸。

It was like a figure out of one of those old photographs which one views with a kind of melancholy amusement.

它就像是那些老照片中的一个人物，让人带着一种忧郁的乐趣观看。

She remembered a vain, rather selfish and pretty woman, fond of flattery, who had been shrewd enough never to marry any one of those gallant dark gentlemen with high-sounding titles who came to call at the eternal changeless hotel sitting-room, to take her out to garden parties and fêtes and races.

她记得一个虚荣、相当自私、漂亮的女人，喜欢阿谀奉承，她很精明，从来没有嫁给任何一个拥有冠冕堂皇头衔的勇敢的深色绅士，这些绅士来到永恒不变的酒店客厅，带她出去参加花园聚会、宴会和比赛。

And always in the background of the memory there was the figure of a dark little girl, overflowing with spirits and a hunger for friends, who was left behind to amuse herself by walking out with the Swiss governess, to make friends among the children she encountered in the parks or on the beaches and the boulevards of whatever European city her mother was visiting at the moment ...

在记忆的背景中，总是有一个肤色黝黑的小女孩的身影，她精神饱满，渴望朋友，她被留下来与瑞士家庭女教师一起散步来娱乐自己，与她在公园、海滩和她母亲此刻正在访问的任何欧洲城市的林荫道上遇到的孩子们交朋友……

friends whom she saw to-day and who were vanished to-morrow never to be seen again.

她今天见到的朋友，明天就消失了，再也见不到了。

Her mother, she saw now, belonged to the America of the nineties.

她现在发现，她的母亲属于九十年代的美国。

She saw her now less as a real person than a character out of a novel by Mrs. Wharton.

现在，她不再将自己视为一个真实的人，而是沃顿夫人小说中的人物。

But she had never remarried; she had remained the rich, pretty Mrs. McConnel of Chicago until that tragic day (the clearest of all Olivia’s memories and the most terrible) when she had died of fever abruptly in a remote and squalid Italian village, with only her daughter (a girl of seventeen), a quack doctor and the Russian driver of her motor to care for her.

但她从未再婚。她一直是芝加哥富有、漂亮的麦康奈尔夫人，直到那悲惨的一天（奥利维亚所有记忆中最清晰也是最可怕的一天），她在一个偏远肮脏的意大利村庄因发烧突然去世，只有她的女儿（一个十七岁的女孩）、一个江湖医生和她汽车的俄罗斯司机照顾她。

The procession of confused and not-too-cheerful memories came to a climax in a gloomy, red brick house off Washington Square, where she had gone as an orphan to live with a rigid, bejetted, maternal aunt who had believed that the whole world revolved about Lenox, the Hudson River Valley and Washington Square--an aunt who had never spoken to Olivia’s father because she, like Anson and Aunt Cassie, had a prejudice against Irishmen who appeared out of nowhere, engaging, full of life and high spirits.

一连串混乱而不太愉快的回忆在华盛顿广场附近一栋阴暗的红砖房子里达到了高潮，她作为孤儿在那里和一位僵硬、沮丧的姨妈住在一起，她相信整个世界都围绕着莱诺克斯、哈得逊河谷和华盛顿广场旋转——这位姨妈从未和奥利维亚的父亲说过话，因为她像安森和卡西姨妈一样，对爱尔兰人怀有偏见。突然出现，引人入胜，充满生机和昂扬的精神。

So at eighteen she had found herself alone in the world save for one bejetted aunt, with no friends save those she had picked up as a child on beaches and promenades, whose names she could no longer even remember.

因此，十八岁时，她发现自己在这个世界上孤身一人，除了一位身无分文的阿姨，除了她小时候在海滩和海滨长廊上认识的那些人之外，没有朋友，她甚至记不起他们的名字。

And the only fixed world she knew was the world of the aunt who talked incessantly of the plush, camphor-smelling splendor of a New York which no longer existed.

她所知道的唯一固定的世界是姨妈的世界，她不停地谈论纽约的奢华、散发着樟脑味的辉煌，但现在已经不复存在了。

Olivia saw it all clearly now.

奥莉薇娅现在看清了一切。

She saw why it was that when Anson Pentland came one night to call upon her aunt she had thought him an elegant and fascinating man whose presence at dinner had the power of transforming the solid walnut and mahogany dining-room into a brilliant place.

她明白为什么有一天晚上安森·彭特兰来拜访她的姨妈时，她认为他是一个优雅而迷人的男人，他在晚餐时的出现有能力将坚固的胡桃木和桃花心木餐厅变成一个辉煌的地方。

He was what girls called “an older man,” and he had flattered her by his politeness and attentions.

他是女孩们所说的“年长男人”，他的礼貌和殷勤让她受宠若惊。

He had even taken her chaperoned by the aunt, to see a performance of “The City,” little knowing that the indecorousness to be unfolded there would force them to leave before the play was over.

他甚至在姨妈的陪同下带她去看一场《城市》的演出，却不知那里的不雅行为会迫使他们在演出结束前离开。

They had gone on a Thursday evening (she could even remember the very day) and she still smiled at the memory of their belief that a girl who had spent all her life in the corridors of European hotels should not know what the play was about.

他们是周四晚上去的（她甚至还记得那一天），她仍然微笑着回忆起他们的信念：一个在欧洲酒店的走廊里度过了一生的女孩不应该知道这部戏的内容。

And then it had all ended by her being asked to Pentlands for a visit ...

然后一切都以她被邀请去彭特兰拜访而结束......

to Pentlands, where she had come upon a world such as she had never known before, a world green and peaceful and secure, where every one was elaborately kind to her for reasons that she never learned until long afterward.

到彭特兰，她来到了一个她以前从未了解过的世界，一个绿色、和平、安全的世界，那里的每个人都精心地对她友善，而她直到很久以后才知道其中的原因。

They never even told her the truth about Anson’s mother, the old woman who lived in solitude in the north wing.

他们甚至从未告诉她关于安森母亲的真相，这位老妇人孤独地住在北翼。

She was, they said, too ill at the moment to see any one.

他们说，她现在病得很重，无法见任何人。

Pentlands, in that far-off day, had seemed to the tired, friendless girl like some vast, soft green bed where she could fling herself down and rest forever, a world where she could make friends and send down roots that would hold her secure for all time.

在那个遥远的日子里，彭特兰对这个疲惫不堪、没有朋友的女孩来说，就像一张巨大的、柔软的绿色床，她可以在那里躺下，永远休息，在那里她可以结交朋友，扎根，永远安全地保障她的安全。

To a hotel child Pentlands was a paradise; so when Anson Pentland asked her to marry him, she accepted him because she did not find him actually repulsive.

对于一个住在酒店的孩子来说，彭特兰是一个天堂；因此，当安森·彭特兰向她求婚时，她接受了他，因为她并不觉得他令人厌恶。

And now, after all those years, it was spring again ...

如今，这么多年过去了，春天又来了……

spring as when she had come to Pentlands for the first time, and she was thirty-nine years old and still young; only everything had changed.

春天就像她第一次来到彭特兰时一样，她已经三十九岁了，还很年轻。只是一切都变了。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

Bit by bit, in the years that followed the birth of Sybil and then of Jack, the whole picture of the life at Pentlands and in the brownstone house on Beacon Street had come to assume a pattern, to take form out of the first confused and misty impressions, so that, looking back upon it, she was beginning to understand it all with the chill clarity of disillusion.

在西比尔和杰克出生后的几年里，彭特兰和灯塔街那座上流社会的房子里的生活的全貌逐渐形成了一种模式，从最初的混乱和模糊的印象中形成，因此，当她回首往事时，她开始以幻灭般的冰冷清晰来理解这一切。

She saw herself as a shy young girl to whom they had all been elaborately kind because it was so necessary for Anson to have a wife and produce an heir....

她认为自己是一个害羞的年轻女孩，他们都对她非常友善，因为安森非常有必要娶妻生子……

Anson, the last male descendant of such a glorious family.

安森，这个辉煌家族的最后一位男性后裔。

(“The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.”) She saw herself as they must have seen her ...

（“彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地。”）她对自己的看法就像他们对她的看法一样......

a pretty young girl, disarmed by their kindness, who was not known in their world but was at least charming and a lady and quite rich.

一个漂亮的年轻女孩，被他们的善良所解除了武装，在他们的世界里并不出名，但至少是迷人的，是一位淑女，而且相当富有。

(She knew now how much the money must have counted with Aunt Cassie.) And she saw Anson now, across all the expanse of years, not as a Prince Charming come to rescue her from an ogre aunt, but as he had really been ...

（她现在知道这笔钱对卡西姨妈来说有多重要了。） 跨越了漫长的岁月，她现在看到了安森，不是一个白马王子来把她从食人魔姨妈手中救出来，而是因为他真的是……

a rather anemic man, past thirty, of an appalling propriety.

一个相当贫血的男人，三十多岁了，举止得体得令人震惊。

(There was a bitter humor in the memories of his timid advances toward her, of all the distaste with which he approached the details of marriage ...

（回忆起他向她胆怯的示好，以及他对婚姻细节的厌恶……

a humor which she had come to understand fully only as she grew older and wiser in the ways of the world.) Looking back, she saw him as a man who had tried again and again to marry young women he had known all his life and who had failed because somehow he had gained a mysterious reputation for being a bore ...

回想起来，她认为他是一个男人，一次又一次地试图娶他一生都认识的年轻女子，但都失败了，因为不知何故，他获得了一个令人厌烦的神秘名声……

a young man who, left to himself, would never have approached any woman, and gone to the grave as virginal as he had been born.

一个年轻人，如果放任他自己，永远不会接近任何女人，并且像他出生时一样纯洁地进入坟墓。

She saw now that he had never been even in the slightest in love with her.

她现在才发现，他根本就没有爱过她一丁点。

He had married her only because he got no peace from all the others, both the living and the dead, who in such a strange fashion seemed also to live at Pentlands.

他之所以娶她，只是因为他从其他人那里得不到安宁，无论是生者还是死者，他们似乎也以一种奇怪的方式住在彭特兰。

It was Aunt Cassie and even poor silly Miss Peavey and powerful old John Pentland and the cousins and all those dead hanging in neat rows in the hall who had married her.

娶她的是卡西姨妈，甚至是可怜又傻的皮维小姐，还有有权有势的老约翰·彭特兰，还有表兄弟姐妹，还有所有那些在大厅里整齐地挂着的死者。

Anson had only been an instrument; and even in the most bitter moments she felt strangely sorry for him, because he, too, had had all his life ruined.

Anson had only been an instrument;即使在最痛苦的时刻，她也对他感到奇怪的遗憾，因为他也毁了他的一生。

And so, slowly during all those long years, the pretty, shy, unknown Olivia McConnel, whose father was a Democratic politician out of Chicago, had turned into this puzzled, sometimes unhappy woman, the outsider, who had come in some mysterious fashion to be the one upon whom all of them leaned for strength.

And so, slowly during all those long years, the pretty, shy, unknown Olivia McConnel, whose father was a Democratic politician out of Chicago, had turned into this puzzled, sometimes unhappy woman, the outsider, who had come in some mysterious fashion to be the one upon whom all of them leaned for strength.

* * * * *

** ** ** **

She was glad now that she had stood forth boldly at last and faced Anson and all those who stood behind him there in the drawing-room, both the living and the dead, peering over his shoulder, urging him on.

现在她很高兴自己终于勇敢地站出来，面对安森和客厅里所有站在他身后的人，无论是生者还是死者，都在他的肩膀后面凝视着他，催促他继续前进。

The unpleasant argument, though it had wounded her, had cleared the air a little.

这场不愉快的争吵虽然伤害了她，但也让气氛稍微平静了一些。

It had laid bare for a second the reality which she had been seeking for so long a time.

这一刻暴露了她长期以来一直在寻找的现实。

Anson had been right about Sabine: in the clear bright air of the New England morning she knew that it was the sense of Sabine’s nearness which had given her the strength to be unpleasant.

安森对萨宾的看法是对的：在新英格兰早晨清新明亮的空气中，她知道正是萨宾的亲近感给了她不愉快的力量。

Sabine, like herself, had known the great world, and so she was able to see their world here in Durham with a clarity that the others never approached.

萨宾和她自己一样，了解这个伟大的世界，因此她能够以其他人无法企及的清晰方式看到达勒姆这里的世界。

She was strong, too, in her knowledge that whatever happened she (Olivia) was the one person whom they could not afford to lose, because they had depended on her for too long.

她也很坚强，她知道无论发生什么，她（奥利维亚）都是他们不能失去的人，因为他们已经依赖她太久了。

But she was hurt.

但她受伤了。

She kept thinking again and again of what Anson had said....

她一遍又一遍地回想安森所说的话……

“_In any case, I will not have my daughter marry a shanty Irishman.

“无论如何，我不会让我的女儿嫁给一个贫民窟的爱尔兰人。

There is enough of that in the family._”

There is enough of that in the family._”

She knew that Anson would suffer from shame for what he had said, but she knew, too, that he would pretend nothing had happened, that he had never made such a speech, because it was unworthy of a gentleman and a Pentland.

她知道安森会因为他所说的话而感到羞愧，但她也知道，他会假装什么都没发生，他从来没有发表过这样的演讲，因为这不配一个绅士和彭特兰人。

He would pretend, as he always did, that the scene had never occurred.

他会像往常一样假装这一幕从未发生过。

When he had made the speech he had meant that she ought to have been thankful that they allowed her to marry into the Pentland family.

当他发表演讲时，他的意思是她应该感谢他们允许她嫁给彭特兰家族。

There was a buried something in them all, a conviction that was a part of their very flesh, which made them believe in such a privilege.

他们身上都埋藏着某种东西，一种属于他们肉体一部分的信念，这使他们相信这样的特权。

And for her who knew so much more than the world knew, who saw so much more than any of them of the truth, there was only one answer, to be wrung from her with a tragic intensity ...

对于她来说，她知道的事情比世人所知的多得多，她比他们中的任何一个人都看到了更多的真相，只有一个答案，可以从她身上以一种悲剧性的强度逼出来……

“Oh, my God!...”

“天啊！……”

The dining-room was large and square, and having been redecorated in a period later than the rest of the house, was done in heavy mahogany, with a vast shiny table in the center which when reduced to its smallest possible circumference still left those who seated themselves about it formally remote from one another.

餐厅又大又方形，重新装修的时间比房子的其他部分晚，是用厚重的桃花心木做的，中央有一张闪亮的大桌子，当它的周长缩小到尽可能小的尺寸时，仍然使坐在桌子周围的人彼此之间正式疏远。

It was a well-used table, for since circumstance had kept John Pentland from going into the world, he had brought a part of it into his own home with a hospitality and a warmth that rather upset his sister Cassie.

这是一张用得很好的桌子，因为由于情况使约翰·彭特兰无法进入这个世界，他把它的一部分带进了自己的家，热情好客和热情让他的妹妹卡西很不高兴。

She, herself, like most of the family, had never cared very profoundly for food, looking upon it almost as a necessity.

她本人，像家里的大多数人一样，从来没有非常关心食物，几乎将其视为必需品。

A prune to her palate shared importance as a delicacy with a truffle.

对她来说，李子与松露一样都是美味佳肴。

In the secrecy of her own house, moved by her passion for economy, she more often than not assuaged her own birdlike appetite with scraps from the cupboard, though at such times the simple but full-blooded Miss Peavey suffered keenly.

在她自己的房子里，出于对经济的热情，她经常用橱柜里的残羹剩饭来满足自己的小鸟般的胃口，尽管在这种时候，简单但血性十足的皮维小姐会感到痛苦不堪。

“A pick-up meal” was a byword with Aunt Cassie, and so she frowned upon the rich food furnished by old John Pentland and his daughter-in-law, Olivia.

“外带餐”是卡西阿姨的一个口头禅，因此她对老约翰·彭特兰和他儿媳奥莉维亚提供的丰盛食物皱起眉头。

Nevertheless, she took a great many meals at the mahogany table and even managed to insinuate within its circle the plump figure of Miss Peavey, whose silly laugh and servile echoes of his sister’s opinions the old man detested.

Nevertheless, she took a great many meals at the mahogany table and even managed to insinuate within its circle the plump figure of Miss Peavey, whose silly laugh and servile echoes of his sister’s opinions the old man detested.

Anson never lunched at home, for he went up to Boston each morning at nine o’clock, like a man of affairs, with much business to care for.

安森从来不在家里吃午饭，因为他每天早上九点钟就去波士顿，就像一个事务繁忙的人，有很多事情要处理。

He kept an office in Water Street and went to it with a passionate regularity, to spend the day in the petty affairs of club committees and societies for the improvement of this or that; for he was a man who fortified his own soul by arranging the lives of others.

He kept an office in Water Street and went to it with a passionate regularity, to spend the day in the petty affairs of club committees and societies for the improvement of this or that;因为他是一个通过安排别人的生活来强化自己灵魂的人。

He was chairman of a committee which “aired” young girls who had fallen into trouble, and contributed as much as he was able out of his own rather slender income to the activities of the Watch and Ward Society.

He was chairman of a committee which “aired” young girls who had fallen into trouble, and contributed as much as he was able out of his own rather slender income to the activities of the Watch and Ward Society.

And a large part of the day was spent in correspondence with genealogists on the subject of “The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.” He did not in a whole year earn enough money to pay the office rent for one month, but he had no patience with the many cases of poverty and destitution which came to his notice.

And a large part of the day was spent in correspondence with genealogists on the subject of “The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.” He did not in a whole year earn enough money to pay the office rent for one month, but he had no patience with the many cases of poverty and destitution which came to his notice.

The stocks and bonds of the Pentland estate had been kept carefully out of his reach, by a father who distrusted activities such as Anson’s, and even now, when he was nearly fifty, Anson had only a small income left by his grandfather and an allowance, paid him each month by his father, as if he were still a boy in college.

The stocks and bonds of the Pentland estate had been kept carefully out of his reach, by a father who distrusted activities such as Anson’s, and even now, when he was nearly fifty, Anson had only a small income left by his grandfather and an allowance, paid him each month by his father, as if he were still a boy in college.

So when Olivia came down to lunch on the day after the ball she was not forced to face Anson and his shame over the scene of the night before.

因此，当奥利维亚在舞会结束后的第二天下来吃午饭时，她不必面对安森和他因前一天晚上的场景而感到的羞耻。

There were only the grandfather and Sybil and Jack--who was well enough to come down.

只有祖父、西比尔和杰克——他已经康复了，可以下来了。

The old man sat at the head, in the place which he had never relinquished as the dictator, the ruler of all the family.

老人坐在最前面，这是他作为独裁者、整个家族的统治者从未放弃过的位置。

Tall and muscular, he had grown leathery from exposure during the years he had lived in the country, riding day after day in rains and blizzards, in sunlight and in storms, as if there were in him some atavistic hunger for the hardy life led by the first Pentlands to come to Durham.

Tall and muscular, he had grown leathery from exposure during the years he had lived in the country, riding day after day in rains and blizzards, in sunlight and in storms, as if there were in him some atavistic hunger for the hardy life led by the first Pentlands to come to Durham.

He always rode the vicious and unruly beautiful red mare ...

他总是骑着凶恶桀骜不驯的美丽红母马……

a grim old man who was a match for her famous bad temper.

一个冷酷的老人，与她著名的坏脾气很相配。

He was rather like his sister Cassie in appearance--one of the black Pentlands who had appeared mysteriously in the line nearly a hundred years earlier, and he had burning black eyes that looked out from shaggy brows ...

He was rather like his sister Cassie in appearance--one of the black Pentlands who had appeared mysteriously in the line nearly a hundred years earlier, and he had burning black eyes that looked out from shaggy brows ...

a man as different in appearance and vigor from his son as it was possible to imagine.

他的外貌和活力与他的儿子有很大的不同，这是可以想象的。

(For Anson was a typical Pentland--blond, with round blue eyes and an inclination when in health toward ruddiness.) One stood in awe of the old man: there was a grimness about the strong, rough-cut face and contracted lips, and a curious, indefinable air of disapproval which one was never able to pin down or analyze.

(For Anson was a typical Pentland--blond, with round blue eyes and an inclination when in health toward ruddiness.) One stood in awe of the old man: there was a grimness about the strong, rough-cut face and contracted lips, and a curious, indefinable air of disapproval which one was never able to pin down or analyze.

He was silent to-day, in one of the black moods which Olivia knew well meant that he was troubled.

今天他沉默不语，处于一种阴郁的情绪中，奥利维亚很清楚这意味着他感到困扰。

She knew that this time it had nothing to do with Jack’s illness, for the boy sat there opposite them, looking stronger than he had looked in months ...

She knew that this time it had nothing to do with Jack’s illness, for the boy sat there opposite them, looking stronger than he had looked in months ...

blond and pale and thin, with the blue veins showing at his pathetic wrists and on his thin, handsome temples.

金发碧眼，面色苍白，瘦削，可怜的手腕上和瘦削而英俊的太阳穴上都显露出蓝色的血管。

Olivia had lived through bad times over Jack and she had lived through them always together with John Pentland, so there had grown up between them--the mother and the grandfather--a sense of understanding which was quite beyond speech.

Olivia had lived through bad times over Jack and she had lived through them always together with John Pentland, so there had grown up between them--the mother and the grandfather--a sense of understanding which was quite beyond speech.

Together they had spent so many nights by the side of the boy, keeping him alive almost by the strength of their united wills, forcing him to live when, gasping for life, he would have slipped away easily into death.

Together they had spent so many nights by the side of the boy, keeping him alive almost by the strength of their united wills, forcing him to live when, gasping for life, he would have slipped away easily into death.

Together they had kept him in life, because they both loved him and because he was the last son of the family.

他们一起让他活了下来，因为他们都爱他，也因为他是家里的最后一个儿子。

Olivia felt sometimes that Sybil, too, played a part in the never-ending struggle against death.

奥利维亚有时觉得西比尔也在与死亡永无休止的斗争中发挥了作用。

The girl, like her grandfather, never spoke of such things, but one could read them in the troubled depths of her violet eyes.

这个女孩和她的祖父一样，从来没有说过这样的话，但人们可以从她紫罗兰色眼睛深处的不安中读出这些。

That long, weary struggle was one of the tragedies they never spoke of at Pentlands, leaving it buried in silence.

那场漫长而疲惫的斗争是他们在彭特兰从未提及的悲剧之一，只是将其埋葬在沉默中。

One said, “Jack looks well to-day,” smiling, and, “Perhaps the doctors are wrong.” Sybil was watching her brother now, in that quiet, mysterious way she had, watching him cautiously lest he discover that she was watching; for he discovered troubles easily, with the kind of clairvoyance which comes to people who have always been ill.

其中一人微笑着说：“杰克今天看起来不错”，并且“也许医生是错的。”西比尔现在正以她一贯的那种安静、神秘的方式注视着她的哥哥，小心翼翼地注视着他，生怕他发现她在注视着她。因为他很容易发现麻烦，就像常生病的人一样具有洞察力。

They barely talked at all during the lunch.

午餐期间他们几乎没有说话。

Sybil planned to take her brother in the trap to ride over the farm and down to the white dunes.

西比尔计划带着她落入陷阱的兄弟骑马越过农场，下到白色沙丘。

“Higgins is going with us,” she said.

“希金斯会和我们一起去，”她说。

“He’s going to show us the new litter of foxes in the black thicket.”

“他将向我们展示黑色灌木丛中的新一窝狐狸。”

And Jack said, “It’s a funny thing about Higgins.

杰克说：“希金斯的事情很有趣。

He always discovers such things before any one else.

他总是先于其他人发现这些事情。

He knows when it will be a good day for fishing and just when it is going to rain.

他知道什么时候是钓鱼的好日子，什么时候会下雨。

He’s never wrong.”

他永远不会错。”

“No ...” said the grandfather suddenly.

“不……”爷爷突然说道。

“It’s a funny thing.

“这是一件有趣的事情。

He’s never wrong ...

他从来都不会错……

not in all the years I’ve known him.”

我认识他这么多年都没有。”

It was the only time he said anything during the meal, and Olivia, trying to fill in the gaps in the conversation, found it difficult, with the boy sitting opposite her looking so pale and ill.

这是他在用餐期间唯一一次说话，奥利维亚试图填补谈话中的空白，但发现这很困难，因为坐在她对面的男孩看起来那么苍白和病态。

It seemed to her sometimes that he had never really been born, that he had always remained in some way a part of herself.

有时她觉得他从未真正出生过，在某种程度上他一直是她的一部分。

When he was out of her sight, she had no peace because there was always a gnawing terror that she might never see him again.

当他离开她的视线时，她心里不安，因为她总有一种恐惧，担心她可能再也见不到他了。

And she knew that deep inside the frail body there was a spirit, a flame, descended from the old man and from herself, which burned passionately with a desire for life, for riding, for swimming, for running across the open meadows ...

她知道，在这个虚弱的身体深处，有一种精神，一种火焰，从老人和她自己身上下来，它燃烧着对生命的渴望，对骑马、对游泳、对奔跑穿过开阔草地的渴望……

a flame that must always be smothered.

必须始终被扑灭的火焰。

If only he had been like Anson, his father, who never knew that hunger for life....

要是他能像他的父亲安森一样，永远不知道对生命的渴望就好了……

“Olivia, my dear....” The old man was speaking.

“奥莉薇娅，亲爱的……”老人说话了。

“Will you have your coffee with me in the library?

“你能和我一起去图书馆喝咖啡吗？

There is something I want to discuss with you.”

我有件事想和你商量一下。”

She knew it then.

她当时就知道了。

She had been right.

她是对的。

There _was_ something which troubled him.

有件事让他烦恼。

He always said the same thing when he was faced by some problem too heavy for his old shoulders.

当他面临一些对他的老肩膀来说过于沉重的问题时，他总是说同样的话。

He always said, “Olivia, my dear....

他总是说：“奥利维亚，亲爱的......

Will you come into the library?” He never summoned his own son, or his sister Cassie ...

你要来图书馆吗？”他从来没有召唤过自己的儿子，也没有召唤过他的妹妹卡西……

no one but Olivia.

除了奥利维亚，没有人。

Between them they shared secrets which the others never dreamed of; and when he died, all the troubles would be hers ...

他们之间分享着其他人做梦也想不到的秘密。当他死后，所有的烦恼都将由她来承担……

they would be passed on for her to deal with ...

他们将被传递给她处理......

those troubles which existed in a family which the world would have said was rich and respected and quite without troubles.

那些存在于一个世人会说是富有、受人尊敬、没有任何麻烦的家庭中的麻烦。

As she left the room to follow him she stopped for a moment to say to Sybil, “Are you happy, my dear?

当她离开房间跟随他时，她停下来对西比尔说：“亲爱的，你幸福吗？

You’re not sorry that you aren’t going back to school in Saint-Cloud?”

你不为不回圣克劳德学校而感到遗憾吗？”

“No, Mama; why shouldn’t I be happy here?

“不，妈妈；我为什么不能在这里快乐呢？

I love it, more than anything in the world.”

我爱它，胜过世界上的一切。”

The girl thrust her hands into the pockets of her riding-coat.

女孩把手插进马衣口袋里。

“You don’t think I was wrong to send you to France to school ...

“你不认为我送你去法国上学是错误的......

away from every one here?”

远离这里的每一个人？”

Sybil laughed and looked at her mother in the frank, half-mocking way she had when she fancied she had uncovered a plot.

西比尔大笑起来，用一种坦率、半嘲讽的眼神看着她的母亲，就像她以为自己发现了一个阴谋一样。

“Are you worrying about marrying me off?

“你还在担心把我嫁出去吗？

I’m only eighteen.

我才十八岁。

I’ve lots of time.”

我有很多时间。”

“I’m worrying because I think you’ll be so hard to please.”

“我很担心，因为我觉得你很难取悦。”

Again she laughed.

她又笑了。

“That’s true.

“确实如此。

That’s why I’m going to take my time.”

这就是为什么我要慢慢来。”

“And you’re glad to have Thérèse here?”

“你很高兴特蕾莎来到这里吗？”

“Of course.

“当然。”

You know I like Thérèse awfully, Mama.”

你知道我非常喜欢特蕾莎，妈妈。”

“Very well ...

“很好……

run along now.

现在就跑吧。

I must speak to your grandfather.”

我必须和你祖父谈谈。”

And the girl went out onto the terrace where Jack stood waiting in the sun for the trap.

女孩走到露台上，杰克站在阳光下等待陷阱。

He always followed the sun, choosing to sit in it even in midsummer, as if he were never quite warm enough.

他总是追随太阳，即使在盛夏也选择坐在阳光下，仿佛他永远不够温暖。

She _was_ worried over Sybil.

她很担心西比尔。

She had begun to think that perhaps Aunt Cassie was right when she said that Sybil ought to go to a boarding-school with the girls she had always known, to grow loud and noisy and awkward and play hockey and exchange silly notes with the boys in the boarding-school in the next village.

她开始认为卡西阿姨说西比尔应该和她一直认识的女孩们一起去寄宿学校，变得大声、喧闹和尴尬，打曲棍球，和隔壁村的寄宿学校的男孩们交换愚蠢的笔记，也许卡西姨妈是对的。

Perhaps it was wrong to have sent Sybil away to a school where she would meet girls from France and England and Russia and South America ...

也许把西比尔送到一所学校是错误的，在那里她会遇到来自法国、英国、俄罗斯和南美洲的女孩......

half the countries of the world; a school where, as Aunt Cassie had said bitterly, she would be forced to associate with the “daughters of dancers and opera singers.” She knew now that Sybil hadn’t liked the ball any more than Thérèse, who had run away from it without a word of explanation.

世界上一半的国家；正如卡西阿姨苦涩地说的那样，在这所学校里，她将被迫与“舞者和歌剧歌手的女儿”交往。她现在知道西比尔并不比特蕾莎更喜欢这个舞会，而特蕾莎没有任何解释就逃跑了。

Only with Thérèse it didn’t matter so much, because the dark stubborn head was filled with all sorts of wild notions about science and painting and weird books on psychology.

只是对于特蕾莎来说，这并不那么重要，因为那黑暗顽固的脑袋里充满了各种关于科学和绘画的疯狂想法，以及奇怪的心理学书籍。

There was a loneliness about Thérèse and her mother, Sabine Callendar, only with them it didn’t matter.

泰蕾兹和她的母亲萨宾·卡伦达尔都感到孤独，但对她们来说这并不重要。

They had, too, a hardness, a sense of derision and scorn which protected them.

他们也有一种冷酷、一种嘲笑和蔑视的感觉来保护他们。

Sybil hadn’t any such protections.

西比尔没有任何这样的保护。

Perhaps she was even wrong in having made of Sybil a lady--a lady in the old sense of the word--because there seemed to be no place for a lady in the scheme of life as it had existed at the dance the night before.

也许她把西比尔塑造成一位女士——一位旧意义上的女士——甚至是错误的，因为生活计划中似乎没有女士的位置，就像前一天晚上的舞会上那样。

It was perilous, having a lady on one’s hands, especially a lady who was certain to take life as passionately as Sybil.

手上有一位女士，尤其是一位肯定会像西比尔一样热情地对待生活的女士，这是很危险的。

She wanted the girl to be happy, without quite understanding that it was because Sybil seemed the girl she had once been herself, a very part of herself, the part which had never lived at all.

她希望这个女孩幸福，却不太明白这是因为西比尔看起来就是她曾经的那个女孩，她自己的一部分，一个从未活过的部分。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

She found her father-in-law seated at his great mahogany desk in the high narrow room walled with books which was kept sacred to him, at the desk from which he managed the farm and watched over a fortune, built up bit by bit shrewdly, thriftily over three hundred years, a fortune which he had never brought himself to trust in the hands of his son.

她发现公公坐在那间又高又窄的房间里，他那张巨大的红木办公桌前，四周堆满了对他来说神圣不可侵犯的书籍，坐在办公桌前，他管理着农场，掌管着一笔财富，是三百年来精明、节俭一点一滴积累起来的，他从来没有把这笔财富交到儿子手里。

It was, in its gloomy, cold way, a pleasant room, smelling of dogs and apples and wood-smoke, and sometimes of whisky, for it was here that the old man retired when, in a kind of baffled frenzy, he drank himself to insensibility.

从阴暗、寒冷的角度来看，这是一个令人愉快的房间，闻起来有狗、苹果和木烟的味道，有时还有威士忌的味道，因为正是在这里，老人退休了，在一种莫名其妙的疯狂中，他喝得不省人事。

It was here that he would sometimes sit for a day and a night, even sleeping in his leather chair, refusing to see any one save Higgins, who watched over him, and Olivia.

有时他会在这里坐上一天一夜，甚至睡在皮椅上，除了照顾他的希金斯和奥利维亚之外，拒绝见到任何人。

And so it was Olivia and Higgins who alone knew the spectacle of this solitary drinking.

所以只有奥莉薇娅和希金斯才知道这场孤独饮酒的场面。

The world and even the family knew very little of it--only the little which sometimes leaked out from the gossip of servants straying at night along the dark lanes and hedges about Durham.

全世界，甚至这个家庭都对此知之甚少——只有一些仆人在夜间沿着达勒姆周围黑暗的小巷和树篱闲逛时的八卦中偶尔泄露出来的一点点。

He sat with his coffee and a glass of Courvoisier before him while he smoked, with an air of being lost in some profound worry, for he did not look up at once when she entered, but sat staring before him in an odd, enchanted fashion.

他坐在那儿，面前放着咖啡和一杯拿破仑干酪，一边抽烟，神情中带着一种深深的忧虑，因为当她进来时他没有立即抬起头来，而是坐在那儿以一种奇怪而着迷的方式凝视着他。

It was not until she had taken a cigarette from the silver box and lighted it that he looked up at the sound of the striking match and, focusing the burning black eyes, said to her, “Jack seems very well to-day.”

直到她从银盒里拿出一根香烟，点着了，他听到划火柴的声音，才抬起头来，对着她那双灼热的黑眸，说道：“杰克今天看起来状态很好。”

“Yes, better than he has been in a long time.”

“是的，比他很长一段时间以来都好。”

“Perhaps, after all, the doctors are wrong.”

“也许，毕竟，医生是错的。”

Olivia sighed and said quietly, “If we had believed the doctors we should have lost him long ago.”

奥莉薇娅叹了口气，低声说道：“如果我们相信医生的话，我们早就失去了他。”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“是的，确实如此。”

She poured her coffee and he murmured, “It’s about Horace Pentland I wanted to speak.

她倒了咖啡，他低声说道：“我想讲的是关于霍勒斯·彭特兰的事。

He’s dead.

他死了。

I got the news this morning.

我今天早上得到这个消息。

He died in Mentone and now it’s a question whether we shall bring him home here to be buried in Durham with the rest of the family.”

他在门通去世，现在的问题是我们是否应该把他带回家，与家人一起埋葬在达勒姆。”

Olivia was silent for a moment and then, looking up, said, “What do you think?

奥莉薇娅沉默了片刻，抬起头说道：“你觉得怎么样？

How long has it been that he has lived in Mentone?”

他在门托尼住了多久了？”

“It’s nearly thirty years now that I’ve been sending him money to stay there.

“我一直寄钱给他住在那里已经快三十年了。

He’s only a cousin.

他只是一个表弟。

Still, we had the same grandfather and he’d be the first of the family in three hundred years who isn’t buried here.”

尽管如此，我们还是有同一个祖父，他将是三百年来这个家族中第一个没有埋葬在这里的人。”

“There was Savina Pentland....”

“有萨维娜·彭特兰……”

“Yes....

“是的……

But she’s buried out there, and she would have been buried here if it had been possible.”

但她被埋在那里，如果可能的话，她也会被埋在这里。”

And he made a gesture in the direction of the sea, beyond the marshes where the beautiful Savina Pentland, almost a legend now, lay, somewhere deep down in the soft white sand at the bottom of the ocean.

他向大海的方向做了个手势，在沼泽地的另一边，美丽的萨维娜·彭特兰（Savina Pentland），现在几乎成了一个传奇，就躺在海底柔软的白色沙滩深处的某个地方。

“Would he want to be buried here?” asked Olivia.

“他想葬在这里吗？”奥利维亚问道。

“He wrote and asked me ...

“他写信问我......

a month or two before he died.

他去世前一两个月。

It seemed to be on his mind.

这似乎是在他的心里。

He put it in a strange way.

他以一种奇怪的方式表达了这一点。

He wrote that he wanted to come home.”

他写道，他想回家。”

Again Olivia was thoughtful for a time.

奥利维亚再次陷入沉思。

“Strange ...” she murmured presently, “when people were so cruel to him.”

“奇怪……”她低声说道，“人们对他如此残忍。”

The lips of the old man stiffened a little.

老者的嘴唇有些僵硬。

“It was his own fault....”

“都是他自己的错……”

“Still ...

“还是……

thirty years is a long time.”

三十年是一段很长的时间。”

He knocked the ash from his cigar and looked at her sharply.

他敲掉雪茄上的烟灰，目光锐利地看着她。

“You mean that everything may have been forgotten by now?”

“你的意思是，现在一切可能都已经被遗忘了？”

Olivia made a little gesture with her white, ringless hands.

奥利维亚用她白皙、无环的双手做了一个小手势。

“Why not?”

“为什么不呢？”

“Because people don’t forget things like that ...

“因为人们不会忘记这样的事情......

not in our world, at any rate.”

无论如何，不在我们的世界里。”

Quietly, far back in her mind, Olivia kept trying to imagine this Horace Pentland whom she had never seen, this shadowy old man, dead now, who had been exiled for thirty years.

静静地，在她的脑海深处，奥莉薇娅不断地试图想象这个她从未见过的霍勒斯·彭特兰，这个已经去世了三十年的阴暗老人。

“You have no reason for not wanting him here among all the others?”

“你有什么理由不希望他和其他人一起在这里？”

“No ...

“不……

Horace is dead now....

霍拉斯现在死了……

It can’t matter much whether what’s left of him is buried here or in France.”

他的遗体埋在这里还是埋在法国并不重要。”

“Except, of course, that they may have been kinder to him over there....

“当然，除了那里的人可能对他更友善......

They’re not so harsh.”

他们没那么严厉。”

A silence fell over them, as if in some way the spirit of Horace Pentland, the sinner whose name was never spoken in the family save between Olivia and the old man, had returned and stood between them, waiting to hear what was to be done with all that remained of him on this earth.

他们笼罩着一片沉默，仿佛霍勒斯·彭特兰的灵魂在某种程度上回来了，站在他们中间，等待着听听该如何处理他在这个地球上的一切。

It was one of those silences which, descending upon the old house, sometimes filled Olivia with a vague uneasiness.

正是这种寂静笼罩着老房子，有时让奥莉薇娅心中充满了一种隐隐约约的不安。

They had a way of descending upon the household in the long evenings when all the family sat reading in the old drawing-room--as if there were figures unseen who stood watching.

在漫长的夜晚，当全家人都坐在旧客厅里看书时，它们就会降临到一家人身上——就好像有看不见的人在站着观看。

“If he wanted to be buried here,” said Olivia, “I can see no reason why he should not be.”

“如果他想埋在这里，”奥利维亚说，“我看不出他有什么理由不应该埋在这里。”

“Cassie will object to raking up an old scandal that has been forgotten.”

“卡西会反对翻出一桩已经被遗忘的旧丑闻。”

“Surely that can’t matter now ...

“当然，现在这已经不重要了......

when the poor old man is dead.

当可怜的老人死后。

We can be kind to him now ...

现在我们可以善待他了...

surely we can be kind to him now.”

我们现在当然可以善待他了。”

John Pentland sighed abruptly, a curious, heart-breaking sigh that seemed to have escaped even his power of steely control; and presently he said, “I think you are right, Olivia....

约翰·彭特兰突然叹了口气，一种奇怪的、令人心碎的叹息，似乎甚至超出了他钢铁般的控制力。不久他说道：“我认为你是对的，奥利维亚……

I will do as you say ...

我会照你说的做...

only we’ll keep it a secret between us until the time comes when it’s necessary to speak.

只是我们会保守秘密，直到需要说话的时候为止。

And then ...

然后...

then we’ll have a quiet funeral.”

然后我们会举行一个安静的葬礼。”

She would have left him then save that she knew from his manner that there were other things he wanted to say.

她本来会离开他的，除非她从他的态度中知道他还有其他话要说。

He had a way of letting you know his will without speaking.

他有办法不用说话就能让你知道他的意愿。

Somehow, in his presence you felt that it was impossible to leave until he had dismissed you.

不知何故，当着他的面，你觉得除非他打发你走，否则你不可能离开。

He still treated his own son, who was nearly fifty, as if he were a little boy.

他对待自己年近五十的儿子，还是像个小孩子一样。

Olivia waited, busying herself by rearranging the late lilacs which stood in a tall silver vase on the polished mahogany desk.

奥利维亚等待着，忙着重新排列在擦得锃亮的桃花心木桌子上的高银花瓶里的晚紫丁香。

“They smell good,” he said abruptly.

“它们闻起来很香，”他突然说道。

“They’re the last, aren’t they?”

“他们是最后一个，不是吗？”

“The last until next spring.”

“最后到明年春天。”

“Next spring ...” he repeated with an air of speaking to himself.

“明年春天……”他自言自语地重复道。

“Next spring....” And then abruptly, “The other thing was about Sabine.

“明年春天……”然后突然，“另一件事是关于萨宾的。

The nurse tells me _she_ has discovered that Sabine is here.” He made the family gesture toward the old north wing.

护士告诉我她发现萨宾在这里。”他向全家示意了老北翼。

“She has asked to see Sabine.”

“她要求见萨宾。”

“Who told her that Sabine had returned?

“谁告诉她萨宾回来了？

How could she have discovered it?”

她怎么会发现的？”

“The nurse doesn’t know.

“护士不知道。

She must have heard some one speaking the name under her window.

她一定是听到有人在她的窗下喊出这个名字。

The nurse says that people in her condition have curious ways of discovering such things ...

护士说像她这样的人有奇怪的方式来发现这些事情......

like a sixth sense.”

就像第六感一样。”

“Do you want me to ask Sabine?

“你要我去问萨宾吗？

She’d come if I asked her.”

如果我问她，她就会来。”

“It would be unpleasant.

“这会很不愉快。

Besides, I think it might do harm in some way.”

此外，我认为这可能会在某种程度上造成伤害。”

Olivia was silent for a moment.

奥利维亚沉默了片刻。

“How?

“怎么样？

She probably wouldn’t remember Sabine.

她可能不记得萨宾了。

When she saw her last, Sabine was a young girl.”

当她最后一次见到萨宾时，她还是个年轻女孩。”

“She’s gotten the idea now that we’re all against her, that we’re persecuting her in some way.” He coughed and blew a cloud of smoke out of his thin-drawn lips.

“她现在意识到我们都在反对她，我们在以某种方式迫害她。”他咳​​嗽了一声，从薄薄的嘴唇里吐出一团烟雾。

“It’s difficult to explain what I mean....

“很难解释我的意思......

I mean that Sabine might encourage that feeling ...

我的意思是萨宾可能会鼓励这种感觉......

quite without meaning to, that Sabine might give her the impression that she was an ally.

萨宾无意中可能会给她一种她是盟友的印象。

There’s something disturbing about Sabine.”

萨宾有一些令人不安的地方。”

“Anson thinks so, too,” said Olivia softly.

“安森也是这么想的。”奥莉薇娅轻声说道。

“He’s been talking to me about it.”

“他一直在和我谈论这件事。”

“She ought never to have come back here.

“她根本不应该回到这里。

It’s difficult ...

很难...

what I am trying to say.

我想说的话。

Only I feel that she’s up to some mischief.

只是我觉得她在搞恶作剧。

I think she hates us all.”

我认为她讨厌我们所有人。”

“Not all of us....”

“不是我们所有人……”

“Not perhaps you.

“也许不是你。

You never belonged here.

你从来不属于这里。

It’s only those of us who have always been here.”

只有我们这些一直在这里的人。”

“But she’s fond of you....”

“可是她喜欢你……”

“Her father and I were good friends.

“我和她父亲是好朋友。

He was very like her ...

他很像她……

disagreeable and given to speaking unpleasant truths....

令人不快并且喜欢说令人不快的事实......

He wasn’t a popular man.

他不是一个受欢迎的人。

Perhaps that’s why she’s friendly toward me ...

也许这就是她对我友好的原因......

on account of him.”

都是为了他。”

“No, it’s more than that....”

“不，还不止这些……”

Slowly Olivia felt herself slipping back into that state of confused enchantment which had overwhelmed her more and more often of late.

慢慢地，奥利维亚感觉自己又回到了那种近来越来越频繁地压倒她的混乱迷幻状态。

It seemed that life grew more and more tenuous and complicated, more blurred and indistinct, until at times it became simply a morass of minute problems in which she found herself mired and unable to act.

生活似乎变得越来越脆弱和复杂，越来越模糊和模糊，直到有时它变成了一堆微小问题的泥沼，她发现自己深陷其中而无法采取行动。

No one spoke directly any more.

没有人再直接说话。

It was like living in a world of shadows.

就像生活在阴影的世界里。

And this old man, her father-in-law, was the greatest puzzle of all, because it was impossible ever to know how much he understood of what went on about him, how much he chose to ignore in the belief that by denying its existence it would cease to exist.

而这个老人，她的岳父，是所有人中最大的谜团，因为我们不可能知道他对自己身上发生的事情了解多少，他选择忽视多少，因为他相信，如果否认它的存在，它就会不复存在。

Sitting there, puzzled, she began to pull a leaf from the cluster of lilacs into tiny bits.

她坐在那里，感到困惑，开始把紫丁香丛中的一片叶子撕成碎片。

“Sometimes,” she said, “I think Sabine is unhappy....”

“有时候，”她说，“我觉得萨宾不开心……”

“No ...

“不……

not that....

不是那个……

She’s beyond happiness or unhappiness.

她超越了幸福或不幸。

There’s something hard in her and unrelenting ...

她身上有一种坚韧、不屈不挠的东西……

as hard as a cut diamond.

像切割钻石一样坚硬。

She’s a clever woman and a queer one.

她是一位聪明的女人，也是一位古怪的女人。

She’s one of those strange creatures that are thrown off now and then by people like us.

她是那些时不时被我们这样的人抛弃的奇怪生物之一。

There’s nothing else quite like them in the world.

世界上没有什么比他们更相似的了。

They go to strange extremes.

他们走向了奇怪的极端。

Horace was the same ...

霍拉斯也是一样……

in a different, less creditable fashion.”

以一种不同的、不太可信的方式。”

Olivia looked at him suddenly, astonished by the sudden flash of penetration in the old man, one of those sudden, quick gleams which led her to believe that far down, in the depths of his soul, he was far more profound, far more intelligent, unruly and defiant of tradition than he ever allowed the world to suppose.

奥利维亚突然看着他，惊讶地发现老人身上突然闪现出洞察力，这种突然而迅速的光芒使她相信，在他灵魂的深处，他比他允许世界想象的更加深刻，更加聪明，更加不守规矩，更加蔑视传统。

It was always the old question.

这始终是个老问题。

How much did he know?

他知道多少？

How much did he not know ...

他到底有多少不知道的……

far back, behind the lined, severe, leathery old face?

远远的后面，在那张布满皱纹、严峻、坚韧的老脸后面？

Or was it a sort of clairvoyance, not of eternal illness, like Jack’s, but of old age?

或者这是一种千里眼，不是像杰克那样永远患病，而是年老？

“I shall ask Sabine,” she began.

“我会问萨宾，”她开始说道。

“It’s not necessary at the moment.

“目前没有必要。

She appears to have forgotten the matter temporarily.

她似乎暂时忘记了这件事。

But she’ll remember it again and then I think it will be best to humor her, whatever comes.

但她会再次记住这件事，然后我认为无论发生什么，最好是迁就她。

She may not think of it again for months ...

她可能几个月都不会再想起这件事了……

until Sabine has gone....

直到萨宾离开……

I only wanted to ask you ...

我只是想问你...

to consult you, Olivia.

向你咨询，奥利维亚。

I thought you could arrange it.”

我以为你可以安排。”

She rose and, turning to go, she heard him saying, “_She_ might like some lilacs in her room.” He hesitated and in a flat, dead voice, added, “She used to be very fond of flowers.”

她站起来，转身要走，听到他说：“她可能喜欢在她的房间里放一些紫丁香。”他犹豫了一下，用平淡而死寂的声音补充道：“她以前很喜欢花。”

Olivia, avoiding the dark eyes, thought, “She used to be very fond of flowers....

奥莉薇娅避开那双漆黑的眸子，心想：“她以前很喜欢花……”

That means forty years ago ...

这意味着四十年前...

forty long years.

漫长的四十年。

Oh, my God!” But after a second she said simply, “She has taken a dislike to flowers.

哦，天啊！”但过了一会儿，她简单地说：“她不喜欢花。

She fancies they take up the air and stifle her.

她想象着它们占据了空气并窒息了她。

The sight of them is very bad for her.”

看到他们对她来说非常糟糕。”

“I should have known you’d already thought of it.”

“我早该知道你已经想到了。”

For an instant the old man stood facing her with a fixed and searching expression which made her feel shy and led her to turn away from him a little; and then all at once, with an air strangely timid and frightened in a man so grim in appearance, he took her hand and kissing her on the forehead murmured, “You’re a good girl, Olivia.

那一瞬间，老人站在她面前，表情固定而探究，这让她感到害羞，让她稍微转过身去。突然，他在一个外表如此冷酷的男人身上表现出一种奇怪的胆怯和恐惧，他握住她的手，在她的额头上亲吻，低声说：“你是个好女孩，奥莉维亚。

They’re right in what they say of you.

他们对你的评价是正确的。

You’re a good girl.

你是个好女孩。

I don’t know how I should have managed without you all these years.”

我不知道这些年来没有你我该怎么办。”

Smiling, she looked at him, and then, touching his hand affectionately, she went out without speaking again, thinking, as she had thought a thousand times, what a terrible thing it must be to have been born so inarticulate and so terrified of feeling as John Pentland.

她微笑着看着他，然后深情地碰了碰他的手，没有再说话，就出去了，她心里想，就像她想了一千次一样，生来像约翰·彭特兰这样不善言辞、如此害怕感情，这一定是一件多么可怕的事情。

It must be, she thought, like living forever imprisoned in a shell of steel from which one might look out and see friends but never touch or know them.

她想，这一定就像永远被囚禁在一个钢壳里一样，人们可以从里面向外看，看到朋友，但永远不会接触或认识他们。

From the doorway she heard a voice behind her, saying almost joyfully: “The doctors must have been wrong about Jack.

她听到身后有一个声音从门口传来，几乎是高兴地说道：“医生对杰克的判断一定是错误的。

You and I together, Olivia, have defeated them.”

奥莉薇娅，你和我联手，打败了他们。”

She said, “Yes,” and smiled at him, but when she had turned away again there was in her mind a strange, almost gruesome thought.

她说：“是的。”并对他微笑，但当她再次转过身去时，她的脑海里出现了一个奇怪的、几乎可怕的想法。

“If only Jack lives until his grandfather is dead, the old man will die happy.

“只要杰克能活到他祖父去世，老人就会幸福地死去。

If only he can be kept alive until then....”

如果他能活到那时就好了……”

She had a strange way of seeing things in the hard light of reality, and an unreal, lonely childhood had fostered the trait.

她有一种在现实的严酷光线下看待事物的奇怪方式，而不真实、孤独的童年培养了这种特质。

She had been born thus, and now as a woman she found that in a way it was less a curse than a blessing.

她生来就是这样，现在作为一个女人，她发现这在某种程度上与其说是诅咒，不如说是祝福。

In a world which survived only by deceiving itself, she found that seeing the truth and knowing it made her strong.

在一个只能靠欺骗自己才能生存的世界里，她发现看到真相并了解真相会让她变得坚强。

Here, perhaps, lay the reason why all of them had come to depend upon her.

也许这就是他们所有人都依赖她的原因。

But there were times, too, when she wanted passionately to be a poor weak feminine creature, a woman who might turn to her husband and find in him some one stronger than herself.

但也有很多时候，她热切地希望成为一个可怜的、软弱的女性生物，一个可以转向她的丈夫并在他身上找到比自己更强大的人的女人。

She had a curious feeling of envy for Savina Pentland, who was dead before she was born....

她对萨维娜·彭特兰有一种奇怪的嫉妒感，她在她出生之前就死了……

Savina Pentland who had been the beauty of the family, extravagant, reckless, feminine, who bought strings of pearls and was given to weeping and fainting.

萨维娜·彭特兰曾是家里的美女，奢侈、鲁莽、女性化，她买了一串珍珠，经常哭泣和晕倒。

But she (Olivia) had only Anson to lean upon.

但她（奥利维亚）只有安森可以依靠。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

After she had gone away the old man sat for a long time smoking and drinking his brandy, enveloped by a loneliness scarcely more profound than it had been a little while before when he sat talking with Olivia.

她走后，老人坐了很长一段时间，一边抽烟一边喝着白兰地，周围笼罩着一种孤独感，这种孤独感并不比不久前他坐下来和奥莉薇娅聊天时更深。

It was his habit to sit thus sometimes for an hour at a time, unconscious, it seemed, of all the world about him; Olivia had come in more than once at such moments and gone away again, unwilling to shatter the enchantment by so much as a single word.

他习惯这样坐着，有时一坐就是一个小时，似乎对周围的世界浑然不觉。奥莉薇娅不止一次在这样的时刻进来，又离开，不愿用任何一句话来打破这种魔力。

At last, when the cigar had burned to an end, he crushed out the ember with a short, fierce gesture and, rising, went out of the tall narrow room and along the corridor that led to the dark stairway in the old north wing.

最后，当雪茄燃尽时，他用一个简短而激烈的动作把余烬压碎，然后站起身来，走出那间又高又窄的房间，沿着走廊，通向旧北翼的黑暗楼梯。

These steps he had climbed every day since it had become necessary to keep _her_ in the country the year round ...

自从有必要将她常年留在乡下以来，他每天都要爬这些台阶……

every day, at the same hour, step by step his big heavy-shod boots had trod the same worn stair carpet.

每天，在同一时间，他那双厚重的大靴子一步一步地踩在同样破旧的楼梯地毯上。

It was a journey begun years ago as a kind of pleasure colored by hope, which for a long time now, bereft of all hope, had become merely a monotonous dreary duty.

这是一段多年前就开始的旅程，是一种充满希望的快乐，但现在很长一段时间，它失去了所有的希望，变成了一种单调乏味的义务。

It was like a journey of penance made by some pilgrim on his knees up endless flights of stairs.

这就像某个朝圣者跪着爬上无尽的楼梯进行的忏悔之旅。

For more than twenty years, as far back as Olivia could remember, he had been absent from the house for a night but twice, and then only on occasions of life and death.

二十多年来，据奥利维亚记事，他曾在家里缺席过一晚，但只有两次，而且只有在生死攸关的时候。

In all that time he had been twice to New York and never once to the Europe he had not seen since, as a boy, he had made the grand tour on a plan laid out by old General Curtis ...

在那段时间里，他去过纽约两次，从未去过欧洲，自从他还是个孩子的时候，他就按照老柯蒂斯将军制定的计划进行了一次盛大的旅行……

a time so remote now that it must have seemed part of another life.

现在看来，那段时光是如此遥远，似乎已经是另一种生活的一部分了。

In all those years he had never once escaped from the world which his family found so perfect and complete and which to him must have seemed always a little cramped and inadequate.

这些年来，他从未逃离过这个世界，他的家人认为这个世界是如此完美和完整，但对他来说，这个世界似乎总是有点局促和不足。

Fate and blood and circumstance, one might have said, had worn him down bit by bit until in the end he had come to worship the same gods they worshiped.

有人可能会说，命运、血统和环境一点一点地折磨着他，直到最后他开始崇拜他们所崇拜的神。

Now and then he contrived to escape them for a little while by drinking himself into insensibility, but always he awakened again to find that nothing had changed, to discover that his prison was the same.

他时不时地想办法通过喝酒使自己失去知觉来暂时逃离他们，但他总是再次醒来，发现一切都没有改变，发现他的监狱还是原来的样子。

And so, slowly, hope must have died.

所以，慢慢地，希望一定破灭了。

But no one knew, even Olivia, whether he was happy or unhappy; and no one would ever really know what had happened to him, deep inside, behind the gray, leathery old face.

但没有人知道他是快乐还是不快乐，甚至奥莉薇娅也不知道。没有人会真正知道他内心深处、在那张灰色、坚韧的老脸后面到底发生了什么。

The world said, when it thought of him: “There never was such a devoted husband as John Pentland.”

当世人想起他时都会说：“从来没有像约翰·彭特兰这样忠诚的丈夫。”

Slowly and firmly he walked along the narrow hall to the end and there halted to knock on the white door.

他缓慢而坚定地沿着狭窄的走廊走到尽头，停下来敲了敲白色的门。

He always knocked, for there were times when the sight of him, entering suddenly, affected her so that she became hysterical and beyond all control.

他总是敲门，因为有时当他突然走进来的时候，她就会受到影响，变得歇斯底里，无法控制。

In response to the knock, the door was opened gently and professionally by Miss Egan, an automaton of a nurse--neat, efficient, inhuman and incredibly starched, whose very smile seemed to come and go by some mechanical process, like the sounds made by squeezing a mechanical doll.

随着敲门声的响起，门被伊根小姐专业地轻轻地打开了，她是一个护士的机器人——整洁、高效、非人性、令人难以置信的僵硬，她的微笑似乎是通过某种机械过程来来去去的，就像挤压机械娃娃时发出的声音一样。

Only it was impossible to imagine squeezing anything so starched and jagged as the red-faced Miss Egan.

只是无法想象挤压像红脸伊根小姐那样僵硬、参差不齐的东西。

It was a smile which sprang into existence upon sight of any member of the family, a smile of false humility which said, “I know very well that you cannot do without me”--the smile of a woman well enough content to be paid three times the wages of an ordinary nurse.

这是一种一看到家庭成员就会出现的微笑，一种虚假的谦逊，仿佛在说：“我很清楚，没有我你就不行”——这是一个足以满足于支付普通护士三倍工资的女人的微笑。

In three or four more years she would have enough saved to start a sanatorium of her own.

再过三四年，她就有足够的积蓄来开办自己的疗养院。

Fixing her smile, she faced the old man, saying, “She seems quite well to-day ...

她定定笑容，对着老者道：“她今天看起来状态不错……

very quiet.”

很安静。”

The whole hallway had been flooded at the opening of the door by a thick and complicated odor arising from innumerable medicines that stood row upon row in the obscurity of the dark room.

门一打开，整个走廊就被一股浓重而复杂的气味淹没了，那是在昏暗的房间里摆放着无数药物所散发出来的。

The old man stepped inside, closing the door quickly behind him, for she was affected by too much light.

老人走进去，迅速关上门，因为她受到了太多光线的影响。

She could not bear to have a door or a window open near her; even on this bright day the drawn shades kept the room in darkness.

她无法忍受在她附近打开一扇门或一扇窗。即使在这样明亮的日子里，拉上的窗帘也使房间保持在黑暗中。

She had got the idea somehow that there were people outside who waited to leer at her ...

她总觉得外面有人在等着看她……

hundreds of them all pressing their faces against the panes to peep into her bedroom.

数百人都把脸贴在窗玻璃上，想窥视她的卧室。

There were days when she could not be quieted until the window-shades were covered by thick layers of black cloth.

有时候，直到窗帘被厚厚的黑布盖上，她才安静下来。

She would not rise from her bed until nightfall lest the faces outside might see her standing there in her nightdress.

直到夜幕降临，她才从床上起来，以免外面的人看到她穿着睡衣站在那里。

It was only when darkness had fallen that the nurse was able by means of trickery and wheedling to air the room, and so it smelled horribly of the medicines she never took, but kept ranged about her, row upon row, like the fetishes of witch-doctors.

直到夜幕降临，护士才通过欺骗和哄骗的手段让房间里空气流通起来，所以房间里充满了她从未服用过的药物的可怕气味，但她一直在她周围排列着，一排又一排，就像巫医的迷信一样。

In this they humored her as they had humored her in shutting out the sunlight, because it was the only way they could keep her quiet and avoid sending her away to some place where she would have been shut behind bars.

他们以此来迁就她，就像他们迁就她把阳光拒之门外一样，因为这是他们能让她保持安静并避免将她送到某个她会被关在监狱里的地方的唯一方法。

And this John Pentland would not even consider.

约翰·彭特兰甚至不会考虑这一点。

When he entered she was lying in the bed, her thin, frail body barely outlined beneath the bedclothes ...

当他进来的时候，她正躺在床上，被单下隐隐约约展现出她瘦弱的身躯……

the mere shadow of a woman who must once have been pretty in a delicate way.

只不过是一个女人的影子，她曾经一定是美丽而精致的。

But nothing remained now of the beauty save the fine modeling of the chin and nose and brow.

但如今，除了下巴、鼻子和眉毛的精美造型外，美貌已荡然无存。

She lay there, a queer, unreal old woman, with thin white hair, skin like parchment and a silly, vacant face as unwrinkled as that of a child.

她躺在那里，是一个奇怪的、不真实的老妇人，头发稀疏，皮肤像羊皮纸，一张愚蠢而空虚的脸像孩子一样没有皱纹。

As he seated himself beside her, the empty, round blue eyes opened a little and stared at him without any sign of recognition.

当他在她身边坐下时，那双空洞的蓝眼睛微微睁开，盯着他，没有任何认出的迹象。

He took one of the thin, blue-veined hands in his, but it only lay there, lifeless, while he sat, silent and gentle, watching her.

他握住一只瘦弱的、青筋暴起的手，但它只是躺在那儿，毫无生气，而他则静静地坐着，温柔地看着她。

Once he spoke, calling her wistfully by name, “Agnes”; but there was no sign of an answer, not so much as a faint flickering of the white, transparent lids.

有一次，他说话时，满怀渴望地叫着她的名字“艾格尼丝”；但没有任何回应的迹象，连白色透明眼睑微弱的闪烁也没有。

And so for an eternity he sat thus in the thick darkness, enveloped by the sickly odor of medicines, until he was roused by a knock at the door and the sudden glare of daylight as it opened and Miss Egan, fixing her flashing and teethy smile, came in and said: “The fifteen minutes is up, Mr. Pentland.”

就这样，他在浓浓的黑暗中坐了一辈子，被令人作呕的药味所笼罩，直到他被敲门声和门打开时突然出现的刺眼的日光惊醒，伊根小姐脸上露出灿烂的牙齿微笑，走进来说：“十五分钟到了，彭特兰先生。”

When the door had closed behind him he went away again, slowly, thoughtfully, down the worn stairs and out into the painfully brilliant sunlight of the bright New England spring.

当门在他身后关上时，他又慢慢地、若有所思地走下破旧的楼梯，走进新英格兰明媚春天的令人痛苦的灿烂阳光中。

Crossing the green terrace, bordered with great clumps of iris and peonies and a few late tulips, he made his way to the stable-yard, where Higgins had left the red mare in charge of a Polish boy who did odd tasks about the farm.

他穿过绿色的露台，周围种满了大片鸢尾花、牡丹和几株晚熟的郁金香，他朝马厩院子走去，希金斯把那匹红母马留下来照顾一个波兰男孩，这个男孩在农场里做一些奇怪的事情。

The mare, as beautiful and delicate as a fine steel spring, stood nervously pawing the gravel and tossing her handsome head.

那匹母马像精钢弹簧一样美丽精致，紧张地站着，用爪子刨着碎石，摇着漂亮的头。

The boy, a great lout with a shock of yellow hair, stood far away from her holding the reins at arm’s length.

这个男孩是个大笨蛋，一头乱糟糟的黄头发，站在离她很远的地方，手里握着缰绳，与她保持一臂距离。

At the sight of the two the old man laughed and said, “You mustn’t let her know you’re afraid of her, Ignaz.”

老人看到两人，笑道：“伊格纳兹，你可不能让她知道你害怕她。”

The boy gave up the reins and retired to a little distance, still watching the mare resentfully.

男孩放弃了缰绳，退到了一段距离，仍然怨恨地注视着母马。

“Well, she tried to bite me!” he said sullenly.

“嗯，她想咬我！”他阴沉地说。

Quickly, with a youthful agility, John Pentland swung himself to her back ...

约翰·彭特兰迅速地以年轻的敏捷身躯转到了她的背上……

quickly enough to keep her from sidling away from him.

速度足够快，足以阻止她从他身边走开。

There was a short, fierce struggle between the rider and the horse, and in a shower of stones they sped away down the lane that led across the meadows, past the thicket of black pines and the abandoned gravel-pit, toward the house of Mrs. Soames.

骑手和马之间进行了一场短暂而激烈的斗争，在一阵石雨中，他们沿着穿过草地的小路飞驰而去，经过黑松丛和废弃的砾石坑，朝索米斯太太的房子走去。

CHAPTER IV

第四章

In the solid corner of the world which surrounded Durham, Aunt Cassie played the rôle of an unofficial courier who passed from house to house, from piazza to piazza, collecting and passing on the latest bits of news.

在达勒姆周围世界的一个角落里，卡西阿姨扮演了一个非正式的信使的角色，她挨家挨户、从一个广场到另一个广场，收集和传递最新的消息。

When one saw a low cloud of dust moving across the brilliant New England sky above the hedges and stone walls of the countryside, one could be certain that it masked the progress of Cassie Struthers on her daily round of calls.

当人们看到一团低沉的尘埃在乡村的树篱和石墙上方掠过明亮的新英格兰天空时，人们可以肯定它掩盖了卡西·斯特拉瑟斯每天打电话的进度。

She went always on foot, because she detested motors and was terrified of horses; one might see her coming from a great distance, dressed always in dingy black, tottering along very briskly (for a woman of her age and well-advertised infirmities).

她总是步行，因为她讨厌汽车，害怕马。人们可能会看到她从很远的地方走来，总是穿着肮脏的黑色衣服，步履蹒跚地走着（对于她这个年龄和众所周知的虚弱的女人来说）。

One came to expect her arrival at a certain hour, for she was, unless there arose in her path some calamity or piece of news of unusual interest, a punctual woman whose life was as carefully ordered as the vast house in which she lived with the queer Aunt Bella.

人们开始期待她在某个时间到来，因为她是一位守时的女人，除非途中发生了一些灾难或异常有趣的消息，她的生活就像她和古怪的贝拉姨妈住的那栋大房子一样井井有条。

It was a great box of a dwelling built by the late Mr. Struthers in the days of cupolas and gazebos on land given him by Aunt Cassie’s grandfather on the day of her wedding.

这是已故的斯特拉瑟斯先生在卡西阿姨的祖父在婚礼当天给他的土地上建造的圆顶和凉亭时代建造的一座巨大的住宅。

Inside it was furnished with a great profusion of plush tassels and antimacassars, all kept with the neatness and rigidity of a museum.

里面装饰着大量的毛绒流苏和反黑檀木，一切都保持着博物馆的整洁和严谨。

There were never any cigar ashes on the floor, nor any dust in the corners, for Aunt Cassie followed her servants about with the eye of a fussy old sergeant inspecting his barracks.

地板上从来没有任何雪茄烟灰，角落里也没有任何灰尘，因为卡西姨妈带着她的仆人四处走动，目光就像一位挑剔的老中士检查他的营房。

Poor Miss Peavey, who grew more and more dowdy and careless as old age began to settle over her, led a life of constant peril, and was forced to build a little house near the stables to house her Pomeranians and her Siamese cats.

可怜的皮维小姐，随着年老的到来，她变得越来越邋遢、粗心，过着持续危险的生活，被迫在马厩附近盖了一座小房子来安置她的博美犬和暹罗猫。

For Aunt Cassie could not abide the thought of “the animals dirtying up the house.” Even the “retiring room” of the late Mr. Struthers had been converted since his death into a museum, spotless and purified of tobacco and whisky, where his chair sat before his desk, turned away from it a little, as if his spirit were still seated there.

因为卡西阿姨无法忍受“动物弄脏房子”的想法。就连已故斯特拉瑟斯先生的“休息室”在他去世后也被改造成一座博物馆，一尘不染，没有烟草和威士忌，他的椅子坐在办公桌前，稍微偏离办公桌，仿佛他的灵魂仍然坐在那里。

On the desk lay his pipe (as he had left it) and the neat piles of paper (carefully dusted each day but otherwise undisturbed) which he had put there with his own hand on the morning they found him seated on the chair, his head fallen back a little, as if asleep.

桌子上放着他的烟斗（他离开时的样子）和一叠整齐的纸（每天都小心翼翼地掸去灰尘，但没有被打扰），这些文件是他在早上他们发现他坐在椅子上时亲手放在那里的，他的头向后仰了一点，好像睡着了。

And in the center of the desk lay two handsomely bound volumes--“Cornices of Old Boston Houses” and “Walks and Talks in New England Churchyards”--which he had written in these last sad years when his life seemed slowly to fade from him ...

桌子中央放着两本装订精美的书——《波士顿老房子的檐口》和《在新英格兰墓地里散步和谈话》——这是他在生命似乎慢慢从他身上慢慢消失的最后悲伤的岁月里写的……

the years in which Aunt Cassie seemed rapidly to recover the wiry strength and health for which she had been famous as a girl.

在这些年里，卡西姨妈似乎很快就恢复了她作为女孩而闻名的精瘦体力和健康状况。

The house, people said, had been built by Mr. Struthers in the expectation of a large family, but it had remained great and silent of children’s voices as a tomb since the day it was finished, for Aunt Cassie had never been strong until it was too late for her to bear him heirs.

人们说，这座房子是斯特拉瑟斯先生为了一个大家庭而建造的，但自从建成那天起，它就一直像一座坟墓一样巨大而寂静，因为卡西姨妈从来都没有坚强过，直到她为他生下继承人时为时已晚。

Sabine Callendar had a whole set of theories about the house and about the married life of Aunt Cassie, but they were theories which she kept, in her way, entirely to herself, waiting and watching until she was certain of them.

萨宾·卡伦达对这座房子和卡西姨妈的婚姻生活有一套完整的理论，但她以自己的方式完全把这些理论保留在自己心里，等待着、观察着，直到她确信这些理论。

There was a hatred between the two women that was implacable and difficult to define, an emotion almost of savagery which concealed itself beneath polite phrases and casual observations of an acid character.

这两个女人之间存在着一种无法平息且难以界定的仇恨，一种近乎野蛮的情感，隐藏在礼貌用语和对尖酸刻薄的性格的随意观察之下。

They encountered each other more frequently than Aunt Cassie would have wished, for Sabine, upon her return to Durham, took up Aunt Cassie’s habit of going from house to house on foot in search of news and entertainment.

他们见面的次数比卡西姨妈希望的要频繁，因为萨宾回到达勒姆后，继承了卡西姨妈的习惯，步行挨家挨户寻找新闻和娱乐。

They met in drawing-rooms, on piazzas, and sometimes in the very dusty lanes, greeting each other with smiles and vicious looks.

他们在客厅、广场上见面，有时在尘土飞扬的小巷里见面，面带微笑，表情恶毒。

They had become rather like two hostile cats watching each other for days at a time, stealthily.

他们变得很像两只充满敌意的猫，连续几天偷偷地注视着对方。

Sabine, Aunt Cassie confided in Olivia, made her nervous.

卡西姨妈向奥利维亚透露，萨宾让她感到紧张。

Still, it was Aunt Cassie who had been the first caller at Brook Cottage after the arrival of Sabine.

尽管如此，萨宾到来后第一个到布鲁克小屋来访的还是卡西姨妈。

The younger woman had seen her approach, enveloped in a faint cloud of dust, from the windows of Brook Cottage, and the sight filled her with an inexpressible delight.

年轻女子从布鲁克小屋的窗户看到她走来，笼罩在一层淡淡的尘埃中，这一景象让她充满了难以言表的喜悦。

The spare old lady had come along so briskly, almost with impatience, filled with delight (Sabine believed) at having an excuse now to trespass on O’Hara’s land and see what he had done to the old cottage.

这位闲适的老太太来得如此轻快，几乎有些不耐烦，充满了喜悦（萨宾相信），因为现在有借口侵入奥哈拉的土地，看看他对旧小屋做了什么。

And Sabine believed, too, that she came to discover what life had done to “dear Mr. Struthers’ niece, Sabine Callendar.” She came as the Official Welcomer of the Community, with hope in her heart that she would find Sabine a returned prodigal, a wrecked woman, ravaged by time and experience, who for twenty years had ignored them all and now returned, a broken and humbled creature, hungry for kindness.

萨宾也相信，她逐渐发现了生活对“亲爱的斯特拉瑟斯先生的侄女萨宾·卡伦达尔”造成的影响。她作为社区的正式欢迎者来到这里，心中满怀希望，希望她会发现萨宾是一个归来的浪子，一个被时间和经验蹂躏的破碎的女人，二十年来她忽视了他们一切，现在回来了，一个破碎而卑微的生物，渴望仁慈。

The sight set fire to a whole train of memories in Sabine ...

这一幕点燃了萨宾的一连串回忆……

memories which penetrated deep into her childhood when with her father she had lived in the old house that once stood where O’Hara’s new one raised its bright chimneys; memories of days when she had run off by herself to play in the tangled orchard grass among the bleeding-hearts and irises that surrounded this same Brook Cottage where she stood watching the approach of Aunt Cassie.

这些记忆深深地烙印在她的童年时期，当时她和父亲住在一栋老房子里，这栋老房子曾经矗立在奥哈拉的新房子上，那里有明亮的烟囱；回忆起她独自跑到果园杂草丛中玩耍的日子，周围都是流血的心和鸢尾花，她站在布鲁克小屋里，看着卡西姨妈走近。

Only, in those days Brook Cottage had been a ruin of a place, with empty windows and sagging doors, ghostly and half-hidden by a shaggy tangle of lilacs and syringas, and now it stood glistening with new paint, the lilacs all neatly clipped and pruned.

只是，在那些日子里，布鲁克小屋已经是一片废墟，空荡荡的窗户和下垂的门，鬼魂般地半隐藏在杂乱的紫丁香和丁香花中，而现在它矗立着，新油漆闪闪发光，紫丁香都被修剪得整整齐齐。

There was something in the sight of the old woman’s nervous, active figure that struck deep down into a past which Sabine, with the passing of years, had almost succeeded in forgetting; and now it all came back again, sharply and with a kind of stabbing pain, so that she had a sudden odd feeling of having become a little girl again ...

老妇人紧张而活跃的身影，似乎让人想起了萨宾随着岁月的流逝，几乎已经忘记的过去。现在这一切又回来了，剧烈的，带着一种刺痛，让她突然有一种奇怪的感觉，好像又变成了一个小女孩……

plain, red-haired, freckled and timid, who stood in terror of Aunt Cassie and was always being pulled here and there by a thousand aunts and uncles and cousins because she _would_ not be turned into their idea of what a nice little girl ought to be.

长相相貌平平，红发，长着雀斑，胆怯，她害怕凯西姨妈，总是被上千个姨妈、叔叔和表兄弟拉来拉去，因为她不会变成他们心目中的好小女孩应该是什么样子。

It was as if the whole past were concentrated in the black figure of the old lady who had been the ring-leader, the viceroy, of all a far-flung tribe, an old woman who had been old even twenty years earlier, lying always on a sofa under a shawl, issuing her edicts, pouring out her ample sympathies, her bitter criticisms.

仿佛整个过去都集中在那个老太太的黑色身影里，她曾是一个边远部落的头目、总督，一个二十年前就已经老了的老妇人，总是披着披肩躺在沙发上，发布她的法令，倾诉她充足的同情和她严厉的批评。

And here she was, approaching briskly, as if the death of Mr. Struthers had somehow released her from bonds which had chafed for too long.

她就在这里，轻快地走近，仿佛斯特拉瑟斯先生的死不知何故让她摆脱了长期摩擦的束缚。

Watching her, one incident after another flashed through the quick, hard brain of Sabine, all recreated with a swift, astounding clarity--the day when she had run off to escape into the world and been found by old John Pentland hiding in the thicket of white birches happily eating blueberries.

看着她，一桩又一桩的事情在萨宾敏捷而坚强的大脑中闪过，一切都以一种迅速而惊人的清晰再现——那天她逃到外面的世界，被老约翰·彭特兰发现，躲在白桦林里，开心地吃着蓝莓。

(She could see his countenance now, stern with its disapproval of such wild behavior, but softening, too, at the sight of the grubby, freckled plain face stained with blueberry juice.) And the return of the captive, when she was surrounded by aunts who dressed her in a clean frock and forced her to sit in the funereal spare bedroom with a New Testament on her knees until she “felt that she could come out and behave like a nice, well-brought-up little girl.” She could see the aunts pulling and fussing at her and saying, “What a shame she didn’t take after her mother in looks!” and, “She’ll have a hard time with such plain, straight red hair.”

（她现在可以看到他的表情，对这种狂野的行为表示严厉的不满，但在看到那张沾满蓝莓汁的脏兮兮、长满雀斑的朴素脸庞时，他的表情也变得柔和起来。）还有俘虏的归来，当她被阿姨们包围时，她们给她穿上干净的连衣裙，强迫她坐在阴森的空卧室里，膝盖上放着一本新约圣经，直到她“觉得自己可以出来，表现得像一个善良的、是个有教养的小女孩。”她看见阿姨们拉扯着她，对她大惊小怪地说：“她长得不像她妈妈，真可惜！”并且，“她会很难接受这样朴素、直直的红发。”

And there was, too, the memory of that day when Anson Pentland, a timid, spiritless little Lord Fauntleroy of a boy, fell into the river and would have been drowned save for his cousin Sabine, who dragged him out, screaming and drenched, only to receive for herself all the scolding for having led him into mischief.

还有那天的记忆，安森·彭特兰，一个胆怯、无精打采的小方特勒罗伊勋爵，掉进河里，除了他的表弟萨宾，他差点被淹死。萨宾把他拖了出来，尖叫着，浑身湿透，但她自己却因为把他引入恶作剧而受到了所有的责骂。

And the times when she had been punished for having asked frank and simple questions which she ought not to have asked.

还有她因为问了一些她不应该问的坦率而简单的问题而受到惩罚的时候。

It was difficult to remember any happiness until the day when her father died and she was sent to New York, a girl of twenty, knowing very little of anything and nothing whatever of such things as love and marriage, to live with an uncle in a tall narrow house on Murray Hill.

直到有一天，她的父亲去世了，她才被送到纽约，一个对爱情和婚姻一无所知、一无所知的女孩，被送到纽约，和叔叔一起住在墨累山一栋又高又窄的房子里。

It was on that day (she saw it now with a devastating clarity as she stood watching the approach of Aunt Cassie) that her life had really begun.

正是在那一天（当她站在那里看着卡西姨妈走近时，她现在看得非常清楚），她的生活才真正开始。

Until then her existence had been only a confused and tormented affair in which there was very little happiness.

在那之前，她的生活只是一场混乱和折磨，几乎没有幸福。

It was only later that reality had come to her, painfully, even tragically, in a whole procession of events which had made her slowly into this hard, worldly, cynical woman who found herself, without quite knowing why, back in a world she hated, standing at the window of Brook Cottage, a woman tormented by an immense and acutely living curiosity about people and the strange tangles which their lives sometimes assumed.

直到后来，现实才痛苦地、甚至悲惨地降临到她身上，在一连串的事件中，她慢慢地变成了这个冷酷、世俗、愤世嫉俗的女人，不知为何，她发现自己又回到了一个她讨厌的世界，站在布鲁克小屋的窗前，一个对人们和他们的生活有时呈现的奇怪的纠结有着巨大而强烈的好奇心的女人。

She had been standing by the window thinking back into the past with such a fierce intensity that she quite forgot the approach of Aunt Cassie and started suddenly at the sound of the curious, familiar thin voice, amazingly unchanged, calling from the hallway, “Sabine!

她一直站在窗边，如此强烈地回忆着过去，以至于她完全忘记了卡西姨妈的到来，突然听到走廊里那个奇怪的、熟悉的、细细的声音，令人惊奇的是，她没有改变，喊道：“萨宾！

Sabine dear!

萨宾亲爱的！

It’s your Aunt Cassie!

这是你的卡西阿姨！

Where are you?” as if she had never left Durham at all, as if nothing had changed in twenty years.

你在哪儿？仿佛她根本就没有离开过达勒姆，仿佛二十年来一切都没有改变。

At sight of her, the old lady came forward with little fluttering cries to fling her arms about her late husband’s niece.

老太太一看到她，就小声颤抖地走上前来，张开双臂拥抱她已故丈夫的侄女。

Her manner was that of a shepherd receiving a lost sheep, a manner filled with forgiveness and pity and condescension.

她的态度就像牧羊人接收迷失的羊一样，充满了宽恕、怜悯和屈尊。

The tears welled easily into her eyes and streamed down her face.

泪水轻易地涌进她的眼睛，顺着脸颊流下来。

Sabine permitted herself, frigidly, to be embraced, and said, “But you don’t look a day older, Aunt Cassie.

萨宾冷漠地接受了别人的拥抱，说道：“但你看起来并没有老一天，卡西阿姨。

You look stronger than ever.” It was a remark which somehow set the whole tone of the relationship between them, a remark which, though it sounded sympathetic and even complimentary, was a harsh thing to say to a woman who had cherished all her life the tradition of invalidism.

你看起来比以前更坚强了。”这句话在某种程度上奠定了他们之间关系的整体基调，虽然这句话听起来很同情，甚至是赞美，但对于一个一生都珍视无效主义传统的女人来说，这句话是很刺耳的。

It was harsh, too, because it was true.

这也很残酷，因为这是事实。

Aunt Cassie at forty-seven had been as shriveled and dried as she was now, twenty years later.

二十年后，四十七岁的卡西阿姨就和现在一样枯萎、干燥。

The old woman said, “My dear girl, I am miserable ...

老妇人说：“亲爱的姑娘，我很痛苦……

miserable.” And drying the tears that streamed down her face, she added, “It won’t be long now until I go to join dear Mr. Struthers.”

惨了。”她擦干脸上流下的泪水，补充道：“用不了多久，我就会去见亲爱的斯特拉瑟斯先生。”

Sabine wanted suddenly to laugh, at the picture of Aunt Cassie entering Paradise to rejoin a husband whom she had always called, even in the intimacy of married life, “Mr. Struthers.” She kept thinking that Mr. Struthers might not find the reunion so pleasant as his wife anticipated.

萨宾一想到卡西姨妈进入天堂，与丈夫团聚，即使在亲密的婚姻生活中，她也一直称呼他为“斯特拉瑟斯先生”，萨宾突然想笑。她一直在想，斯特拉瑟斯先生可能不会像他妻子预期的那样觉得这次重聚如此愉快。

She had always held a strange belief that Mr. Struthers had chosen death as the best way out.

她一直抱有一种奇怪的信念，认为斯特拉瑟斯先生选择了死亡作为最好的出路。

And she felt a sudden almost warm sense of returning memories, roused by Aunt Cassie’s passion for overstatement.

卡西阿姨夸大其词的热情唤醒了她，她突然感到一种近乎温暖的记忆回归感觉。

Aunt Cassie could never bring herself to say simply, “I’m going to die” which was not at all true.

卡西姨妈永远无法让自己简单地说“我要死了”，这根本不是真的。

She must say, “I go to join dear Mr. Struthers.”

她必须说：“我要去见亲爱的斯特拉瑟斯先生。”

Sabine said, “Oh, no....

萨宾说：“哦，不……

Oh, no....

哦，不……

Don’t say that.”

别这么说。”

“I don’t sleep any more.

“我不再睡觉了。

I barely close my eyes at night.”

晚上我几乎闭不上眼睛。”

She had seated herself now and was looking about her, absorbing everything in the room, the changes made by the dreadful O’Hara, the furniture he had bought for the house.

她现在已经坐下来，环顾四周，全神贯注地观察着房间里的一切，包括可怕的奥哈拉所做的改变，还有他为房子买的家具。

But most of all she was studying Sabine, devouring her with sidelong, furtive glances; and Sabine, knowing her so well, saw that the old woman had been given a violent shock.

但最重要的是，她正在研究萨宾，用斜视、偷偷的目光将她吞噬。萨宾非常了解她，看到老妇人受到了剧烈的震惊。

She had come prepared to find a broken, unhappy Sabine and she had found instead this smooth, rather hard and self-contained woman, superbly dressed and poised, from the burnished red hair (that straight red hair the aunts had once thought so hopeless) to the lizard-skin slippers--a woman who had obviously taken hold of life with a firm hand and subdued it, who was in a way complete.

她本来是准备去寻找一个破碎的、不快乐的萨宾，但她却找到了这个光滑、相当坚强、独立的女人，衣着光鲜亮丽，泰然自若，从闪亮的红发（姨妈们曾经认为那是毫无希望的直红头发）到蜥蜴皮拖鞋——一个显然用坚定的手抓住了生命并征服了它的女人，在某种程度上是完整的。

“Your dear uncle never forgot you for a moment, Sabine, in all the years you were away.

“你亲爱的叔叔一刻也没有忘记你，萨宾，在你离开的这些年里。

He died, leaving me to watch over you.” And again the easy tears welled up.

他死了，留下我来照顾你。”轻易的泪水又涌了出来。

(“Oh,” thought Sabine, “you don’t catch me that way.

（“哦，”萨宾想，“你不是这样理解我的。

You won’t put me back where I once was.

你不会把我放回原来的地方。

You won’t even have a chance to meddle in my life.”)

你根本就没有机会干涉我的生活。”）

Aloud she said, “It’s a pity I’ve always been so far away.”

她大声说道：“可惜我总是离得那么远。”

“But I’ve thought of you, my dear....

“但是我已经想到你了，亲爱的......

I’ve thought of you.

我想你了。

Scarcely a night passes when I don’t say to myself before going to sleep, ‘There is poor Sabine out in the world, turning her back on all of us who love her.’” She sighed abysmally.

几乎每一晚，我都会在睡觉前对自己说：‘世界上有一个可怜的萨宾，她背弃了我们所有爱她的人。’”她深深地叹了口气。

“I have thought of you, dear.

“我已经想到你了，亲爱的。

I’ve prayed for you in the long nights when I have never closed an eye.”

我曾在漫漫长夜里为你祈祷，我从未合过眼。”

And Sabine, talking on half-mechanically, discovered slowly that, in spite of everything, she was no longer afraid of Aunt Cassie.

萨宾半机械地说着，慢慢地发现，尽管发生了这一切，她不再害怕卡西姨妈了。

She was no longer a shy, frightened, plain little girl; she even began to sense a challenge, a combat which filled her with a faint sense of warmth.

她不再是一个害羞、害怕、朴素的小女孩；她甚至开始感受到了一种挑战，一种战斗，让她心里隐隐有种温暖的感觉。

She kept thinking, “She really hasn’t changed at all.

她心里一直在想：“她真的一点都没变。”

She still wants to reach out and take possession of me and my life.

她仍然想伸出手来占有我和我的生活。

She’s like an octopus reaching out and seizing each member of the family, arranging everything.” And she saw Aunt Cassie now, after so many years, in a new light.

她就像一只章鱼伸出手，抓住了家里的每一个成员，安排好一切。”这么多年过去了，她现在以一种新的眼光看待卡西姨妈。

It seemed to her that there was something glittering and hard and a little sinister beneath all the sighing and tears and easy sympathy.

在她看来，在所有的叹息、泪水和轻松的同情之下，有某种闪闪发光的、坚硬的、还有点险恶的东西。

Perhaps she (Sabine) was the only one in all the family who had escaped the reach of those subtle, insinuating tentacles....

也许她（萨宾）是整个家庭中唯一逃脱了那些微妙的、暗示的触手的人......

She had run away.

她已经逃跑了。

Meanwhile Aunt Cassie had swept from a vivid and detailed description of the passing of Mr. Struthers into a catalogue of neighborhood and family calamities, of deaths, of broken troths, financial disasters, and the appearance on the horizon of the “dreadful O’Hara.” She reproached Sabine for having sold her land to such an outsider.

与此同时，卡西姨妈已经从对斯特拉瑟斯先生去世的生动而详细的描述变成了一系列邻里和家庭的灾难、死亡、破碎的誓言、金融灾难，以及“可怕的奥哈拉”即将出现的情况。她责备萨宾将自己的土地卖给了这样一个外人。

And as she talked on and on she grew less and less human and more and more like some disembodied, impersonal force of nature.

随着她滔滔不绝地讲下去，她变得越来越不像人类，越来越像某种脱离实体、非个人的自然力量。

Sabine, watching her with piercing green eyes, found her a little terrifying.

萨宾用锐利的绿眼睛看着她，觉得她有点可怕。

She had sharpened and hardened with age.

随着年龄的增长，她变得更加尖锐和坚强。

She discussed the divorces which had occurred in Boston, and at length, leaning forward and touching Sabine’s hand with her thin, nervous one, she said brokenly: “I felt for you in your trouble, Sabine.

她讨论了波士顿发生的离婚事件，最后，她向前倾身，用她瘦弱、紧张的一只手碰触萨宾的手，断断续续地说：“萨宾，我对你遇到的麻烦感到同情。

I never wrote you because it would have been so painful.

我从来没有写信给你，因为那会很痛苦。

I see now that I evaded my duty.

我现在明白了，我逃避了自己的职责。

But I felt for you....

但我对你有感觉......

I tried to put myself in your place.

我试着把自己放在你的位置上。

I tried to imagine dear Mr. Struthers being unfaithful to me ...

我试图想象亲爱的斯特拉瑟斯先生对我不忠......

but, of course, I couldn’t.

但是，我当然不能。

He was a saint.” She blew her nose and repeated with passion, as if to herself, “A saint!”

他是一位圣人。”她擤了擤鼻子，充满激情地重复着，仿佛对自己说：“一个圣人！”

(“Yes,” thought Sabine, “a saint ...

（“是的，”萨宾想，“一位圣人......

if ever there was one.”) She saw that Aunt Cassie was attacking her now from a new point.

如果有的话。”）她看到卡西姨妈现在正在从一个新的角度攻击她。

She was trying to pity her.

她试图怜悯她。

By being full of pity the old woman would try to break down her defenses and gain possession of her.

由于充满怜悯，老妇人会试图打破她的防御并占据她。

Sabine’s green eyes took one hard, glinting look.

萨宾的绿眼睛闪着冷酷的光芒。

“Did you ever see my husband?” she asked.

“你见过我丈夫吗？”她问道。

“No,” said Aunt Cassie, “but I’ve heard a great deal of him.

“不，”卡西姨妈说，“但我听过很多关于他的事。

I’ve been told how you suffered.”

我已经被告知你是如何受苦的。”

Sabine looked at her with a queer, mocking expression.

萨宾用一种奇怪、嘲讽的表情看着她。

“Then you’ve been told wrongly.

“那你就被告知错误了。

He is a fascinating man.

他是一个迷人的人。

I did not suffer.

我没有受苦。

I assure you that I would rather have shared him with fifty other women than have had any one of the men about here all to myself.”

我向你保证，我宁愿与另外五十个女人分享他，也不愿让这里的任何一个男人独享。”

There was a frank immorality in this statement which put Aunt Cassie to rout, bag and baggage.

这句话明显是不道德的，这让卡西姨妈彻底崩溃了。

She merely stared, finding nothing to say in reply to such a speech.

她只是凝视着，对这样的言论无话可说。

Clearly, in all her life she had never heard any one say a thing so bald and so frank, so completely naked of all pretense of gentility.

显然，她一生中从未听过任何人说过如此赤裸裸、如此坦率、如此完全不假装彬彬有礼的话。

Sabine went on coldly, pushing her assault to the very end.

萨宾冷冷地继续说道，将她的攻击进行到底。

“I divorced him at last, not because he was unfaithful to me, but because there was another woman who wanted to marry him ...

“我最终和他离婚，不是因为他对我不忠，而是因为有另一个女人想嫁给他……

a woman whom I respect and like ...

一个我尊敬和喜欢的女人......

a woman who is still my friend.

一个仍然是我朋友的女人。

Understand that I loved him passionately ...

明白我热烈地爱着他......

in a very fleshly way.

以一种非常肉体的方式。

One couldn’t help it.

一个人忍不住了。

I wasn’t the only woman....

我不是唯一的女人......

He was a kind of devil, but a very fascinating one.”

他是一种魔鬼，但又非常迷人。”

The old woman was a little stunned but not by any means defeated.

老妇人有些愕然，但并没有屈服。

Sabine saw a look come into her eyes, a look which clearly said, “So this is what the world has done to my poor, dear, innocent little Sabine!” At last she said with a sigh, “I find it an amazing world.

萨宾看到她的眼睛里闪现出一种神情，那眼神显然在说：“这就是这个世界对我可怜、亲爱的、无辜的小萨宾所做的一切！”最后她叹了口气说：“我发现这是一个奇妙的世界。

I don’t know what it is coming to.”

我不知道会发生什么。”

“Nor I,” replied Sabine with an air of complete agreement and sympathy.

“我也没有，”萨宾带着完全同意和同情的神情回答道。

She understood that the struggle was not yet finished, for Aunt Cassie had a way of putting herself always in an impregnable position, of wrapping herself in layer after layer of sighs and sympathy, of charity and forgiveness, of meekness and tears, so that in the end there was no way of suddenly tearing them aside and saying, “There you are ...

她明白斗争还没有结束，因为卡西姨妈有办法让自己永远处于坚不可摧的境地，用一层又一层的叹息和同情、仁慈和宽恕、温柔和泪水包裹自己，这样到最后就没有办法突然把它们撕开说：“你在这里……”

naked at last, a horrible meddling old woman!” And Sabine kept thinking, too, that if Aunt Cassie had lived in the days of her witch-baiting ancestor, Preserved Pentland, she would have been burned for a witch.

终于赤身裸体了，一个可怕的爱管闲事的老太婆！”萨宾也一直在想，如果卡西姨妈生活在她那引诱女巫的祖先普雷维德·彭特兰的时代，她就会因为女巫而被烧死。

And all the while Sabine had been suffering, quietly, deep inside, behind the frankly painted face ...

而萨宾自始至终都在承受着痛苦，静静地，在内心深处，在坦率地画着的脸后面……

suffering in a way which no one in the world had ever suspected; for it was like tearing out her heart, to talk thus of Richard Callendar, even to speak his name.

以一种世界上没有人怀疑的方式遭受痛苦；因为这样谈论理查德·卡伦达，甚至说出他的名字，就如同撕裂了她的心。

Aloud she said, “And how is Mrs. Pentland....

她大声说道：“彭特兰夫人怎么样……

I mean Olivia ...

我是说奥利维亚...

not my cousin....

不是我表弟……

I know how _she_ is ...

我知道_她_是怎样的...

no better.”

好不了。”

“No better....

“再好不过了……

It is one of those things which I can never understand....

这是我永远无法理解的事情之一......

Why God should have sent such a calamity to a good man like my brother.”

为什么上帝要给我哥哥这样的好人带来这样的灾难。”

“But Olivia ...” began Sabine, putting an end abruptly to what was clearly the prelude to a pious monologue.

“但是奥利维亚……”萨宾开始说道，突然结束了显然是虔诚独白的前奏。

“Oh!...

“哦！...

Olivia,” replied Aunt Cassie, launching into an account of the young Mrs. Pentland.

“奥利维亚，”卡西姨妈回答道，并开始讲述年轻的彭特兰夫人。

“Olivia is an angel ...

“奥利维亚是一个天使......

an angel, a blessing of God sent to my poor brother.

一位天使，上帝赐福给我可怜的兄弟。

But she’s not been well lately.

但她最近身体不太好。

She’s been rather sharp with me ...

她对我相当尖锐......

even with poor Miss Peavey, who is so sensitive.

即使是可怜的皮维小姐，她是如此敏感。

I can’t imagine what has come over her.”

我无法想象她遭遇了什么。”

It seemed that the strong, handsome Olivia was suffering from nerves.

看起来，坚强英俊的奥莉薇娅正患着神经病。

She was, Aunt Cassie said, unhappy about something, although she could not see why Olivia shouldn’t be happy ...

卡西阿姨说，她对某件事感到不高兴，尽管她不明白为什么奥利维亚不应该高兴……

a woman with everything in the world.

一个拥有世界上一切的女人。

“Everything?” echoed Sabine.

“一切？”萨宾附和道。

“Has any one in the world got everything?”

“世界上有谁拥有一切吗？”

“It is Olivia’s fault if she hasn’t everything.

“如果奥利维亚没有拥有一切，那是她的错。

All the materials are there.

所有材料都在那里。

She has a good husband ...

她有一个好丈夫...

a husband who never looks at other women.”

一个从不看其他女人的丈夫。”

“Nor at his own wife either,” interrupted Sabine.

“也不对他自己的妻子，”萨宾打断道。

“I know all about Anson.

“我了解安森的一切。

I grew up with him.”

我和他一起长大。”

Aunt Cassie saw fit to ignore this.

卡西阿姨认为忽略这一点是合适的。

“She’s rich,” she said, resuming the catalogue of Olivia’s blessings.

“她很富有，”她说，继续列举奥利维亚的祝福。

And again Sabine interrupted, “But what does money mean Aunt Cassie?

萨宾再次打断道：“但是钱对卡西阿姨意味着什么？

In our world one is rich and that’s the end of it.

在我们的世界里，一个人很富有，仅此而已。

One takes it for granted.

人们认为这是理所当然的。

When one isn’t rich any longer, one simply slips out of it.

当一个人不再富有时，他就会从富裕中溜走。

It has very little to do with happiness....”

这和幸福没有多大关系……”

The strain was beginning to show on Aunt Cassie.

卡西阿姨身上开始出现这种紧张。

“You’d find out if you weren’t rich,” she observed with asperity, “if your father and great-grandfather hadn’t taken care of their money.” She recovered herself and made a deprecating gesture.

“如果你并不富有，”她严厉地说，“如果你的父亲和曾祖父不爱管好他们的钱，你就会发现。”她回过神来，做出了一个不赞成的手势。

“But don’t think I’m criticizing dear Olivia.

“但别以为我在批评亲爱的奥利维亚。

She is the best, the most wonderful woman.” She began to wrap herself once more in kindliness and charity and forgiveness.

她是最好、最美妙的女人。”她开始再次用仁慈、慈善和宽恕来包裹自己。

“Only she seems to me to be a little queer lately.”

“只是我觉得她最近有点奇怪。”

Sabine’s artificially crimson mouth took on a slow smile.

萨宾那张人工猩红的嘴慢慢地露出微笑。

“It would be too bad if the Pentland family drove two wives insane--one after the other.”

“如果彭特兰家族让两个妻子一个接一个地发疯，那就太糟糕了。”

Again Aunt Cassie came near to defeat by losing her composure.

卡西姨妈再次失去了冷静，险些被击败。

She snorted, and Sabine helped her out by asking: “And Anson?” ironically.

她哼了一声，萨宾帮她问道：“安森呢？”讽刺的是。

“What is dear Anson doing?”

“亲爱的安森在做什么？”

She told him of Anson’s great work, “The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony” and of its immense value as a contribution to the history of the nation; and when she had finished with that, she turned to Jack’s wretched health, saying in a low, melancholy voice, “It’s only a matter of time, you know....

她向他讲述了安森的伟大著作《彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地》及其对国家历史贡献的巨大价值；当她说完之后，她转向杰克糟糕的健康状况，用低沉、忧郁的声音说道：“这只是时间问题，你知道……

At least, so the doctors say....

至少，医生是这么说的……

With a heart like that it’s only a matter of time.” The tears came again.

有了这样的心，一切都只是时间问题。”眼泪又来了。

“And yet,” Sabine said slowly, “You say that Olivia has everything.”

“然而，”萨宾缓缓说道，“你说奥利维亚拥有一切。”

“Well,” replied Aunt Cassie, “perhaps not everything.”

“嗯，”卡西姨妈回答道，“也许不是全部。”

Before she left she inquired for Sabine’s daughter and was told that she had gone over to Pentlands to see Sybil.

离开之前，她询问了萨宾女儿的情况，并被告知她已经去彭特兰看西比尔了。

“They went to the same school in France,” said Sabine.

“他们在法国上同一所学校，”萨宾说。

“They were friends there.”

“他们是那里的朋友。”

“Yes,” said Aunt Cassie.

“是的，”卡西阿姨说。

“I was against Sybil’s going abroad to school.

“我反对西比尔出国上学。

It fills a girl’s head with queer ideas ...

它让女孩的脑子里充满了奇怪的想法……

especially a school like that where any one could go.

尤其是这样一个任何人都可以去的学校。

Since she’s home, Sybil behaves very queerly....

自从回到家后，西比尔的行为就很奇怪……

I think it’ll stand in the way of her success in Boston.

我认为这将阻碍她在波士顿取得成功。

The boys don’t like girls who are different.”

男孩子不喜欢与众不同的女孩。”

“Perhaps,” said Sabine, “she may marry outside of Boston.

“也许，”萨宾说，“她可能会在波士顿以外的地方结婚。

Men aren’t the same everywhere.

男人在哪里都不相同。

Even in Boston there must be one or two who don’t refer to women as ‘Good old So-and-so.’ Even in Boston there must be men who like women who are well dressed ...

即使在波士顿，也一定有一两个人不称女性为“好老某某”。即使在波士顿，也一定有男人喜欢穿着得体的女人……

women who are ladies....”

女人就是女人……”

Aunt Cassie began to grow angry again, but Sabine swept over her.

卡西姨妈又开始生气了，但萨宾却向她袭来。

“Don’t be insulted, Aunt Cassie.

“别被侮辱了，卡西阿姨。

I only mean ladies in the old-fashioned, glamorous sense.....

我指的只是老式的、迷人的女士......

Besides,” she continued, “whom could she marry who wouldn’t be a cousin or a connection of some sort?”

此外，”她继续说道，“如果不是表亲或某种亲戚，她还能嫁给谁呢？”

“She ought to marry here ...

“她应该在这里结婚......

among the people she’s always known.

在她一直认识的人中。

There’s a Mannering boy who would be a good match, and James Thorne’s youngest son.”

有一个曼纳林男孩很适合，他是詹姆斯·索恩最小的儿子。”

Sabine smiled.

萨宾笑了。

“So you have plans for her already.

“所以你已经为她做好了计划。

You’ve settled it?”

你已经解决了吗？”

“Of course, nothing is settled.

“当然，一切都还没有解决。

I’m only thinking of it with Sybil’s welfare in view.

我只是考虑到西比尔的福利。

If she married one of those boys she’d know what she was getting.

如果她嫁给其中一个男孩，她就会知道自己会得到什么。

She’d know that she was marrying a gentleman.”

她知道她要嫁给一位绅士。”

“Perhaps ...” said Sabine.

“也许……”萨宾说。

“Perhaps.” Somehow a devil had taken possession of her and she added softly, “There was, of course, Horace Pentland....

“也许。”不知何故，一个魔鬼占据了她，她轻声补充道：“当然，还有霍勒斯·彭特兰……

One can never be quite sure.” (She never forgot anything, Sabine.)

人们永远无法完全确定。” （她从来没有忘记过任何事情，萨宾。）

And at the same moment she saw, standing outside the door that opened on the terrace next to the marshes, a solid, dark, heavy figure which she recognized with a sudden feeling of delight as O’Hara.

与此同时，她看到沼泽旁露台的门外站着一个坚实、黝黑、沉重的身影，她突然欣喜地认出那是奥哈拉。

He had been walking across the fields with the wiry little Higgins, who had left him and continued on his way down the lane in the direction of Pentlands.

他当时正和精瘦的希金斯一起穿过田野，希金斯离开了他，继续沿着小路朝彭特兰的方向走去。

At the sight of him, Aunt Cassie made every sign of an attempt to escape quickly, but Sabine said in a voice ominous with sweetness, “You must meet Mr. O’Hara.

卡西姨妈一看到他，就做出了逃跑的样子，但萨宾却用一种不祥而又甜蜜的声音说道：“你必须去见一下奥哈拉先生。

I think you’ve never met him.

我认为你从未见过他。

He’s a charming man.” And she placed herself in such a position that it was impossible for the old woman to escape without losing every vestige of dignity.

他是一个有魅力的男人。”而她把自己置于这样的境地，老太婆不可能在不失去尊严的情况下逃脱。

Then Sabine called gently, “Come in, Mr. O’Hara....

然后萨宾温柔地喊道：“请进，奥哈拉先生……”

Mrs. Struthers is here and wants so much to meet her new neighbor.”

斯特拉瑟斯夫人在这里，非常想见到她的新邻居。”

The door opened and O’Hara stepped in, a swarthy, rather solidly built man of perhaps thirty-five, with a shapely head on which the vigorous black hair was cropped close, and with blue eyes that betrayed his Irish origin by the half-hidden sparkle of amusement at this move of Sabine’s.

门打开了，奥哈拉走了进来，他是一个皮肤黝黑、身材相当健壮的男人，大约三十五岁，有着匀称的头颅，一头浓密的黑发剪得很短，蓝色的眼睛因萨宾的这一举动而半隐藏地闪烁着有趣的光芒，暴露了他的爱尔兰血统。

He had a strong jaw and full, rather sensual, lips and a curious sense of great physical strength, as if all his clothes were with difficulty modeled to the muscles that lay underneath.

他有一个强壮的下巴和丰满的、相当性感的嘴唇，还有一种奇怪的巨大体力感，仿佛他所有的衣服都很难模仿下面的肌肉。

He wore no hat, and his skin was a dark tan, touched at the cheek-bones by the dull flush of health and good blood.

他没有戴帽子，皮肤呈深褐色，颧骨处泛着健康和良好血液的暗淡红晕。

He was, one would have said at first sight, a common, vulgar man in that narrow-jawed world about Durham, a man, perhaps, who had come by his muscles as a dock-laborer.

乍一看，人们可能会说，在达勒姆这个狭隘的世界里，他是一个普通的、粗俗的人，也许是一个靠码头工人的肌肉而长大的人。

Sabine had thought him vulgar in the beginning, only to succumb in the end to a crude sort of power which placed him above the realm of such distinctions.

萨宾一开始认为他粗俗，但最终屈服于一种粗俗的权力，这种权力使他凌驾于这些杰出的境界之上。

And she was a shrewd woman, too, devoted passionately to the business of getting at the essence of people; she knew that vulgarity had nothing to do with a man who had eyes so shrewd and full of mockery.

她也是一位精明的女人，热衷于了解人的本质。她知道，对于一个眼神如此精明、充满嘲讽的男人来说，粗俗毫无关系。

He came forward quietly and with a charming air of deference in which there was a faint suspicion of nonsense, a curious shadow of vulgarity, only one could not be certain whether he was not being vulgar by deliberation.

他静静地走上前，带着一种迷人的恭敬神态，其中隐隐有胡言乱语的嫌疑，一种奇怪的粗俗的影子，只是让人无法确定他是否是故意粗俗的。

“It is a great pleasure,” he said.

“这是一种极大的乐趣，”他说。

“Of course, I have seen Mrs. Struthers many times ...

“当然，我见过斯特拉瑟斯夫人很多次……

at the horse shows ...

在马术表演中...

the whippet races.”

惠比特犬比赛。”

Aunt Cassie was drawn up, stiff as a poker, with an air of having found herself unexpectedly face to face with a rattlesnake.

卡西姨妈站得笔直，僵硬得像一根拨火棍，神情就好像意外地与一条响尾蛇面对面一样。

“I have had the same experience,” she said.

“我也有过同样的经历，”她说。

“And of course I’ve seen all the improvements you have made here on the farm.” The word “improvements” she spoke with a sort of venom in it, as if it had been instead a word like “arson.”

“当然，我也看到了你们在农场所做的所有改进。”她说“改进”这个词时，带着一种恶毒的语气，仿佛它是一个“纵火”这样的词。

“We’ll have some tea,” observed Sabine.

“我们要喝点茶，”萨宾说。

“Sit down, Aunt Cassie.”

“坐下，卡西阿姨。”

But Aunt Cassie did not unbend.

但卡西阿姨并没有屈服。

“I promised Olivia to be back at Pentlands for tea,” she said.

“我答应奥利维亚会回到彭特兰喝茶，”她说。

“And I am late already.” Pulling on her black gloves, she made a sudden dip in the direction of O’Hara.

“而且我已经迟到了。”她戴上黑色手套，突然朝奥哈拉的方向俯身。

“We shall probably see each other again, Mr. O’Hara, since we are neighbors.”

“我们可能会再次见面，奥哈拉先生，因为我们是邻居。”

“Indeed, I hope so....”

“确实，我希望如此……”

Then she kissed Sabine again and murmured, “I hope, my dear, that you will come often to see me, now that you’ve come back to us.

然后她又吻了萨宾，低声说道：“亲爱的，既然你回到了我们身边，我希望你能经常来看我。

Make my house your own home.” She turned to O’Hara, finding a use for him suddenly in her warfare against Sabine.

让我的房子成为你自己的家。”她转向奥哈拉，突然发现他在对抗萨宾的战争中有用。

“You know, Mr. O’Hara, she is a traitor, in her way.

“你知道，奥哈拉先生，以她的方式，她是一个叛徒。

She was raised among us and then went away for twenty years.

她在我们中间长大，然后离开了二十年。

She hasn’t any loyalty in her.”

她没有任何忠诚。”

She made the speech with a stiff air of playfulness, as if, of course, she were only making a joke and the speech meant nothing at all.

她讲话时带着一种僵硬的玩笑气氛，当然，她只是在开个玩笑，讲话根本没有任何意义。

Yet the air was filled with a cloud of implications.

然而空气中却充满了暗示。

It was the sort of tactics in which she excelled.

这正是她所擅长的策略。

Sabine went with her to the door, and when she returned she discovered O’Hara standing by the window, watching the figure of Aunt Cassie as she moved indignantly down the road in the direction of Pentlands.

萨宾陪她走到门口，当她回来时，她发现奥哈拉站在窗边，看着卡西姨妈的身影，她愤怒地沿着路朝彭特兰的方向走去。

Sabine stood there for a moment, studying the straight, strong figure outlined against the light, and she got suddenly a curious sense of the enmity between him and the old woman.

萨宾在那里站了一会儿，审视着灯光下轮廓笔直、强壮的身影，她突然对他和老妇人之间的敌意产生了一种奇怪的感觉。

They stood, the two of them, in a strange way as the symbols of two great forces--the one negative, the other intensely positive; the one the old, the other, the new; the one of decay, the other of vigorous, almost too lush growth.

他们两个以一种奇怪的方式站着，象征着两种伟大的力量——一种是消极的，另一种是强烈的积极的；而他们两个则以一种奇怪的方式站着，象征着两种伟大的力量——一种是消极的，另一种是强烈的积极的。一个是旧的，另一个是新的；一个是腐烂，另一个是旺盛、几乎过于茂盛的生长。

Nothing could ever reconcile them.

没有什么能让他们和解。

According to the scheme of things, they would be implacable enemies to the end.

按照计划，他们到最后都会是不共戴天的敌人。

But Sabine had no doubts as to the final victor; the same scheme of things showed small respect for all that Aunt Cassie stood for.

但萨宾对最终的胜利者毫不怀疑；同样的事情计划对卡西姨妈所代表的一切表现出一点尊重。

That was one of the wisdoms Sabine had learned since she had escaped from Durham into the uncompromising realities of the great world.

这是萨宾自从逃离达勒姆进入这个伟大世界的残酷现实以来学到的智慧之一。

When she spoke, she said in a noncommittal sort of voice, “Mrs. Struthers is a remarkable woman.”

当她说话时，她用一种不置可否的声音说：“斯特拉瑟斯夫人是一位了不起的女人。”

And O’Hara, turning, looked at her with a sudden glint of humor in his blue eyes.

奥哈拉转过身来看着她，蓝眼睛里突然闪现出幽默的光芒。

“Extraordinary ...

“非凡的...

I’m sure of it.”

我确信这一点。”

“And a powerful woman,” said Sabine.

“而且是一位有权势的女人，”萨宾说。

“Wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove.

“像蛇一样聪明，像鸽子一样温柔。

It is never good to underestimate such strength.

低估这样的实力绝对是不好的。

And now....

而现在....

How do you like your tea?”

你的茶怎么样？”

* * * * *

** ** ** **

He took no tea but contented himself with munching a bit of toast and afterward smoking a cigar, clearly pleased with himself in a naïve way in the rôle of landlord coming to inquire of his tenant whether everything was satisfactory.

他没有喝茶，只是嚼了一点烤面包，然后抽了一支雪茄，显然对自己扮演房东来询问房客是否一切都满意的角色感到很天真。

He had a liking for this hard, clever woman who was now only a tenant of the land--his land--which she had once owned.

他喜欢这个坚强、聪明的女人，她现在只是她曾经拥有的土地——他的土地——的佃户。

When he thought of it--that he, Michael O’Hara, had come to own this farm in the midst of the fashionable and dignified world of Durham--there was something incredible in the knowledge, something which never ceased to warm him with a strong sense of satisfaction.

当他想到他，迈克尔·奥哈拉，在达勒姆时尚而高贵的世界中拥有了这座农场时，他的知识中就有一些令人难以置信的东西，这种东西始终让他感到强烈的满足感。

By merely turning his head, he could see in the mirror the reflection of the long scar on his temple, marked there by a broken bottle in the midst of a youthful fight along the India Wharf.

只要转过头，他就能在镜子中看到太阳穴上那条长长的疤痕，那是年轻时在印度码头打斗时打碎的瓶子留下的痕迹。

He, Michael O’Hara, without education save that which he had given himself, without money, without influence, had raised himself to this position before his thirty-sixth birthday.

他，迈克尔·奥哈拉，除了自己给自己的教育之外，没有受过任何教育，没有金钱，没有影响力，却在三十六岁生日之前将自己提升到了这个位置。

In the autumn he would be a candidate for Congress, certain of election in the back Irish districts.

秋天，他将成为国会候选人，并且肯定会在爱尔兰的偏远地区当选。

He, Michael O’Hara, was on his way to being one of the great men of New England, a country which had once been the tight little paradise of people like the Pentlands.

他，迈克尔·奥哈拉，正在成为新英格兰的伟人之一，这个国家曾经是彭特兰等人的狭小天堂。

Only no one must ever suspect the depth of that great satisfaction.

只是没有人会怀疑这种巨大满足感的深度。

Yes, he had a liking for this strange woman, who ought to have been his enemy and, oddly enough, was not.

是的，他喜欢这个陌生的女人，她本该是他的敌人，但奇怪的是，她却不是。

He liked the shrewd directness of her mind and the way she had of sitting there opposite him, turning him over and over while he talked, as if he had been a small bug under a microscope.

他喜欢她思维的精明和直接，以及她坐在他对面的方式，在他说话时把他翻来覆去，仿佛他是显微镜下的一只小虫子。

She was finding out all about him; and he understood that, for it was a trick in which he, himself, was well-practised.

她正在了解他的一切。他明白这一点，因为这是他自己熟练掌握的把戏。

It was by such methods that he had got ahead in the world.

正是通过这样的方法，他才在世界上取得了领先地位。

It puzzled him, too, that she should have come out of that Boston-Durham world and yet could be so utterly different from it.

他也很困惑，她本应该来自波士顿-达勒姆的世界，却又与那里截然不同。

He had a feeling that somewhere in the course of her life something had happened to her, something terrible which in the end had given her a great understanding and clarity of mind.

他有一种感觉，在她生命历程中的某个地方，发生了一些事情，一些可怕的事情最终让她有了极大的理解力和清晰的头脑。

He knew, too, almost at once, on the day she had driven up to the door of the cottage, that she had made a discovery about life which he himself had made long since ...

在她开车到小屋门口的那天，他几乎立刻就知道，她对生活有了一个发现，而他自己早已有了这个发现……

that there is nothing of such force as the power of a person content merely to be himself, nothing so invincible as the power of simple honesty, nothing so successful as the life of one who runs alone.

没有什么比一个人满足于做自己的力量更强大的了，没有什么比简单诚实的力量更无敌的了，没有什么比一个人独自奔跑的生活更成功的了。

Somewhere she had learned all this.

这一切她都是从哪里得知的。

She was like a woman to whom nothing could ever again happen.

她就像一个再也不会发生任何事情的女人。

They talked for a time, idly and pleasantly, with a sense of understanding unusual in two people who had known each other for so short a time; they spoke of the farm, of Pentlands, of the mills and the Poles in Durham, of the country as it had been in the days when Sabine was a child.

他们聊了一会儿，闲适而愉快，对于两个认识时间不长的人来说，有一种不寻常的理解感。他们谈论农场、彭特兰、磨坊和达勒姆的波兰人，谈论萨宾小时候的乡村。

And all the while he had that sense of her weighing and watching him, of feeling out the faint echo of a brogue in his speech and the rather hard, nasal quality that remained from those days along India Wharf and the memories of a ne’er-do-well, superstitious Irish father.

自始至终，他都能感觉到她在掂量着他，注视着他，感受着他讲话中粗俗语言的微弱回声，以及印度码头那些日子里残留下来的相当生硬的鼻音，以及对一个不干事、迷信的爱尔兰父亲的记忆。

He could not have known that she was a woman who included among her friends men and women of a dozen nationalities, who lived a life among the clever, successful people of the world ...

他不可能知道她是一个朋友中有十几个国家的男女的女人，生活在世界上聪明、成功的人中间……

the architects, the painters, the politicians, the scientists.

建筑师、画家、政治家、科学家。

He could not have known the ruthless rule she put up against tolerating any but people who were “complete.” He could have known nothing of her other life in Paris, and London, and New York, which had nothing to do with the life in Durham and Boston.

他不可能知道她所制定的残酷规则，禁止容忍除了“完整”的人之外的任何人。他不可能知道她在巴黎、伦敦和纽约的其他生活，这与达勒姆和波士顿的生活无关。

And yet he did know....

但他确实知道……

He saw that, despite the great difference in their worlds, there was a certain kinship between them, that they had both come to look upon the world as a pie from which any plum might be drawn if one only knew the knack.

他发现，尽管他们的世界存在巨大差异，但他们之间却存在着一定的亲缘关系，他们都把世界视为一块馅饼，只要掌握诀窍，就可以从中取出任何梅子。

And Sabine, on her side, not yet quite certain about casting aside all barriers, was slowly reaching the same understanding.

而萨宾这边，虽然还不确定是否要抛开所有障碍，但也慢慢达成了同样的理解。

There was no love or sentimentality in the spark that flashed between them.

他们之间闪烁的火花中没有爱情或感伤。

She was more than ten years older than O’Hara and had done with such things long ago.

她比奥哈拉大十多岁，早就做过这种事了。

It was merely a recognition of one strong person by another.

这只是一个强者对另一个强者的认可。

It was O’Hara who first took advantage of the bond.

奥哈拉首先利用了这种联系。

In the midst of the conversation, he had turned the talk rather abruptly to Pentlands.

在谈话中，他突然把话题转向了彭特兰。

“I’ve never been there and I know very little of the life,” he said, “but I’ve watched it from a distance and it interests me.

“我从未去过那里，对那里的生活知之甚少，”他说，“但我从远处观察过它，它让我很感兴趣。

It’s like something out of a dream, completely dead ...

就像是一场梦一样，完全死了……

dead all save for young Mrs. Pentland and Sybil.”

除了年轻的彭特兰夫人和西比尔之外，其他人都死了。”

Sabine smiled.

萨宾笑了。

“You know Sybil, then?”

“那你认识西比尔吗？”

“We ride together every morning....

“我们每天早上都一起骑车......

We met one morning by chance along the path by the river and since then we’ve gone nearly every day.”

有一天早上我们在河边小路上偶然相遇，从那以后我们几乎每天都去。”

“She’s a charming girl....

“她是一个迷人的女孩......

She went to school in France with my daughter, Thérèse.

她和我的女儿 Thérèse 一起在法国上学。

I saw a great deal of her then.”

那时我经常见到她。”

Far back in her mind the thought occurred to her that there would be something very amusing in the prospect of Sybil married to O’Hara.

她内心深处突然想到，西比尔嫁给奥哈拉的前景将会非常有趣。

It would produce such an uproar with Anson and Aunt Cassie and the other relatives....

这会引起安森、卡西阿姨和其他亲戚的骚动……

A Pentland married to an Irish Roman Catholic politician!

彭特兰人嫁给了爱尔兰罗马天主教政客！

“She is like her mother, isn’t she?” asked O’Hara, sitting forward a bit on his chair.

“她就像她的母亲，不是吗？”奥哈拉在椅子上向前坐了一点问道。

He had a way of sitting thus, in the tense, quiet alertness of a cat.

他总是这样坐着，像猫一样紧张、安静、警觉。

“Very like her mother....

“很像她的母亲......

Her mother is a remarkable woman ...

她的母亲是一位了不起的女性...

a charming woman ...

一个迷人的女人...

also, I might say, what is the rarest of all things, a really good and generous woman.”

而且，我可能会说，最难得的是，一个真正善良、慷慨的女人。”

“I’ve thought that....

“我曾以为……

I’ve seen her a half-dozen times.

我见过她六次。

I asked her to help me in planting the garden here at the cottage because I knew she had a passion for gardens.

我请她帮我在小屋种植花园，因为我知道她对花园充满热情。

And she didn’t refuse ...

而她也没有拒绝……

though she scarcely knew me.

尽管她几乎不认识我。

She came over and helped me with it.

她过来帮我做了。

I saw her then and came to know her.

那时我看到了她并认识了她。

But when that was finished, she went back to Pentlands and I haven’t seen her since.

但当一切结束后，她回到了彭特兰，从那以后我就再也没有见过她。

It’s almost as if she meant to avoid me.

就好像她有意避开我一样。

Sometimes I feel sorry for her....

有时候我会觉得对不起她......

It must be a queer life for a woman like that ...

对于这样的女人来说，生活一定很奇怪......

young and beautiful.”

年轻又漂亮。”

“She has a great deal to occupy her at Pentlands.

“她在彭特兰有很多事情要做。

And it’s true that it’s not a very fascinating life.

确实，这并不是一种非常令人着迷的生活。

Still, I’m sure she couldn’t bear being pitied....

不过，我确信她无法忍受被怜悯......

She’s the last woman in the world to want pity.”

她是世界上最不需要怜悯的女人。”

Curiously, O’Hara flushed, the red mounting slowly beneath the dark-tanned skin.

奇怪的是，奥哈拉脸红了，在晒黑的皮肤下，红色慢慢上升。

“I thought,” he said a little sadly, “that her husband or Mrs. Struthers might have raised objections....

“我想，”他有点悲伤地说，“她的丈夫或斯特拉瑟斯夫人可能会提出反对……

I know how they feel toward me.

我知道他们对我的感觉。

There’s no use pretending not to know.”

假装不知道是没有用的。”

“It is quite possible,” said Sabine.

萨宾说：“这很有可能。”

There was a sudden embarrassing silence, which gave Sabine time to pull her wits together and organize a thousand sudden thoughts and impressions.

突然出现一阵令人尴尬的沉默，这让萨宾有时间集中精力，整理出一千个突然出现的想法和印象。

She was beginning to understand, bit by bit, the real reasons of their hatred for O’Hara, the reasons which lay deep down underneath, perhaps so deep that none of them ever saw them for what they were.

她开始一点一点地理解他们憎恨奥哈拉的真正原因，这些原因深藏在内心深处，也许深得他们没有人看到过他们的本来面目。

And then out of the silence she heard the voice of O’Hara saying, in a queer, hushed way, “I mean to ask something of you ...

然后，在一片寂静中，她听到奥哈拉的声音，用一种奇怪的、低声的方式说：“我想问你一件事……

something that may sound ridiculous.

听起来可能很荒谬的事情。

I don’t pretend that it isn’t, but I mean to ask it anyway.”

我不会假装不是，但我还是想问一下。”

For a moment he hesitated and then, rising quickly, he stood looking away from her out of the door, toward the distant blue marshes and the open sea.

他犹豫了一会儿，然后迅速站起来，站在那里，目光从门外的她身上移开，看向远处蓝色的沼泽和开阔的大海。

She fancied that he was trembling a little, but she could not be certain.

她觉得他在微微颤抖，但又不敢确定。

What she did know was that he made an immense and heroic effort, that for a moment he, a man who never did such things, placed himself in a position where he would be defenseless and open to being cruelly hurt; and for the moment all the recklessness seemed to flow out of him and in its place there came a queer sadness, almost as if he felt himself defeated in some way....

她所知道的是，他做出了巨大而英勇的努力，有那么一刻，他，一个从来没有做过这样的事情的人，把自己置于一个毫无防备、容易受到残酷伤害的境地；但他的所作所为却让他付出了巨大的努力。此刻，所有的鲁莽似乎都从他身上消失了，取而代之的是一种奇怪的悲伤，几乎就好像他觉得自己在某种程度上被击败了……

He said, “What I mean to ask you is this....

他说：“我想问你的是……

Will you ask me sometimes here to the cottage when she will be here too?” He turned toward her suddenly and added, “It will mean a great deal to me ...

当她也在这里时，你有时会问我到小屋吗？他突然转向她，补充道：“这对我来说意义重大......

more than you can imagine.”

超乎你的想象。”

She did not answer him at once, but sat watching him with a poorly concealed intensity; and presently, flicking the cigarette ashes casually from her gown, she asked, “And do you think it would be quite moral of me?”

她没有立即回答他，只是坐在那儿，眼神中毫不掩饰地紧张地看着他。过了一会儿，她随手弹掉礼服上的烟灰，问道：“你认为我这样做很道德吗？”

He shrugged his shoulders and looked at her in astonishment, as if he had expected her, least of all people in the world, to ask such a thing.

他耸耸肩，惊讶地看着她，仿佛他没想到她会问这样的事情，世界上最不可能的人。

“It might,” he said, “make us both a great deal happier.”

“这可能，”他说，“让我们俩都更快乐。”

“Perhaps ...

“也许……

perhaps not.

也许不是。

It’s not so simple as that.

事情并非那么简单。

Besides, it isn’t happiness that one places first at Pentlands.”

此外，在彭特兰把幸福放在第一位并不是幸福。”

“No....

“不……

Still....” He made a sudden vigorous gesture, as if to sweep aside all objections.

不过……”他突然做出了一个有力的手势，仿佛要排除一切反对意见。

“You’re a queer man....

“你真是个奇怪的人......

I’ll see what can be done.”

我会看看能做些什么。”

He thanked her and went out shyly without another word, to stride across the meadows, his black head bent thoughtfully, in the direction of his new bright chimneys.

他谢过她，一言不发地害羞地走出去，大步穿过草地，他的黑头若有所思地低着，朝着他新的明亮烟囱的方向走去。

At his heels trotted the springer, which had lain waiting for him outside the door.

跳跳狗跟在他后面小跑，它一直在门外等着他。

There was something about the robust figure, crossing the old meadow through the blue twilight, that carried a note of lonely sadness.

那个健壮的身影穿过蓝色的暮色穿过古老的草地，带着一种孤独的悲伤。

The self-confidence, the assurance, seemed to have melted away in some mysterious fashion.

自信、保证似乎以某种神秘的方式消失了。

It was almost as if one man had entered the cottage a little while before and another, a quite different man, had left it just now.

就好像一个人刚刚进入小屋，而另一个人，一个完全不同的人，刚刚离开了它。

Only one thing, Sabine saw, could have made the difference, and that was the name of Olivia.

萨宾认为，只有一件事可以带来改变，那就是奥利维亚的名字。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

When he had disappeared Sabine went up to her room overlooking the sea and lay there for a long time thinking.

当他消失后，萨宾回到她俯瞰大海的房间，躺在那里思考了很长时间。

She was by nature an indolent woman, especially at times when her brain worked with a fierce activity.

她生性是个懒惰的女人，尤其是在她的大脑剧烈运转的时候。

It was working thus now, in a kind of fever, confused and yet tremendously clear; for the visits from Aunt Cassie and O’Hara had ignited her almost morbid passion for vicarious experience.

现在它就这样运作着，带着一种狂热，混乱但又极其清晰。因为卡西阿姨和奥哈拉的来访点燃了她对替代体验近乎病态的热情。

She had a sense of being on the brink of some calamity which, beginning long ago in a hopeless tangle of origins and motives, was ready now to break forth with the accumulated force of years.

她有一种正处于某种灾难边缘的感觉，这场灾难很久以前就在起源和动机的无望纠缠中开始了，现在随着多年积累的力量准备爆发。

It was only now that she began to understand a little what it was that had drawn her back to a place which held memories so unhappy as those haunting the whole countryside of Durham.

直到现在，她才开始稍微明白，到底是什么让她回到了这个地方，那里的记忆与那些困扰着整个达勒姆乡村的记忆一样不愉快。

She saw that it must have been all the while a desire for vindication, a hunger to show them that, in spite of everything, of the straight red hair and the plain face, the silly ideas with which they had filled her head, in spite even of her unhappiness over her husband, she had made of her life a successful, even a brilliant, affair.

她看出，她一定一直渴望得到平反，渴望向他们表明，尽管有一切，尽管有直直的红发和朴素的脸，尽管他们在她的脑海中充满了愚蠢的想法，尽管她对丈夫感到不满，但她已经使自己的生活变得成功，甚至是辉煌的。

She had wanted to show them that she stood aloof now and impregnable, quite beyond their power to curb or to injure her.

她想向他们表明，她现在高高在上，坚不可摧，他们完全没有能力遏制或伤害她。

And for a moment she suspected that the half-discerned motive was an even stronger thing, akin perhaps to a desire for vengeance; for she held this world about Durham responsible for the ruin of her happiness.

有一瞬间，她怀疑这种不明确的动机是更强烈的，也许类似于复仇的欲望；因为她认为达勒姆周围的这个世界对她的幸福的毁灭负有责任。

She knew now, as a worldly woman of forty-six, that if she had been brought up knowing life for what it was, she might never have lost the one man who had ever roused a genuine passion in a nature so hard and dry.

她现在知道，作为一个四十六岁的世俗女人，如果她从小就知道生活是什么，她可能永远不会失去一个曾经在如此冷漠的天性中激起真正激情的男人。

It was all confused and tormented and vague, yet the visit of Aunt Cassie, filled with implications and veiled attempts to humble her, had cleared the air enormously.

一切都令人困惑、痛苦和模糊，然而卡西姨妈的来访，充满了暗示，并试图隐晦地试图让她谦卑下来，极大地澄清了空气。

And behind the closed lids, the green eyes began to see a whole procession of calamities which lay perhaps within her power to create.

在紧闭的眼睑后面，绿色的眼睛开始看到一连串的灾难，这些灾难也许是她有能力创造的。

She began to see how it might even be possible to bring the whole world of Pentlands down about their heads in a collapse which could create only freedom and happiness to Olivia and her daughter.

她开始看到，甚至有可能使彭特兰的整个世界陷入崩溃，而这只能为奥利维亚和她的女儿带来自由和幸福。

And it was these two alone for whom she had any affection; the others might be damned, gloriously damned, while she stood by without raising a finger.

她只对这两个人有感情。其他人可能会受到诅咒，光荣地受到诅咒，而她却袖手旁观，没有举起一根手指头。

She began to see where the pieces of the puzzle lay, the wedges which might force open the solid security of the familiar, unchanging world that once more surrounded her.

她开始看到拼图的碎片在哪里，这些楔子可能会强行打开再次包围她的熟悉的、不变的世界的坚固安全感。

Lying there in the twilight, she saw the whole thing in the process of being fitted together and she experienced a sudden intoxicating sense of power, of having all the tools at hand, of being the _dea ex machinâ_ of the calamity.

在暮色中躺在那里，她看到整个事情正在组装在一起，她突然体验到了一种令人陶醉的力量感，所有的工具都在手边，她是这场灾难的“死神”。

She was beginning to see, too, how the force, the power that had lain behind all the family, was coming slowly to an end in a pale, futile weakness.

她也开始看到，支撑整个家庭的力量，正在慢慢走向苍白、徒劳的虚弱。

There would always be money to bolster up their world, for the family had never lost its shopkeeping tradition of thrift; but in the end even money could not save them.

总会有钱来维持他们的生活，因为这个家族从未失去过节俭的经营传统。但最终连金钱也救不了他们。

There came a time when a great fortune might be only a shell without a desiccated rottenness inside.

曾经有一段时间，巨大的财富可能只是一个空壳，里面没有干瘪的腐烂物。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

She was still lying there when Thérèse came in--a short, plain, rather stocky, dark girl with a low straight black bang across her forehead.

泰蕾兹进来时，她还躺在那里——一个矮小、相貌平平、身材矮胖、皮肤黝黑的女孩，前额上有一缕低直的黑色刘海。

She was hot and soiled by the mud of the marshes, as the red-haired unhappy little girl had been so many times in that far-off, half-forgotten childhood.

她浑身又热又被沼泽里的泥土弄脏了，就像那个红头发的、不幸的小女孩在那个遥远的、几乎被遗忘的童年里多次经历过的那样。

“Where have you been?” she asked indifferently, for there was always a curious sense of strangeness between Sabine and her daughter.

“你去哪儿了？”她冷漠地问道，因为萨宾和女儿之间总有一种奇怪的陌生感。

“Catching frogs to dissect,” said Thérèse.

“抓青蛙来解剖，”泰蕾兹说。

“They’re damned scarce and I slipped into the river.”

“它们太稀缺了，我就掉进了河里。”

Sabine, looking at her daughter, knew well enough there was no chance of marrying off a girl so queer, and wilful and untidy, in Durham.

萨宾看着她的女儿，心里清楚，在达勒姆，不可能把一个如此古怪、任性、邋遢的女孩嫁出去。

She saw that it had been a silly idea from the beginning; but she found satisfaction in the knowledge that she had molded Thérèse’s life so that no one could ever hurt her as they had hurt her mother.

她发现这从一开始就是一个愚蠢的想法。但她感到满意的是，她塑造了特蕾莎的生活，这样就没有人可以像伤害她母亲一样伤害她了。

Out of the queer nomadic life they had led together, meeting all sorts of men and women who were, in Sabine’s curious sense of the word, “complete,” the girl had pierced her way somehow to the bottom of things.

他们一起过着奇怪的游牧生活，遇到了形形色色的男人和女人，用萨宾对这个词的好奇意义来说，他们是“完整的”，这个女孩以某种方式刺穿了事情的根源。

She was building her young life upon a rock, so that she could afford to feel contempt for the very forces which long ago had hurt her mother.

她把自己年轻的生命建立在岩石上，这样她就可以对很久以前伤害她母亲的力量感到蔑视。

She might, like O’Hara, be suddenly humbled by love; but that, Sabine knew, was a glorious thing well worth suffering.

她可能会像奥哈拉一样，突然因爱情而变得谦卑。但萨宾知道，这是一件光荣的事情，值得受苦。

She knew it each time that she looked at her child and saw the clear gray eyes of the girl’s father looking out of the dark face with the same proud look of indifferent confidence which had fascinated her twenty years ago.

每当她看着自己的孩子，看到女孩父亲那双清澈的灰色眼睛从黝黑的脸上探出头来时，她都知道，那双眼睛里带着二十年前令她着迷的骄傲、淡然和自信。

So long as Thérèse was alive, she would never be able wholly to forget him.

只要泰蕾兹还活着，她就永远无法完全忘记他。

“Go wash yourself,” she said.

“去洗洗吧，”她说。

“Old Mr. Pentland and Olivia and Mrs. Soames are coming to dine and play bridge.”

“老彭特兰先生、奥利维亚和索姆斯太太要来吃饭、打桥牌。”

As she dressed for dinner she no longer asked herself, “Why did I ever imagine Thérèse might find a husband here?

当她穿好衣服去吃晚饭时，她不再问自己：“为什么我会想到特蕾莎会在这里找到丈夫？

What ever induced me to come back here to be bored all summer long?”

到底是什么让我整个夏天都无聊地回到这里？”

She had forgotten all that.

她已经忘记了这一切。

She began to see that the summer held prospects of diversion.

她开始看到夏天有消遣的前景。

It might even turn into a fascinating game.

它甚至可能变成一个令人着迷的游戏。

She knew that her return had nothing to do with Thérèse’s future; she had been drawn back into Durham by some vague but overwhelming desire for mischief.

她知道她的回归与泰蕾兹的未来无关；她被某种模糊但压倒性的恶作剧欲望拉回到了达勒姆。

CHAPTER V

第五章

When Anson Pentland came down from the city in the evening, Olivia was always there to meet him dutifully and inquire about the day.

晚上，当安森·彭特兰从城里下来时，奥利维亚总是尽职尽责地迎接他，询问当天的情况。

The answers were always the same: “No, there was not much doing in town,” and, “It was very hot,” or, “I made a discovery to-day that will be of great use to me in the book.”

答案总是一样的：“不，城里没什么事可做”，“天气很热”，或者“我今天有了一个发现，这对我在书中会有很大用处。”

Then after a bath he would appear in tweeds to take his exercise in the garden, pottering about mildly and peering closely with his near-sighted blue eyes at little tags labeled “General Pershing” or “Caroline Testout” or “Poincaré” or “George Washington” which he tied carefully on the new dahlias and roses and smaller shrubs.

洗完澡后，他会穿着粗花呢衣服出现在花园里锻炼身体，轻轻地闲逛，用他近视的蓝眼睛仔细观察那些写着“潘兴将军”、“卡罗琳·泰斯特”、“庞加莱”或“乔治·华盛顿”的小标签，他小心翼翼地将这些标签绑在新的大丽花、玫瑰和较小的灌木上。

And, more often than not, the gardener would spend half the next morning removing the tags and placing them on the proper plants, for Anson really had no interest in flowers and knew very little about them.

而且，园丁通常会在第二天早上花半个小时的时间取下标签并将它们放在适当的植物上，因为安森确实对花卉不感兴趣，对它们知之甚少。

The tagging was only a part of his passion for labeling things; it made the garden at Pentlands seem a more subdued and ordered place.

贴标签只是他对标记事物的热情的一部分；它使彭特兰的花园显得更加柔和和有序。

Sometimes it seemed to Olivia that he went through life ticketing and pigeonholing everything that came his way: manners, emotions, thoughts, everything.

有时，奥利维亚觉得他把一生中遇到的一切都记录下来：举止、情感、思想，一切。

It was a habit that was growing on him in middle-age.

这是他中年时养成的习惯。

Dinner was usually late because Anson liked to take advantage of the long summer twilights, and after dinner it was the habit of all the family, save Jack, who went to bed immediately afterward, to sit in the Victorian drawing-room, reading and writing letters or sometimes playing patience, with Anson in his corner at Mr. Lowell’s desk working over “The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony,” and keeping up a prodigious correspondence with librarians and old men and women of a genealogical bent.

晚饭通常很晚，因为安森喜欢利用漫长的夏季黄昏，晚饭后，全家人都有这样的习惯，除了杰克，他很快就上床睡觉了，坐在维多利亚风格的客厅里，读书写信，有时耐心地坐着，安森则坐在洛厄尔先生办公桌前的角落里，研究“彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地”，并与图书管理员和家谱上的老男女保持着大量的通信。弯曲。

The routine of the evening rarely changed, for Anson disliked going out and Olivia preferred not to go alone.

晚上的例行公事很少改变，因为安森不喜欢出去，而奥利维亚则不愿意单独出去。

It was only with the beginning of the summer, when Sybil was grown and had begun to go out occasionally to dinners and balls, and the disturbing Sabine, with her passion for playing bridge, had come into the neighborhood, that the routine was beginning to break up.

直到夏初，西比尔长大了，开始偶尔出去参加晚宴和舞会，而令人不安的萨宾带着她对打桥牌的热情来到了附近，这种惯例才开始被打破。

There were fewer evenings now with Olivia and Sybil playing patience and old John Pentland sitting by the light of Mr. Longfellow’s lamp reading or simply staring silently before him, lost in thought.

现在，奥利维亚和西比尔耐心等待的夜晚越来越少了，老约翰·彭特兰则坐在朗费罗先生的灯下读书，或者只是默默地凝视着他的面前，陷入沉思。

There were times in those long evenings when Olivia, looking up suddenly and for no reason at all, would discover that Sybil was sitting in the same fashion watching her, and both of them would know that they, like old John Pentland, had been sitting there all the while holding books in their hands without knowing a word of what they had read.

有时候，在那些漫长的夜晚，奥利维亚突然毫无缘由地抬起头来，发现西比尔也正以同样的方式坐在那儿看着她，他们俩都知道，他们就像老约翰·彭特兰一样，一直坐在那里，手里拿着书，却对自己读过的内容一无所知。

It was as if a kind of enchantment descended upon them, as if they were waiting for something.

仿佛有一种魔力降临在他们身上，仿佛在等待着什么。

Once or twice the silence had been broken sharply by the unbearable sound of groans coming from the north wing when _she_ had been seized suddenly by one of her fits of violence.

有一两次，当她突然遭受暴力袭击时，从北翼传来的难以忍受的呻吟声突然打破了沉默。

Anson’s occasional comment and Olivia’s visits to Jack’s room to see that nothing had happened to him were the only interruptions.

安森偶尔的评论和奥利维亚去杰克的房间看看他没有发生什么事是唯一的打扰。

They spoke always in low voices when they played double patience in order not to disturb Anson at his work.

他们说话时总是低声说话，表现得加倍耐心，以免打扰安森工作。

Sometimes he encountered a bit of information for which he had been searching for a long time and then he would turn and tell them of it.

有时他遇到一些他已经寻找了很长时间的信息，然后他就会转身告诉他们。

There was the night when he made his discovery about Savina Pentland....

那天晚上，他发现了萨维娜·彭特兰……

“I was right about Savina Pentland,” he said.

“我对萨维娜·彭特兰的看法是对的，”他说。

“She _was_ a first cousin and not a second cousin of Toby Cane.”

“她是托比·凯恩的表弟，而不是表弟。”

Olivia displayed an interest by saying, “Was that what you wrote to the _Transcript_ about?”

奥利维亚表现出兴趣，说道：“这就是你写给_Transcript_的内容吗？”

“Yes ...

“是的……

and I was sure that the genealogical editor was wrong.

我确信家谱编辑是错的。

See ...

看到...

here it is in one of Jared Pentland’s letters at the time she was drowned....

这是贾里德·彭特兰溺水时写的一封信……

Jared was her husband....

杰瑞德是她的丈夫......

He refers to Toby Cane as her only male first cousin.”

他称托比·凯恩是她唯一的男性表弟。”

“That will help you a great deal,” said Olivia, “won’t it?”

“这会对你有很大帮助，”奥利维亚说，“不是吗？”

“It will help clear up the chapter about the origins of her family.” And then, after a little pause, “I wish that I could get some trace of the correspondence between Savina Pentland and Cane.

“这将有助于澄清有关她家庭起源的章节。”然后，停顿了一下，“我希望我能找到萨维娜·彭特兰和凯恩之间的一些通信痕迹。

I’m sure it would be full of things ...

我确信它会装满东西......

but it seems not to exist ...

但似乎不存在...

only one or two letters which tell nothing.”

只有一两个字母，什么也说不出来。”

And then he relapsed again into a complete and passionate silence, lost in the rustle of old books and yellowed letters, leaving the legend of Savina Pentland to take possession of the others in the room.

然后他又陷入了完全的、充满激情的沉默，迷失在旧书和泛黄信件的沙沙声中，让萨维娜·彭特兰的传奇故事占据了房间里的其他人。

The memory of this woman had a way of stealing in upon the family unaware, quite without their willing it.

这个女人的记忆不知不觉地潜入了这个家庭，而且他们并不愿意。

She was always there in the house, more lively than any of the more sober ancestors, perhaps because of them all she alone had been touched by splendor; she alone had been in her reckless way a great lady.

她总是在房子里，比任何一个更清醒的祖先都活跃，也许因为他们，只有她一个人被辉煌所感动；只有她一个人以她的鲁莽方式成为了一位伟大的女士。

There was a power in her recklessness and extravagance which came, in the end, to obscure all those other plain, solemn-faced, thrifty wives whose portraits adorned the hall of Pentlands, much as a rising sun extinguishes the feeble light of the stars.

她的鲁莽和奢侈有一种力量，最终掩盖了所有其他朴素、严肃、节俭的妻子，她们的肖像装饰着彭特兰的大厅，就像冉冉升起的太阳熄灭了星星的微弱光芒。

And about her obscure origin there clung a perpetual aura of romance, since there was no one to know just who her mother was or exactly whence she came.

而她的隐秘出身始终笼罩着一种浪漫的光环，因为没有人知道她的母亲是谁，也没有人知道她到底从哪里来。

The mother was born perhaps of stock no humbler than the first shopkeeping Pentland to land on the Cape, but there was in her the dark taint of Portuguese blood; some said that she was the daughter of a fisherman.

母亲的出身也许并不比第一个登陆好望角的彭特兰店主低贱，但她身上却带有葡萄牙血统的黑暗污点。有人说她是渔夫的女儿。

And Savina herself had possessed enough of fascination to lure a cautious Pentland into eloping with her against the scruples that were a very fiber of the Pentland bones and flesh.

而萨维娜本人也拥有足够的魅力，足以引诱谨慎的彭特兰与她一起私奔，而这些顾虑是彭特兰人骨肉中不可或缺的一部分。

The portrait of Savina Pentland stood forth among the others in the white hall, fascinating and beautiful not only because the subject was a dark, handsome woman, but because it had been done by Ingres in Rome during the years when he made portraits of tourists to save himself from starvation.

萨维娜·彭特兰的肖像在白色的大厅里显得格外引人注目，美丽动人，不仅因为画中人物是一位肤色黝黑、英俊的女人，还因为这幅肖像是安格尔当年在罗马为游客拍摄肖像以拯救自己免于饥饿时所画的。

It was the likeness of a small but voluptuous woman with great wanton dark eyes and smooth black hair pulled back from a camellia-white brow and done in a little knot on the nape of the white neck--a woman who looked out of the old picture with the flashing, spirited glance of one who lived boldly and passionately.

那是一位娇小却性感的女人，长着一双肆意的黑眼睛，光滑的黑发从山茶花白色的额头上向后梳起，在白皙的颈背上打了一个小结——从旧照片中看去，这个女人的目光闪烁着一种勇敢而充满激情的生活的精神。

She wore a gown of peach-colored velvet ornamented with the famous parure of pearls and emeralds given her, to the scandal of a thrifty family, by the infatuated Jared Pentland.

她穿着一件桃色天鹅绒礼服，上面装饰着著名的珍珠和祖母绿首饰，这件首饰是痴情的贾里德·彭特兰送给她的，这引起了一个节俭家庭的丑闻。

Passing the long gallery of portraits in the hallway it was always Savina Pentland whom one noticed.

经过走廊里长长的肖像画廊时，人们注意到的总是萨维娜·彭特兰。

She reigned there as she must have reigned in life, so bold and splendorous as to seem a bit vulgar, especially in a world of such sober folk, yet so beautiful and so spirited that she made all the others seem scarcely worth consideration.

她统治那里，就像她在生活中统治一样，如此大胆和辉煌，以至于显得有点粗俗，尤其是在一个如此清醒的人们的世界里，但她如此美丽，如此充满活力，以至于她让所有其他人看起来几乎不值得考虑。

Even in death she had remained an “outsider,” for she was the only one of the family who did not rest quietly among the stunted trees at the top of the bald hill where the first Pentlands had laid their dead.

即使死后，她仍然是一个“局外人”，因为她是家里唯一一个没有安静地安息在秃山顶上矮树丛中的人，那里是第一批彭特兰人埋葬死者的地方。

All that was left of the warm, soft body lay in the white sand at the bottom of the ocean within sight of Pentlands.

温暖、柔软的身体所剩下的一切都躺在彭特兰可见的海底的白色沙滩上。

It was as if fate had delivered her in death into a grave as tempestuous and violent as she had been in life.

就好像命运把她死后送进了坟墓，就像她生前一样狂暴而暴力。

And somewhere near her in the restless white sand lay Toby Cane, with whom she had gone sailing one bright summer day when a sudden squall turned a gay excursion into a tragedy.

在她附近不安的白色沙滩上，躺着托比·凯恩，在一个晴朗的夏日，她和他一起航行，一场突如其来的暴风雨把一次愉快的旅行变成了一场悲剧。

Even Aunt Cassie, who distrusted any woman with gaze so bold and free as that set down by the brush of Ingres--even Aunt Cassie could not annihilate the glamour of Savina’s legend.

即使是卡西姨妈，她不相信任何女人，她的目光像安格尔的笔下那样大胆而自由——即使是卡西姨妈也无法抹杀萨维娜传奇的魅力。

For her there was, too, another, more painful, memory hidden in the knowledge that the parure of pearls and emeralds and all the other jewels which Savina Pentland had wrung from her thrifty husband, lay buried somewhere in the white sand between her bones and those of her cousin.

对她来说，还有另一个更痛苦的记忆隐藏在萨维娜·彭特兰从她节俭的丈夫那里榨取的珍珠、祖母绿和所有其他珠宝的首饰中，埋在她和她表弟的骨头之间的白沙里。

To Aunt Cassie Savina Pentland seemed more than merely a reckless, extravagant creature.

对卡西·萨维娜·彭特兰姨妈来说，她不仅仅是一个鲁莽、奢侈的生物。

She was an enemy of the Pentland fortune and of all the virtues of the family.

她是彭特兰财产和家族所有美德的敌人。

The family portraits were of great value to Anson in compiling his book, for they represented the most complete collection of ancestors existing in all America.

这些全家福对于安森编写他的书来说非常有价值，因为它们代表了全美国现存的最完整的祖先集合。

From the portrait of the emigrating Pentland, painted in a wooden manner by some traveling painter of tavern signs, to the rather handsome one of John Pentland, painted at middle-age in a pink coat by Sargent, and the rather bad and liverish one of Anson, also by Mr. Sargent, the collection was complete save for two--the weak Jared Pentland who had married Savina, and the Pentland between old John’s father and the clipper-ship owner, who had died at twenty-three, a disgraceful thing for any Pentland to have done.

从旅居酒馆招牌画家以木质方式绘制的移民彭特兰肖像，到萨金特在中年时穿着粉红色外套绘制的相当英俊的约翰·彭特兰肖像，以及同样由萨金特先生绘制的安森的相当糟糕和肝气的肖像，除了两幅外，收藏品是完整的，除了与萨维娜结婚的虚弱的贾里德·彭特兰，以及老约翰的父亲和快艇船主之间的彭特兰，后者于2007年去世。二十三岁，这对任何彭特兰人来说都是一件可耻的事。

The pictures hung in a neat double row in the lofty hall, arranged chronologically and without respect for lighting, so that the good ones like those by Ingres and Sargent’s picture of old John Pentland and the unfinished Gilbert Stuart of Ashur Pentland hung in obscure shadows, and the bad ones like the tavern-sign portrait of the first Pentland were exposed in a glare of brilliant light.

这些画整齐地双排挂在高高的大厅里，按时间顺序排列，不考虑光线，因此，好的画，比如安格尔和萨金特的老约翰·彭特兰和未完成的阿舒尔·彭特兰的吉尔伯特·斯图尔特的画，挂在模糊的阴影中，而坏的，比如第一个彭特兰的酒馆招牌肖像，则暴露在耀眼的灯光下。

This father of all the family had been painted at the great age of eighty-nine and looked out from his wooden background, a grim, hard-mouthed old fellow with white hair and shrewd eyes set very close together.

这位全家的父亲被画时已八十九岁高龄，从木质背景中往外看，是一位冷酷、嘴硬的老家伙，头发花白，一双精明的眼睛靠得很近。

It was a face such as one might find to-day among the Plymouth Brethren of some remote, half-forgotten Sussex village, the face of a man notable only for the toughness of his body and the rigidity of a mind which dissented from everything.

这张脸就像今天人们在某个偏远的、半被遗忘的苏塞克斯村庄的普利茅斯兄弟会中看到的那样，这张脸只因其身体的坚韧和对一切都持不同意见的思想而闻名。

At the age of eighty-four, he had been cast out for dissension from the church which he had come to regard as his own property.

八十四岁时，他因与教会发生争执而被驱逐，他开始将教会视为自己的财产。

Next to him hung the portrait of a Pentland who had been a mediocrity and left not even a shadowy legend; and then appeared the insolent, disagreeable face of the Pentland who had ducked eccentric old women for witches and cut off the ears of peace-loving Quakers in the colony founded in “freedom to worship God.”

他旁边挂着彭特兰的肖像，他曾是一个平庸的人，甚至没有留下任何模糊的传说。然后出现了彭特兰人傲慢、令人不快的面孔，他们把古怪的老妇人当作女巫，并在以“崇拜上帝的自由”为基础的殖民地里割掉了爱好和平的贵格会教徒的耳朵。

The third Pentland had been the greatest evangelist of his time, a man who went through New England holding high the torch, exhorting rude village audiences by the coarsest of language to such a pitch of excitement that old women died of apoplexy and young women gave birth to premature children.

第三个彭特兰是他那个时代最伟大的传道者，他高举火炬走遍了新英格兰，用最粗俗的语言劝诫粗鲁的乡村听众，以至于老妇人中风而死，年轻妇女生下了早产儿。

The sermons which still existed showed him to be a man uncultivated and at times almost illiterate, yet his vast energy had founded a university and his fame as an exhorter and “the flaming sword of the Lord” had traveled to the ignorant and simple-minded brethren of the English back country.

仍然存在的布道表明他是一个没有受过教育的人，有时几乎是文盲，但他巨大的精力建立了一所大学，他作为劝诫者和“主的火焰之剑”的名声传遍了英国偏远地区无知和头脑简单的弟兄们。

The next Pentland was the eldest of the exhorter’s twenty children (by four wives), a man who clearly had departed from his father’s counsels and appeared in his portrait a sensual, fleshly specimen, very fat and almost good-natured, with thick red lips.

下一个彭特兰是劝诫者二十个孩子中最年长的一个（有四位妻子），这个男人显然已经背离了他父亲的劝告，在他的肖像中出现了一个感性的、有肉感的样本，非常肥胖，几乎是善良的，有厚厚的红嘴唇。

It was this Pentland who had founded the fortune which gave the family its first step upward in the direction of the gentility which had ended with the figure of Anson bending over “The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.” He had made a large fortune by equipping privateers and practising a near-piracy on British merchantmen; and there was, too, a dark rumor (which Anson intended to overlook) that he had made as much as three hundred per cent profit on a single shipload of negroes in the African slave trade.

正是这个彭特兰创造了财富，使这个家族在绅士风度的道路上迈出了第一步，最终以安森俯首称臣的“彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地”的形象结束。他通过为私掠船提供装备并对英国商船实施近乎海盗的行为而赚了一大笔钱。还有一个黑暗的谣言（安森打算忽略这个谣言），称他在非洲奴隶贸易中从一船黑人身上赚取了高达百分之三百的利润。

After him there were portraits of two Pentlands who had taken part in the Revolution and then another hiatus of mediocrity, including the gap represented by the missing Jared; and then appeared the Anthony Pentland who increased the fortune enormously in the clipper trade.

在他之后是两位参加过革命的彭特兰的肖像，然后又是一次平庸的中断，包括失踪的贾里德所代表的空白；然后出现了安东尼·彭特兰（Anthony Pentland），他在快船贸易中大幅增加了财富。

It was the portrait of a swarthy, powerful man (the first of the dark Pentlands, who could all be traced directly to Savina’s Portuguese blood), painted by a second-rate artist devoted to realism, who had depicted skilfully the warts which marred the distinguished old gentleman.

这是一幅黝黑、强大的男人的肖像（黑暗彭特兰的第一个人，他的血统都可以直接追溯到萨维纳的葡萄牙血统），由一位致力于现实主义的二流艺术家绘制，他巧妙地描绘了这位尊贵老绅士身上的瑕疵。

In the picture he stood in the garden before the Pentland house at Durham with marshes in the background and his prize clipper _Semiramis_ riding, with all sail up, the distant ocean.

在照片中，他站在达勒姆彭特兰别墅前的花园里，背景是沼泽，他的快船塞米拉米斯号全帆扬帆，驶向遥远的海洋。

Next to him appeared the portrait of old John Pentland’s father--a man of pious expression, dressed all in black, with a high black stock and a wave of luxuriant black hair, the one who had raised the family to really great wealth by contracts for shoes and blankets for the soldiers at Gettysburg and Bull Run and Richmond.

在他旁边出现的是老约翰·彭特兰父亲的肖像——一个表情虔诚的人，一身黑衣，高高的黑色长筒袜，一头浓密的黑发，他通过为葛底斯堡、布尔朗和里士满的士兵提供鞋子和毛毯合同，使这个家庭变得非常富有。

After him, gentility had conquered completely, and the Sargent portrait of old John Pentland at middle-age showed a man who was master of hounds and led the life of a country gentleman, a man clearly of power and character, whose strength of feature had turned slowly into the bitter hardness of the old man who sat now in the light of Mr. Longfellow’s lamp reading or staring before him into space while his son set down the long history of the family.

在他之后，绅士风度完全占了上风，萨金特对中年老约翰·彭特兰的描绘显示，他是猎犬大师，过着乡村绅士的生活，一个明显有权力和性格的人，他的力量慢慢变成了老人的苦涩冷酷。现在，老人坐在朗费罗先生的灯下阅读或凝视着前方的太空，而他的儿子讲述着家族的悠久历史。

The gallery was fascinating to strangers, as the visual record of a family which had never lost any money (save for the extravagance of Savina Pentland’s jewels), a family which had been the backbone of a community, a family in which the men married wives for thrift and housewifely virtues rather than for beauty, a family solid and respectable and full of honor.

画廊对陌生人来说很着迷，因为它是一个从未损失过任何金钱的家庭（除了萨维娜·彭特兰的奢侈珠宝之外）的视觉记录，一个曾经是社区支柱的家庭，一个男人为了节俭和主妇美德而不是为了美丽而娶妻的家庭，一个坚实、受人尊敬、充满荣耀的家庭。

It was a tribe magnificent in its virtue and its strength, even at times in its intolerance and hypocrisy.

这是一个有着伟大美德和力量的部落，即使有时也表现出不宽容和虚伪。

It stood represented now by old John Pentland and Anson, and the boy who lay abovestairs in the room next Olivia’s, dying slowly.

现在，它的代表是老约翰·彭特兰和安森，以及躺在楼上奥利维亚隔壁房间里的男孩，他正在慢慢死去。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

At ten o’clock each night John Pentland bade them good-night and went off to bed, and at eleven Anson, after arranging his desk neatly and placing his papers in their respective files, and saying to Olivia, “I wouldn’t sit up too late, if I were you, when you are so tired,” left them and disappeared.

每天晚上十点钟，约翰·彭特兰都会向他们道晚安，然后上床睡觉。十一点钟，安森将办公桌整理整齐，将文件分别放入各自的文件夹中，然后对奥利维亚说：“如果我是你，当你这么累的时候，我就不会熬夜太晚。”离开他们就消失了。

Soon after him, Sybil kissed her mother and climbed the stairs past all the ancestors.

紧随其后，西比尔亲吻了她的母亲，爬上楼梯，经过了所有的祖先。

It was only then, after they had all left her, that a kind of peace settled over Olivia.

直到那时，当他们都离开她之后，奥利维亚才得到了某种平静。

The burdens lifted, and the cares, the worries, the thoughts that were always troubling her, faded into the distance and for a time she sat leaning back in the winged armchair with her eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the night--the faint murmur of the breeze in the faded lilacs outside the window, the creaking that afflicts very old houses in the night, and sometimes the ominous sound of Miss Egan’s step traversing distantly the old north wing.

重担卸下了，忧虑、担心、那些一直困扰着她的想法，都消失在了远方，有一段时间，她闭着眼睛靠在带翼的扶手椅上，听着夜晚的声音——窗外微风在褪色的紫丁香中发出的微弱的呢喃声，夜色中折磨着非常古老的房子的吱吱声，有时还有伊根小姐的脚步声穿过远处的不祥的声音。老北翼。

And then one night she heard again the distant sound of Higgins’ voice swearing at the red mare as he made his round of the stables before going to bed.

然后有一天晚上，她又听到远处传来希金斯睡觉前绕着马厩转了一圈时对红色母马咒骂的声音。

And after they had all gone she opened her book and fell to reading, “_Madame de Clèves ne répondit rien, et elle pensoit avec honte qu’elle auroit pris tout ce que l’on disoit du changement de ce prince pour des marques de sa passion, si elle n’avoit point été détrompée.

等他们都走后，她打开书，开始读起来：“克莱维斯夫人没有回应，我想在爱情中为王子做些改变，但我不想再去。”

Elle se sentoit quelque aigreur contre Madame la Dauphine...._” This was a world in which she felt somehow strangely at peace, as if she had once lived in it and returned in the silence of the night.

Elle se sentoit quelque aigreur contre Madame la Dauphine......_”在这个世界里，她感到莫名其妙的平静，仿佛她曾经生活在其中，又在寂静的夜色中回归。

At midnight she closed the book, and making a round of the lower rooms, put out the lights and went up to the long stairway to listen at the doorway of her son’s room for the weak, uncertain sound of his breathing.

午夜时分，她合上书，在楼下的房间里转了一圈，关了灯，走上长长的楼梯，在儿子房间的门口听着他微弱而不确定的呼吸声。

Olivia was right in her belief that Anson was ashamed of his behavior on the night of the ball.

奥利维亚相信安森对自己在舞会当晚的行为感到羞愧，这是正确的。

It was not that he made an apology or even mentioned the affair.

他并没有道歉，甚至没有提及这件事。

He simply never spoke of it again.

他只是再也没有提起过这件事。

For weeks after the scene he did not mention the name of O’Hara, perhaps because the name brought up inevitably the memory of his sudden, insulting speech; but his sense of shame prevented him from harassing her on the subject.

这场戏发生后的几个星期里，他没有提到奥哈拉的名字，也许是因为这个名字不可避免地让人想起他突然的、侮辱性的演讲；但他的羞耻感阻止了他在这个问题上骚扰她。

What he never knew was that Olivia, while hating him for the insult aimed at her father, was also pleased in a perverse, feminine way because he had displayed for a moment a sudden fit of genuine anger.

他不知道的是，奥莉薇娅在憎恨他对她父亲的侮辱的同时，也以一种反常的、女性化的方式感到高兴，因为他突然表现出了一阵真正的愤怒。

For a moment he had come very near to being a husband who might interest his wife.

有一瞬间，他已经非常接近成为一个可能让妻子感兴趣的丈夫了。

But in the end he only sank back again into a sea of indifference so profound that even Aunt Cassie’s campaign of insinuations and veiled proposals could not stir him into action.

但最后他只是再次陷入冷漠的深渊，即使是卡西姨妈的一系列暗示和含蓄的建议也无法激励他采取行动。

The old woman managed to see him alone once or twice, saying to him, “Anson, your father is growing old and can’t manage everything much longer.

老妇人设法单独见到他一两次，对他说：“安生，你父亲年纪大了，不能再管那么多事了。

You must begin to take a stand yourself.

你必须开始自己表明立场。

The family can’t rest on the shoulders of a woman.

家庭不能靠在女人的肩上。

Besides, Olivia is an outsider, really.

再说了，奥利维亚确实是个局外人。

She’s never understood our world.” And then, shaking her head sadly, she would murmur, “There’ll be trouble, Anson, when your father dies, if you don’t show some backbone.

她从来不了解我们的世界。”然后，她悲伤地摇着头，低声说道：“安森，如果你不表现出一点勇气，当你父亲去世时，就会有麻烦。

You’ll have trouble with Sybil, she’s very queer and pig-headed in her quiet way, just as Olivia was in the matter of sending her to school in Paris.”

你会遇到麻烦的西比尔，她很奇怪，而且安静的方式固执，就像奥利维亚在送她去巴黎上学的问题上一样。”

And after a pause, “I am the last person in the world to interfere; it’s only for your own good and Olivia’s and all the family’s.”

停顿了一下，“我是世界上最不会干涉的人；这只是为了你、奥利维亚和整个家庭的利益。”

And Anson, to be rid of her, would make promises, facing her with averted eyes in some corner of the garden or the old house where she had skilfully run him to earth beyond the possibility of escape.

而安森，为了摆脱她，会在花园或老房子的某个角落里，用别开的目光面对她，做出承诺，在那里她巧妙地将他赶到了无法逃脱的地方。

And he would leave her, troubled and disturbed because the world and this family which had been saddled unwillingly upon him, would permit him no peace to go on with his writing.

他会离开她，心烦意乱，因为这个世界和这个家庭不情愿地压在他身上，不允许他平静地继续他的写作。

He really hated Aunt Cassie because she had never given him any peace, never since the days when she had kept him in the velvet trousers and Fauntleroy curls which spurred the jeers of the plain, red-haired little Sabine.

他真的很恨卡西姨妈，因为她从来没有给过他任何安宁，自从她让他穿着天鹅绒裤子和方特勒罗伊卷发以来，她从未给过他任何安宁，这引起了朴素的红发小萨宾的嘲笑。

She had never ceased to reproach him for “not being a man and standing up for his rights.” It seemed to him that Aunt Cassie was always hovering near, like a dark persistent fury, always harassing him; and yet he knew, more by instinct than by any process of reasoning, that she was his ally against the others, even his own wife and father and children.

她从未停止过责备他“没有男子气概，没有维护自己的权利”。在他看来，卡西姨妈总是在附近盘旋，像一股阴暗持久的怒火，总是骚扰着他。然而，他更多的是出于本能而不是任何推理过程，知道她是他对抗其他人的盟友，甚至是他自己的妻子、父亲和孩子。

He and Aunt Cassie prayed to the same gods.

他和卡西阿姨向同一个神祈祷。

So he did nothing, and Olivia, keeping her word, spoke of O’Hara to Sybil one day as they sat alone at breakfast.

所以他什么也没做，奥利维亚信守诺言，有一天，当他们独自坐在早餐时，向西比尔谈到了奥哈拉。

The girl had been riding with him that very morning and she sat in her riding-clothes, her face flushed by the early morning exercise, telling her mother of the beauties of the country back of Durham, of the new beagle puppies, and of the death of “Hardhead” Smith, who was the last farmer of old New England blood in the county.

那天早上，女孩一直和他一起骑马，她穿着骑马服，脸因清晨的锻炼而涨得通红，向母亲讲述达勒姆后面乡村的美景、新养的比格犬，以及“硬头”史密斯的去世，他是该县最后一个拥有老新英格兰血统的农民。

His half-witted son, she said, was being taken away to an asylum.

她说，他那愚蠢的儿子正被送往精神病院。

O’Hara, she said, was buying his little stony patch of ground.

她说，奥哈拉正在买他的一小块石头地。

When she had finished, her mother said, “And O’Hara?

当她讲完后，她母亲说：“奥哈拉呢？

You like him, don’t you?”

你喜欢他，不是吗？”

Sybil had a way of looking piercingly at a person, as if her violet eyes tried to bore quite through all pretense and unveil the truth.

西比尔看人的方式很犀利，就好像她紫罗兰色的眼睛试图看穿所有的伪装，揭露真相。

She had a power of honesty and simplicity that was completely disarming, and she used it now, smiling at her mother, candidly.

她有一种诚实和简单的力量，这种力量完全可以消除人们的戒心，而她现在就使用了它，对她的母亲坦率地微笑。

“Yes, I like him very much....

“是的，我非常喜欢他......

But ...

但是...

but....” She laughed softly.

不过……”她轻声笑道。

“Are you worrying about my marrying him, my falling in love--because you needn’t.

“你担心我嫁给他，担心我坠入爱河吗——因为你不需要。

I am fond of him because he’s the one person around here who likes the things I like.

我喜欢他，因为他是这里唯一一个喜欢我喜欢的东西的人。

He loves riding in the early morning when the dew is still on the grass and he likes racing with me across the lower meadow by the gravel-pit, and well--he’s an interesting man.

他喜欢在清晨草地上还残留着露水的时候骑马，他喜欢和我一起穿过砾石坑旁较低的草地，嗯——他是一个有趣的人。

When he talks, he makes sense.

他说话的时候，很有道理。

But don’t worry; I shan’t marry him.”

但别担心；我不会嫁给他。”

“I _was_ interested,” said Olivia, “because you do see him more than any one about here.”

“我很感兴趣，”奥利维亚说，“因为你看到他的次数确实比这里的任何人都多。”

Again Sybil laughed.

西比尔又笑了。

“But he’s old, Mama.

“但是他老了，妈妈。

He’s more than thirty-five.

他已经三十五多岁了。

He’s middle-aged.

他已经中年了。

I know what sort of man I want to marry.

我知道我想嫁给什么样的男人。

I know exactly.

我很清楚。

He’s going to be my own age.”

他将和我同龄。”

“One can’t always tell.

“一个人不能总是说清楚。

It’s not so easy as that.”

事情没那么容易。”

“I’m sure I can tell.” Her face took on an expression of gravity.

“我确信我能说出来。”她的脸上露出严肃的表情。

“I’ve devoted a good deal of thought to it and I’ve watched a great many others.”

“我对此投入了大量的思考，并且也看过很多其他的。”

Olivia wanted to smile, but she knew she dared not if she were to keep her hold upon confidences so charming and naïve.

奥利维亚想要微笑，但她知道，如果她如此迷人和天真地保持着秘密，她就不敢微笑。

“And I’m sure that I’ll know the man when I see him, right away, at once.

“我确信当我看到这个人时，我会立即认出他。

It’ll be like a spark, like my friendship with O’Hara, only deeper than that.”

它会像火花一样，就像我和奥哈拉的友谊一样，只是比这更深。”

“Did you ever talk to Thérèse about love?” asked Olivia.

“你和特蕾莎谈过爱情吗？”奥利维亚问道。

“No; you can’t talk to her about such things.

“不，你不能和她谈论这种事情。

She wouldn’t understand.

她不会明白。

With Thérèse everything is scientific, biological.

对于 Thérèse 来说，一切都是科学的、生物学的。

When Thérèse marries, I think it will be some man she has picked out as the proper father, scientifically, for her children.”

当特蕾莎结婚时，我认为她会为她的孩子挑选出一个科学的合适父亲。”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“这不是一个坏主意。”

“She might just have children by him without marrying him, the way she breeds frogs.

“她可能只是和他生孩子而不嫁给他，就像她养青蛙一样。

I think that’s horrible.”

我认为这太可怕了。”

Again Olivia was seized with an irresistible impulse to laugh, and controlled herself heroically.

奥莉薇娅再次忍不住想笑，但她勇敢地控制住了自己。

She kept thinking of how silly, how ignorant, she had been at Sybil’s age, silly and ignorant despite the unclean sort of sophistication she had picked up in the corridors of Continental hotels.

她一直在想，她在西比尔这个年纪是多么愚蠢、多么无知，尽管她在大陆酒店的走廊里学会了不洁的世故，但她还是多么愚蠢和无知。

She kept thinking how much better a chance Sybil had for happiness....

她一直在想西比尔获得幸福的机会有多大……

Sybil, sitting there gravely, defending her warm ideas of romance against the scientific onslaughts of the swarthy, passionate Thérèse.

西比尔严肃地坐在那里，捍卫她温暖的浪漫理念，反对黝黑、热情的特蕾莎的科学攻击。

“It will be some one like O’Hara,” continued Sybil.

“这将是像奥哈拉这样的人，”西比尔继续说道。

“Some one who is very much alive--only not middle-aged like O’Hara.”

“一个很有活力的人——只不过不是像奥哈拉那样的中年人。”

(So Sybil thought of O’Hara as middle-aged, and he was four years younger than Olivia, who felt and looked so young.

（所以西比尔认为奥哈拉已经是中年人了，他比奥利维亚小四岁，奥利维亚感觉和看起来都很年轻。

The girl kept talking of O’Hara as if his life were over; but that perhaps was only because she herself was so young.)

女孩不停地谈论奥哈拉，仿佛他的生命已经结束了。但这也许只是因为她自己太年轻了。）

Olivia sighed now, despite herself.

奥利维亚现在不由自主地叹了口气。

“You mustn’t expect too much from the world, Sybil.

“你不能对这个世界抱有太多期望，西比尔。

Nothing is perfect, not even marriage.

没有什么是完美的，婚姻也不例外。

One always has to make compromises.”

人总是要做出妥协的。”

“Oh, I know that; I’ve thought a great deal about it.

“哦，我知道，我想了很多。

All the same, I’m sure I’ll know the man when I see him.” She leaned forward and said earnestly, “Couldn’t you tell when you were a girl?”

尽管如此，我确信当我看到这个人时我就会认出他。”她倾身向前，认真地说：“你小时候看不出来吗？”

“Yes,” said Olivia softly.

“是的，”奥利维亚轻声说道。

“I could tell.”

“我看得出来。”

And then, inevitably, Sybil asked what Olivia kept praying she would not ask.

然后，西比尔不可避免地问了奥利维亚一直祈祷她不要问的事情。

She could hear the girl asking it before the words were spoken.

话还没说完，她就听见女孩在问。

She knew exactly what she would say.

她很清楚自己会说什么。

“Didn’t you know at once when you met Father?”

“当你见到父亲的时候，你不是立刻就知道了吗？”

And in spite of every effort, the faint echo of a sigh escaped Olivia.

尽管竭尽全力，奥利维亚还是发出微弱的叹息声。

“Yes, I knew.”

“是的，我知道。”

She saw Sybil give her one of those quick, piercing looks of inquiry and then bow her head abruptly, as if pretending to study the pattern on her plate.

她看到西比尔迅速、尖锐地询问了她一眼，然后突然低下头，仿佛假装在研究盘子上的图案。

When she spoke again, she changed the subject abruptly, so that Olivia knew she suspected the truth, a thing which she had guarded with a fierce secrecy for so long.

当她再次开口时，她突然改变了话题，让奥莉薇娅知道她怀疑的是真相，而这件事是她长期以来一直严密守护的。

“Why don’t you take up riding again, Mother?” she asked.

“妈妈，你为什么不重新开始骑马呢？”她问道。

“I’d love to have you go with me.

“我很想让你和我一起去。

We would go with O’Hara in the mornings, and then Aunt Cassie couldn’t have anything to say about my getting involved with him.” She looked up.

早上我们会和奥哈拉一起去，然后卡西姨妈就对我和他的关系无话可说。”她抬起头来。

“You’d like him.

“你会喜欢他的。

You couldn’t help it.”

你无能为力。”

She saw that Sybil was trying to help her in some way, to divert her and drive away the unhappiness.

她看到西比尔试图以某种方式帮助她，转移她的注意力，赶走不快乐。

“I like him already,” said Olivia, “very much.”

“我已经喜欢他了，”奥利维亚说，“非常喜欢。”

Then she rose, saying, “I promised Sabine to motor into Boston with her to-day.

然后她站起来说：“我答应萨宾今天和她一起开车去波士顿。

We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”

二十分钟后我们就出发。”

She went quickly away because she knew it was perilous to sit there any longer talking of such things while Sybil watched her, eager with the freshness of youth which has all life before it.

她很快就走开了，因为她知道，当西比尔注视着她时，再坐在那里谈论这些事情是很危险的，她渴望看到眼前的一切青春的新鲜感。

Out of all their talk two things remained distinct in her mind: one that Sybil thought of O’Hara as middle-aged--almost an old man, for whom there was no longer any chance of romance; the other the immense possibility for tragedy that lay before a girl who was so certain that love would be a glorious romantic affair, so certain of the ideal man whom she would find one day.

在他们的谈话中，有两件事在她的脑海里留下了清晰的印象：一是西比尔认为奥哈拉已经是中年人了——几乎是一个老人，对他来说不再有任何浪漫的机会；二是西比尔认为奥哈拉已经到了中年，几乎是一个老人，不再有任何浪漫的机会；二是西比尔认为奥哈拉已经到了中年，几乎是一个老人，不再有任何浪漫的机会了。另一个是悲剧的巨大可能性，摆在一个女孩面前，她如此确信爱情将是一场光荣的浪漫，如此确信有一天她会找到理想的男人。

What was she to do with Sybil?

她和西比尔有什么关系？

Where was she to find that man?

她到哪里去找那个男人？

And when she found him, what difficulties would she have to face with John Pentland and Anson and Aunt Cassie and the host of cousins and connections who would be marshaled to defeat her?

当她找到他时，她将不得不面对约翰·彭特兰、安森、卡西姨妈以及一大群表兄弟姐妹和亲戚，他们将被组织起来打败她，会遇到什么困难？

For she saw clearly enough that this youth for whom Sybil was waiting would never be their idea of a proper match.

因为她清楚地看到，西比尔正在等待的这个年轻人永远不会是他们心目中的合适对象。

It would be a man with qualities which O’Hara possessed, and even Higgins, the groom.

这将是一个具有奥哈拉、甚至新郎希金斯所具备的品质的人。

She saw perfectly why Sybil had a fondness for these two outsiders; she had come to see it more and more clearly of late.

她完全明白西比尔为什么喜欢这两个外人；最近她越来越清楚地看到了这一点。

It was because they possessed a curious, indefinable solidity that the others at Pentlands all lacked, and a certain fire and vitality.

这是因为他们拥有彭特兰其他人所缺乏的一种奇怪的、难以形容的坚固性，以及一定的热情和活力。

Neither blood, nor circumstance, nor tradition, nor wealth, had made life for them an atrophied, empty affair, in which there was no need for effort, for struggle, for combat.

无论是血统、环境、传统还是财富，都没有使他们的生活变得萎缩、空虚，不需要努力、奋斗和战斗。

They had not been lost in a haze of transcendental maunderings.

他们并没有迷失在超然的喋喋不休的迷雾中。

O’Hara, with his career and his energy, and Higgins, with his rabbitlike love-affairs and his nearness to all that was earthy, still carried about them a sense of the great zest in life.

奥哈拉有他的事业和精力，希金斯有他兔子般的爱情和他对一切朴实事物的亲近，他们仍然对生活充满热情。

They reached down somehow into the roots of things where there was still savor and fertility.

他们以某种方式深入到事物的根源，那里仍然有味道和生育力。

And as she walked along the hallway, she found herself laughing aloud over the titles of the only three books which the Pentland family had ever produced--“The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony” and Mr. Struthers’ two books, “Cornices of Old Boston Houses” and “Walks and Talks in New England Churchyards.” She thought suddenly of what Sabine had once said acidly of New England--that it was a place where thoughts were likely to grow “higher and fewer.”

当她沿着走廊行走时，她发现自己因彭特兰家族出版的仅有的三本书的书名而大笑起来——《彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地》和斯特拉瑟斯先生的两本书《波士顿老房子的飞檐》和《新英格兰墓地的散步和谈话》。她突然想起萨宾曾经尖酸刻薄地说过新英格兰的话——在这个地方，思想可能会变得“更高、更少”。

But she was frightened, too, because in the life of enchantment which surrounded her, the virtues of O’Hara and Higgins seemed to her the only things in the world worth possessing.

但她也感到害怕，因为在她周围的迷人生活中，奥哈拉和希金斯的美德对她来说似乎是世界上唯一值得拥有的东西。

She wanted desperately to be alive, as she had never been, and she knew that this, too, was what Sybil sought in all her groping, half-blind romantic youth.

她拼命地想要活着，这是她从未有过的，她知道这也是西比尔在她所有摸索的、半盲目的浪漫青年时期所寻求的。

It was something which the girl sensed and had never clearly understood, something which she knew existed and was awaiting her.

这是女孩感觉到但从未清楚理解的东西，她知道存在并正在等待着她。

Sabine, watching O’Hara as he crossed the fields through the twilight, had penetrated in a sudden flash of intuition the depths of his character.

萨宾看着奥哈拉穿过暮色中的田野，突然灵光一闪，洞察了他性格的深处。

His profound loneliness was, perhaps, the key which unlocked the whole of his soul, a key which Sabine knew well enough, for there had never been a time in all her existence, save for a sudden passionate moment or two in the course of her life with Callendar, when she was free of a painful feeling that she was alone.

他深深的孤独也许是打开他整个灵魂的钥匙，萨宾非常熟悉这把钥匙，因为在她的一生中，除了她和卡伦达在一起的生活中突然充满激情的一两刻之外，她从未感到过孤独的痛苦感觉。

Even with her own daughter, the odd Thérèse, she was lonely.

即使有自己的女儿，古怪的特蕾莎，她也很孤独。

Watching life with the same passionate intensity with which she had watched the distant figure of O’Hara moving away against the horizon, she had come long ago to understand that loneliness was the curse of those who were free, even of all those who rose a little above the level of ordinary humanity.

她以同样热情的热情注视着生活，就像她注视着奥哈拉在地平线上远去的身影一样，她很久以前就明白，孤独是那些自由人的诅咒，甚至是那些比普通人类水平稍高一点的人的诅咒。

Looking about her she saw that old John Pentland was lonely, and Olivia, and even her own daughter Thérèse, rambling off independently across the marshes in search of bugs and queer plants.

环顾四周，她发现老约翰·彭特兰很孤独，而奥莉维亚，甚至她自己的女儿特蕾莎，都独立地穿过沼泽地寻找虫子和奇怪的植物。

She saw that Anson Pentland was never lonely, for he had his friends who were so like him as to be very nearly indistinguishable, and he had all the traditions and fetishes which he shared with Aunt Cassie.

她看到安森·彭特兰从不孤独，因为他有他的朋友，他们和他非常相似，几乎无法区分，而且他拥有与卡西姨妈共有的所有传统和迷恋。

They were part of a fabric, a small corner in the whole tapestry of life, from which they were inseparable.

它们是织物的一部分，是整个生命挂毯中的一个小角落，它们与它密不可分。

Of them all, it seemed to her, as she came to see more and more of O’Hara, that he was the most lonely.

在她看来，随着她越来越多地见到奥哈拉，在他们当中，他似乎是最孤独的一个。

He had friends, scores, even hundreds of them, in a dozen circles, ranging from the docks where he had spent his boyhood to the world about Durham where there were others who treated him less coldly than the Pentland family had done.

他有朋友，几十个，甚至数百个，分布在十几个圈子里，从他度过童年的码头到达勒姆周围的世界，那里的其他人对待他不像彭特兰家族那样冷漠。

He had friends because there was a quality about him which was irresistible.

他有朋友，因为他有一种不可抗拒的品质。

It lurked somewhere in the depths of the humorous blue eyes and at the corners of the full, rather sensual mouth--a kind of universal sympathy which made him understand the fears, the hopes, the ambitions, the weaknesses of other people.

它潜伏在幽默的蓝眼睛深处和丰满而性感的嘴角的某个地方——一种普遍的同情心，使他理解他人的恐惧、希望、野心和弱点。

It was that quality, so invaluable in politics, which led enemies unjustly to call him all things to all people.

正是这种在政治上非常宝贵的品质，导致敌人不公正地称他为所有人。

He must have had the gift of friendship, for there were whole sections of Boston which would have followed him anywhere; and yet behind these easy, warm ties there was always a sort of veil shutting him away from them.

他一定具有友谊的天赋，因为波士顿的整个地区都会跟随他到任何地方；然而，在这些轻松、温暖的关系背后，总有一层面纱将他与它们隔开。

He had a way of being at home in a barroom or at a hunt breakfast with equal ease, but there was a part of him--the part which was really O’Hara--which the world never saw at all, a strangely warm, romantic, impractical, passionate, headlong, rather unscrupulous Irishman, who lay shut away where none could penetrate.

他在家里的酒吧里或在狩猎早餐时都同样轻松自在，但他的一部分——真正的奥哈拉的部分——世人根本看不到，一个奇怪的温暖、浪漫、不切实际、热情、轻率、相当肆无忌惮的爱尔兰人，他躺在无人能穿透的地方。

Sabine knew this O’Hara; he had been revealed to her swiftly in a sudden flash at the mention of Olivia Pentland.

萨宾认识这个奥哈拉。当她提到奥利维娅·彭特兰时，她突然就知道了他的身份。

And afterward when she thought of it, she (Sabine Callendar), who was so hard, so bitter, so unbelieving, surrendered to him as so many had done before her.

后来，当她想到这一点时，她（萨宾·卡伦达尔饰演），曾经是那么的冷酷、那么的痛苦、那么的不相信，就像在她之前的许多人所做的那样，她向他投降了。

Standing there in her sitting-room, so big and powerful and self-reliant, he had seemed suddenly like a little boy, like the little boy whom she had found once late at night long ago, sitting alone and quite still on the curb in front of her house in the Rue de Tilsitt.

他站在她的起居室里，那么高大、有力、自力更生，突然看起来像个小男孩，就像很久以前她在深夜找到的那个小男孩，独自一人一动不动地坐在蒂尔西特街她家门前的路边。

She had stopped for a moment and watched him, and presently she had approached and asked, “What are you doing here on the curb at this hour of the night?” And the little boy, looking up, had said gravely, “I’m playing.”

她停下来看了他一会儿，然后走近问道：“这么晚了，你在路边做什么？”小男孩抬起头，严肃地说：“我在玩。”

It had happened years ago--the little boy must have grown into a young man by now--but she remembered him suddenly during the moment when O’Hara had turned and said to her, “It will mean a great deal to me, more than you can imagine.”

那是几年前的事了——那个小男孩现在一定已经长成一个年轻人了——但就在奥哈拉转身对她说：“这对我来说意义重大，比你想象的还要重要的那一刻，她突然想起了他。”

O’Hara was like that, she knew--sad and a little lonely, as if in the midst of all his success, with his career and his big new house and his dogs and horses and all the other shiny accoutrements of a gentleman, he had looked up at her and said gravely, “I’m playing.”

她知道，奥哈拉就是这样的人——悲伤，有点孤独，仿佛在他所有的成功、他的事业、他的大新房子、他的狗和马以及所有其他闪亮的绅士装备中，他抬头看着她，严肃地说：“我在玩。”

Long ago Sabine had come to understand that one got a savor out of life by casting overboard all the little rules which clutter up existence, all the ties, and beliefs and traditions in which she had been given a training so intense and severe that in the end she had turned a rebel.

很久以前，萨宾就开始明白，只有抛弃所有那些扰乱存在的小规则、所有纽带、信仰和传统，一个人才能从生活中获得乐趣，而她在这些规则中接受了如此激烈和严厉的训练，以至于最终她变成了一个叛逆者。

Behind all the indifference of countenance and the intricacy of brain, there lay a foundation of immense candor which had driven her to seek her companions, with the directness of an arrow, only among the persons whom she had come to designate as “complete.” It was a label which she did not trouble to define to any one, doubting perhaps that any one save herself would find any interest in it; even for herself, it was a label lacking in definiteness.

在冷漠的面容和错综复杂的大脑背后，有一个巨大的坦诚的基础，这驱使她像箭一样直接地寻找她的同伴，只在她所指定的“完整”的人中。她懒得向任何人定义这个标签，她怀疑除了她自己之外，也许还有人会对它感兴趣。即使对于她自己来说，这也是一个缺乏明确性的标签。

Vaguely she meant by “complete” the persons who stood on their own, who had an existence sufficiently strong to survive the assault or the collapse of any environment, persons who might exist independent of any concrete world, who possessed a proud sense of individuality, who might take root and work out a successful destiny wherever fate chanced to drop them.

她含糊地说，“完整”是指那些独立自主的人，他们有足够强大的存在，能够在任何环境的攻击或崩溃中幸存下来，他们可以独立于任何具体世界而存在，他们拥有自豪的个性感，他们可以在命运偶然降临的地方扎根并创造出成功的命运。

They were rare, she had come to discover, and yet they existed everywhere, such persons as John Pentland and O’Hara, Olivia and Higgins.

她发现，他们很罕见，但他们却无处不在，比如约翰·彭特兰和奥哈拉、奥利维亚和希金斯。

So she had come to seek her life among them, drawing them quietly about her wherever in the world she happened to pause for a time.

因此，她来到他们中间寻找自己的生命，无论她在世界上的任何地方停留片刻，他们都静静地吸引着她。

She did it quietly and without loud cries of “Freedom” and “Free Love” and “The Right to Lead One’s Life,” for she was enough civilized to understand the absurdity of making a spectacle in the market-place, and she was too intense an individualist ever to turn missionary.

她安静地做到了这一点，没有大声喊叫“自由”、“自由恋爱”和“过自己生活的权利”，因为她足够文明，能够理解在市场上制造奇观的荒谬性，而且她是一个过于强烈的个人主义者，永远不会成为传教士。

Here perhaps lay her quiet strength and the source of that vague distrust and uneasiness which her presence created in people like Anson and Aunt Cassie.

也许这就是她平静的力量，也是她的出现在安森和卡西阿姨等人身上造成的模糊的不信任和不安的根源。

It was unbearable for Aunt Cassie to suspect that Sabine really did not trouble even to scorn her, unbearable to an old woman who had spent all her life in arranging the lives of others to find that a chit of a woman like Sabine could discover in her only a subject of mingled mirth and pity.

卡西姨妈无法忍受怀疑萨宾真的不屑一顾，甚至连蔑视她的态度都没有，这对一个一生都在安排别人生活的老妇人来说是难以忍受的，因为她发现像萨宾这样的小女人只能在她身上发现欢乐和怜悯的主题。

It was unbearable not to have the power of jolting Sabine out of her serene and insolent indifference, unbearable to know that she was always watching you out of those green eyes, turning you over and over as if you were a bug and finding you in the end an inferior sort of insect.

无法让萨宾从她平静而傲慢的冷漠中惊醒是令人难以忍受的，令人难以忍受的是她总是用那双绿色的眼睛注视着你，把你翻来覆去，就好像你是一只虫子一样，最后发现你是一种低等的昆虫。

Those who had shared the discovery of her secret were fond of her, and those who had not were bitter against her.

那些发现了她秘密的人都喜欢她，而那些没有发现她秘密的人则对她怀有怨恨。

And it was, after all, a very simple secret, that one has only to be simple and friendly and human and “complete.” She had no patience with sentimentality, and affectation and false piety.

毕竟，这是一个非常简单的秘密，一个人只需简单、友好、人性化和“完整”即可。她对多愁善感、矫揉造作和虚假的虔诚没有耐心。

And so the presence of Sabine began slowly to create a vaguely defined rift in a world hitherto set and complacent and even proud of itself.

因此，萨宾的出现开始慢慢地在一个迄今为止既定、自满、甚至自豪的世界中制造出一条模糊的裂痕。

Something in the sight of her cold green eyes, in the sound of her metallic voice, in the sudden shrewd, disillusioning observations which she had a way of making at disconcerting moments, filled people like Aunt Cassie with uneasiness and people like Olivia with a smoldering sense of restlessness and rebellion.

她冰冷的绿眼睛，她金属般的声音，她在令人不安的时刻突然做出的精明、令人幻灭的观察，让卡西姨妈这样的人感到不安，让奥利维亚这样的人感到不安和叛逆。

Olivia herself became more and more conscious of the difference with the passing of each day into the next and there were times when she suspected that that fierce old man, her father-in-law, was aware of it.

随着时间一天天过去，奥莉薇娅自己也越来越意识到这种差异，有时她怀疑那个凶恶的老头，她的公公，也意识到了这一点。

It was potent because Sabine was no outsider; the mockery of an outsider would have slipped off the back of the Durham world like arrows off the back of an armadillo.

它之所以有效，是因为萨宾不是局外人。外来者的嘲笑会像箭从犰狳背上滑落一样从达勒姆世界的背上滑落。

But Sabine was one of them: it was that which made the difference: she was always inside the shell.

但萨宾是其中之一：这才是最重要的：她总是在壳里。

One hot, breathless night in June Sabine overcame her sense of bored indolence enough to give a dinner at Brook Cottage--a dinner well served, with delicious food, which it might have been said she flung at her guests with a superb air of indifference from the seat at the head of the table, where she sat painted, ugly and magnificently dressed, watching them all in a perverse sort of pleasure.

六月的一个炎热、令人喘不过气来的夜晚，萨宾克服了无聊、懒惰的感觉，在布鲁克小屋吃了一顿晚餐——一顿丰盛的晚餐，食物美味，可以说，她坐在桌首的座位上，带着一种超凡的冷漠神情，把这些食物扔给了她的客人们。

It was a failure as an entertainment, for it had been years since Sabine had given a dinner where the guests were not clever enough to entertain themselves, and now that she was back again in a world where people were invited for every sort of reason save that you really wanted their company, she declined to make any effort.

作为一种娱乐活动，这是失败的，因为萨宾已经有很多年没有举办过客人们不够聪明地自娱自乐的晚宴了，现在她又回到了一个人们因各种各样的原因被邀请的世界，除了你真的想要他们的陪伴，她拒绝做出任何努力。

It was a failure, too, because Thérèse, for whom it was given, behaved exactly as she had behaved on the night of the ball.

这也是一次失败，因为为她颁发的特蕾莎的表现与她在舞会当晚的表现一模一样。

There was an uneasiness and a strain, a sense of awkwardness among the callow young men and a sense of weariness in Sabine and Olivia.

稚嫩的年轻人有一种不安、紧张、尴尬的感觉，而萨宾和奥利维亚则有一种疲倦的感觉。

O’Hara was there, for Sabine had kept her half-promise; but even he sat quietly, all his boldness and dash vanished before a boyish shyness.

奥哈拉也在场，因为萨宾兑现了她半信半疑的诺言。但即使他静静地坐着，所有的大胆和冲劲都消失在孩子气的羞涩之中。

The whole affair seemed to be drowned in the lassitude, the enchantment that enveloped the old house on the other bank of the river.

整个事情似乎淹没在笼罩着河对岸老房子的倦怠和魅力之中。

Olivia had come, almost against her will, reduced to a state of exhaustion after a long call from Aunt Cassie on the subject of the rumored affair between Sybil and their Irish neighbor.

奥利维亚几乎是违背自己的意愿来的，在卡西姨妈打了很长时间的电话，谈论西比尔和爱尔兰邻居之间传闻中的风流韵事后，她已经筋疲力尽了。

And when they rose, she slipped quietly away into the garden, because she could not bear the thought of making strained and artificial conversation.

当他们起身时，她悄悄地溜进花园，因为她无法忍受进行紧张而做作的谈话。

She wanted, horribly, to be left in peace.

她非常希望能够安静下来。

It was a superb night--hot, as a summer night should be--but clear, too, so that the whole sky was like a sapphire dome studded with diamonds.

这是一个美妙的夜晚——炎热，正如夏夜应有的样子——但也很晴朗，整个天空就像镶嵌着钻石的蓝宝石圆顶。

At the front of the cottage, beyond the borders of the little terraced garden, the marshes spread their dark carpet toward the distant dunes, which with the descent of darkness had turned dim and blue against the purer white of the line made by the foaming surf.

在小屋的前面，在小露台花园的边界之外，沼泽地向远处的沙丘铺开了黑色的地毯，随着夜幕的降临，沙丘在由泡沫海浪形成的纯白色线条的衬托下变得暗淡和蓝色。

The feel of the damp thick grass against the sole of her silver slippers led her to stop for a moment, breathing deeply, and filled her with a mild, half-mystical desire to blend herself into all the beauty that surrounded her, into the hot richness of the air, the scents of the opening blossoms and of pushing green stems, into the grass and the sea and the rich-smelling marshes, to slip away into a state which was nothing and yet everything, to float into eternity.

银色拖鞋鞋底上潮湿浓密的青草的感觉让她停下来，深呼吸，心中充满了一种温和的、半神秘的渴望，想要将自己融入到周围的一切美景中，融入到炎热而丰富的空气中，融入到开放的花朵和推开绿色茎的香味中，融入到青草、大海和气味浓郁的沼泽中，融入到一种什么都没有却又是一切的状态，飘向永恒。

She had abruptly an odd, confused sense of the timelessness of all these forces and sensations, of the sea and the marshes, the pushing green Stems and the sapphire dome powdered with diamonds above her head.

她突然对所有这些力量和感觉、海洋和沼泽、推挤的绿色茎和头顶上镶满钻石的蓝宝石圆顶产生了一种奇怪而困惑的感觉。

She saw for the first time in all her existence the power of something which went on and on, ignoring pitiful small creatures like herself and all those others in the cottage behind her, a power which ignored cities and armies and nations, which would go on and on long after the grass had blanketed the ruins of the old house at Pentland.

她生平第一次看到了一种持续不断的力量，无视像她一样的可怜小生物，以及她身后小屋里的其他人，这种力量无视城市、军队和国家，在草覆盖了彭特兰老房子的废墟之后很长一段时间，这种力量仍将持续存在。

It was sweeping past her, leaving her stranded somewhere in the dull backwaters.

它从她身边扫过，让她被困在沉闷的死水中的某个地方。

She wanted suddenly, fiercely, to take part in all the great spectacle of eternal fertility, a mystery which was stronger than any of them or all of them together, a force which in the end would crush all their transient little prides and beliefs and traditions.

她突然强烈地想要参与到永恒生育的伟大奇观中，这是一种比他们中的任何一个或所有的人加在一起都更强大的神秘，一种最终会粉碎他们所有短暂的小骄傲、信仰和传统的力量。

And then she thought, as if she were conscious of it for the first time, “I am tired, tired to death, and a little mad.”

然后她想，好像她第一次意识到这一点，“我累了，累死了，还有点生气。”

Moving across the damp grass she seated herself on a stone bench which O’Hara had placed beneath one of the ancient apple-trees left standing from the orchard which had covered all the land about Brook Cottage in the days when Savina Pentland was still alive; and for a long time (she never knew how long) she remained there lost in one of those strange lapses of consciousness when one is neither awake nor asleep but in the vague borderland where there is no thought, no care, no troubles.

她穿过潮湿的草地，坐在一张石凳上，这张石凳是奥哈拉放在一棵古老的苹果树下的，这棵苹果树是从果园里留下来的，在萨维娜·彭特兰还活着的时候，这棵果园覆盖了布鲁克小屋周围的所有土地。很长一段时间（她不知道多久），她迷失在一种奇怪的意识丧失中，既不醒也不睡，而是在模糊的边界上，那里没有思想，没有关心，没有烦恼。

And then slowly she became aware of some one standing there quite near her, beneath the ancient, gnarled tree.

然后她慢慢地意识到有人站在离她很近的地方，在一棵古老的、多节的树下。

As if the presence were materialized somehow out of a dream, she noticed first the faint, insinuating masculine odor of cigar-smoke blending itself with the scent of the growing flowers in Sabine’s garden, and then turning she saw a black figure which she recognized at once as that of O’Hara.

仿佛这个存在不知何故是从梦中显现出来的，她首先注意到雪茄烟雾中淡淡的、暗示性的男性气味与萨宾花园里正在生长的花朵的气味混合在一起，然后她转过身来，看到了一个黑色的身影，她立刻认出了那是奥哈拉。

There was no surprise in the sight of him; it seemed in a queer way as if she had been expecting him.

看到他并没有感到惊讶。奇怪的是，她似乎一直在等他。

As she turned, he moved toward her and spoke.

当她转身时，他走向她并说话。

“Our garden has flourished, hasn’t it?” he asked.

“我们的花园已经茂盛了，不是吗？”他问道。

“You’d never think it was only a year old.”

“你永远不会想到它才一岁。”

“Yes,” she said.

“是的，”她说。

“It has flourished marvelously.” And then, after a little pause, “How long have you been standing there?”

“它已经非常繁荣了。”停顿了一下，然后问道：“你站在那里多久了？”

“Only a moment.

“只要一会儿。

I saw you come out of the house.” They listened for a time to the distant melancholy pounding of the surf, and presently he said softly, with a kind of awe in his voice: “It is a marvelous night ...

我看见你从屋里出来了。”他们听了一会儿远处传来忧郁的海浪拍打声，不久他轻声说道，声音里带着敬畏：“这是一个美妙的夜晚……

a night full of splendor.”

一个充满辉煌的夜晚。”

She made an effort to answer him, but somehow she could think of nothing to say.

她想回答他，但不知何故，她想不出什么可说的。

The remark, uttered so quietly, astonished her, because she had never thought of O’Hara as one who would be sensitive to the beauty of a night.

这句话如此轻声说出，让她吃了一惊，因为她从来没有想到奥哈拉会对夜晚的美丽如此敏感。

It was too dark to distinguish his face, but she kept seeing him as she remembered him, seeing him, too, as the others thought of him--rough and vigorous but a little common, with the scar on his temple and the intelligent blue eyes, and the springy walk, so unexpectedly easy and full of grace for a man of his size.

天色太暗，看不清他的脸，但她一直看到他，就像她记忆中的他一样，也看到他，就像其他人对他的看法一样——粗鲁、精力充沛，但有点普通，太阳穴上有伤疤，聪明的蓝眼睛，还有轻快的步伐，对于他这样高大的男人来说，出乎意料地轻松而充满优雅。

No, one might as well have expected little Higgins the groom to say: “It is a night full of splendor.” The men she knew--Anson’s friends--never said such things.

不，人们不妨期待新郎小希金斯会说：“这是一个充满辉煌的夜晚。”她认识的人——安森的朋友——从来没有说过这样的话。

She doubted whether they would ever notice such a night, and if they did notice it, they would be a little ashamed of having done anything so unusual.

她怀疑他们是否会注意到这样一个夜晚，如果他们真的注意到了，他们会因为做了如此不寻常的事情而感到有点羞愧。

“The party is not a great success,” he was saying.

“这次聚会并不是很成功，”他说。

“No.”

“不。”

“No one seems to be getting on with any one else.

“似乎没有人与其他人相处融洽。

Mrs. Callendar ought not to have asked me.

卡伦达夫人不应该问我。

I thought she was shrewder than that.”

我觉得她比那更精明。”

Olivia laughed softly.

奥莉薇娅轻声笑道。

“She may have done it on purpose.

“她可能是故意的。

You can never tell why she does anything.”

你永远无法说出她为什么做任何事。”

For a time he remained silent, as if pondering the speech, and then he said, “You aren’t cold out here?”

他沉默了一会儿，似乎在思考自己的演讲，然后说道：“你在这里不冷吗？”

“No, not on a night like this.”

“不，不是在这样的夜晚。”

There was a silence so long and so vaguely perilous that she felt the need of making some speech, politely and with banality, as if they were two strangers seated in a drawing-room after dinner instead of in the garden which together they had made beneath the ancient apple-trees.

沉默持续了很长时间，而且隐隐约约有些危险，她觉得有必要说几句话，礼貌而平庸，就好像他们是两个陌生人，晚餐后坐在客厅里，而不是坐在他们一起在古老的苹果树下建造的花园里。

“I keep wondering,” she said, “how long it will be until the bungalows of Durham creep down and cover all this land.”

“我一直在想，”她说，“要多久，达勒姆的平房就会慢慢地铺满这片土地。”

“They won’t, not so long as I own land between Durham and the sea.”

“只要我拥有达勒姆和大海之间的土地，他们就不会。”

In the darkness she smiled at the thought of an Irish Roman Catholic politician as the protector of this old New England countryside, and aloud she said, “You’re growing to be like all the others.

在黑暗中，她微笑着想到一位爱尔兰罗马天主教政客是这个古老的新英格兰乡村的保护者，她大声说：“你正在成长得像其他人一样。

You want to make the world stand still.”

你想让世界静止。”

“Yes, I can see that it must seem funny to you.” There was no bitterness in his voice, but only a sort of hurt, which again astonished her, because it was impassible to think of O’Hara as one who could be hurt.

“是的，我看得出你一定觉得很有趣。”他的声音里没有苦涩，只有一种伤害，这让她再次感到惊讶，因为一想到奥哈拉是一个可能受到伤害的人，就无法动情。

“There will always be the Pentland house, but, of course, all of us will die some day and then what?”

“彭特兰的房子永远都会存在，但是，当然，我们所有人都会有一天死去，然后呢？”

“There will always be our children.”

“永远都会有我们的孩子。”

She was aware slowly of slipping back into that world of cares and troubles behind her from which she had escaped a little while before.

她意识到自己慢慢地又回到了她不久前刚刚逃离的那个充满忧虑和烦恼的世界。

She said, “_You_ are looking a long way into the future.”

她说：“_你_正在展望未来。”

“Perhaps, but I mean to have children one day.

“也许吧，但我打算有一天要孩子。

And at Pentlands there is always Sybil, who will fight for it fiercely.

在彭特兰，总有西比尔，她会为之奋斗。

She’ll never give it up.”

她永远不会放弃。”

“But it’s Jack who will own it, and I’m not so sure about him.”

“但杰克将拥有它，我对他不太确定。”

Unconsciously she sighed, knowing now that she was pretending again, being dishonest.

她不自觉地叹了口气，知道自己又在装，又在不诚实了。

She was pretending again that Jack would live to have Pentlands for his own, that he would one day have children who would carry it on.

她再次假装杰克会活着并拥有自己的彭特兰，有一天他会生下孩子来继承它。

She kept saying to herself, “It is only the truth that can save us all.” And she knew that O’Hara understood her feeble game of pretending.

她不断对自己说：“只有真相才能拯救我们所有人。”她知道奥哈拉理解她那无力的假装游戏。

She knew because he stood there silently, as if Jack were already dead, as if he understood the reason for the faint bitter sigh and respected it.

她知道，因为他静静地站在那里，仿佛杰克已经死了，仿佛他理解那微弱苦涩的叹息的原因并尊重它。

“You see a great deal of Sybil, don’t you?” she asked.

“你经常见到西比尔，不是吗？”她问道。

“Yes, she is a good girl.

“是的，她是个好女孩。

One can depend on her.”

人们可以依赖她。”

“Perhaps if she had a little of Thérèse or Mrs. Callendar in her, she’d be safer from being hurt.”

“也许如果她身上有一点特蕾莎或卡伦达尔夫人的影子，她就会更安全，不会受到伤害。”

He did not answer her at once, but she knew that in the darkness he was standing there, watching her.

他没有立即回答她，但她知道，黑暗中他正站在那里，看着她。

“But that was a silly thing to say,” she murmured.

“但这样说实在是太愚蠢了，”她低声说道。

“I don’t suppose you know what I mean.”

“我想你不明白我的意思。”

He answered her quickly.

他很快回答了她。

“I do know exactly.

“我确实知道。

I know and I’m sure Mrs. Callendar knows.

我知道，而且我确信卡伦德夫人也知道。

We’ve both learned to save ourselves--not in the same school, but the same lesson, nevertheless.

我们都学会了自救——虽然不是在同一所学校，但在同一堂课上。

But as to Sybil, I think that depends upon whom she marries.”

但至于西比尔，我认为这取决于她嫁给谁。”

(“So now,” thought Olivia, “it is coming.

（“那么现在，”奥利维亚想，“它就要来了。

It is Sybil whom he loves.

他爱的是西比尔。

He wants to marry her.

他想娶她。

That is why he has followed me out here.”) She was back again now, solidly enmeshed in all the intricacies of living.

这就是为什么他跟着我来到这里。”）她现在又回来了，深深地陷入了生活的所有复杂之中。

She had a sudden, shameful, twinge of jealousy for Sybil, who was so young, who had pushed her so completely into the past along with all the others at Pentlands.

她突然对西比尔产生了一种可耻的、刺痛的嫉妒，她那么年轻，却把她和彭特兰的其他人一起彻底推入了过去。

“I was wondering,” she said, “whether she was not seeing too much of you, whether she might not be a bother.”

“我想知道，”她说，“她是否没有经常见到你，是否不会打扰你。”

“No, she’ll never be that.” And then in a voice which carried a faint echo of humor, he added, “I know that in a moment you are going to ask my intentions.”

“不，她永远不会那样。”然后他用一种略带幽默的声音补充道：“我知道你一会儿就会问我的意图。”

“No,” she said, “no”; but she could think of nothing else to say.

“不，”她说，“不”；但她想不出还有什么可说的。

She felt suddenly shy and awkward and a little idiotic, like a young girl at her first dance.

她突然感到害羞、尴尬，还有点白痴，就像一个第一次跳舞的年轻女孩。

“I shall tell you what my intentions are,” he was saying, and then he broke off suddenly.

“我会告诉你我的意图是什么，”他说道，然后突然停了下来。

“Why is it so impossible to be honest in this world, when we live such a little while?

“为什么我们活这么短，在这个世界上诚实就这么不可能呢？

It would be such a different place if we were all honest wouldn’t it?”

如果我们都诚实的话，情况将会大不相同，不是吗？”

He hesitated, waiting for her to answer, and she said, “Yes,” almost mechanically, “very different.”

他犹豫了一下，等着她回答，她几乎机械地说道：“是的，非常不同。”

When he replied there was a faint note of excitement in his voice.

当他回答的时候，他的声音里带着一丝兴奋。

It was pitched a little lower and he spoke more quickly.

音调低了一些，他说得更快了。

In the darkness she could not see him, and yet she was sharply conscious of the change.

黑暗中她看不到他，但她敏锐地意识到了这种变化。

“I’ll tell you, then,” he was saying, “I’ve been seeing a great deal of Sybil in the hope that I should see a little of her mother.”

“那我告诉你，”他说，“我经常见到西比尔，希望能多见见她的母亲。”

She did not answer him.

她没有回答他。

She simply sat there, speechless, overcome by confusion, as if she had been a young girl with her first lover.

她只是坐在那里，一言不发，困惑不已，仿佛她是一个和初恋情人在一起的年轻女孩。

She was even made a little dizzy by the sound of his voice.

她甚至被他的声音弄得有些头晕。

“I have offended you.

“我冒犯了你。

I’m sorry.

对不起。

I only spoke the truth.

我只说了实话。

There is no harm in that.”

这并没有什么坏处。”

With a heroic effort to speak intelligently, she succeeded in saying, “No, I am not offended.” (It all seemed such a silly, helpless, pleasant feeling.) “No, I’m not offended.

她勇敢地努力用智慧说话，成功地说：“不，我没有被冒犯。” （这一切看起来都是一种愚蠢、无助、愉快的感觉。）“不，我没有被冒犯。

I don’t know....”

我不知道……”

Of only one thing was she certain; that this strange, dizzy, intoxicated state was like nothing she had ever experienced.

她只有一件事是确定的：这种奇怪、头晕、陶醉的状态是她从未经历过的。

It was sinister and overwhelming in a bitter-sweet fashion.

这是一种苦乐参半的险恶和压倒性的方式。

She kept thinking, “I can begin to understand how a young girl can be seduced, how she cannot know what she is doing.”

她不断地想：“我开始理解一个年轻女孩是如何被诱惑的，她如何不知道自己在做什么。”

“I suppose,” he was saying, “that you think me presumptuous.”

“我想，”他说，“你认为我很自以为是。”

“No, I only think everything is impossible, insane.”

“不，我只是觉得一切都是不可能的，疯了。”

“You think me a kind of ruffian, a bum, an Irishman, a Roman Catholic, some one you have never heard of.” He waited, and then added: “I _am_ all that, from one point of view.”

“你认为我是一个恶棍，一个流浪汉，一个爱尔兰人，一个罗马天主教徒，一个你从未听说过的人。”他等了一会儿，然后补充道：“从一个角度来看，我就是这一切。”

“No, I don’t think that; I don’t think that.”

“不，我不这么认为；我不这么认为。”

He sat down beside her quietly on the stone bench.

他静静地坐在她身边的石凳上。

“You have every right to think it,” he continued softly.

“你完全有权利这样想，”他轻声继续说道。

“Every right in the world, and still things like that make no difference, nothing makes any difference.”

“世界上的每一项权利，但诸如此类的事情都没有什么区别，没有什么有什么区别。”

“My father,” she said softly, “was a man very like you.

“我的父亲，”她轻声说道，“是一个非常像你的人。

His enemies sometimes used to call him ‘shanty Irish.’...”

他的敌人有时称他为‘棚户区爱尔兰人’……”

She knew all the while that she should have risen and sought indignant refuge in the house.

她一直都知道，她应该站起来，愤怒地到屋里寻求庇护。

She knew that perhaps she was being absurd, and yet she stayed there quietly.

她知道自己也许有些荒唐，但她还是静静地呆在那里。

She was so tired and she had waited for so long (she only knew it now in a sudden flash) to have some one talk to her in just this way, as if she were a woman.

她太累了，她等了这么久（她现在才突然意识到）有人能用这种方式跟她说话，就像她是一个女人一样。

She needed some one to lean upon, so desperately.

她需要一个可以依靠的人，她是如此的迫切。

“How can you know me?” she asked out of a vague sense of helplessness.

“你怎么会认识我？”她带着一种模糊的无助感问道。

“How can you know anything about me?”

“你怎么会知道我的事？”

He did not touch her.

他没有碰她。

He only sat there in the darkness, making her feel by a sort of power which was too strong for her, that all he said was terribly the truth.

他只是坐在黑暗中，让她感觉到有一种对她来说过于强烈的力量，他说的都是千真万确的事实。

“I know, I know, all about you, everything.

“我知道，我知道，关于你的一切，一切。

I’ve watched you.

我注视过你。

I’ve understood you, even better than the others.

我比其他人更了解你。

A man whose life has been like mine sees and understands a great deal that others never notice because for him everything depends upon a kind of second sight.

一个像我一样生活的人会看到并理解很多其他人从未注意到的事情，因为对他来说，一切都取决于某种第二眼。

It’s the one great weapon of the opportunist.” There was a silence and he asked, “Can you understand that?

这是机会主义者的一大武器。”一阵沉默，他问道：“你能明白吗？

It may be hard, because your life has been so different.”

这可能很难，因为你的生活已经如此不同。”

“Not so different, as you might think, only perhaps I’ve made more of a mess of it.” And straightening her body, she murmured, “It is foolish of me to let you talk this way.”

“没你想象的那么不同，只是也许我把事情弄得更乱了。”她直起身子，低声说道：“我真是愚蠢，让你这么说话。”

He interrupted her with a quick burst of almost boyish eagerness.

他突然爆发出一种近乎孩子气的渴望打断了她。

“But you’re glad, aren’t you?

“但是你很高兴，不是吗？

You’re glad, all the same, whether you care anything for me or not.

不管怎样，你很高兴，不管你是否关心我。

You’ve deserved it for a long time.”

很长一段时间以来，你都是应得的。”

She began to cry softly, helplessly, without a sound, the tears running down her cheeks, and she thought, “Now I’m being a supreme fool.

她开始轻声、无助、无声地哭泣，泪水顺着脸颊流下来，她想：“现在我真是个大傻瓜了。

I’m pitying myself.” But she could not stop.

我可怜我自己。”但她无法停下来。

It appeared that even in the darkness he was aware of her tears, for he chose not to interrupt them.

看来即使在黑暗中他也能察觉到她的眼泪，因为他选择不去阻止。

They sat thus for a long time in silence, Olivia conscious with a terrible aching acuteness, of the beauty of the night and finding it all strange and unreal and confused.

他们就这样沉默地坐了很长一段时间，奥利维亚带着一种可怕的痛苦敏锐地意识到夜晚的美丽，发现这一切都很奇怪、不真实和困惑。

“I wanted you to know,” he said quietly, “that there was some one near you, some one who worships you, who would give up everything for you.” And after a time, “Perhaps we had better go in now.

“我想让你知道，”他平静地说，“有一个人在你身边，有一个人崇拜你，愿意为你放弃一切。”过了一会儿，“也许我们最好现在就进去。

You can go in through the piazza and powder your nose.

你可以从广场进去搽鼻子。

I’ll go in through the door from the garden.”

我从花园的门进去。”

And as they walked across the damp, scented grass, he said, “It would be pleasant if you would join Sybil and me riding in the morning.”

当他们走过潮湿、散发着香味的草地时，他说：“如果你早上能和西比尔和我一起骑马，那就太好了。”

“But I haven’t been on a horse in years,” said Olivia.

“但我已经很多年没有骑马了，”奥利维亚说。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

Throughout the rest of the evening, while she sat playing bridge with Sabine and O’Hara and the Mannering boy, her mind kept straying from the game into unaccustomed by-ways.

整个晚上，当她坐在与萨宾、奥哈拉和曼纳林男孩打桥牌时，她的思绪不断从游戏中偏离到不习惯的小路。

It was not, she told herself, that she was even remotely in love with O’Hara; it was only that some one--a man who was no creature of ordinary attractions--had confessed his admiration for her, and so she felt young and giddy and elated.

她告诉自己，她根本就没有爱上奥哈拉。只是有人——一个非同凡响的男人——承认了他对她的钦佩，所以她感到年轻、轻浮和兴高采烈。

The whole affair was silly ...

整个事件很愚蠢......

and yet, yet, in a strange way, it was not silly at all.

然而，以一种奇怪的方式，它一点也不傻。

She kept thinking of Anson’s remarks about his father and old Mrs. Soames, “It’s a silly affair”--and of Sybil saying gravely, “Only not middle-aged, like O’Hara,” and it occurred to her at the same time that in all her life she felt really young for the first time.

她不断想起安森对他父亲和老索姆斯太太的评论，“这是一件愚蠢的事情”——还有西比尔严肃地说，“只是不是像奥哈拉那样的中年人，”她同时想到，在她的一生中，她第一次感到自己真的很年轻。

She had been young as she sat on the stone bench under the ancient apple-tree, young in spite of everything.

当她坐在那棵古老的苹果树下的石凳上时，她很年轻，尽管发生了一切，她还是很年轻。

And aloud she would say, “Four spades,” and know at once that she should have made no such bid.

她会大声说：“四黑桃”，然后立刻就知道她不应该下这种叫牌。

She was unnerved, too, by the knowledge that there were, all the while, two pairs of eyes far more absorbed in her than in the game of bridge--the green ones of Sabine and the bright blue ones of O’Hara.

她也感到不安，因为她知道一直以来有两双眼睛比桥牌游戏更专注于她——萨宾的绿色眼睛和奥哈拉的亮蓝色眼睛。

She could not look up without encountering the gaze of one or the other; and to protect herself she faced them with a hard, banal little smile which she put in place in the mechanical way used by Miss Egan.

她一抬头就会遇到对方的目光。为了保护自己，她面对他们时露出了一个冷酷而平庸的微笑，就像伊根小姐那样机械地微笑着。

It was the sort of smile which made her face feel very tired, and for the first time she had a half-comic flash of pity for Miss Egan.

正是这种微笑让她的脸感到非常疲倦，她第一次对伊根小姐产生了半滑稽的怜悯。

The face of the nurse must at times have grown horribly tired.

护士的脸有时一定变得非常疲惫。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

The giddiness still clung to her as she climbed into the motor beside Sybil and they drove off down the lane which led from Brook Cottage to Pentlands.

当她爬上西比尔身边的汽车，沿着从布鲁克小屋通往彭特兰的小巷行驶时，头晕的感觉仍然萦绕在她的心头。

The road was a part of a whole tracery of lanes, bordered by hedges and old trees, which bound together the houses of the countryside, and at night they served as a promenade and meeting-place for the servants of the same big houses.

这条路是整个小巷的一部分，周围有树篱和老树，这些小巷将乡村的房屋连接在一起，晚上它们成为同一座大房子的仆人的散步和聚会场所。

One came upon them in little groups of three or four, standing by gates or stone walls, gossiping and giggling together in the darkness, exchanging tales of the life that passed in the houses of their masters, stories of what the old man did yesterday, and how Mrs. So-and-so only took one bath a week.

有人三四人一组地遇见他们，站在门边或石墙边，在黑暗中一起闲聊，咯咯地笑，交换主人家里的生活故事，老人昨天做了什么，以及某某太太每周只洗一次澡的故事。

There was a whole world which lay beneath the solid, smooth, monotonous surface that shielded the life of the wealthy, a world which in its way was full of mockery and dark secrets and petty gossip, a world perhaps fuller of truth because it lay hidden away where none--save perhaps Aunt Cassie, who knew how many fascinating secrets servants had--ever looked, and where there was small need for the sort of pretense which Olivia found so tragic.

在保护富人生活的坚硬、光滑、单调的表面之下，隐藏着一个完整的世界，这个世界本身就充满了嘲讽、黑暗的秘密和琐碎的流言蜚语，这个世界也许更充满真相，因为它隐藏在没有人——也许除了卡西姨妈，她知道仆人有多少迷人的秘密——曾经看过的地方，而且不需要奥利维亚发现如此悲惨的那种假装。

It circulated the dark lanes at night after the dinners of the neighborhood were finished, and sometimes the noisy echoes of its irreverent mockery rose in wild Irish laughter that echoed back and forth across the mist-hung meadows.

晚上，邻居们吃完晚饭后，它在黑暗的小巷里转悠，有时，它不敬的嘲笑的喧闹回声会在狂野的爱尔兰笑声中升起，在雾气缭绕的草地上来回回响。

The same lanes were frequented, too, by lovers, who went in pairs instead of groups of three or four, and at times there were echoes of a different sort of merriment--the wild, half-hysterical laughter of some kitchen-maid being wooed roughly and passionately in some dark corner by a groom or a house-servant.

同样的小巷也经常有恋人光顾，他们成双成对地走，而不是三四个人一组，有时会传来另一种欢乐的回声——某个厨房女仆在某个黑暗的角落里被新郎或女仆粗鲁而热情地求爱时发出的狂野的、半歇斯底里的笑声。

It was a world which blossomed forth only at nightfall.

这是一个只有在夜幕降临时才绽放出花朵的世界。

Sometimes in the darkness the masters, motoring home from a ball or a dinner, would come upon an amorous couple, bathed in the sudden brilliant glare of motor-lights, sitting with their arms about each other against a tree, or lying half-hidden among a tangle of hawthorn and elder-bushes.

有时候，在黑暗中，主人们从舞会或晚宴结束后开车回家时，会遇到一对多情的情侣，他们沐浴在汽车灯突然发出的耀眼光芒中，互相搂抱坐在一棵树上，或者半隐藏在山楂树和接骨木丛中。

To-night, as Olivia and Sybil drove in silence along the road, the hot air was filled with the thick scent of the hawthorn-blossoms and the rich, dark odor of cattle, blown toward them across the meadows by the faint salt breeze from the marshes.

今晚，奥利维亚和西比尔默默地开车沿路行驶，炎热的空气中充满了浓浓的山楂花香味和浓浓的牛臭味，从沼泽地吹来的微咸微风穿过草地向他们吹来。

It was late and the lights of the motor encountered no strayed lovers until at the foot of the hill by the old bridge the glare illuminated suddenly the figures of a man and a woman seated together against the stone wall.

天色已晚，车灯没有遇到迷路的恋人，直到山脚下的老桥边，耀眼的光芒突然照亮了靠石墙坐着的一男一女的身影。

At their approach the woman slipped quickly over the wall, and the man, following, leaped lightly as a goat to the top and into the field beyond.

他们一靠近，女人就迅速地翻过墙，男人紧随其后，像山羊一样轻轻地跳到了墙顶，跳进了远处的田野里。

Sybil laughed and murmured, “It’s Higgins again.”

西碧尔哈哈大笑，低声说道：“又是希金斯。”

It _was_ Higgins.

这是希金斯。

There was no mistaking the stocky, agile figure clad in riding-breeches and sleeveless cotton shirt, and as he leaped the wall the sight of him aroused in Olivia a nebulous, fleeting impression that was like a half-forgotten memory.

毫无疑问，这个矮胖、敏捷的身影穿着马裤和无袖棉衬衫，当他跳过墙壁时，他的身影在奥莉维亚的脑海中激起了一种模糊的、转瞬即逝的印象，就像一段快被遗忘的记忆。

A startled fawn, she thought, must have scuttled off into the bushes in the same fashion.

她想，一只受惊的小鹿一定也以同样的方式逃进了灌木丛。

And she had suddenly that same strange, prickly feeling of terror that had affected Sabine on the night she discovered him hidden in the lilacs watching the ball.

她突然产生了一种奇怪的、刺痛的恐惧感，当她发现萨宾躲在丁香花里看舞会的那个晚上，这种感觉也曾影响过萨宾。

She shivered, and Sybil asked, “You’re not cold?”

她颤抖着，西比尔问道：“你不冷吗？”

“No.”

“不。”

She was thinking of Higgins and hoping that this was not the beginning of some new scrape.

她想着希金斯，希望这不是新的麻烦的开始。

Once before a girl had come to her in trouble--a Polish girl, whom she helped and sent away because she could not see that forcing Higgins to marry her would have brought anything but misery for both of them.

以前有一次，一个遇到麻烦的女孩来找她——一个波兰女孩，她帮助了她，然后把她打发走了，因为她看不出强迫希金斯嫁给她只会给他们俩带来痛苦。

It never ceased to amaze her that a man so gnarled and ugly, such a savage, hairy little man as Higgins, should have half the girls of the countryside running after him.

她总是感到惊讶，像希金斯这样一个如此粗糙、丑陋、如此野蛮、毛茸茸的小个子男人，居然让乡下一半的女孩都追随他。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

In her own room she listened in the darkness until she heard the sound of Jack’s gentle breathing and then, after undressing, she sat for a long time at the window looking out across the meadows toward the marshes.

在自己的房间里，她在黑暗中倾听，直到听到杰克轻柔的呼吸声，然后，脱掉衣服，她在窗前坐了很长时间，眺望着草地对面的沼泽地。

There was a subdued excitement which seemed to run through all her body and would not let her sleep.

有一种压抑的兴奋似乎贯穿了她的全身，让她无法入睡。

She no longer felt the weariness of spirit which had let her slip during these last few months into a kind of lethargy.

她不再感到过去几个月里让她陷入昏昏欲睡的精神疲倦。

She was alive, more alive than she had ever been, even as a young girl; her cheeks were hot and flushed, so that she placed her white hands against them to feel a coolness that was missing from the night air; but they, too, were hot with life.

她还活着，比以往任何时候都更有活力，即使是在她还是个小女孩的时候。她的脸颊又热又红，她把白皙的双手放在上面，感受着夜风中缺少的一丝凉意。但他们也对生活充满热情。

And as she sat there, the sounds from Sybil’s room across the hall died away and at last the night grew still save for the sound of her son’s slow breathing and the familiar ghostly creakings of the old house.

当她坐在那里时，走廊对面西比尔房间里的声音渐渐消失，夜色终于变得安静，只剩下她儿子缓慢的呼吸声和老房子里熟悉的幽灵般的嘎吱声。

She was alone now, the only one who was not sleeping; and sitting above the mist-hung meadows she grew more quiet.

现在只有她一个人，唯一一个没有睡觉的人。坐在雾气缭绕的草地上，她变得更加安静。

The warm rich scents of the night drifted in at the window, and again she became aware of a kind of voluptuousness which she had sensed in the air as she sat, hours earlier, on Sabine’s terrace above the sea.

夜晚温暖浓郁的香味从窗外飘进来，她再次感受到了空气中的一种性感，这是几个小时前她坐在萨宾海边露台上时感受到的。

It had assailed her again as they drove through the lane across the low, marshy pastures by the river.

当他们开车穿过小巷，穿过河边低矮、沼泽的牧场时，它再次袭击了她。

And then in the figure of Higgins, leaping the wall like a goat, it had come with a shock to a sudden climax of feeling, with a sudden acuteness which even terrified her.

然后，在希金斯像山羊一样跳过墙壁的形象中，这种感觉突然达到了高潮，突然变得尖锐起来，甚至让她感到害怕。

It still persisted a little, the odd feeling of some tremendous, powerful force at work all about her, moving swiftly and quietly, thrusting aside and annihilating those who opposed it.

它仍然存在一点点，一种奇怪的感觉，有某种巨大而强大的力量在她周围发挥作用，迅速而安静地移动，推开并消灭那些反对它的人。

She thought again, “I am a little mad to-night.

她又想道：“今晚我有点生气。

What has come over me?” And she grew frightened, though it was a different sort of terror from that which afflicted her at the odd moments when she felt all about her the presence of the dead who lived on and on at Pentlands.

我到底怎么了？她开始感到害怕，尽管这与她在奇怪的时刻感到的恐惧不同，当她感觉到周围有死者的存在时，他们一直生活在彭特兰。

What she knew now was no terror of the dead; it was rather a terror of warm, passionate life.

她现在知道的并不是对死者的恐惧；而是对死者的恐惧。这是对温暖、充满激情的生活的恐惧。

She thought, “This is what must have happened to the others.

她想：“其他人肯定也遇到过这样的事。

This is how they must have felt before they died.”

这就是他们死前的感受。”

It was not physical death that she meant, but a death somehow of the soul, a death which left behind it such withered people as Aunt Cassie and Anson, the old woman in the north wing, and even a man so rugged and powerful as John Pentland, who had struggled so much more fiercely than the others.

她指的不是肉体的死亡，而是某种灵魂的死亡，这种死亡留下了卡西姨妈和安森等枯萎的人，北翼的老妇人，甚至还有像约翰·彭特兰这样粗犷有力的人，他比其他人挣扎得更激烈。

And she got a sudden sense of being caught between two dark, struggling forces in fierce combat.

她突然有一种被夹在两股黑暗的、挣扎的力量之间激烈战斗的感觉。

It was confused and vague, yet it made her feel suddenly ill in a physical sense.

很混乱，很模糊，却让她突然感觉到身体上的不适。

The warm feeling of life and excitement flowed away, leaving her chilled and relaxed, weary all at once, and filled with a soft lassitude, still looking out into the night, still smelling the thick odor of cattle and hawthorn-blossoms.

那种温暖的生活感和兴奋感都消散了，只剩下寒冷和放松，一下子疲倦了，充满了一种柔和的倦怠，她仍然望着夜色，仍然闻着浓浓的牛香和山楂花香。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

She never knew whether or not she had fallen asleep in the bergère by the window, but she did know that she was roused abruptly by the sound of footsteps.

她不知道自己是否在窗边的凉棚里睡着了，但她知道自己是被脚步声猛地惊醒的。

Outside the door of her room, in the long hallway, there was some one walking, gently, cautiously.

她的房门外，长长的走廊里，有人走着，轻轻的，小心翼翼的。

It was not this time merely the creaking of the old house; it was the sound of footfalls, regular, measured, inevitable, those of some person of almost no weight at all.

这次不仅仅是老房子的吱吱声；还有。那是脚步声，有规律、有节奏、不可避免，是某个几乎没有体重的人发出的。

She listened, and slowly, cautiously, almost as if the person were blind and groping his way in the darkness, the step advanced until presently it came opposite her and thin slivers of light outlined the door that led into the hall.

她听着，慢慢地、小心翼翼地，仿佛那人是瞎子，在黑暗中摸索着，脚步向前迈进，不久就到了她的对面，细细的光线勾勒出了通向大厅的门。

Quietly she rose and, still lost in a vague sense of moving in a nightmare, she went over to the door and opened it.

她静静地站起来，仍然沉浸在噩梦般的模糊感觉中，走到门口打开了门。

Far down the long hall, at the door which opened into the stairway leading to the attic of the house, there was a small circle of light cast by an electric torch.

长长的大厅深处，通向通往阁楼的楼梯的门处，有一圈由手电筒发出的小光圈。

It threw into a black silhouette the figure of an old woman with white hair whom Olivia recognized at once.

黑色的轮廓中出现了一位白发老妇人的身影，奥莉薇娅一眼就认出了她。

It was the old woman escaped from the north wing.

正是从北翼逃出来的老妇人。

While she stood watching her, the figure, fumbling at the door, opened it and disappeared quickly into the stairway.

当她站在那里看着她时，那个人影摸索着门，打开了门，很快就消失在楼梯里。

There was no time to be lost, not time even to go in search of the starched Miss Egan.

没有时间可以浪费了，甚至没有时间去寻找衣着笔挺的伊根小姐。

The poor creature might fling herself from the upper windows.

这个可怜的生物可能会从楼上的窗户跳下去。

So, without stopping even to throw a dressing-gown about her, Olivia went quickly along the dark hall and up the stairway where the fantastic creature in the flowered wrapper had vanished.

于是，奥利维亚甚至没有停下来给她披上晨衣，而是快速地沿着黑暗的大厅走上楼梯，那个穿着鲜花包装纸的奇妙生物已经消失在了那里。

The attic was an enormous, unfinished room that covered the whole of the house, a vast cavern of a place, empty save for a few old trunks and pieces of broken furniture.

阁楼是一个巨大的、未完工的房间，覆盖了整个房子，是一个巨大的洞穴，除了一些旧箱子和破损的家具外，空荡荡的。

The flotsam and jetsam of Pentland life had been stowed away there, lost and forgotten in the depths of the big room, for more than a century.

一个多世纪以来，彭特兰生活中的残渣和废品一直被存放在那里，在大房间的深处丢失和遗忘。

No one entered it.

没有人进入其中。

Since Sybil and Jack had grown, it remained half-forgotten.

自从西比尔和杰克长大后，这件事仍然被遗忘了一半。

They had played there on rainy days as small children, and before them Sabine and Anson had played in the same dark, mysterious corners among broken old trunks and sofas and chairs.

他们小时候曾在雨天在那里玩耍，而在他们之前，萨宾和安森也曾在同样黑暗、神秘的角落里，在破烂的旧箱子、沙发和椅子之间玩耍。

Olivia found the place in darkness save for the patches of blue light where the luminous night came in at the double row of dormer windows, and at the far end, by a group of old trunks, the circle of light from the torch that moved this way and that, as if old Mrs. Pentland were searching for something.

奥利维亚在黑暗中找到了这个地方，除了两排老虎窗处透出的几片蓝光，在远处，在一群旧树干旁边，火炬发出的光环来回移动，好像老彭特兰太太正在寻找什么东西。

In the haste of her escape and flight, her thin white hair had come undone and fell about her shoulders.

在她匆忙逃跑的过程中，她稀疏的白发散开，披散在肩上。

A sickly smell of medicine hung about her.

她的身上弥漫着一股令人作呕的药味。

Olivia touched her gently and said, “What have you lost, Mrs. Pentland?

奥利维亚轻轻地碰了碰她，说道：“你失去了什么，彭特兰夫人？

Can I help you?”

我可以帮你吗？”

The old woman turned and, throwing the light of the torch full into Olivia’s face, stared at her with the round blue eyes, murmuring, “Oh, it’s you, Olivia.

老妇人转过身来，将手电筒的光芒照在奥莉薇娅的脸上，圆圆的蓝眼睛盯着她，低声说道：“噢，是你，奥莉薇娅。

Then it’s all right.

然后就没事了。

Perhaps you can help me.”

或许你可以帮助我。”

“What was it you lost?

“你失去了什么？

We might look for it in the morning.”

我们可能会在早上去找它。”

“I’ve forgotten what it was now.

“我现在已经忘记那是什么了。

You startled me, and you know my poor brain isn’t very good, at best.

你让我吃了一惊，你知道我可怜的大脑充其量也不是很好。

It never has been since I married.” Sharply she looked at Olivia.

自从我结婚以来，从来没有这样过。”她目光锐利地看着奥利维亚。

“It didn’t affect you that way, did it?

“这并没有对你造成什么影响，不是吗？

You don’t ever drift away and feel yourself growing dimmer and dimmer, do you?

你永远不会随着时间的流逝而感到自己变得越来越黯淡，不是吗？

It’s odd.

这很奇怪。

Perhaps it’s different with your husband.”

也许你的丈夫不一样。”

Olivia saw that the old woman was having one of those isolated moments of clarity and reason which were more horrible than her insanity because for a time she made you see that, after all, she was like yourself, human and capable of thought.

奥利维亚看到老妇人正在经历一种孤立的清醒和理智的时刻，这比她的疯狂更可怕，因为有一段时间她让你看到，毕竟，她和你一样，是人，有思考能力。

To Olivia these moments were almost as if she witnessed the rising of the dead.

对奥利维亚来说，这些时刻几乎就像她目睹了死者的复活。

“No,” said Olivia.

“不，”奥利维亚说。

“Perhaps if we went to bed now, you’d remember in the morning.”

“也许如果我们现在去睡觉，你早上就会记得。”

Old Mrs. Pentland shook her head violently.

老彭特兰太太猛烈地摇摇头。

“No, no, I must find them now.

“不，不，我现在必须找到他们。

It may be all different in the morning and I won’t know anything and that Irish woman won’t let me out.

早上情况可能会有所不同，我什么都不知道，那个爱尔兰女人也不会让我出去。

Say over the names of a few things like prunes, prisms, persimmons.

说出一些东西的名称，例如李子、棱柱、柿子。

That’s what Mr. Dickens used to have his children do when he couldn’t think of a word.”

当狄更斯先生想不出一个词时，他常常让他的孩子们这么做。”

“Let me have the light,” said Olivia; “perhaps I can find what it is you want.”

“让我有光吧，”奥利维亚说。 “也许我能找到你想要的东西。”

With the meekness of a child, the old woman gave her the electric torch and Olivia, turning it this way and that, among the trunks and old rubbish, made a mock search among the doll-houses and the toy dishes left scattered in the corner of the attic where the children had played house for the last time.

老妇人怀着孩子般的温顺，把手电递给了她，奥莉薇娅则在箱子和旧垃圾中左右转动手电筒，在孩子们最后一次过家家的阁楼角落里的玩具屋和玩具盘子里进行了模拟搜索。

While she searched, the old woman kept up a running comment, half to herself: “It’s something I wanted to find very much.

当她寻找的时候，老妇人半自言自语地不停地说着：“这是我非常想找到的东西。

It’ll make a great difference here in the lives of all of us.

这将对我们所有人的生活产生巨大的影响。

I thought I might find Sabine here to help me.

我想我可以在这里找到萨宾来帮助我。

She was here yesterday morning, playing with Anson.

昨天早上她在这里和安森一起玩。

It rained all day and they couldn’t go out.

一整天都在下雨，他们无法出去。

I hid it here yesterday when I came up to see them.”

昨天我来看他们的时候就把它藏在这里了。”

Olivia again attempted wheedling.

奥利维亚再次试图哄骗。

“It’s late now, Mrs. Pentland.

“现在已经很晚了，彭特兰夫人。

We ought both to be in bed.

我们都应该上床睡觉。

You try to remember what it is you want, and in the morning I’ll come up and find it for you.”

你试着记住你想要什么，早上我会来帮你找到它。”

For a moment the old woman considered this, and at last she said, “You wouldn’t give it to me if you found it.

老妇人想了一会儿，最后说道：“如果你找到了，你也不会给我的。

I’m sure you wouldn’t.

我确信你不会。

You’re too afraid of them all.”

你太害怕他们了。”

“I promise you I will.

“我向你保证我会的。

You can trust me, can’t you?”

你可以相信我，不是吗？”

“Yes, yes, you’re the only one who doesn’t treat me as if I wasn’t quite bright.

“是啊是啊，你是唯一一个不把我当成不聪明的人。

Yes, I think I can trust you.” Another thought occurred to her abruptly.

是的，我想我可以相信你。”她突然想到了另一个想法。

“But I wouldn’t remember again.

“但我不会再记得了。

I might forget.

我可能会忘记。

Besides, I don’t think Miss Egan would let me.”

而且，我想伊根小姐不会让我这么做。”

Olivia took one of the thin old hands in hers and said, as if she were talking to a little child, “I know what we’ll do.

奥莉薇娅握住她的一只瘦弱苍老的手，仿佛在对一个小孩子说话一样说道：“我知道我们要做什么。

To-morrow you write it out on a bit of paper and then I’ll find it and bring it to you.”

明天你把它写在一张纸上，然后我会找到它并带给你。”

“I’m sure little Sabine could find it,” said the old woman.

“我确信小萨宾能找到它，”老妇人说。

“She’s very good at such things.

“她非常擅长这些事情。

She’s such a clever child.”

她真是个聪明的孩子。”

“I’ll go over and fetch Sabine to have her help me.”

“我去叫莎宾来，让她帮帮我。”

The old woman looked at her sharply.

老妇人目光锐利地看着她。

“You’ll promise that?” she asked.

“你会答应吗？”她问道。

“You’ll promise?”

“你会答应吗？”

“Of course, surely.”

“当然，当然。”

“Because all the others are always deceiving me.”

“因为其他人总是在欺骗我。”

And then quite gently she allowed herself to be led across the moonlit patches of the dusty floor, down the stairs and back to her room.

然后，她轻轻地让自己穿过月光照耀下的尘土飞扬的地板，走下楼梯，回到自己的房间。

In the hall of the north wing they came suddenly upon the starched Miss Egan, all her starch rather melted and subdued now, her red face purple with alarm.

在北翼的大厅里，他们突然遇到了伊根小姐，她所有的淀粉都融化了，变得柔和了，她的红脸因惊慌而变成紫色。

“I’ve been looking for her everywhere, Mrs. Pentland,” she told Olivia.

“我一直在到处寻找她，彭特兰夫人，”她告诉奥利维亚。

“I don’t know how she escaped.

“我不知道她是怎么逃走的。

She was asleep when I left.

我离开时她已经睡着了。

I went down to the kitchen for her orange-juice, and while I was gone she disappeared.”

我去厨房给她喝橙汁，当我离开时，她就消失了。”

It was the old woman who answered.

回答的是老妇人。

Looking gravely at Olivia, she said, with an air of confidence, “You know I never speak to her at all.

她严肃地看着奥利维亚，充满自信地说：“你知道我从来不跟她说话。

She’s common.

她很常见。

She’s a common Irish servant.

她是一名普通的爱尔兰仆人。

They can shut me up with her, but they can’t make me speak to her.” And then she began to drift back again into the hopeless state that was so much more familiar.

他们可以让我和她闭嘴，但他们不能让我和她说话。”然后她开始再次陷入那种更加熟悉的绝望状态。

She began to mumble over and over again a chain of words and names which had no coherence.

她开始一遍又一遍地咕哝出一连串语无伦次的单词和名字。

Olivia and Miss Egan ignored her, as if part of her--the vaguely _rational_ old woman--had disappeared, leaving in her place this pitiful chattering creature who was a stranger.

奥利维亚和伊根小姐不理睬她，仿佛她的一部分——那个有点理性的老太婆——已经消失了，取而代之的是这个可怜的、喋喋不休的陌生人。

Olivia explained where it was she found the old woman and why she had gone there.

奥利维亚解释了她在哪里找到了老妇人以及她为什么去那里。

“She’s been talking on the subject for days,” said Miss Egan.

“她已经谈论这个话题好几天了，”伊根小姐说。

“I think it’s letters that she’s looking for, but it may be nothing at all.

“我认为她在找的是信件，但也可能什么也没有。

She mixes everything terribly.”

她把一切都混合得非常糟糕。”

Olivia was shivering now in her nightdress, more from weariness and nerves than from the chill of the night.

奥利维亚现在穿着睡衣瑟瑟发抖，更多的是因为疲倦和紧张，而不是因为夜晚的寒冷。

“I wouldn’t speak of it to any of the others, Miss Egan,” she said.

“伊根小姐，我不会向其他任何人谈论这件事，”她说。

“It will only trouble them.

“这只会给他们带来麻烦。

And we must be more careful about her in the future.”

我们以后一定要更加小心她。”

The old woman had gone past them now, back into the dark room where she spent her whole life, and the nurse had begun to recover a little of her defiant confidence.

老妇人现在已经从他们身边走过，回到了她度过了一生的黑暗房间，而护士也开始恢复了一点她挑衅的自信。

She even smiled, the hard, glittering smile which always said, “You cannot do without me, whatever happens.”

她甚至微笑着，那坚定而闪闪发光的微笑总是在说：“无论发生什么，你都离不开我。”

Aloud she said, “I can’t imagine what happened, Mrs. Pentland.”

她大声说道：“我无法想象发生了什么事，彭特兰夫人。”

“It was an accident, never mind,” said Olivia.

“这是一次意外，没关系，”奥利维亚说。

“Good-night.

“晚安。”

Only I think it’s better not to speak of what has happened.

只是我认为最好不要谈论发生的事情。

It will only alarm the others.”

这只会让其他人惊慌。”

But she was puzzled, Olivia, because underneath the dressing-gown Miss Egan had thrown about her shoulders she saw that the nurse was dressed neither in night-clothes nor in her uniform, but in the suit of blue serge that she wore on the rare occasions when she went into the city.

但她很困惑，奥利维亚，因为在伊根小姐披在肩上的晨衣下面，她看到护士既没有穿睡衣，也没有穿制服，而是穿着她进城时偶尔穿的蓝色哔叽套装。

She spoke to no one of what had happened, either on the terrace or in the lane or in the depths of the old attic, and the days came to resume again their old monotonous round, as if the strange, hot, disturbing night had had no more existence than a dream.

她没有对任何人讲述发生过的事情，无论是在露台上、在小巷里还是在旧阁楼的深处，日子又恢复了原来单调的循环，仿佛那个奇怪、炎热、令人不安的夜晚只不过是一场梦而已。

She did not see O’Hara, yet she heard of him, constantly, from Sybil, from Sabine, even from Jack, who seemed stronger than he had ever been and able for a time to go about the farm with his grandfather in the trap drawn by an old white horse.

她没有看到奥哈拉，但她不断地从西比尔、萨宾、甚至杰克那里听说过他，杰克似乎比以往任何时候都更强壮，有一段时间能够和他的祖父一起在农场里走动，他的祖父在一匹老白马的陷阱里。

There were moments when it seemed to Olivia that the boy might one day be really well, and yet there was never any real joy in those moments, because always in the back of her mind stood the truth.

有时候，奥利维亚觉得这个男孩有一天可能会好起来，但那些时刻从来没有任何真正的快乐，因为真相始终在她的脑海深处。

She knew it would never be, despite all that fierce struggle which she and the old man kept up perpetually against the thing which was stronger than either of them.

她知道这永远不会发生，尽管她和老人一直在与比他们更强大的东西进行激烈的斗争。

Indeed, she even found a new sort of sadness in the sight of the pale thin boy and the rugged old man driving along the lanes in the trap, the eyes of the grandfather bright with a look of deluding hope.

确实，看着那个苍白瘦弱的男孩和粗犷的老人沿着陷阱里的小巷行驶，她甚至发现了一种新的悲伤，祖父的眼睛里闪烁着迷惑的希望。

It was a look which she found unbearable because it was the first time in years, almost since that first day when Jack, as a tiny baby who did not cry enough, came into the world, that the expression of the old man had changed from one of grave and uncomplaining resignation.

这种表情让她难以忍受，因为这是多年来的第一次，几乎是从杰克这个哭得不够多的小婴儿来到这个世界的第一天起，老人的表情从严肃而无怨无悔的逆来顺受转变了。

Sometimes when she watched them together she was filled with a fierce desire to go to John Pentland and tell him that it was not her fault that there were not more children, other heirs to take the place of Jack.

有时，当她看着他们在一起时，她内心充满了强烈的愿望，想要去找约翰·彭特兰，告诉他，没有更多的孩子和其他继承人来取代杰克，这不是她的错。

She wanted to tell him that she would have had ten children if it were possible, that even now she was still young enough to have more children.

她想告诉他，如果可以的话，她愿意生十个孩子，即使现在她还年轻，可以生更多的孩子。

She wanted to pour out to him something of that hunger of life which had swept over her on the night in Sabine’s garden beneath the apple-tree, a spot abounding in fertility.

她想向他倾诉一些对生活的渴望，这种渴望在那个夜晚席卷了她，在萨宾花园里的苹果树下，那是一个肥沃的地方。

But she knew, too, how impossible it was to discuss a matter which old John Pentland, in the depths of his soul believed to be “indelicate.” Such things were all hidden behind a veil which shut out so much of truth from all their lives.

但她也知道，讨论老约翰·彭特兰在灵魂深处认为“不雅”的事情是多么不可能。这些事情都隐藏在面纱后面，这面纱将他们生活中的许多真相拒之门外。

There were times when she fancied he understood it all, those times when he took her hand and kissed her affectionately.

有时候，她以为他全都明白，那些时候，他握住她的手，深情地吻着她。

She fancied that he understood and that the knowledge lay somehow at the root of the old man’s quiet contempt for his own son.

她觉得他明白，而这种认识不知何故是老人对自己儿子的无声蔑视的根源。

But she saw well enough the tragedy that lay deep down at the root of the whole matter.

但她很清楚地看到整个事件的根源是悲剧。

She understood that it was not Anson who was to blame.

她明白这不是安森的错。

It was that they had all been caught in the toils of something stronger than any of them, a force which with a cruel injustice compelled her to live a dry, monotonous, barren existence when she would have embraced life passionately, which compelled her to watch her own son dying slowly before her eyes.

而是他们都陷入了比他们任何人都更强大的辛劳之中，这股力量带着残酷的不公正迫使她本该热情地拥抱生活，过着枯燥、单调、贫瘠的生活，这迫使她眼睁睁地看着自己的儿子在她眼前慢慢死去。

Always she came back to the same thought, that the boy must be kept alive until his grandfather was dead; and sometimes, standing on the terrace, looking out across the fields, Olivia saw that old Mrs. Soames, dressed absurdly in pink, with a large picture-hat, was riding in the trap with the old man and his grandson, as if in reality she were the grandmother of Jack instead of the mad old woman abovestairs.

她总是想起同样的想法，那就是必须让这个男孩活下去，直到他的祖父去世为止。有时，站在露台上，眺望田野，奥利维亚看到老索姆斯太太，穿着粉红色的衣服，戴着一顶大帽子，与老人和他的孙子一起骑在陷阱里，仿佛她实际上是杰克的祖母，而不是楼上那个疯狂的老太婆。

The days came to resume their round of dull monotony, and yet there was a difference, odd and indefinable, as if in some way the sun were brighter than it had been, as if those days, when even in the bright sunlight the house had seemed a dull gray place, were gone now.

日子又恢复了单调乏味的日子，然而却有一种不同，奇怪而难以形容，仿佛在某种程度上，阳光比以前更加明亮，仿佛那些日子，即使在明亮的阳光下，房子也显得暗灰色的地方，现在已经一去不复返了。

She could no longer look across the meadows toward the bright new chimneys of O’Hara’s house without a sudden quickening of breath, a warm pleasant sensation of no longer standing quite alone.

当她越过草地望向奥哈拉家明亮的新烟囱时，她的呼吸会突然加快，一种不再孤单地站着的温暖愉悦的感觉。

She was not even annoyed any longer by the tiresome daily visits of Aunt Cassie, nor by the old woman’s passion for pitying her and making wild insinuations against Sabine and O’Hara and complaining of Sybil riding with him in the mornings over the dew-covered fields.

她甚至不再对卡西姨妈每天令人厌烦的拜访感到恼火，也不再对老妇人对她的怜悯、对萨宾和奥哈拉进行疯狂的暗示以及抱怨西比尔早上和他一起在露水覆盖的田野上骑马的热情感到恼火。

She was able now simply to sit there politely as she had once done, listening while the old woman talked on and on; only now she did not even listen with attention.

她现在可以像以前一样有礼貌地坐在那里，听老妇人滔滔不绝地说下去。只是现在她甚至没有专心听。

It seemed to her at times that Aunt Cassie was like some insect beating itself frantically against a pane of glass, trying over and over again with an unflagging futility to enter where it was impossible to enter.

有时在她看来，卡西姨妈就像一只昆虫，疯狂地敲打着一块玻璃，一遍又一遍地试图进入不可能进入的地方，却始终徒劳无功。

It was Sabine who gave her a sudden glimpse of penetration into this instinct about Aunt Cassie, Sabine who spent all her time finding out about people.

正是萨宾让她突然领悟了卡西阿姨的这种本能，萨宾把所有的时间都花在了了解人上。

It happened one morning that the two clouds of dust, the one made by Aunt Cassie and the other by Sabine, met at the very foot of the long drive leading up to Pentlands, and together the two women--one dressed severely in shabby black, without so much as a fleck of powder on her nose, the other dressed expensively in what some Paris dressmaker chose to call a _costume de sport_, with her face made up like a Parisian--arrived together to sit on the piazza of Pentlands insulting each other subtly for an hour.

一天早上，两团尘埃，一团是卡西姨妈制造的，另一团是萨宾制造的，在通往彭特兰的长车道的脚下相遇，两个女人一起来到了彭特兰的广场上，其中一个穿着破旧的黑色，鼻子上没有一粒粉，另一个穿着昂贵的巴黎裁缝所谓的“运动服装”，脸化得像巴黎人一样。彭特兰巧妙地互相侮辱了一个小时。

When at last Sabine managed to outstay Aunt Cassie (it was always a contest between them, for each knew that the other would attack her as soon as she was out of hearing) she turned to Olivia and said abruptly, “I’ve been thinking about Aunt Cassie, and I’m sure now of one thing.

当萨宾最后设法超过卡西姨妈时（他们之间总是有一场较量，因为每个人都知道，一旦她听不到对方的声音，对方就会攻击她），她转向奥利维亚，突然说：“我一直在想卡西姨妈，现在我确信一件事。

Aunt Cassie is a virgin!”

卡西阿姨还是处男！”

There was something so cold-blooded and sudden in the statement that Olivia laughed.

这句话显得如此冷血和突然，让奥莉薇娅笑了起来。

“I’m sure of it,” persisted Sabine with quiet seriousness.

“我确信这一点，”萨宾平静而严肃地坚持道。

“Look at her.

” “看看她。

She’s always talking about the tragedy of her being too frail ever to have had children.

她总是谈论她太虚弱而无法生孩子的悲剧。

She never tried.

她从来没有尝试过。

That’s the answer.

这就是答案。

She never tried.” Sabine tossed away what remained of the cigarette she had lighted to annoy Aunt Cassie, and continued.

她从来没有尝试过。”萨宾扔掉了她为惹恼卡西姨妈而点燃的剩余香烟，然后继续说道。

“You never knew my Uncle Ned Struthers when he was young.

“你永远不知道我叔叔内德·斯特拉瑟斯年轻时的情况。

You only knew him as an old man with no spirit left.

你只知道他是一个没有精神的老人。

But he wasn’t that way always.

但他并不总是这样。

It’s what she did to him.

这就是她对他所做的。

She destroyed him.

她毁了他。

He was a full-blooded kind of man who liked drinking and horses and he must have liked women, too, but she cured him of that.

他是个血性十足的男人，喜欢喝酒和马，他一定也喜欢女人，但她治愈了他的这一点。

He would have liked children, but instead of a wife he only got a woman who couldn’t bear the thought of not being married and yet couldn’t bear what marriage meant.

他本来会喜欢孩子的，但他没有得到一个妻子，只是得到了一个无法忍受不结婚的想法却又无法忍受婚姻意味着什么的女人。

He got a creature who fainted and wept and lay on a sofa all day, who got the better of him because he was a nice, stupid, chivalrous fellow.”

他遇到了一个昏倒、哭泣、整天躺在沙发上的生物，这个生物战胜了他，因为他是一个善良、愚蠢、有侠义的家伙。”

Sabine was launched now with all the passion which seized her when she had laid bare a little patch of life and examined it minutely.

萨宾现在充满了热情，当她揭露了生活的一小部分并仔细审视它时，她就抓住了她。

“He didn’t even dare to be unfaithful to her.

“他甚至不敢对她不忠。

If he looked at another woman she fainted and became deathly ill and made terrible scenes.

如果他看另一个女人，她就会晕倒，病得很重，而且会做出可怕的场面。

I can remember some of them.

我记得其中一些。

I remember that once he called on Mrs. Soames when she was young and beautiful, and when he came home Aunt Cassie met him in hysterics and told him that if it ever happened again she would go out, ‘frail and miserable as she was,’ and commit adultery.

我记得有一次，他拜访了年轻美丽的索姆斯太太，当他回到家时，卡西姨妈歇斯底里地迎接了他，并告诉他，如果再发生这种事，她就会出去，“尽管她脆弱而痛苦”，然后通奸。

I remember the story because I overheard my father telling it when I was a child and I was miserable until I found out what ‘committing adultery’ meant.

我记得这个故事是因为我小时候无意中听到父亲讲过这个故事，我很痛苦，直到我明白了“通奸”的含义。

In the end she destroyed him.

最终她毁掉了他。

I’m sure of it.”

我确信这一点。”

Sabine sat there, with a face like stone, following with her eyes the cloud of dust that moved along the lane as Aunt Cassie progressed on her morning round of visits, a symbol in a way of all the forces that had warped her own existence.

萨宾坐在那儿，脸像石头一样，眼睛追随着卡西阿姨早上巡视时沿着小巷飘动的尘埃云，这在某种程度上是所有扭曲她自身存在的力量的象征。

“It’s possible,” murmured Olivia.

“有可能。”奥利维亚低声说道。

Sabine turned toward her with a quick, sudden movement.

萨宾以一个快速而突然的动作转向她。

“That’s why she is always so concerned with the lives of other people.

“这就是为什么她总是如此关心别人的生活。

She has never had any life of her own, never.

她从来没有过自己的生活，从来没有。

She’s always been afraid.

她一直很害怕。

It’s why she loves the calamities of other people, because she’s never had any of her own.

这就是为什么她喜欢别人的灾难，因为她自己从未有过灾难。

Not even her husband’s death was a calamity.

甚至她丈夫的死也不是一场灾难。

It left her free, completely free of troubles as she had always wanted to be.”

这让她自由了，完全摆脱了她一直想成为的麻烦。”

And then a strange thing happened to Olivia.

然后奥利维亚发生了一件奇怪的事情。

It was as if a new Aunt Cassie had been born, as if the old one, so full of tears and easy sympathy who always appeared miraculously when there was a calamity in the neighborhood, the Aunt Cassie who was famous for her good works and her tears and words of religious counsel, had gone down the lane for the last time, never to return again.

就好像一位新的卡西阿姨诞生了，又好像旧的卡西阿姨，充满了泪水和轻松的同情心，当邻居发生灾难时，她总是奇迹般地出现，那个以她的善行、她的眼泪和宗教劝告而闻名的卡西阿姨最后一次走上了小巷，再也没有回来。

To-morrow morning a new Aunt Cassie would arrive, one who outwardly would be the same; only to Olivia she would be different, a woman stripped of all those veils of pretense and emotions with which she wrapped herself, an old woman naked in her ugliness who, Olivia understood in a blinding flash of clarity, was like an insect battering itself against a pane of glass in a futile attempt to enter where it was impossible for her ever to enter.

明天早上，一位新的卡西阿姨就会到来，她的外表和以前一样。只有对奥利维亚来说，她是不同的，一个女人剥去了所有那些伪装和情感的面纱，她包裹着自己，一个在丑陋中赤裸裸的老妇人，奥利维亚在令人眼花缭乱的清晰中明白，她就像一只昆虫，徒劳地试图进入她不可能进入的地方，徒劳地撞击着一块玻璃。

And she was no longer afraid of Aunt Cassie now.

现在她不再害怕卡西姨妈了。

She did not even dislike her; she only pitied the old woman because she had missed so much, because she would die without ever having lived.

她甚至并不讨厌她；她甚至不喜欢她。她只是可怜老太婆，因为她错过了太多，因为她还没活过就死了。

And she must have been young and handsome once, and very amusing.

而且她曾经一定年轻漂亮，而且很有趣。

There were still moments when the old lady’s charm and humor and sharp tongue were completely disarming.

有时候，老太太的魅力、幽默和尖刻的言辞仍然让人完全放下戒心。

Sabine was talking again, in a cold, unrelenting voice.

萨宾又说话了，声音冷酷无情。

“She lay there all those years on the sofa covered with a shawl, trying to arrange the lives of every one about her.

“这些年来，她盖着围巾躺在沙发上，试图安排她周围每个人的生活。

She killed Anson’s independence and ruined my happiness.

她扼杀了安森的独立性，毁了我的幸福。

She terrorized her husband until in the end he died to escape her.

她恐吓她的丈夫，直到最后他为了逃离她而死。

He was a good-natured man, horrified of scenes and scandals.” Sabine lighted a cigarette and flung away the match with a sudden savage gesture.

他是一个心地善良的人，对场景和丑闻感到恐惧。”萨宾点燃了一根香烟，突然用一个野蛮的手势扔掉了火柴。

“And now she goes about like an angel of pity, a very brisk angel of pity, a harpy in angel’s clothing.

“现在她就像一个怜悯天使，一个非常活泼的怜悯天使，一个披着天使外衣的鹰身女妖。

She has played her rôle well.

她很好地扮演了自己的角色。

Every one believes in her as a frail, good, unhappy woman.

每个人都相信她是一个脆弱、善良、不幸的女人。

Some of the saints must have been very like her.

有些圣人一定很像她。

Some of them must have been trying old maids.”

他们中的一些人一定是在尝试老处女。”

She rose and, winding the chiffon scarf about her throat, opened her yellow parasol, saying, “I know I’m right.

她站起来，将雪纺围巾围在脖子上，打开黄色遮阳伞，说道：“我知道我是对的。

She’s a virgin.

她是处女。

At least,” she added, “in the technical sense, she’s a virgin.

至少，”她补充道，“从技术意义上来说，她是处女。

I know nothing about her mind.”

我对她的想法一无所知。”

And then, changing abruptly, she said, “Will you go up to Boston with me to-morrow?

然后，她突然变了脸，说道：“明天你愿意和我一起去波士顿吗？

I’m going to do something about my hair.

我要对我的头发做点什么。

There’s gray beginning to come into it.”

灰色开始进入其中。”

Olivia did not answer her at once, but when she did speak it was to say, “Yes; I’m going to take up riding again and I want to order clothes.

奥莉薇娅没有立刻回答她，但当她开口的时候，却是在说：“是的；”我又要开始骑马了，我想订衣服。

My old ones would look ridiculous now.

我的旧的现在看起来很可笑。

It’s been years since I was on a horse.”

我已经很多年没有骑马了。”

Sabine looked at her sharply and, looking away again, said, “I’ll stop for you about ten o’clock.”

萨宾目光锐利地看了她一眼，又移开了视线，说道：“十点左右我会停下来等你。”

CHAPTER VI

第六章

Heat, damp and overwhelming, and thick with the scent of fresh-cut hay and the half-fetid odor of the salt marshes, settled over Durham, reducing all life to a state of tropical relaxation.

炎热、潮湿、势不可挡，还夹杂着浓浓的新鲜干草的香味和盐沼的半恶臭味，笼罩着达勒姆，让所有的生命都陷入了一种热带放松的状态。

Even in the mornings when Sybil rode with O’Hara across the meadows, there was no coolness and no dew on the grass.

即使在早晨，西比尔和奥哈拉一起骑马穿过草地时，草地上也没有一丝凉意，也没有露水。

Only Aunt Cassie, thin and wiry, and Anson, guided perpetually by a sense of duty which took no reckoning of such things as weather, resisted the muggy warmth.

只有瘦瘦的卡西阿姨和安森，永远受到一种不考虑天气等因素的责任感的指引，抵抗着闷热的温暖。

Aunt Cassie, alike indifferent to heat and cold, storm or calm, continued her indefatigable rounds.

卡西阿姨对炎热和寒冷、暴风雨或平静都漠不关心，继续不知疲倦地巡视。

Sabine, remarking that she had always known that New England was the hottest place this side of Sheol, settled into a state of complete inertia, not stirring from the house until after the sun had disappeared.

萨宾说她一直都知道新英格兰是地狱这一边最热的地方，她陷入了一种完全惰性的状态，直到太阳消失后才从房子里出来。

Even then her only action was to come to Pentlands to sit in the writing-room playing bridge languidly with Olivia and John Pentland and old Mrs. Soames.

即便如此，她唯一的举动就是来到彭特兰，坐在写作室里，懒洋洋地与奥利维亚、约翰·彭特兰和老索姆斯太太打桥牌。

The old lady grew daily more dazed and forgetful and irritating as a fourth at bridge.

作为桥牌第四名，老太太一天天变得更加茫然、健忘和烦躁。

John Pentland always insisted upon playing with her, saying that they understood each other’s game; but he deceived no one, save Mrs. Soames, whose wits were at best a little dim; the others knew that it was to protect her.

约翰·彭特兰总是坚持和她一起玩，说他们了解彼此的游戏；但他没有欺骗任何人，除了索姆斯太太，她的智慧充其量只是有点迟钝。其他人都知道，这是为了保护她。

They saw him sit calmly and patiently while she bid suits she could not possibly make, while she trumped his tricks and excused herself on the ground of bad eyesight.

他们看到他平静而耐心地坐着，而她则出价，而她不可能胜出，而她则识破了他的把戏，以视力不好为由辩解。

She had been a great beauty once and she was still, with all her paint and powder, a vain woman.

她曾经是一位大美人，尽管涂满了颜料和粉末，但她仍然是一个虚荣的女人。

She would not wear spectacles and so played by looking through lorgnettes, which lowered the whole tempo of the game and added to the confusion.

她不戴眼镜，所以只能透过长柄眼镜来打球，这降低了整个比赛的节奏，也增加了混乱。

At times, in the midst of the old lady’s blunders, a look of murder came into the green eyes of Sabine, but Olivia managed somehow to prevent any outburst; she even managed to force Sabine into playing on, night after night.

有时，在老太太犯错的过程中，萨宾的绿眼睛里会闪现出杀意，但奥莉薇娅却设法阻止了她的爆发。她甚至设法迫使萨宾夜复一夜地继续演奏。

The patience and tenderness of the old man towards Mrs. Soames moved her profoundly, and she fancied that Sabine, too,--hard, cynical, intolerant Sabine--was touched by it.

老人对索姆斯太太的耐心和温柔深深地感动了她，她想，萨宾——冷酷、愤世嫉俗、不宽容的萨宾——也会被这种感动所感动。

There was a curious, unsuspected soft spot in Sabine, as if in some way she understood the bond between the two old people.

萨宾身上有一种奇怪的、意想不到的柔软之处，仿佛她在某种程度上理解这两个老人之间的联系。

Sabine, who allowed herself to be bored by no one, presently became willing to sit there night after night bearing this special boredom patiently.

不允许自己对任何人感到无聊的萨宾，很快就愿意一夜又一夜地坐在那里耐心地忍受这种特殊的无聊。

Once when Olivia said to her, “We’ll all be old some day.

有一次，奥利维亚对她说：“有一天我们都会变老。

Perhaps we’ll be worse than old Mrs. Soames,” Sabine replied with a shrug of bitterness, “Old age is a bore.

也许我们会比索姆斯老太太还糟糕，”萨宾痛苦地耸耸肩回答道，“年老令人厌烦。

That’s the trouble with us, Olivia.

这就是我们的麻烦，奥利维亚。

We’ll never give up and become old ladies.

我们永远不会放弃并成为老太太。

It used to be the beauties who clung to youth, and now all of us do it.

曾经是美女们紧抓青春，现在我们所有人都这样。

We’ll probably be painted old horrors ...

我们可能会被描绘成古老的恐怖......

like her.”

像她一样。”

“Perhaps,” replied Olivia, and a kind of terror took possession of her at the thought that she would be forty on her next birthday and that nothing lay before her, even in the immediate future, save evenings like these, playing bridge with old people until presently she herself was old, always in the melancholy atmosphere of the big house at Pentlands.

“也许吧，”奥莉薇娅回答道，一想到下个生日她就四十岁了，而且除了像这样的夜晚，和老人打桥牌，永远在彭特兰大房子的忧郁气氛中，她面前什么也没有，甚至在不久的将来，她感到一种恐惧。

“But I shan’t take to drugs,” said Sabine.

“但我不会吸毒，”萨宾说。

“At least I shan’t do that.”

“至少我不会这么做。”

Olivia looked at her sharply.

奥莉薇娅目光锐利地看着她。

“Who takes drugs?” she asked.

“谁吸毒了？”她问道。

“Why, she does ...

“为什么，她确实...

old Mrs. Soames.

老索姆斯太太。

She’s taken drugs for years.

她吸毒多年。

I thought every one knew it.”

我以为每个人都知道这一点。”

“No,” said Olivia sadly.

“不，”奥利维亚悲伤地说。

“I never knew it.”

“我从来不知道。”

Sabine laughed.

萨宾笑了。

“You are an innocent,” she answered.

“你是无辜的，”她回答道。

And after Sabine had gone home, the cloud of melancholy clung to her for hours.

萨宾回家后，忧郁的阴云笼罩着她几个小时。

She felt suddenly that Anson and Aunt Cassie might be right, after all.

她突然觉得安森和卡西阿姨也许是对的。

There was something dangerous in a woman like Sabine, who tore aside every veil, who sacrificed everything to her passion for the truth.

像萨宾这样的女人身上有某种危险的东西，她撕开了一切面纱，为了追求真理而牺牲了一切。

Somehow it riddled a world which at its best was not too cheerful.

不知何故，它让这个世界在最好的情况下也不太愉快。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

There were evenings when Mrs. Soames sent word that she was feeling too ill to play, and on those occasions John Pentland drove over to see her, and the bridge was played instead at Brook Cottage with O’Hara and a fourth recruited impersonally from the countryside.

有些晚上，索姆斯夫人发来消息，说她病得太重了，不能打球，这时约翰·彭特兰就会开车去看她，桥牌就在布鲁克小屋与奥哈拉和从乡村招募的第四个人一起演奏。

To Sabine, the choice was a matter of indifference so long as the chosen one could play well.

对于萨宾来说，选择是一件无关紧要的事情，只要被选中的人能打得好就行。

It happened on these occasions that O’Hara and Olivia came to play together, making a sort of team, which worked admirably.

奥哈拉和奥利维亚碰巧在这些场合一起玩，组成了一个团队，效果令人钦佩。

He played as she knew he would play, aggressively and brilliantly, with a fierce concentration and a determination to win.

他按照她所知道的方式打球，积极进取、出色、专注和必胜的决心。

It fascinated her that a man who had spent most of his life in circles where bridge played no part, should have mastered the intricate game so completely.

令她着迷的是，一个一生大部分时间都在桥牌无关的圈子里度过的人竟然能如此彻底地掌握这项复杂的游戏。

She fancied him taking lessons with the same passionate application which he had given to his career.

她想象他以他对职业生涯同样的热情来上课。

He did not speak to her again of the things he had touched upon during that first hot night on the terrace, and she was careful never to find herself alone with him.

他没有再对她提起第一个炎热的夜晚在露台上谈到的事情，她小心翼翼地不让自己单独和他在一起。

She was ashamed at the game she played--of seeing him always with Sabine or riding with Sybil and giving him no chance to speak; it seemed to her that such behavior was cheap and dishonest.

她为自己玩的游戏感到羞愧——看到他总是和萨宾在一起，或者和西比尔一起骑马，却不给他说话的机会；在她看来，这种行为既廉价又不诚实。

Yet she could not bring herself to refuse seeing him, partly because to refuse would have aroused the suspicions of the already interested Sabine, but more because she _wanted_ to see him.

然而她无法拒绝见他，部分原因是拒绝会引起已经感兴趣的萨宾的怀疑，但更多的是因为她想见他。

She found a kind of delight in the way he looked at her, in the perfection with which they came to understand each other’s game; and though he did not see her alone, he kept telling her in a hundred subtle ways that he was a man in love, who adored her.

她从他看她的眼神中找到了一种喜悦，从他们对彼此游戏的完美理解中找到了乐趣。尽管他没有单独见到她，但他不断地用一百种微妙的方式告诉她，他是一个恋爱中的男人，崇拜她。

She told herself that she was behaving like a silly schoolgirl, but she could not bring herself to give him up altogether.

她告诉自己，她的行为就像一个愚蠢的女学生，但她无法让自己完全放弃他。

It seemed to her unbearable that she should lose these rare happy evenings.

她觉得失去这些难得的幸福夜晚是难以忍受的。

And she was afraid, too, that Sabine would call her a fool.

她也害怕萨宾会称她为傻瓜。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

As early summer turned into July, old Mrs. Soames came less and less frequently to play bridge and there were times when Sabine, dining out or retiring early, left them without any game at all and the old familiar stillness came to settle over the drawing-room at Pentlands ...

初夏进入七月，老索姆斯太太来打桥牌的次数越来越少，有时，萨宾外出就餐或提前退休，让他们根本没有任何游戏可玩，彭特兰的客厅里弥漫着旧日熟悉的寂静……

evenings when Olivia and Sybil played double patience and Anson worked at Mr. Lowell’s desk over the mazes of the Pentland Family history.

晚上，奥利维亚和西比尔表现出双重耐心，安森则在洛厄尔先生的办公桌前研究彭特兰家族的迷宫般的历史。

On one of these evenings, when Olivia’s eyes had grown weary of reading, she closed her book and, turning toward her husband, called his name.

有一个晚上，当奥利维亚的眼睛看厌了时，她合上书，转向她的丈夫，叫他的名字。

When he did not answer her at once she spoke to him again, and waited until he looked up.

当他没有立即回答她时，她又对他说话，并等到他抬起头来。

Then she said, “Anson, I have taken up riding again.

然后她说：“安森，我又开始骑马了。

I think it is doing me good.”

我认为这对我有好处。”

But Anson, lost somewhere in the chapter about Savina Pentland and her friendship with Ingres, was not interested and made no answer.

但安森在有关萨维娜·彭特兰及其与安格尔的友谊的章节中迷失了方向，因此不感兴趣，也没有回答。

“I go in the mornings,” she repeated, “before breakfast, with Sybil.”

“我早上去，”她重复道，“早餐前，和西比尔一起去。”

Anson said, “Yes,” again, and then, “I think it an excellent idea--your color is better,” and went back to his work.

安森再次说道：“是的”，然后，“我认为这是一个很好的主意——你的颜色更好，”然后又继续工作。

So she succeeded in telling him that it was all right about Sybil and O’Hara.

所以她成功地告诉他西比尔和奥哈拉的关系都很好。

She managed to tell him without actually saying it that she would go with them and prevent any entanglement.

她虽然没有说出口，但还是告诉他，她会跟他们一起去，避免任何纠缠。

She had told him, too, without once alluding to the scene of which he was ashamed.

她也告诉了他，但没有提及令他感到羞耻的场景。

And she knew, of course, now, that there was no danger of any entanglement, at least not one which involved Sybil.

当然，她现在知道，不存在任何纠缠的危险，至少不会涉及西比尔。

Sitting with the book closed in her lap, she remained for a time watching the back of her husband’s head--the thin gray hair, the cords that stood out weakly under the desiccated skin, the too small ears set too close against the skull; and in reality, all the while she was seeing another head set upon a full muscular neck, the skin tanned and glowing with the flush of health, the thick hair short and vigorous; and she felt an odd, inexplicable desire to weep, thinking at the same time, “I am a wicked woman.

她坐在腿上，把书合上，盯着丈夫的后脑勺看了一会儿——稀疏的灰白头发，干燥的皮肤下微弱地突出的发丝，太小的耳朵离头骨太近；事实上，她一直看到另一个头颅长在肌肉发达的脖子上，皮肤晒得黝黑，焕发着健康的红光，浓密的头发短而有活力。她感到一种奇怪的、莫名其妙的想哭的欲望，同时又想：“我是一个邪恶的女人。

I must be really bad.” For she had never known before what it was to be in love and she had lived for nearly twenty years in a family where love had occupied a poor forgotten niche.

我一定是真的很糟糕。”因为她以前从来不知道什么是爱情，而且她在一个家庭里生活了近二十年，而爱情却占据了一个可怜的被遗忘的位置。

She was sitting thus when John Pentland came in at last, looking more yellow and haggard than he had been in days.

当约翰·彭特兰终于进来时，她就这样坐着，看上去比几天前更加苍白憔悴。

She asked him quietly, so as not to disturb Anson, whether Mrs. Soames was really ill.

为了不打扰安森，她小声地问他索姆斯太太是否真的病了。

“No,” said the old man, “I don’t think so; she seems all right, a little tired, that’s all.

“不，”老人说，“我不这么认为；她看起来很好，只是有点累，仅此而已。

We’re all growing old.”

我们都在变老。”

He seated himself and began to read like the others, pretending clearly an interest which he did not feel, for Olivia caught him suddenly staring before him in a line beyond the printed page.

他坐下来，开始像其他人一样读书，显然假装出一种兴趣，但他并没有感觉到，因为奥莉薇娅发现他突然在印刷页面之外的一行中凝视着他。

She saw that he was not reading at all, and in the back of her mind a little cluster of words kept repeating themselves--“_a little tired, that’s all, we’re all growing old; a little tired, that’s all, we’re all growing old_”--over and over again monotonously, as if she were hypnotizing herself.

她发现他根本没有在看书，她的脑海里不断地重复着一小串词——“有点累，就是这样，我们都在变老；有点累，就是这样，我们都在变老”——单调地一遍又一遍地重复着，仿佛她在催眠自己。

She found herself, too, staring into space in the same enchanted fashion as the old man.

她发现自己也像老人一样，以同样着迷的方式凝视着太空。

And then, all at once, she became aware of a figure standing in the doorway beckoning to her, and, focusing her gaze, she saw that it was Nannie, clad in a dressing-gown, her old face screwed up in an expression of anxiety.

突然，她发现门口站着一个人影，在向她招手，她定睛一看，原来是保姆，穿着晨衣，苍老的脸皱着，一脸焦急。

She had some reason for not disturbing the others, for she did not speak.

她有理由不打扰其他人，因为她没有说话。

Standing in the shadow, she beckoned; and Olivia, rising quietly, went out into the hall, closing the door behind her.

站在阴影中，她招手；奥利维亚静静地起身，走进大厅，关上了身后的门。

There, in the dim light, she saw that the old woman had been crying and was shaking in fright.

在那里，借着昏暗的灯光，她看到老妇人一直在哭，吓得浑身发抖。

She said, “Something had happened to Jack, something dreadful.”

她说：“杰克发生了一些事情，一些可怕的事情。”

She had known what it was before Nannie spoke.

在保姆说话之前她就知道那是什么了。

It seemed to her that she had known all along, and now there was no sense of shock but only a hard, dead numbness of all feeling.

她似乎早就知道了，现在却没有任何震惊的感觉，只有一种僵硬的、死一般的麻木感。

“Call up Doctor Jenkins,” she said, with a kind of dreadful calm, and turning away she went quickly up the long stairs.

“给詹金斯医生打电话，”她带着一种可怕的平静说道，然后转身快步走上长长的楼梯。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

In the darkness of her own room she did not wait now to listen for the sound of breathing.

在她自己房间的黑暗中，她现在没有等待去听呼吸的声音。

It had come at last--the moment when she would enter the room and, listening for the sound, encounter only the stillness of the night.

它终于来了——当她走进房间，听着声音，遇到的只是夜晚的寂静。

Beyond, in the room which he had occupied ever since he was a tiny baby, there was the usual dim night-light burning in the corner, and by its dull glow she was able to make out the narrow bed and his figure lying there as it had always lain, asleep.

远处，在他从小就住的房间里，角落里亮着平常昏暗的夜灯，通过它昏暗的光芒，她能够辨认出那张狭窄的床和他的身影躺在那里，就像它一直躺着一样，睡着了。

He must have been asleep, she thought, for it was impossible to have died so quietly, without moving.

她想，他一定是睡着了，因为他不可能不动声色地死去。

But she knew, of course, that he _was_ dead, and she saw how near to death he had always been, how it was only a matter of slipping over, quite simply and gently.

但她当然知道他已经死了，而且她看到他一直都离死亡有多近，只不过是滑倒而已，非常简单而温和。

He had escaped them at last--his grandfather and herself--in a moment when they had not been there watching; and belowstairs in the drawing-room John Pentland was sitting with a book in his lap by Mr. Longfellow’s lamp, staring into space, still knowing nothing.

他终于逃离了他们——他的祖父和她自己——就在他们不在场的时候。楼下的客厅里，约翰·彭特兰坐在朗费罗先生的灯旁，腿上放着一本书，凝视着太空，仍然一无所知。

And Anson’s pen scratched away at the history of the Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, while here in the room where she stood the Pentland family had come to an end.

安森的笔抹去了彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地的历史，而在她站着的房间里，彭特兰家族已经走到了尽头。

She did not weep.

她没有哭。

She knew that weeping would come later, after the doctor had made his silly futile call to tell her what she already knew.

她知道，在医生愚蠢地徒劳地打电话告诉她她已经知道的事情之后，她会哭泣。

And now that this thing which she had fought for so long had happened, she was aware of a profound peace.

而现在，她奋斗了这么久的事情终于发生了，她感到一种深深的平静。

It seemed to her even, that the boy, her own son, was happier now; for she had a fear, bordering upon remorse, that they had kept him alive all those years against his will.

甚至在她看来，这个男孩，她自己的儿子，现在更加幸福了。因为她有一种近乎悔恨的恐惧，担心这些年来他们违背他的意愿让他活着。

He looked quiet and still now and not at all as he had looked on those long, terrible nights when she had sat in this same chair by the same bed while, propped among pillows because he could not breathe lying down, he fought for breath and life, more to please her and his grandfather than because he wanted to live.

他现在看起来很安静，一动不动，完全不像那些漫长而可怕的夜晚，当时她坐在同一张床边的同一张椅子上，因为他躺在床上无法呼吸，他靠在枕头之间，他为呼吸和生命而战，更多的是为了取悦她和他的祖父，而不是因为他想活下去。

She saw that there could be a great beauty in death.

她看到死亡也可以有一种伟大的美。

It was not as if he had died alone.

看来他并不是一个人死去的。

He had simply gone to sleep.

他只是睡着了。

She experienced, too, an odd and satisfying feeling of reality, of truth, as if in some way the air all about her had become cleared and freshened.

她也体验到了一种奇怪而满足的现实感、真理感，就好像她周围的空气在某种程度上变得清澈、清新。

Death was not a thing one could deny by pretense.

死亡并不是一件可以通过借口来否认的事情。

Death was real.

死亡是真实的。

It marked the end of something, definitely and clearly for all time.

它永远明确而清晰地标志着某件事的结束。

There could be no deceptions about death.

关于死亡，不可能有任何欺骗。

She wished now that she had told Nannie not to speak to the others.

她现在希望自己当初告诉保姆不要和其他人说话。

She wanted to stay there alone in the dimly lighted room until the sky turned gray beyond the marshes.

她想一个人呆在光线昏暗的房间里，直到沼泽地那边的天空变成灰色。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

They did not leave her in peace with her son.

他们并没有让她和儿子安心相处。

There came first of all a knock which admitted old Nannie, still trembling and hysterical, followed by the starched and efficient Miss Egan, who bustled about with a hard, professional manner, and then the rattling, noisy sounds of Doctor Jenkins’ Ford as he arrived from the village, and the far-off hoot of a strange motor-horn and a brilliant glare of light as a big motor rounded the corner of the lane at the foot of the drive and swept away toward Brook Cottage.

首先是一阵敲门声，老保姆进来了，她还在颤抖，歇斯底里，接着是严肃而高效的伊根小姐，她以一种严厉、专业的态度忙碌着，然后是当他从村里赶来时，詹金斯医生的福特车嘎嘎作响、吵闹的声音，远处传来奇怪的汽车喇叭声，一辆大汽车绕过车道脚下的小巷拐角，朝布鲁克小屋驶去，发出耀眼的光芒。

The hall seemed suddenly alive with people, whispering and murmuring together, and there was a sound of hysterical sobbing from some frightened servant.

大厅里突然热闹起来，人们互相窃窃私语，一些受惊的仆人发出歇斯底里的抽泣声。

Death, which ought to occur in the quiet beauty of solitude, was being robbed of all its dignity.

死亡本应在寂静美丽的孤独中发生，但它的尊严却被剥夺了。

They would behave like this for days.

他们会这样持续好几天。

She knew that it was only now, in the midst of all that pitiful hubbub, that she had lost her son.

她知道，直到现在，在这一切可怜的喧嚣中，她才失去了儿子。

He had been hers still, after a fashion, while she was alone there in the room.

当她独自一人在房间里时，从某种程度上来说，他仍然是她的。

Abruptly, in the midst of the flurry, she remembered that there were others besides herself.

突然，在一片混乱中，她想起除了自己之外还有其他人。

There was Sybil, who had come in and stood beside her, grave and sympathetic, pressing her mother’s hand in silence; and Anson, who stood helplessly in the corner, more awkward and useless and timid than ever in the face of death.

西比尔进来了，站在她身边，表情严肃而富有同情心，默默地握着她母亲的手。还有安森，他无助地站在角落里，在死亡面前比以往任何时候都更加尴尬、无用和胆怯。

But most of all, there was John Pentland.

但最重要的是约翰·彭特兰。

He was not in the room.

他不在房间里。

He was nowhere to be seen.

到处都看不到他的身影。

She went to search for him, because she knew that he would never come there to face all the others; instead, he would hide himself away like a wounded animal.

她去寻找他，因为她知道他永远不会到那里去面对所有人；相反，他会像受伤的动物一样躲起来。

She knew that there was only one person whom he could bear to see.

她知道，他能忍心见的人只有一个。

Together they had fought for the life of the boy and together they must face the cold, hard fact of his death.

他们一起为这个男孩的生命而战，但他们必须一起面对他死亡的冷酷事实。

She found him standing on the terrace, outside the tall windows that opened into the drawing-room, and as she approached, she saw that he was so lost in his sorrow that he did not even notice her.

她发现他站在露台上，站在通向客厅的高窗外，当她走近时，她看到他沉浸在悲伤中，甚至没有注意到她。

He was like a man in a state of enchantment.

他就像一个处于着魔状态的人。

He simply stood there, tall and stiff and austere, staring across the marshes in the direction of the sea, alone as he had always been, surrounded by the tragic armor of loneliness that none of them, not even herself, had ever succeeded in piercing.

他只是站在那里，高大、僵硬、严肃，目光越过沼泽，望向大海的方向，一如既往地孤独，周围环绕着悲惨的孤独铠甲，他们中的任何一个人，甚至她自己，都无法成功地刺穿这件铠甲。

She saw then that there was a grief more terrible than her own.

这时她发现有一种比她自己更可怕的悲伤。

She had lost her son but for John Pentland it was the end of everything.

她失去了儿子，但对约翰·彭特兰来说，这就是一切的终结。

She saw that the whole world had collapsed about him.

她看到他周围的整个世界都崩溃了。

It was as if he, too, had died.

就好像他也死了一样。

She did not speak to him at first, but simply stood beside him, taking his huge, bony hand in hers, aware that he did not look at her, but kept staring on and on across the marshes in the direction of the sea.

她一开始并没有和他说话，只是站在他身边，握住他瘦骨嶙峋的大手，意识到他没有看她，而是一直盯着沼泽地那边大海的方向。

And at last she said softly, “It has happened, at last.”

最后她轻声说道：“终于发生了。”

Still he did not look at her, but he did answer, saying, “I knew,” in a whisper that was barely audible.

他仍然没有看她，但他确实回答了，用几乎听不见的低声说：“我知道。”

There were tears on his leathery old cheeks.

他那张皮革般苍老的脸颊上挂满了泪水。

He had come out into the darkness of the scented garden to weep.

他来到芬芳花园的黑暗中哭泣。

It was the only time that she had ever seen tears in the burning black eyes.

这是她唯一一次在灼热的黑色眼眸中看到泪水。

* * * * *

** ** ** **

Not until long after midnight did all the subdued and vulgar hubbub that surrounds death fade away once more into silence, leaving Olivia alone in the room with Sybil.

直到午夜过后不久，围绕着死亡的所有压抑而粗俗的喧嚣才再次消失在寂静中，只剩下奥利维亚和西比尔独自待在房间里。

They did not speak to each other, for they knew well enough the poverty of words, and there was between them no need for speech.

他们没有互相说话，因为他们很清楚言语的贫乏，他们之间没有必要说话。

At last Olivia said, “You had best get some sleep, darling; to-morrow will be a troublesome day.”

最后奥莉薇娅说：“亲爱的，你最好睡一觉；明天会是麻烦的一天。”

And then, like a little girl, Sybil came over and seating herself on her mother’s lap put her arms about her neck and kissed her.

然后，像个小女孩一样，西比尔走了过来，坐在她母亲的腿上，用双臂搂住她的脖子，吻了她。

The girl said softly, “You are wonderful, Mother.

女孩轻声说道：“妈妈，你真棒。

I know that I’ll never be so wonderful a woman.

我知道我永远不会成为一个如此出色的女人。

We should have spared you to-night, all of us, and instead of that, it was you who managed everything.” Olivia only kissed her and even smiled a little at Sybil.

今晚我们应该饶过你，我们所有人，但结果却是你掌控了一切。”奥利维亚只是吻了她一下，甚至对西比尔微微一笑。

“I think he’s happier.

“我认为他更快乐。

He’ll never be tired again as he used to be.”

他再也不会像以前那样疲倦了。”

She had risen to leave when both of them heard, far away, somewhere in the distance, the sound of music.

她正要起身离开，这时他们俩都听见远处传来音乐声。

It came to them vaguely and in snatches borne in by the breeze from the sea, music that was filled with a wild, barbaric beat, that rose and fell with a passionate sense of life.

海风吹来，音乐断断续续地向他们隐隐约约地传来，音乐充满了狂野、野蛮的节拍，时起时落，充满了热情的生命感。

It seemed to Olivia that there was in the sound of it some dark power which, penetrating the stillness of the old house, shattered the awesome silence that had settled down at last with the approach of death.

奥利维亚觉得这声音里有某种黑暗的力量，它穿透了老房子的寂静，打破了随着死亡的临近而终于平静下来的可怕的寂静。

It was as if life were celebrating its victory over death, in a savage, wild, exultant triumph.

就好像生命在庆祝它对死亡的胜利，以一种野蛮、狂野、狂喜的胜利。

It was music, too, that sounded strange and passionate in the thin, clear air of the New England night, such music as none of them had ever heard there before; and slowly, as it rose to a wild crescendo of sound, Olivia recognized it--the glowing barbaric music of the tribal dances in _Prince Igor_, being played brilliantly with a sense of abandoned joy.

在新英格兰夜晚稀薄而清澈的空气中，音乐听起来既奇怪又充满激情，他们以前从未在那里听过这样的音乐。慢慢地，当声音达到狂野的渐强时，奥利维亚认出了它——《伊戈尔王子》中部落舞蹈中炽热的野蛮音乐，演奏得非常出色，带着一种被遗弃的欢乐感。

At the same moment Sybil looked at her mother and said, “It’s Jean de Cyon....

与此同时，西比尔看着她的母亲说：“这是让·德·西昂......

I’d forgotten that he was arriving to-night.” And then sadly, “Of course he doesn’t know.”

我忘了他今晚会来。”然后可悲的是，“他当然不知道。”

There was a sudden light in the girl’s eye, the merest flicker, dying out again quickly, which had a strange, intimate relation to the passionate music.

女孩的眼里突然闪现出一丝光芒，哪怕是最轻微的闪烁，也很快又消失了，这与激昂的音乐有一种奇怪而亲密的关系。

Again it was life triumphing in death.

生命又一次战胜了死亡。

Long afterward Olivia remembered it well ...

很久以后，奥利维亚还记得很清楚……

the light of something which went on and on.

持续不断的某物的光。

CHAPTER VII

第七章

The news reached Aunt Cassie only the next morning at ten and it brought her, full of reproaches and tears, over the dusty lanes to Pentlands.

第二天早上十点，卡西阿姨收到了这个消息，她满怀责备和泪水，踏上尘土飞扬的小巷，前往彭特兰。

She was hurt, she said, because they had not let her know at once.

她说，她很受伤，因为他们没有立即让她知道。

“I should have risen from my bed and come over immediately,” she repeated.

“我应该立即从床上起来并过来，”她重复道。

“I was sleeping very badly, in any case.

“无论如何，我睡得很不好。

I could have managed everything.

我本来可以处理好一切的。

You should have sent for Aunt Cassie at once.”

你应该立刻派人去叫卡西姨妈来。”

And Olivia could not tell her that they had kept her in ignorance for that very reason--because they knew she _would_ rise from her bed and come over at once.

奥利维亚不能告诉她，正是因为这个原因，他们才让她一无所知——因为他们知道她会立即从床上起来，过来。

Aunt Cassie it was who took the burden of the grief upon her narrow shoulders.

卡西阿姨把悲痛的重担扛在了她狭窄的肩膀上。

She wept in the manner of a professional mourner.

她以专业哀悼者的方式哭泣。

She drew the shades in the drawing-room, because in her mind death was not respectable unless the rooms were darkened, and sat there in a corner receiving callers, as if she were the one most bereft, as if indeed she were the only one who suffered at all.

她拉上客厅的百叶窗，因为在她看来，除非房间变暗，否则死亡是不值得尊敬的，她坐在角落里接待来访者，仿佛她是最失去亲人的人，仿佛她是唯一遭受痛苦的人。

She returned to her own cupolaed dwelling only late at night and took all her meals at Pentlands, to the annoyance of her brother, who on the second day in the midst of lunch turned to her abruptly and said: “Cassie, if you can’t stop this eternal blubbering, I wish you’d eat at home.

她直到深夜才回到自己的圆顶住所，并在彭特兰吃完所有的饭菜，这让她哥哥很恼火，第二天午餐时，她哥哥突然转向她说：“卡西，如果你不能停止这种无休止的哭泣，我希望你在家里吃饭。

It doesn’t help anything.”

这没有任何帮助。”

At which she had risen from the table, in a sudden climax of grief and persecution, to flee, sobbing and hurt, from the room.

这时，她突然从桌子上站起来，悲伤和迫害达到了顶峰，哭泣着，受伤了，逃离了房间。

But she was not insulted sufficiently to take her meals at home.

但她并没有受到足够的侮辱，无法在家吃饭。

She stayed on at Pentlands because, she said, “They needed some one like me to help out....” And to the trembling, inefficient Miss Peavey, who came and went like a frightened rabbit on errands for her, she confided her astonishment that her brother and Olivia should treat death with such indifference.

她留在彭特兰，因为，她说，“他们需要像我这样的人来帮忙……”而对于皮维小姐，她浑身颤抖，效率低下，像一只受惊的兔子一样为她跑腿，她吐露了她的惊讶，她的哥哥和奥利维亚竟然如此冷漠地对待死亡。

They did not weep; they showed no signs of grief.

他们没有哭泣；他们没有表现出悲伤的迹象。

She was certain that they lacked sensibility.

她确信他们缺乏感性。

They did not feel the tragedy.

他们并没有感受到这场悲剧。

And, weeping again, she would launch into memories of the days when the boy had come as a little fellow to sit, pale and listless, on the floor of her big, empty drawing-room, turning the pages of the Doré Bible.

然后，她又哭了起来，回忆起了那些日子，当时男孩还是个小家伙，脸色苍白，无精打彩，坐在她空荡荡的大客厅的地板上，翻着《多雷圣经》。

And to Miss Peavey she also said, “It’s at times like this that one’s breeding comes out.

她还对皮维小姐说：“有时候，一个人的教养就会显露出来。

Olivia has failed for the first time.

奥利维亚第一次失败了。

She doesn’t understand the things one must do at a time like this.

她不明白在这种时候必须做的事情。

If she had been brought up properly, here among us....”

如果她在我们中间得到了正确的抚养……”

For with Aunt Cassie death was a mechanical, formalized affair which one observed by a series of traditional gestures.

因为对于卡西姨妈来说，死亡是一件机械的、形式化的事情，人们可以通过一系列传统的手势来观察。

It was a remarkable bit of luck, she said, that Bishop Smallwood (Sabine’s Apostle to the Genteel) was still in the neighborhood and could conduct the funeral services.

她说，斯莫尔伍德主教（萨宾的上流人士使徒）仍在附近，可以主持葬礼，这真是太幸运了。

It was proper that one of Pentland blood should bury a Pentland (as if no one else were quite worthy of such an honor).

彭特兰人的血统应该埋葬彭特兰人，这是理所当然的（好像没有其他人值得获得这样的荣誉）。

And she went to see the Bishop to discuss the matter of the services.

她去见主教，讨论礼拜的事宜。

She planned that immensely intricate affair, the seating of relations and connections--all the Canes and Struthers and Mannerings and Sutherlands and Pentlands--at the church.

她计划了那件极其复杂的事情，把亲戚和亲戚——所有的坎恩斯、斯特拉瑟斯、曼纳林斯、萨瑟兰和彭特兰——安排在教堂里。

She called on Sabine to tell her that whatever her feelings about funerals might be, it was her duty to attend this one.

她打电话给萨宾，告诉她无论她对葬礼的感受如何，参加这场葬礼都是她的责任。

Sabine must remember that she was back again in a world of civilized people who behaved as ladies and gentlemen.

萨宾必须记住，她又回到了一个文明世界，人们都表现得像淑女和绅士。

And to each caller whom she received in the darkened drawing-room, she confided the fact that Sabine must be an unfeeling, inhuman creature, because she had not even paid a visit to Pentlands.

在黑暗的客厅里，她对每一个接到的来访者都坦白说，萨宾肯定是个冷酷无情、毫无人性的生物，因为她甚至没有去过彭特兰。

But she did not know what Olivia and John Pentland knew--that Sabine had written a short, abrupt, almost incoherent note, with all the worn, tattered, pious old phrases missing, which had meant more to them than any of the cries and whispering and confusion that went on belowstairs, where the whole countryside passed in and out in an endless procession.

但她不知道奥利维亚和约翰·彭特兰知道什么——萨宾写了一张简短、唐突、几乎语无伦次的便条，所有破烂、破烂、虔诚的旧短语都不见了，这对他们来说比楼下的任何哭喊、窃窃私语和混乱更有意义，楼下整个乡村都在无休无止的队伍中进进出出。

When Miss Peavey was not at hand to run errands for her, she made Anson her messenger....

当皮维小姐不在场为她办事时，她就让安森当她的信使……

Anson, who wandered about helpless and lost and troubled because death had interrupted the easy, eventless flow of a life in which usually all moved according to a set plan.

安森无助、迷失、烦恼地徘徊，因为死亡打断了原本一切都按照既定计划进行的轻松、平静的生活。

Death had upset the whole household.

死亡让整个家庭都心烦意乱。

It was impossible to know how Anson Pentland felt over the death of his son.

我们无法知道安森·彭特兰对于儿子的去世有何感想。

He did not speak at all, and now that “The Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony” had been laid aside in the midst of the confusion and Mr. Lowell’s desk stood buried beneath floral offerings, there was nothing to do but wander about getting in the way of every one and drawing upon his head the sharp reproofs of Aunt Cassie.

他一言不发，现在《彭特兰家族和马萨诸塞湾殖民地》已经在一片混乱中被搁置一旁，洛厄尔先生的办公桌被埋在鲜花下面，他没有什么可做的，只能四处走动，妨碍每个人，并把卡西姨妈的尖锐责备记在他的头上。

It was Aunt Cassie and Anson who opened the great box of roses that came from O’Hara.

卡西姨妈和安森打开了从奥哈拉寄来的大盒子玫瑰花。

It was Aunt Cassie’s thin, blue-veined hand that tore open the envelope addressed plainly to “Mrs. Anson Pentland.” It was Aunt Cassie who forced Anson to read what was written inside:

卡西姨妈那只瘦瘦的、青筋暴起的手撕开了信封，上面写着“安森·彭特兰夫人”。是卡西阿姨强迫安森读了里面写的内容：

“_Dear Mrs. Pentland_,

“_亲爱的彭特兰夫人_，

_You know what I feel.

_你知道我的感受。

There is no need to say anything more._

无需多言。_

_Michael O’Hara._”

_迈克尔·奥哈拉。_”

And it was Aunt Cassie who said, “Impertinent!

卡西阿姨说道：“无礼！

Why should he send flowers at all?” And Aunt Cassie who read the note again and again, as if she might find in some way a veiled meaning behind the two cryptic sentences.

他为什么要送花呢？”还有卡西阿姨，她一遍又一遍地读着这张纸条，仿佛她可能会在这两个神秘的句子背后找到某种隐藏的含义。

It was Aunt Cassie who carried the note to Olivia and watched her while she read it and laid it quietly aside on her dressing-table.

卡西姨妈把这张纸条递给了奥利维亚，看着她读它，然后把它静静地放在梳妆台上。

And when she had discovered nothing she said to Olivia, “It seems to me impertinent of him to send flowers and write such a note.

当她什么也没发现时，她对奥利维亚说：“在我看来，他送花并写这样的字条是不恰当的。

What is he to us here at Pentlands?”

他对我们彭特兰来说意味着什么？

Olivia looked at her a little wearily and said, “What does it matter whether he is impertinent or not?

奥莉薇娅有些疲倦地看着她，说道：“他无礼与否又有什么关系呢？

Besides, he was a great friend of Jack’s.” And then, straightening her tired body, she looked at Aunt Cassie and said slowly, “He is also a friend of mine.”

此外，他是杰克的好朋友。”然后，她挺直了疲惫的身体，看着卡西阿姨，缓缓说道：“他也是我的朋友。”

It was the first time that the division of forces had stood revealed, even for a second, the first time that Olivia had shown any feeling for O’Hara, and there was something ominous in the quietness of a speech made so casually.

这是第一次，即使只有一秒钟，双方的力量分野也被暴露出来，这是奥莉薇娅第一次对奥哈拉表现出任何感情，而如此随意的平静讲话中却有一种不祥的感觉。

She ended any possible discussion by leaving the room in search of Anson, leaving Aunt Cassie disturbed by the sensation of alarm which attacked her when she found herself suddenly face to face with the mysterious and perilous calm that sometimes took possession of Olivia.

她结束了所有可能的讨论，离开房间去找安森，让卡西姨妈感到不安，当她发现自己突然面对奥莉维亚有时会占据的神秘而危险的平静时，她感到震惊。

Left alone in the room, she took up the note again from the dressing-table and read it through for the twentieth time.

房间里只剩下她一个人，她又从梳妆台上拿起那张纸条，读了第二十遍。

There was nothing in it ...

里面什么也没有……

nothing on which one could properly even pin a suspicion.

没有什么可以让人适当怀疑的。

So, in the midst of death, enveloped by the odor of tuberoses, the old lady rose triumphant, a phoenix from ashes.

于是，在死亡之中，在晚香玉的香气笼罩下，老太太凯旋而归，化为灰烬中的凤凰。

In some way she found in tragedy her proper rôle and she managed to draw most of the light from the other actors to herself.

在某种程度上，她在悲剧中找到了自己合适的角色，并成功地将其他演员的大部分光芒吸引到了自己身上。

She must have known that people went away from the house saying, “Cassie rises to such occasions beautifully.

她一定知道人们离开家时会说：“卡西在这种场合表现得很出色。

She has taken everything on her own shoulders.” She succeeded in conveying the double impression that she suffered far more than any of the others and that none of the others could possibly have done without her.

她把一切都扛在了自己的肩上。”她成功地传达了双重印象：她比其他人承受的痛苦要多得多，而且如果没有她，其他人都不可能做到。

And then into the midst of her triumph came the worst that could have happened.

然而就在她取得胜利的同时，最糟糕的情况却发生了。

Olivia was the first to learn of the calamity as she always came to know before any of the others knowledge which old John Pentland possessed; and the others would never have known until the sad business of the funeral was over save for Aunt Cassie’s implacable curiosity.

奥利维亚是第一个得知这场灾难的人，因为她总是比其他人先了解老约翰·彭特兰所掌握的知识。直到悲伤的葬礼结束后，除了卡西姨妈无法平息的好奇心之外，其他人永远不会知道。

On the second day, Olivia, summoned by her father-in-law to come to the library, found him there as she had found him so many times before, grim and silent and repressed, only this time there was something inexpressibly tragic and broken in his manner.

第二天，奥莉薇娅被公公叫到了图书馆，发现他和以前多次见到的一样，冷酷、沉默、压抑，只是这一次，他的神态里有一种难以言喻的悲惨和破碎。

She did not speak to him; she simply waited until, looking up at last, he said almost in a whisper, “Horace Pentland’s body is at the Durham station.”

她没有跟他说话；她没有跟他说话。她只是等到最后抬起头来，他几乎低声说道：“霍勒斯·彭特兰的尸体在达勒姆车站。”

And he looked at her with the quick, pitiful helplessness of a strong man who has suddenly grown weak and old, as if at last he had come to the end of his strength and was turning now to her.

他用一种突然而可怜的无助看着她，就像一个突然变得虚弱、衰老的坚强男人，仿佛他终于耗尽了自己的力量，现在正在转向她。

It was then for the first time that she began to see how she was in a way a prisoner, that from now on, as one day passed into another, the whole life at Pentlands would come to be more and more her affair.

就在那时，她第一次开始意识到自己在某种程度上是一个囚犯，从现在开始，随着一天又一天过去，彭特兰的整个生活将越来越成为她的事情。

There was no one to take the place of the old man ...

没有人可以取代老人的位置……

no one, save herself.

没有人，救救她自己吧。

“What shall we do?” he asked in the same low voice.

“我们该怎么办？”他用同样低沉的声音问道。

“I don’t know.

“我不知道。

I am nearly at the end of things.”

我的事情快要结束了。”

“We could bury them together,” said Olivia softly.

“我们可以把它们埋在一起。”奥利维亚轻声说道。

“We could have a double funeral.”

“我们可以举行双重葬礼。”

He looked at her in astonishment.

他惊讶地看着她。

“You wouldn’t mind that?” and when she shook her head in answer, he replied: “But we can’t do it.

“你不介意吗？”当她摇头回答时，他回答道：“但我们做不到。

There seems to me something wrong in such an idea....

在我看来，这样的想法有问题......

I can’t explain what I mean....

我无法解释我的意思......

It oughtn’t to be done....

不应该这样做......

A boy like Jack and an old reprobate like Horace.”

像杰克这样的男孩和像霍勒斯这样的老恶棍。”

They would have settled it quietly between them as they had settled so many troubles in the last years when John Pentland had come to her for strength, but at that moment the door opened suddenly and, without knocking, Aunt Cassie appeared, her eyes really blazing with an angry, hysterical light, her hair all hanging in little iron-gray wisps about her narrow face.

他们本来可以悄悄地解决这件事，就像过去几年约翰·彭特兰来找她寻求力量时解决了那么多麻烦一样，但就在这时，门突然打开了，没有敲门，卡西姨妈就出现了，她的眼睛里闪烁着愤怒、歇斯底里的光芒，铁灰色的头发垂在她窄小的脸上。

“What is it?” she asked.

“那是什么？”她问道。

“What has gone wrong?

“出了什么问题？

I know there’s something, and you’ve no right to keep it from me.” She was shrill and brittle, as if in those two days all the pleasure and activity surrounding death had driven her into an orgy of excitement.

我知道有件事，你没有权利瞒着我。”她声音尖细而脆弱，仿佛那两天所有与死亡有关的快乐和活动都驱使她陷入了兴奋的狂欢之中。

At the sound of her voice, both Olivia and John Pentland started abruptly.

听到她的声音，奥莉薇娅和约翰·彭特兰都猛地吃了一惊。

She had touched them on nerves raw and worn.

她触动了他们的神经，让他们的神经变得粗糙而疲惫。

The thin, high-pitched voice went on.

细细而高亢的声音继续说道。

“I’ve given up all my time to arranging things.

“我已经放弃了所有的时间来安排事情。

I’ve barely slept.

我几乎没睡过。

I sacrifice myself to you all day and night and I’ve a right to know.” It was as if she had sensed the slow breaking up of the old man and sought now to hurl him aside, to depose him as head of the family, in one great _coup d’état_, setting herself up there in his place, a thin, fiercely intolerant tyrant; as if at last she had given up her old subtle way of trying to gain her ends by intrigue through the men of the family.

我日日夜夜为你牺牲自己，我有权知道。”就好像她已经感觉到了老人的慢慢崩溃，现在试图将他扔到一边，废黜他作为一家之主的地位，在一场伟大的政变中，把自己树立在他的位置上，成为一个瘦弱的、极其不宽容的暴君；仿佛她终于放弃了她那种试图通过家里男人的阴谋来达到目的的老方法。

She stood ready now to set up a matriarchy, the last refuge of a family whose strength was gone.

她现在已经做好了建立母权制的准备，这是一个失去力量的家庭的最后避难所。

She had risen thus in the same way once before within the memory of Olivia, in those long months when Mr. Struthers, fading slowly into death, yielded her the victory.

在奥利维亚的记忆中，她曾经以同样的方式崛起，在那漫长的几个月里，斯特拉瑟斯先生慢慢地走向死亡，让她取得了胜利。

John Pentland sighed, profoundly, wearily, and murmured, “It’s nothing, Cassie.

约翰·彭特兰深深地、疲惫地叹了口气，低声说道：“没什么，卡西。

It would only trouble you.

只会给你带来麻烦。

Olivia and I are settling it.”

奥利维亚和我正在解决这个问题。”

But she did not retreat.

但她并没有退缩。

Standing there, she held her ground and continued the tirade, working herself up to a pitch of hysteria.

她站在那里，坚守阵地，继续长篇大论，把自己搞得歇斯底里。

“I won’t be put aside.

“我不会被抛在一边。

No one ever tells me anything.

没有人告诉我任何事情。

For years now I’ve been shut out as if I were half-witted.

多年来，我一直被拒之门外，就好像我是个傻子一样。

Frail as I am, I work myself to the bone for the family and don’t even get a word of thanks....

我虽然体弱多病，为了家庭拼命工作，却没有得到一句感谢……

Why is Olivia always preferred to your own sister?” And tears of luxurious, sensual, self-pity began to stream down her withered face.

为什么奥利维亚总是比你自己的妹妹更受青睐？”奢侈的、感性的、自怜的泪水开始从她枯萎的脸上流下来。

She began even to mumble and mix her words, and she abandoned herself completely to the fleshly pleasure of hysterics.

她甚至开始咕哝、语无伦次，完全沉浸在歇斯底里的肉体快感之中。

Olivia, watching her quietly, saw that this was no usual occasion.

奥莉薇娅静静地看着她，发现这不是平常的场合。

This was, in truth, the new Aunt Cassie whom Sabine had revealed to her a few days before ...

事实上，这就是萨宾几天前向她透露的新卡西阿姨……

the aggressively virginal Aunt Cassie who had been born in that moment on the terrace to take the place of the old Aunt Cassie who had existed always in an aura of tears and good works and sympathy.

激进的处女卡西姨妈在那一刻诞生在露台上，取代了老卡西姨妈，后者一直存在于泪水、善行和同情的光环中。

She understood now what she had never understood before--that Aunt Cassie was not merely an irrational hypochondriac, a harmless, pitiful creature, but a ruthless and unscrupulous force.

她现在明白了她以前从未明白过的事情——卡西姨妈不仅是一个非理性的忧郁症患者，一个无害、可怜的生物，而且是一个无情、不择手段的力量。

She knew that behind this emotional debauch there lay some deeply conceived plan.

她知道，在这种情感放荡的背后，隐藏着一些深思熟虑的计划。

Vaguely she suspected that the plan was aimed at subduing herself, or bringing her (Olivia) completely under the will of the old woman.

她隐约怀疑这个计划是为了征服自己，或者是让她（奥莉薇娅）完全屈服于老太婆的意志之下。

It was the insect again beating its wings frantically against the windows of a world which she could never enter....

又是那只昆虫疯狂地拍打着翅膀，击打着她永远无法进入的世界的窗户……

And softly Olivia said, “Surely, Aunt Cassie, there is no need to make a scene ...

奥莉薇娅轻声说道：“当然，卡西阿姨，没必要大吵大闹……”

there’s no need to be vulgar ...

没必要粗俗……

at a time like this.”

在这样的时刻。”

The old woman, suddenly speechless, looked at her brother, but from him there came no sign of aid or succor; she must have seen, plainly, that he had placed himself on the side of Olivia ...

老妇人突然说不出话来，看着她的哥哥，但他没有表现出任何援助或救助的迹象。她一定已经清楚地看出，他站在了奥利维亚一边……

the outsider, who had dared to accuse a Pentland of being vulgar.

外人敢于指责彭特兰人粗俗。

“You heard what she said, John....

“你听到她说的话了，约翰……

You heard what she said!

你听到她说的话了！

She called your sister vulgar!” But her hysterical mood began to abate suddenly, as if she saw that she had chosen, after all, the wrong plan of attack.

她说你妹妹粗俗！”但她歇斯底里的情绪突然开始减弱，仿佛她发现自己终究选择了错误的攻击计划。

Olivia did not answer her.

奥利维亚没有回答她。

She only sat there, looking pale and patient and beautiful in her black clothes, waiting.

她只是坐在那儿，穿着黑色衣服，看上去苍白、耐心、美丽，等待着。

It was a moment unfair to Aunt Cassie.

这对卡西阿姨来说是不公平的时刻。

No man, even Anson, would have placed himself against Olivia just then.

没有人，哪怕是安森，会在此时与奥莉薇娅对抗。

“If you must know, Cassie ...” the old man said slowly.

“如果你一定要知道的话，卡西……”老人慢慢地说。

“It’s a thing you won’t want to hear.

“这是你不想听到的事情。

But if you must know, it is simply that Horace Pentland’s body is at the station in Durham.”

但如果你一定要知道的话，那就是霍勒斯·彭特兰的尸体就在达勒姆的车站。”

Olivia had a quick sense of the whited sepulcher beginning to crack, to fall slowly into bits.

奥利维亚迅速感觉到白色的坟墓开始破裂，慢慢地变成碎片。

At first Aunt Cassie only stared at them, snuffling and wiping her red eyes, and then she said, in an amazingly calm voice, “You see....

起初，卡西姨妈只是盯着他们，吸着鼻子，擦着红红的眼睛，然后她用异常平静的声音说道：“你们看……

You never tell me anything.

你从来不告诉我任何事情。

I never knew he was dead.” There was a touch of triumph and vindication in her manner.

我从来不知道他死了。”她的举止中有一丝胜利和辩护的味道。

“There was no need of telling you, Cassie,” said the old man.

“没有必要告诉你，卡西，”老人说。

“You wouldn’t let his name be spoken in the family for years.

“多年来你都不会让他的名字在家里被提及。

It was you--you and Anson--who made me threaten him into living abroad.

是你们——你们和安森——让我威胁他住在国外。

Why should you care when he died?”

你为什么要关心他的死活？”

Aunt Cassie showed signs of breaking down once more.

卡西阿姨再次表现出了崩溃的迹象。

“You see, I’m always blamed for everything.

“你看，我总是因为一切而受到指责。

I was thinking of the family all these years.

这些年来我一直想着家人。

We couldn’t have Horace running around loose in Boston.” She broke off with a sudden, fastidious gesture of disgust, as if she were washing her hands of the whole affair.

我们不能让霍勒斯在波士顿到处乱跑。”她突然用一种厌恶的、挑剔的姿态打断了话，仿佛她正在对这件事洗心革面。

“I could have managed it better myself.

“我自己本来可以做得更好。

He ought never to have been brought home ...

他根本不应该被带回家......