'Not -headed, as he said, "and fast growing greyer." But generous, and frank, and good, I am sure.' 'And only seen once, Harriet?' 'In this room only once,' said his sister, with the slightest and most transient glow upon her cheek; 'but when here, he entreated me to suffer him to see me once a week as he passed by, in token of our being well, and continuing to need nothing at his hands. For I told him, when he proffered us any service he could render - which was the object of his visit - that we needed nothing.' 'And once a week - ' 'Once every week since then, and always on the same day, and at the same hour, he his gone past; always on foot; always going in the same direction - towards London; and never pausing longer than to bow to me, and wave his hand cheerfully, as a kind guardian might. He made that promise when he proposed these curious interviews, and has kept it so faithfully and pleasantly, that if I ever felt any trifling uneasiness about them in the beginning (which I don't think I did, John; his manner was so plain and true) It very soon vanished, and left me quite glad when the day was coming. Last Monday - the first since this terrible event - he did not go by; and I have wondered whether his absence can have been in any way connected with what has happened.' 'How?' inquired her brother. 'I don't know how. I have only speculated on the coincidence; I have not tried to account for it. I feel sure he will return. When he does, dear John, let me tell him that I have at last spoken to you, and let me bring you together. He will certainly help us to a new livelihood. His entreaty was that he might do something to smooth my life and yours; and I gave him my promise that if we ever wanted a friend, I would remember him.' 'Then his name was to be no secret, 'Harriet,' said her brother, who had listened with close attention, 'describe this gentleman to me. I surely ought to know one who knows me so well.' His sister painted, as vividly as she could, the features, stature, and dress of her visitor; but John Carker, either from having no knowledge of the original, or from some fault in her description, or from some abstraction of his thoughts as he walked to and fro, pondering, could not recognise the portrait she presented to him. However, it was agreed between them that he should see the original when he next appeared. This concluded, the sister applied herself, with a less anxious breast, to her domestic occupations; and the grey-haired man, late Junior of Dombey's, devoted the first day of his unwonted liberty to working in the garden. It was quite late at night, and the brother was reading aloud while the sister plied her needle, when they were interrupted by a knocking at the door. In the atmosphere of vague anxiety and dread that lowered about them in connexion with their fugitive brother, this sound, unusual there, became almost alarming. The brother going to the door, the sister sat and listened timidly. Someone spoke to him, and he replied and seemed surprised; and after a few words, the two approached together. 'Harriet,' said her brother, lighting in their late visitor, and speaking in a low voice, 'Mr Morfin - the gentleman so long in Dombey's House with James.' His sister started back, as if a ghost had entered. In the doorway stood the unknown friend, with the dark hair sprinkled with grey, the ruddy face, the broad clear brow, and hazel eyes, whose secret she had kept so long! 'John!' she said, half-breathless. 'It is the gentleman I told you of, today!' 'The gentleman, Miss Harriet,' said the visitor, coming in - for he had stopped a moment in the doorway - 'is greatly relieved to hear you say that: he has been devising ways and means, all the way here, of explaining himself, and has been satisfied with none. Mr John, I am not quite a stranger here. You were stricken with astonishment when you saw me at your door just now. I observe you are more astonished at present. Well! That's reasonable enough under existing circumstances. If we were not such creatures of habit as we are, we shouldn't have reason to be astonished half so often.' By this time, he had greeted Harriet with that able mingling of cordiality and respect which she recollected so well, and had sat down near her, pulled off his gloves, and thrown them into his hat upon the table. 'There's nothing astonishing,' he said, 'in my having conceived a desire to see your sister, Mr John, or in my having gratified it in my own way. As to the regularity of my visits since (which she may have mentioned to you), there is nothing extraordinary in that. They soon grew into a habit; and we are creatures of habit - creatures of habit!' Putting his hands into his pockets, and leaning back in his chair, he looked at the brother and sister as if it were interesting to him to see them together; and went on to say, with a kind of irritable thoughtfulness: 'It's this same habit that confirms some of us, who are capable of better things, in Lucifer's own pride and stubbornness - that confirms and deepens others of us in villainy - more of us in indifference - that hardens us from day to day, according to the temper of our clay, like images, and leaves us as susceptible as images to new impressions and convictions. You shall judge of its influence on me, John. For more years than I need name, I had my small, and exactly defined share, in the management of Dombey's House, and saw your brother (who has proved himself a scoundrel! Your sister will forgive my being obliged to mention it) extending and extending his influence, until the business and its owner were his football; and saw you toiling at your obscure desk every day; and was quite content to be as little troubled as I might be, out of my own strip of duty, and to let everything about me go on, day by day, unquestioned, like a great machine - that was its habit and mine - and to take it all for granted, and consider it all right. My Wednesday nights came regularly round, our quartette parties came regularly off, my violoncello was in good tune, and there was nothing wrong in my world - or if anything not much - or little or much, it was no affair of mine.' 'I can answer for your being more respected and beloved during all that time than anybody in the House, Sir,' said John Carker. 'Pooh! Good-natured and easy enough, I daresay,'returned the other, 'a habit I had. It suited the Manager; it suited the man he managed: it suited me best of all. I did what was allotted to me to do, made no court to either of them, and was glad to occupy a station in which none was required. So I should have gone on till now, but that my room had a thin wall. You can tell your sister that it was divided from the Manager's room by a wainscot partition.' 'They were adjoining rooms; had been one, Perhaps, originally; and were separated, as Mr Morfin says,' said her brother, looking back to him for the resumption of his explanation. 'I have whistled, hummed tunes, gone accurately through the whole of Beethoven's Sonata in B,' to let him know that I was within hearing,' said Mr Morfin; 'but he never heeded me. It happened seldom enough that I was within hearing of anything of a private nature, certainly. But when I was, and couldn't otherwise avoid knowing something of it, I walked out. I walked out once, John, during a conversation between two brothers, to which, in the beginning, young Walter Gay was a party. But I overheard some of it before I left the room. You remember it sufficiently, perhaps, to tell your sister what its nature was?' 'It referred, Harriet,' said her brother in a low voice, 'to the past, and to our relative positions in the House.' “不年輕。就像他所說，頭髮已經斑白，而且很快就會變得更白，但是他慷慨、坦率、善良，我肯定是這樣。” “你只見過他一次嗎，哈里特？” “在這個房間裏只一次，”他的姐姐說道，同時臉頰上露出一點極爲輕微的、極爲短暫的紅暈，”但是他在這裏曾請求我允許他路過這裏的時候每星期見我一次，以表明我們過得很好，依舊不需要他幫助。因爲當他向我建議他給我們一些幫助（這是他那次訪問的目的）的時候，我告訴他，我們什麼也不需要。” “這麼說，一星期一次--” “從那時候起，他每星期一次，而且經常是每星期中的同一天，同一個鐘點，從我們家門口走過；經常是步行；經常是朝着同一個方向--往倫敦去的方向；他經常像一位善良的監護人那樣，快活地向我揮揮手就走了，從來沒有停留過更長的時間。當他向我建議進行這些奇妙有趣的會晤的時候，他答應這樣做，而且一直十分忠實地、愉快地信守他的諾言，因此如果我開始有過一丁點兒疑慮不安的話，那麼它也會很快就消除了（由於他的態度十分爽直、真誠，所以我認爲我並沒有這種疑慮不安），而且在那一天來到的時候，我感到很高興。上星期一--這次可怕的事件發生以後的第一個星期一--他沒有從這裏走過；我一直在納悶，他沒有來是不是會跟發生的事情多少有些關係。” “怎麼會有關係呢？”她的弟弟問道。 “我不知道怎麼會有關係，我只是對恰好同時發生這一點進行猜測；我不曾想去解釋它。我相信他會再來。當他真的再來的時候，親愛的約翰，請讓我告訴他，我已經對你說了，並讓我介紹你們認識吧。他肯定會幫助我們解決今後生活的費用。他曾請求我，讓他能做點事情來減輕我和你的生活的困難。我也答應過他，如果我們需要朋友幫助的話，那麼我將會記得他，到那時候他的姓名對我們將不再是祕密了。” “哈里特，”她的弟弟一直在十分注意地聽着，這時說道，”請把這個先生的外貌描述給我聽。我毫無疑問應當知道一位對我知道得這麼清楚的人。” 他的姐姐儘可能生動地描述她這位客人的面貌、身材和服裝；可是也許是由於他不知道這個人，也許是她在敘述時有些缺點，也許是由於他來回走着並默默思考着的時候，有些走神，因此，約翰?卡克不能辨認出他姐姐描繪的這幅肖像。 不過他們商量好，當肖像的原型下次來到的時候，他一定看一看他。作出這個決定以後，姐姐焦慮不安的心情已減輕一些，就去料理家務；那位頭髮斑白的、董貝公司原先的低級職員則在花園裏勞動，度過他所不習慣的自由的第一天。 已經是夜間很晚的時候了，弟弟正在高聲唸書，姐姐正忙着針線活，這時他們聽見有人敲門。自從他們的弟弟逃走以後，一種模糊不清的憂慮與畏懼的氣氛一直籠罩着他們，而敲門的在這裏又不是尋常的，所以在這種情況下聽到這簡直令人恐怖。弟弟向門口走去，姐姐則心驚膽怯地坐在那裏聽着。有人跟他說話，他作了回答，似乎感到驚奇；兩人交談了幾句以後，一起走進了房間。 “哈里特，”她的弟弟拿着蠟燭，領着他們剛來的客人進來，低聲說道，”這是莫芬先生，他跟詹姆士一起在董貝公司裏工作得很久了。” 他的姐姐吃驚地往後退了一步，彷彿鬼進來似的。那位過去不知名的朋友站在門口，他的黑頭髮中間夾雜着白髮，臉色紅潤，前額寬闊、明淨，眼睛是淡褐色的，這就是她曾這麼長久爲他保守祕密的那個人。 “約翰！”她有些喘不過氣來地說道，”這就是我今天跟你說過的那位先生。” “哈里特小姐，”客人原先在門口站了一會兒，這時走進來，說道，”這位先生聽到您講這話，心中感到輕鬆了。他一路上一直在思考着怎樣來給他自己解釋，可是總沒有想出能使他自己滿意的方式。約翰先生，我在這裏並不是一位完全陌生的人。您剛纔在門口看到我的時候大吃一驚。我注意到您現在更加驚異。是啊！在目前的情況下，這倒也是合乎常情的。如果我們不是受習慣支配的奴隸的話，那麼我們就沒有理由像這樣經常地感到驚奇了。” 這時他已用他那令人愉快的、既熱誠又尊敬的態度向哈里特表示了問候，他的這種態度哈里特是記得很清楚的；然後他在她的身旁坐下來，脫去手套，扔到放在桌子上的帽子裏。 “我產生見見您姐姐的願望，或者我按照我自己的方式來滿足這個願望，這裏並沒有什麼令人驚奇的東西，約翰先生。至於在這之後，我定期前來拜訪（她也許已經向您說到這一點），這也沒有什麼異乎尋常的東西。它們很快就變成了習慣，而我們都是受習慣支配的奴隸--受習慣支配的奴隸！” 他把手插進衣袋，背靠着椅子，看着弟弟和姐姐，彷彿他看到他們在一起很感興趣似的；然後他用激昂的和沉思的神態，繼續說道，”同樣是這習慣，它使我們當中一些能更有作爲的人們養成惡魔般高傲與頑固的脾氣，難以改變；它使我們當中另一些人養成並加深腐化墮落的惡習，無法自拔；它使我們多數人對周圍的一切漠不關心，就像用粘土做成的塑像一樣，根據我們粘土的性質，一天天變得愈來愈堅硬，而且跟塑像一樣難以壓成新的模型和接受新的信念。您應當判斷出習慣對我的影響，約翰。在過去這許多年月中，我在董貝公司的業務管理中起着微小的、十分有限的作用；我看到您的弟弟（他已證明自己是個壞蛋！令姐將會原諒我不得不提到這點）不斷擴大着他的權勢，直到最後公司的業務和它的主人成了他隨意踢耍的足球；我看到您每天默默無聞地在您的辦公桌上辛苦工作着；我很滿意於我做好我職責範圍內的一丁點兒工作，儘量不疏忽大意；我滿足於讓我周圍的一切像一架大機器一樣，不加猜疑地、一天天運轉下去（這是機器的習慣，也是我的習慣）；我滿足於把一切都看作是不成問題的，完全正確的。我所喜愛的星期三夜晚定時來臨，我們的四重奏樂隊定時演出，我的大提琴的音調很好，在我的世界裏一切都沒有毛病--如果有，那也 不大--，就算有些毛病，那也與我無關。” “我可以向您保證說，在我們公司裏，誰也沒有像您這樣受到大家尊敬與喜愛的。” “說那裏的話！”另一位回答道，”我敢說，那是由於我脾氣好，容易順從別人的緣故。這是我的習慣。這適合經理的心意，特別是，這最適合我自己的心意。我完成分配給我做的工作，不奉承他們任何人，安心樂意於一個完全不要求我溜鬚拍馬的職務。因此，要不是因爲我的牆壁薄，我就會這樣一直待下去。您可以向您姐姐證明，我的房間和經理的房間只是用護壁板隔開的。” “那是兩間相連的房間；原先可能是一間房間，正如莫芬先生所說，是被分隔開來的。”她的弟弟說道，一邊回頭看看他，等待他繼續解釋下去。 “我吹口哨，哼曲子，把貝多芬B調奏鳴曲從頭到尾哼到底，讓他知道，我和他近在咫尺，能聽得見他說話，”莫芬先生說道，”可是他從來沒有注意我。當然，我極少聽到私事性質的談話。可是當我能聽到這種談話，而又沒有別的辦法避免知道其中一些內容的時候，我就走出房間。我走出過一次，約翰，那是兄弟兩人正在談話的時候，年輕的沃爾特?蓋伊開始也參加了那次談話。可是在我離開房間之前我偷聽到其中的一些內容。也許您還能充分記得這次談話，可以告訴您姐姐談話的性質是什麼吧？” “哈里特，”她的弟弟低聲說道，”我們談到過去的事情和我們各自在公司裏的地位。”
