狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第30章Part 7

'Or would next day,' said Mr Dombey, 'suit your engagements better?'
'I have no engagements. I am always at your disposal. Let it be when you like.'
'No engagements, my dear Edith!' remonstrated her mother, 'when you are in a most terrible state of flurry all day long, and have a thousand and one appointments with all sorts of trades-people!'
'They are of your making,' returned Edith, turning on her with a slight contraction of her brow. 'You and Mr Dombey can arrange between you.'
'Very true indeed, my love, and most considerate of you!' said Cleopatra. 'My darling Florence, you must really come and kiss me once more, if you please, my dear!'
Singular coincidence, that these gushes of interest In Florence hurried Cleopatra away from almost every dialogue in which Edith had a share, however trifling! Florence had certainly never undergone so much embracing, and perhaps had never been, unconsciously, so useful in her life.
Mr Dombey was far from quarrelling, in his own breast, with the manner of his beautiful betrothed. He had that good reason for sympathy with haughtiness and coldness, which is found In a fellow-feeling. It flattered him to think how these deferred to him, in Edith's case, and seemed to have no will apart from his. It flattered him to picture to himself, this proud and stately woman doing the honours of his house, and chilling his guests after his own manner. The dignity of Dombey and Son would be heightened and maintained, indeed, in such hands.
So thought Mr Dombey, when he was left alone at the dining-table, and mused upon his past and future fortunes: finding no uncongeniality in an air of scant and gloomy state that pervaded the room, in colour a dark brown, with black hatchments of pictures blotching the walls, and twenty-four black chairs, with almost as many nails in them as so many coffins, waiting like mutes, upon the threshold of the Turkey carpet; and two exhausted negroes holding up two withered branches of candelabra on the sideboard, and a musty smell prevailing as if the ashes of ten thousand dinners were entombed in the sarcophagus below it. The owner of the house lived much abroad; the air of England seldom agreed long with a member of the Feenix family; and the room had gradually put itself into deeper and still deeper mourning for him, until it was become so funereal as to want nothing but a body in it to be quite complete.

"或者後天也可以，如果這更適合您安排料理各種事情的話？"董貝先生說道。
"我沒有什麼事情要安排料理。我總是聽隨您支配。您看什麼日子就定什麼日子吧。"
"沒有什麼事情要安排料理，我親愛的伊迪絲！"她的母親表示異議，說道，"要知道，你得從早到晚忙得團團轉，你得跟各種各樣的商人打一千零一次交道！"
"這由你去操辦吧，"伊迪絲微微皺着眉頭，轉向她，回答道，"你跟董貝先生兩人去商量安排好了。"
"完全正確，我親愛的，你考慮得真周到！"克利奧佩特拉說道，"我親愛的弗洛倫斯，你一定得真心到這裏來再親我一次，如果你願意的話，我親愛的！"
這是個奇怪的巧合：克利奧佩特拉對弗洛倫斯的這種關切，總是在她急忙要避開伊迪絲進來參加談話之後，不論她談的話是多麼少！弗洛倫斯確實從來也沒有接受過這麼多的擁抱，也許在她的一生中也從來沒有在無意間成爲這樣有用的人。
董貝先生在內心深處對他的美麗的未婚妻根本沒有什麼埋怨。他有充分理由同情她的傲慢與冷淡，因爲他本人也同樣具有這樣的性格。他很高興地想到，伊迪絲尊重他的意見，似乎他的意志就是她的意志。他很高興地想象，這位高傲與莊嚴的女人怎樣仿效他的態度在家中接待客人，使得他們拘謹畏縮。是的，董貝父子公司的尊嚴將會在這樣的手中得到增進與維護。
當董貝先生獨自一人留在餐桌旁，默默地思考着他的過去與未來的命運時，他是這樣想的：他覺得他的這些命運跟這房間籠罩着的簡陋與陰沉的氣氛並沒有什麼不適合；房間是深褐色的，像喪徽一樣的圖畫玷污了牆壁；二十四把黑色的椅子像被僱用的送喪人一樣，在土耳其地毯的邊緣等待着，椅子上裝飾着許許多多的釘子，就像棺材的數目一樣多；餐具櫃上枝狀燭臺的兩枝凋殘的燭枝由兩位筋疲力盡的黑人託舉着；房間裏瀰漫着一股發黴的氣味，彷彿一萬頓正餐正封埋在下面的石棺裏面。房屋的主人有很多時間住在國外，英國的空氣難能長期適合菲尼克斯家族中一位成員的喜愛；房間爲他逐漸地穿上了愈來愈深的喪服，直到最後，喪葬的氣氛已經十分濃厚了，除了屍體之外，什麼也不缺了。