狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第29章Part 4

'If,' said Mrs Chick, with solemn patience, 'I have not expressed myself with clearness, Lucretia, the fault of course is mine. There is, perhaps, no reason why I should express myself at all, except the intimacy that has subsisted between us, and which I very much hope, Lucretia - confidently hope - nothing will occur to disturb. Because, why should I do anything else? There is no reason; it would be absurd. But I wish to express myself clearly, Lucretia; and therefore to go back to that remark, I must beg to say that it was not intended to relate to Florence, in any way.'
'Indeed!' returned Miss Tox.
'No,' said Mrs Chick shortly and decisively.
'Pardon me, my dear,' rejoined her meek friend; 'but I cannot have understood it. I fear I am dull.'
Mrs Chick looked round the room and over the way; at the plants, at the bird, at the watering-pot, at almost everything within view, except Miss Tox; and finally dropping her glance upon Miss Tox, for a moment, on its way to the ground, said, looking meanwhile with elevated eyebrows at the carpet:
'When I speak, Lucretia, of her being worthy of the name, I speak of my brother Paul's second wife. I believe I have already said, in effect, if not in the very words I now use, that it is his intention to marry a second wife.'
Miss Tox left her seat in a hurry, and returned to her plants; clipping among the stems and leaves, with as little favour as a barber working at so many pauper heads of hair.
'Whether she will be fully sensible of the distinction conferred upon her,' said Mrs Chick, in a lofty tone, 'is quite another question. I hope she may be. We are bound to think well of one another in this world, and I hope she may be. I have not been advised with myself If I had been advised with, I have no doubt my advice would have been cavalierly received, and therefore it is infinitely better as it is. I much prefer it as it is.'
Miss Tox, with head bent down, still clipped among the plants. Mrs Chick, with energetic shakings of her own head from time to time, continued to hold forth, as if in defiance of somebody. 'If my brother Paul had consulted with me, which he sometimes does - or rather, sometimes used to do; for he will naturally do that no more now, and this is a circumstance which I regard as a relief from responsibility,' said Mrs Chick, hysterically, 'for I thank Heaven I am not jealous - ' here Mrs Chick again shed tears: 'if my brother Paul had come to me, and had said, "Louisa, what kind of qualities would you advise me to look out for, in a wife?" I should certainly have answered, "Paul, you must have family, you must have beauty, you must have dignity, you must have connexion." Those are the words I should have used. You might have led me to the block immediately afterwards,' said Mrs Chick, as if that consequence were highly probable, 'but I should have used them. I should have said, "Paul! You to marry a second time without family! You to marry without beauty! You to marry without dignity! You to marry without connexion! There is nobody in the world, not mad, who could dream of daring to entertain such a preposterous idea!
Miss Tox stopped clipping; and with her head among the plants, listened attentively. Perhaps Miss Tox thought there was hope in this exordium, and the warmth of Mrs Chick.

“如果我沒有把話說明白的話，”奇剋夫人莊嚴而耐心地說道，”盧克麗霞，那麼這自然是我的過錯。要不是由於我們交情深厚，也許我根本就沒有必要說明白，盧克麗霞，我非常希望--滿懷信心地希望--，不會發生任何事情來破壞我們親密的友誼。因爲我怎麼能不這樣想呢？沒有任何理由發生那樣的事情。那是荒謬的。但是我希望把我的話說明白，盧克麗霞，因此我想回到我所說的那句話，我得說，我那句話絕對不是指弗洛倫斯。”
“真的嗎？”托克斯小姐回答道。
“是的，”奇剋夫人簡短而堅決地說道。
“請原諒我，我親愛的，”她溫順的朋友回答道，”但是我聽不明白。我擔心我的腦子遲鈍了。”
奇剋夫人向房間四處看看，又看看廣場對過；看看花，看看鳥，看看噴水壺，幾乎看了在她視野之內的一切東西，只是沒有看托克斯小姐；最後當她向地面低下眼睛時，她向托克斯小姐匆匆地看了一眼，然後看着地毯，但卻又揚起眉毛，說道：
“我說她要配姓那個姓，盧克麗霞，我是指我哥哥保羅的第二個妻子。雖然我沒有使用現在的語言，但我想我已經表達了我的意思。他打算再婚。”
托克斯小姐急忙離開座位，回到花旁，像理髮師給窮人理髮那樣毫不留情地剪着枝葉。
“她是不是將充分認識到給予她的光榮，”奇剋夫人用高傲的聲音說道，”這完全是另外一個問題。我希望她會認識到。在這個世界上我們應當彼此往好裏去想，我希望她會認識到。這件事沒有跟我商量過。如果跟我商量的話，那麼他也不會把我的意見當一回事，所以像現在這樣做反而無比地好得多。我寧肯像現在這樣。”
托克斯小姐低着頭，依舊在剪枝葉，奇剋夫人不時有力地搖搖頭，繼續說下去，彷彿在向什麼人挑戰似的。“如果我的哥哥保羅跟我商量一下的話--他有時是跟我商量的，或者說得正確些，他過去有時是常愛跟我商量的；要知道，他現在自然不會再跟我商量了，我認爲這倒使我解脫了責任，”奇剋夫人歇斯底里地說道，”因爲謝天謝地，我並不妒嫉--”這時奇剋夫人又掉下了眼淚，”如果我的哥哥保羅前來對我說，‘路易莎，你給我出出主意，我找的妻子要具備什麼條件？’我自然會回答：‘保羅，你必須找一個門第高貴的，你必須找一個容貌漂亮的，你必須找一個舉止端莊的，你必須找一個親戚體面的，’這些就是我要說的話。即使在這之後你立即把我帶去上斷頭臺，”奇剋夫人說道，彷彿這一後果是很可能發生似的，”那麼我還是要說這些話。如果我竟會對他說，‘保羅！你娶第二個妻子不要有高貴的門第！不要有漂亮的容貌！不要有端莊的舉止！不要有體面的親戚！’世界上的人只要不是發瘋的，誰也不會夢想到敢有這樣荒謬的想法！”
托克斯小姐停止剪枝葉，把頭低向花叢，全神貫注地聽着。也許托克斯小姐以爲在這番開場白和奇剋夫人的熱情中存在着一些希望吧。