狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第24章Part 12

'Ay, ay,' cried the neighbour. 'In reason, John. But you! You rob yourself to give to her. You bind yourself hand and foot on her account. You make your life miserable along of her. And what does she care! You don't believe she knows it?'
The father lifted up his head again, and whistled to her. Martha made the same impatient gesture with her crouching shoulders, in reply; and he was glad and happy.
'Only for that, Miss,' said the neighbour, with a smile, in which there was more of secret sympathy than he expressed; 'only to get that, he never lets her out of his sight!'
'Because the day'll come, and has been coming a long while,' observed the other, bending low over his work, 'when to get half as much from that unfort'nate child of mine - to get the trembling of a finger, or the waving of a hair - would be to raise the dead.'
Florence softly put some money near his hand on the old boat, and left him.
And now Florence began to think, if she were to fall ill, if she were to fade like her dear brother, would he then know that she had loved him; would she then grow dear to him; would he come to her bedside, when she was weak and dim of sight, and take her into his embrace, and cancel all the past? Would he so forgive her, in that changed condition, for not having been able to lay open her childish heart to him, as to make it easy to relate with what emotions she had gone out of his room that night; what she had meant to say if she had had the courage; and how she had endeavoured, afterwards, to learn the way she never knew in infancy?
Yes, she thought if she were dying, he would relent. She thought, that if she lay, serene and not unwilling to depart, upon the bed that was curtained round with recollections of their darling boy, he would be touched home, and would say, 'Dear Florence, live for me, and we will love each other as we might have done, and be as happy as we might have been these many years!' She thought that if she heard such words from him, and had her arms clasped round him' she could answer with a smile, 'It is too late for anything but this; I never could be happier, dear father!' and so leave him, with a blessing on her lips.

“是的，這話說得不錯，”鄰居大聲說道，“不過，約翰，凡事總得合情合理，有個分寸纔好。而您呢！您犧牲了自己的一切，全都給了她。您爲了她把自己的手腳全都給束縛起來了。您爲了她過着牛馬一般的生活，而·她心裏想着的是什麼呢！您以爲她能體會到這一點嗎？”
父親又擡起頭來，向她吹口哨；馬撒又跟先前一樣，縮縮肩膀，做了個不耐煩的姿態，作爲回答；他卻感到高興和滿意。
“只是爲了這，小姐，”鄰居微笑着說道；在他的笑容中包含着內心的同情，比他表露出來的還多，“只是爲了看到這，他就永遠不讓她離開他！”
“因爲這一天將會來到，它離現在已經不遠了，”另一位低低地彎下身去幹活，說道，“那時候甚至看一看我那不幸的孩子，看一看她的指頭怎麼顫抖，或者她的頭髮怎麼飄動，都會使死者復活的。”
弗洛倫斯在那隻舊船上挨近他手邊的地方悄悄地放了一些錢，然後離開了他。
這時弗洛倫斯開始想，如果她像她弟弟那樣生了病，消瘦下去，那時候她父親會知道她曾經愛過他嗎？那時候他會覺得她比現在親愛一些嗎？當她虛弱無力、視力模糊的時候，他會來到她的牀邊，把她抱入懷中，把過去的一切全都一筆勾銷嗎？在改變了的情況下，他會原諒她沒能向他敞開她孩子的心懷嗎？他能原諒她，使她能毫不困難地告訴他，她那天夜裏是懷着什麼樣的心情走出他的房間的，告訴他，如果她有勇氣的話，那麼她曾經想做什麼，告訴他，她後來怎樣努力學習她在嬰兒時代從來不知道的方法的嗎？
是的，她想，如果她快要死了，那麼他會變得寬厚起來的。她想，如果她安詳地躺在掛着帳子的牀上，毫無難色地等待着死神來臨，使他們回憶起他們那親愛的小男孩的話，那麼他將會被刺痛了心，對她說，“親愛的弗洛倫斯，爲了我而活着吧，我們將彼此相愛，這些年來我們本可以這樣相愛的；我們將會幸福，這些年來我們本可以這樣幸福的！”她想，如果她聽到這些話，她的胳膊摟抱着他的話，那麼她會微笑着回答說，“一切都已經太晚了！但有一點：我從來沒有像現在這樣幸福過，親愛的爸爸！”然後在嘴脣上帶着她的祝福離開了他。