《魔法師的外甥》第6期:開錯的門(2)

"All in good time, my boy," said Uncle Andrew. "They let old Mrs Lefay out before she died and I was one of the very few people whom she would allow to see her in her last illness. She had got to dislike ordinary, ignorant people, you understand. I do myself. But she and I were interested in the same sort of things. It was only a few days before her death that she told me to go to an old bureau in her house and open a secret drawer and bring her a little box that I would find there. The moment I picked up that box I could tell by the pricking in my fingers that I held some great secret in my hands. She gave it me and made me promise that as soon as she was dead I would burn it, unopened, with certain ceremonies. That promise I did not keep."
"Well, then, it was jolly rotten of you," said Digory.
"Rotten?" said Uncle Andrew with a puzzled look.
"Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper, I'm sure, and I'm very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys - and servants - and women - and even people in general, can't possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny."
As he said this he sighed and looked so grave and noble and mysterious that for a second Digory really thought he was saying something rather fine. But then he remembered the ugly look he had seen on his Uncle's face the moment before Polly had vanished: and all at once he saw through Uncle Andrew's grand words. "All it means," he said to himself, "Is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants."
"Of course," said Uncle Andrew, "I didn't dare to open the box for a long time, for I knew it might contain something highly dangerous. For my godmother was a very remarkable woman. The truth is, she was one of the last mortals in this country who had fairy blood in her. (She said there had been two others in her time. One was a duchess and the other was a charwoman.) In fact, Digory, you are now talking to the last man (possibly) who really had a fairy godmother. There! That'll be something for you to remember when you are an old man yourself."
"I bet she was a bad fairy," thought Digory; and added out loud. "But what about Polly?"
"How you do harp on that!" said Uncle Andrew. "As if that was what mattered! My first task was of course to study the box itself. It was very ancient. And I knew enough even then to know that it wasn't Greek, or Old Egyptian, or Babylonian, or Hittite, or Chinese. It was older than any of those nations. Ah - that was a great day when I at last found out the truth. The box was Atlantean; it came from the lost island of Atlantis. That meant it was centuries older than any of the stone-age things they dig up in Europe. And it wasn't a rough, crude thing like them either. For in the very dawn of time Atlantis was already a great city with palaces and temples and learned men."
He paused for a moment as if he expected Digory to say something. But Digory was disliking his Uncle more every minute, so he said nothing.
"Meanwhile," continued Uncle Andrew, "I was learning a good deal in other ways (it wouldn't be proper to explain them to a child) about Magic in general. That meant that I came to have a fair idea what sort of things might be in the box. By various tests I narrowed down the possibilities. I had to get to know some - well, some devilish queer people, and go through some very disagreeable experiences. That was what turned my head grey. One doesn't become a magician for nothing. My health broke down in the end. But I got better. And at last I actually knew."

“彆着急，我的孩子，還沒到時候。”安德魯舅舅說，“臨死之前，萊菲夫人被放了出來。彌留之際，她只想讓爲數極少的幾個人去看她，我是其中之一。你知道，她不喜歡無知的普通的人。我也不喜歡。而且，她和我興趣相同。就在她去世的前幾天，她讓我去她家中，找到一張舊書桌上的一個祕密抽屜，將裏面一個小盒子取出來交給她。剛拿起盒子，我的手指就感到刺痛，我明白，我正握着一個很大的祕密。她把盒子交給我，並要我發誓，她一死，我就以某些儀式將盒子原封不動地燒掉。結果我沒有聽她的話。”
“唉呀，你這人真糟糕。”迪格雷說。
“糟糕？”安德魯舅舅的臉上露出迷惑不解的神色。“哦，我知道了，你是說，小男孩應該遵守諾言。確實如此，我相信，這是最正確、最高尚的道理，我很高興你學會了這樣做。然而你必須懂得，這些規矩，好，都可能不適合於淵博的學者、偉大的思想家和聖人。不適合，迪格雷。像我這樣有神祕智慧的人不受普通規矩的約束，正如我們跟普通人的樂趣無緣一樣。孩子，我們命定是高貴而孤獨的。”
他邊說邊嘆氣，看上去那麼一本正經，那麼高尚，那麼神祕．以至有一秒鐘，迪格雷真的以爲他在高談闊論美好的事情。但他想起波莉失蹤以前從他臉上看到的醜惡神態，馬上就明白了他那些大話的真實含義。“他的意思就是，”他對自己說，“可以不擇手段地得到他想要的任何東西。”“當然，”安德魯舅舅說，“我好長時間沒敢打開盒子，我知道，裏面可能裝着非常危險的東西，因爲我的教母太與衆不同了。享實上，她是這個國家有神仙血統的最後幾個凡人之一
（據她講，與她同時代的還有兩位，一位是公爵夫人，一位是女魔法師。）其實，迪格雷，你正在跟也許是最後一個有過神仙教母的人談話。啊，有些事留給你自己老了再回憶吧。”
“我敢掃賭她是個鰲腳的神仙。”迪格雷想：接着高聲說，“那麼波莉呢？”
“你總是嘮嘮叨叨的，”安德魯舅舅說，“好像那件事有什麼要緊似的。我的首要任務當然是研究盒子木身。那是個古老的盒子。那時，我就清楚，它不是希臘的、古埃及的、巴比倫的、赫梯注的或中國的，它的年代比那些民族還要久遠。啊——我最終弄明白事實的那一天是多麼了不起。這盒子是阿特蘭蒂斯②的，出自消失了的島國阿特蘭蒂斯。這表明，這比歐洲出土的石器時代的文物要古老幾百年；而且也不像那些文物粗糙原始。因爲阿特蘭蒂斯很早就是個偉大的城市，有宮殿、寺廟和學者。”-
他停了一下，似乎等着迪格雷開口。但每過一分鐘，迪格雷就更加討厭他的安德魯舅舅，所以，他沉默着。“同時，”安德魯舅舅繼續說，“我靠其他手段學到不少魔法常識（對一個孩子解說那性手段是不合適的）。這樣，對盒子裏裝的東西我就有了一個合理的估計。通過各種試驗，我縮小了範圍。我不得不結識了一些極端古怪的人，做了一些很難受的試驗，我的頭髮也就這樣變白了。一個人不付出代價是不可能成爲魔法師的。到後來，我的身體完全垮了，但我有了進步，最後，我真的懂了。”
雖然根本不可能有人偷聽．他還是斜着身子，幾乎耳語一般地說：