狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第39章Part1

Further Adventures of Captain Edward Cuttle, Mariner Time, sure of foot and strong of will, had so pressed onward, that the year enjoined by the old Instrument-maker, as the term during which his friend should refrain from opening the sealed packet accompanying the letter he had left for him, was now nearly expired, and Captain Cuttle began to look at it, of an evening, with feelings of mystery and uneasiness
The Captain, in his honour, would as soon have thought of opening the parcel one hour before the expiration of the term, as he would have thought of opening himself, to study his own anatomy. He merely brought it out, at a certain stage of his first evening pipe, laid it on the table, and sat gazing at the outside of it, through the smoke, in silent gravity, for two or three hours at a spell. Sometimes, when he had contemplated it thus for a pretty long while, the Captain would hitch his chair, by degrees, farther and farther off, as if to get beyond the range of its fascination; but if this were his design, he never succeeded: for even when he was brought up by the parlour wall, the packet still attracted him; or if his eyes, in thoughtful wandering, roved to the ceiling or the fire, its image immediately followed, and posted itself conspicuously among the coals, or took up an advantageous position on the whitewash.
In respect of Heart's Delight, the Captain's parental and admiration knew no change. But since his last interview with Mr Carker, Captain Cuttle had come to entertain doubts whether his former intervention in behalf of that young lady and his dear boy Wal'r, had proved altogether so favourable as he could have wished, and as he at the time believed. The Captain was troubled with a serious misgiving that he had done more harm than good, in short; and in his remorse and modesty he made the best atonement he could think of, by putting himself out of the way of doing any harm to anyone, and, as it were, throwing himself overboard for a dangerous person.
Self-buried, therefore, among the instruments, the Captain never went near Mr Dombey's house, or reported himself in any way to Florence or Miss Nipper. He even severed himself from Mr Perch, on the occasion of his next visit, by dryly informing that gentleman, that he thanked him for his company, but had cut himself adrift from all such acquaintance, as he didn't know what magazine he mightn't blow up, without meaning of it. In this self-imposed retirement, the Captain passed whole days and weeks without interchanging a word with anyone but Rob the Grinder, whom he esteemed as a pattern of disinterested attachment and fidelity. In this retirement, the Captain, gazing at the packet of an evening, would sit smoking, and thinking of Florence and poor Walter, until they both seemed to his homely fancy to be dead, and to have passed away into eternal youth, the beautiful and innocent children of his first remembrance.
The Captain did not, however, in his musings, neglect his own improvement, or the mental culture of Rob the Grinder. That young man was generally required to read out of some book to the Captain, for one hour, every evening; and as the Captain implicitly believed that all books were true, he accumulated, by this means, many remarkable facts. On Sunday nights, the Captain always read for himself, before going to bed, a certain Divine Sermon once delivered on a Mount; and although he was accustomed to quote the text, without book, after his own manner, he appeared to read it with as reverent an understanding of its heavenly spirit, as if he had got it all by heart in Greek, and had been able to write any number of fierce theological disquisitions on its every phrase.
Rob the Grinder, whose reverence for the inspired writings, under the admirable system of the Grinders' School, had been developed by a perpetual bruising of his intellectual shins against all the proper names of all the tribes of Judah, and by the monotonous repetition of hard verses, especially by way of punishment, and by the parading of him at six years old in leather breeches, three times a Sunday, very high up, in a very hot church, with a great organ buzzing against his drowsy head, like an exceedingly busy bee - Rob the Grinder made a mighty show of being edified when the Captain ceased to read, and generally yawned and nodded while the reading was in progress. The latter fact being never so much as suspected by the good Captain.
Captain Cuttle, also, as a man of business; took to keeping books. In these he entered observations on the weather, and on the currents of the waggons and other vehicles: which he observed, in that quarter, to set westward in the morning and during the greater part of the day, and eastward towards the evening. Two or three stragglers appearing in one week, who 'spoke him' - so the Captain entered it- on the subject of spectacles, and who, without positively purchasing, said they would look in again, the Captain decided that the business was improving, and made an entry in the day-book to that effect: the wind then blowing (which he first recorded) pretty fresh, west and by north; having changed in the night.
One of the Captain's chief difficulties was Mr Toots, who called frequently, and who without saying much seemed to have an idea that the little back parlour was an eligible room to chuckle in, as he would sit and avail himself of its accommodations in that regard by the half-hour together, without at all advancing in intimacy with the Captain. The Captain, rendered cautious by his late experience, was unable quite to satisfy his mind whether Mr Toots was the mild subject he appeared to be, or was a profoundly artful and dissimulating hypocrite. His frequent reference to Miss Dombey was suspicious; but the Captain had a secret kindness for Mr Toots's apparent reliance on him, and forbore to decide against him for the present; merely eyeing him, with a sagacity not to be described, whenever he approached the subject that was nearest to his heart.

時間以它堅定的步伐和堅強的意志向前推進，年老的儀器製造商在留下的信件中，囑咐他的朋友不許打開封好的包裹的一年期限就要滿了；有一天晚上，卡特爾船長懷着神祕與不安的感覺望着它。
船長是一位正直的人，他從沒想到過要在期滿之前哪怕一個小時打開這個包裹，就像他從沒想到過要剖開他自己來研究一下他身體的構造一樣。他只是在晚間抽第一斗煙的時候把它拿出來，放在桌子上，然後接連兩三個鐘頭坐在那裏，通過煙霧，沉默而嚴肅地注視着它的外表。有時，船長在這樣細心觀察了好長一段時間之後，逐漸地把椅子往後拉開，拉開，彷彿要拉出包裹的魔力範圍之外似的；可是如果這是他的意圖的話，那麼他卻從沒有成功過，甚至當客廳的牆壁擋住他的退路的時候，那個包裹仍舊吸引着他；或者如果他在浮思漫想之中把眼光轉到天花板或爐火上去的話，那麼它的形象就會立即跟隨而來，顯著地停落在煤塊中間，或者在白色的灰泥上佔據了一個有利的位置。
對於”心的喜悅”，船長慈父般的關懷與喜愛並沒有改變。可是自從上次跟卡克先生會晤以後，卡特爾船長心中開始懷疑：他以前爲了這位小姐和他親愛的孩子沃爾特所進行過的干預究竟是不是已證明像他曾經期望過的以及他當時曾相信過的那麼有利。船長非常憂慮，他所造成的害處已大於益處，這點使他心中苦惱不安。他在悔恨與自責的過程中，決心贖回自己的罪過；他所採取的辦法就是使他自己根本不可能再有害於任何人，就好像把他自己當作一位危險的人物，給扔到船外去一樣。
因此，船長就把自己埋沒在儀器中間，從來不走近董貝先生的公館，或設法讓弗洛倫斯或尼珀小姐知道他的情況。他甚至跟珀奇先生也斷絕了關係；在他最近來拜訪的時候，他冷淡地通知這位先生，他感謝他的交情，可是他已決心跟所有的熟人不相來往，因爲他擔心他會在無意間把哪個彈藥庫給爆炸了。船長在這種心甘情願的隱居中，除了跟磨工羅布交談外，整整幾天、整整幾個星期不跟任何人交談一句話；至於磨工羅布，船長則認爲他不懷私心，情深義重，忠心耿耿，在這些方面可以稱得上是個模範。船長在這樣隱居的時候，有一天晚上注視着包裹，坐着抽菸，想着弗洛倫斯和可憐的沃爾特，直到後來，他們兩人在他的樸實的想象中似乎已經死了，變成了永恆的青年--他最初記憶中的美麗的、天真爛漫的孩子--。
不過船長在沉思默想中並沒有忽略自己的進步和對磨工羅布智力的培養。他通常要求這位年輕人每天晚上向他朗誦書本一小時。由於船長盲目地相信一切書本都是對的，所以羅布就通過這個途徑積累了許多令人注目的知識。星期天晚上，船長在睡覺之前經常爲他自己讀基督有一次在一座山上佈道中的一些段落；雖然他習慣按照他自己的方式，不用書本，引用原文，可是他讀的時候，彷彿早已熟記它的希臘文，對於它的每一句箴言他都能寫出出色的神學論文，不論寫多少篇都可以似的。
磨工羅布對聖書的虔誠精神，在磨工學校美妙的制度下，曾經得到過很好的培養。他曾經不斷地碰撞猶太族人的名字，在腦骨上留下永久的傷痕；他曾經單調無味地一遍又一遍地讀着那些艱深難懂的韻文；特別是，他曾經受過懲罰，他還曾經在六歲的時候穿着皮褲，每星期天三次，在一座很悶熱的教堂的很高的走廊中整步行進；那裏有一架大風琴，像一隻特別勤勉的蜜蜂一樣，在他昏昏欲睡的腦袋上發出嗡嗡的響聲；他就是通過這樣一些途徑，培養起對聖書的虔誠精神的。因此，每當船長停止朗讀的時候，磨工羅布就裝出一副深受啓發的樣子，而當朗讀正在進行的時候，他則通常是打呵欠和打瞌睡。善良的船長從來沒有懷疑會發生後面提到的那種情況。
卡特爾船長作爲一個做生意的人，也記起帳來。他在這些帳冊裏記上他對於氣候及運貨馬車和其他車輛行駛方向的觀察；他注意到，在他那個地區內，這些車輛在早上和一天的大部分時間內是向西行駛的，到晚上則向東行駛。有一個星期有兩三個過路的人進來看看，他們”跟他談到”--船長這樣記道--眼鏡方面的事；他們什麼也沒有買，答應以後再來看看；船長判斷生意開始要好轉起來了，並在當天的日記帳中記載着：那時風吹來相當清新（他首先記載上這一點），風向西北；夜間有所改變。
船長的主要困難之一是圖茨先生。他時常到這裏來，話說得不多；看來他有個想法：小後客廳是個可以在那裏吃吃發笑的合適的房間；雖然他和船長根本沒有比以前更爲親密的關係，可是他卻會在那裏坐上整整半個小時，利用它的便利條件，來達到他的目的。船長根據最近的經驗，變得謹慎小心，可是他仍然不能判斷，圖茨先生是不是確實就像他表面上看去那樣，是個溫順的人，還是一位非常狡猾、善於掩飾的僞君子。他時常提到董貝小姐，這是可疑的，不過圖茨先生表面上對船長是信賴的，船長內心對這一點懷有好感，所以就暫時剋制自己，不做出不利於圖茨先生的決定；每當圖茨先生提到他內心深處的那個問題時，船長僅僅用難以形容的聰明的神色注視着他。

“吉爾斯船長，”圖茨先生有一天以他慣常的方式，突然說道，”您能不能行個好，考慮一下我的建議，讓我跟您交個朋友好嗎？”
“啊，我的孩子，我來跟您說說，事情是怎樣的，”船長終於決定了行動方針，回答道，”我已經想過這件事了。”