狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第26章Part 4

'Very well,' said Mrs Skewton. 'Go away, and shut the door. I am engaged.'
As Withers disappeared, Mrs Skewton turned her head languidly towards the Major, without otherwise moving, and asked him how his friend was.
'Dombey, Ma'am,' returned the Major, with a facetious gurgling in his throat, 'is as well as a man in his condition can be. His condition is a desperate one, Ma'am. He is touched, is Dombey! Touched!' cried the Major. 'He is bayonetted through the body.'
Cleopatra cast a sharp look at the Major, that contrasted forcibly with the affected drawl in which she presently said:
'Major Bagstock, although I know but little of the world, - nor can I really regret my experience, for I fear it is a false place, full of withering conventionalities: where Nature is but little regarded, and where the music of the heart, and the gushing of the soul, and all that sort of thing, which is so truly poetical, is seldom heard, - I cannot misunderstand your meaning. There is an allusion to Edith - to my extremely dear child,' said Mrs Skewton, tracing the outline of her eyebrows with her forefinger, 'in your words, to which the tenderest of chords vibrates excessively.'
'Bluntness, Ma'am,' returned the Major, 'has ever been the characteristic of the Bagstock breed. You are right. Joe admits it.'
'And that allusion,' pursued Cleopatra, 'would involve one of the most - if not positively the most - touching, and thrilling, and sacred emotions of which our sadly-fallen nature is susceptible, I conceive.'
The Major laid his hand upon his lips, and wafted a kiss to Cleopatra, as if to identify the emotion in question.
'I feel that I am weak. I feel that I am wanting in that energy, which should sustain a Mama: not to say a parent: on such a subject,' said Mrs Skewton, trimming her lips with the laced edge of her pocket-handkerchief; 'but I can hardly approach a topic so excessively momentous to my dearest Edith without a feeling of faintness. Nevertheless, bad man, as you have boldly remarked upon it, and as it has occasioned me great anguish:' Mrs Skewton touched her left side with her fan: 'I will not shrink from my duty.'
The Major, under cover of the dimness, swelled, and swelled, and rolled his purple face about, and winked his lobster eye, until he fell into a fit of wheezing, which obliged him to rise and take a turn or two about the room, before his fair friend could proceed.
'Mr Dombey,' said Mrs Skewton, when she at length resumed, 'was obliging enough, now many weeks ago, to do us the honour of visiting us here; in company, my dear Major, with yourself. I acknowledge - let me be open - that it is my failing to be the creature of impulse, and to wear my heart as it were, outside. I know my failing full well. My enemy cannot know it better. But I am not penitent; I would rather not be frozen by the heartless world, and am content to bear this imputation justly.'
Mrs Skewton arranged her tucker, pinched her wiry throat to give it a soft surface, and went on, with great complacency.
'It gave me (my dearest Edith too, I am sure) infinite pleasure to receive Mr Dombey. As a friend of yours, my dear Major, we were naturally disposed to be prepossessed in his favour; and I fancied that I observed an amount of Heart in Mr Dombey, that was excessively refreshing.'
'There is devilish little heart in Dombey now, Ma'am,' said the Major.

“很好，”斯丘頓夫人說道，“你出去吧，把門關上，我有事。”
威瑟斯走開以後，斯丘頓夫人身體沒有移動，只是有氣無力地把頭轉向少校，問他，他的朋友怎麼樣？
“夫人，”少校喉嚨裏滑稽地發出咕嘟咕嘟的聲音，回答道，“就一個處在他這種境況中的人來說，董貝總算還不錯。夫人，他目前的情況已到了危急萬分的地步。他神魂顛倒了！董貝，他已經神魂顛倒了！”少校喊道，“他已經被刺傷得體無完膚了。”
克利奧佩特拉向少校敏銳地看了一眼，這和她接着講話時假裝的慢聲慢氣形成了鮮明的對照。
“白格斯托克少校，雖然我對世界瞭解得很少，（我對我缺乏經驗並不真正感到遺憾，因爲我擔心這世界是個虛僞的地方，充滿了使人難受的陳規舊習；這裏，大自然受到輕視，也很少聽到心的音樂，心靈的表露，以及所有那些富於真正詩意的東西），可是我不會誤會你話中的含意。你的話是暗指伊迪絲——我無比親愛的孩子。”斯丘頓夫人用食指沿着眉毛移動着，說道，“你的這些話使最溫柔的心絃在有力地顫動！”
“夫人，”少校回答道，“坦率一直是白格斯托克家族的特點。您的話說對了。喬承認這一點。”
“你所暗指的這一點，”克利奧佩特拉繼續說道，“將會涉及我們可悲地墮落的本性很容易產生的那最令人感動的、最驚心動魄的和最神聖的情感，至少也是這些最優美的情感中的一種。”
少校把手放到嘴脣上，向克利奧佩特拉送去一個飛吻，彷彿要指明這正是她所談到的情感。
“我覺得我虛弱無力。我覺得我缺乏在這種時刻應該能支持住一位母親——不說是一個家長的精力，”斯丘頓夫人用她手絹飾有花邊的邊緣抹了抹嘴脣，說道，“但是在談到這個對我最親愛的伊迪絲非常重要的問題時，我不能不感覺到要昏過去似的。不過話說回來，壞傢伙，既然你已經大膽地提到了它，既然它已經造成我極度的痛苦，”斯丘頓夫人用扇子觸了觸她的左脅，“我將不會逃避我的責任。”
少校在陰暗光線的掩護下，躊躇滿志，得意揚揚，來回搖晃着他那發青的臉，並眨着龍蝦眼，直到後來他呼哧呼哧地一陣陣喘起氣來，因此在他的女朋友能繼續說話之前，他不得不站起身來，在房間裏轉了一、兩圈。
“董貝先生十分客氣，”斯丘頓夫人終於恢復了說話能力之後，說道，“好多個星期之前跟你，我親愛的少校，一道到這裏來拜訪我們，使我們感到光榮之至。我承認——請允許我坦率地說——，我是個易受衝動的人，可以說，我的心就好像亮在外面似的。我對我的弱點知道得清清楚楚。我的敵人也不能比我知道得更清楚。可是我並不後悔；我寧肯不要被冰冷無情的世界凍僵，對這責怪我倒是心安理得，處之泰然的。”
斯丘頓夫人整了整領子，捏了捏瘦削的喉嚨，使它表面光滑些，然後十分揚揚自得地繼續說道：
“我接待董貝先生感到無比高興（我相信，我最親愛的伊迪絲也一樣）。作爲你的一個朋友，我親愛的少校，我們很自然地事先就對他產生了好感。我覺得，我看到董貝先生充滿了善良的心意，這是使人極能振奮精神的。”
“董貝先生現在什麼心也沒有了，夫人，”少校說道。