狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第23章Part 1
Florence lived alone in the great dreary house, and day succeeded day, and still she lived alone; and the blank walls looked down upon her with a vacant stare, as if they had a Gorgon-like mind to stare her youth and beauty into stone.
No magic dwelling-place in magic story, shut up in the heart of a thick wood, was ever more solitary and deserted to the fancy, than was her father's mansion in its grim reality, as it stood lowering on the street: always by night, when lights were shining from neighbouring windows, a blot upon its scanty brightness; always by day, a frown upon its never-smiling face.
There were not two dragon sentries keeping ward before the gate of this above, as in magic legend are usually found on duty over the wronged innocence imprisoned; but besides a glowering visage, with its thin lips parted wickedly, that surveyed all comers from above the archway of the door, there was a monstrous fantasy of rusty iron, curling and twisting like a petrifaction of an arbour over threshold, budding in spikes and corkscrew points, and bearing, one on either side, two ominous extinguishers, that seemed to say, 'Who enter here, leave light behind!' There were no talismanic characters engraven on the portal, but the house was now so neglected in appearance, that boys chalked the railings and the pavement - particularly round the corner where the side wall was - and drew ghosts on the stable door; and being sometimes driven off by Mr Towlinson, made portraits of him, in return, with his ears growing out horizontally from under his hat. Noise ceased to be, within the shadow of the roof. The brass band that came into the street once a week, in the morning, never brayed a note in at those windows; but all such company, down to a poor little piping organ of weak intellect, with an imbecile party of automaton dancers, waltzing in and out at folding-doors, fell off from it with one accord, and shunned it as a hopeless place.
弗洛倫斯孤獨地居住在這座宏偉而冷清的公館中，一天又一天地過去，她仍孤獨地居住着；光禿禿的牆壁含着發呆的眼光俯視着她，彷彿它們懷着戈岡般的心腸，決心凝視着她，使她的青春和美貌轉變成石頭似的。
妖魔故事中隱藏在密林深處、具有奇異魔力的住宅，沒有一座在想象中能比她父親的公館在冷酷的現實中更加淒涼冷落、無人過問；它俯臨着大街；夜間，當鄰近的窗子放射出光芒時，它經常是這條光線微弱的街道上的一個暗點；白天，它經常是這條街道從不露出微笑的臉上的一道皺眉。
在這座公館的前面，沒有像妖魔傳奇中通常所見到的那樣，有兩條龍守衛着監禁在裏面的清白無辜的受害者；但在門的拱道上面有一張怒目而視的臉，邪惡地張開薄薄的嘴脣，俯瞰着所有的來人；除此之外，還有一個奇形怪狀的生了鏽的鐵柵欄，曲曲彎彎，像一個藤架的化石一樣豎立在門檻上，上面是細長的和螺旋形的尖端，兩邊各掛着一個不祥的熄燈器，似乎在說，“進去的人，請把光留有後面！”正門上沒有刻上任何辟邪驅怪的文字，但是這座公館現在外表上十分冷落淒涼，孩子們都用粉筆在欄杆和鋪石的道路上——特別是在牆角周圍——亂塗亂寫，還在馬廄的門上畫上鬼怪；因爲他們有時被託林森先生攆跑，所以他們就採取報復，在上面畫上他的肖像，把他的耳朵畫成從帽子底下沿着水平方向長出來。在這座公館屋頂的陰影下，不再有任何喧鬧的聲音。吹奏銅管樂器的樂隊每星期一次在早上來到街上，當它走過這些窗子下面的時候，從來沒有吹奏過一個曲調；所有這些娛樂團體都一鼻孔出氣似地把它當做一個不可救藥的地方，疏遠它，迴避它，直至那可憐的彈小管風琴的藝人也毫不例外。（這藝人的技藝很不高明，還配上一些用機械自動操作的蹩腳的舞蹈木偶，在雙扇門下進進出出地跳着華爾茲舞）。
