《魔法師的外甥》第32期:發生在前門的事(3)

It seemed in the end that the only thing he could do was to wait and hope that Uncle Andrew and the Witch would come back. If they did, he must rush out and get hold of the Witch and put on his yellow Ring before she had a chance to get into the house. This meant that he must watch the front door like a cat watching a mouse's hole; he dared not leave his post for a moment. So he went into the dining-room and "glued his face" as they say, to the window. It was a bow-window from which you could see the steps up to the front door and see up and down the street, so that no one could reach the front door without your knowing. "I wonder what Polly's doing?" thought Digory.

He wondered about this a good deal as the first slow half-hour ticked on. But you need not wonder, for I am going to tell you. She had got home late for her dinner, with her shoes and stockings very wet. And when they asked her where she had been and what on earth she had been doing, she said she had been out with Digory Kirke. Under further questioning she said she had got her feet wet in a pool of water, and that the pool was in a wood. Asked where the wood was, she said she didn't know. Asked if it was in one of the parks, she said truthfully enough that she supposed it might be a sort of park. From all of this Polly's mother got the idea that Polly had gone off, without telling anyone, to some part of London she didn't know, and gone into a strange park and amused herself jumping into puddles. As a result she was told that she had been very naughty indeed and that she wouldn't be allowed to play with "that Kirke boy" any more if anything of the sort ever happened again. Then she was given dinner with all the nice parts left out and sent to bed for two solid hours. It was a thing that happened to one quite often in those days.

So while Digory was staring out of the dining-room window, Polly was lying in bed, and both were thinking how terribly slowly the time could go. I think, myself, I would rather have been in Polly's position. She had only to wait for the end of her two hours: but every few minutes Digory would hear a cab or a baker's van or a butcher's boy coming round the corner and think "Here she comes", and then find it wasn't. And in between these false alarms, for what seemed hours and hours, the clock ticked on and one big fly - high up and far out of reach buzzed against the window. It was one of those houses that get very quiet and dull in the afternoon and always seem to smell of mutton.

During his long watching and waiting one small thing happened which I shall have to mention because something important came of it later on. A lady called with some grapes for Digory's Mother; and as the dining-room door was open, Digory couldn't help overhearing Aunt Letty and the lady as they talked in the hall.

"What lovely grapes!" came Aunt Letty's voice. "I'm sure if anything could do her good these would. But poor, dear little Mabel! I'm afraid it would need fruit from the land of youth to help her now. Nothing in this world will do much." Then they both lowered their voices and said a lot more that he could not hear.

If he had heard that bit about the land of youth a few days ago he would have thought Aunt Letty was just talking without meaning anything in particular, the way grown-ups do, and it wouldn't have interested him. He almost thought so now. But suddenly it flashed upon his mind that he now knew (even if Aunt Letty didn't) that there really were other worlds and that he himself had been in one of them. At that rate there might be a real Land of Youth somewhere. There might be almost anything. There might be fruit in some other world that would really cure his mother! And oh, oh - Well, you know how it feels if you begin hoping for something that you want desperately badly; you almost fight against the hope because it is too good to be true; you've been disappointed so often before. That was how Digory felt. But it was no good trying to throttle this hope. It might really, really, it just might be true. So many odd things had happened already. And he had the magic rings. There must be worlds you could get to through every pool in the wood. He could hunt through them all. And then Mother well again. Everything right again. He forgot all about watching for the Witch. His hand was already going into the pocket where he kept the yellow ring, when all at once he herd a sound of galloping.

最後，似乎他能做的惟一的事就是等候和盼望安德魯舅舅和女巫回來。如果他們回來，他必須衝出去抓住女巫，趁她來不及踏進房子就截上黃戒指。這就意味着他必須像貓守着老鼠洞一樣監視着前門，一步也不能離開崗位。所以，他進了餐室，像人們常說的那樣，把臉“貼”在窗戶上：那是一扇凸肚窗，可以從裏面看見通向前門的臺階，而且能看清整條街道，任何人走到前門都逃不出你的視線。”波莉在幹什麼呢？”迪格雷想。

第一個半小時慢吞吞地過去了，他在這段時問裏一直考慮着這個問題。但你不用着急，我來告訴你。波莉回家吃飯遲到了，鞋襪也是溼漉漉的。當被問到她去了哪裏，幹了些什麼時．她說跟迪格雷·
柯克出去了。再一追問，她說是在一個水潭裏涅了腳的，那水潭在一片樹林裏。問及樹林在哪兒，她說不知道。再問是否在一個公園裏，她老老實實地說，她想也許是在一個公園裏。波莉的媽媽由此得出結論：波莉未經允許，悄悄地跑到倫敦某個她不知道的地方，進了一個陌生的公園，跌進水坑裏玩水。最後，波莉被告知，她實在太調皮了，以後如果再發生這樣的事，便不准她和“那姓柯克的男孩”一起玩了。然後，她被允許吃了一些殘羹剩飯，就被趕到牀上，整整兩小時後才能下牀。這樣的事情在那時候是常常發生的。

所以，當迪格雷從餐室的窗戶向外看時，波莉不躺在牀上。兩人都在想，時間過得多麼慢啊，我個人認爲，我寧肯處在波莉的位置上。她只是等候那兩小時的結束，而迪格雷呢，每隔幾分鐘，只要聽到馬車聲、麪包匠送貨車的聲音或肉鋪小夥計轉過街角的聲音，就以爲”她來了”，然後卻是一場空。除了這此令人驚悸的謬誤外，其餘時間裏，只聽見嘀嘀嗒嗒的鐘聲，像過了無數個小時一樣漫長難熬。在頭上高不可及的地方，一隻大蒼蠅嗡嗡地碰撞老窗玻璃。這幢住宅在下午往往顯得非常安靜和枯燥，而且，總有一股淡淡的羊肉味。

在漫長的等待和監視中，發生了一樁小事。我之所以要提它是因爲以後有件，要的事情與之相關。一位女士帶着葡萄酒來看迪格雷的媽媽。由於餐室的門開着，迪格雷很自然地聽到了蕾蒂姨媽和那位女士在大廳裏的談話。

“多可愛的葡萄！”蕾蒂姨媽的聲音，“我想這些葡萄一定會對她有好處的。唉，可憐的親愛的小瑪貝爾！恐怕現在她需要年輕的土地上長出的果子來治病。這個世界裏任何東西都沒有多大的效果。”後來，她們兩人都壓低了聲音，說了許多迪格雷聽不見的話。

如果他前幾天聽到“年輕的土地”這個說法，他可能會以爲蕾蒂姨媽只是隨便說說而已，沒有什麼特別的意義。大人們說話往往這樣，這不會引起他的興趣。現在，他差不多也這樣想。然而，他一下子想起來，的確存在着別的世界（蕾蒂姨媽並不知道），他自己就去過其中之一。那麼，也許真有一片“年輕的土地”，任何事情都可能存在。在別的世界裏，也許有某種果子真的能治好媽媽的病！噢——你知道，盼望得到夢寐以求的東西時是什麼滋味嗎？因爲你過去失望太多，也因爲那種希望美好得不真實，你幾乎要和希望作對了。這就是迪格雷當時的感覺。但是想扼殺這種希望是無用的。可能一——真的，真的，有那種可能性。那麼多稀奇古怪的事已經發生了，而且他有魔法戒指。每個水潭底下都有一個世界。他可以尋遍所有的世界。然後一——媽媽的病就好了。一切都好了。他把留神着等候女巫的事全忘了。他已經在向放黃戒指的口袋伸手了，恰在此時，他突然聽到一陣急馳而來的馬蹄聲。