狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第36章Part6

'you. duty, Madam,' pursued Mr Dombey, 'to have received my friends with a little more deference. Some of those whom you have been pleased to slight to-night in a very marked manner, Mrs Dombey, confer a distinction upon you, I must tell you, in any visit they pay you.
'Do you know that there is someone here?' she returned, now looking at him steadily.
'No! Carker! I beg that you do not. I insist that you do not,' cried Mr Dombey, stopping that noiseless gentleman in his withdrawal. 'Mr Carker, Madam, as you know, possesses my confidence. He is as well acquainted as myself with the subject on which I speak. I beg to tell you, for your information, Mrs Dombey, that I consider these wealthy and important persons confer a distinction upon me:' and Mr Dombey drew himself up, as having now rendered them of the highest possible importance.
'I ask you,' she repeated, bending her disdainful, steady gaze upon him, 'do you know that there is someone here, Sir?'
'I must entreat,' said Mr Carker, stepping forward, 'I must beg, I must demand, to be released. Slight and unimportant as this difference is - '
Mrs Skewton, who had been intent upon her daughter's face, took him up here.
'My sweetest Edith,' she said, 'and my dearest Dombey; our excellent friend Mr Carker, for so I am sure I ought to mention him - '
Mr Carker murmured, 'Too much honour.'
' - has used the very words that were in my mind, and that I have been dying, these ages, for an opportunity of introducing. Slight and unimportant! My sweetest Edith, and my dearest Dombey, do we not know that any difference between you two - No, Flowers; not now.
Flowers was the maid, who, finding gentlemen present, retreated with precipitation.
'That any difference between you two,' resumed Mrs Skewton, 'with the Heart you possess in common, and the excessively charming bond of feeling that there is between you, must be slight and unimportant? What words could better define the fact? None. Therefore I am glad to take this slight occasion - this trifling occasion, that is so replete with Nature, and your individual characters, and all that - so truly calculated to bring the tears into a parent's eyes - to say that I attach no importance to them in the least, except as developing these minor elements of Soul; and that, unlike most Mamas-in-law (that odious phrase, dear Dombey!) as they have been represented to me to exist in this I fear too artificial world, I never shall attempt to interpose between you, at such a time, and never can much regret, after all, such little flashes of the torch of What's-his-name - not Cupid, but the other delightful creature.
There was a sharpness in the good mother's glance at both her children as she spoke, that may have been expressive of a direct and well-considered purpose hidden between these rambling words. That purpose, providently to detach herself in the beginning from all the clankings of their chain that were to come, and to shelter herself with the fiction of her innocent belief in their mutual affection, and their adaptation to each other.
'I have pointed out to Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, in his most stately manner, 'that in her conduct thus early in our married life, to which I object, and which, I request, may be corrected. Carker,' with a nod of dismissal, 'good-night to you!'
Mr Carker bowed to the imperious form of the Bride, whose sparkling eye was fixed upon her husband; and stopping at Cleopatra's couch on his way out, raised to his lips the hand she graciously extended to him, in lowly and admiring homage.
If his handsome wife had reproached him, or even changed countenance, or broken the silence in which she remained, by one word, now that they were alone (for Cleopatra made off with all speed), Mr Dombey would have been equal to some assertion of his case against her. But the intense, unutterable, withering scorn, with which, after looking upon him, she dropped her eyes, as if he were too worthless and indifferent to her to be challenged with a syllable - the ineffable disdain and haughtiness in which she sat before him - the cold inflexible resolve with which her every feature seemed to bear him down, and put him by - these, he had no resource against; and he left her, with her whole overbearing beauty concentrated on despising him.
Was he coward enough to watch her, an hour afterwards, on the old well staircase, where he had once seen Florence in the moonlight, toiling up with Paul? Or was he in the dark by accident, when, looking up, he saw her coming, with a light, from the room where Florence lay, and marked again the face so changed, which he could not subdue?
But it could never alter as his own did. It never, in its uttermost pride and passion, knew the shadow that had fallen on his, in the dark corner, on the night of the return; and often since; and which deepened on it now, as he looked up.

“夫人，”董貝先生繼續說道，”您應當對我的朋友表示更敬重一些，這是您的責任。這些人當中有幾位，您今天晚上很明顯地怠慢了他們，而我要告訴您，他們前來拜訪，是給了您極大的體面。”
“您知道這裏還有別人嗎？”她這時一動不動地看着他，回答道。
“別走！卡克！我請您別走。我堅決要求您別走。”董貝先生攔住那位默不作聲往外走的先生，喊道，”夫人，您知道，卡克先生是深得我信任的人。我所說的問題，他跟我一樣清楚。請允許我告訴您，讓您瞭解，董貝夫人，我認爲這些富有的、重要的人物給了我極大的體面。”董貝先生挺了挺身子，彷彿現在已向他們表示了極大的敬意似的。
“我問您，”她重複地說道，一邊用輕蔑的眼光注視着他，”您知道這裏還有別人嗎，先生？”
“我必須請求，”卡克先生向前走了一步，說道，”我必須懇求，我必須要求讓我離開，不管這爭執是多麼微不足道、無關緊要--”
斯丘頓夫人一直在注視着女兒的臉孔，這時把他的話接了過去。
“我最親愛的伊迪絲，”她說道，”還有我最親愛的董貝；我們的卓越的朋友卡克先生，因爲我確實應當這樣稱呼他纔是--”
卡克先生輕輕地說道，”您過份誇獎了。真是不勝榮幸之至”。
“他使用了我心裏想要說的語言，在這一段時間裏我一直渴望着有一個機會把它表示出來。微不足道、無關緊要！我最寶貝的伊迪絲，還有我親愛的董貝，難道我們不知道，你們兩人之間的任何爭執--不，弗勞爾斯，現在不。”
弗勞爾斯就是那位侍女，她看到有先生們在場，就急忙退出去了。
“你們兩人心心相印，”斯丘頓夫人繼續說下去，”一條美妙的感情紐帶把你們聯結在一起；難道我們不知道，你們倆之間的任何爭執，必然是微不足道，無關緊要的嗎？還有什麼語言能更好地表述這一事實？沒有！因此，我高興地利用這個小小的機會，這個微不足道的機會--人類的天性，你們個人的性格以及引起母親流淚的一切都在這時候充分顯露出來了--說一下，我絲毫也不認爲這有什麼重要的意義，我認爲這只不過是人類心靈中那些毫不足取的因素在發生作用罷了；我不像大多數的丈母孃（多麼討厭的詞兒喲，親愛的董貝！在這個我擔心太虛僞的世界上，我聽說她們確實是存在的），我今後決不打算在這種時候介入到你們當中來干預你們的事情，也決不會因爲--他叫什麼--不是丘比德，而是另外一個可愛的人兒的火炬中有一點小小爆燃的閃光而感到十分難過。”
這位好母親說話的時候，向她的兩個孩子投去了銳利的眼光，它可能已把隱匿在這些層次雜亂的話語中的一個直截了當、經過深思熟慮的意圖表達出來了。這個意圖就是，她打一開頭就精明地退縮到一旁，不去聽他們的鏈條將來叮噹撞擊的，並且躲藏在她天真地相信他們情投意合和相互體貼這一虛構的幻影之中。
“我已向董貝夫人指出了，”董貝先生以他最莊嚴的態度說道，”我們婚後生活初期中她的行爲中我所不滿意、我要求改正的地方。卡克，”他向他點點頭，讓他出去，”祝您晚安！”
卡克先生向傲慢的新婚夫人鞠了個躬，她的眼睛一動不動地注視着她的丈夫；他向門口走去的時候，在克利奧佩特拉的長沙發旁邊停住，以十分卑躬屈節、喜不自勝的敬意吻了吻她和藹親切地向他伸過來的手。
當房間裏只剩下他們兩人的時候（因爲克利奧佩特拉已急急忙忙地離開了），如果他的漂亮的妻子責備了他，或者改變了臉色，或者說一句話來打破現在的沉默的話，那麼董貝先生是能夠挺身維護他的權利的。可是她看過他之後，以強烈的、難以形容的、令人畏縮的輕蔑的神色，低下了眼睛，彷彿對她來說，他是太沒有價值，太無關緊要，根本不值得她開口去反駁他似的；她目空一切，無比傲慢地坐在他的前面；她彷彿要用她那冷酷的、毫不改變的決心把他壓倒和踢開似的；--對於她的這種輕蔑和傲慢，他卻束手無策。他離開了她，留下她那傲氣十足的美貌，心中極度地蔑視他。
是不是他很膽怯，所以在一個鐘頭以後，他要在他過去有一次看到弗洛倫斯在月光下抱着小保羅費勁地走上去的那個樓梯間裏，有意在暗中監視她呢？還是他在黑暗中偶爾出現在那裏呢？當他擡起眼睛的時候，他看到她手中拿着一支蠟燭從弗洛倫斯睡覺的房間中走出來，並且再一次注意到那張他不能征服的臉孔改變成另一種神態。
可是它決不會像他的臉孔那樣改變。它在極度的傲慢與憤怒中，從來也不知道他們回到家來的那天夜間，在那個黑暗的角落裏籠罩在他臉上的陰影；從那以後，他臉上時常出現這個陰影，現在當他往上看的時候，他臉上的這個陰影變得更爲深沉了。