劝导(外研社双语读库)(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：Jane Austen 简·奥斯丁

出版社：外语教学与研究出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

劝导(外研社双语读库)试读：

CHAPTER 1

第一章

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened:

萨默塞特郡凯林奇府的沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士，为了自我娱乐，只看那本《准男爵录》而从不看其他的书；因为这本书，他在闲暇中找到了消遣，烦恼时找到了安慰；因为这本书，他沉思着最早加封的爵位所剩无几，心中不由得升起一股羡慕与崇敬之情；家中的一些事情使他感觉不快，但当他翻阅这本记载着上世纪册封的无穷无尽的爵位的书时，这种不快的感觉便自然而然地化作了怜悯与蔑视；如果所有别的页都很无味的话，那他就总是能自己以经久不衰的兴趣来读自己的家史。他总是把他最心爱的书翻到这一页：

"ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL.“凯林奇府的埃利奥特。

"Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq.of South Park, in the county of Gloucester, by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born November 20, 1791.”“沃尔特·埃利奥特，1760年3月1日出生，1784年7月15日与格洛斯特郡南方庄园的詹姆斯·史蒂文森先生之女伊丽莎白结婚。这位夫人（卒于1800年）为他留有以下后嗣：伊丽莎白，生于1785年6月1日；安妮，生于1787年8月9日；一个死产儿，1789年11月5日；玛丽，生于1791年11月20日。”

Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer's hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary's birth—“Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq.of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset," and by inserting most accurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife.

准确地说，这是《准男爵录》上排印的文字，但是沃尔特爵士为了给自己和家人提供资料，通过补充美化了一下，在玛丽的生辰后面加上了一句——“1810年12月16日与萨默塞特郡上阿珀克劳斯的查尔斯·马斯格罗夫的儿子兼继承人查尔斯结婚”，并且极为确切地插入了自己丧偶的日期。

Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family, in the usual terms; how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale, serving the office of high sheriff, representing a borough in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first year of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and concluding with the arms and motto:—"Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset," and Sir Walter's handwriting again in this finale:—

接下来便是源远流长的名门望族的发迹史，表述不免落于俗套：最初如何到柴郡定居，如何在担任郡长之职时载入达格代尔的史册，如何代表行政区接连担任了三届议会议员，竭尽全力，忠心耿耿，升官进爵，在查尔斯二世继位后的第一年，先后娶了那些玛丽小姐、伊丽莎白小姐；这些占了满满的十二开本的两页，最后附上了族徽与徽文——“主要邸宅：萨默塞特郡凯林奇府”。最后又出现了沃尔特爵士的笔迹：

"Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of the second Sir Walter."“假定继承人：威廉·沃尔特·埃利奥特先生，第二代沃尔特爵士的曾孙。”

Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did, nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion.

沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士秉性爱慕虚荣，他为自己的仪表堂堂和优越地位感到自命不凡。他年轻的时候非常英俊；现在到了54岁依旧一表人才。就是女人当中也几乎没人像他那样如此注重自己的仪表，而他对自己社会地位的满意程度，连新获封爵位的贵族的侍从也望尘莫及。他认为堂堂仪表仅次于准男爵的爵位；而两者兼而有之的沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士一直是他非常敬重与热爱的对象。

His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment; since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to any thing deserved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct, if they might be pardoned the youthful infatuation which made her Lady Elliot, had never required indulgence afterwards. —She had humoured, or softened, or concealed his failings, and promoted his real respectability for seventeen years; and though not the very happiest being in the world herself, had found enough in her duties, her friends, and her children, to attach her to life, and make it no matter of indifference to her when she was called on to quit them. —Three girls, the two eldest sixteen and fourteen, was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath, an awful charge rather, to confide to the authority and guidance of a conceited, silly father. She had, however, one very intimate friend, a sensible, deserving woman, who had been brought, by strong attachment to herself, to settle close by her, in the village of Kellynch; and on her kindness and advice, Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance of the good principles and instruction which she had been anxiously giving her daughters.

他的美貌与地位使他理所当然地有权利拥有爱情。也正是因为这两点，他才拥有了一位人品远远超越于他自己的妻子。埃利奥特夫人曾是一位优秀的女人，她通情达理而又和蔼可亲；只因年轻时感情上的一时冲动而成为埃利奥特夫人，如果这一点可以原谅，那么她以后的是非判断和待人处事倒也无可厚非。——十七年来，她总是迁就、弥补或掩饰丈夫的不足，激发他真正的可敬之处；而且她自己虽说并不是这个世界上最幸福的人，但她能够在履行职责、结交朋友与照顾孩子中找到足够的乐趣，对生活产生深深的依恋，因而当上帝要她离开他们的时候，她无论如何都不会感到泰然了。——一个母亲留下三个女儿，两个大的16岁，小的14岁，这是一笔骇人的遗产，而把她们留给一个自鸣得意而又愚蠢糊涂的父亲照管与教导，更是一个可怕的托付。不过，她有一个密友，那是一个通情达理而又可以依靠的女人，因为对埃利奥特夫人怀有深厚的感情，便搬到凯林奇村埃利奥特夫人家附近居住。埃利奥特夫人主要依靠这位好朋友的仁慈与指点，从而获得了帮助并维护了她自己一向竭力给她的女儿们灌输的正确原则，对女儿们进行了谆谆教导。

This friend, and Sir Walter, did not marry, whatever might have been anticipated on that head by their acquaintance. Thirteen years had passed away since Lady Elliot's death, and they were still near neighbours and intimate friends, and one remained a widower, the other a widow.

这位朋友与沃尔特爵士并未结婚，尽管他们的亲朋好友对此有过期待。埃利奥特夫人已去世十三年了，他们仍然只是近邻与密友，一个仍是鳏夫，一个还是寡妇。

That Lady Russell, of steady age and character, and extremely well provided for, should have no thought of a second marriage, needs no apology to the public, which is rather apt to be unreasonably discontented when a woman does marry again, than when she does not; but Sir Walter's continuing in singleness requires explanation. Be it known then, that Sir Walter, like a good father, (having met with one or two private disappointments in very unreasonable applications), prided himself on remaining single for his dear daughters' sake. For one daughter, his eldest, he would really have given up any thing, which he had not been very much tempted to do. Elizabeth had succeeded, at sixteen, to all that was possible, of her mother's rights and consequence; and being very handsome, and very like himself, her influence had always been great, and they had gone on together most happily. His two other children were of very inferior value. Mary had acquired a little artificial importance, by becoming Mrs. Charles Musgrove; but Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister; her word had no weight, her convenience was always to give way—she was only Anne.

这位拉塞尔夫人已经到了老成持重的年龄，生活条件极其优越，不会考虑再婚，这也不需向公众解释，其实一个寡妇改嫁比守寡更易引起人们无端的不满，但是沃尔特爵士仍然还是单身这一点却需要解释一下。要知道，沃尔特爵士认为，作为一个好父亲（曾经由于荒唐的求婚而私下碰过一两次钉子），为了几个宝贝女儿而保持单身，是件值得自豪的事。为了一个女儿，他的大女儿，他倒真愿意放弃一切，只不过至今他还不是很愿意那样做罢了。伊丽莎白16岁时已经从母亲那里继承了她可能继承的一切权利与地位；她很漂亮，长得很像她的父亲，因而她的影响力一直很大，他们父女俩相处得很融洽。他的另外两个女儿可就远远不如大女儿宝贝了。玛丽成为了查尔斯·马斯格罗夫太太，获得了某种徒有其表的地位；而安妮，尽管人品高雅，性格温柔，任何真正明白事理的人本应该都很尊重她，然而父亲与姐姐却没有把她放在眼里；她的意见无足轻重，她的安逸总是可以牺牲——她只不过是安妮罢了。

To Lady Russell, indeed, she was a most dear and highly valued god-daughter, favourite, and friend. Lady Russell loved them all; but it was only in Anne that she could fancy the mother to revive again.

对于拉塞尔夫人来说，安妮实在是最可爱、她最器重的教女、宠儿与朋友。拉塞尔夫人对三个姑娘都很喜欢；但是只有在安妮的身上，她才能看到她们母亲的影子。

A few years before, Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl, but her bloom had vanished early; and as even in its height, her father had found little to admire in her, (so totally different were her delicate features and mild dark eyes from his own), there could be nothing in them, now that she was faded and thin, to excite his esteem. He had never indulged much hope, he had now none, of ever reading her name in any other page of his favourite work. All equality of alliance must rest with Elizabeth, for Mary had merely connected herself with an old country family of respectability and large fortune, and had therefore given all the honour and received none: Elizabeth would, one day or other, marry suitably.

几年前，安妮·埃利奥特还是位非常漂亮的女孩，但是她的青春年华却早已逝去。即使是在她风华正茂的时候，她父亲在她身上也没有发现什么值得赞赏的地方（她精致的容貌以及温柔的黑眼睛一点也不像他），现在她美艳消褪，消瘦不堪，当然更没有什么可以值得他珍视了。至于能否在他那本心爱的书的任何一页上看到安妮的名字，他从来不抱任何希望，现在更是完全失望了。要结成一起门当户对的姻缘，只能依靠伊丽莎白了，因为玛丽只不过嫁给了一个有钱有势的乡绅人家，因此所有的荣耀都给了婆家，自己却什么都没得到。有朝一日，伊丽莎白会嫁个门当户对的人家。

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety, it is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost. It was so with Elizabeth, still the same handsome Miss Elliot that she had begun to be thirteen years ago, and Sir Walter might be excused, therefore, in forgetting her age, or, at least, be deemed only half a fool, for thinking himself and Elizabeth as blooming as ever, amidst the wreck of the good looks of everybody else; for he could plainly see how old all the rest of his family and acquaintance were growing. Anne haggard, Mary coarse, every face in the neighbourhood worsting, and the rapid increase of the crow's foot about Lady Russell's temples had long been a distress to him.

有时会出现这样的情况：一个女人到了29岁倒比十年前更加楚楚动人。而且，一般来说，只要身体健康、无忧无虑，女人到这个年龄还不至于失去任何魅力。伊丽莎白便是这样。她依然是那位漂亮的埃利奥特小姐，就像十三年前一样。因此，沃尔爵士忘记了自己女儿的年龄，倒也情有可原。至少也不能由于他认定别人都已美貌不再，自己却和伊丽莎白青春常驻，就把他视为半傻不傻，因为他可以清楚地看到所有的亲朋好友都在变老。安妮有点憔悴，玛丽皮肤粗糙，左邻右舍更是等而下之，拉塞尔夫人鬓角周围的皱纹在迅速增多，这一切早就让他苦恼不已。

Elizabeth did not quite equal her father in personal contentment. Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall, presiding and directing with a self-possession and decision which could never have given the idea of her being younger than she was. For thirteen years had she been doing the honours, and laying down the domestic law at home, and leading the way to the chaise and four, and walking immediately after Lady Russell out of all the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms in the country. Thirteen winters' revolving frosts had seen her opening every ball of credit which a scanty neighbourhood afforded, and thirteen springs shewn their blossoms, as she travelled up to London with her father, for a few weeks' annual enjoyment of the great world. She had the remembrance of all this, she had the consciousness of being nine-and-twenty to give her some regrets and some apprehensions; she was fully satisfied of being still quite as handsome as ever, but she felt her approach to the years of danger, and would have rejoiced to be certain of being properly solicited by baronet-blood within the next twelvemonth or two. Then might she again take up the book of books with as much enjoyment as in her early youth, but now she liked it not. Always to be presented with the date of her own birth and see no marriage follow but that of a youngest sister, made the book an evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table near her, had she closed it, with averted eyes, and pushed it away.

讲到对自身条件的由衷满意，伊丽莎白并不完全像他父亲一样。她已经在凯利奇府当了十三年的女主人，冷静果断地操持家务，这绝不会使人觉得她比实际上年轻。十三年来，她一直以主妇自居，制定家规，带头去乘轻便马车及驷马马车，紧跟着拉塞尔夫人出入乡下所有的客厅与餐室。十三个周而复始的寒冬，在没有几家邻居能够办得起的豪华舞会上，她总是带头领舞；十三个百花盛开的春天，她每年都要随父亲去伦敦呆上几个星期，去享受一下繁华世界的乐趣。这一切她都历历在目，她意识到自己已经29岁了，心中不由得泛起了一丝惆怅与担心；她为自己仍然像过去一样漂亮而感到心满意足，但是她觉得自己正临近危险的年龄，要是拿得准一两年内有位准男爵身份的绅士来向她正式求婚，那她就会欣喜若狂。到那时，她就可以像在少女时代那样充分享受这本宝书带来的快乐，但是现在她并不喜欢这本书。书中总是写着她的出生日期，没有她的结婚日期，而她小妹妹的结婚日期却赫然在目，因此这本书这是个祸害。有好几次，父亲把书翻开搁在她身旁的桌子上，她却眼望着别处，把书合上推到一边。

She had had a disappointment, moreover, which that book, and especially the history of her own family, must ever present the remembrance of. The heir presumptive, the very William Walter Elliot, Esq., whose rights had been so generously supported by her father, had disappointed her.

何况，那本书，尤其是书中有关她家的那段史实，总是让她想起一件令人不愉快的往事。那位假定继承人，也就是威廉·沃尔特·埃利奥特先生，他的权利曾得到她父亲宽宏大量的维护，但是这位先生却使她大为失望。

She had, while a very young girl, as soon as she had known him to be, in the event of her having no brother, the future baronet, meant to marry him, and her father had always meant that she should. He had not been known to them as a boy; but soon after Lady Elliot's death, Sir Walter had sought the acquaintance, and though his overtures had not been met with any warmth, he had persevered in seeking it, making allowance for the modest drawing-back of youth; and, in one of their spring excursions to London, when Elizabeth was in her first bloom, Mr. Elliot had been forced into the introduction.

伊丽莎白还是小女孩的时候，曾听人说起，她要是没有弟弟，埃利奥特便是未来的准男爵，她便打定主意要嫁给他，而她的父亲也一向认为理应如此。威廉小时候，他们并不认识；但是在埃利奥特夫人死后不久，沃尔特先生便主动与他结识。虽然他的主动并没有受到热情的欢迎，但是考虑到年轻人的谦虚和畏缩，他便坚持要与他结交。于是，他们趁着一次到伦敦春游的机会，硬是结识了埃利奥特先生，当时伊丽莎白刚是个含苞待放的少女。

He was at that time a very young man, just engaged in the study of the law; and Elizabeth found him extremely agreeable, and every plan in his favour was confirmed. He was invited to Kellynch Hall; he was talked of and expected all the rest of the year; but he never came. The following spring he was seen again in town, found equally agreeable, again encouraged, invited, and expected, and again he did not come; and the next tidings were that he was married. Instead of pushing his fortune in the line marked out for the heir of the house of Elliot, he had purchased independence by uniting himself to a rich woman of inferior birth.

他那时候还是一个年轻的小伙子，正在埋头攻读法律；伊丽莎白发现他极其讨人喜欢，便进一步确定了讨他欢心的种种计划。他们邀请他到凯林奇府作客。那年余下的日子里，父女俩一直在讨论他，盼望着他的到来，但是他还是没有来。第二年春天，他们又在城里看到了他，他还是那样讨人喜欢，因此他们再次鼓励他，邀请他，盼望他，然而他还是没来。接着便传来消息，说他结婚了。他并没有让命运屈从于埃利奥特家为继承人定下的家规，而娶了一个出身低微的有钱女子，从而取得了独立自主的地位。

Sir Walter has resented it. As the head of the house, he felt that he ought to have been consulted, especially after taking the young man so publicly by the hand; "For they must have been seen together," he observed, "once at Tattersall's, and twice in the lobby of the House of Commons.”His disapprobation was expressed, but apparently very little regarded. Mr. Elliot had attempted no apology, and shewn himself as unsolicitous of being longer noticed by the family, as Sir Walter considered him unworthy of it: all acquaintance between them had ceased.

沃尔特爵士对此大为不快。作为一家之长，他认为这件事应该与他商量，尤其是他曾在公开场合牵过这位年轻人的手。“因为人家一定已经见过我们俩人在一起，”他说道，“一次在塔特索尔，两次在众议院的休息室里。”他表示不赞成埃利奥特，但是人家显然没有把这件事放在心上。埃利奥特先生并不想赔礼道歉，对沃尔特家不再理睬他表现出一副无所谓的样子，而沃尔特爵士却认为他不值得受到关照：于是他们之间的所有交情都结束了。

This very awkward history of Mr. Elliot was still, after an interval of several years, felt with anger by Elizabeth, who had liked the man for himself, and still more for being her father's heir, and whose strong family pride could see only in him a proper match for Sir Walter Elliot's eldest daughter. There was not a baronet from A to Z whom her feelings could have so willingly acknowledged as an equal. Yet so miserably had he conducted himself, that though she was at this present time (the summer of 1814) wearing black ribbons for his wife, she could not admit him to be worth thinking of again. The disgrace of his first marriage might, perhaps, as there was no reason to suppose it perpetuated by offspring, have been got over, had he not done worse; but he had, as by the accustomary intervention of kind friends, they had been informed, spoken most disrespectfully of them all, most slightingly and contemptuously of the very blood he belonged to, and the honours which were hereafter to be his own. This could not be pardoned.

事隔几年，伊丽莎白想到与埃利奥特先生这件尴尬的往事仍然感到很气愤。本来她就喜欢埃利奥特这个人，但更重要的是他是父亲的继承人。她强烈的家族自豪感使她觉得只有他才能真正配得上沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士的大女儿。所有的准男爵中没有一个使她如此愿意承认能够与她匹配了。然而埃利奥特先生自己却表现得如此悲惨，虽然伊丽莎白眼下（一八一四年夏天）还在为了他的妻子戴黑纱，她却不能承认他值得别人再去理会他。要不是他做出了更糟糕的事情，或许他第一次婚姻的耻辱已经结束了，因为人们没有理由认为它会遗臭万年。但是，好心的朋友爱搬弄是非，告诉爵士父女说，埃利奥特先生曾经极失礼地议论过他们全家，并且对自己的血统和以后将得到的荣誉表示极大的轻蔑与鄙夷。这是不可原谅的。

Such were Elizabeth Elliot's sentiments and sensations; such the cares to alloy, the agitations to vary, the sameness and the elegance, the prosperity and the nothingness of her scene of life; such the feelings to give interest to a long, uneventful residence in one country circle, to fill the vacancies which there were no habits of utility abroad, no talents or accomplishments for home, to occupy.

这就是伊丽莎白的思绪与情感。这些就是她力求消除的烦恼，力求抑制的不安。这就是她高雅而单调、富裕而无聊的生活。她长时间平平淡淡地住在乡下这个圈子里，她关心的就是这样一些感情，用这些感情去填补空暇时间，因为她既没有到户外做公益活动的习惯，在家里又没有什么才能或手艺可以填补这样的空暇时间。

But now, another occupation and solicitude of mind was beginning to be added to these. Her father was growing distressed for money. She knew, that when he now took up the Baronetage, it was to drive the heavy bills of his tradespeople, and the unwelcome hints of Mr. Shepherd, his agent, from his thoughts. The Kellynch property was good, but not equal to Sir Walter's apprehension of the state required in its possessor. While Lady Elliot lived, there had been method, moderation, and economy, which had just kept him within his income; but with her had died all such right-mindedness, and from that period he had been constantly exceeding it. It had not been possible for him to spend less; he had done nothing but what Sir Walter Elliot was imperiously called on to do; but blameless as he was, he was not only growing dreadfully in debt, but was hearing of it so often, that it became vain to attempt concealing it longer, even partially, from his daughter. He had given her some hints of it the last spring in town; he had gone so far even as to say, "Can we retrench? Does it occur to you that there is any one article in which we can retrench?" and Elizabeth, to do her justice, had, in the first ardour of female alarm, set seriously to think what could be done, and had finally proposed these two branches of economy, to cut off some unnecessary charities, and to refrain from new furnishing the drawing-room; to which expedients she afterwards added the happy thought of their taking no present down to Anne, as had been the usual yearly custom. But these measures, however good in themselves, were insufficient for the real extent of the evil, the whole of which Sir Walter found himself obliged to confess to her soon afterwards. Elizabeth had nothing to propose of deeper efficacy. She felt herself ill-used and unfortunate, as did her father; and they were neither of them able to devise any means of lessening their expenses without compromising their dignity, or relinquishing their comforts in a way not to be borne.

可是目前，除了这一切，她又开始添加了另一桩心事和烦恼。她的父亲正越来越为钱财而苦恼。伊丽莎白知道，现在父亲要是拿起那本《准男爵录》，那是为了忘掉零售商的高额账单和代理人谢泼德先生讨厌的暗示。凯林奇府的财产是很可观的，但情况并不像沃尔特爵士这位主人想得那么好。埃利奥特夫人在世时，她持家有方，注意节俭，使得沃尔特爵士能做到量入为出。但是随着夫人的辞世，这一切明智之举都已经付诸东流了，从那时起，他就经常入不敷出了。他是不可能节省开销的，他所干的一切都是沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士的身份使然。但是尽管这种做法无可指摘，但他不仅负债累累，而且常常听到人们流言蜚语，因此他再向女儿隐瞒，哪怕只是部分隐瞒，那也是徒劳的。去年春天在城里的时候，他已经给过伊丽莎白一些暗示。他甚至把话说到这种地步：“我们能不能缩减一些开支？你有没有想到有哪些费用我们可以节省？”说句公道话，伊丽莎白起初的确怀着女性常有的忐忑不安的心情，认真地考虑了应该怎么去做，然后提出了两项可节省的开支：一是减少一些不必要的施舍，二是控制住不再为客厅添置新家具。除了这些权宜之计以外，后来她又想出了妙点子，就是以后不再按照往年的惯例给安妮带礼物。然而，这些方法再好也不足以解决真正严重的困境。这不久以后，沃尔特爵士便发现他不得不把全部实情告诉伊丽莎白了。伊丽莎白也提不出更有效的方案了。她同她父亲一样，觉得自己受到了亏待，倒霉透顶。父女俩谁也想不出任何办法，既能节省开支，又能不伤体面，还不至于使他们以无法忍受的方式放弃舒适的生活。

There was only a small part of his estate that Sir Walter could dispose of; but had every acre been alienable, it would have made no difference. He had condescended to mortgage as far as he had the power, but he would never condescend to sell. No; he would never disgrace his name so far. The Kellynch estate should be transmitted whole and entire, as he had received it.

在沃尔特爵士掌握的地产之中，只有一小部分他可以自由处置。但是即使他可以转让所有的地产，也无济于事。他已尽力地把他所能抵押的都抵押一空，但是他决不肯纡尊降贵地变卖家产。不，他决不会如此玷污自己的名声的。凯林奇庄园是如何传给他的，他就要如何完完整整地传下去。

Their two confidential friends, Mr. Shepherd, who lived in the neighbouring market town, and Lady Russell, were called to advise them; and both father and daughter seemed to expect that something should be struck out by one or the other to remove their embarrassments and reduce their expenditure, without involving the loss of any indulgence of taste or pride.

他们的两位密友，一位是住在附近市镇上的谢泼德先生，一位是拉塞尔夫人，他们两位受邀请来帮忙出主意。父女俩似乎期望他们中的某一位能想出什么妙计，使他们既能摆脱困境和减少开支，又不至于失去体面与尊严。

CHAPTER 2

第二章

Mr. Shepherd, a civil, cautious lawyer, who, whatever might be his hold or his views on Sir Walter, would rather have the disagreeable prompted by anybody else, excused himself from offering the slightest hint, and only begged leave to recommend an implicit reference to the excellent judgement of Lady Russell, from whose known good sense he fully expected to have just such resolute measures advised as he meant to see finally adopted.

谢泼德先生是一位彬彬有礼、为人谨慎的律师。不管他对沃尔特爵士有何约束或想法，他都宁愿让别人提出那些令人不快的建议，自己不提出任何微小的暗示，只是请主人允许他大力推崇拉塞尔夫人超人的判断力。他完全相信闻名遐迩的明智的拉塞尔夫人一定会提出一些有力的措施，他希望这些措施能最后被采纳。

Lady Russell was most anxiously zealous on the subject, and gave it much serious consideration. She was a woman rather of sound than of quick abilities, whose difficulties in coming to any decision in this instance were great, from the opposition of two leading principles. She was of strict integrity herself, with a delicate sense of honour; but she was as desirous of saving Sir Walter's feelings, as solicitous for the credit of the family, as aristocratic in her ideas of what was due to them, as anybody of sense and honesty could well be. She was a benevolent, charitable, good woman, and capable of strong attachments, most correct in her conduct, strict in her notions of decorum, and with manners that were held a standard of good-breeding. She had a cultivated mind, and was, generally speaking, rational and consistent; but she had prejudices on the side of ancestry; she had a value for rank and consequence, which blinded her a little to the faults of those who possessed them. Herself the widow of only a knight, she gave the dignity of a baronet all its due; and Sir Walter, independent of his claims as an old acquaintance, an attentive neighbour, an obliging landlord, the husband of her very dear friend, the father of Anne and her sisters, was, as being Sir Walter, in her apprehension, entitled to a great deal of compassion and consideration under his present difficulties.

拉塞尔夫人对这件事表现得十分焦急而热心，并为此认真地考虑了一番。与其说她是思维敏捷的人，倒不如说她是做事沉稳的人，她很难在这个问题上做出抉择，因为她思想上存在着两种互相矛盾的指导原则。她本人十分正直诚实，又很讲求信誉，但她又很想照顾沃尔特爵士的情绪，维护这个家族的声誉。她有着贵族意识，觉得他们应该有一些享受，而这是任何明智而正直的人都可能有的想法。她是一个乐善好施的善良妇女，感情强烈，品行端正，恪守礼仪，其言行举止被视为教养有素的典范。她是个有涵养的人，一般而言，她通情达理，意志坚定。但是她对名门贵族有些偏爱，看重社会地位与财富，因而对名门望族的缺点便有点视而不见。她本人不过是一位骑士的遗孀，对一位准男爵自然就极为推崇；沃尔特爵士不仅是她的老朋友、无微不至的邻居、乐于助人的房东、密友的丈夫、安妮姐妹的父亲，而且拉塞尔夫人觉得，他身为沃尔特爵士，理所当然在目前的困境中应得到深切同情与关注。

They must retrench; that did not admit of a doubt. But she was very anxious to have it done with the least possible pain to him and Elizabeth. She drew up plans of economy, she made exact calculations, and she did what nobody else thought of doing: she consulted Anne, who never seemed considered by the others as having any interest in the question. She consulted, and in a degree was influenced by her in marking out the scheme of retrenchment which was at last submitted to Sir Walter. Every emendation of Anne's had been on the side of honesty against importance. She wanted more vigorous measures, a more complete reformation, a quicker release from debt, a much higher tone of indifference for everything but justice and equity.

他们必须节省开支，这是毋庸置疑的。但是她很想将事情办好，尽量不给沃尔特爵士与伊丽莎白带来痛苦。她制订了种种节约计划，并做了精确的计算，还做出了别人想不到的事情：她征求了安妮的意见，而在别人看来，安妮对这件事情漠不关心，因此可以不必考虑。她征求了安妮的意见，而且在制定节约方案的过程中，在一定程度上还受到了安妮的影响，这份方案最终被交到了沃尔特爵士的手上。安妮的每一次修改意见都实事求是而不考虑排场。她想要采取更强有力的措施，进行一次更加彻底的改革，更快地从债务中解脱出来，听口气，是要更加公平公正，别的事情概不考虑。

"If we can persuade your father to all this," said Lady Russell, looking over her paper, "much may be done. If he will adopt these regulations, in seven years he will be clear; and I hope we may be able to convince him and Elizabeth, that Kellynch Hall has a respectability in itself which cannot be affected by these reductions; and that the true dignity of Sir Walter Elliot will be very far from lessened in the eyes of sensible people, by acting like a man of principle. What will he be doing, in fact, but what very many of our first families have done, or ought to do? There will be nothing singular in his case; and it is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct. I have great hope of prevailing. We must be serious and decided; for after all, the person who has contracted debts must pay them; and though a great deal is due to the feelings of the gentleman, and the head of a house, like your father, there is still more due to the character of an honest man."“如果我们能够说服你的父亲接受这些建议，”拉塞尔夫人看着她的方案说道，“大问题就解决了。如果他愿意采纳这些措施，七年以后他便能够还清债务；我希望我们能够说服他和伊丽莎白，使他们认识到凯利奇府本身是有名望的，这种名望不会因为节省开支而受到影响；埃利奥特爵士的真正尊严不会因为他按原则办事而在明智人的心中受到伤害。事实上，他所要做的事情不就是很多名门望族已经做过或者应该去做的事情吗？他的情况也没有什么特殊的地方，而最常使我们遭受痛苦的，正是这种特殊。我对说服他大有信心。我们必须认真果断，因为毕竟欠债的人必须要还债。尽管我们需要顾及像你父亲这样的一位绅士与一家之长的情绪，但是我们更要顾及一位诚实人的信用。”

This was the principle on which Anne wanted her father to be proceeding, his friends to be urging him. She considered it as an act of indispensable duty to clear away the claims of creditors with all the expedition which the most comprehensive retrenchments could secure, and saw no dignity in anything short of it. She wanted it to be prescribed, and felt as a duty. She rated Lady Russell's influence highly; and as to the severe degree of self-denial which her own conscience prompted, she believed there might be little more difficulty in persuading them to a complete, than to half a reformation. Her knowledge of her father and Elizabeth inclined her to think that the sacrifice of one pair of horses would be hardly less painful than of both, and so on, through the whole list of Lady Russell's too gentle reductions.

这就是安妮希望父亲遵循的原则，也希望他的朋友们能督促他执行这一原则。她认为采取全面的节省措施、以最快的速度还清一切债务，这是必须承担的义务，不这样做，就没有尊严可谈。她想要把这一点立成规矩，并要求大家将它视为一种职责。她高度评价拉塞尔夫人的作用；至于她之所以凭着良心提出如此严格的自我约束，那是因为她相信，要说服大家进行彻底变革，不见得比说服大家进行局部变革困难多少。纵观拉塞尔夫人那个过于温和的节俭措施，她根据对父亲和伊丽莎白的了解，觉得牺牲一对马带来的痛苦，不见得比两对马全部丧失带来的痛苦少。

How Anne's more rigid requisitions might have been taken is of little consequence. Lady Russell's had no success at all: could not be put up with, were not to be borne. "What! every comfort of life knocked off! Journeys, London, servants, horses, table—contractions and restrictions every where! To live no longer with the decencies even of a private gentleman! No, he would sooner quit Kellynch Hall at once, than remain in it on such disgraceful terms.”

安妮那些更为严格的节省措施会引起什么反应，这已经无关紧要了。拉塞尔夫人的建议根本就没有成功：他们无法接受，也无法承受。“什么！把生活中所有的舒适都取消了！旅行、伦敦、仆人、马匹和饭菜——到处都要节俭，都要限制！以后连一个乡居绅士的体面生活都过不上了！不，他宁愿马上离开凯林奇府，也不愿意以这样耻辱的条件继续留在这里。”

"Quit Kellynch Hall."The hint was immediately taken up by Mr. Shepherd, whose interest was involved in the reality of Sir Walter's retrenching, and who was perfectly persuaded that nothing would be done without a change of abode. "Since the idea had been started in the very quarter which ought to dictate, he had no scruple," he said, "in confessing his judgement to be entirely on that side. It did not appear to him that Sir Walter could materially alter his style of living in a house which had such a character of hospitality and ancient dignity to support. In any other place Sir Walter might judge for himself; and would be looked up to, as regulating the modes of life in whatever way he might choose to model his household."“离开凯林奇府。”谢泼德先生听出了话音，马上接过话头，他的兴趣在沃尔特爵士真正地节省开支上，他又完全地确信如果不换个住所，什么事都办不成。“既然应该发布命令的人首先提出了这个想法，”他说，“那我也毫无顾虑地承认，我完全赞成这种想法。在我看来，在这一幢需要保持传统体面的好客声誉的府第中，沃尔特爵士难以大刀阔斧地改变生活方式。搬到别的任何地方，沃尔特爵士或许就可以自行安排，不论选择哪种方法安排自己的家务事，改变生活方式，人们都会尊敬他。”

Sir Walter would quit Kellynch Hall; and after a very few days more of doubt and indecision, the great question of whither he should go was settled, and the first outline of this important change made out.

沃尔特爵士愿意离开凯林奇府。他犹豫不决了几天，便决定了搬家的去向这一重大问题，确定了这一重大变迁的初步方案。

There had been three alternatives, London, Bath, or another house in the country. All Anne's wishes had been for the latter. A small house in their own neighbourhood, where they might still have Lady Russell's society, still be near Mary, and still have the pleasure of sometimes seeing the lawns and groves of Kellynch, was the object of her ambition. But the usual fate of Anne attended her, in having something very opposite from her inclination fixed on. She disliked Bath, and did not think it agreed with her; and Bath was to be her home.

当时有三个可供选择的地方，伦敦、巴斯以及乡下的另一所房子。安妮满怀希望能选中后者。她所向往的，就是在附近找一所小房子，这样他们仍可以与拉塞尔夫人继续来往，仍与玛丽离得很近，有时还可以看到凯林奇的草坪与树丛。但是关照安妮的是她通常的命运，即事情的结果往往同她的心愿背道而驰。她不喜欢巴斯，觉得那里不适合她，但是巴斯将成为她家新的住地。

Sir Walter had at first thought more of London; but Mr. Shepherd felt that he could not be trusted in London, and had been skilful enough to dissuade him from it, and make Bath preferred. It was a much safer place for a gentleman in his predicament: he might there be important at comparatively little expense. Two material advantages of Bath over London had of course been given all their weight: its more convenient distance from Kellynch, only fifty miles, and Lady Russell's spending some part of every winter there; and to the very great satisfaction of Lady Russell, whose first views on the projected change had been for Bath, Sir Walter and Elizabeth were induced to believe that they should lose neither consequence nor enjoyment by settling there.

沃尔特爵士原本比较倾向于伦敦，但是谢泼德先生觉得他在伦敦让人不放心，便巧妙地劝说他放弃伦敦，选择巴斯。对于一个家道没落的绅士来说，这是一个更保险的地方：在那里他可以相对地少花钱，而又显得很阔绰。两个巴斯较之伦敦重要的优势都发挥了作用：离凯林奇只有十五英里，来往更加方便；拉塞尔夫人每年冬天都会去巴斯住上一段时间。本来拉塞尔夫人在当初考虑迁居的去向问题时，最先考虑的就是巴斯，她对此非常满意。沃尔特爵士和伊丽莎白经过劝说也认为他们搬到那里既不会丢失体面又不会失去生活享受。

Lady Russell felt obliged to oppose her dear Anne's known wishes. It would be too much to expect Sir Walter to descend into a small house in his own neighbourhood. Anne herself would have found the mortifications of it more than she foresaw, and to Sir Walter's feelings they must have been dreadful. And with regard to Anne's dislike of Bath, she considered it as a prejudice and mistake arising, first, from the circumstance of her having been three years at school there, after her mother's death; and secondly, from her happening to be not in perfectly good spirits the only winter which she had afterwards spent there with herself.

拉塞尔夫人感到，她不得不违背宝贝安妮表明过的愿望。让沃尔特爵士屈尊搬到临近的小房子是不可能的。安妮自己以后也会发现这种抉择造成的耻辱会超过她的想象，而沃尔特爵士也会觉得这种屈辱必定非常可怕。至于说安妮不喜欢巴斯，拉塞尔夫人认为那是一种偏见与误解。首先，是因为安妮在母亲去世之后，曾在巴斯的学校里上了三年学；其次，由于她后来唯一的一次同拉塞尔夫人去那里过冬时正赶上当时情绪不佳。

Lady Russell was fond of Bath, in short, and disposed to think it must suit them all; and as to her young friend's health, by passing all the warm months with her at Kellynch Lodge, every danger would be avoided; and it was in fact, a change which must do both health and spirits good. Anne had been too little from home, too little seen. Her spirits were not high. A larger society would improve them. She wanted her to be more known.

总之，拉塞尔夫人很喜欢巴斯，并认为这个地方一定会适合大家。说到她年轻朋友的健康，只要和她在凯林奇度过炎热的几个月，所有的危险都可以避免。实际上，换换环境对安妮的健康和精神都会有好处。安妮很少离家外出，别人也很少见到她。她的情绪不高。增加一些社会交往，也许会使她情绪有所好转。她希望有更多的人了解安妮。

The undesirableness of any other house in the same neighbourhood for Sir Walter was certainly much strengthened by one part, and a very material part of the scheme, which had been happily engrafted on the beginning. He was not only to quit his home, but to see it in the hands of others; a trial of fortitude, which stronger heads than Sir Walter's have found too much. Kellynch Hall was to be let. This, however, was a profound secret, not to be breathed beyond their own circle.

沃尔特爵士之所以不愿意搬进当地的另一所住宅，在很大程度上是考虑了搬迁计划的一项内容，而且是一项重要内容，幸亏从一开始就提出了这一内容。他不仅要离开自己的家，还要看着它落入别人的手中。这是对坚强意志的一种考验，比沃尔特爵士坚强得多的人也会因此感到十分难受。凯林奇府要出租。然而，这是一个极大的秘密，不能泄露给他们圈子以外的人。

Sir Walter could not have borne the degradation of being known to design letting his house. Mr. Shepherd had once mentioned the word "advertise," but never dared approach it again. Sir Walter spurned the idea of its being offered in any manner; forbad the slightest hint being dropped of his having such an intention; and it was only on the supposition of his being spontaneously solicited by some most unexceptionable applicant, on his own terms, and as a great favour, that he would let it at all.

沃尔特爵士不要人家知道他想出租住宅，他受不了这种屈辱。谢泼德先生曾经提到过“刊登广告”，但是他再也不敢提这件事了。这种想法不管以什么方式提出，都会遭到沃尔特爵士的痛斥，他丝毫不准向别人透露他有这种想法。只有假定有某一位无懈可击的申请者自己主动恳求，他才会按照自己的条件出租凯林奇府，将它作为一个巨大的恩惠。

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like! Lady Russell had another excellent one at hand, for being extremely glad that Sir Walter and his family were to remove from the country. Elizabeth had been lately forming an intimacy, which she wished to see interrupted. It was with the daughter of Mr. Shepherd, who had returned, after an unprosperous marriage, to her father's house, with the additional burden of two children. She was a clever young woman, who understood the art of pleasing—the art of pleasing, at least, at Kellynch Hall; and who had made herself so acceptable to Miss Elliot, as to have been already staying there more than once, in spite of all that Lady Russell, who thought it a friendship quite out of place, could hint of caution and reserve.

为了使自己所喜欢的得到认可，人找起理由来还真快！拉塞尔夫人之所以对沃尔特爵士和他的家人搬出乡下感到非常高兴，是因为她手头还有另外一个非常好的理由。伊丽莎白最近结识了一位密友，而拉塞尔夫人希望她中断这种关系。那位是谢泼德先生的女儿，她因婚后生活不美满回到了娘家，还带着两个累赘孩子。她是一个非常聪明的少妇，懂得讨人欢喜的技巧——至少懂得在凯利奇府讨人欢喜的技巧。她自己深得埃利奥特小姐的欢心，尽管拉塞尔夫人认为这段友谊相当不合适，暗示小姐要谨慎和有分寸一些，可是这位朋友已经在府里留宿过不止一次了。

Lady Russell, indeed, had scarcely any influence with Elizabeth, and seemed to love her, rather because she would love her, than because Elizabeth deserved it. She had never received from her more than outward attention, nothing beyond the observances of complaisance; had never succeeded in any point which she wanted to carry, against previous inclination. She had been repeatedly very earnest in trying to get Anne included in the visit to London, sensibly open to all the injustice and all the discredit of the selfish arrangements which shut her out, and on many lesser occasions had endeavoured to give Elizabeth the advantage of her own better judgement and experience; but always in vain: Elizabeth would go her own way; and never had she pursued it in more decided opposition to Lady Russell than in this selection of Mrs. Clay; turning from the society of so deserving a sister, to bestow her affection and confidence on one who ought to have been nothing to her but the object of distant civility.

拉塞尔夫人的话对伊丽莎白确实起不了多大作用，不过她看起来还是钟爱伊丽莎白，倒不是因为伊丽莎白值得她爱，而是因为她愿意这样做。拉塞尔夫人从伊丽莎白那里得到的报答，仅仅是表面上的殷勤和顺从罢了。她从来没有说服伊丽莎白克服自己以往的偏见，接受她想要贯彻的主张。她曾经几次三番地争取让安妮跟着他们一起去伦敦旅游，因为把安妮排斥在外的那种自私行为是不公正的、丢人的。在很多比较次要的问题上，她也尽量用自己更好的见解与经验开导伊丽莎白，但总是徒劳无益：伊丽莎白偏要一意孤行。在选择克莱夫人的问题上，她比以往任何时候都更固执地反对拉塞尔夫人。非但不愿亲近品性如此高尚的妹妹，反而将自己的爱与信任给了一位与她没有任何关系，而应以礼相待的人。

From situation, Mrs. Clay was, in Lady Russell's estimate, a very unequal, and in her character she believed a very dangerous companion; and a removal that would leave Mrs. Clay behind, and bring a choice of more suitable intimates within Miss Elliot's reach, was therefore an object of first-rate importance.

以拉塞尔夫人来看，从地位上讲，克莱太太与伊丽莎白很不相称。从人品看来，拉塞尔夫人认为她是一个很危险的伙伴。搬家能够把克莱太太甩掉，让埃利奥特小姐在可以接触到的人中选择更为合适的密友。因此搬家便成了头等大事。

CHAPTER 3

第三章

"I must take leave to observe, Sir Walter," said Mr. Shepherd one morning at Kellynch Hall, as he laid down the newspaper, "that the present juncture is much in our favour. This peace will be turning all our rich naval officers ashore. They will be all wanting a home. Could not be a better time, Sir Walter, for having a choice of tenants, very responsible tenants. Many a noble fortune has been made during the war. If a rich admiral were to come in our way, Sir Walter—”“沃尔特爵士，我必须大胆地指出，”一天早晨，谢泼德先生来到凯利奇府，放下手中的报纸说道，“目前的时机对我们非常有利。这次的和平将会使我们所有阔绰的海军军官回到岸上。他们都需要安家。时机再好不过了，沃尔特爵士，你可以挑选房客，非常可靠的房客。战争期间，很多人发了大财。如果我们碰到一个富有的海军上将，沃尔特爵士——”

"He would be a very lucky man, Shepherd," replied Sir Walter; "that's all I have to remark. A prize indeed would Kellynch Hall be to him; rather the greatest prize of all, let him have taken ever so many before; hey, Shepherd?”“那他将是一个非常幸运的人了，谢泼德，”沃尔特爵士答道，“我只能这么说了。凯林奇府对他来说确实是一种奖赏；而且是最高的奖赏，就算他过去得过许多的奖赏。对吧，谢泼德？”

Mr. Shepherd laughed, as he knew he must, at this wit, and then added—

听了这番话，谢泼德先生笑了，因为他知道他必须笑，接着他说道：

"I presume to observe, Sir Walter, that, in the way of business, gentlemen of the navy are well to deal with. I have had a little knowledge of their methods of doing business; and I am free to confess that they have very liberal notions, and are as likely to make desirable tenants as any set of people one should meet with. Therefore, Sir Walter, what I would take leave to suggest is, that if in consequence of any rumours getting abroad of your intention; which must be contemplated as a possible thing, because we know how difficult it is to keep the actions and designs of one part of the world from the notice and curiosity of the other; consequence has its tax; I, John Shepherd, might conceal any family-matters that I chose, for nobody would think it worth their while to observe me; but Sir Walter Elliot has eyes upon him which it may be very difficult to elude; and therefore, thus much I venture upon, that it will not greatly surprise me if, with all our caution, some rumour of the truth should get abroad; in the supposition of which, as I was going to observe, since applications will unquestionably follow, I should think any from our wealthy naval commanders particularly worth attending to; and beg leave to add, that two hours will bring me over at any time, to save you the trouble of replying.”“我冒昧地说，沃尔特爵士，论起做交易来，海军先生们是很好对付的。我曾经对他们做生意的方式多少有些了解，我完全坦白地说，他们出手非常大方，很可能是我们所能遇到的最理想的房客。因此，沃尔特爵士，我冒昧地设想：如果你的打算给泄露出去了——这应该说是可能的，因为我们知道，世上一些人的行动和计划很难逃过另一些人的注意和好奇——因为名誉地位是要付出代价的——我，约翰·谢泼德可以隐瞒我想隐瞒的任何家庭秘密，因为没有人认为值得花费精力来注意我，但沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士却在众目睽睽之下，很难逃脱人们的注意。因此，我可以坦言，尽管我们小心防范，但万一有关事情真相的某种流言传播出去，我也不会大吃一惊。我的意思是，假定真的流传出去，无疑会有人来租房。要是来一位富有的海军军官，那就特别值得欢迎。我还想说，在任何时候，只需要两个小时，你就可以把我召来，免去了你回复的麻烦。”

Sir Walter only nodded. But soon afterwards, rising and pacing the room, he observed sarcastically—

沃尔特爵士只是点了点头。但是过了不一会儿，他站起来，在屋里踱着步，讥讽地说道：

"There are few among the gentlemen of the navy, I imagine, who would not be surprised to find themselves in a house of this description."“我想，那些海军军官走进这么豪华的住宅，没有几个人会不感到惊讶的。”

"They would look around them, no doubt, and bless their good fortune," said Mrs. Clay, for Mrs. Clay was present: her father had driven her over, nothing being of so much use to Mrs. Clay's health as a drive to Kellynch: "but I quite agree with my father in thinking a sailor might be a very desirable tenant. I have known a good deal of the profession; and besides their liberality, they are so neat and careful in all their ways! These valuable pictures of yours, Sir Walter, if you chose to leave them, would be perfectly safe. Everything in and about the house would be taken such excellent care of! The gardens and shrubberies would be kept in almost as high order as they are now. You need not be afraid, Miss Elliot, of your own sweet flower gardens being neglected."“毫无疑问，他们会环顾四周，庆幸他们的好运气，”克莱太太说，克莱太太当时也在场：她搭她父亲的车子来的。没有比坐车来到凯林奇府对克莱太太身体更有益的事情了。“但是，我非常认同我父亲的观点，海军军官是很理想的房客。我对这个职业非常了解；他们除了心胸开阔以外，各个方面都整洁仔细！沃尔特爵士，如果你愿意把这些名贵油画留下，它们也会万无一失。屋里屋外的所有东西都会给料理得井井有条。花园与灌木丛也会被收拾得像现在一样井然有序的。埃利奥特小姐，你也不用担心你自己心爱的小花圃被荒废。”

"As to all that," rejoined Sir Walter coolly, "supposing I were induced to let my house, I have by no means made up my mind as to the privileges to be annexed to it. I am not particularly disposed to favour a tenant. The park would be open to him of course, and few navy officers, or men of any other description, can have had such a range; but what restrictions I might impose on the use of the pleasure-grounds, is another thing. I am not fond of the idea of my shrubberies being always approachable; and I should recommend Miss Elliot to be on her guard with respect to her flower garden. I am very little disposed to grant a tenant of Kellynch Hall any extraordinary favour, I assure you, be he sailor or soldier.”“至于这个嘛。”沃尔特爵士冷冷地回答说，“即使我受你们的怂恿同意出租住宅，我也还没有拿定主意是否还外加这些优惠条件。我不打算给房客什么特殊待遇。当然，花园会向他开放的，没有几个海军军官或者其他什么人能拥有这么大的花园。但是，对于游乐场所的使用，我会提出哪些限制条件，那是另一回事。我不喜欢别人总是跑到我的灌木丛里去；我会劝说埃利奥特小姐留心着她的花园。我明确地告诉你，我一点也不愿意给予凯林奇府的房客任何特殊的优待，不管他是海军，还是陆军。”

After a short pause, Mr. Shepherd presumed to say—

停了一小会儿后，谢泼德先生冒昧地开口说：

"In all these cases, there are established usages which make everything plain and easy between landlord and tenant. Your interest, Sir Walter, is in pretty safe hands. Depend upon me for taking care that no tenant has more than his just rights. I venture to hint, that Sir Walter Elliot cannot be half so jealous for his own, as John Shepherd will be for him."“在这些情况下，按一般惯例，可以把房东与房客之间的关系规定得清清楚楚。沃尔特爵士，你的利益掌握在相当可靠的人手中。相信我，我会留神的，不会让房客得到超出他正当权利以外的任何东西。我敢说，沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士对自己利益的关心程度，可能不及约翰·谢泼德对此关心的一半呢。”

Here Anne spoke—

这时，安妮说话了：

"The navy, I think, who have done so much for us, have at least an equal claim with any other set of men, for all the comforts and all the privileges which any home can give. Sailors work hard enough for their comforts, we must all allow."“我觉得，海军为我们做出过很大贡献，他们至少应该像其他人一样，有权享受任何房东可以提供的一切舒适条件和优待。我们大家都应该承认，海军工作很艰苦，他们完全有权享受舒适的生活。”

"Very true, very true. What Miss Anne says, is very true," was Mr. Shepherd's rejoinder, and "Oh! certainly," was his daughter's; but Sir Walter's remark was, soon afterwards—“一点儿不错，一点儿不错。安妮小姐说得千真万确。”谢泼德先生回答道。他的女儿接着说道，“哦，当然。”可是沃尔特爵士随即便说：

"The profession has its utility, but I should be sorry to see any friend of mine belonging to it."“海军这个职业很有用，但是，要是我的朋友中有人从事了这一职业，我会觉得很遗憾。”

"Indeed!" was the reply, and with a look of surprise.“真的吗？”对方回答时，脸上露出惊讶的神色。

"Yes; it is in two points offensive to me; I have two strong grounds of objection to it. First, as being the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction, and raising men to honours which their fathers and grandfathers never dreamt of; and secondly, as it cuts up a man's youth and vigour most horribly; a sailor grows old sooner than any other man. I have observed it all my life. A man is in greater danger in the navy of being insulted by the rise of one whose father, his father might have disdained to speak to, and of becoming prematurely an object of disgust himself, than in any other line. One day last spring, in town, I was in company with two men, striking instances of what I am talking of; Lord St Ives, whose father we all know to have been a country curate, without bread to eat; I was to give place to Lord St Ives, and a certain Admiral Baldwin, the most deplorable-looking personage you can imagine; his face the colour of mahogany, rough and rugged to the last degree; all lines and wrinkles, nine grey hairs of a side, and nothing but a dab of powder at top. 'In the name of heaven, who is that old fellow?' said I to a friend of mine who was standing near, (Sir Basil Morley). 'Old fellow!' cried Sir Basil, 'it is Admiral Baldwin. What do you take his age to be?''Sixty,' said I, 'or perhaps sixty-two.’'Forty,' replied Sir Basil, 'forty, and no more.'Picture to yourselves my amazement; I shall not easily forget Admiral Baldwin. I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do; but to a degree, I know it is the same with them all: they are all knocked about, and exposed to every climate, and every weather, till they are not fit to be seen. It is a pity they are not knocked on the head at once, before they reach Admiral Baldwin's age.”“是的，它有两点使我讨厌。我有两个充分的理由反对它。首先，作为给出身卑微的人带来高殊荣的方式，它使他们得到他们的祖父辈做梦都不敢想的荣誉；其次，它极其可怕地摧毁一个人的青春与精力，海军要比其他任何人老得都要快。这种情形我一生中见得多了。一个人参加海军，比在其他任何行业都更有可能感到屈辱，因为他父亲很可能不屑搭理的人的儿子竟受到了提拔，而他父亲自己却过早地成为被人唾弃的对象。去年春天，一天我在城里遇见了两个人，他们可以为我说的话提供有力的证明。一个是圣艾夫斯勋爵，我们都知道，他父亲过去是一位乡下的副牧师，连面包都吃不上；但是我却要给圣艾夫斯勋爵让路。另一个是鲍德温将军，你可以想象这位显赫之人有多难看；他的脸是红褐色的，皮肤粗糙而凹凸不平，满脸皱纹，两旁各挂着九根灰毛，头顶似乎只有一层发粉。‘天哪，那位老头是谁呀？’我对站在旁边的一位朋友（巴兹尔·莫利爵士）说道。‘老头！’巴兹尔先生喊道，‘那是海军上将鲍德温。你看他有多大年纪？’‘ 60岁，’我说，‘或许是62岁。’‘40岁，’巴兹尔先生回答道，‘仅仅40岁。’你们可以想象出我有多么惊讶；我不会轻易地忘掉海军上将鲍德温。我从来没有见过海上生活能把人折磨得如此凄惨；但是在某种程度上，我知道他们都是这样：他们在海浪中四处颠簸，经受各种气候的考验，任凭风吹雨打，直到被折磨得不成样子。遗憾的是，他们在活到海军上将鲍德温这个年纪之前，没有突然死于非命。”

"Nay, Sir Walter," cried Mrs. Clay, "this is being severe indeed. Have a little mercy on the poor men. We are not all born to be handsome. The sea is no beautifier, certainly; sailors do grow old betimes; I have observed it; they soon lose the look of youth. But then, is not it the same with many other professions, perhaps most other? Soldiers, in active service, are not at all better off: and even in the quieter professions, there is a toil and a labour of the mind, if not of the body, which seldom leaves a man's looks to the natural effect of time. The lawyer plods, quite care-worn; the physician is up at all hours, and travelling in all weather; and even the clergyman—” she stopt a moment to consider what might do for the clergyman;—“and even the clergyman, you know is obliged to go into infected rooms, and expose his health and looks to all the injury of a poisonous atmosphere. In fact, as I have long been convinced, though every profession is necessary and honourable in its turn, it is only the lot of those who are not obliged to follow any, who can live in a regular way, in the country, choosing their own hours, following their own pursuits, and living on their own property, without the torment of trying for more; it is only their lot, I say, to hold the blessings of health and a good appearance to the utmost: I know no other set of men but what lose something of their personableness when they cease to be quite young.”“不，沃尔特爵士，”克莱太太喊道，“这话确实很残酷。请稍稍可怜一下那些不幸的人吧。我们大家并非生来就很漂亮。当然，大海并不是美容师，水兵确实老得很快，我已经注意到了这一点，他们很快便失去了青春美貌。不过，其他职业，或许大多数职业，不都一样吗？那些现役步兵情况也好不了多少：甚至是那些稍微安稳的职业，即使不伤身体的话，那么也会伤害头脑，这样就很难使人的面貌只受时间的自然影响。律师勤奋工作，相当憔悴；医生随叫随到，风雨无阻；即使是牧师——”她停了一小会儿，考虑应该如何说明牧师的职业；——“你们知道，即使是牧师也必须要走进传染病房，将自己的健康与相貌暴露在有毒环境的危害之中。实际上，我一直以来都深信不疑，尽管每个职业就其本身来说都是必须的、光荣的，但是只有这些有幸的人，他们无须工作，在乡下过着有规律的生活，自由安排时间，做着自己喜欢的事，靠自己的财产过日子，用不着为获取更多而烦恼。我认为，只有这些人，才有福气充分保持健康和美貌。我认识的其他人，当他们不再年轻时，便失去了几分风度。”

It seemed as if Mr. Shepherd, in this anxiety to bespeak Sir Walter's good will towards a naval officer as tenant, had been gifted with foresight; for the very first application for the house was from an Admiral Croft, with whom he shortly afterwards fell into company in attending the quarter sessions at Taunton; and indeed, he had received a hint of the Admiral from a London correspondent. By the report which he hastened over to Kellynch to make, Admiral Croft was a native of Somersetshire, who having acquired a very handsome fortune, was wishing to settle in his own country, and had come down to Taunton in order to look at some advertised places in that immediate neighbourhood, which, however, had not suited him; that accidentally hearing—(it was just as he had foretold, Mr. Shepherd observed, Sir Walter's concerns could not be kept a secret,)—accidentally hearing of the possibility of Kellynch Hall being to let, and understanding his (Mr. Shepherd's) connection with the owner, he had introduced himself to him in order to make particular inquiries, and had, in the course of a pretty long conference, expressed as strong an inclination for the place as a man who knew it only by description could feel; and given Mr. Shepherd, in his explicit account of himself, every proof of his being a most responsible, eligible tenant.

谢泼德先生如此急切地想要显示出沃尔特爵士对海军军官做房客的好感，似乎他确有先见之明。因为第一位想要承租这房子的就是海军将军克罗夫特，不久以后，谢泼德先生在汤顿参加季会时结识了克罗夫特海军将军。其实，他早就从伦敦的一位记者那里得到了些许有关这位海军将军的消息。根据他匆匆赶回凯林奇所作的报告，海军将军克罗夫特是萨默塞特郡人，攒下了一笔相当可观的财产，想回故乡定居。他到汤顿去，是为了实地看看广告上登载的附近一带的房子，可是这些房子都不合他的心意。后来，他偶尔听到——（谢泼德先生说，正如他先前讲过的，沃尔特爵士迁居计划是无法保密的）——偶尔听到凯林奇府有可能出租并了解到他（谢泼德先生）同房主的关系，就径自找到谢泼德先生了解具体情况。经过相当长时间的晤谈，克罗夫特海军将军根据对方的口头描述，就对这一住所表现出强烈兴趣。克罗夫特海军将军当时还毫不隐晦地做了自我介绍，这使谢泼德先生确实感觉到他是一位十分可靠而又适合的房客。

"And who is Admiral Croft?" was Sir Walter's cold suspicious inquiry.“克罗夫特将军是谁？”沃尔特爵士以一种冷淡和猜疑的口吻问道。

Mr. Shepherd answered for his being of a gentleman's family, and mentioned a place; and Anne, after the little pause which followed, added—

谢泼德先生担保说，克罗夫特将军出身于绅士之家，而且他还提到了一个地点。停了片刻，安妮补充说：

"He is a rear admiral of the white. He was in the Trafalgar action, and has been in the East Indies since; he was stationed there, I believe, several years."“他是白色中队的海军少将。他参加过特拉法尔加战役，从那以后就一直呆在东印度群岛。我想，他已经在那里驻守了好几年。”

"Then I take it for granted," observed Sir Walter, "that his face is about as orange as the cuffs and capes of my livery."“这么说来，”沃尔特爵士说道，“他的脸色一定像我家仆人的制服袖子和短斗蓬一样蜡黄。”

Mr. Shepherd hastened to assure him, that Admiral Croft was a very hale, hearty, well-looking man, a little weather-beaten, to be sure, but not much, and quite the gentleman in all his notions and behaviour; not likely to make the smallest difficulty about terms, only wanted a comfortable home, and to get into it as soon as possible; knew he must pay for his convenience; knew what rent a ready-furnished house of that consequence might fetch; should not have been surprised if Sir Walter had asked more; had inquired about the manor; would be glad of the deputation, certainly, but made no great point of it; said he sometimes took out a gun, but never killed; quite the gentleman.

谢泼德先生马上保证说，克罗夫特将军是一位体格健壮、相貌堂堂的男子汉，确实有点饱经风霜，但并不很难看，他的见解和为人颇有绅士风度。看来在租房条件方面不会太难为沃尔特爵士，他只想要一个舒适的家，希望尽快搬进去。他知道要舒适就要付出代价；他知道住这种设备齐全的住所要付多少房租；即使沃尔特爵士要价更高，他也不会感到惊讶。他还问起了住宅附属的庄园，当然也愿意代为管理，但没有坚持这一想法。他说，过去他偶尔出去狩猎，但从未伤害过任何动物。他完全是个绅士。

Mr. Shepherd was eloquent on the subject; pointing out all the circumstances of the Admiral's family, which made him peculiarly desirable as a tenant. He was a married man, and without children; the very state to be wished for. A house was never taken good care of, Mr. Shepherd observed, without a lady: he did not know, whether furniture might not be in danger of suffering as much where there was no lady, as where there were many children. A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world. He had seen Mrs. Croft, too; she was at Taunton with the admiral, and had been present almost all the time they were talking the matter over.

谢泼德先生滔滔不绝地说着这个话题，将海军少将的各种家庭情况统统都抖了出来，以显示他是一个再理想不过的房客。他结了婚又没有孩子，这真是再好不过的情况了。谢泼德先生说，没有女主人，房子永远也不会被照料好的：他不知道，家里没有女主人与有很多孩子相比，哪种情况会使家具损坏得更多。一位没有子女的太太是这个世界上最好的家具保护者。他也见过克罗夫特夫人；她和海军将军一起来到汤顿，在他们讨论这件事时，克罗夫特太太几乎始终在场。

"And a very well-spoken, genteel, shrewd lady, she seemed to be," continued he; "asked more questions about the house, and terms, and taxes, than the Admiral himself, and seemed more conversant with business; and moreover, Sir Walter, I found she was not quite unconnected in this country, any more than her husband; that is to say, she is sister to a gentleman who did live amongst us once; she told me so herself: sister to the gentleman who lived a few years back at Monkford. Bless me! what was his name? At this moment I cannot recollect his name, though I have heard it so lately. Penelope, my dear, can you help me to the name of the gentleman who lived at Monkford: Mrs. Croft's brother?”“看上去，她是一位善于辞令、温文尔雅、精明过人的太太，”谢泼德先生接着说道，“她对于房子、出租条件以及税款提出了更多的问题，这比海军将军本人提的还多，看起来对生意更为内行。另外，沃尔特爵士，我发现她并不像她的丈夫一样，在这儿完全无亲无故；这就是说，她是曾经住在我们这一带的一位绅士的姐姐；她亲口对我说的：她是几年前住在蒙克福德的一位绅士的亲姐姐。我的天哪！他叫什么名字来着？我一时记不起他的名字了，可是不久前我还听到有人提起这个名字。我亲爱的佩内洛普，你能帮我想起曾经住在蒙克福德的那位绅士——克罗夫特太太的弟弟的名字吗？”

But Mrs. Clay was talking so eagerly with Miss Elliot, that she did not hear the appeal.

但是克莱太太正与埃利奥特小姐谈得非常起劲，没有听到谢泼德先生的请求。

"I have no conception whom you can mean, Shepherd; I remember no gentleman resident at Monkford since the time of old Governor Trent."“我不知道你说的是谁，谢泼德。自从老特伦特出任郡长以来，我不记得有哪位绅士在蒙克福德住过。”

"Bless me! how very odd! I shall forget my own name soon, I suppose. A name that I am so very well acquainted with; knew the gentleman so well by sight; seen him a hundred times; came to consult me once, I remember, about a trespass of one of his neighbours; farmer's man breaking into his orchard; wall torn down; apples stolen; caught in the fact; and afterwards, contrary to my judgement, submitted to an amicable compromise. Very odd indeed!”“我的天哪！好奇怪啊！我想，用不了多久，我连自己的名字也会忘掉的。这是我如此熟悉的一个名字，我曾多次见过这位绅士，足有一百次，我记得曾经有一次他来征求我对他邻居非法闯入的看法，农场主的雇工闯入他的果园，推倒了围墙，偷走了苹果，被当场抓住，后来这位绅士并没有采纳我的意见，而作出了友好妥协。确实真够奇怪的！”

After waiting another moment—

大家又沉默了一会儿——

"You mean Mr. Wentworth, I suppose?" said Anne.“我想，你说得是温特沃思先生吧？”安妮说道。

Mr. Shepherd was all gratitude.

谢泼德先生感激万分。

"Wentworth was the very name! Mr. Wentworth was the very man. He had the curacy of Monkford, you know, Sir Walter, some time back, for two or three years. Came there about the year—-5, I take it. You remember him, I am sure.”“正是温特沃思这个名字！那个人就是温特沃思先生。你知道，沃尔特爵士，温特沃思先生以前在蒙克福德做了两三年的副牧师。我想，他大约是1805年来到这儿的。我肯定你还记得他。”

"Wentworth? Oh! ay,—Mr. Wentworth, the curate of Monkford. You misled me by the term gentleman. I thought you were speaking of some man of property: Mr. Wentworth was nobody, I remember; quite unconnected; nothing to do with the Strafford family. One wonders how the names of many of our nobility become so common.”“温特沃思？啊！对了——温特沃思先生，蒙克福德的副牧师。你用绅士这个字眼把我弄糊涂了。我还以为你在谈论哪一位有产者呢：我记得，温特沃思先生是个无名之辈，没有什么显赫的亲戚；跟斯特拉福德家族毫无关系。真怪，我们许多贵族的姓氏竟然会变得这么无足轻重！”

As Mr. Shepherd perceived that this connexion of the Crofts did them no service with Sir Walter, he mentioned it no more; returning, with all his zeal, to dwell on the circumstances more indisputably in their favour; their age, and number, and fortune; the high idea they had formed of Kellynch Hall, and extreme solicitude for the advantage of renting it; making it appear as if they ranked nothing beyond the happiness of being the tenants of Sir Walter Elliot: an extraordinary taste, certainly, could they have been supposed in the secret of Sir Walter's estimate of the dues of a tenant.

谢泼德先生发现，克罗夫特夫妇的这位亲戚没在沃尔特爵士心目中留下好印象，就不再提起他了。而将话锋一转，滔滔不绝地谈起无疑能引起沃尔特爵士好感的有利条件；他们的年龄、家中的人口、财产；他们对凯利奇府的良好印象，唯恐自己租不到手；听起来，他们把能当上沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士的房客视为莫大的幸福：当然，他们竟然能够猜中沃尔特爵士内心对房客应有品德的要求，可见他们夫妇的非凡识别力。

It succeeded, however; and though Sir Walter must ever look with an evil eye on anyone intending to inhabit that house, and think them infinitely too well off in being permitted to rent it on the highest terms, he was talked into allowing Mr. Shepherd to proceed in the treaty, and authorising him to wait on Admiral Croft, who still remained at Taunton, and fix a day for the house being seen.

事情终究还是成功了，尽管沃尔特爵士对任何希望承租的房客都怀有敌意，并且认为即使这些人出最高价来租赁房子，仍然太便宜了他们，但是在众人的劝说下，他还是同意谢泼德先生继续进行谈判，并全权委托他接待还在汤顿的克罗夫海军上将，商定看房日期。

Sir Walter was not very wise; but still he had experience enough of the world to feel, that a more unobjectionable tenant, in all essentials, than Admiral Croft bid fair to be, could hardly offer. So far went his understanding; and his vanity supplied a little additional soothing, in the Admiral's situation in life, which was just high enough, and not too high. "I have let my house to Admiral Croft," would sound extremely well; very much better than to any mere Mr—; a Mr. (save, perhaps, some half dozen in the nation,) always needs a note of explanation. An admiral speaks his own consequence, and, at the same time, can never make a baronet look small. In all their dealings and intercourse, Sir Walter Elliot must ever have the precedence.

沃尔特爵士并不是非常聪明，但是他凭着自己丰富的阅历还是感觉到，从各种基本条件来看，比可能承租的克罗夫特将军更加无可非议的房客，是不大可能提出申请的。他的判断力也仅此而已；不过将军的社会地位也给他的虚荣心增添了几分安慰，因为克罗夫特将军的社会地位高得恰如其分，而并不过分显赫。“我已经把房子租给了克罗夫特将军。”这话听起来相当体面；比说租给普通的某某先生体面多了；某位先生（或许全国除了五六个以外）总是需要做点注释说明。将军这个头衔本身就表明了他的地位，而且同时又绝不会有损一位准男爵的身价。在双方所有的谈判与交往中，沃尔特·埃利奥特爵士理应处于优胜者的地位。

Nothing could be done without a reference to Elizabeth: but her inclination was growing so strong for a removal, that she was happy to have it fixed and expedited by a tenant at hand; and not a word to suspend decision was uttered by her.

不听取伊丽莎白的意见，是什么事情也办不成的；但是她想搬家的心情变得越来越迫切了，现在有了愿意承租的房客，就可以确定并且促成搬迁的事情，她自然非常高兴，压根儿没有提出有碍这一决定的意见。

Mr. Shepherd was completely empowered to act; and no sooner had such an end been reached, than Anne, who had been a most attentive listener to the whole, left the room, to seek the comfort of cool air for her flushed cheeks; and as she walked along a favourite grove, said, with a gentle sigh, "A few months more, and he, perhaps, may be walking here."

他们委托谢泼德先生全权办理；这一决定刚一作出，原来始终专心倾听着别人讨论的安妮就离开了房间，去呼吸呼吸凉爽的空气，因为她满脸通红了。她沿着心爱的小树丛漫步，轻轻叹了口气，说道：“再过几个月，也许他就会在这里散步了。”

CHAPTER 4

第四章

He was not Mr. Wentworth, the former curate of Monkford, however suspicious appearances may be, but a Captain Frederick Wentworth, his brother, who being made commander in consequence of the action off St Domingo, and not immediately employed, had come into Somersetshire, in the summer of 1806; and having no parent living, found a home for half a year at Monkford. He was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man, with a great deal of intelligence, spirit, and brilliancy; and Anne an extremely pretty girl, with gentleness, modesty, taste, and feeling. Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly anybody to love; but the encounter of such lavish recommendations could not fail. They were gradually acquainted, and when acquainted, rapidly and deeply in love. It would be difficult to say which had seen highest perfection in the other, or which had been the happiest: she, in receiving his declarations and proposals, or he in having them accepted.

不管外表看起来多么令人可疑，他都不是蒙克福德以前的副牧师——温特沃思先生，而是副牧师的弟弟弗雷德里克·温特沃思海军上校。他在圣多明戈附近的海战后，被晋升为海军中校，但没有马上得到任命，便于1806年夏天来到了萨默塞特郡。他父母双亡，在蒙克福德租了个房子住了半年。当时，他是一个出类拔萃的好青年，聪明过人，朝气蓬勃而才华横溢；而安妮是一个美丽动人的姑娘，性格温柔，端庄娴静，品味高雅，感情丰富。双方各具备一半的吸引力就已经足够了，因为他无事可做，而她的情感当时几乎无处寄托；但是双方有这么多优点，邂逅之后应该不会错过的。他们俩逐渐熟悉起来，而一旦熟识，他们便迅速地陷入热恋。很难说究竟是哪一方的倾慕之心更加强烈，或哪一方更为幸福：是听到弗雷德里克的表白和求婚时的安妮呢，还是求婚被安妮接受时的弗雷德里克呢。

A short period of exquisite felicity followed, and but a short one. Troubles soon arose. Sir Walter, on being applied to, without actually withholding his consent, or saying it should never be, gave it all the negative of great astonishment, great coldness, great silence, and a professed resolution of doing nothing for his daughter. He thought it a very degrading alliance; and Lady Russell, though with more tempered and pardonable pride, received it as a most unfortunate one.

他们快乐的热恋很短暂，确实很短暂。很快麻烦就出现了。当年轻人向沃尔特爵士提亲时，他既没有正式表示不同意，也没有说绝不可能，而是以极端的惊讶、冷淡和沉默表示反对，并且明确表示不会为他女儿做任何事情。他认为这是一桩很丢人的婚事；尽管拉塞尔夫人比爵士沉着冷静，而且也觉得情有可原，然而也认为这桩婚事是极为不幸的。

Anne Elliot, with all her claims of birth, beauty, and mind, to throw herself away at nineteen; involve herself at nineteen in an engagement with a young man, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining affluence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connexions to secure even his farther rise in the profession, would be, indeed, a throwing away, which she grieved to think of！Anne Elliot, so young; known to so few, to be snatched off by a stranger without alliance or fortune; or rather sunk by him into a state of most wearing, anxious, youth-killing dependence! It must not be, if by any fair interference of friendship, any representations from one who had almost a mother's love, and mother's rights, it would be prevented.

安妮·埃利奥特出身高贵，才貌双全，19岁便要断送自己的一生。19岁就要与一个年轻人订婚，而这个年轻人除了自己之外一无所有，也没有发财致富的希望，只能靠极不稳定的职业上的机遇，他甚至没有什么裙带关系来保证他在这一职业中继续获得升迁，拉塞尔夫人一想到这里就十分伤心！安妮·埃利奥特这么年轻，没有几个人见过她，现在要被一个没有显赫亲戚与财产的陌生人抢走；或者被他拖累到疲惫不堪、焦虑不安、青春耗尽的从属地步！这绝不行，如果用友谊和一个对她拥有母爱和母亲权利的人的身份去正当地干预，或许可以阻止这桩婚事。

Captain Wentworth had no fortune. He had been lucky in his profession; but spending freely, what had come freely, had realized nothing. But he was confident that he should soon be rich: full of life and ardour, he knew that he should soon have a ship, and soon be on a station that would lead to everything he wanted. He had always been lucky; he knew he should be so still. Such confidence, powerful in its own warmth, and bewitching in the wit which often expressed it, must have been enough for Anne; but Lady Russell saw it very differently. His sanguine temper, and fearlessness of mind, operated very differently on her. She saw in it but an aggravation of the evil. It only added a dangerous character to himself. He was brilliant, he was headstrong. Lady Russell had little taste for wit, and of anything approaching to imprudence a horror. She deprecated the connexion in every light.

温特沃思海军上校没有财产。他在事业上是幸运的，不过钱财来得容易，花得也快，他没有分文积蓄。但是他坚信他很快便会富起来：他朝气蓬勃，热情澎湃，他知道自己不久便会有一艘舰艇，很快便会谋得通向他所向往的一切的职位。他过去一直是幸运的；他知道将来也会如此。这种信心本身就非常强烈，他又将其表达得如此风趣诙谐，令人心醉，对安妮来说，这就足够了。但是拉塞尔夫人的看法却大不相同。弗雷德里克那乐观的性格和大无畏的精神，给拉塞尔夫人留下了截然不同的印象。她认为这只不过是罪孽的恶性发展。这只能给他的性格蒙上一层危险的阴影。他才华横溢但却刚愎自用。拉塞尔夫人不大欣赏诙谐，对任何轻率的举动都非常厌恶。无论从哪方面看，她都反对这桩婚事。

Such opposition, as these feelings produced, was more than Anne could combat. Young and gentle as she was, it might yet have been possible to withstand her father's ill-will, though unsoftened by one kind word or look on the part of her sister; but Lady Russell, whom she had always loved and relied on, could not, with such steadiness of opinion, and such tenderness of manner, be continually advising her in vain. She was persuaded to believe the engagement a wrong thing: indiscreet, improper, hardly capable of success, and not deserving it. But it was not a merely selfish caution, under which she acted, in putting an end to it. Had she not imagined herself consulting his good, even more than her own, she could hardly have given him up. The belief of being prudent, and self-denying, principally for his advantage, was her chief consolation, under the misery of a parting, a final parting; and every consolation was required, for she had to encounter all the additional pain of opinions, on his side, totally unconvinced and unbending, and of his feeling himself ill used by so forced a relinquishment. He had left the country in consequence.

这些感情引起的强烈的反对情绪超过了安妮的承受能力。她虽然年轻温柔，但是对于父亲的对立情绪，她还是有可能抵抗住的，哪怕姐姐没说一句同情的话或使一个同情的眼色来缓解这一情绪。但是她一向热爱和信赖的拉塞尔夫人这么坚决，这么慈祥地不断劝说，却不能不对她产生影响。安妮被说服了，相信这次订婚是一件错误的事情：轻率，不恰当，不会成功，也不值得成功。但是安妮能中断这一关系，并不仅仅出于自私的考虑。如果不是她以为这样做更多的是为弗雷德里克，而不是为自己考虑，她可能根本不会放弃他。她相信自己这样慎重，自我克制，主要是为了他好，这是她忍痛与他分手，也是最终分手的主要慰藉。她当时的确非常需要慰藉，她不得不承受所有额外的痛苦，因为弗雷德里克不仅根本不相信她的动机，而且十分固执，觉得自己因被迫中断婚约而受到了侮辱。结果，他离开了萨默塞特郡。

A few months had seen the beginning and the end of their acquaintance; but not with a few months ended Anne's share of suffering from it. Her attachment and regrets had, for a long time, clouded every enjoyment of youth, and an early loss of bloom and spirits had been their lasting effect.

他们的相识，从开始到结束只有几个月；但是安妮为此而承受的痛苦却不是几个月就能消逝的。很长一段时间以来，她的痴情与悔恨阴云般笼罩在她心头，使她享受不到青春的快乐，使她早早地失去了青春的艳丽与热情。

More than seven years were gone since this little history of sorrowful interest had reached its close; and time had softened down much, perhaps nearly all of peculiar attachment to him, but she had been too dependent on time alone; no aid had been given in change of place (except in one visit to Bath soon after the rupture), or in any novelty or enlargement of society. No one had ever come within the Kellynch circle, who could bear a comparison with Frederick Wentworth, as he stood in her memory. No second attachment, the only thoroughly natural, happy, and sufficient cure, at her time of life, had been possible to the nice tone of her mind, the fastidiousness of her taste, in the small limits of the society around them. She had been solicited, when about two-and-twenty, to change her name, by the young man, who not long afterwards found a more willing mind in her younger sister; and Lady Russell had lamented her refusal; for Charles Musgrove was the eldest son of a man, whose landed property and general importance were second in that country, only to Sir Walter's, and of good character and appearance; and however Lady Russell might have asked yet for something more, while Anne was nineteen, she would have rejoiced to see her at twenty-two so respectably removed from the partialities and injustice of her father's house, and settled so permanently near herself. But in this case, Anne had left nothing for advice to do; and though Lady Russell, as satisfied as ever with her own discretion, never wished the past undone, she began now to have the anxiety which borders on hopelessness for Anne's being tempted, by some man of talents and independence, to enter a state for which she held her to be peculiarly fitted by her warm affections and domestic habits.

这段令人悲痛的短暂历史已经过去七年多了。时间大大地冲淡了，或许几乎全部抹去了对他的专一爱情。但是安妮依赖的完全是时光的推移；住所的变更（她只是在终止婚约后不久去过巴斯一次），或新的、更广泛的社会交往，都对她毫无帮助。凡是进入凯林奇社交圈的人，没有一个可以同她记忆中的弗雷德里克相提并论。在她这个年纪，第二次恋爱是唯一能十分自然地、幸福而彻底地医治心灵创伤的良药，但是在当时有限的社交环境中，安妮那高雅的格调、挑剔的情绪，使她难以再次产生这样的感情。当她大约22岁的时候，有位年轻人曾向她求婚，但是不久之后，这位年轻人却发现她妹妹更加愿意和他共结琴瑟之好。拉塞尔夫人对她的拒绝表示惋惜；因为查尔斯·马斯格罗夫是个长子，他父亲的地产与地位在那一带仅次于沃尔特爵士，而且他人品优秀、仪表堂堂。如果安妮19岁，拉塞尔夫人也许要求高一些，可是安妮已经22岁了，她很愿意看到安妮体面地摆脱娘家的偏心和不公平，在她附近永久地定居下来。不过这一次，安妮一点劝告也听不进去，尽管拉塞尔夫人对自己所做的决定一向是满意的，而且从不后悔，但是这一次她却有些忐忑不安了，她觉得安妮感情热烈、善于持家，特别适合过小家庭生活，可现在恐怕没有希望使她被哪位富有才干、独立自主的男子所打动，与他结成美满姻缘了。

They knew not each other's opinion, either its constancy or its change, on the one leading point of Anne's conduct, for the subject was never alluded to; but Anne, at seven-and-twenty, thought very differently from what she had been made to think at nineteen. She did not blame Lady Russell, she did not blame herself for having been guided by her; but she felt that were any young person, in similar circumstances, to apply to her for counsel, they would never receive any of such certain immediate wretchedness, such uncertain future good. She was persuaded that under every disadvantage of disapprobation at home, and every anxiety attending his profession, all their probable fears, delays, and disappointments, she should yet have been a happier woman in maintaining the engagement, than she had been in the sacrifice of it; and this, she fully believed, had the usual share, had even more than the usual share of all such solicitudes and suspense been theirs, without reference to the actual results of their case, which, as it happened, would have bestowed earlier prosperity than could be reasonably calculated on. All his sanguine expectations, all his confidence had been justified. His genius and ardour had seemed to foresee and to command his prosperous path. He had, very soon after their engagement ceased, got employ: and all that he had told her would follow, had taken place. He had distinguished himself, and early gained the other step in rank, and must now, by successive captures, have made a handsome fortune. She had only navy lists and newspapers for her authority, but she could not doubt his being rich; and, in favour of his constancy, she had no reason to believe him married.

拉塞尔夫人并不知道安妮怎样看待自己当时的行为，也不知道这种看法是否一贯如此或者有所改变，安妮也不知道拉塞尔夫人的想法，因为打那以后她们再也没有提起过这件事。但是安妮到了27岁，她的想法与19岁时在别人的影响下产生的想法就大不相同了。她没有责怪拉塞尔夫人，也没有责怪自己接受了拉塞尔夫人的劝告；但是她认为要是任何处境相同的人来征求她的意见，他们决不会接受这种必将立即引起不幸、对未来的幸福毫无保障的劝告。她现在相信，在遭到家人反对的不利情况下，尽管他们对弗雷德里克的职业感到忧虑，可能引起他们的忧虑、延误与失望，但是假使她保持婚约的话会比解除婚约更为幸福。而且，她完全相信，即使他们经受通常的、甚至超越常情的忧虑和不安，她也会感到更幸福些。更何况，事实表明，这桩婚姻本来可以比通常的期望更早地带来财富。弗雷德里克种种乐观的期待、自信心都被证明是有道理的。他的才能和激情似乎预见到并指引着他的成功之路。他在婚约解除后不久就接受了一项任命：他对安妮预言过的一切都实现了。他表现突出，很快就晋升了一级，加上战利品不断，现在肯定已经积累了大笔的财产。安妮仅以海军花名册与报纸为依据；但是她毫不怀疑他变得富有了。想到他用情专一，安妮没有理由认为他已经结婚。

How eloquent could Anne Elliot have been!how eloquent, at least, were her wishes on the side of early warm attachment, and a cheerful confidence in futurity, against that over-anxious caution which seems to insult exertion and distrust Providence! She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

若叫安妮·埃利奥特说起来，那该具有何等的说服力啊！至少她对早年热恋的渴望，对未来的满怀信心，是多么具有说服力啊，而过分的谨慎看起来是对努力的亵渎与对上帝的怀疑啊！她年轻的时候不得不谨小慎微，随着年龄的增长才懂得了什么是浪漫：这是畸形的开端造成的必然后果。

With all these circumstances, recollections and feelings, she could not hear that Captain Wentworth's sister was likely to live at Kellynch without a revival of former pain; and many a stroll, and many a sigh, were necessary to dispel the agitation of the idea. She often told herself it was folly, before she could harden her nerves sufficiently to feel the continual discussion of the Crofts and their business no evil. She was assisted, however, by that perfect indifference and apparent unconsciousness, among the only three of her own friends in the secret of the past, which seemed almost to deny any recollection of it. She could do justice to the superiority of Lady Russell's motives in this, over those of her father and Elizabeth; she could honour all the better feelings of her calmness; but the general air of oblivion among them was highly important from whatever it sprung; and in the event of Admiral Croft's really taking Kellynch Hall, she rejoiced anew over the conviction which had always been most grateful to her, of the past being known to those three only among her connexions, by whom no syllable, she believed, would ever be whispered, and in the trust that among his, the brother only with whom he had been residing, had received any information of their short-lived engagement. That brother had been long removed from the country and being a sensible man, and, moreover, a single man at the time, she had a fond dependence on no human creature's having heard of it from him.

在这所有情况、回忆与感情的影响下，安妮在听到温特沃思海军上校的姐姐要住进凯林奇府时，不由得勾起过去的痛苦回忆。为驱散这一不安的念头，她需要多少次漫步、多少次叹息啊。她一再告诫自己这样做很愚蠢，最后她才鼓足勇气，觉得家人喋喋不休地谈论克罗夫特夫妇要租房子的事情没有什么恶意。不过她的亲朋好友中知道过去这段隐情的只有三个人，而他们对此毫不在乎，摆出一副毫无所知的样子，似乎根本不记得有过这件事情，这倒给安妮帮了忙。她可以公平地断定，拉塞尔夫人的动机比父亲和伊丽莎白高尚得多。她尊重拉塞尔夫人保持沉默的善意，但是不管是出于什么考虑，重要的是，大家似乎都忘记了过去。当克罗夫特将军真要租下凯林奇府时，安妮又一次高兴地确信过去一直使她大感宽慰的一点：在她的亲朋好友中知道往事的仅有三人，而这些人决不会有任何泄露，而且她认为，在弗雷德里克的亲朋好友中，只有当时和他住在一起的哥哥知道他们之间那段短暂的姻缘。这位哥哥早就搬离了这里，他为人又通情达理，而且当时还是个单身汉，所以安妮深信，没有人会从他那里听到这段隐情的。

The sister, Mrs. Croft, had then been out of England, accompanying her husband on a foreign station, and her own sister, Mary, had been at school while it all occurred; and never admitted by the pride of some, and the delicacy of others, to the smallest knowledge of it afterwards.

温特沃思的姐姐克罗夫特太太当时不在英国，陪同丈夫到海外基地驻扎了。在发生这一切时，安妮的妹妹玛丽正在学校，人们也许出于自尊，或许出于体贴，后来一丝半点儿也没有告诉她。

With these supports, she hoped that the acquaintance between herself and the Crofts, which, with Lady Russell, still resident in Kellynch, and Mary fixed only three miles off, must be anticipated, need not involve any particular awkwardness.

在这一切想法的支持下，安妮希望她同克罗夫特夫妇的结识不会出现任何特别尴尬的场面。而由于拉塞尔夫人还住在凯林奇，玛丽在三里之外，她对这一结识必须有所期待。

CHAPTER 5

第五章

On the morning appointed for Admiral and Mrs. Croft's seeing Kellynch Hall, Anne found it most natural to take her almost daily walk to Lady Russell's, and keep out of the way till all was over; when she found it most natural to be sorry that she had missed the opportunity of seeing them.

在克罗夫特将军夫妇约定来看房子的那天上午，安妮自然到拉塞尔夫人家里去了，她本来就几乎天天去拉塞尔夫人家走一趟。她在那里一直躲到一切都结束才回家。后来，她却为失去与克罗夫特夫妇见面的机会，又自然而然地感到遗憾。

This meeting of the two parties proved highly satisfactory, and decided the whole business at once. Each lady was previously well disposed for an agreement, and saw nothing, therefore, but good manners in the other; and with regard to the gentlemen, there was such an hearty good humour, such an open, trusting liberality on the Admiral's side, as could not but influence Sir Walter, who had besides been flattered into his very best and most polished behaviour by Mr. Shepherd's assurances of his being known, by report, to the Admiral, as a model of good breeding.

双方的这次会见令人非常满意，他们当场就把事情谈妥了。两位女士原本就非常愿意达成协议，因此就只看得见对方优雅的风度；至于两位绅士嘛，将军那样兴高采烈又大方慷慨，对房主表现出充分的信任，这不能不使沃尔特爵士受到感染。此外，谢泼德先生本来就告诉过爵士，这位将军早就听说他堪称卓有教养的楷模，在这一奉承下，爵士的言谈举止自然极其得体，极其优雅。

The house and grounds, and furniture, were approved, the Crofts were approved, terms, time, every thing, and every body, was right; and Mr. Shepherd's clerks were set to work, without there having been a single preliminary difference to modify of all that "This indenture sheweth."

房子、庭园与家具都得到了认可，克罗夫特夫妇也得到了认可。条件、时间、各项安排、有关人员都没有问题。谢泼德先生的办事员便着手工作。从一开始，双方都没有对“合同规定”的各个项目提出任何异议，不需要对其进行任何修改。

Sir Walter, without hesitation, declared the Admiral to be the best-looking sailor he had ever met with, and went so far as to say, that if his own man might have had the arranging of his hair, he should not be ashamed of being seen with him any where; and the Admiral, with sympathetic cordiality, observed to his wife as they drove back through the park, "I thought we should soon come to a deal, my dear, in spite of what they told us at Taunton. The Baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems to be no harm in him." reciprocal compliments, which would have been esteemed about equal.

沃尔特爵士毫不犹豫地宣布克罗夫特将军是他遇到过的最神气的海军将领，他甚至说，如果让他的仆人为之理发，他便可以毫无愧色地同克罗夫特将军一起在任何地方露面。回去时，将军在马车驶过花园时，真挚而热情地对妻子说：“亲爱的，尽管在汤顿有人跟我们说了他们很多闲话，但我想我们会很快谈成此事的。准男爵不会有什么惊人之举，但为人也不坏。”这种相互的恭维可以说是旗鼓相当的。

The Crofts were to have possession at Michaelmas; and as Sir Walter proposed removing to Bath in the course of the preceding month, there was no time to be lost in making every dependent arrangement.

克罗夫特夫妇要在米迦勒节那天住进凯林奇府，沃尔特爵士提议早一个月迁往巴斯，因此要抓紧时间进行搬家的各种安排。

Lady Russell, convinced that Anne would not be allowed to be of any use, or any importance, in the choice of the house which they were going to secure, was very unwilling to have her hurried away so soon, and wanted to make it possible for her to stay behind till she might convey her to Bath herself after Christmas; but having engagements of her own which must take her from Kellynch for several weeks, she was unable to give the full invitation she wished, and Anne though dreading the possible heats of September in all the white glare of Bath, and grieving to forego all the influence so sweet and so sad of the autumnal months in the country, did not think that, everything considered, she wished to remain. It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering to go with the others.

拉塞尔夫人深信，在爵士家选择新居的问题上，安妮不会有什么发言权，也起不了什么作用，所以不愿意让安妮走得太早，希望她留下来，等到圣诞节过后亲自把她送到巴斯。但是拉塞尔夫人自己又有事，必须离开凯林奇几个星期，但又不可能尽心如愿地提出邀请，而安妮呢，虽然惧怕巴斯九月份的炎炎烈日，又很留恋乡间温馨而萧瑟的秋景，但是通盘考虑了一下，她还是不想留下。同大家一起走是上策，这样做最聪明，痛苦也最少。

Something occurred, however, to give her a different duty. Mary, often a little unwell, and always thinking a great deal of her own complaints, and always in the habit of claiming Anne when anything was the matter, was indisposed; and foreseeing that she should not have a day's health all the autumn, entreated, or rather required her, for it was hardly entreaty, to come to Uppercross Cottage, and bear her company as long as she should want her, instead of going to Bath.

不过这时出了些状况，安妮又得担负起另一种责任。玛丽，经常有点小恙，而且总是把自己的病情看得很严重，而且一有点什么就要把安妮叫去。那天，玛丽感到有点不舒服，她预感到自己整个秋天都好不了了，所以就请求，或者更确切地说，是要求安妮不要到巴斯去，而是到阿珀克罗斯乡舍去同做伴，而且要她呆多久就呆多久，这就很难说是请求了。

"I cannot possibly do without Anne," was Mary's reasoning; and Elizabeth's reply was, "Then I am sure Anne had better stay, for nobody will want her in Bath."“我不能没有安妮。”这是玛丽的理由。伊丽莎白的回答则是：“那么，我觉得安妮最好还是留下，因为巴斯那边谁也不需要她。”

To be claimed as a good, though in an improper style, is at least better than being rejected as no good at all; and Anne, glad to be thought of some use, glad to have anything marked out as a duty, and certainly not sorry to have the scene of it in the country, and her own dear country, readily agreed to stay.

虽说提法不大合适，但被认为有用总比被人当作无用之材而舍弃的好。安妮很高兴被人看作还有点作用，很乐意承担别人给她分派的任务，何况要她尽义务的地方是在乡间，在她亲爱的家乡，所以她欣然同意留下。

This invitation of Mary's removed all Lady Russell's difficulties, and it was consequently soon settled that Anne should not go to Bath till Lady Russell took her, and that all the intervening time should be divided between Uppercross Cottage and Kellynch Lodge.

玛丽的这一邀请解决了拉塞尔夫人的全部困难，事情很快就决定了：安妮暂时不去巴斯，等以后拉塞尔夫人把她送去。在这期间，她将轮流住在阿珀克罗斯乡舍和凯林奇小屋。

So far all was perfectly right; but Lady Russell was almost startled by the wrong of one part of the Kellynch Hall plan, when it burst on her, which was, Mrs. Clay's being engaged to go to Bath with Sir Walter and Elizabeth, as a most important and valuable assistant to the latter in all the business before her. Lady Russell was extremely sorry that such a measure should have been resorted to at all, wondered, grieved, and feared; and the affront it contained to Anne, in Mrs. Clay's being of so much use, while Anne could be of none, was a very sore aggravation.

至此，一切都已安排妥当。但是拉塞尔夫人突然得知，凯林奇府的计划是要克莱太太同沃尔特爵士和伊丽莎白一起去巴斯，因为伊丽莎白在处理各项事务时很需要这位可贵的重要帮手。这一项不恰当的安排几乎使拉塞尔夫人吓了一跳。拉塞尔夫人感到极其遗憾，沃尔特爵士父女居然会采取这样的措施，这真叫她感到惊讶、伤心和害怕。他们这么看重克莱太太，却把安妮看成一无是处，这是对安妮的侮辱，确实令人十分恼怒。

Anne herself was become hardened to such affronts; but she felt the imprudence of the arrangement quite as keenly as Lady Russell. With a great deal of quiet observation, and a knowledge, which she often wished less, of her father's character, she was sensible that results the most serious to his family from the intimacy were more than possible. She did not imagine that her father had at present an idea of the kind. Mrs. Clay had freckles, and a projecting tooth, and a clumsy wrist, which he was continually making severe remarks upon, in her absence; but she was young, and certainly altogether well-looking, and possessed, in an acute mind and assiduous pleasing manners, infinitely more dangerous attractions than any merely personal might have been. Anne was so impressed by the degree of their danger, that she could not excuse herself from trying to make it perceptible to her sister. She had little hope of success; but Elizabeth, who in the event of such a reverse would be so much more to be pitied than herself, should never, she thought, have reason to reproach her for giving no warning.

安妮本人对这种侮辱却无动于衷了，不过他跟拉塞尔夫人一样，也敏锐地感到这种安排是草率的。凭着她大量的暗中观察以及对父亲的了解，虽然她常常希望自己对父亲的了解不要这么透彻，但她感觉到了她父亲同克莱太太的亲密关系完全可能给他一家带来非常严重的后果。她并不认为她父亲现在就有这种想法。克莱太太满脸雀斑，长着龅牙，还有一双沃尔特爵士常在背地里加以挖苦的笨拙手腕。不过克莱太太正年轻，总的来说肯定还算漂亮，而且思维敏捷，举止一向讨人喜欢，所以其吸引力比任何徒有其表的人危险得多。安妮深感事态的严重，觉得必须让姐姐有所察觉。她成功的希望很渺茫，但一旦出了事，伊丽莎白就没有理由责备安妮，说她事先没有提出警告。安妮觉得，要是真的出了事，伊丽莎白比她更可怜。

She spoke, and seemed only to offend. Elizabeth could not conceive how such an absurd suspicion should occur to her, and indignantly answered for each party's perfectly knowing their situation.

安妮说了自己的想法，但是看来却冒犯了姐姐。伊莉莎白无法理解安妮怎么会产生如此荒唐的怀疑，生气地保证父亲和克莱太太都很清楚各自的身份。

"Mrs. Clay," said she, warmly, "never forgets who she is; and as I am rather better acquainted with her sentiments than you can be, I can assure you, that upon the subject of marriage they are particularly nice, and that she reprobates all inequality of condition and rank more strongly than most people. And as to my father, I really should not have thought that he, who has kept himself single so long for our sakes, need be suspected now. If Mrs. Clay were a very beautiful woman, I grant you, it might be wrong to have her so much with me; not that anything in the world, I am sure, would induce my father to make a degrading match, but he might be rendered unhappy. But poor Mrs. Clay who, with all her merits, can never have been reckoned tolerably pretty, I really think poor Mrs. Clay may be staying here in perfect safety. One would imagine you had never heard my father speak of her personal misfortunes, though I know you must fifty times. That tooth of her's and those freckles. Freckles do not disgust me so very much as they do him. I have known a face not materially disfigured by a few, but he abominates them. You must have heard him notice Mrs. Clay's freckles.”“克莱太太，”她激动地说，“从来没有忘记自己的身份，我比你更了解她的想法，我可以保证，她对婚姻问题的看法非常正确，她比大多数人更强烈地谴责门不当、户不对的婚姻。至于父亲，这些年来他为了我们一直过着独身的生活，我的确想象不到现在居然要去怀疑他。假如克莱太太是一位非常漂亮的女人，我承认我总跟她在一起或许不大恰当。我确信，这倒不是因为世上有什么事会促使父亲去结一门丢人的婚姻，而是因为他会感到不快。但是可怜的克莱太太，尽管自己有很多优点，却绝对算不上有姿色，我确实认为可怜的克莱太太住在这里是万无一失的。别人还会以为你从没听见父亲议论过她外貌上的缺陷呢，可是我知道，你大概听过不下五十次了。她的那颗牙齿，她的雀斑。我还不像父亲那样讨厌雀斑呢。我认识一位脸上有几个雀斑，但却不难看的人，可是父亲却非常讨厌那些雀斑。你一定听过他议论克莱太太的雀斑吧。”

"There is hardly any personal defect," replied Anne, "which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to."“一个人不管相貌上有什么缺陷，”安妮回答道，“只要态度讨人喜欢，总会使对方渐渐产生好感的。”

"I think very differently," answered Elizabeth, shortly; "an agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never alter plain ones. However, at any rate, as I have a great deal more at stake on this point than anybody else can have, I think it rather unnecessary in you to be advising me."“我不这么认为，”伊丽莎白立即回答道，“态度讨人喜欢可以衬托出美丽的外貌，但是改变不了丑陋的外貌。不过，不管怎么说，在这方面我承担的风险比任何人都大，我觉得，你没有必要对我提出任何劝告。”

Anne had done; glad that it was over, and not absolutely hopeless of doing good. Elizabeth, though resenting the suspicion, might yet be made observant by it.

安妮说出了想法，也很高兴结束这番对话，她对这次谈话的作用多少抱有一线希望。伊丽莎白虽然对安妮的怀疑抱有反感，但这也许能加强她的戒备心理。

The last office of the four carriage-horses was to draw Sir Walter, Miss Elliot, and Mrs. Clay to Bath. The party drove off in very good spirits; Sir Walter prepared with condescending bows for all the afflicted tenantry and cottagers who might have had a hint to show themselves, and Anne walked up at the same time, in a sort of desolate tranquillity, to the Lodge, where she was to spend the first week.

那辆驷马马车的最后任务是将沃尔特爵士、埃利奥特小姐和克莱太太送到巴斯去。这帮人兴高采烈地出发了。沃尔特准备好要屈尊给那些得到暗示而出来送行的寒酸佃农和村民鞠躬致意。而在这时，安妮却正平静而凄凉地朝拉塞尔夫人的小屋走去，她要在那里度过她的第一个星期。

Her friend was not in better spirits than herself. Lady Russell felt this break-up of the family exceedingly. Their respectability was as dear to her as her own, and a daily intercourse had become precious by habit. It was painful to look upon their deserted grounds, and still worse to anticipate the new hands they were to fall into; and to escape the solitariness and the melancholy of so altered a village, and be out of the way when Admiral and Mrs. Croft first arrived, she had determined to make her own absence from home begin when she must give up Anne. Accordingly their removal was made together, and Anne was set down at Uppercross Cottage, in the first stage of Lady Russell's journey.

她朋友的情绪并不比她的高。拉塞尔夫人对这个家庭的败落感到十分感伤。沃尔特爵士一家的体面跟她自己的一样珍贵，他们之间的日常交往已经成了一种宝贵的习惯。看到被他们荒废的庭园，她就感到很痛心，而且一想到这些房产将落入他人之手，就更加难过。为避免目睹村子在经历如此巨变后产生的寂寞和忧郁，为免得看到克罗夫特将军夫妇搬来的情景，她早就决定在安妮必须离去的那天一同出门。因此她们两人一起出发了，安妮陪拉塞尔夫人走了头一程，便来到了阿珀克罗斯乡舍。

Uppercross was a moderate-sized village, which a few years back had been completely in the old English style, containing only two houses superior in appearance to those of the yeomen and labourers; the mansion of the squire, with its high walls, great gates, and old trees, substantial and unmodernized, and the compact, tight parsonage, enclosed in its own neat garden, with a vine and a pear-tree trained round its casements; but upon the marriage of the young 'squire, it had received the improvement of a farm-house elevated into a cottage, for his residence, and Uppercross Cottage, with its veranda, French windows, and other prettiness, was quite as likely to catch the traveller's eye as the more consistent and considerable aspect and premises of the Great House, about a quarter of a mile farther on.

阿珀克罗斯是一个中等大小的村庄，就在几年以前，这里还完全是一派英国古老风格，当时只有这两座房子看上去比自耕农与佃农的房子好一些。属于乡绅的一座庄园有着高高的围墙、宽大的院门、古老的树林，房屋坚固而古朴。另一座是紧凑而整洁的牧师住宅，四周是个雅致的私人花园，窗框周围满是葡萄藤和梨树枝。但是，乡绅在儿子结婚时，为他把一座农舍修缮成一幢住宅，从而改变了村子的面貌。这座阿珀克罗斯乡舍建有游廊、法国式窗户，还有其他装饰，和约在半公里以外的那座造型更为协调、庭园更为宽敞的老宅一样能够吸引过路人的注目。

Here Anne had often been staying. She knew the ways of Uppercross as well as those of Kellynch. The two families were so continually meeting, so much in the habit of running in and out of each other's house at all hours, that it was rather a surprise to her to find Mary alone; but being alone, her being unwell and out of spirits was almost a matter of course. Though better endowed than the elder sister, Mary had not Anne's understanding nor temper. While well, and happy, and properly attended to, she had great good humour and excellent spirits; but any indisposition sunk her completely. She had no resources for solitude; and inheriting a considerable share of the Elliot self-importance, was very prone to add to every other distress that of fancying herself neglected and ill-used. In person, she was inferior to both sisters, and had, even in her bloom, only reached the dignity of being "a fine girl." She was now lying on the faded sofa of the pretty little drawing-room, the once elegant furniture of which had been gradually growing shabby, under the influence of four summers and two children; and, on Anne's appearing, greeted her with—

安妮常来这里小住。她对阿珀克罗斯的生活方式非常熟悉，就像熟悉凯林奇的一样。他们两家人如此频繁地往来，养成了随时在对方家里跑进跑出的习惯。因此，安妮看到玛丽一人在家，感到非常惊讶。不过，玛丽既然是单独一个人，那么身体不适和情绪沮丧是肯定无疑的了。尽管玛丽的条件比安妮好，但是她却没有姐姐的悟性和脾气。她在身体健康、心情舒畅、受到别人妥当照顾的时候，是很幽默而活泼的。但是只要有一点小毛病，她的情绪就会一落千丈。她最怕孤独，而且在很大程度上继承了埃利奥特家族自负的传统，不管遇到什么不快，总是疑心遭到了忽视和屈辱。从容貌上看，玛丽较两位姐姐逊色，甚至在她豆蔻年华之际，也只能算个“还看得过去的姑娘”。这时，她正躺在漂亮的小客厅里一张褪色的沙发上。这些当年十分典雅的陈设，经过四个春秋和两个孩子的折腾，已经逐渐破旧了。一看到安妮到来，玛丽劈面就是一句：

"So, you are come at last! I began to think I should never see you. I am so ill I can hardly speak. I have not seen a creature the whole morning!"“啊，你总算来了！我还以为永远都见不到你了。我很不舒服，连说话的力气都没有。一上午都没见到一个人影！”

"I am sorry to find you unwell," replied Anne. "You sent me such a good account of yourself on Thursday!"“看到你身体这么不好，我很难过，”安妮回答说，“你星期四给我的信中，不是说你一切都很好吗！”

"Yes, I made the best of it; I always do: but I was very far from well at the time; and I do not think I ever was so ill in my life as I have been all this morning: very unfit to be left alone, I am sure. Suppose I were to be seized of a sudden in some dreadful way, and not able to ring the bell! So, Lady Russell would not get out. I do not think she has been in this house three times this summer.”“是的，我不过往好处说而已。我一向是这样。其实那天我感到很不舒服。今天上午，我好像一辈子也没有这么难受过，真不该让我一个人呆在家里。我万一突然病得不行，不能打铃，怎么办呢？这么说，拉塞尔夫人是不肯下车了。我想今年夏天她到这儿来还不超过三次呢。”

Anne said what was proper, and enquired after her husband. "Oh! Charles is out shooting. I have not seen him since seven o'clock. He would go, though I told him how ill I was. He said he should not stay out long; but he has never come back, and now it is almost one. I assure you, I have not seen a soul this whole long morning.”

安妮说了些应景的话，接着又问了问玛丽的丈夫。“啊，查尔斯打猎去了。我从七点钟起就没有见过他。尽管我对他说我很不舒服，但他还是去了。他说他不会在外面呆太久，可是他根本没回来，现在都已经快一点了。我跟你说，整整一上午，我一个人也没有见到。”

"You have had your little boys with you?"“你没有叫两个儿子来陪你一会儿吗？”

"Yes, as long as I could bear their noise; but they are so unmanageable that they do me more harm than good. Little Charles does not mind a word I say, and Walter is growing quite as bad."“他们来了，我又受不了他们的吵闹，可是他们根本不听管教。他们对我只有坏处没有好处。小查尔斯一句话也不听我的，沃尔特也变得一样淘气。”

"Well, you will soon be better now," replied Anne, cheerfully. "You know I always cure you when I come. How are your neighbours at the Great House?"“好了，你一会儿就会好的，”安妮兴致勃勃地回答说，“你知道，我一来就总会把你的病治好。你老宅里的邻居怎么样了？”

"I can give you no account of them. I have not seen one of them today, except Mr. Musgrove, who just stopped and spoke through the window, but without getting off his horse; and though I told him how ill I was, not one of them have been near me. It did not happen to suit the Miss Musgroves, I suppose, and they never put themselves out of their way."“我没法向你介绍他们的情况。今天，我谁也没有看见，只有马斯格罗夫先生在窗口停下来跟我说了几句，他当时连马都没有下。尽管我告诉他我病得很厉害，可是他们谁也没靠近我。我想，大概是两位马斯格罗夫小姐觉得不方便吧，她们从来都不肯为别人费心的。”

"You will see them yet, perhaps, before the morning is gone. It is early."“也许不等上午结束，你就会见到她们的。时间还早。”

"I never want them, I assure you. They talk and laugh a great deal too much for me. Oh! Anne, I am so very unwell! It was quite unkind of you not to come on Thursday."“我告诉你，我才不需要她们呢。她们太爱说笑了，这让我受不了。啊，安妮，我真是身体不舒服！你星期四没来，真是不体谅人。”

"My dear Mary, recollect what a comfortable account you sent me of yourself! You wrote in the cheerfullest manner, and said you were perfectly well, and in no hurry for me; and that being the case, you must be aware that my wish would be to remain with Lady Russell to the last: and besides what I felt on her account, I have really been so busy, have had so much to do, that I could not very conveniently have left Kellynch sooner.”“亲爱的玛丽，你想想，你在寄给我的信里把自己写得多么舒适啊！”你用最愉快的笔调，告诉我你身体非常好，不急于让我来。既然如此，你一定知道我想同拉塞尔夫人呆到最后。而且除了要照顾她以外，我确实一直很忙，有好多事情要干，因此很不方便，不能早点离开凯林奇。”

"Dear me!what can you possibly have to do?"“是吗！可是你能干些什么呢？”

"A great many things, I assure you. More than I can recollect in a moment; but I can tell you some. I have been making a duplicate of the catalogue of my father's books and pictures. I have been several times in the garden with Mackenzie, trying to understand, and make him understand, which of Elizabeth's plants are for Lady Russell. I have had all my own little concerns to arrange, books and music to divide, and all my trunks to repack, from not having understood in time what was intended as to the waggons: and one thing I have had to do, Mary, of a more trying nature: going to almost every house in the parish, as a sort of take-leave. I was told that they wished it. But all these things took up a great deal of time.”“告诉你，事情多着呢。多得我一下子也记不起来，不过我可以大致告诉你一些。我一直在为父亲的书画誊写目录。我同麦肯齐去花园转了几次，想要弄清楚，也让麦肯齐弄清楚，伊丽莎白的花草中哪些是送给拉塞尔夫人的。我自己也还有一些小事要安排，书籍和乐谱要分门别类地分清楚，我的箱子需要重新收拾，因为我没有及时地搞清楚货车方面的时间安排。玛丽，我还有一件更尴尬的事情：就是要到教区里的每一家走一趟，算是告别。据说他们希望我能告别一下。不过这些事情占据了我好多时间。”

"Oh!well!" and after a moment's pause, "but you have never asked me one word about our dinner at the Pooles yesterday."“啊，好吧！”玛丽顿了一会儿，又接着说道，“但是你一句也没有问起昨天我们在普尔家吃晚餐的事情。”

"Did you go then? I have made no enquiries, because I concluded you must have been obliged to give up the party."“这么说，你还是去了？”我没问起，是因为我以为你准是不得已放弃了这次宴会。”

"Oh yes! I went. I was very well yesterday; nothing at all the matter with me till this morning. It would have been strange if I had not gone."“啊，是的！我去了。昨天我身体很好，直到今天早上我一直都很好。我要是不去，那不是很奇怪。”

"I am very glad you were well enough, and I hope you had a pleasant party."“我很高兴你当时身体很好，我想你们的宴会应该很有趣吧。”

"Nothing remarkable. One always knows beforehand what the dinner will be, and who will be there; and it is so very uncomfortable not having a carriage of one's own. Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove took me, and we were so crowded! They are both so very large, and take up so much room; and Mr. Musgrove always sits forward. So, there was I, crowded into the back seat with Henrietta and Louisa; and I think it very likely that my illness to-day may be owing to it.”“没什么特别的。你总是预先知道晚餐会吃些什么东西，有哪些人参加。不过没有自己的马车，真令人不舒服。马斯格罗夫夫妇带我去的，车上太挤了！他们俩那么胖，占去那么多的地方，而且马斯格罗夫先生总是坐在最前面。这样一来，我就同亨里埃塔和路易莎一起挤在后座。我想我今天不舒服很可能是被挤导致的。”

A little further perseverance in patience and forced cheerfulness on Anne's side produced nearly a cure on Mary's. She could soon sit upright on the sofa, and began to hope she might be able to leave it by dinner-time. Then, forgetting to think of it, she was at the other end of the room, beautifying a nosegay; then, she ate her cold meat; and then she was well enough to propose a little walk.

安妮继续耐着性子，勉强微笑着，几乎真把玛丽的病给治好了。玛丽很快就能在沙发上直身坐起来了，并且自己希望吃晚饭的时候就能离开沙发了。一会儿，她竟然忘了此事，走到房间的另一头整理花束了，接着她又吃了一点冻肉，又跟没事似的，还建议出去散散步。

"Where shall we go?" said she, when they were ready. "I suppose you will not like to call at the Great House before they have been to see you?"

两人准备停当以后，她又说：“到哪儿去呢？”“我想，在老宅的人来看你以前，你是不想去拜访他们的吧？”

"I have not the smallest objection on that account," replied Anne. "I should never think of standing on such ceremony with people I know so well as Mrs. and the Miss Musgroves."“我丝毫没有什么不愿意的，”安妮回答说。“对于马斯格罗夫太太和小姐那样熟悉的人，我决不会这么拘礼的。”

"Oh!but they ought to call upon you as soon as possible. They ought to feel what is due to you as my sister. However, we may as well go and sit with them a little while, and when we have that over, we can enjoy our walk."“哼，他们倒是应该尽快来看看你。他们应该知道如何对待你，因为你是我的姐姐。不过，我们还是去他们那里坐一会儿吧，然后就可以安心地去散步了。”

Anne had always thought such a style of intercourse highly imprudent; but she had ceased to endeavour to check it, from believing that, though there were on each side continual subjects of offence, neither family could now do without it. To the Great House accordingly they went, to sit the full half hour in the old-fashioned square parlour, with a small carpet and shining floor, to which the present daughters of the house were gradually giving the proper air of confusion by a grand piano-forte and a harp, flower-stands and little tables placed in every direction. Oh! could the originals of the portraits against the wainscot, could the gentlemen in brown velvet and the ladies in blue satin have seen what was going on, have been conscious of such an overthrow of all order and neatness! The portraits themselves seemed to be staring in astonishment.

安妮一直以为这种交往方式极不谨慎，但是她又不想加以阻止，因为她觉得尽管双方不断有使人不快之举，但是总免不了你来我往的。因此，他们去了老宅，在那旧式的方形客厅中坐了足足半个小时，客厅的地板非常光亮，地上铺着一块小地毯。当时，房主的两个女儿已陆续在里面摆放了一家钢琴、一架竖琴，又到处放了花架与小桌子，把屋子弄得乱七八糟。哎，要是护壁板上的那些真迹画像，那些身穿棕色丝绒服的绅士和身穿蓝色缎子的太太看到这番景象，看到这里给弄得乱七八糟，觉察到如此的脏乱，会有何感想呢？这些画像似乎也在惊讶地凝视着这一切。

The Musgroves, like their houses, were in a state of alteration, perhaps of improvement. The father and mother were in the old English style, and the young people in the new. Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove were a very good sort of people; friendly and hospitable, not much educated, and not at all elegant. Their children had more modern minds and manners. There was a numerous family; but the only two grown up, excepting Charles, were Henrietta and Louisa, young ladies of nineteen and twenty, who had brought from school at Exeter all the usual stock of accomplishments, and were now like thousands of other young ladies, living to be fashionable, happy, and merry. Their dress had every advantage, their faces were rather pretty, their spirits extremely good, their manner unembarrassed and pleasant; they were of consequence at home, and favourites abroad. Anne always contemplated them as some of the happiest creatures of her acquaintance; but still, saved as we all are, by some comfortable feeling of superiority from wishing for the possibility of exchange, she would not have given up her own more elegant and cultivated mind for all their enjoyments; and envied them nothing but that seemingly perfect good understanding and agreement together, that good-humoured mutual affection, of which she had known so little herself with either of her sisters.

马斯格罗夫一家，同他们的房子一样，正在经历着变迁，也许是向好的方向变化。父母保持传统的英国人习惯，而年轻人则都是新派。马斯格罗夫夫妇都是大好人：为人友好、热情好客。他们没有受过多少教育，谈不上什么高雅。孩子们的思想举止却很时髦。原来这户人家子女很多，但是除了查尔斯之外，只有两个长大成人了：亨里埃塔和路易莎。这两位小姐，一个十九岁，一个二十岁，在埃克塞特的学校读书时学到了她们该学的东西。现在她们同许多其他的年轻小姐一样，过着时髦、幸福而愉快的生活。她们衣着漂亮、容颜秀丽，情绪高涨，举止大方可爱。她们是家里的宠儿，在外面也颇受青睐。安妮总是把她们看成是最幸福的几位朋友，但是我们大家都有某种足以自慰的优越感，不愿同别人换个位置。安妮也一样，她不愿放弃自己更高雅和更有教养的心胸，去换取这两位朋友的一切享受。她只是羡慕这两位姐妹之间看上去极为和谐而默契、开朗而友好的感情，安妮同自己的姐妹之间却缺少这样的感情。

They were received with great cordiality. Nothing seemed amiss on the side of the Great House family, which was generally, as Anne very well knew, the least to blame. The half hour was chatted away pleasantly enough; and she was not at all surprised at the end of it, to have their walking party joined by both the Miss Musgroves, at Mary's particular invitation.

安妮和玛丽受到了热情的款待。老宅一家人对她们招待非常周到，安妮心里清楚，这一方通常是无可厚非的。他们愉快地交谈着，半个小时一晃就过去了。谈话结束时，两位马斯格罗夫小姐在玛丽的盛情邀请下，同他们一起散步去了。对此，安妮一点也不感到奇怪。

CHAPTER 6

第六章

Anne had not wanted this visit to Uppercross, to learn that a removal from one set of people to another, though at a distance of only three miles, will often include a total change of conversation, opinion, and idea. She had never been staying there before, without being struck by it, or without wishing that other Elliots could have her advantage in seeing how unknown, or unconsidered there, were the affairs which at Kellynch Hall were treated as of such general publicity and pervading interest; yet, with all this experience, she believed she must now submit to feel that another lesson, in the art of knowing our own nothingness beyond our own circle, was become necessary for her; for certainly, coming as she did, with a heart full of the subject which had been completely occupying both houses in Kellynch for many weeks, she had expected rather more curiosity and sympathy than she found in the separate but very similar remark of Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove: "So, Miss Anne, Sir Walter and your sister are gone; and what part of Bath do you think they will settle in?" and this, without much waiting for an answer; or in the young ladies' addition of, "I hope we shall be in Bath in the winter; but remember, papa, if we do go, we must

安妮并不需要通过这次对阿珀克罗斯的拜访来体会：人们离开一群人，来到另一群人中间，即使两者相距只有三英里，人们的谈话、见解和思维往往根本不同。以前，每次来到这里，她都对此感触颇深。她希望埃利奥特家的其他成员能像她一样有幸看到：凯林奇府认为是众所周知和饶有兴味的事情，在这里却根本无人知晓或显得无足轻重。然而，尽管有过这些体验，安妮仍然觉得，现在她应该意识到有必要接受另一个教训，即甘心承认人们脱离了自己的环境便毫无价值。安妮来到这里时，脑子里装满了几星期来凯林奇两家人一心为之操劳的事情。她当然以为会遇到一些好奇和同情，而不仅仅是马斯格罗夫先生和太太分别作出但极其相似的表态：“这么说，安妮小姐，沃尔特爵士和你姐姐已经走了。你认为他们会在巴斯的哪个地方定居？”说完后，也不怎么想听安妮的回答；也不仅仅是两位小姐的插话：“我希望冬天我们也能到巴斯去。不过，爸爸，请记住，我们如果去的话，居住条件一定要好。我们可不愿意住女王广场！”也不仅仅是玛丽不快的补充：“是啊，等你们大家都到巴斯去享乐时，我可就要倒霉了！”

She could only resolve to avoid such self-delusion in future, and think with heightened gratitude of the extraordinary blessing of having one such truly sympathising friend as Lady Russell.

安妮只能下定决心今后避免这自欺欺人的念头，同时也更加庆幸自己有福气拥有拉塞尔夫人这样真正富有同情心的朋友。

The Mr. Musgroves had their own game to guard, and to destroy, their own horses, dogs, and newspapers to engage them, and the females were fully occupied in all the other common subjects of housekeeping, neighbours, dress, dancing, and music. She acknowledged it to be very fitting, that every little social commonwealth should dictate its own matters of discourse; and hoped, ere long, to become a not unworthy member of the one she was now transplanted into. With the prospect of spending at least two months at Uppercross, it was highly incumbent on her to clothe her imagination, her memory, and all her ideas in as much of Uppercross as possible.

马斯格罗夫父子俩要护猎、狩猎、养马、养狗和看报；太太和小姐们整天忙于种种家务、邻居交往、穿着打扮、唱歌和跳舞。安妮承认，每个小小的社交圈子应该有与之相宜的话题，并希望不久以后能当之无愧地成为目前所处的社交圈子中的一员。安妮预期要在阿珀克罗斯至少呆两个月，因而必须使自己的幻想、记忆和种种想法沉浸尽可能地不脱离这个地方。

She had no dread of these two months. Mary was not so repulsive and unsisterly as Elizabeth, nor so inaccessible to all influence of hers; neither was there anything among the other component parts of the cottage inimical to comfort. She was always on friendly terms with her brother-in-law; and in the children, who loved her nearly as well, and respected her a great deal more than their mother, she had an object of interest, amusement, and wholesome exertion.

她并不担心这两个月。玛丽并不像伊丽莎白那么令人厌恶和缺乏姐妹感情，也不是那样不受她的影响；乡舍里的其他成员也没有什么令人不快的事情。她同妹夫的关系一向很友好。两个孩子几乎像爱自己的母亲一样爱她，而对她的尊敬则大大超过了对他们母亲的尊敬。她很关心这两个孩子，把照顾他们看成是一件乐事和有益的活动。

Charles Musgrove was civil and agreeable; in sense and temper he was undoubtedly superior to his wife, but not of powers, or conversation, or grace, to make the past, as they were connected together, at all a dangerous contemplation; though, at the same time, Anne could believe, with Lady Russell, that a more equal match might have greatly improved him; and that a woman of real understanding might have given more consequence to his character, and more usefulness, rationality, and elegance to his habits and pursuits. As it was, he did nothing with much zeal, but sport; and his time was otherwise trifled away, without benefit from books or anything else. He had very good spirits, which never seemed much affected by his wife's occasional lowness, bore with her unreasonableness sometimes to Anne's admiration, and upon the whole, though there was very often a little disagreement (in which she had sometimes more share than she wished, being appealed to by both parties), they might pass for a happy couple. They were always perfectly agreed in the want of more money, and a strong inclination for a handsome present from his father; but here, as on most topics, he had the superiority, for while Mary thought it a great shame that such a present was not made, he always contended for his father's having many other uses for his money, and a right to spend it as he liked.

查尔斯·马斯格罗夫为人谦和有礼，从理智和性情上说，无疑要高于妻子。但他没有才能、不善言辞和缺乏风度，决不会使他同安妮之间的旧事酿成险兆。不过，同拉塞尔夫人一样，安妮也觉得，一桩更为般配的婚姻本可使他有更大的长进；而一位真正有见识的女人可能会改变他的性格，他会因此变得更加庄重，他的行为和追求会更有意义、更理智、更高雅。而在当时的情况下，除了运动，他对其他一切都缺乏热情。他把时间都白白浪费掉了，也没点书或者做点其他有益的事情。他情绪高涨，从来不受妻子情绪时高时低的影响。他容忍玛丽无可理喻的言行，有时真使安妮感到钦佩。总的来说虽然他们经常有点小摩擦（由于受到双方的恳求，她自己有时也身不由己地给卷了进去），他们还算是一对幸福的夫妻。他们在谋求更多的钱财，强烈地想从查尔斯的父亲那里索取更为可观的礼物方面，却是志同道合的。不过，如同在许多其他问题上一样，查尔斯在这方面的表现总要检点一点。玛丽认为，他父亲不给他们这样的礼物是一件耻辱的事，而查尔斯总是争辩说，父亲的钱要派在许多用场上，他有权按照自己的意愿花钱。

As to the management of their children, his theory was much better than his wife's, and his practice not so bad. "I could manage them very well, if it were not for Mary's interference," was what Anne often heard him say, and had a good deal of faith in; but when listening in turn to Mary's reproach of "Charles spoils the children so that I cannot get them into any order," she never had the smallest temptation to say, "Very true."

在教育孩子的问题上，查尔斯的主张比妻子强得多，而且实践效果也不错。“要不是玛丽从中干预，我本来可以将他们管教得更好。”安妮常常听到查尔斯这么说，而且也十分相信这一点。反过来又常常听见玛丽责怪说：“查尔斯把孩子们宠坏了，我简直没法管教他们。”这时安妮从来都不想说一声“真是这样”。

One of the least agreeable circumstances of her residence there was her being treated with too much confidence by all parties, and being too much in the secret of the complaints of each house. Known to have some influence with her sister, she was continually requested, or at least receiving hints to exert it, beyond what was practicable. "I wish you could persuade Mary not to be always fancying herself ill," was Charles's language; and, in an unhappy mood, thus spoke Mary: "I do believe if Charles were to see me dying, he would not think there was anything the matter with me. I am sure, Anne, if you would, you might persuade him that I really am very ill—a great deal worse than I ever own.”

安妮住在这里感到最不愉快的一点，就是各方都过分信任她。她对两家人的私下埋怨也了解得太多了。大家都知道她对妹妹有一定的影响，因而不切实际地请求她，或者至少是暗示，要她去施加这一影响。“我希望你去劝劝玛丽，不要老是想象身体不舒服。”这是查尔斯的话。可是玛丽却很不高兴地说：“我确实觉得，查尔斯即使见到我快要咽气了，还会以为我一点毛病也没有呢。我确信，安妮，如果你愿意，你可以告诉他，我确实病得很厉害，比我说的要厉害得多。”

Mary's declaration was, "I hate sending the children to the Great House, though their grandmamma is always wanting to see them, for she humours and indulges them to such a degree, and gives them so much trash and sweet things, that they are sure to come back sick and cross for the rest of the day." And Mrs. Musgrove took the first opportunity of being alone with Anne, to say, "Oh! Miss Anne, I cannot help wishing Mrs. Charles had a little of your method with those children. They are quite different creatures with you! But to be sure, in general they are so spoilt! It is a pity you cannot put your sister in the way of managing them. They are as fine healthy children as ever were seen, poor little dears!without partiality; but Mrs. Charles knows no more how they should be treated—! Bless me!how troublesome they are sometimes. I assure you, Miss Anne, it prevents my wishing to see them at our house so often as I otherwise should. I believe Mrs. Charles is not quite pleased with my not inviting them oftener; but you know it is very bad to have children with one that one is obligated to be checking every moment; "don't do this," and "don't do that;" or that one can only keep in tolerable order by more cake than is good for them.”

玛丽宣称：“虽然孩子的祖母总想见见他们，可我实在是不愿意把他们送到老宅去，因为她太迁就、太纵容他们了。给他们吃那么多的杂食和甜食，以至于他们回来以后，后半天准是不舒服，无精打采的。”可是，马斯格罗夫太太一有机会和安妮单独相处，就说：“哎！安妮小姐，我真希望查尔斯太太能采用你管教孩子的一些方法。她们跟你在一起时完全变了样。不过有一点是肯定的，总的来说，他们给惯坏了！真遗憾，你不能让你妹妹好好管管他们。可以毫不偏心地说，这两个孩子是人们见到的最漂亮和最健康的孩子，可怜的小宝贝！可是查尔斯太太根本不懂得如何管教他们！天哪！有时候他们也真让人心烦。不瞒你说，安妮小姐，这就使我不愿意在家里看到他们，不然的话，我会多见见他们的。我知道，查尔斯太太对我不常邀请他们，是不太高兴的。不过你知道，跟那些随时都要管教的孩子在一起是非常令人不快的，叫他们‘别干这个’，‘别干那个’。要想让他们老实一点，就只能多给他们一些点心，而吃多了又对他们不好。”

She had this communication, moreover, from Mary. "Mrs. Musgrove thinks all her servants so steady, that it would be high treason to call it in question; but I am sure, without exaggeration, that her upper house-maid and laundry-maid, instead of being in their business, are gadding about the village, all day long. I meet them wherever I go; and I declare, I never go twice into my nursery without seeing something of them. If Jemima were not the trustiest, steadiest creature in the world, it would be enough to spoil her; for she tells me, they are always tempting her to take a walk with them.”And on Mrs. Musgrove's side, it was, "I make a rule of never interfering in any of my daughter-in-law's concerns, for I know it would not do; but I shall tell you, Miss Anne, because you may be able to set things to rights, that I have no very good opinion of Mrs. Charles's nursery-maid: I hear strange stories of her; she is always upon the gad; and from my own knowledge, I can declare, she is such a fine-dressing lady, that she is enough to ruin any servants she comes near. Mrs. Charles quite swears by her, I know; but I just give you this hint, that you may be upon the watch; because, if you see anything amiss, you need not be afraid of mentioning it.”

此外，安妮还听玛丽说过：“马斯格罗夫太太认为她的佣人都十分可靠，要是对此有所怀疑就是大逆不道。但是我可以毫不夸张地告诉你，她的贴身女佣和洗衣女佣都不大干活，整天在村子里闲逛。我无论走到哪里都能碰到她们，我敢说，我只要到育儿室去两次就能碰到她们。杰迈玛要不是这世上最忠实可靠的仆人，早就被带坏了。她告诉我说，她们总是诱惑她一同出去散步。可到了马斯格罗夫太太嘴里，话就变成了这样：“我立了一条规矩，决不干预儿媳妇的任何事情，因为我知道，这么做不好。但是，我要告诉你，安妮小姐，因为你也许能把事情纠正过来，我对为查尔斯太太带孩子的保姆没有好感：我听说了她的一些怪事，她总是到处闲逛。据我所知，我敢说，她的确是个打扮得花枝招展的女人，周围任何佣人接近她都会被她带坏。我知道，查尔斯太太非常信赖她。但我只不过提醒你，好让你留心一些。你如果看到什么不对头的地方，就请直言不讳地说出来。”

Again, it was Mary's complaint, that Mrs. Musgrove was very apt not to give her the precedence that was her due, when they dined at the Great House with other families; and she did not see any reason why she was to be considered so much at home as to lose her place. And one day when Anne was walking with only the Musgroves, one of them after talking of rank, people of rank, and jealousy of rank, said, "I have no scruple of observing to you, how nonsensical some persons are about their place, because all the world knows how easy and indifferent you are about it; but I wish anybody could give Mary a hint that it would be a great deal better if she were not so very tenacious, especially if she would not be always putting herself forward to take place of mamma. Nobody doubts her right to have precedence of mamma, but it would be more becoming in her not to be always insisting on it. It is not that mamma cares about it the least in the world, but I know it is taken notice of by many persons."

此外，安妮还抱怨说，当她们在老宅与别人吃饭的时候，马斯格罗夫太太连她应享有的优先权都不给她。她不明白他们为什么对她这么不尊重，以至于她丧失了应有的地位。一天，安妮单独同两位马斯格罗夫小姐一起散步时，其中一位在谈起地位、有地位的人以及对地位的妒羡时说：“我可以毫无顾忌地对你说，有些人对他们地位的看法荒谬至极，因为大家都知道你对于地位是不介意和无所谓的。但是我希望有人能提醒玛丽一下，如果她不是那么固执，尤其是不要总是想抢妈妈的位置的话，那就好多了。没有人会怀疑她比妈妈有优先权，但是如果她不是总坚持这一点的话，也许就会更得体一些。这并不是说妈妈会把这件事记在心上，但是我知道，有许多人已经注意到了这件事。”

How was Anne to set all these matters to rights? She could do little more than listen patiently, soften every grievance, and excuse each to the other; give them all hints of the forbearance necessary between such near neighbours, and make those hints broadest which were meant for her sister's benefit.

安妮如何才能处理好这些关系呢？她能做的只不过是耐心地倾听，缓解一下别人的抱怨，替双方做些解释。她提醒说如此亲密的邻居，相互间应该多宽容一点。但凡是对她妹妹有好处的话，她都说得更加明白。

In all other respects, her visit began and proceeded very well. Her own spirits improved by change of place and subject, by being removed three miles from Kellynch; Mary's ailments lessened by having a constant companion, and their daily intercourse with the other family, since there was neither superior affection, confidence, nor employment in the cottage, to be interrupted by it, was rather an advantage. It was certainly carried nearly as far as possible, for they met every morning, and hardly ever spent an evening asunder; but she believed they should not have done so well without the sight of Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove's respectable forms in the usual places, or without the talking, laughing, and singing of their daughters.

从其他方面来看，安妮的来访开始得很顺利，进行得也很顺利。由于环境和话题的改变，加上这里离凯林奇有三英里远，安妮的情绪有所好转。玛丽有了一位日常的伴侣，病情也有所好转。她们同老宅的日常交往反倒成了好事。因为她们既没有什么真挚的感情要吐露，没有什么私房话要说，也没有什么事情要做。这种交往的确十分频繁，因为他们每天上午都要见面，几乎没有一个晚上是单独度过的。但是安妮认为要不是能在通常的地方见到马斯格罗夫先生与太太的身影或他们女儿们的谈笑和歌唱，大家不可能过得这么愉快。

She played a great deal better than either of the Miss Musgroves, but having no voice, no knowledge of the harp, and no fond parents, to sit by and fancy themselves delighted, her performance was little thought of, only out of civility, or to refresh the others, as she was well aware. She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation. Excepting one short period of her life, she had never, since the age of fourteen, never since the loss of her dear mother, known the happiness of being listened to, or encouraged by any just appreciation or real taste. In music she had been always used to feel alone in the world; and Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove's fond partiality for their own daughters' performance, and total indifference to any other person's, gave her much more pleasure for their sakes, than mortification for her own.

安妮的钢琴比两位马斯格罗夫小姐弹得要好得多，但是她没有一幅好嗓子，不会弹竖琴，没有慈祥的父母坐在一边自鸣得意地倾听。安妮心中明白，别人并不在乎她的琴艺，请她演奏，只是出于礼貌，或是给别人提提神罢了。安妮知道，她弹琴只能给自己带来愉快，但这已不是新鲜的感觉了。她自从十四岁失去了亲爱的母亲以来，除了一生中很短的一个时期以外，从没感受过被人细心聆听的快乐，从没因别人公正的评价或真心欣赏而受到鼓舞。在音乐这个天地里，她总有一种身世孤单的感觉。马斯格罗夫夫妇只爱听自己女儿的演奏，对别人的演奏则毫不在乎。她为自己感到羞愧，但更多的是为马斯格罗夫小姐感到高兴。

The party at the Great House was sometimes increased by other company. The neighbourhood was not large, but the Musgroves were visited by everybody, and had more dinner-parties, and more callers, more visitors by invitation and by chance, than any other family. There were more completely popular.

有时也有其他人来参加老宅的聚会。当地的人并不多，但是马斯格罗夫家却是人人都要去拜访的。他们家举行的晚宴比别人家多，应邀来访的宾客和不速之客的人数也比其他任何人家要多。他们真是受欢迎极了。

The girls were wild for dancing; and the evenings ended, occasionally, in an unpremeditated little ball. There was a family of cousins within a walk of Uppercross, in less affluent circumstances, who depended on the Musgroves for all their pleasures: they would come at any time, and help play at anything, or dance anywhere; and Anne, very much preferring the office of musician to a more active post, played country dances to them by the hour together; a kindness which always recommended her musical powers to the notice of Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove more than anything else, and often drew this compliment;—"Well done, Miss Anne!very well done indeed! Lord bless me!how those little fingers of yours fly about!"

马斯格罗夫小姐对跳舞非常狂热，傍晚的聚会偶尔也会变成即兴的小型舞会。就在离阿珀克罗斯几步之遥的地方，住着一家境况不是很宽裕的表亲。这家人的一切娱乐活动都来至马斯格罗夫家，他们随时都能来。让他们参加什么活动，或者到哪里去跳舞都可以。安妮却宁愿担任伴奏的角色，而不愿参加那蹦蹦跳跳的活动，于是常常为他们弹奏乡村舞曲，一弹就是个把小时。比起其他任何活动，她的这种友好的行为更能博得马斯格罗夫夫妇对她音乐才能的赏识，而且她经常受到这样的恭维：“不错，安妮小姐！弹得真好！天哪！你那些小指头弹得真欢快啊！”

So passed the first three weeks. Michaelmas came; and now Anne's heart must be in Kellynch again. A beloved home made over to others; all the precious rooms and furniture, groves, and prospects, beginning to own other eyes and other limbs! She could not think of much else on the 29th of September; and she had this sympathetic touch in the evening from Mary, who, on having occasion to note down the day of the month, exclaimed, "Dear me, is not this the day the Crofts were to come to Kellynch? I am glad I did not think of it before. How low it makes me!"

最初的三个星期就这样过去了。米迦勒节来临了，这时安妮的心准又回到凯林奇去了。深爱的家让给了别人。那些漂亮的房间、家具、树林以及庭园景色，已开始只供旁人欣赏和游览了。九月二十九日这天，她已没有心思去想别的事情了。晚上，她听到玛丽也有相同的感触。当时因为玛丽因有事要记下当天的日期，便喊了起来：“天哪，这不就是克罗夫特夫妇搬进凯林奇的日子吗？”幸好我当时没有想起过这件事情。一想到这事真叫我难过！”

The Crofts took possession with true naval alertness, and were to be visited. Mary deplored the necessity for herself. "Nobody knew how much she should suffer. She should put it off as long as she could;" but was not easy till she had talked Charles into driving her over on an early day, and was in a very animated, comfortable state of imaginary agitation, when she came back. Anne had very sincerely rejoiced in there being no means of her going. She wished, however to see the Crofts, and was glad to be within when the visit was returned. They came: the master of the house was not at home, but the two sisters were together; and as it chanced that Mrs. Croft fell to the share of Anne, while the Admiral sat by Mary, and made himself very agreeable by his good-humoured notice of her little boys, she was well able to watch for a likeness, and if it failed her in the features, to catch it in the voice, or in the turn of sentiment and expression.

克罗夫特夫妇以不折不扣的海军作风，雷厉风行地搬进了凯林奇府，并且等待着客人拜访。玛丽对自己必须进行这样的拜访感到很遗憾。“谁也不知道她心里有多难受。她想尽可能地推迟这次访问。”但是她又心神不定，最后硬是说服查尔斯早早驾车将她送回去了。回来的时候，她看起来很激动、很高兴、很快活。安妮由于没有交通工具而没去成，她对此反而感到非常高兴。不过她却希望见到克罗夫特夫妇，所以当他们回访的时候，她很高兴自己就在家里。他们来了，房主人不在家，但是两姐妹却在家里。克罗夫特夫人正巧由安妮招待，将军坐在玛丽旁边，乐呵呵地逗着她的两个小儿子，显得非常亲切。安妮完全可以找出克罗夫特太太同她弟弟之间的某些相似之处，这即使在他们的容貌上发现不了，那么也能在声音、性情和谈吐中捕捉到。

Mrs. Croft, though neither tall nor fat, had a squareness, uprightness, and vigour of form, which gave importance to her person. She had bright dark eyes, good teeth, and altogether an agreeable face; though her reddened and weather-beaten complexion, the consequence of her having been almost as much at sea as her husband, made her seem to have lived some years longer in the world than her real eight-and-thirty. Her manners were open, easy, and decided, like one who had no distrust of herself, and no doubts of what to do; without any approach to coarseness, however, or any want of good humour. Anne gave her credit, indeed, for feelings of great consideration towards herself, in all that related to Kellynch, and it pleased her: especially, as she had satisfied herself in the very first half minute, in the instant even of introduction, that there was not the smallest symptom of any knowledge or suspicion on Mrs. Croft's side, to give a bias of any sort. She was quite easy on that head, and consequently full of strength and courage, till for a moment electrified by Mrs. Croft's suddenly saying,—

克罗夫特太太虽说不高也不胖，但肩宽背直，富有活力，这使他显得很神气。她有一双明亮的棕色眼睛，一口好牙，脸庞总的轮廓很和谐。不过，她在海上生活的时间几乎同她丈夫一样，因而皮肤微红、满面风尘，这就使她看上去比她实际的38岁要老得多。她态度直率、举止大方、作风果断，不像是个缺乏自信的人，做事也毫不迟疑。不过她毫不粗俗，也不缺乏幽默感。但凡牵涉到与凯林奇有关的事情，克罗夫特太太都很照顾安妮的情绪，这让安妮对此很感激。尤其使安妮感到高兴的是，在最初半分钟，就在他们相互介绍的时候，她很满意地看到，没有任何迹象表明，克罗夫特太太对往事有所了解或猜疑，因而不可能对她有任何偏见。安妮在这一点上非常放心，因而显得精神焕发，勇气倍增。直到克罗夫特太太突然冒出了一句话，才使她一下子像触了电似的。

"It was you, and not your sister, I find, that my brother had the pleasure of being acquainted with, when he was in this country."“我发现，我弟弟住在这一带时，有幸结识的是你，而不是你妹妹。”

Anne hoped she had outlived the age of blushing; but the age of emotion she certainly had not.

安妮希望自己已经过了会脸红的年龄了，但是她激动的年龄显然没有过去。

"Perhaps you may not have heard that he is married?" added Mrs. Croft.“也许你还没听说他已经结婚了吧？”克罗夫特太太又说。

She could now answer as she ought; and was happy to feel, when Mrs. Croft's next words explained it to be Mr. Wentworth of whom she spoke, that she had said nothing which might not do for either brother. She immediately felt how reasonable it was, that Mrs. Croft should be thinking and speaking of Edward, and not of Frederick; and with shame at her own forgetfulness applied herself to the knowledge of their former neighbour's present state with proper interest.

这时，安妮可以该怎么回答就怎么回答了。可是克罗夫特太太以后的话表明她指的是温特沃思先生，安妮高兴地感到她刚才的答话适用于克罗夫特太太的任何一位兄弟。她马上又觉得，克罗夫特太太想的和谈到的应该是爱德华，而不是弗雷德里克。她为自己的健忘而感到羞愧，便饶有兴趣地倾听克罗夫特太太他们以前邻居的目前状况。

The rest was all tranquillity; till, just as they were moving, she heard the Admiral say to Mary—

余下的时间平平静静地过去了，可是就在他们要动身离开时，她听见海军上将对玛丽说：

"We are expecting a brother of Mrs. Croft's here soon; I dare say you know him by name.”“我们正期待克罗夫特太太的一位弟弟，他不久就要来了。我想你是听说过他的名字吧。”

He was cut short by the eager attacks of the little boys, clinging to him like an old friend, and declaring he should not go; and being too much engrossed by proposals of carrying them away in his coat pockets, &c., to have another moment for finishing or recollecting what he had begun, Anne was left to persuade herself, as well as she could, that the same brother must still be in question. She could not, however, reach such a degree of certainty, as not to be anxious to hear whether anything had been said on the subject at the other house, where the Crofts had previously been calling.

两个小男孩猛地朝将军扑过去，打断了他的话。孩子们像老朋友似的缠住他，扬言不让他走。还要求将军把他们放在大衣口袋里带走，如此等等。这一下把将军的吸引力全带过去了，闹得他没有时间把话说完，甚至也记不得自己说到哪里了。安妮只好尽力安慰自己说，将军指的一定是同一个弟弟。可是，她又没有多大把握，所以很想打听一下上次玛丽他们去拜访克罗夫特夫妇时有没有谈起这方面的事情。

The folks of the Great House were to spend the evening of this day at the Cottage; and it being now too late in the year for such visits to be made on foot, the coach was beginning to be listened for, when the youngest Miss Musgrove walked in. That she was coming to apologize, and that they should have to spend the evening by themselves, was the first black idea; and Mary was quite ready to be affronted, when Louisa made all right by saying, that she only came on foot, to leave more room for the harp, which was bringing in the carriage.

当天晚上，老宅的一家人说好要来乡舍作客的。时值深秋，他们已不会徒步进行这样的访问，所以大家倾耳听着，听是否有马车的声音。这时，马斯格罗夫家的二小姐走了进来。她是来表示歉意的，他们今晚应该呆在家里，这是她带来的第一个坏消息。玛丽快要生气了，可是路易莎说她之所以自己徒步走来是为了给竖琴让地方，因为竖琴放在马车里给拉来了。

"And I will tell you our reason," she added, "and all about it. I am come on to give you notice, that papa and mamma are out of spirits this evening, especially mamma; she is thinking so much of poor Richard! And we agreed it would be best to have the harp, for it seems to amuse her more than the piano-forte. I will tell you why she is out of spirits. When the Crofts called this morning, (they called here afterwards, did not they?), they happened to say, that her brother, Captain Wentworth, is just returned to England, or paid off, or something, and is coming to see them almost directly; and most unluckily it came into mamma's head, when they were gone, that Wentworth, or something very like it, was the name of poor Richard's captain at one time; I do not know when or where, but a great while before he died, poor fellow! And upon looking over his letters and things, she found it was so, and is perfectly sure that this must be the very man, and her head is quite full of it, and of poor Richard! So we must be as merry as we can, that she may not be dwelling upon such gloomy things.”“我要告诉你们理由”，她又补充道，“还有所有的相关事情。我是来通知你们，今天晚上爸爸妈妈的心情很不好，尤其是妈妈，她一直在想念可怜的理查德！我们大家一致认为，最好能带上竖琴，因为相比钢琴来说，竖琴似乎更能使她开心。现在我把她心情不好的原因告诉你们。今天早上克罗夫特夫妇来拜访我们的时候（后来他们也来过这里，是吗？），他们偶尔谈起，克罗夫特太太的弟弟温特沃思上校刚刚回到英国，或者是退役什么的，马上就要来看望他们。他们走了以后，妈妈倒霉地想起了，温特沃思这个名字，或者名字很相似的人，曾经担任过可怜的理查德的舰长。我不知道是在什么时候或是在什么地方，但是是在他去世之前，可怜的家伙！妈妈翻看了他的信件和遗物，发现情况确实如此。她完全肯定，这就是那个人，她满脑子都在想着这件事，想着可怜的理查德！所以，我们大家必须尽量表现得高兴些，好让她忘掉这些伤心事。”

The real circumstances of this pathetic piece of family history were, that the Musgroves had had the ill fortune of a very troublesome, hopeless son; and the good fortune to lose him before he reached his twentieth year; that he had been sent to sea because he was stupid and unmanageable on shore; that he had been very little cared for at any time by his family, though quite as much as he deserved; seldom heard of, and scarcely at all regretted, when the intelligence of his death abroad had worked its way to Uppercross, two years before.

这段伤心家史的实际情况是这样的：马斯格罗夫夫妇不幸有过一个令人烦恼的、无可救药的儿子，不过幸运的是，他不到20岁就离开了人世。这孩子非常执拗，在陆上无法加以管教，所以就把他送到海上去了。家里人根本不关心他，这也是他自作自受。很少有人谈起他，两年前他在国外去世的消息传到阿珀克罗斯时，也没有人表示惋惜。

He had, in fact, though his sisters were now doing all they could for him, by calling him "poor Richard," been nothing better than a thick-headed, unfeeling, unprofitable Dick Musgrove, who had never done anything to entitle himself to more than the abbreviation of his name, living or dead.

他的两个妹妹现在尽力为他说好话，称他为“可怜的理查德”，而实际上他不过是一个愚蠢、冷酷而无用的迪克·马斯格罗夫。他一生没有做过任何好事，所以生前死后没有人郑重其事地称呼他的全名。

He had been several years at sea, and had, in the course of those removals to which all midshipmen are liable, and especially such midshipmen as every captain wishes to get rid of, been six months on board Captain Frederick Wentworth's frigate, the Laconia; and from the Laconia he had, under the influence of his captain, written the only two letters which his father and mother had ever received from him during the whole of his absence; that is to say, the only two disinterested letters; all the rest had been mere applications for money.

他在海上服了几年役，当时所有的军官候补生，都经常奉命调动，特别是那些船长们不想要的军官候补生更是如此。就在这频繁的调动中，他曾一度在弗雷德里克·温特沃思上校的护航舰“拉哥尼亚”号上呆过六个月。由于舰长的管教，他在“拉哥尼亚”上时，写过两封家信，这是他父母在他外出期间收到的仅有的两封信。这就是仅有的两封没有不图私利的信，其余的信都不过只是为了要钱。

In each letter he had spoken well of his captain; but yet, so little were they in the habit of attending to such matters, so unobservant and incurious were they as to the names of men or ships, that it had made scarcely any impression at the time; and that Mrs. Musgrove should have been suddenly struck, this very day, with a recollection of the name of Wentworth, as connected with her son, seemed one of those extraordinary bursts of mind which do sometimes occur.

他在两封信中都说了舰长的好话。可是家里人对这些议论一般不太注意，不关心也不想知道船名或船上人的姓名，因此当时没有给他们留下任何印象。今天，马斯格罗夫太太居然会想起温特沃思这个姓氏与他儿子有关，似乎是出于有时会突然闪现的特殊灵感。

She had gone to her letters, and found it all as she supposed; and the re-perusal of these letters, after so long an interval, her poor son gone for ever, and all the strength of his faults forgotten, had affected her spirits exceedingly, and thrown her into greater grief for him than she had know on first hearing of his death. Mr. Musgrove was, in a lesser degree, affected likewise; and when they reached the cottage, they were evidently in want, first, of being listened to anew on this subject, and afterwards, of all the relief which cheerful companions could give them.

马斯格罗夫太太翻阅了一下信件，发现情况跟她想的一模一样。现在她那可怜的儿子已经永远离开了人世，他所犯的错误也已经被人们淡忘，过了这么久再来看这些信件，这对她的情绪打击很大，使她感到十分悲伤。这种悲伤的程度甚至超过了刚听到他死讯时的心情。马斯格罗夫先生也受到了刺激，只是程度轻一点而已。他们夫妇来到庄上时，首先需要别人再听一听这事的原委，然后需要愉快的伙伴给他们以充分的安慰。

To hear them talking so much of Captain Wentworth, repeating his name so often, puzzling over past years, and at last ascertaining that it might, that it probably would, turn out to be the very same Captain Wentworth whom they recollected meeting, once or twice, after their coming back from Clifton—a very fine young man—but they could not say whether it was seven or eight years ago, was a new sort of trial to Anne's nerves. She found, however, that it was one to which she must inure herself. Since he actually was expected in the country, she must teach herself to be insensible on such points. And not only did it appear that he was expected, and speedily, but the Musgroves, in their warm gratitude for the kindness he had shewn poor Dick, and very high respect for his character, stamped as it was by poor Dick's having been six months under his care, and mentioning him in strong, though not perfectly well-spelt praise, as "a fine dashing felow, only two perticular about the schoolmaster," were bent on introducing themselves, and seeking his acquaintance, as soon as they could hear of his arrival.

他们大谈而特谈温特沃思上校，一而再再而三地提到他的名字，尽情地回忆着过去的年代，并最后认定，也许他很可能就是他们从克利夫顿回来后记得见过一两次的那个温特沃思上校——一个挺不错的年轻。但是他们说不准这是七年以前还是八年以前的事了。听着他们的这番议论，对安妮的神经是一种新的考验。不过，她觉得，她必须使自己适应这种考验。既然弗雷德里克确实要到这里来了，她应该学会对此事无动于衷。问题不仅仅在于她要来，而且很快就来，还在于马斯格罗夫一家充满着感激之情，因为他曾经好心地照顾过可怜的迪克。他们非常钦佩他的为人，因为可怜的迪克在他的关照下干过六个月，并在错别字不少的信中热情赞扬他是“一个勇敢地好家火，只是对学员太严各。”看来，只要一听到他到来的消息，他们要立刻去拜访，同他交个朋友。

The resolution of doing so helped to form the comfort of their evening.

这一决定给他们当天晚上的聚会带来了安慰。

CHAPTER 7

第七章

A very few days more, and Captain Wentworth was known to be at Kellynch, and Mr. Musgrove had called on him, and come back warm in his praise, and he was engaged with the Crofts to dine at Uppercross, by the end of another week. It had been a great disappointment to Mr. Musgrove to find that no earlier day could be fixed, so impatient was he to shew his gratitude, by seeing Captain Wentworth under his own roof, and welcoming him to all that was strongest and best in his cellars. But a week must pass; only a week, in Anne's reckoning, and then, she supposed, they must meet; and soon she began to wish that she could feel secure even for a week.

没过几天，人们就听说温特沃思上校到了凯林奇，马斯格罗夫先生便登门拜访，回来时对他赞不绝口。他还和克罗夫特夫妇约定下周末到阿珀克罗斯吃饭。马斯格罗夫先生对于不能把日期提早一些感到很失望。因为他本人太急于想早一些请温特沃思上校到自己家来，用地窖里最烈、最上等的酒来款待他以表达感激之情。但是，他必须得等一个星期。安妮估计，一个星期以后，他们难免要见面。她马上又希望在这一星期中她能够不受到干扰。

Captain Wentworth made a very early return to Mr. Musgrove's civility, and she was all but calling there in the same half hour. She and Mary were actually setting forward for the Great House, where, as she afterwards learnt, they must inevitably have found him, when they were stopped by the eldest boy's being at that moment brought home in consequence of a bad fall. The child's situation put the visit entirely aside; but she could not hear of her escape with indifference, even in the midst of the serious anxiety which they afterwards felt on his account.

温特沃思海军上校很早就对马斯格罗夫的礼节性拜访进行了回访。而安妮本来是要在那半个小时里到马斯格罗夫府去的。实际上，她和玛丽当时正朝老宅走去。正如事后她所知，她们本来不可避免会在那里遇到温特沃思上校的。可是就在那时，玛丽的大儿子严重地摔伤了。看到孩子这般情景，大家当然就把出访这件事放在一边了。后来，即使大家很担心孩子的伤势，但安妮在得知自己侥幸躲过了这次会面时，还是不可能无动于衷。

His collar-bone was found to be dislocated, and such injury received in the back, as roused the most alarming ideas. It was an afternoon of distress, and Anne had every thing to do at once; the apothecary to send for, the father to have pursued and informed, the mother to support and keep from hysterics, the servants to control, the youngest child to banish, and the poor suffering one to attend and soothe; besides sending, as soon as she recollected it, proper notice to the other house, which brought her an accession rather of frightened, enquiring companions, than of very useful assistants.

她们发现孩子的锁骨脱位了，背脊严重受伤，这怎么能不引起严重的恐慌。那是个令人忧伤的下午，安妮马上做了一切安排：派人去请医师；去寻找孩子的父亲，把情况告诉他；安慰孩子的母亲，免得她歇斯底里地发作；还要分派仆人的工作——把最小的孩子带走，照顾并安慰可怜的受伤的孩子。此外，安妮一想起要给老宅里的人报信，就马上就派人去了。可是来人都吓得手足无措，只会问长问短，帮不了什么忙。

Her brother's return was the first comfort; he could take best care of his wife; and the second blessing was the arrival of the apothecary. Till he came and had examined the child, their apprehensions were the worse for being vague; they suspected great injury, but knew not where; but now the collar-bone was soon replaced, and though Mr. Robinson felt and felt, and rubbed, and looked grave, and spoke low words both to the father and the aunt, still they were all to hope the best, and to be able to part and eat their dinner in tolerable ease of mind; and then it was, just before they parted, that the two young aunts were able so far to digress from their nephew's state, as to give the information of Captain Wentworth's visit; staying five minutes behind their father and mother, to endeavour to express how perfectly delighted they were with him, how much handsomer, how infinitely more agreeable they thought him than any individual among their male acquaintance, who had been at all a favourite before. How glad they had been to hear papa invite him to stay dinner, how sorry when he said it was quite out of his power, and how glad again when he had promised in reply to papa and mamma's farther pressing invitations to come and dine with them on the morrow—actually on the morrow; and he had promised it in so pleasant a manner, as if he felt all the motive of their attention just as he ought. And in short, he had looked and said everything with such exquisite grace, that they could assure them all, their heads were both turned by him; and off they ran, quite as full of glee as of love, and apparently more full of Captain Wentworth than of little Charles.

妹夫回来了，这是使安妮宽慰的第一件事，他可以好好地照顾妻子。令人宽慰的第二件事是医师的到来。在他来为孩子检查之前，大家什么也不知道，所以更加害怕。他们怀疑伤势很严重，但不知道伤在哪里。现在，锁骨很快就复位了。虽然鲁滨孙先生摸了又摸，搓着双手，神情严肃地同孩子的父亲和姨母低声交谈着，但大家都巴望孩子的情况是不幸中之大幸，这样大家就能比较安心地离开孩子去吃饭。不料，那两位年轻的姑姑临走之前居然忘记了侄子的伤势，谈了温特沃思上校的来访——她们在父母走后又呆了五分钟，一再表示很喜欢他，觉得他比她们认识并得到她们欢心的其他男子都要英俊、可亲得多。听到爸爸要挽留温特沃思上校吃晚饭，她们是多么高兴，而一听到他说不能留下时，她们又感到非常遗憾。后来听到他接受了爸妈的盛情邀请答应明天来吃饭，便又感到欣喜。就在明天！况且他答应的态度十分愉悦，似乎察觉到了他们盛情邀请的一番厚意。他本来就该这样。总之，他的风度和言谈都十分优雅，她们可以向人们承认，她们两人都被他迷住了。说完两人就匆匆离开了，内心充满了喜悦与情意。显然，她们挂念的是海军上将温特沃思，而不是小查尔斯。

The same story and the same raptures were repeated, when the two girls came with their father, through the gloom of the evening, to make enquiries; and Mr. Musgrove, no longer under the first uneasiness about his heir, could add his confirmation and praise, and hope there would be now no occasion for putting Captain Wentworth off, and only be sorry to think that the cottage party, probably, would not like to leave the little boy, to give him the meeting. "Oh no; as to leaving the little boy," both father and mother were in much too strong and recent alarm to bear the thought; and Anne, in the joy of the escape, could not help adding her warm protestations to theirs.

两位小姐陪同她们的父亲在茫茫暮色中来了解孩子的情况时，又重述了一遍这个情节。马斯格罗夫先生已经不再像当初那样为他的继承人担心了，也对此表示肯定和赞美。他希望现在没有什么事会推迟上校赴宴。唯一遗憾的是他儿子一家可能不愿意撇下受伤的孩子而去同上校见面。“哦，不，不能把孩子撇下。”当时孩子的父母十分慌乱，根本不愿意考虑这一点。安妮则庆幸能够避开这次会见，便情不自禁地热情附和着他们的想法。

Charles Musgrove, indeed, afterwards, shewed more of inclination; "the child was going on so well, and he wished so much to be introduced to Captain Wentworth, that, perhaps, he might join them in the evening; he would not dine from home, but he might walk in for half an hour." But in this he was eagerly opposed by his wife, with "Oh!no, indeed, Charles, I cannot bear to have you go away. Only think if anything should happen?"

后来，查尔斯·马斯格罗夫的确表示出点动摇，“孩子现在恢复得挺快，我还真想去结识一下温特沃思上校。因此，我也许可以去参加他们的晚会。我不想在那里吃饭，不过我可以进去呆上半个小时。”可是他妻子强烈地加以反对：“哦，不！真的，查尔斯，我不能让你出去。你想想，万一出什么事呢？”

The child had a good night, and was going on well the next day. It must be a work of time to ascertain that no injury had been done to the spine; but Mr. Robinson found nothing to increase alarm, and Charles Musgrove began, consequently, to feel no necessity for longer confinement. The child was to be kept in bed and amused as quietly as possible; but what was there for a father to do? This was quite a female case, and it would be highly absurd in him, who could be of no use at home, to shut himself up. His father very much wished him to meet Captain Wentworth, and there being no sufficient reason against it, he ought to go; and it ended in his making a bold, public declaration, when he came in from shooting, of his meaning to dress directly, and dine at the other house.

孩子一夜平安无事，第二天情况也很好。看来还要过一段时间才能确定脊柱是否真正受伤。但是鲁滨孙先生没有发现任何使他们进一步惊慌的症状，于是马斯格罗夫先生便觉得没有必要再守在家里。孩子必须躺在床上，尽量让他安静而愉快。但是在这种场合，一个做父亲的能做些什么呢？这完全是女人的事，既然他在家里起不到什么作用，那么把自己关在家里就非常荒谬。他父亲很希望他能去见见温特沃思上校，既然没有足够的理由加以反对，那么他就应该去跑一趟。结果，他从外面打猎回来以后就大胆地公开表示，他准备马上换衣服，去老宅吃饭。

"Nothing can be going on better than the child," said he; "so I told my father, just now, that I would come, and he thought me quite right. Your sister being with you, my love, I have no scruple at all. You would not like to leave him yourself, but you see I can be of no use. Anne will send for me if anything is the matter."“孩子的情况好得不能再好了，”他说，”所以我刚才告诉父亲我要去，他觉得我做得很对。亲爱的，有你姐姐跟你在一起，我一点顾虑也没有。你自己不愿意离开孩子，可你看我又帮不上什么忙。要是有什么情况，安妮会打发人去叫我的。”

Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain. Mary knew, from Charles's manner of speaking, that he was quite determined on going, and that it would be of no use to teaze him. She said nothing, therefore, till he was out of the room, but as soon as there was only Anne to hear—

夫妻之间往往彼此知道，反对在什么情况下不起作用。根据查尔斯说话的语气，玛丽知道，他已经下定决心要去了，再阻止也无济于事。因此，直到他走出房间，她一句话也没说，可是只有安妮一个人听她说话时，玛丽才说：

"So you and I are to be left to shift by ourselves, with this poor sick child; and not a creature coming near us all the evening! I knew how it would be. This is always my luck. If there is anything disagreeable going on men are always sure to get out of it, and Charles is as bad as any of them. Very unfeeling! I must say it is very unfeeling of him to be running away from his poor little boy. Talks of his being going on so well! How does he know that he is going on well, or that there may not be a sudden change half an hour hence? I did not think Charles would have been so unfeeling. So here he is to go away and enjoy himself, and because I am the poor mother, I am not to be allowed to stir; and yet, I am sure, I am more unfit than anybody else to be about the child. My being the mother is the very reason why my feelings should not be tried. I am not at all equal to it. You saw how hysterical I was yesterday."“瞧，你和我又被撇下来轮流照看这可怜的孩子，整个晚上不会有任何人来帮我们了！我早就知道会这样。我总是这么倒霉。一遇到什么不高兴的事情，男人们总是可以脱身。查尔斯就像别的男人一样糟糕。真是冷酷无情！我认为他扔下自己可怜的小儿子而自己跑了，这就是冷酷无情。说什么孩子情况良好！他怎么知道孩子情况良好，他怎么知道半个小时以后孩子不会出现突然的变化？我没想到查尔斯会这么冷酷无情。现在可好，他去享乐，而我呢，因为是个可怜的母亲，就不准动弹一下。我敢说，对于照看孩子，我比谁都不合适。正是因为我是孩子的母亲，就不应该折磨我的感情。我根本受不了。你见到了，昨天我是多么的歇斯底里。”

"But that was only the effect of the suddenness of your alarm—of the shock. You will not be hysterical again. I dare say we shall have nothing to distress us. I perfectly understand Mr. Robinson's directions, and have no fears; and indeed, Mary, I cannot wonder at your husband. Nursing does not belong to a man; it is not his province. A sick child is always the mother's property: her own feelings generally make it so.”“不过，那只是因为事情发生得很突然，你给吓坏了的缘故。你不会再那么歇斯底里了。我敢说，我们不会遇到什么为难的事了。我完全懂得鲁滨孙的医嘱，一点儿也不担心。说真的，玛丽，我无法对你丈夫的举动感到惊奇。照顾孩子不是男人的事，不属于他管的范围。生病的孩子总是母亲的宝贝，这通常是由母亲本人的感情决定的。”

"I hope I am as fond of my child as any mother, but I do not know that I am of any more use in the sick-room than Charles, for I cannot be always scolding and teazing the poor child when it is ill; and you saw, this morning, that if I told him to keep quiet, he was sure to begin kicking about. I have not nerves for the sort of thing.”“我希望我能像别的母亲一样喜欢自己的孩子。可是我知道在病房中，我不见得比查尔斯更有用，因为可怜的孩子生病的时候，我不能老是责骂他、哄他。今天早晨，你看见了，我要是叫他安静，他就偏要乱踢。我的神经可受不了这些。”

"But, could you be comfortable yourself, to be spending the whole evening away from the poor boy?"“可是，整个晚上你扔下可怜的孩子，你自己能安心吗？”

"Yes; you see his papa can, and why should not I? Jemima is so careful; and she could send us word every hour how he was. I really think Charles might as well have told his father we would all come. I am not more alarmed about little Charles now than he is. I was dreadfully alarmed yesterday, but the case is very different to-day.”“能，你看见的，他爸爸能，我为什么不能？杰迈玛是个细心人，她可以每小时把孩子的情况告诉我们。我真希望当初查尔斯应该告诉他的父亲我们都去。我现在也同他一样，不再对查尔斯大惊小怪了。昨天我是非常惊慌，可是今天情况就大不一样了。”

"Well, if you do not think it too late to give notice for yourself, suppose you were to go, as well as your husband. Leave little Charles to my care. Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove cannot think it wrong while I remain with him."“好吧，如果你觉得现在通知他们还不晚，也许你可以陪同你丈夫一起去。把小查尔斯交给我照顾。有我照看着他，马斯格罗夫先生与太太不会见怪的。”

"Are you serious?" cried Mary, her eyes brightening. "Dear me!that's a very good thought, very good, indeed. To be sure, I may just as well go as not, for I am of no use at home—am I?and it only harasses me. You, who have not a mother's feelings, are a great deal the properest person. You can make little Charles do anything; he always minds you at a word. It will be a great deal better than leaving him only with Jemima. Oh! I shall certainly go; I am sure I ought if I can, quite as much as Charles, for they want me excessively to be acquainted with Captain Wentworth, and I know you do not mind being left alone. An excellent thought of yours, indeed, Anne. I will go and tell Charles, and get ready directly. You can send for us, you know, at a moment's notice, if anything is the matter; but I dare say there will be nothing to alarm you. I should not go, you may be sure, if I did not feel quite at ease about my dear child.”“你这话可当真？”玛丽眼睛一亮，大声喊道。“天哪，这可是个好主意，真的，这主意真好。说真的，对我来说去不去都一样。不过我在家里没有用，是吧？那只会让我心烦意乱。你还没有做母亲的感受，所以你留下来是最合适不过了。你可以让小查尔斯做任何事情，他对你总是言听计从。这比把他交给杰迈玛一个人照顾好多了。哦！我当然要去了。我肯定只要有可能，我就应该去，同查尔斯一样。因为他们也非常希望我同温特沃思上校认识认识。我知道，你不会介意一个人留下的。你的主意真好，真的，安妮。我去告诉查尔斯，我马上去做准备。你知道，要是有什么事，你只要派人通知我们，我们一会儿就回来了。不过我敢说，没有什么事会让你为难的。你尽管放心，我要是对我的宝贝儿子不放心，我不会去的。”

The next moment she was tapping at her husband's dressing-room door, and as Anne followed her up stairs, she was in time for the whole conversation, which began with Mary's saying, in a tone of great exultation—

转眼间，玛丽便去敲丈夫更衣室的门。因为安妮是跟在她后面上楼的，所以刚好听到他们的全部谈话。一开始，玛丽就极兴奋地说道：

"I mean to go with you, Charles, for I am of no more use at home than you are. If I were to shut myself up for ever with the child, I should not be able to persuade him to do anything he did not like. Anne will stay; Anne undertakes to stay at home and take care of him. It is Anne's own proposal, and so I shall go with you, which will be a great deal better, for I have not dined at the other house since Tuesday.”“我要和你一起去，查尔斯，因为我留在家里也不比你有用。就我整天把自己与孩子关在一起，我也没有办法让他做他任何不愿意做的事情。安妮会留下来的，她答应留在家里照顾他。这是安妮自己提出来的，所以我要和你一起去，这样就好多了，因为星期二以来我还没有在老宅那边吃过饭呢。”

"This is very kind of Anne," was her husband's answer, "and I should be very glad to have you go; but it seems rather hard that she should be left at home by herself, to nurse our sick child."“安妮真好，”玛丽的丈夫回答道，“我也很高兴你能去，可是让她单独留在家里照顾我们受伤的孩子，似乎有点不近人情。”

Anne was now at hand to take up her own cause, and the sincerity of her manner being soon sufficient to convince him, where conviction was at least very agreeable, he had no farther scruples as to her being left to dine alone, though he still wanted her to join them in the evening, when the child might be at rest for the night, and kindly urged her to let him come and fetch her, but she was quite unpersuadable; and this being the case, she had ere long the pleasure of seeing them set off together in high spirits. They were gone, she hoped, to be happy, however oddly constructed such happiness might seem; as for herself, she was left with as many sensations of comfort, as were, perhaps, ever likely to be hers. She knew herself to be of the first utility to the child; and what was it to her if Frederick Wentworth were only half a mile distant, making himself agreeable to others?

这时，安妮就在近旁，可以表达自己的想法。她态度非常诚恳，玛丽的丈夫很快就相信了，在这种情况下他至少也愿意相信；他对安妮单独留下来用餐这一点毫无顾虑，但是他还是要求她在晚上孩子都入睡以后到他们那里去，还好心劝她同意由他来接她。可是安妮一点也不听劝告，结果不一会儿，她便高兴地目送他们兴致勃勃地离去。她希望他们去了能快活一下，尽管这种快乐心情看起来似乎很奇特。至于她自己呢，留下来使她得到的安慰或许同往常一样。她知道孩子最需要她，至于弗雷德里克·温特沃思，即使他在半里之外向别人献殷勤，这同她安妮有什么关系？

She would have liked to know how he felt as to a meeting. Perhaps indifferent, if indifference could exist under such circumstances. He must be either indifferent or unwilling. Had he wished ever to see her again, he need not have waited till this time; he would have done what she could not but believe that in his place she should have done long ago, when events had been early giving him the independence which alone had been wanting.

她很想知道他对他们俩的会面会怎么想。他也许是无所谓，如果在这种情况下可以做到无所谓的话。他要么感到无所谓，要么不愿意同她见面。如果以前他想见她，他根本不需要等到今天。当时他们缺乏的就是经济独立，而后来的机遇早已使弗雷德里克发了财，那时他就可以同她见面的。如果她处在弗雷德里克的位置，她肯定早就这么做了。

Her brother and sister came back delighted with their new acquaintance, and their visit in general. There had been music, singing, talking, laughing, all that was most agreeable; charming manners in Captain Wentworth, no shyness or reserve; they seemed all to know each other perfectly, and he was coming the very next morning to shoot with Charles. He was to come to breakfast, but not at the Cottage, though that had been proposed at first; but then he had been pressed to come to the Great House instead, and he seemed afraid of being in Mrs. Charles Musgrove's way, on account of the child, and therefore, somehow, they hardly knew how, it ended in Charles's being to meet him to breakfast at his father's.

她妹妹和妹夫回来了，他们对这个新朋友和整个拜访都很满意。他们在那儿弹琴、唱歌、聊天、欢笑，一切都非常愉快。温特沃思上校风度翩翩，既不羞怯也不拘谨。大家似乎早就非常熟悉。他准备第二天早晨与查尔斯一同打猎。他要来吃早饭，可是不到乡舍里来。虽然最初有人这么提出过，但是后来又有人坚持让他去老宅。他似乎也怕影响查尔斯·马斯格罗夫太太对孩子的照顾，这样一来，不知怎么的，结果说定查尔斯到父亲家与他共进晚餐。

Anne understood it. He wished to avoid seeing her. He had inquired after her, she found, slightly, as might suit a former slight acquaintance, seeming to acknowledge such as she had acknowledged, actuated, perhaps, by the same view of escaping introduction when they were to meet.

安妮心里明白。弗雷德里克是在躲避她。她听说，他曾经略略地问起过她，就像问起一个以前的普通熟人一样。看来弗雷德里克似乎同安妮一样认为，或者意识到，在将来他们相遇时好回避介绍。

The morning hours of the Cottage were always later than those of the other house, and on the morrow the difference was so great that Mary and Anne were not more than beginning breakfast when Charles came in to say that they were just setting off, that he was come for his dogs, that his sisters were following with Captain Wentworth; his sisters meaning to visit Mary and the child, and Captain Wentworth proposing also to wait on her for a few minutes if not inconvenient; and though Charles had answered for the child's being in no such state as could make it inconvenient, Captain Wentworth would not be satisfied without his running on to give notice.

乡舍早晨的活动时间总是比老宅晚一些，但是第二天情况就相差很多了。玛丽和安妮刚刚开始吃早餐，查尔斯就走进来说，他们就要出发了，他是回来带猎狗的。他的两个妹妹同温特沃思上校随后就到。他的妹妹们要来看看玛丽和孩子，上校提出说，如果方便的话他也想短暂地拜会一下女主人。查尔斯一再说孩子很好，不会有什么不便之处，上校还是要他先跑来打个招呼才行。

Mary, very much gratified by this attention, was delighted to receive him, while a thousand feelings rushed on Anne, of which this was the most consoling, that it would soon be over. And it was soon over. In two minutes after Charles's preparation, the others appeared; they were in the drawing-room. Her eye half met Captain Wentworth's, a bow, a curtsey passed; she heard his voice; he talked to Mary, said all that was right, said something to the Miss Musgroves, enough to mark an easy footing; the room seemed full, full of persons and voices, but a few minutes ended it. Charles shewed himself at the window, all was ready, their visitor had bowed and was gone, the Miss Musgroves were gone too, suddenly resolving to walk to the end of the village with the sportsmen: the room was cleared, and Anne might finish her breakfast as she could.

玛丽十分感激上校礼貌周到，很高兴地要接待他。可是安妮却百感交集，不过其中最令人欣慰的是这次会见是非常短暂的。这件事的确很快就过去了。查尔斯来通知后不到两分钟，其他人就来了，当时她们正在客厅内。安妮的眼神与温特沃思上校只接触了一下，他鞠了一个躬，她行了一个屈膝礼。安妮听见了他的声音，他跟玛丽在说话，言谈十分得体。他对两位马斯格罗夫小姐说了几句话，以表示他们的关系非常随便。客厅里看起来满满当当的，又是人又是说话声，但是几分钟后，这一切就都结束了。查尔斯只在窗外露了露面，说一切都准备好了，温特沃思上校欠了欠身，告辞走了，两位马斯格罗夫小姐也走了，她们突然决定要陪两位猎人走到村头。屋里清静了，安妮这才勉强把她的早餐吃完。

"It is over!it is over!" she repeated to herself again and again, in nervous gratitude. "The worst is over!"“过去了！过去了！”她怀着紧张而感激的心情，一遍又一遍地想着。“最糟糕的时刻已经过去了！”

Mary talked, but she could not attend. She had seen him. They had met. They had been once more in the same room.

玛丽在跟她说些什么，可是安妮没有听进去。她见到他了。他们已经见了面了。他们又一次在同一个房间里呆了一会儿。

Soon, however, she began to reason with herself, and try to be feeling less. Eight years, almost eight years had passed, since all had been given up. How absurd to be resuming the agitation which such an interval had banished into distance and indistinctness! What might not eight years do? Events of every description, changes, alienations, removals—all, all must be comprised in it, and oblivion of the past—how natural, how certain too! It included nearly a third part of her own life.

不过，她很快便规劝自己不要想太多。八年了，自从他们断绝关系以来已经过去八年了。这么长期的别离早已经把激情推到了遥远而模糊的过去，现在再这么激动，该是多么荒唐！八年中还有什么不可能发生呢？各种各样的事件、变故、疏远、淡漠——这期间一定包罗了种种的变化，还有对过去时光的忘却——这是多么自然，而且多么肯定无疑！这八年几乎构成了她生命的三分之一。

Alas!with all her reasoning, she found, that to retentive feelings eight years may be little more than nothing.

啊！尽管这样开导自己，安妮发现对于记忆犹新的感情来说，八年的时间几乎算不了什么。

Now, how were his sentiments to be read? Was this like wishing to avoid her? And the next moment she was hating herself for the folly which asked the question.

那么，如何来理解他的感情呢？是不是想避开她？她马上又痛恨自己怎么会提出这样愚蠢的问题。

On one other question which perhaps her utmost wisdom might not have prevented, she was soon spared all suspense; for, after the Miss Musgroves had returned and finished their visit at the Cottage she had this spontaneous information from Mary:—

还有一个问题，也许是安妮再明智也无法回避的。不过，很快她就无须对此再感到忐忑不安了。因为在两位马斯格罗夫小姐回来并且结束了她们在乡舍的拜访之后，玛丽就主动告诉她说：

"Captain Wentworth is not very gallant by you, Anne, though he was so attentive to me. Henrietta asked him what he thought of you, when they went away, and he said, 'You were so altered he should not have known you again.'”“温特沃思上校对你不太感兴趣，安妮，但是对我确实很殷勤。他们离开这里以后，亨里埃塔问他对你印象如何。他说你变化很大，他简直认不出你来了。”

Mary had no feelings to make her respect her sister's in a common way, but she was perfectly unsuspicious of being inflicting any peculiar wound.

玛丽平常并不怎么尊重自己的姐姐，不过她这次完全没有想到这会伤害到安妮的感情。

"Altered beyond his knowledge."Anne fully submitted, in silent, deep mortification. Doubtless it was so, and she could take no revenge, for he was not altered, or not for the worse. She had already acknowledged it to herself, and she could not think differently, let him think of her as he would. No: the years which had destroyed her youth and bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect lessening his personal advantages. She had seen the same Frederick Wentworth.“变得他认不出来了。”安妮完全承认这一点，羞愧不语。事实确实如此，而且她还不能为此报复，因为他并没有改变，或者说没有变差。她心中早已承认了这一点，她不能再有别的想法，让他爱怎么想就怎么想吧。不，岁月使她失去了青春与美貌，却使弗雷德里克更加荣光焕发，更富有男子气，更加胸怀坦荡，丝毫没有减弱他的个人风采。她见到的还是当年那个弗雷德里克·温特沃思。

"So altered that he should not have known her again!"These were words which could not but dwell with her. Yet she soon began to rejoice that she had heard them. They were of sobering tendency; they allayed agitation; they composed, and consequently must make her happier.“你变化这么大，他简直认不出你来了！”这句话时不时会在她脑海中浮现。但是，不久安妮就觉得这些话倒令人高兴。这些话使她头脑清醒，情绪缓和，镇定自若，因而使她感到更加高兴。

Frederick Wentworth had used such words, or something like them, but without an idea that they would be carried round to her. He had thought her wretchedly altered, and in the first moment of appeal, had spoken as he felt. He had not forgiven Anne Elliot. She had used him ill, deserted and disappointed him; and worse, she had shewn a feebleness of character in doing so, which his own decided, confident temper could not endure. She had given him up to oblige others. It had been the effect of over-persuasion. It had been weakness and timidity.

弗雷德里克·温特沃思确实说过这些话或者说过类似的话，但是从来没有想到这些话会传到安妮的耳朵里。他认为安妮变丑了，因而别人一问起来，他就把自己的感觉如实地说出。他还没有原谅安妮·埃利奥特。安妮亏待了他，抛弃了他，使他感到失望。而且更糟糕的是，她这么做表现了她性格的软弱，这是弗雷德里克果断、自信的性格所无法忍受的。安妮是听信了别人的话而抛弃了他。这是别人过度劝说的结果。这就是软弱与怯懦。

He had been most warmly attached to her, and had never seen a woman since whom he thought her equal; but, except from some natural sensation of curiosity, he had no desire of meeting her again. Her power with him was gone for ever.

他曾经对她一往情深，而且从那以后还从来没有遇见一个可以与她相媲美的女子。但是除了某种自然的好奇心以外，他不想再见到安妮。对他来说，安妮早已失去了魅力。

It was now his object to marry. He was rich, and being turned on shore, fully intended to settle as soon as he could be properly tempted; actually looking round, ready to fall in love with all the speed which a clear head and a quick taste could allow. He had a heart for either of the Miss Musgroves, if they could catch it; a heart, in short, for any pleasing young woman who came in his way, excepting Anne Elliot. This was his only secret exception, when he said to his sister, in answer to her suppositions:—

他现在的目标是结婚。他现在富有，而且又从海上转到了岸上工作。他一心想过上安定的生活，只要这生活对他有足够的吸引力。他实际上是在四处寻找，希望在清醒的头脑和敏捷的审美力允许的限度内尽快地坠入情网。他对两位马斯格罗夫小姐都有意思，只要她们能抓住他的感情就行。总之，他遇到的任何一位动人的姑娘都能使他动心，除了安妮·埃利奥特。在回答他姐姐的猜测时，他心中偷偷把安妮排除在外。

"Yes, here I am, Sophia, quite ready to make a foolish match. Anybody between fifteen and thirty may have me for asking. A little beauty, and a few smiles, and a few compliments to the navy, and I am a lost man. Should not this be enough for a sailor, who has had no society among women to make him nice?"“是的，索菲娅，我正准备做一件傻事——结婚。我可能向任何一个年龄在15岁至30岁之间的女子求婚。只要稍微有点姿色，有几分笑容，对海军赞美几句，我就会被俘虏。对一个没在女人堆里呆过、没受过女人调教的水手来说，这不就足够了吗？”

He said it, she knew, to be contradicted. His bright proud eye spoke the conviction that he was nice; and Anne Elliot was not out of his thoughts, when he more seriously described the woman he should wish to meet with. "A strong mind, with sweetness of manner," made the first and the last of the description.

做姐姐的知道，他说这话是要别人进行反驳。他那双明亮而骄傲的眼睛说明他完全相信自己已经很不错了。当他一本正经地说明他想要结交的女性的特征时，他并没有忘记安妮·埃利奥特。“意志坚强，举止柔美”，构成了他所描述的女性特征的全部内容。

"That is the woman I want," said he. "Something a little inferior I shall of course put up with, but it must not be much. If I am a fool, I shall be a fool indeed, for I have thought on the subject more than most men."“这就是我想要的女人，”他说，“略差一点我当然可以接受，但是不能相差过大。如果我是一个傻子，那我确实是一个十足的傻瓜，因为我在这件事情上比大多数人考虑得要多。”

CHAPTER 8

第八章

From this time Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot were repeatedly in the same circle. They were soon dining in company together at Mr. Musgrove's, for the little boy's state could no longer supply his aunt with a pretence for absenting herself; and this was but the beginning of other dinings and other meetings.

从此以后，温特沃思海军上校与安妮·埃利奥特便经常在同一社交圈子里活动。他们很快就要在马斯格罗夫家里共进晚餐了，因为小男孩的伤势好得差不多了，不能再成为他的姨妈不能来参加的借口了。这只不过是其他宴请与聚会的开始。

Whether former feelings were to be renewed must be brought to the proof; former times must undoubtedly be brought to the recollection of each; they could not but be reverted to; the year of their engagement could not but be named by him, in the little narratives or descriptions which conversation called forth. His profession qualified him, his disposition lead him, to talk; and "That was in the year six;" "That happened before I went to sea in the year six," occurred in the course of the first evening they spent together: and though his voice did not falter, and though she had no reason to suppose his eye wandering towards her while he spoke, Anne felt the utter impossibility, from her knowledge of his mind, that he could be unvisited by remembrance any more than herself. There must be the same immediate association of thought, though she was very far from conceiving it to be of equal pain.

往日的感情能否恢复，这要经受一番考验。双方肯定会回忆起过去的时光，因为谈话无法回避那些时光。每当涉及一些详细情景的描述，弗雷德里克不得不提及他们订婚的那年。他的职业练就了他能说会道的本领，他的性格又使他善于闲谈。“那是在1806年，”“那是在1806年我出海远航之前，”他们在一起度过的头一天晚上他就谈到了。尽管他的声音没有颤抖，尽管安妮没有理由认为他在说这番话的时候将眼睛投向了她，但是根据她对他心思的了解，安妮觉得他绝不可能不像她一样回想起过去的时光。他们彼此一定都同样会触景生情，尽管她远不能确定这种想法带来的痛楚是否相等。

They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the commonest civility required. Once so much to each other! Now nothing! There had been a time, when of all the large party now filling the drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it most difficult to cease to speak to one another. With the exception, perhaps, of Admiral and Mrs. Croft, who seemed particularly attached and happy, (Anne could allow no other exceptions even among the married couples), there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

他们在一起无话可说，只是出于最起码的礼貌寒暄几句。而曾经他们是有那么多话可以说！现在却无话可说！曾经有过那么一段时间，在如今聚集于阿珀克罗斯客厅的所有人中，就数他们两个之间的交谈是最难停止的。也许除了看起来特别相亲相爱的克罗夫特将军和太太以外（安妮认为，即使是在新婚夫妇中也不会有其他的意外），没有人会像安妮和弗雷德里克如此心心相印，如此情投意合，如此和颜悦色。现在他们就是陌生人，不，还不如陌生人，因为他们永远也无法深交了。这是永久的疏远。

When he talked, she heard the same voice, and discerned the same mind. There was a very general ignorance of all naval matters throughout the party; and he was very much questioned, and especially by the two Miss Musgroves, who seemed hardly to have any eyes but for him, as to the manner of living on board, daily regulations, food, hours, &c., and their surprise at his accounts, at learning the degree of accommodation and arrangement which was practicable, drew from him some pleasant ridicule, which reminded Anne of the early days when she too had been ignorant, and she too had been accused of supposing sailors to be living on board without anything to eat, or any cook to dress it if there were, or any servant to wait, or any knife and fork to use.

他说话的时候，安妮听到他嗓音依旧，觉得他心境依旧。大家对海上生活一般都很不了解，因此在聚会上对弗雷德里克问了很多问题，尤其是两位马斯格罗夫小姐，她们的全部注意力似乎都集中在他身上。一再地问起船上的生活方式，日常的规则制度，饮食和作息时间等等。听着弗雷德里克的叙述，了解到那里的实际设施和安排竟然到了这种地步，她们不禁感到非常吃惊，这就引得弗雷德里克说了几句讨人喜欢的嘲笑话。这情景勾起安妮对往事的回忆。那时她也很无知，弗雷德里克也曾说过她，因为她以为水手在船上没有东西可吃，即使有东西，也没有厨师加工，没有仆人伺候，没有刀叉可用。

From thus listening and thinking, she was roused by a whisper of Mrs. Musgrove's who, overcome by fond regrets, could not help saying—

当安妮这么听着想着时，马斯格罗夫太太的耳语使她回过神来，原来马斯格罗夫太太内心充满了慈母的痛惜，冒出了一句：

"Ah! Miss Anne, if it had pleased Heaven to spare my poor son, I dare say he would have been just such another by this time."“啊！安妮小姐，要是老天爷肯饶我可怜的儿子一命，也许到今天，他也会是这样的。”

Anne suppressed a smile, and listened kindly, while Mrs. Musgrove relieved her heart a little more; and for a few minutes, therefore, could not keep pace with the conversation of the others.

安妮忍住了笑，好心地听着，马斯格罗夫太太又跟她诉说了几句心里话，因此，安妮有一阵没有听清楚其他人的谈话。

When she could let her attention take its natural course again, she found the Miss Musgroves just fetching the Navy List (their own navy list, the first that had ever been at Uppercross), and sitting down together to pore over it, with the professed view of finding out the ships that Captain Wentworth had commanded.

安妮把思绪转入正常轨道以后，发现两位马斯格罗夫小姐正拿起海军花名册（她们自己的海军花名册，阿珀克罗斯有史以来的第一份），坐在一起进行研究，声称要找出温特沃思上校指挥过的军舰。

"Your first was the Asp, I remember; we will look for the Asp."“我记得你的第一艘是‘阿斯普号’，我们来看看‘阿斯普号’在什么地方。”

"You will not find her there. Quite worn out and broken up. I was the last man who commanded her. Hardly fit for service then. Reported fit for home service for a year or two, and so I was sent off to the West Indies."“你们在那里是找不到的。它已经破旧不堪、不能再用了。我是这艘船的最后一个指挥官。当时这艘船已不能服役。据说还能在国内航运业中用上一两年，所以我就被派到西印度群岛去了。”

The girls looked all amazement.

两位小姐显得非常惊讶。

"The Admiralty," he continued, "entertain themselves now and then, with sending a few hundred men to sea, in a ship not fit to be employed. But they have a great many to provide for; and among the thousands that may just as well go to the bottom as not, it is impossible for them to distinguish the very set who may be least missed."

他接着说，“海军部的官员偶尔开玩笑，派几百人乘坐不能用的军舰去航海。但是他们要养活很多人，对那些沉入海底也无妨的成千上万人当中，他们难以辨别哪些人最没有人惦念。”

"Phoo!phoo!" cried the Admiral, "what stuff these young fellows talk! Never was a better sloop than the Asp in her day. For an old built sloop, you would not see her equal. Lucky fellow to get her! He knows there must have been twenty better men than himself applying for her at the same time. Lucky fellow to get anything so soon, with no more interest than his."“啧！啧！”将军大声说，“这些年轻人在胡说些什么呀！当年没有比‘阿普斯号’更好的舰艇了。作为一艘很久以前造的舰艇，你很难找到可以同它媲美的了。能得到这艘舰艇的人该有多幸运呀！他自知当时有二十个比他更强的人同时申请要指挥这艘舰艇。凭他那点本事，他能这么快得到它，已经够幸运了。”

"I felt my luck, Admiral, I assure you;" replied Captain Wentworth, seriously. "I was as well satisfied with my appointment as you can desire. It was a great object with me at that time to be at sea; a very great object, I wanted to be doing something."“将军，我知道我很幸运，我向你保证，”温特沃思上校严肃地回答道，“我对自己的任命非常满意，就像你希望的一样。当时我的最大目标就是出海。一个非常重要的目标就是我想做点事。”

"To be sure you did. What should a young fellow like you do ashore for half a year together? If a man had not a wife, he soon wants to be afloat again."“你当然想了。像你这样的年轻小伙子，在岸上呆上半年，能干些什么？如果一个年轻人没有妻子，他很快就会想再次出海的。”

"But, Captain Wentworth," cried Louisa, "how vexed you must have been when you came to the Asp, to see what an old thing they had given you."“不过，温特沃思上校，”路易莎喊道，”你登上‘阿普斯号‘，一看到他们给你的是一艘旧舰艇，一定很恼火吧。“

"I knew pretty well what she was before that day;" said he, smiling. "I had no more discoveries to make than you would have as to the fashion and strength of any old pelisse, which you had seen lent about among half your acquaintance ever since you could remember, and which at last, on some very wet day, is lent to yourself. Ah! she was a dear old Asp to me. She did all that I wanted. I knew she would. I knew that we should either go to the bottom together, or that she would be the making of me; and I never had two days of foul weather all the time I was at sea in her; and after taking privateers enough to be very entertaining, I had the good luck in my passage home the next autumn, to fall in with the very French frigate I wanted. I brought her into Plymouth; and here another instance of luck. We had not been six hours in the Sound, when a gale came on, which lasted four days and nights, and which would have done for poor old Asp in half the time; our touch with the Great Nation not having much improved our condition. Four-and-twenty hours later, and I should only have been a gallant Captain Wentworth, in a small paragraph at one corner of the newspapers; and being lost in only a sloop, nobody would have thought about me.”Anne's shudderings were to herself alone; but the Miss Musgroves could be as open as they were sincere, in their exclamations of pity and horror.“在那以前，我就知道这是一艘怎么样的船，”他微笑着说道。“我没有发现更多的情况，就像你们对一件旧皮上衣的款式和耐磨度不可能发现更多的情况一样。因为自从你们记事以来，就看到这件大衣被你们半数的熟人借去穿过；直到后来，某一个大雨天，这件大衣又借给了你们。啊！对我来说，它是一艘可爱的‘阿普斯号’。它实现了我的所有愿望。我早知道它会这样。我知道，要么我们一起沉到海底，要么它就会成全我的理想。我乘这艘船航行时，从来没有遇到过连续两天的恶劣天气。第二年秋天，等我们俘获了足够的私掠船，觉得够意思了，就返航了。我在航海中意外地交了好运，碰到了我想找的那艘法国护卫舰。我把他带到了普利茅斯，在那里我又交了一次好运。我们刚进入海湾还不到六个小时是就刮起了狂风，连续刮了四天四夜，要是可怜的‘阿普斯号’的话，只要被刮上这一半的时间就会完蛋，因为我们同法国的联系也并没有使我们的情况得到很大的改善。要是再过24小时，我就会成为报纸一角的小新闻中一位英勇牺牲的温特沃思上校了。由于是在这么一艘小小的舰艇中丧生的，所以不会有人想起我。”安妮浑身颤抖，不过这种心情只有她自己明白。但是两位马斯格罗夫却可以坦诚而大声地表示她们的同情与恐惧。

"And so then, I suppose," said Mrs. Musgrove, in a low voice, as if thinking aloud, "so then he went away to the Laconia, and there he met with our poor boy. Charles, my dear," (beckoning him to her), "do ask Captain Wentworth where it was he first met with your poor brother. I always forgot."“我想那么是在以后，”马斯格罗夫太太低声说道，像是自言自语，“从那以后他被调到了‘拉科尼亚号’去了，在那里他遇见了我们可怜的儿子。查尔斯，亲爱的，”（她招手让查尔斯到她跟前），“你问问温特沃斯上校，他第一次遇见你那可怜的弟弟实在什么地方。我老记不住。”

"It was at Gibraltar, mother, I know. Dick had been left ill at Gibraltar, with a recommendation from his former captain to Captain Wentworth."“母亲，我知道，是在直布罗陀。迪克病了，留在直布罗陀。他以前的舰长给温特沃思上校写了封推荐信。”

"Oh!but, Charles, tell Captain Wentworth, he need not be afraid of mentioning poor Dick before me, for it would be rather a pleasure to hear him talked of by such a good friend."“噢！不过，查尔斯，告诉温特沃思上校，他不用在我面前避而不谈可怜的迪克，因为听到这么一个好朋友谈起他倒叫人高兴。”

Charles, being somewhat more mindful of the probabilities of the case, only nodded in reply, and walked away.

查尔斯对会出现的种种可能性考虑得比较周全，所以只是点点头，便走开了。

The girls were now hunting for the Laconia; and Captain Wentworth could not deny himself the pleasure of taking the precious volume into his own hands to save them the trouble, and once more read aloud the little statement of her name and rate, and present non-commissioned class, observing over it that she too had been one of the best friends man ever had.

眼下两位小姐开始翻寻关于“拉科尼亚号”的材料，为了免得她们麻烦，温特沃思上校忍不住高兴地亲手拿起那本宝贝的书，又一次大声朗读这艘船的名字和等级，以及目前已经退役的情况。接着他抬起头说，这艘船也是他拥有的其中一个最好的朋友。

"Ah!those were pleasant days when I had the Laconia! How fast I made money in her. A friend of mine and I had such a lovely cruise together off the Western Islands. Poor Harville, sister! You know how much he wanted money: worse than myself. He had a wife. Excellent fellow. I shall never forget his happiness. He felt it all, so much for her sake. I wished for him again the next summer, when I had still the same luck in the Mediterranean.”“啊！我指挥‘拉科尼亚号’的那些日子确实令人愉快！我在船上赚钱赚得多快啊。我和我的一位朋友一起从西印度群岛起锚，出海巡航。可怜的哈维尔，姐姐！你知道，他多么想发财，比我更想。他有妻子。他是个了不起的人。我永远也忘不了他当时兴奋的模样。他之所以高兴，多半是为了他妻子。第二年夏天我在地中海也照样走运，这时我就想起了他。”

"And I am sure, Sir." said Mrs. Musgrove, "it was a lucky day for us, when you were put captain into that ship. We shall never forget what you did."“先生，我可以肯定地说，”马斯格罗夫太太说，“你就任那艘船船长的日子，也是我们幸运的日子。我们永远也不会忘记你的好意。”

Her feelings made her speak low; and Captain Wentworth, hearing only in part, and probably not having Dick Musgrove at all near his thoughts, looked rather in suspense, and as if waiting for more.

她情绪激动，说话声音很低。温特沃思上校只听清了一部分，可能根本没有想到迪克·马斯格罗夫，所以有些迟疑，似乎在等她说下去。

"My brother," whispered one of the girls; "mamma is thinking of poor Richard."“我的哥哥，”一位小姐低声说，“妈妈想起了可怜的理查德。”

"Poor dear fellow!" continued Mrs. Musgrove; "he was grown so steady, and such an excellent correspondent, while he was under your care! Ah! it would have been a happy thing, if he had never left you. I assure you, Captain Wentworth, we are very sorry he ever left you."“可怜的好孩子！”马斯格罗夫太太接着说，“他在你的关照下变得这么懂事，经常写信回家！啊！要是他不离开你就好了。说实话，温特沃思上校，我们非常遗憾，他离开了你。”

There was a momentary expression in Captain Wentworth's face at this speech, a certain glance of his bright eye, and curl of his handsome mouth, which convinced Anne, that instead of sharing in Mrs. Musgrove's kind wishes, as to her son, he had probably been at some pains to get rid of him; but it was too transient an indulgence of self-amusement to be detected by any who understood him less than herself; in another moment he was perfectly collected and serious, and almost instantly afterwards coming up to the sofa, on which she and Mrs. Musgrove were sitting, took a place by the latter, and entered into conversation with her, in a low voice, about her son, doing it with so much sympathy and natural grace, as shewed the kindest consideration for all that was real and unabsurd in the parent's feelings.

听到这里，一种表情在温特沃思上校的脸上掠过，只见他明亮的眼睛忽地一闪，那漂亮的嘴微微一撅。安妮意识到，温特沃思上校非但没有分享马斯格罗夫太太对她儿子的良好愿望，反而很可能不愿意提起这个人。但是任何人，如果不像安妮那么了解他，就不可能发现这种稍纵即逝的忍俊不禁的表情。但刹那间，他已控制住自己，显得很严肃，几乎立即走到安妮和马斯格罗夫太太的沙发跟前，在太太身旁坐下，声音低沉而亲切自然地同她谈起她儿子的情形。他表示了极大的同情，表明他充分理解这位母亲的一片无可非议的真情。

They were actually on the same sofa, for Mrs. Musgrove had most readily made room for him; they were divided only by Mrs. Musgrove. It was no insignificant barrier, indeed. Mrs. Musgrove was of a comfortable, substantial size, infinitely more fitted by nature to express good cheer and good humour, than tenderness and sentiment; and while the agitations of Anne's slender form, and pensive face, may be considered as very completely screened, Captain Wentworth should be allowed some credit for the self-command with which he attended to her large fat sighings over the destiny of a son, whom alive nobody had cared for.

安妮和温特沃思上校实际上坐在同一张沙发上，因为马斯格罗夫太太非常爽快地给他让出了座位。他们之间仅仅隔着马斯格罗夫太太。不过，这确实不是一个微不足道的障碍。马斯格罗夫太太身体肥胖。她的体形天生就适合于表现欢乐愉快，而不是多愁善感；安妮身材苗条，因此，在她沉思的脸庞上表现出的激动心情，可以说是完全给马斯格罗夫太太遮掉了。所以温特沃思上校能平心静气地听着胖胖的太太对儿子命运的叹惜，而儿子在世时却没人惦记。

Personal size and mental sorrow have certainly no necessary proportions. A large bulky figure has as good a right to be in deep affliction, as the most graceful set of limbs in the world. But, fair or not fair, there are unbecoming conjunctions, which reason will patronize in vain—which taste cannot tolerate—which ridicule will seize.

个人的体形和内心的悲痛确实不一定成正比的。身材庞大的人与世界上身材最优雅的人一样，都可以有自己内心的忧伤。但是，无论公正与否，有时两者之间的关联很不恰当。人们的理智无法为之辩解的——是情趣无法容忍的——它只会成为笑柄。

The Admiral, after taking two or three refreshing turns about the room with his hands behind him, being called to order by his wife, now came up to Captain Wentworth, and without any observation of what he might be interrupting, thinking only of his own thoughts, began with—

将军背着双手在房间里来回踱了两三圈，想提提神。他妻子叫他别来回走动，他便来到温特沃思海军上校跟前。他一心想着自己的事儿，没有注意到自己会打断别人的对话，张口就说：

"If you had been a week later at Lisbon, last spring, Frederick, you would have been asked to give a passage to Lady Mary Grierson and her daughters."“弗雷德里克，去年春天你要是在里斯本多呆上一星期，就会有人委托你让玛丽·格里尔森夫人和她的几个女儿搭乘你的船了。”

"Should I? I am glad I was not a week later then."“是吗？我倒很庆幸当时没有多呆一星期。”

The Admiral abused him for his want of gallantry. He defended himself; though professing that he would never willingly admit any ladies on board a ship of his, excepting for a ball, or a visit, which a few hours might comprehend.

将军责怪他没有礼貌。他却为自己辩解，说是除了为时几个小时的舞会或访问之外，他决不愿意让任何女士登上他的船。

"But, if I know myself," said he, "this is from no want of gallantry towards them. It is rather from feeling how impossible it is, with all one's efforts, and all one's sacrifices, to make the accommodations on board such as women ought to have. There can be no want of gallantry, Admiral, in rating the claims of women to every personal comfort high, and this is what I do. I hate to hear of women on board, or to see them on board; and no ship under my command shall ever convey a family of ladies anywhere, if I can help it.”“不过，我心里明白，”他说，“这并不是在对待女士上缺乏礼貌。我所考虑的是，不管我们怎么努力，做出多大牺牲，都无法在船上为女士们提供应有的设施。将军，重视女士们对满足她们个人安逸而提出的种种要求，并不是缺乏礼貌的表现，而我做的正是这点。我不愿听到女人在船上，或看到她们呆在船上。因此只要我做得到，我就不让我指挥的舰艇把一家女眷送到任何地方去。”

This brought his sister upon him.

这么一说，他的姐姐们就向他发起进攻了。

"Oh! Frederick! But I cannot believe it of you. —All idle refinement! —Women may be as comfortable on board, as in the best house in England. I believe I have lived as much on board as most women, and I know nothing superior to the accommodations of a man-of-war. I declare I have not a comfort or an indulgence about me, even at Kellynch Hall," (with a kind bow to Anne), "beyond what I always had in most of the ships I have lived in; and they have been five altogether."“哎！弗雷德里克！我真不敢相信这是你说的话。全是无聊的穷讲究！女人一样舒服。在船上可以同住在最上等的住宅中一样舒服。我想我在船上呆的时间同许多妇女差不多，我觉得再也没有比军舰上更舒服了。我要明确地说，我所享受到的一切，哪怕在凯林奇的享受也罢，”（这时他友好地朝安妮点了点头），“都没有超过我乘过的大多数舰艇上所能提供的享受。而这样的舰艇一共有五艘。”

"Nothing to the purpose," replied her brother. "You were living with your husband, and were the only woman on board."“你这么讲不合适，”她的弟弟回答道，“你是同你丈夫住在一起，而且是船上唯一的女人。”

"But you, yourself, brought Mrs. Harville, her sister, her cousin, and three children, round from Portsmouth to Plymouth. Where was this superfine, extraordinary sort of gallantry of yours then?"“可是你自己却把哈维尔太太、她的妹妹、表妹和三个孩子从朴茨茅斯一直送到了普利茅斯。那时，你这种体贴入微的特殊的殷勤劲儿在哪儿呢？”

"All merged in my friendship, Sophia. I would assist any brother officer's wife that I could, and I would bring anything of Harville's from the world's end, if he wanted it. But do not imagine that I did not feel it an evil in itself.”“那已经完全融入我的友情中了，索菲娅。我愿尽力帮助任何一位军官弟兄的妻子。如果哈维尔需要，我会把他的任何东西从世界的另一端运过来。但是，你不要以为我不认为这么做不合适。”

"Depend upon it, they were all perfectly comfortable."“放心吧，她们肯定都感到十分惬意。”

"I might not like them the better for that perhaps. Such a number of women and children have no right to be comfortable on board."“尽管如此，我也不见得就欢迎她们。这么多妇女和孩子没有权利要求在船上过得十分舒服。”

"My dear Frederick, you are talking quite idly. Pray, what would become of us poor sailors' wives, who often want to be conveyed to one port or another, after our husbands, if everybody had your feelings?”“亲爱的弗雷德里克，你这么说毫无道理。请问，要是大家都像你这样想，那我们这些可怜的水手妻子该怎么办呢？我们常常需要从一个港口到另一个港口去追随我们的丈夫。”

"My feelings, you see, did not prevent my taking Mrs. Harville and all her family to Plymouth."“你知道，我的想法并没有阻碍我将哈维尔太太及其一家送到普利茅斯啊。”

"But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days."“可是，我不喜欢听你说起话来像是一个高贵的绅士，就好像女人们都是纤细柔弱的夫人小姐，而不是明白事理的普通人。我们中间谁也没有期待天天过风平浪静的生活。”

"Ah!my dear," said the Admiral, "when he had got a wife, he will sing a different tune. When he is married, if we have the good luck to live to another war, we shall see him do as you and I, and a great many others, have done. We shall have him very thankful to anybody that will bring him his wife."“噢！亲爱的，”将军说，“等他有了妻子，他就会改变腔调的。等他结了婚，而我们又能幸运地活到另一次战争爆发。那我们就会看到他同你我以及其他许多人一样的。要是说把他的妻子送到他那里去，他会非常感激的。”

"Ay, that we shall."“啊，那还用说。”

"Now I have done," cried Captain Wentworth. "When once married people begin to attack me with,—'Oh!you will think very differently, when you are married.' I can only say, 'No, I shall not;' and then they say again, 'Yes, you will,' and there is an end of it.”“那我就没有什么可说的了，”温特沃思上校提高嗓门说，“一旦结了婚的人攻击我说——‘喔呦！你结了婚想法就会大不相同，’我只能说，‘不，我不会的；’可是他们又说，‘会的，你一定会的，’这样一来，就谈不下去了。”

He got up and moved away.

他站起身来，走开了。

"What a great traveller you must have been, ma'am!" said Mrs. Musgrove to Mrs. Croft.“你一定是个了不起的旅行家，，夫人！”马斯格罗夫太太对克罗夫特太太说道。

"Pretty well, ma'am in the fifteen years of my marriage; though many women have done more. I have crossed the Atlantic four times, and have been once to the East Indies, and back again, and only once; besides being in different places about home: Cork, and Lisbon, and Gibraltar. But I never went beyond the Streights, and never was in the West Indies. We do not call Bermuda or Bahama, you know, the West Indies.”“结婚15年来，我确实去过很多地方，夫人。不过有很多女人比我去过的地方还多。我曾四次横渡太平洋，一次到东印度群岛，然后又返回来，不过只有一次。除了国内的某些地方外，还去了科克、里斯本和直布罗陀。但是我从来没有越过这海峡，从来没有去过西印度群岛。你知道，我们不把百慕大和巴哈马称作西印度群岛。”

Mrs. Musgrove had not a word to say in dissent; she could not accuse herself of having ever called them anything in the whole course of her life.

马斯格罗夫太太说不出任何反对意见。她也不用指责自己，因为她一生中从来没有谈论到过这两个地方。

"And I do assure you, ma'am," pursued Mrs. Croft, "that nothing can exceed the accommodations of a man-of-war; I speak, you know, of the higher rates. When you come to a frigate, of course, you are more confined; though any reasonable woman may be perfectly happy in one of them; and I can safely say, that the happiest part of my life has been spent on board a ship. While we were together, you know, there was nothing to be feared. Thank God! I have always been blessed with excellent health, and no climate disagrees with me. A little disordered always the first twenty-four hours of going to sea, but never knew what sickness was afterwards. The only time I ever really suffered in body or mind, the only time that I ever fancied myself unwell, or had any ideas of danger, was the winter that I passed by myself at Deal, when the Admiral (Captain Croft then) was in the North Seas. I lived in perpetual fright at that time, and had all manner of imaginary complaints from not knowing what to do with myself, or when I should hear from him next; but as long as we could be together, nothing ever ailed me, and I never met with the smallest inconvenience.”“我确实认为，夫人，”克罗夫太太接着说，“没有地方会超过军舰上的优越条件；你知道，我说的当然是高等军舰。当然，如果你乘的是一艘快速军舰，活动范围自然就有限。不过，任何一个通情达理的女人在这上面也是非常高兴的。我可以毫不夸张地说，我一生中最愉快的时光是在船上度过的。你知道，只要我们两人在一起，就没有什么可怕的。谢天谢地！我的身体幸亏一向很健康，能适应任何天气。在出海的最初24小时内总是有点不适应，但过后我从来没有晕过船。我只有一次真正感到精神不佳、身体不适，只有一次觉得自己生了病，感到有某种危险。那是我单独在迪尔过冬的时候，当时将军（那时还是克罗夫特海军上校）正在北海航行。那时，我日夜担心，不知道该怎么安排自己的生活，也不知道什么时候才能接到他的下一封信，反正总是有许多莫名其妙的抱怨。可是只要我们能在一起，我就从不生病，也从未遇到任何不便。”

"Aye, to be sure. Yes, indeed, oh yes! I am quite of your opinion, Mrs. Croft," was Mrs. Musgrove's hearty answer. "There is nothing so bad as a separation. I am quite of your opinion. I know what it is, for Mr. Musgrove always attends the assizes, and I am so glad when they are over, and he is safe back again."“啊，当然了。确实如此，啊，是啊！我很同意你的看法，克罗夫特太太，”马斯格罗夫太太诚恳地回答道。“没有什么比分居两地更让人不安。我很同意你的观点。我深有体会，因为马斯格罗夫先生总要去参加巡回审判。审判结束，他安全地回到家里，我总是很高兴。”

The evening ended with dancing. On its being proposed, Anne offered her services, as usual; and though her eyes would sometimes fill with tears as she sat at the instrument, she was extremely glad to be employed, and desired nothing in return but to be unobserved.

晚宴最后以舞会结束。安妮一听到有人提出跳舞的建议，就同往常一样，表示愿意为他们效劳。她坐在钢琴旁弹奏时，眼中不时噙着泪水。她非常高兴有事情可干，但不想得到任何报答，只要不引起别人的注意就行了。

It was a merry, joyous party, and no one seemed in higher spirits than Captain Wentworth. She felt that he had every thing to elevate him which general attention and deference, and especially the attention of all the young women, could do. The Miss Hayters, the females of the family of cousins already mentioned, were apparently admitted to the honour of being in love with him; and as for Henrietta and Louisa, they both seemed so entirely occupied by him, that nothing but the continued appearance of the most perfect good-will between themselves could have made it credible that they were not decided rivals. If he were a little spoilt by such universal, such eager admiration, who could wonder?

这是一个充满欢乐与愉快的舞会，似乎没有人比温特沃思上校更兴高采烈的了。安妮觉得上校完全有理由这样高兴，因为大家都关注并尊重他，尤其是所有的年经姑娘都盯着他。几位海特小姐，就是前面提到的表亲家的姑娘们，显然已经有幸爱上他了。至于亨里埃塔和路易莎，她们的注意力似乎也全被他吸引住了。只是她们两人彼此十分要好，这才使人们不至于以为她们是势不两立的情敌。即使说人们这么普遍、这么热切的崇拜，把他宠得有点过头，那又有什么值得大惊小怪的呢？

These were some of the thoughts which occupied Anne, while her fingers were mechanically at work, proceeding for half an hour together, equally without error, and without consciousness. Once she felt that he was looking at herself, observing her altered features, perhaps, trying to trace in them the ruins of the face which had once charmed him; and once she knew that he must have spoken of her; she was hardly aware of it, till she heard the answer; but then she was sure of his having asked his partner whether Miss Elliot never danced? The answer was, "Oh, no; never; she has quite given up dancing. She had rather play. She is never tired of playing."Once, too, he spoke to her. She had left the instrument on the dancing being over, and he had sat down to try to make out an air which he wished to give the Miss Musgroves an idea of. Unintentionally she returned to that part of the room; he saw her, and, instantly rising, said, with studied politeness—

安妮的手指机械地弹着琴，弹了半个小时，既没有弹错，也没有知觉，心中只是萦绕着这些情景。有一次她感到弗雷德里克在看她，在看她那已经变了样的容颜，也许是企图找寻一度使他神魂颠倒的那张脸的残痕。有一次，她知道他一定谈起了她，而她直到听见别人的回答才意识到这点。不过她可以肯定，弗雷德里克问过他的舞伴，埃利奥特小姐是否从不跳舞？对方回答说：“啊！是的，从不跳。她完全不跳舞了。她宁愿弹琴。她对弹琴从不感到厌倦。”有一次，弗雷德里克还对安妮说了几句话。舞会结束时安妮离开了钢琴，弗雷德里克坐过去，想弹个曲调给两位马斯格罗夫小姐听听。安妮无意间走回到那里。弗雷德里克见到她，马上站起来，彬彬有礼地说：

"I beg your pardon, madam, this is your seat;" and though she immediately drew back with a decided negative, he was not to be induced to sit down again.“对不起，小姐，这是你的座位。”尽管她一边坚决谢绝一边往后退，他却再也不肯坐下去。

Anne did not wish for more of such looks and speeches. His cold politeness, his ceremonious grace, were worse than anything.

安妮不想再看到这样的神态，也不想再听到这样的语气。他那种冰冷的客套话和彬彬有礼的神态比什么都令人伤心。

CHAPTER 9

第九章

Captain Wentworth was come to Kellynch as to a home, to stay as long as he liked, being as thoroughly the object of the Admiral's fraternal kindness as of his wife's. He had intended, on first arriving, to proceed very soon into Shropshire, and visit the brother settled in that country, but the attractions of Uppercross induced him to put this off. There was so much of friendliness, and of flattery, and of everything most bewitching in his reception there; the old were so hospitable, the young so agreeable, that he could not but resolve to remain where he was, and take all the charms and perfections of Edward's wife upon credit a little longer.

温特沃思上校来到凯林奇就像回到家一样，想呆多久就可以呆多久。将军和他的妻子，对他都充满了手足之情。刚来时，他本想马上就去什罗普郡，拜访在那里定居的哥哥。但是阿珀克罗斯的吸引力使他推迟了行期。这里迎接他的是这么深厚的友谊、这么多的恭维和这么令人心醉的氛围。老人们如此好客，年轻人又是这般讨人喜欢。他只能决定留在这里，过一阵再去欣赏爱德华妻子的魅力和才华。

It was soon Uppercross with him almost every day. The Musgroves could hardly be more ready to invite than he to come, particularly in the morning, when he had no companion at home, for the Admiral and Mrs. Croft were generally out of doors together, interesting themselves in their new possessions, their grass, and their sheep, and dawdling about in a way not endurable to a third person, or driving out in a gig, lately added to their establishment.

不久，他就几乎天天跑去阿珀克罗斯。马斯格罗夫一家十分愿意邀请他，他也更愿意去，尤其是每天上午他在家里没人作伴的时候。因为这时克罗夫特夫妇通常要出门，去欣赏他们的新庄园、草地和羊群。他们的东游西荡往往令第三者难以忍受，或者是乘着新添置的双轮马车出游。

Hitherto there had been but one opinion of Captain Wentworth among the Musgroves and their dependencies. It was unvarying, warm admiration everywhere; but this intimate footing was not more than established, when a certain Charles Hayter returned among them, to be a good deal disturbed by it, and to think Captain Wentworth very much in the way.

迄今为止，马斯格罗夫一家和他们的亲戚对温特沃思上校只有一个看法。那就是随时随地不变的热烈的赞赏。但是正当彼此间开始建立这种亲密关系的时候，一个叫查尔斯·海特的年轻人来到了他们中间。海特对他们的关系感到十分不安，他觉得温特沃思上校严重妨碍了他。

Charles Hayter was the eldest of all the cousins, and a very amiable, pleasing young man, between whom and Henrietta there had been a considerable appearance of attachment previous to Captain Wentworth's introduction. He was in orders; and having a curacy in the neighbourhood, where residence was not required, lived at his father's house, only two miles from Uppercross. A short absence from home had left his fair one unguarded by his attentions at this critical period, and when he came back he had the pain of finding very altered manners, and of seeing Captain Wentworth.

查尔斯·海特是那家表兄妹中的长兄，是一位非常和蔼令人喜爱的年轻人。温特沃思上校到来之前，亨里埃塔同查尔斯·海特之间显然颇有感情。他是位神职人员，在附近担任副牧师，但他不必住在那里，便住在父亲家里，离阿珀克罗斯只有两英里。在这关键时刻，他短期离家外出，使他的心上人失去了他的照应。他回来后痛苦地发现她的态度发生了很大的改变，并且遇见了温特沃思上校。

Mrs. Musgrove and Mrs. Hayter were sisters. They had each had money, but their marriages had made a material difference in their degree of consequence. Mr. Hayter had some property of his own, but it was insignificant compared with Mr. Musgrove's; and while the Musgroves were in the first class of society in the country, the young Hayters would, from their parents' inferior, retired, and unpolished way of living, and their own defective education, have been hardly in any class at all, but for their connexion with Uppercross, this eldest son of course excepted, who had chosen to be a scholar and a gentleman, and who was very superior in cultivation and manners to all the rest.

马斯格罗夫太太和海特太太是姐妹俩。她们本来各自都有些家产，但是她们的婚姻却使各自的地位发生了重大变化。海特先生拥有自己的一些产业，但是与马斯格罗夫先生相比，则是微不足道的。马斯格罗夫家是当地社会中的上流家庭，而海特家的子女却难以入流，因为他们的父母过的是毫无光彩、半隐退的简朴生活，他们自己又没有受过很多教育。他们只不过是阿珀克罗斯的亲戚而已。当然，这位长子是个例外，他想成为学者和绅士。他的教养和风度大大超过了兄弟姐妹。

The two families had always been on excellent terms, there being no pride on one side, and no envy on the other, and only such a consciousness of superiority in the Miss Musgroves, as made them pleased to improve their cousins. Charles's attentions to Henrietta had been observed by her father and mother without any disapprobation. "It would not be a great match for her; but if Henrietta liked him,"—and Henrietta did seem to like him.

这两家的关系一直很好。一方不骄傲，另一方也不嫉妒。只是两位马斯格罗夫小姐有点优越感，因此她们很愿意帮助提高表兄妹的趣味。查尔斯对亨里埃塔的殷勤早就被她的父母注意到了，不过他们并没有表示不赞成。“对于亨里埃塔来说，这桩婚姻并不是非常匹配，但是只要亨里埃塔喜欢他就行，”——而亨里埃塔看上去的确喜欢他。

Henrietta fully thought so herself, before Captain Wentworth came; but from that time Cousin Charles had been very much forgotten.

温特沃思上校来之前，亨里埃塔自己也是完全这么想的。但是自从温特沃思上校来了之后，她就把查尔斯表兄忘掉了不少。

Which of the two sisters was preferred by Captain Wentworth was as yet quite doubtful, as far as Anne's observation reached. Henrietta was perhaps the prettiest, Louisa had the higher spirits; and she knew not now, whether the more gentle or the more lively character were most likely to attract him.

根据安妮的观察，很难说两位马斯格罗夫小姐中，温特沃思上校更喜欢哪位。或许亨里埃塔更漂亮，路易莎更活泼一点。现在，安妮已经弄不清楚，最能吸引温特沃思上校的到底是比较温和的性格还是比较活泼的性格。

Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove, either from seeing little, or from an entire confidence in the discretion of both their daughters, and of all the young men who came near them, seemed to leave everything to take its chance. There was not the smallest appearance of solicitude or remark about them in the Mansion-house; but it was different at the Cottage: the young couple there were more disposed to speculate and wonder; and Captain Wentworth had not been above four or five times in the Miss Musgroves' company, and Charles Hayter had but just reappeared, when Anne had to listen to the opinions of her brother and sister, as to which was the one liked best. Charles gave it for Louisa, Mary for Henrietta, but quite agreeing that to have him marry either could be extremely delightful.

马斯格罗夫夫妇也许是没有观察到什么，也许是出于对两个女儿和所有接近她们的年轻人的完全信任，以为他们都会谨言慎行，因而也有点放任自流。在老宅里，大家对这几个年轻人毫不担心，从不议论，但是在庄乡舍就不同了，这一对年轻夫妇总喜欢猜测和遐想。温特沃思上校同两位马斯格罗夫小姐才见了四五次面，查尔斯·海特刚回来，安妮就听到她妹妹和妹夫之间在议论温特沃思上校究竟更喜欢哪一位。查尔斯说是路易莎，玛丽说是亨里埃塔，不过两人都同意，不管温特沃思上校同谁结婚，都是件大好事。

Charles "had never seen a pleasanter man in his life; and from what he had once heard Captain Wentworth himself say, was very sure that he had not made less than twenty thousand pounds by the war. Here was a fortune at once; besides which, there would be the chance of what might be done in any future war; and he was sure Captain Wentworth was as likely a man to distinguish himself as any officer in the navy. Oh! it would be a capital match for either of his sisters."

查尔斯说：“我一生中还未见过比温特沃思上校更讨人喜欢的绅士，有一次他听温特沃思上校本人说起，他在战争中赚了不下两万英镑。这可是一下子就发了大财。再说，在今后的任何一次战争中他还可以如法炮制。他可以肯定，温特沃思上校很可能在海军里表现得出类拔萃。啊！不管是哪个妹妹嫁给他，都是绝妙的姻缘。”

"Upon my word it would," replied Mary. "Dear me! If he should rise to any very great honours! If he should ever be made a baronet! 'Lady Wentworth' sounds very well. That would be a noble thing, indeed, for Henrietta! She would take place of me then, and Henrietta would not dislike that. Sir Frederick and Lady Wentworth! It would be but a new creation, however, and I never think much of your new creations.”“我肯定是这样的，”玛丽回答道。“天哪！但愿他获得最高荣誉！但愿他能当上准男爵！‘温特沃思夫人’，这称呼听上去真好。对亨里埃塔来说，这确实是件了不起的事！到那时，她就会取代我的位置。亨里埃塔一定不会不喜欢的。弗雷德里克爵士和温特沃思夫人！可是这只不过是新加封的爵位，我从来都不稀罕你们那些新封的爵位。”

It suited Mary best to think Henrietta the one preferred on the very account of Charles Hayter, whose pretensions she wished to see put an end to. She looked down very decidedly upon the Hayters, and thought it would be quite a misfortune to have the existing connection between the families renewed—very sad for herself and her children.

玛丽倾向于认为，亨里埃塔是弗雷德里克的意中人，这仅仅是因为她希望查尔斯·海特高攀的愿望最后会落空。她非常看不起海特一家，认为要是这两家人之间亲上加亲，那将是她和她儿子的一场灾难。

"You know," said she, "I cannot think him at all a fit match for Henrietta; and considering the alliances which the Musgroves have made, she has no right to throw herself away. I do not think any young woman has a right to make a choice that may be disagreeable and inconvenient to the principal part of her family, and be giving bad connections to those who have not been used to them. And, pray, who is Charles Hayter? Nothing but a country curate. A most improper match for Miss Musgrove of Uppercross."“你知道，”她说，“我认为查尔斯根本配不上亨里埃塔，考虑到马斯格罗夫家现有的关系，亨里埃塔没有权利随便嫁人。我认为任何年轻的姑娘都无权选择家庭主要成员不喜欢和不中意的对象，无权把一些倒霉亲戚强加在不习惯这种关系的人身上。请问，查尔斯·海特算什么？他只不过是个乡村牧师。他根本配不上阿珀克罗斯的马斯格罗夫小姐。”

Her husband, however, would not agree with her here; for besides having a regard for his cousin, Charles Hayter was an eldest son, and he saw things as an eldest son himself.

然而，她丈夫对此却不敢苟同，因为除了对表弟的尊重之外，查尔斯·海特也是个长子，他看问题也是从他自己长子这个角度出发的。

"Now you are taking nonsense, Mary," was therefore his answer. "It would not be a great match for Henrietta, but Charles has a very fair chance, through the Spicers, of getting something from the Bishop in the course of a year or two; and you will please to remember, that he is the eldest son; whenever my uncle dies, he steps into very pretty property. The estate at Winthrop is not less than two hundred and fifty acres, besides the farm near Taunton, which is some of the best land in the country. I grant you, that any of them but Charles would be a very shocking match for Henrietta, and indeed it could not be; he is the only one that could be possible; but he is a very good-natured, good sort of a fellow; and whenever Winthrop comes into his hands, he will make a different sort of place of it, and live in a very different sort of way; and with that property, he will never be a contemptible man—good, freehold property. No, no; Henrietta might do worse than marry Charles Hayter; and if she has him, and Louisa can get Captain Wentworth, I shall be very well satisfied.”“现在你真是胡说八道，玛丽，”他因此说道，“对于亨里埃塔来说，这算不上一门上等的亲事，但是查尔斯通过斯派赛一家的关系，还是可能在一两年内从主教那儿谋得一份差使的。请你注意，他是长子，我姨夫一死，他就可以继承一大笔可观的财产。温斯罗普的庄园不下二百五十英亩，在汤顿附近还有一处农场，那里的土地是当地最好的。就算你说得对，除了查尔斯以外，他们家其他任何人都配不上亨里埃塔，确实也难以般配，只有查尔斯能配得上。他是一个脾气温和、为人正直的小伙子，一旦温思罗普传到他手里，他就会使那个地方大为改观，他的生活方式也会发生变化。只要有了那笔家产，他就再也不会遭人白眼。这是一笔完全掌握在他自己手里的地产。不，不。亨里埃塔要是不嫁给查尔斯·海特，或许会更糟糕。如果她嫁给查尔斯·海特，路易莎嫁给温特沃思上校，那我就非常满意了。”

"Charles may say what he pleases," cried Mary to Anne, as soon as he was out of the room, "but it would be shocking to have Henrietta marry Charles Hayter; a very bad thing for her, and still worse for me; and therefore it is very much to be wished that Captain Wentworth may soon put him quite out of her head, and I have very little doubt that he has. She took hardly any notice of Charles Hayter yesterday. I wish you had been there to see her behaviour. And as to Captain Wentworth's liking Louisa as well as Henrietta, it is nonsense to say so; for he certainly does like Henrietta a great deal the best. But Charles is so positive! I wish you had been with us yesterday, for then you might have decided between us; and I am sure you would have thought as I did, unless you had been determined to give it against me.”“随便查尔斯怎么说，”丈夫一走出屋子，玛丽便对安妮高声说，“可是要是亨里埃塔嫁给查尔斯·海特，那简直太可怕了。这对她不好，对我更加糟糕。因此，最好让温特沃斯上校能够尽快把查尔斯从亨里埃塔的心里赶走。我并不怀疑，温特沃斯上校已经做到了这一点。亨里埃塔昨天根本没有理会查尔斯·海特。我真希望你当时能在那儿看到她的态度。至于说什么温特沃思上校对亨里埃塔和路易莎一样喜欢，那是胡扯。因为他当然更加喜欢亨里埃塔。但是查尔斯说得这么绝对！要是昨天你跟我们在一起，你就可以对我们两个人的看法作出判断。我肯定你我会有同感，除非你有意跟我作对。”

A dinner at Mr. Musgrove's had been the occasion when all these things should have been seen by Anne; but she had staid at home, under the mixed plea of a headache of her own, and some return of indisposition in little Charles. She had thought only of avoiding Captain Wentworth; but an escape from being appealed to as umpire was now added to the advantages of a quiet evening.

只要到马斯格罗夫先生家去吃了那顿晚餐，安妮就可以看出一切。但是安妮借口头疼，加之小查尔斯又有点旧病复发，她就留在家里了。当时，她只想着避开温特沃思上校，现在除了度过一个清静的夜晚之外，不去还有一个优点，就是可以不给他们当仲裁。

As to Captain Wentworth's views, she deemed it of more consequence that he should know his own mind early enough not to be endangering the happiness of either sister, or impeaching his own honour, than that he should prefer Henrietta to Louisa, or Louisa to Henrietta. Either of them would, in all probability, make him an affectionate, good-humoured wife. With regard to Charles Hayter, she had delicacy which must be pained by any lightness of conduct in a well-meaning young woman, and a heart to sympathize in any of the sufferings it occasioned; but if Henrietta found herself mistaken in the nature of her feelings, the alternation could not be understood too soon.

至于温特沃思上校的态度，安妮认为，更重要的是他应该及早拿定主意，免得影响两姐妹的幸福，也不要有损于他自己的声誉，而不是他更应该喜欢亨里埃塔呢，还是路易莎。无论哪一个，都完全可能成为他忠贞而温柔的妻子。安妮很体谅查尔斯·海特的心情。对于一个心无恶意的年轻小姐的轻率行动，她感到痛心，对这种行为引起的任何痛苦深表同情。不过，即使亨里埃塔发现过去错误理解了自己的感情，现在改变了态度，那也能马上得到别人的谅解的。

Charles Hayter had met with much to disquiet and mortify him in his cousin's behaviour. She had too old a regard for him to be so wholly estranged as might in two meetings extinguish every past hope, and leave him nothing to do but to keep away from Uppercross: but there was such a change as became very alarming, when such a man as Captain Wentworth was to be regarded as the probable cause. He had been absent only two Sundays, and when they parted, had left her interested, even to the height of his wishes, in his prospect of soon quitting his present curacy, and obtaining that of Uppercross instead. It had then seemed the object nearest her heart, that Dr Shirley, the rector, who for more than forty years had been zealously discharging all the duties of his office, but was now growing too infirm for many of them, should be quite fixed on engaging a curate; should make his curacy quite as good as he could afford, and should give Charles Hayter the promise of it. The advantage of his having to come only to Uppercross, instead of going six miles another way; of his having, in every respect, a better curacy; of his belonging to their dear Dr Shirley, and of dear, good Dr Shirley's being relieved from the duty which he could no longer get through without most injurious fatigue, had been a great deal, even to Louisa, but had been almost everything to Henrietta. When he came back, alas!the zeal of the business was gone by. Louisa could not listen at all to his account of a conversation which he had just held with Dr Shirley: she was at a window, looking out for Captain Wentworth; and even Henrietta had at best only a divided attention to give, and seemed to have forgotten all the former doubt and solicitude of the negotiation.

查尔斯·海特从他表妹的言谈举止里发现了一些令他不安和伤心的迹象。亨里埃塔长期以来一直很尊重他，不可能同他彻底疏远，也不会在见过两次面之后就丧失以往的全部希望，他也不至于除了离开阿珀克罗斯之外就别无他法。但是她态度的变化是惊人的，起因可能就是温特沃思上校。查尔斯·海特仅仅离开了两个星期。分手时，他已使亨里埃塔希望他能辞掉现任的副牧师职位而转到阿珀克罗斯来，而且希望之殷切甚至同他本人一样。看来亨里埃塔当时关心的是：教区长雪莉博士四十多年来一直在满腔热情地执行着自己的全部职责，但现在已经年老体衰，对好多事情已经无能为力了。在此情况下，他应该能基本上决定聘请一位副牧师；最好在资金许可的情况下尽量以优厚薪俸聘请一位称职的副牧师，并将这一职位授予查尔斯·海特。查尔斯·海特只要到阿珀克罗斯来，不用跑六英里到别的地方去，就会获得从哪个方面来说都比较优越的副牧师职位，可以到他们尊敬的雪莉博士手下工作；亲爱善良的雪莉博士可以摆脱他的职务，目前他承担的职务极其劳累，对身体极其有害。这一切带来的好处甚至对路易莎也颇具吸引力，在亨里埃塔看来几乎是至高无上的。等查尔斯回来后，天哪！可是这两位小姐的这种热情却已全部消失。路易莎甚至根本听不进去他关于不久前和雪莉博士那次谈话的描述，她站在窗口，向外张望着，力图捕捉温特沃思上校的身影。即使是亨里埃塔，最多也只不过是心不在焉地听听而已，似乎早已忘记先前对这一谈判所抱有的疑虑和担心。

"Well, I am very glad indeed: but I always thought you would have it; I always thought you sure. It did not appear to me that—in short, you know, Dr Shirley must have a curate, and you had secured his promise. Is he coming, Louisa?”“嗯，我很高兴，真的，我一直认为你会得到这个职位的，我一直认为你没有问题。我并不觉得——总之，你知道，雪莉博士必须有一个副牧师，而你又得到了他的许诺。他要来吗，路易莎？”

One morning, very soon after the dinner at the Musgroves, at

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