In fulfilment of his promise, the Major afterwards called on Mr Dombey; and Mr Dombey, having referred to the army list, afterwards called on the Major. Then the Major called at Mr Dombey's house in town; and came down again, in the same coach as Mr Dombey. In short, Mr Dombey and the Major got on uncommonly well together, and uncommonly fast: and Mr Dombey observed of the Major, to his sister, that besides being quite a military man he was really something more, as he had a very admirable idea of the importance of things unconnected with his own profession.
少校履行诺言，后来去拜访了董贝先生；董贝先生查阅了军人名册之后，后来也去拜访了少校。然后少校在董贝先生城里的公馆中拜访了他；然后他和董贝先生乘坐着同一辆马车又到布赖顿来。总之，董贝先生与少校相处得异乎寻常地融洽，关系进展得异乎寻常地迅速。董贝先生向他的妹妹谈起少校的时候，说，他不仅是一位真正的军人，而且在他身上还有其他一些东西，因为他对跟他的职业毫无关系的事物，也令人惊叹地了解它们的重要性。
At length Mr Dombey, bringing down Miss Tox and Mrs Chick to see the children, and finding the Major again at Brighton, invited him to dinner at the Bedford, and complimented Miss Tox highly, beforehand, on her neighbour and acquaintance.
终于，当董贝先生领着托克斯小姐与奇克夫人到布赖顿来看孩子们，并看到少校也在这里的时候，他就邀请他到贝德福德旅馆来吃晚饭，事前还向托克斯小姐极力恭维她有这样一位邻居与熟人。
Notwithstanding the palpitation of the heart which these allusions occasioned her, they were anything but disagreeable to Miss Tox, as they enabled her to be extremely interesting, and to manifest an occasional incoherence and distraction which she was not at all unwilling to display. The Major gave her abundant opportunities of exhibiting this emotion: being profuse in his complaints, at dinner, of her desertion of him and Princess's Place: and as he appeared to derive great enjoyment from making them, they all got on very well.
尽管这些暗示使托克斯小姐心房怦怦跳动，但她听起来决不是不愉快的，因为它们使她变得格外有趣，有时使她显得心意烦乱，神志不定，这是她完全不愿意表露出来的。少校给了她很多机会来展现这种情绪，他在晚饭中间不断埋怨她把他和公主广场抛弃了。由于他讲这些话看来是为了取得极大的乐趣，所以他们全都相处得很融洽。
None the worse on account of the Major taking charge of the whole conversation, and showing as great an appetite in that respect as in regard of the various dainties on the table, among which he may be almost said to have wallowed: greatly to the aggravation of his inflammatory tendencies. Mr Dombey's habitual silence and reserve yielding readily to this usurpation, the Major felt that he was coming out and shining: and in the flow of spirits thus engendered, rang such an infinite number of new changes on his own name that he quite astonished himself. In a word, they were all very well pleased. The Major was considered to possess an inexhaustible fund of conversation; and when he took a late farewell,after a long rubber, Mr Dombey again complimented the blushing Miss Tox on her neighbour and acquaintance.
少校掌握着整个谈话；他在这方面的胃口跟他对桌子上的各种美味食品的胃口一样大；几乎可以说他在大吞大咽着这些食品，而这又大大地促使他鼓动他的如簧之舌；这对当时的情况并没有什么不好。由于董贝先生习惯于沉着冷静，不多说话，所以他丝毫没有干预这种喧宾夺主的现象；少校觉得他正在大出风头，因而兴高采烈，把他自己的姓名颠来倒去地说出了无数个新的变化，连他自己也感到十分惊奇。总之，他们全都感到十分高兴。大家觉得少校拥有耗用不尽的谈话资源；当打完一局时间拖得很长的纸牌，少校终于很晚地告别之后，董贝先生又向脸孔羞得通红的托克斯小姐恭维她有这样一位邻居与熟人。
But all the way home to his own hotel, the Major incessantly said to himself, and of himself, 'Sly, Sir - sly, Sir - de-vil-ish sly!' And when he got there, sat down in a chair, and fell into a silent fit of laughter, with which he was sometimes seized, and which was always particularly awful. It held him so long on this occasion that the dark servant, who stood watching him at a distance, but dared not for his life approach, twice or thrice gave him over for lost. His whole form, but especially his face and head, dilated beyond all former experience; and presented to the dark man's view, nothing but a heaving mass of indigo. At length he burst into a violent paroxysm of coughing, and when that was a little better burst into such ejaculations as the following:
可是在回到自己旅馆的整个路途中，少校不断自言自语地谈着他自己。“狡猾呵，先生——狡猾呵，先生——像魔鬼般地狡猾呵！”到达旅馆以后，他在一张椅子中坐下，默默无声地大笑个不停；他有时是会这样大笑的，而那样子常常是特别可怕的。这一次笑的时间那么长久，所以黑仆人就站在远处看着他，无论如何也不敢走近他，有两三次还以为他已经没有医治的希望了。他的整个身躯，特别是他的脸与头膨胀得比过去任何时候都大，在黑人眼中看到的只是一大堆靛蓝的东西。终于他发出一阵猛烈的咳嗽，在感到好一些以后，他短促地叫喊出以下一些话来：
'Would you, Ma'am, would you? Mrs Dombey, eh, Ma'am? I think not, Ma'am. Not while Joe B. can put a spoke in your wheel, Ma'am. J. B.'s even with you now, Ma'am. He isn't altogether bowled out, yet, Sir, isn't Bagstock. She's deep, Sir, deep, but Josh is deeper. Wide awake is old Joe - broad awake, and staring, Sir!' There was no doubt of this last assertion being true, and to a very fearful extent; as it continued to be during the greater part of that night, which the Major chiefly passed in similar exclamations, diversified with fits of coughing and choking that startled the whole house.
“您是不是，夫人，您是不是想当董贝夫人，嗯，夫人？我看不成，夫人。只要乔·白能在您的车轮子里插进一根棍子，那就不成，夫人。乔·白现在和您是平等的，夫人。他根本还没有被打倒，退出场外，先生，白格斯托克没有退。她的心计深，先生，心计深，但是乔希的心计更深。老乔清醒着——没有丝毫睡意，而且睁大了眼睛看着，先生！”他最后的一句话无疑是真实的，而且真实到了很可怕的程度；因为在那一夜的大半时间里，继续是这种情形；少校主要是在类似叫喊声中度过那一夜的，有时穿插着一阵阵使整个房屋都感到惊恐的咳嗽与窒息。 |