Philip was moved into the Sixth, but he hated school now with all his heart, and, having lost his ambition, cared nothing whether he did ill or well. He awoke in the morning with a sinking heart because he must go through another day of drudgery . He was tired of having to do things because he was told; and the restrictions irked him, not because they were unreasonable , but because they were restrictions. He yearned for freedom. He was weary of repeating things that he knew already and of the hammering away, for the sake of a thick-witted fellow, at something that he understood from the beginning.
With Mr. Perkins you could work or not as you chose. He was at once eager and abstracted. The Sixth Form room was in a part of the old abbey which had been restored, and it had a gothic window: Philip tried to cheat his boredom by drawing this over and over again; and sometimes out of his head he drew the great tower of the Cathedral or the gateway that led into the precincts. He had a knack for drawing.
Aunt Louisa during her youth had painted in water colours, and she had several albums filled with sketches of churches, old bridges, and picturesque cottages. They were often shown at the vicarage tea-parties. She had once given Philip a paint-box as a Christmas present, and he had started by copying her pictures. He copied them better than anyone could have expected, and presently he did little pictures of his own. Mrs. Carey encouraged him. It was a good way to keep him out of mischief , and later on his sketches would be useful for bazaars . Two or three of them had been framed and hung in his bed-room.
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可是有一天,上午的课刚结束菲利普正懒洋洋地往教室外走,珀金斯先生忽然把他叫住。
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But one day, at the end of the morning’s work, Mr. Perkins stopped him as he was lounging out of the form-room.
Philip wondered what he would say if he knew how the report was treated. It arrived at breakfast, Mr. Carey glanced at it indifferently, and passed it over to Philip.
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"是你的成绩报告单。你最好看看上面写些什么来着,"说毕,便只顾用手指去剥旧书目录册上的封面包纸。
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‘There’s your report. You’d better see what it says,’ he remarked, as he ran his fingers through the wrapper of a catalogue of second-hand books.
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菲利普看了一下成绩报告单。
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Philip read it.
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"成绩好吗?"路易莎伯母问。
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‘Is it good?’ asked Aunt Louisa.
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"没反映出我的实际成绩哪,"菲利普笑嘻嘻地应了一句,把成绩报告单递给他伯母。
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‘Not so good as I deserve,’ answered Philip, with a smile, giving it to her.
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"待会儿我戴上眼镜再看吧,"她说。
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‘I’ll read it afterwards when I’ve got my spectacles,’ she said.
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但是用过早餐,玛丽·安进来说肉铺掌柜来啦,因而她也就把这件事抛到了九霄云外……
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But after breakfast Mary Ann came in to say the butcher was there, and she generally forgot.
‘I’m disappointed with you. And I can’t understand. I know you can do things if you want to, but you don’t seem to want to any more. I was going to make you a monitor next term, but I think I’d better wait a bit.’
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菲利普涨红了脸,想到自已被人瞧不起,心里很不服气。他紧咬嘴唇。
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Philip flushed. He did not like the thought of being passed over. He tightened his lips.
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"还有一点。现在你得开始考虑考虑你的奖学金了。除非打现在起发奋攻读,否则,你什么也别想到手。"
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‘And there’s something else. You must begin thinking of your scholarship now. You won’t get anything unless you start working very seriously.’
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菲利普被这顿训斥惹火了。他既生校长的气,又生自己的气。
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Philip was irritated by the lecture. He was angry with the headmaster, and angry with himself.
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"我想我不打算上牛津念书了,"他说。
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‘I don’t think I’m going up to Oxford ,’ he said.
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"为什么?我想你是打算将来当牧师的。"
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‘Why not? I thought your idea was to be ordained .’
Philip did not answer. Mr. Perkins, holding himself oddly as he always did, like a figure in one of Perugino’s pictures, drew his fingers thoughtfully through his beard. He looked at Philip as though he were trying to understand and then abruptly told him he might go.
Apparently he was not satisfied, for one evening, a week later, when Philip had to go into his study with some papers, he resumed the conversation; but this time he adopted a different method: he spoke to Philip not as a schoolmaster with a boy but as one human being with another. He did not seem to care now that Philip’s work was poor, that he ran small chance against keen rivals of carrying off the scholarship necessary for him to go to Oxford: the important matter was his changed intention about his life afterwards.
Mr. Perkins set himself to revive his eagerness to be ordained. With infinite skill he worked on his feelings, and this was easier since he was himself genuinely moved. Philip’s change of mind caused him bitter distress , and he really thought he was throwing away his chance of happiness in life for he knew not what. His voice was very persuasive .
And Philip, easily moved by the emotion of others, very emotional himself notwithstanding a placid exterior—his face, partly by nature but also from the habit of all these years at school, seldom except by his quick flushing showed what he felt—Philip was deeply touched by what the master said. He was very grateful to him for the interest he showed, and he was conscience-stricken by the grief which he felt his behaviour caused him. It was subtly flattering to know that with the whole school to think about Mr. Perkins should trouble with him, but at the same time something else in him, like another person standing at his elbow, clung desperately to two words.
He felt himself slipping. He was powerless against the weakness that seemed to well up in him; it was like the water that rises up in an empty bottle held over a full basin; and he set his teeth, saying the words over and over to himself.
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最后,珀金斯先生伸手按住菲利普的肩头。
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At last Mr. Perkins put his hand on Philip’s shoulder.
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"我也不想多劝你了,"他说。"你得自己拿定主意。向全能的上帝祈祷,求他保佑,给你指点迷津吧。"
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‘I don’t want to influence you,’ he said. ‘You must decide for yourself. Pray to Almighty God for help and guidance.’
When Philip came out of the headmaster’s house there was a light rain falling. He went under the archway that led to the precincts, there was not a soul there, and the rooks were silent in the elms. He walked round slowly. He felt hot, and the rain did him good. He thought over all that Mr. Perkins had said, calmly now that he was withdrawn from the fervour of his personality, and he was thankful he had not given way.
In the darkness he could but vaguely see the great mass of the Cathedral: he hated it now because of the irksomeness of the long services which he was forced to attend. The anthem was interminable, and you had to stand drearily while it was being sung; you could not hear the droning sermon, and your body twitched because you had to sit still when you wanted to move about.
Then philip thought of the two services every Sunday at Blackstable. The church was bare and cold, and there was a smell all about one of pomade and starched clothes. The curate preached once and his uncle preached once. As he grew up he had learned to know his uncle; Philip was downright and intolerant, and he could not understand that a man might sincerely say things as a clergyman which he never acted up to as a man. The deception outraged him. His uncle was a weak and selfish man, whose chief desire it was to be saved trouble.