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理智与情感|Sense and Sensibility

第一卷 第八章|CHAPTER VIII.

属类: 双语小说 【分类】双语小说 -[作者: 简·奥斯汀] 阅读:[9390]
如果你心中怀有强烈的感情,是否该急切而热烈地向全世界表达出来?这样做是否明智?如果你在他人面前总是面容镇定,语调从容,这是否意味着你的心中缺乏激情的火焰呢? 达什伍德姐妹被迫和寡母一起搬到德文郡,离开原来的家让她们十分难过,但如今那处房产已归她们富有的异母兄长所有。两姐妹虽然一贫如洗,却不乏爱慕者——腼腆的爱德华·费拉尔斯,浪漫英俊的威洛比先生,以及忧郁而沉默的布兰登上校。
然而真爱的旅途并非一帆风顺。婚姻的希望破灭了,罪恶的秘密凸现出来,心破裂成碎片。两姐妹中哪一位对此有着更强烈的感受呢?是镇定、理性、勇敢地微笑着却一言不发的埃莉诺,还是浪漫、激烈而感情澎湃地哭泣到天明的玛丽安娜?
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詹宁斯太太是个寡妇,丈夫临死时给她留下一大笔遗产。她只有两个女儿,已亲眼看着她们嫁给了体面人家,于是现今闲着无事可做,只好给人家说亲。她撮合起这种事情,只要力所能及,总是热情满怀,劲头十足,只要是她认识的青年人,从不错过一次说媒拉纤的机会。她的嗅觉异常灵敏,善于发现儿女私情,而且专爱暗示谁家小姐迷住了某某公子,逗得人家满脸通红,心里飘飘然。她凭借这双慧眼,刚到巴顿不久,便断然宣布:布兰登上校一心爱上了玛丽安。达什伍德。头天晚上在一起时,从他聚精会神听她唱歌的那副神情看,她就颇为怀疑情况如此。后来米德尔顿夫妇到乡舍回访时,他又一次全神贯注地听她唱歌,事情便确定无疑了,事情肯定加此。她有百分之百的把握。这将是一起天设良缘:男的有钱,女的漂亮。自从在约翰爵士家第一次认识布兰登上校以来,詹宁斯太太就急于想给他找个好太太。同时,她又总是急于想给每个漂亮姑娘找个好丈夫。

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当然,她自己也可直接占到不少便宜,因为这为她戏弄他们两人提供了无穷无尽的笑料。她在巴顿庄园嘲笑布兰登上校,到了乡舍便嘲弄玛丽安。对于前者,她的戏弄只牵涉到他一个人,因而他也毫不在乎。但是对于后者,她的嘲弄起先是莫名其妙的,后来弄清了是针对谁的,玛丽安真不知道是该嘲笑这事的荒谬,还是责难它的欠妥。她认为这是对上校上了年纪和孤苦伶灯的单身汉处境的无情捉弄。

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达什伍德太太很难想象,一个比她自己年轻五岁的男人,在她女儿那富于青春活力的心目中,会显得何等苍老,于是便大着胆子对詹宁斯太太说:她不该拿上校的年龄取笑。“体衰!”埃丽诺说。“你说布兰登上校体衰?不难想象,他的年龄在你看来比在母亲看来要大得多,不过你总不能自欺欺人地说他手脚不灵吧!”

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“你没听他说有风湿病吗?难道这不是最常见的衰老症?”

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“我最亲爱的孩子,”她母亲笑着说,“照这么说,你一定在不停地为我的衰老而感到心惊胆战啦。在你看来,我能活到四十岁的高龄一定是个奇迹吧。”

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“妈妈,你曲解了我的意思。我知道,布兰登上校还没老到使他的朋友们现在就担心会合乎自然地失去他,他可能再活二十年。但是到了三十五岁就不该考虑结婚。”

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“也许,”埃丽诺说道,“三十五岁和十七岁最好不要结成姻缘。不过,万一有个女人到了二十七岁还是独身,我看布兰登上校若是想要娶她为妻,三十五岁总不该成为障碍吧。”

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过了一会儿,玛丽安说道:“一个二十七岁的女人决不可能春心复萌,或者惹人动情。她若是家境不好,或者财产不多,认为做妻子可以不愁生计,并且生活得安稳些,说不定会甘愿去尽尽保姆的职责。因此,娶这样一个女人,并没有什么不妥之处。这是一项实惠的协定,大家都感到称心如意。在我后来,这根本算不上婚姻,不过这也无关紧要。对我来说,这似乎只是一种商品交换,双方都想损人利己。”

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“我知道,”埃丽诺回答说,“不可能让你相信,一个二十七岁的女人可以对一个三十五岁的男人产生一定的爱情,使他成为自己的理想伴侣。但是我不赞成你把布兰登上校看死了,仅仅因为他昨天(一个潮湿的大冷天)偶尔抱怨了一声,说一只肩膀略有点风湿病的感觉,便认为他和他妻子注定要永远关在病室里。”

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“可他说起了法兰绒马甲,”玛丽安说,“在我看来,法兰绒马甲总是与疼痛、痉挛、风湿以及老年体弱人所患的种种病症联系在一起的。”

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“他只要发一场高烧,你就不会这么瞧不起他了。坦白地说,玛丽安,你不感到发烧时的红脸颊、眍眼睛、快脉搏也很有趣吗?”

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说完这话,埃丽诺便走出了房间。“妈妈,”玛丽安说道,“我对疾病抱有一股恐惧感,没法向你隐瞒。我敢肯定,爱德华。费拉斯身体不好。我们来这儿都快两个星期了,可他还不来。只有身体不好,才会使他拖延这么许久。还有什么事情能把他耽搁在诺兰庄园呢?”

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“你认为他会来得这么快?”达什伍德太太说。“我并不这么想。正相反,加果说我对这件事有点担忧的话,那就是我记得当初邀请他来巴顿作客时,他有时接受得不够痛快。埃丽诺是不是已经在盼他来了?”

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“我从没和她提起这件事。不过,她当然在盼。”

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“我倒是认为你想错了。昨天我和她说起:想给那间空卧室安个炉子,她说现在不急,那间屋子可能一时还用不着。”

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“这就怪啦!这是什么意思呢?不过,他们两人之间的态度也真叫人不可思议!他们最后告别的时候有多么冷淡,多么镇静啊1他们最后聚会的那天晚上,说起话来多么无精打采啊!爱德华道别时,对埃丽诺和我不加区别,都像亲兄长似地祝愿一声。最后一天早晨,我有两次故意把他们两人抛在屋里,可是不知道怎么搞的,他两次都跟着我走了出来。而埃丽诺在离别诺兰庄园和爱德华时,还不及我哭得厉害。直到如今,她还一个劲地克制自己。她什么时候沮丧过?什么时候忧伤过?她什么时候想回避跟别人交往?在交往中,她什么时候显出烦躁不安过?”

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Mrs. Jennings was a widow with an ample jointure. She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world. In the promotion of this object she was zealously active, as far as her ability reached; and missed no opportunity of projecting weddings among all the young people of her acquaintance. She was remarkably quick in the discovery of attachments, and had enjoyed the advantage of raising the blushes and the vanity of many a young lady by insinuations of her power over such a young man; and this kind of discernment enabled her soon after her arrival at Barton decisively to pronounce that Colonel Brandon was very much in love with Marianne Dashwood. She rather suspected it to be so, on the very first evening of their being together, from his listening so attentively while she sang to them; and when the visit was returned by the Middletons’ dining at the cottage, the fact was ascertained by his listening to her again. It must be so. She was perfectly convinced of it. It would be an excellent match, for he was rich, and she was handsome. Mrs. Jennings had been anxious to see Colonel Brandon well married, ever since her connection with Sir John first brought him to her knowledge; and she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl.

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The immediate advantage to herself was by no means inconsiderable, for it supplied her with endless jokes against them both. At the park she laughed at the colonel, and in the cottage at Marianne. To the former her raillery was probably, as far as it regarded only himself, perfectly indifferent; but to the latter it was at first incomprehensible; and when its object was understood, she hardly knew whether most to laugh at its absurdity, or censure its impertinence, for she considered it as an unfeeling reflection on the colonel’s advanced years, and on his forlorn condition as an old bachelor.

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Mrs. Dashwood, who could not think a man five years younger than herself, so exceedingly ancient as he appeared to the youthful fancy of her daughter, ventured to clear Mrs. Jennings from the probability of wishing to throw ridicule on his age.

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“But at least, Mama, you cannot deny the absurdity of the accusation, though you may not think it intentionally ill-natured. Colonel Brandon is certainly younger than Mrs. Jennings, but he is old enough to be my father; and if he were ever animated enough to be in love, must have long outlived every sensation of the kind. It is too ridiculous! When is a man to be safe from such wit, if age and infirmity will not protect him?”

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“Infirmity!” said Elinor, “do you call Colonel Brandon infirm? I can easily suppose that his age may appear much greater to you than to my mother; but you can hardly deceive yourself as to his having the use of his limbs!”

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“Did not you hear him complain of the rheumatism? and is not that the commonest infirmity of declining life?”

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“My dearest child,” said her mother, laughing, “at this rate you must be in continual terror of my decay; and it must seem to you a miracle that my life has been extended to the advanced age of forty.”

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“Mama, you are not doing me justice. I know very well that Colonel Brandon is not old enough to make his friends yet apprehensive of losing him in the course of nature. He may live twenty years longer. But thirty-five has nothing to do with matrimony.”

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“Perhaps,” said Elinor, “thirty-five and seventeen had better not have any thing to do with matrimony together. But if there should by any chance happen to be a woman who is single at seven and twenty, I should not think Colonel Brandon’s being thirty-five any objection to his marrying her.”

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“A woman of seven and twenty,” said Marianne, after pausing a moment, “can never hope to feel or inspire affection again, and if her home be uncomfortable, or her fortune small, I can suppose that she might bring herself to submit to the offices of a nurse, for the sake of the provision and security of a wife. In his marrying such a woman therefore there would be nothing unsuitable. It would be a compact of convenience, and the world would be satisfied. In my eyes it would be no marriage at all, but that would be nothing. To me it would seem only a commercial exchange, in which each wished to be benefited at the expense of the other.”

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“It would be impossible, I know,” replied Elinor, “to convince you that a woman of seven and twenty could feel for a man of thirty-five anything near enough to love, to make him a desirable companion to her. But I must object to your dooming Colonel Brandon and his wife to the constant confinement of a sick chamber, merely because he chanced to complain yesterday (a very cold damp day) of a slight rheumatic feel in one of his shoulders.”

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“But he talked of flannel waistcoats,” said Marianne; “and with me a flannel waistcoat is invariably connected with aches, cramps, rheumatisms, and every species of ailment that can afflict the old and the feeble.”

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“Had he been only in a violent fever, you would not have despised him half so much. Confess, Marianne, is not there something interesting to you in the flushed cheek, hollow eye, and quick pulse of a fever?”

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Soon after this, upon Elinor’s leaving the room, “Mama,” said Marianne, “I have an alarm on the subject of illness which I cannot conceal from you. I am sure Edward Ferrars is not well. We have now been here almost a fortnight, and yet he does not come. Nothing but real indisposition could occasion this extraordinary delay. What else can detain him at Norland?”

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“Had you any idea of his coming so soon?” said Mrs. Dashwood. “I had none. On the contrary, if I have felt any anxiety at all on the subject, it has been in recollecting that he sometimes showed a want of pleasure and readiness in accepting my invitation, when I talked of his coming to Barton. Does Elinor expect him already?”

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“I have never mentioned it to her, but of course she must.”

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“I rather think you are mistaken, for when I was talking to her yesterday of getting a new grate for the spare bedchamber, she observed that there was no immediate hurry for it, as it was not likely that the room would be wanted for some time.”

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“How strange this is! what can be the meaning of it! But the whole of their behaviour to each other has been unaccountable! How cold, how composed were their last adieus! How languid their conversation the last evening of their being together! In Edward’s farewell there was no distinction between Elinor and me: it was the good wishes of an affectionate brother to both. Twice did I leave them purposely together in the course of the last morning, and each time did he most unaccountably follow me out of the room. And Elinor, in quitting Norland and Edward, cried not as I did. Even now her self-command is invariable. When is she dejected or melancholy? When does she try to avoid society, or appear restless and dissatisfied in it?”

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