WHEN I reached home, my sister was very curious to know all about Miss Havisham’s, and asked a number of questions. And I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in the nape of the neck and the small of the back, and having my face ignominiously shoved against the kitchen wall, because I did not answer those questions at sufficient length.
If a dread of not being understood be hidden in the breasts of other young people to anything like the extent to which it used to be hidden in mine - which I consider probable, as I have no particular reason to suspect myself of having been a monstrosity - it is the key to many reservations. I felt convinced that if I described Miss Havisham’s as my eyes had seen it, I should not be understood. Not only that, but I felt convinced that Miss Havisham too would not be understood; and although she was perfectly incomprehensible to me, I entertained an impression that there would be something coarse and treacherous in my dragging her as she really was (to say nothing of Miss Estella) before the contemplation of Mrs Joe. Consequently, I said as little as I could, and had my face shoved against the kitchen wall.
The worst of it was that that bullying old Pumblechook, preyed upon by a devouring curiosity to be informed of all I had seen and heard, came gaping over in his chaise-cart at tea-time, to have the details divulged to him. And the mere sight of the torment, with his fishy eyes and mouth open, his sandy hair inquisitively on end, and his waistcoat heaving with windy arithmetic, made me vicious in my reticence.
whitewash on the forehead hardens the brain into a state of obstinacy perhaps. Anyhow, with whitewash from the wall on my forehead, my obstinacy was adamantine. I reflected for some time, and then answered as if I had discovered a new idea, `I mean pretty well.’
My sister with an exclamation of impatience was going to fly at me - I had no shadow of defence, for Joe was busy in the forge when Mr Pumblechook interposed with `No! Don’t lose your temper. Leave this lad to me, ma’am; leave this lad to me.’ Mr Pumblechook then turned me towards him, as if he were going to cut my hair, and said:
读书笔记
是否公开
9
-
“先让你来把思想整理一下,算一算四十三个便士是多少?”
读书笔记
是否公开
9
-
`First (to get our thoughts in order): Forty-three pence?’
I calculated the consequences of replying `Four Hundred Pound,’ and finding them against me, went as near the answer as I could - which was somewhere about eightpence off. Mr Pumblechook then put me through my pence-table from `twelve pence make one shilling,’ up to `forty pence make three and fourpence,’ and then triumphantly demanded, as if he had done for me, `Now!How much is forty-three pence?’ To which I replied, after a long interval of reflection, `I don’t know.’ And I was so aggravated that I almost doubt if I did know.
`Yes!’ said I. And although my sister instantly boxed my ears, it was highly gratifying to me to see that the answer spoilt his joke, and brought him to a dead stop.
`Yes,’ said I. `And Miss Estella - that’s her niece, I think - handed her in cake and wine at the coach-window, on a gold plate. And we all had cake and wine on gold plates. And I got up behind the coach to eat mine, because she told me to.’
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
“那儿还有别的人在吗?”彭波契克先生问我道。
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
`Was anybody else there?’ asked Mr Pumblechook.
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
“有四条狗。”我说。
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
`Four dogs,’ said I.
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
“是大狗还是小狗?”
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
`Large or small?’
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
“很大很大,”我答道,“它们都在一个银筐中,把头伸出来抢小牛肉片吃。”
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
`Immense,’ said I. `And they fought for veal cutlets out of a silver basket.’
Mr Pumblechook and Mrs Joe stared at one another again, in utter amazement. I was perfectly frantic - a reckless witness under the torture - and would have told them anything.
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
“我慈悲的主啊,这辆马车会放在什么地方呢?”我姐姐问道。
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
`Where was this coach, in the name of gracious?’ asked my sister.
`In Miss Havisham’s room.’ They stared again. `But there weren’t any horses to it.’ I added this saving clause, in the moment of rejecting four richly caparisoned coursers which I had had wild thoughts of harnessing.
读书笔记
是否公开
30
-
“这会是可能的吗?”乔夫人问道,“看这个孩子讲的是什么呀?”
读书笔记
是否公开
30
-
`Can this be possible, uncle?’ asked Mrs Joe. `What can the boy mean?’
`I’ll tell you, Mum,’ said Mr Pumblechook. `My opinion is, it’s a sedan-chair. She’s flighty, you know - very flighty - quite flighty enough to pass her days in a sedan-chair.’
读书笔记
是否公开
32
-
“舅舅,你过去见过她坐在轿子里吗?”乔夫人问道。
读书笔记
是否公开
32
-
`Did you ever see her in it, uncle?’ asked Mrs Joe.
读书笔记
是否公开
33
-
“我怎么能见过?”他被逼得只有承认事实,说道,“我一辈子也没有见过她。我从来没有见过她一眼。”
读书笔记
是否公开
33
-
`How could I,’ he returned, forced to the admission, `when I never see her in my life? Never clapped eyes upon her!’
读书笔记
是否公开
34
-
“我的天哪,舅舅!你过去是怎么和她谈话的?”
读书笔记
是否公开
34
-
`Goodness, uncle! And yet you have spoken to her?’
`Why, don’t you know,’ said Mr Pumblechook, testily, `that when I have been there, I have been took up to the outside of her door, and the door has stood ajar, and she has spoke to me that way. Don’t say you don’t know that, Mum. Howsever, the boy went there to play. What did you play at, boy?’
`Yes,’ said I. `Estella waved a blue flag, and I waved a red one, and Miss Havisham waved one sprinkled all over with little gold stars, out at the coach-window. And then we all waved our swords and hurrahed.’
读书笔记
是否公开
39
-
“舞剑!”我姐姐又重复了一声。“你们的剑是从哪儿来的?”
读书笔记
是否公开
39
-
`Swords!’ repeated my sister. `Where did you get swords from?’
`Out of a cupboard,’ sand I. `And I saw pistols in it - and jam - and pills. And there was no daylight in the room, but it was all lighted up with candles.’
`That’s true, Mum,’ said Mr Pumblechook, with a grave nod. `That’s the state of the case, for that much I’ve seen myself.’ And then they both stared at me, and I, with an obtrusive show of artlessness on my countenance, stared at them, and plaited the right leg of my trousers with my right hand.
If they had asked me any more questions I should undoubtedly have betrayed myself, for I was even then on the point of mentioning that there was a balloon in the yard, and should have hazarded the statement but for my invention being divided between that phenomenon and a bear in the brewery. They were so much occupied, however, in discussing the marvels I had already presented for their consideration, that I escaped. The subject still held them when Joe came in from his work to have a cup of tea. To whom my sister, more for the relief of her own mind than for the gratification of his, related my pretended experiences.
Now, when I saw Joe open his blue eyes and roll them all round the kitchen in helpless amazement, I was overtaken by penitence; but only as regarded him - not in the least as regarded the other two. Towards Joe, and Joe only, I considered myself a young monster, while they sat debating what results would come to me from Miss Havisham’s acquaintance and favour. They had no doubt that Miss Havisham would `do something’ for me; their doubts related to the form that something would take. My sister stood out for `property.’ Mr Pumblechook was in favour of a handsome premium for binding me apprentice to some genteel trade - say, the corn and seed trade, for instance. Joe fell into the deepest disgrace with both, for offering the bright suggestion that I might only be presented with one of the dogs who had fought for the veal-cutlets. `If a fool’s head can’t express better opinions than that,’ said my sister, `and you have got any work to do, you had better go and do it.’ So he went.
After Mr Pumblechook had driven off, and when my sister was washing up, I stole into the forge to Joe, and remained by him until he had done for the night. Then I said, `Before the fire goes out, Joe, I should like to tell you something.’
读书笔记
是否公开
45
-
“皮普,你要谈什么?”他把钉蹄凳放在熔铁炉旁边,说道,“你就告诉我吧,皮普,你要说什么?”
读书笔记
是否公开
45
-
`Should you, Pip?’ said Joe, drawing his shoeing-stool near the forge. `Then tell us. What is it, Pip?’
读书笔记
是否公开
46
-
“乔,”我抓住他那卷上去的衬衣袖管,在食指和拇指之间绞来绞去,“你记得刚才说的郝维仙小姐的事吗?”
读书笔记
是否公开
46
-
`Joe,’ said I, taking hold of his rolled-up shirt sleeve, and twisting it between my finger and thumb, `you remember all that about Miss Havisham’s?’
读书笔记
是否公开
47
-
“怎么会不记得?”乔说道,“我相信你所说的!真有趣!”
读书笔记
是否公开
47
-
`Remember?’ said Joe. `I believe you! Wonderful!’
读书笔记
是否公开
48
-
“乔,这太糟了,我说的全是假话。”
读书笔记
是否公开
48
-
`It’s a terrible thing, Joe; it ain’t true.’
读书笔记
是否公开
49
-
“你在说什么,皮普?”乔大声说道,非常惊讶地向后缩了一下,“难道你的意思是你刚才说的——”
读书笔记
是否公开
49
-
`What are you telling of, Pip?’ cried Joe, falling back in the greatest amazement. `You don’t mean to say it’s--’
`But not all of it? Why sure you don’t mean to say, Pip, that there was no black welwet co - eh?’ For, I stood shaking my head. `But at least there was dogs, Pip? Come, Pip,’ said Joe, persuasively, `if there warn’t no weal-cutlets, at least there was dogs?’
`I don’t know what possessed me, Joe,’ I replied, letting his shirt sleeve go, and sitting down in the ashes at his feet, hanging my head; `but I wish you hadn’t taught me to call Knaves at cards, Jacks; and I wish my boots weren’t so thick not my hands so coarse.’
And then I told Joe that I felt very miserable, and that I hadn’t been able to explain myself to Mrs Joe and Pumblechook who were so rude to me, and that there had been a beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham’s who was dreadfully proud, and that she had said I was common, and that I knew I was common, and that I wished I was not common, and that the lies had come of it somehow, though I didn’t know how.
This was a case of metaphysics, at least as difficult for Joe to deal with, as for me. But Joe took the case altogether out of the region of metaphysics, and by that means vanquished it.
`There’s one thing you may be sure of, Pip,’ said Joe, after some rumination, `namely, that lies is lies. Howsever they come, they didn’t ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Don’t you tell no more of ’em, Pip. That ain’t the way to get out of being common, old chap. And as to being common, I don’t make it out at all clear. You are oncommon in some things. You’re oncommon small. Likewise you’re a oncommon scholar.’
`Why, see what a letter you wrote last night! Wrote in print even! I’ve seen letters - Ah! and from gentlefolks! - that I’ll swear weren’t wrote in print,’ said Joe.
读书笔记
是否公开
64
-
“我知道我懂的太少太少,乔,你把我想得太好了,就这么一回事。”
读书笔记
是否公开
64
-
`I have learnt next to nothing, Joe. You think much of me. It’s only that.’
`Well, Pip,’ said Joe, `be it so or be it son’t, you must be a common scholar afore you can be a oncommon one, I should hope!The king upon his throne, with his crown upon his ’ed, can’t sit and write his acts of Parliament in print, without having begun, when he were a unpromoted Prince, with the alphabet - Ah!’ added Joe, with a shake of the head that was full of meaning, `and begun at A too, and worked his way to Z. And I know what that is to do, though I can’t say I’ve exactly done it.’
读书笔记
是否公开
66
-
从他的这篇充满智慧的阔论中,我看到一线希望,也确实得到了鼓励。
读书笔记
是否公开
66
-
There was some hope in this piece of wisdom, and it rather encouraged me.
`Whether common ones as to callings and earnings,’ pursued Joe, reflectively, `mightn’t be the better of continuing for a keep company with common ones, instead of going out to play with oncommon ones - which reminds me to hope that there were a flag, perhaps?’
`(I’m sorry there weren’t a flag, Pip). Whether that might be, or mightn’t be, is a thing as can’t be looked into now, without putting your sister on the Rampage; and that’s a thing not to be thought of, as being done intentional. Lookee here, Pip, at what is said to you by a true friend. Which this to you the true friend say. If you can’t get to be oncommon through going straight, you’ll never get to do it through going crooked. So don’t tell no more on ’em, Pip, and live well and die happy.’
`No, old chap. But bearing in mind that them were which I meantersay of a stunning and outdacious sort - alluding to them which bordered on weal-cutlets and dog-fighting - a sincere wellwisher would adwise, Pip, their being dropped into your meditations, when you go up-stairs to bed. That’s all, old chap, and don’t never do it no more.’
When I got up to my little room and said my prayers, I did not forget Joe’s recommendation, and yet my young mind was in that disturbed and unthankful state, that I thought long after I laid me down, how common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith: how thick his boots, and how coarse his hands. I thought how Joe and my sister were then sitting in the kitchen, and how I had come up to bed from the kitchen, and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but were far above the level of such common doings. I fell asleep recalling what I `used to do’ when I was at Miss Havisham’s; as though I had been there weeks or months, instead of hours; and as though it were quite an old subject of remembrance, instead of one that had arisen only that day.
That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.