Tess went down the hill to Trantridge Cross, and inattentively waited to take her seat in the van returning from Chaseborough to Shaston. She did not know what the other occupants said to her as she entered, though she answered them; and when they had started anew she rode along with an inward and not an outward eye.
Then she became aware of the spectacle she presented to their surprised vision: roses at her breast; roses in her hat; roses and strawberries in her basket to the brim. She blushed, and said confusedly that the flowers had been given to her. When the passengers were not looking she stealthily removed the more prominent blooms from her hat and placed them in the basket, where she covered them with her handkerchief. Then she fell to reflecting again, and in looking downwards a thorn of the rose remaining in her breast accidentally pricked her chin. Like all the cottagers in Blackmoor Vale, Tess was steeped in fancies and prefigurative superstitions; she thought this an ill omen - the first she had noticed that day.
The van travelled only so far as Shaston, and there were several miles of pedestrian descent from that mountain town into the vale to Marlott. Her mother had advised her to stay here for the night, at the house of a cottage woman they knew, If she should feel too tired to come on; and this Tess did, not descending to her home till the following afternoon.
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她进了家,立刻就从她母亲得意洋洋的脸色上看出,在她不在家这段时间里,已经发生了什么事。
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When she entered the house she perceived in a moment from her mother’s triumphant manner that something had occurred in the interim.
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6
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“啊,我说得不错吧;我全知道啦!我告诉过你这件事是不会错的,现在不是证实了?”
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6
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`Oh yes; I know all about it! I told ’ee it would be all right, and now ’tis proved!’
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7
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“是不是我不在家时发生了什么事?又证实了什么事?”苔丝十分厌倦地说。
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`Since I’ve been away? What has?’ said Tess rather wearily.
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8
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她的母亲一脸调皮的神气,把女儿上上下下打量了一番,开玩笑地说:“你到底讨得他们的欢心了!”
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Her mother surveyed the girl up and down with arch approval, and went on banteringly: `So you’ve brought ’em round!’
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9
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“你是怎样知道的,母亲?”
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9
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`How do you know, mother,’
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10
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“我收到了一封信。”
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10
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`I’ve had a letter.’
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11
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这时苔丝才想起来,是有时间把信送到这儿。
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11
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Tess then remembered that there would have been time for this.
`They say - Mrs d’Urberville says - that she wants you to look after a little fowl-farm which is her hobby. But this is only her artful way of getting ’ee there without raising your hopes. She’s going to own ’ee as kin - that’s the meaning o’.’
`Then I don’t know who is apt. You’ve been born in the business, and brought up in it. They that be born in a business always know more about it than any ’prentice. Besides, that’s only just a show of something for you to do, that you midn’t feel beholden.’
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“总而言之,我觉得我不应该去,”苔丝仔细想了想说。“信是谁写的?给我看看好吗?”
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`I don’t altogether think I ought to go,’ said Tess thoughtfully.
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“是德贝维尔夫人写的。拿去看吧。”
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`Who wrote the letter? Will you let me look at it?’
The letter was in the third person, and briefly informed Mrs Durbeyfield that her daughter’s services would be useful to that lady in the management of her poultry farm, that a comfortable room would be provided for her if she could come, and that the wages would be on a liberal scale if they liked her.
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25
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“你也不能指望她立刻就伸开双臂搂着你、吻你呀。”
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`Oh - that’s all!’ said Tess.
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苔丝抬头看着窗外。
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`You couldn’t expect her to throw her arms round ’ee, an’ to kiss and to coll ’ee all at once.’
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“我宁肯同你和父亲留在家里,”她说。
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Tess looked out of the window.
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“可是为什么呀?”
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`I would rather stay here with father and you,’ she said.
A week afterwards she came in one evening from an unavailing search for some light occupation in the immediate neighbourhood. Her idea had been to get together sufficient money during the summer to purchase another horse. Hardly had she crossed the threshold before one of the children danced across the room, `The gentleman’s been here!’ saying,
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32
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听说自己得到一个陌生人如此高的评价,苔丝一时似乎真的高兴起来,因为那时候她自己觉得情绪非常低落。
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Her mother hastened to explain, smiles breaking from every inch of her person. Mrs d’Urberville’s son had called on horseback, having been riding by chance in the direction of Marlott. He had wished to know, finally, in the name of his mother, if Tess could really come to manage the old lady’s fowl farm or not; the lad who had hitherto superintended the birds having proved untrustworthy. `Mr d’Urberville says you must be a good girl if you are at all as you appear; he knows you must be worth your weight in gold. He is very much interested in ’ee - truth to tell.’ Tess seemed for the moment really pleased to hear that she had won such high opinion from a stranger when, in her own esteem, she had sunk so low.
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“谢谢他这样想,”苔丝嘟哝着说;“要是我住在那儿的确感到放心的话,任何时候我都会到那儿去。”
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`It is very good of him to think that,’ she murmured; `and if I was quite sure how it would be living there, I would go any-when.’
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“他是一个聪明漂亮的人啦!”
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`He is a mighty handsome man!’
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“我可不这样认为,”苔丝冷冷地说。
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`I don’t think so,’ said Tess coldly.
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“好啦,无论如何,这总是你的一个机会;我敢肯定,他戴的是一个漂亮的钻石戒指!”
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`Well, there’s your chance, whether or no; and I’m sure he wears a beautiful diamond ring!’
`Yes,’ said little Abraham, brightly, from the window bench; `and I seed it! and it did twinkle when he put his hand up to his mistarshers. Mother, why did our grand relation keep on putting his hand up to his mistarshers?’
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“听听这孩子说的吧!”德北菲尔德太太带着欣赏的神态大声说。
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`Hark at that child!’ cried Mrs Durbeyfield, with parenthetic admiration.
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“大概是炫耀他的钻石戒指吧,”约翰爵士坐在椅子上打瞌睡,嘴里嘟哝着说。
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`Perhaps to show his diamond ring,’ murmured Sir John, dreamily, from his chair.
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“我得想一想这件事,”苔丝说完就离开了房问。
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`I’ll think it over,’ said Tess, leaving the room.
`Well, she’s made a conquest o’ the younger branch of us, straight off,’ continued the matron to her husband, `and she’s a fool if she don’t follow it up.’
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“我可不太喜欢我的孩子们离开家,”做小买卖的丈夫说,“我作为一个家族的大房,别人应该到我这儿来。”
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`I don’t quite like my children going away from home,’ said the haggler. `As the head of the family, the rest ought to come to me.’
`But do let her go, Jacky,’ coaxed his poor witless wife. `He’s struck wi’ - her you can see that. He called her Coz! He’ll marry her, most likely, and make a lady of her; and then she’ll be what her forefathers was.’
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约翰·德北菲尔德的虚荣心比他的精力和健康强得多,所以这个假设很使他高兴。
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John Durbeyfield had more conceit than energy or health, and this supposition was pleasant to him.
`Well, perhaps, that’s what young Mr d’Urberville means,’ he admitted; `and sure enough he mid have serious thoughts about improving his blood by linking on to the old line. Tess, the little rogue! And have she really paid ’em a visit to such an end as this?’ Meanwhile Tess was walking thoughtfully among the gooseberry bushes in the garden, and over Prince’s grave. When she came in her mother pursued her advantage.
`I think you mid as well settle it. Then you’ll see her soon enough.’
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“我觉得你应该打定主意了。这样你很快就能够见到她了。”
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49
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Her father coughed in his chair.
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50
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她的父亲坐在椅子里咳嗽着。
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`I don’t know what to say!’ answered the girl restlessly. `It is for you to decide. I killed the old horse, and I suppose I ought to do something to get ye a new one. But - but - I don’t quite like Mr d’Urberville being there!’
The children, who had made use of this idea of Tess being taken up by their wealthy kinsfolk (which they imagined the other family to be) as a species of dolorifuge after the death of the horse, began to cry at Tess’s reluctance, and teased and reproached her for hesitating.
`Tess won’t go-o-o and be made a la-a-dy-of - !no, she says she won’t!’ they walled with square mouths. `And we shan’t have a nice new horse, and lots o’ golden money to buy fairlings! And Tess won’t look pretty in her best cloze no mo-o-ore!’
Her mother chimed in to the same tune: a certain way she had of making her labours in the house seem heavier than they were by prolonging them indefinitely, also weighed in the argument. Her father alone preserved an attitude of neutrality.
Thus it was arranged; and the young girl wrote, agreeing to be ready to set out on any day on which she might be required. She was duly informed that Mrs d’Urberville was glad of her decision, and that a spring-cart should be sent to meet her and her luggage at the top of the Vale on the day after the morrow, when she must hold herself prepared to start. Mrs d’Urberville’s handwriting seemed rather masculine.
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“派一辆马车?”琼·德北菲尔德有些怀疑地嘟哝说,“来接她自己的亲戚,应该派一辆大马车呀!”
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`A cart?’ murmured Joan Durbeyfield doubtingly. `It might have been a carriage for her own kin!’
Having at last taken her course Tess was less restless and abstracted, going about her business with some self assurance in the thought of acquiring another horse for her father by an occupation which would not be onerous. She had hoped to be a teacher at the school, but the fates seemed to decide otherwise. Being mentally older than her mother she did not regard Mrs Durbeyfield’s matrimonial hopes for her in a serious aspect for a moment. The light minded woman had been discovering good matches for her daughter almost from the year of her birth.