For the next three months Philip went every day to see Mildred. He took his books with him and after tea worked, while Mildred lay on the sofa reading novels. Sometimes he would look up and watch her for a minute. A happy smile crossed his lips. She would feel his eyes upon her.
读书笔记
是否公开
2
-
"别望着我浪费你的时间,傻瓜!快做你的功课吧,"她说。
读书笔记
是否公开
2
-
‘Don’t waste your time looking at me, silly. Go on with your work,’ she said.
He put aside his book when the landlady came in to lay the cloth for dinner, and in his high spirits he exchanged chaff with her. She was a little cockney, of middle age, with an amusing humour and a quick tongue. Mildred had become great friends with her and had given her an elaborate but mendacious account of the circumstances which had brought her to the pass she was in. The good-hearted little woman was touched and found no trouble too great to make Mildred comfortable.
Mildred’s sense of propriety had suggested that Philip should pass himself off as her brother. They dined together, and Philip was delighted when he had ordered something which tempted Mildred’s capricious appetite. It enchanted him to see her sitting opposite him, and every now and then from sheer joy he took her hand and pressed it. After dinner she sat in the arm-chair by the fire, and he settled himself down on the floor beside her, leaning against her knees, and smoked. Often they did not talk at all, and sometimes Philip noticed that she had fallen into a doze . He dared not move then in case he woke her, and he sat very quietly, looking lazily into the fire and enjoying his happiness.
读书笔记
是否公开
6
-
"午觉睡得香吗?"她醒来时,他笑吟吟地问道。
读书笔记
是否公开
6
-
‘Had a nice little nap?’ he smiled, when she woke.
读书笔记
是否公开
7
-
"我可没睡,"她回答说,"只是闭闭眼睛就是了。"
读书笔记
是否公开
7
-
‘I’ve not been sleeping,’ she answered. ‘I only just closed my eyes.’
She would never acknowledge that she had been asleep. She had a phlegmatic temperament , and her condition did not seriously inconvenience her. She took a lot of trouble about her health and accepted the advice of anyone who chose to offer it. She went for a ‘constitutional’ every morning that it was fine and remained out a definite time.
When it was not too cold she sat in St. James’ Park. But the rest of the day she spent quite happily on her sofa, reading one novel after another or chatting with the landlady; she had an inexhaustible interest in gossip, and told Philip with abundant detail the history of the landlady, of the lodgers on the drawing-room floor, and of the people who lived in the next house on either side.
Now and then she was seized with panic; she poured out her fears to Philip about the pain of the confinement and was in terror lest she should die; she gave him a full account of the confinements of the landlady and of the lady on the drawing-room floor (Mildred did not know her; ‘I’m one to keep myself to myself,’ she said, ‘I’m not one to go about with anybody.’) and she narrated details with a queer mixture of horror and gusto; but for the most part she looked forward to the occurrence with equanimity .
Mrs. Owen, the owner of the house she was going to when her time came, had recommended a doctor, and Mildred saw him once a week. He was to charge fifteen guineas.
读书笔记
是否公开
13
-
"当然咯,我完全可以还他的价,不过这位大夫是欧文太太竭力推荐的,因此我想总不能因小失大吧。"
读书笔记
是否公开
13
-
‘Of course I could have got it done cheaper, but Mrs. Owen strongly recommended him, and I thought it wasn’t worth while to spoil the ship for a coat of tar .’
读书笔记
是否公开
14
-
"如果你觉得愉快、舒适,费用我才不在乎呢!"菲利普说。
读书笔记
是否公开
14
-
‘If you feel happy and comfortable I don’t mind a bit about the expense,’ said Philip.
She accepted all that Philip did for her as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and on his side he loved to spend money on her: each five-pound note he gave her caused him a little thrill of happiness and pride; he gave her a good many, for she was not economical.
读书笔记
是否公开
16
-
"我也说不清钱是怎么花的,"她自言自语地说,"就像水似的,都从我指缝里流掉了。"
读书笔记
是否公开
16
-
‘I don’t know where the money goes to,’ she said herself, ‘it seems to slip through my fingers like water.’
读书笔记
是否公开
17
-
"这不打紧,"菲利普说,"我能为你做的,我都乐意去做。"
读书笔记
是否公开
17
-
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Philip. ‘I’m so glad to be able to do anything I can for you.’
She could not sew well and so did not make the necessary things for the baby; she told Philip it was much cheaper in the end to buy them. Philip had lately sold one of the mortgages in which his money had been put; and now, with five hundred pounds in the bank waiting to be invested in something that could be more easily realised, he felt himself uncommonly well-to-do. They talked often of the future. Philip was anxious that Mildred should keep the child with her, but she refused: she had her living to earn, and it would be more easy to do this if she had not also to look after a baby. Her plan was to get back into one of the shops of the company for which she had worked before, and the child could be put with some decent woman in the country.
读书笔记
是否公开
19
-
"我能找到只要七先令六便士就会带好孩子的人。这样,无论对我还是对孩子来说,都有好处。"
读书笔记
是否公开
19
-
‘I can find someone who’ll look after it well for seven and sixpence a week. It’ll be better for the baby and better for me.’
At the bottom of her heart was the hope that the child would be still-born. She did no more than hint it, but Philip saw that the thought was there. He was shocked at first; and then, reasoning with himself, he was obliged to confess that for all concerned such an event was to be desired.
‘It’s all very fine to say this and that,’ Mildred remarked querulously, ‘but it’s jolly difficult for a girl to earn her living by herself; it doesn’t make it any easier when she’s got a baby.’
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
"幸运的是,你还有我可以助你一臂之力呢,"菲利普笑吟吟地说着便拉起了米尔德丽德的手。
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
‘Fortunately you’ve got me to fall back on,’ smiled Philip, taking her hand.
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
"菲利普,你一直待我很好。"
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
‘You’ve been good to me, Philip.’
读书笔记
是否公开
27
-
"喔,尽说些混帐话!"
读书笔记
是否公开
27
-
‘Oh, what rot!’
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
"你可不能说我以往对你为我所做的一切一点都没有酬报你啊。"
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
‘You can’t say I didn’t offer anything in return for what you’ve done.’
‘Good heavens, I don’t want a return. If I’ve done anything for you, I’ve done it because I love you. You owe me nothing. I don’t want you to do anything unless you love me.’
He was a little horrified by her feeling that her body was a commodity which she could deliver indifferently as an acknowledgment for services rendered.
读书笔记
是否公开
31
-
"不过我真想报答你,菲利普。你待我一直是那么情深意切。"
读书笔记
是否公开
31
-
‘But I do want to, Philip. You’ve been so good to me.’
读书笔记
是否公开
32
-
"嗯,再等一段时间也无甚害处。等你身体好了以后,咱俩再去度几天蜜月不迟。"
读书笔记
是否公开
32
-
‘Well, it won’t hurt for waiting. When you’re all right again we’ll go for our little honeymoon .’
Mildred expected to be confined early in March, and as soon as she was well enough she was to go to the seaside for a fortnight: that would give Philip a chance to work without interruption for his examination; after that came the Easter holidays, and they had arranged to go to Paris together. Philip talked endlessly of the things they would do. Paris was delightful then.
They would take a room in a little hotel he knew in the Latin Quarter, and they would eat in all sorts of charming little restaurants; they would go to the play, and he would take her to music halls. It would amuse her to meet his friends. He had talked to her about Cronshaw, she would see him; and there was Lawson, he had gone to Paris for a couple of months; and they would go to the Bal Bullier; there were excursions; they would make trips to Versailles, Chartres, Fontainebleau.
She listened to his enthusiasm with smiling eyes. He thought he saw in them a new tenderness, and he was grateful to her. She was much gentler than she used to be. There was in her no longer the superciliousness which had irritated him. She was so accustomed to him now that she took no pains to keep up before him any pretences . She no longer troubled to do her hair with the old elaboration, but just tied it in a knot; and she left off the vast fringe which she generally wore: the more careless style suited her.
Her face was so thin that it made her eyes seem very large; there were heavy lines under them, and the pallor of her cheeks made their colour more profound. She had a wistful look which was infinitely pathetic. There seemed to Philip to be in her something of the Madonna. He wished they could continue in that same way always. He was happier than he had ever been in his life.
He used to leave her at ten o’clock every night, for she liked to go to bed early, and he was obliged to put in another couple of hours’ work to make up for the lost evening. He generally brushed her hair for her before he went. He had made a ritual of the kisses he gave her when he bade her good-night; first he kissed the palms of her hands (how thin the fingers were, the nails were beautiful, for she spent much time in manicuring them,) then he kissed her closed eyes, first the right one and then the left, and at last he kissed her lips. He went home with a heart overflowing with love. He longed for an opportunity to gratify the desire for self-sacrifice which consumed him.