Next morning Mildred was sulky and taciturn. She remained in her room till it was time to get the dinner ready. She was a bad cook and could do little more than chops and steaks; and she did not know how to use up odds and ends, so that Philip was obliged to spend more money than he had expected. When she served up she sat down opposite Philip, but would eat nothing; he remarked on it; she said she had a bad headache and was not hungry.
He was glad that he had somewhere to spend the rest of the day; the Athelnys were cheerful and friendly. It was a delightful and an unexpected thing to realise that everyone in that household looked forward with pleasure to his visit. Mildred had gone to bed when he came back, but next day she was still silent. At supper she sat with a haughty expression on her face and a little frown between her eyes. It made Philip impatient, but he told himself that he must be considerate to her; he was bound to make allowance.
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"你怎么一声也不吭呀?"菲利普笑容可掬地问道。
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‘You’re very silent,’ he said, with a pleasant smile.
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"我受雇替人烧饭和打扫房间,可不曾想到还要与人说话。"
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‘I’m paid to cook and clean, I didn’t know I was expected to talk as well.’
‘Please don’t be angry with me. I should never have asked you to come and live here if I’d not meant our relations to be merely friendly. I suggested it because I thought you wanted a home and you would have a chance of looking about for something to do.’
‘I don’t for a moment,’ he hastened to say. ‘You mustn’t think I’m ungrateful. I realise that you only proposed it for my sake. It’s just a feeling I have, and I can’t help it, it would make the whole thing ugly and horrid .’
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"你这个人真怪,"米尔德丽德说着用好奇的目光注视着菲利普,"真叫人猜不透。"
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‘You are funny’ she said, looking at him curiously . ‘I can’t make you out.’
She was not angry with him now, but puzzled; she had no idea what he meant: she accepted the situation, she had indeed a vague feeling that he was behaving in a very noble fashion and that she ought to admire it; but also she felt inclined to laugh at him and perhaps even to despise him a little.
Life went smoothly enough with them. Philip spent all day at the hospital and worked at home in the evening except when he went to the Athelnys’ or to the tavern in Beak Street. Once the physician for whom he clerked asked him to a solemn dinner, and two or three times he went to parties given by fellow-students. Mildred accepted the monotony of her life.
If she minded that Philip left her sometimes by herself in the evening she never mentioned it. Occasionally he took her to a music hall. He carried out his intention that the only tie between them should be the domestic service she did in return for board and lodging . She had made up her mind that it was no use trying to get work that summer, and with Philip’s approval determined to stay where she was till the autumn. She thought it would be easy to get something to do then.
‘As far as I’m concerned you can stay on here when you’ve got a job if it’s convenient. The room’s there, and the woman who did for me before can come in to look after the baby.’
He grew very much attached to Mildred’s child. He had a naturally affectionate disposition , which had had little opportunity to display itself. Mildred was not unkind to the little girl. She looked after her very well and once when she had a bad cold proved herself a devoted nurse; but the child bored her, and she spoke to her sharply when she bothered; she was fond of her, but had not the maternal passion which might have induced her to forget herself. Mildred had no demonstrativeness, and she found the manifestations of affection ridiculous. When Philip sat with the baby on his knees, playing with it and kissing it, she laughed at him.
Philip flushed, for he hated to be laughed at. It was absurd to be so devoted to another man’s baby, and he was a little ashamed of the overflowing of his heart. But the child, feeling Philip’s attachment , would put her face against his or nestle in his arms.
‘It’s all very fine for you,’ said Mildred. ‘You don’t have any of the disagreeable part of it. How would you like being kept awake for an hour in the middle of the night because her ladyship wouldn’t go to sleep?’
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菲利普以为早忘却了的自己孩提时代的往事,一下子都涌现在自己的脑海里。他信手抓起了孩子的脚趾。
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Philip remembered all sorts of things of his childhood which he thought he had long forgotten. He took hold of the baby’s toes.
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"这只小猪卖给市场,这只小猪留在家里。"
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‘This little pig went to market, this little pig stayed at home.’
When he came home in the evening and entered the sitting-room his first glance was for the baby sprawling on the floor, and it gave him a little thrill of delight to hear the child’s crow of pleasure at seeing him. Mildred taught her to call him daddy, and when the child did this for the first time of her own accord, laughed immoderately.
Towards the end of his second term as in-patients’ clerk a piece of good fortune befell Philip. It was the middle of July. He went one Tuesday evening to the tavern in Beak Street and found nobody there but Macalister. They sat together, chatting about their absent friends, and after a while Macalister said to him:
‘Oh, by the way, I heard of a rather good thing today, New Kleinfonteins; it’s a gold mine in Rhodesia. If you’d like to have a flutter you might make a bit.’
Philip had been waiting anxiously for such an opportunity, but now that it came he hesitated. He was desperately afraid of losing money. He had little of the gambler’s spirit.
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"我很想试试,不过我不知道我是否敢去冒这个险。一旦环事,我要蚀掉多少本呀?"
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‘I’d love to, but I don’t know if I dare risk it. How much could I lose if things went wrong?’
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"就因为看你对这事很迫切,我才把这件事告诉你的,要不然,我根本不会讲。"
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‘I shouldn’t have spoken of it, only you seemed so keen about it,’ Macalister answered coldly.
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菲利普觉得马卡利斯特把他看作是一头蠢驴。
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Philip felt that Macalister looked upon him as rather a donkey.
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"我是很想赚笔钱的,"他哈哈笑着说。
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‘I’m awfully keen on making a bit,’ he laughed.
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"除非你准备冒险,否则就甭想赚到一个子儿。"
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‘You can’t make money unless you’re prepared to risk money.’
Macalister began to talk of other things and Philip, while he was answering him, kept thinking that if the venture turned out well the stockbroker would be very facetious at his expense next time they met. Macalister had a sarcastic tongue.
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"如果你不介意的话,我倒想试它一试,"菲利普热切地说。
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‘I think I will have a flutter if you don’t mind,’ said Philip anxiously.
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"好吧。我给你买进二百五十份股票,一看到涨上两个半先令的话,我就立即把你的股票抛售出去。"
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‘All right. I’ll buy you two hundred and fifty shares and if I see a half-crown rise I’ll sell them at once.’
Philip quickly reckoned out how much that would amount to, and his mouth watered; thirty pounds would be a godsend just then, and he thought the fates owed him something. He told Mildred what he had done when he saw her at breakfast next morning. She thought him very silly.
‘I never knew anyone who made money on the Stock Exchange,’ she said. ‘That’s what Emil always said, you can’t expect to make money on the Stock Exchange, he said.’
Philip bought an evening paper on his way home and turned at once to the money columns. He knew nothing about these things and had difficulty in finding the stock which Macalister had spoken of. He saw they had advanced a quarter. His heart leaped, and then he felt sick with apprehension in case Macalister had forgotten or for some reason had not bought. Macalister had promised to telegraph. Philip could not wait to take a tram home. He jumped into a cab. It was an unwontedextravagance.
‘Then he didn’t buy them for me after all. Curse him,’ he added violently. ‘What cruel luck! And I’ve been thinking all day of what I’d do with the money.’