JUDE’S old and embittered aunt lay unwell at Marygreen, and on the following Sunday he went to see her--a visit which was the result of a victorious struggle against his inclination to turn aside to the village of Lumsdon and obtain a miserable interview with his cousin, in which the word nearest his heart could not be spoken, and the sight which had tortured him could not be revealed.
His aunt was now unable to leave her bed, and a great part of Jude’s short day was occupied in making arrangements for her comfort. The little bakery business had been sold to a neighbour, and with the proceeds of this and her savings she was comfortably supplied with necessaries and more, a widow of the same village living with her and ministering to her wants. It was not till the time had nearly come for him to leave that he obtained a quiet talk with her, and his words tended insensibly towards his cousin.
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“苏是在这儿生的吧?”
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"Was Sue born here?"
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“对啦——就在这间屋里头。他们那会儿就住在这儿。你问这干吗?”
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"She was--in this room. They were living here at that time. What made ’ee ask that?"
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“哦——我想知道知道。”
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"Oh--I wanted to know."
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“那你一定是跟她常来常往喽!”严厉的老太婆说,“我跟你说什么来着?”
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"Now you’ve been seeing her!" said the harsh old woman. "And what did I tell ’ee?"
"Then don’t keep it up. She was brought up by her father to hate her mother’s family; and she’ll look with no favour upon a working chap like you--a townish girl as she’s become by now. I never cared much about her. A pert little thing, that’s what she was too often, with her tight-strained nerves.
Many’s the time I’ve smacked her for her impertinence. Why, one day when she was walking into the pond with her shoes and stockings off, and her petticoats pulled above her knees, afore I could cry out for shame, she said: ’Move on, Aunty! This is no sight for modest eyes!’"
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“她那会儿还是小孩儿哪。”
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"She was a little child then."
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“怎么说也十二岁啦。”
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"She was twelve if a day."
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“就是呀。不过她这会儿人大啦,她人心思细,见事快,脾气好,敏感得就跟——”
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"Well--of course. But now she’s older she’s of a thoughtful, quivering, tender nature, and as sensitive as--"
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“裘德呀!”他始婆大声喊出来,在床上硬挺了一下。“你可别为她再犯糊涂吧!”
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"Jude!" cried his aunt, springing up in bed. "Don’t you be a fool about her!"
"Your marrying that woman Arabella was about as bad a thing as a man could possibly do for himself by trying hard. But she’s gone to the other side of the world, and med never trouble you again. And there’ll be a worse thing if you, tied and bound as you be, should have a fancy for Sue. If your cousin is civil to you, take her civility for what it is worth. But anything more than a relation’s good wishes it is starkmadness for ’ee to give her. If she’s townish and wanton it med bring ’ee to ruin."
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“姑婆,别说她坏话吧!别说啦,行吧!”
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"Don’t say anything against her, Aunt! Don’t, please!"
A relief was afforded to him by the entry of the companion and nurse of his aunt, who must have been listening to the conversation, for she began a commentary on past years, introducing Sue Bridehead as a character in her recollections.
She described what an odd little maid Sue had been when a pupil at the village school across the green opposite, before her father went to London--how, when the vicar arranged readings and recitations, she appeared on the platform, the smallest of them all, "in her little white frock, and shoes, and pink sash"; how she recited "Excelsior," "There was a sound of revelry by night," and "The Raven"; how during the delivery she would knit her little brows and glare round tragically, and say to the empty air, as if some real creature stood there--
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“狰狞怕人的大老鸹,你从夜茫茫的海岸出发游荡,告诉我你那堂皇的名字是什么,在永夜的冥国的榜上!”
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"Ghastly, grim, and ancient Raven, wandering from the Nightly shore, Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!"
"She’d bring up the nasty carrion bird that clear," corroborated the sick woman reluctantly, "as she stood there in her little sash and things, that you could see un a’most before your very eyes. You too, Jude, had the same trick as a child of seeming to see things in the air."
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那位邻居又讲了些苏别的趣事。
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The neighbour told also of Sue’s accomplishments in other kinds:
"She was not exactly a tomboy, you know; but she could do things that only boys do, as a rule. I’ve seen her hit in and steer down the long slide on yonder pond, with her little curls blowing, one of a file of twenty moving along against the sky like shapes painted on glass, and up the back slide without stopping. All boys except herself; and then they’d cheer her, and then she’d say, ’Don’t be saucy, boys,’ and suddenly run indoors. They’d try to coax her out again. But ’a wouldn’t come."
These retrospective visions of Sue only made Jude the more miserable that he was unable to woo her, and he left the cottage of his aunt that day with a heavy heart. He would fain have glanced into the school to see the room in which Sue’s little figure had so glorified itself; but he checked his desire and went on.
It being Sunday evening some villagers who had known him during his residence here were standing in a group in their best clothes. Jude was startled by a salute from one of them:
"When I was there once for an hour I didn’t see much in it for my part; auld crumbling buildings, half church, half almshouse, and not much going on at that."
"You are wrong, John; there is more going on than meets the eye of a man walking through the streets. It is a unique centre of thought and religion-- the intellectual and spiritual granary of this country. All that silence and absence of goings-on is the stillness of infinite motion--the sleep of the spinning-top, to borrow the simile of a well-known writer."
"Oh, well, it med be all that, or it med not. As I say, I didn’t see nothing of it the hour or two I was there; so I went in and had a pot o’ beer, and a penny loaf, and a ha’porth o’ cheese, and waited till it was time to come along home. You’ve j’ined a college by this time, I suppose?"
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“哎,没哪!”裘德说。“我离它还远着呢,简直跟从前没两样。”
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"Ah, no!" said Jude. "I am almost as far off that as ever."
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“怎么搞的?”
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"How so?"
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裘德拍了拍口袋。
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Jude slapped his pocket.
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“果然不出所料啊!那地方可不是为你这号人开的——是专门给手里大把大把钱的人开的啊。”
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"Just what we thought! Such places be not for such as you-- only for them with plenty o’ money."
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“这你又错啦。”裘德说,嘴里硬,心里难受。“就是为我这号人开的呀!”
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"There you are wrong," said Jude, with some bitterness. "They are for such ones!"
Still, the remark was sufficient to withdraw Jude’s attention from the imaginative world he had lately inhabited, in which an abstract figure, more or less himself, was steeping his mind in a sublimation of the arts and sciences, and making his calling and election sure to a seat in the paradise of the learned. He was set regarding his prospects in a cold northern light.
He had lately felt that he could not quite satisfy himself in his Greek--in the Greek of the dramatists particularly. So fatigued was he sometimes after his day’s work that he could not maintain the critical attention necessary for thorough application. He felt that he wanted a coach-- a friend at his elbow to tell him in a moment what sometimes would occupy him a weary month in extracting from unanticipative, clumsy books.
The gentleman came nearer, and Jude looked anxiously at his face. It seemed benign, considerate, yet rather reserved. On second thoughts Jude felt that he could not go up and address him; but he was sufficiently influenced by the incident to think what a wise thing it would be for him to state his difficulties by letter to some of the best and most judicious of these old masters, and obtain their advice.
During the next week or two he accordingly placed himself in such positions about the city as would afford him glimpses of several of the most distinguished among the provosts, wardens, and other heads of houses; and from those he ultimately selected five whose physiognomies seemed to say to him that they were appreciative and far-seeing men. To these five he addressed letters, briefly stating his difficulties, and asking their opinion on his stranded situation.