狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第39章Part6

'Oh! I may go at once, may I, Captain?' cried Rob, exulting in his success. 'But mind! I never asked to go at once, Captain. You are not to take away my character again, because you send me off of your own accord. And you're not to stop any of my wages, Captain!'
His employer settled the last point by producing the tin canister and telling the Grinder's money out in full upon the table. Rob, snivelling and sobbing, and grievously wounded in his feelings, took up the pieces one by one, with a sob and a snivel for each, and tied them up separately in knots in his pockethandkerchief; then he ascended to the roof of the house and filled his hat and pockets with pigeons; then, came down to his bed under the counter and made up his bundle, snivelling and sobbing louder, as if he were cut to the heart by old associations; then he whined, 'Good-night, Captain. I leave you without malice!' and then, going out upon the door-step, pulled the little Midshipman's nose as a parting indignity, and went away down the street grinning triumphantly.
The Captain, left to himself, resumed his perusal of the news as if nothing unusual or unexpected had taken place, and went reading on with the greatest assiduity. But never a word did Captain Cuttle understand, though he read a vast number, for Rob the Grinder was scampering up one column and down another all through the newspaper.
It is doubtful whether the worthy Captain had ever felt himself quite abandoned until now; but now, old Sol Gills, Walter, and Heart's Delight were lost to him indeed, and now Mr Carker deceived and jeered him cruelly. They were all represented in the false Rob, to whom he had held forth many a time on the recollections that were warm within him; he had believed in the false Rob, and had been glad to believe in him; he had made a companion of him as the last of the old ship's company; he had taken the command of the little Midshipman with him at his right hand; he had meant to do his duty by him, and had felt almost as kindly towards the boy as if they had been shipwrecked and cast upon a desert place together. And now, that the false Rob had brought distrust, treachery, and meanness into the very parlour, which was a kind of sacred place, Captain Cuttle felt as if the parlour might have gone down next, and not surprised him much by its sinking, or given him any very great concern.
Therefore Captain Cuttle read the newspaper with profound attention and no comprehension, and therefore Captain Cuttle said nothing whatever about Rob to himself, or admitted to himself that he was thinking about him, or would recognise in the most distant manner that Rob had anything to do with his feeling as lonely as Robinson Crusoe.
In the same composed, business-like way, the Captain stepped over to Leadenhall Market in the dusk, and effected an arrangement with a private watchman on duty there, to come and put up and take down the shutters of the wooden Midshipman every night and morning. He then called in at the eating-house to diminish by one half the daily rations theretofore supplied to the Midshipman, and at the public-house to stop the traitor's beer. 'My young man,' said the Captain, in explanation to the young lady at the bar, 'my young man having bettered himself, Miss.' Lastly, the Captain resolved to take possession of the bed under the counter, and to turn in there o' nights instead of upstairs, as sole guardian of the property.
From this bed Captain Cuttle daily rose thenceforth, and clapped on his glazed hat at six o'clock in the morning, with the solitary air of Crusoe finishing his toilet with his goat-skin cap; and although his fears of a visitation from the savage tribe, MacStinger, were somewhat cooled, as similar apprehensions on the part of that lone mariner used to be by the lapse of a long interval without any symptoms of the cannibals, he still observed a regular routine of defensive operations, and never encountered a bonnet without previous survey from his castle of retreat. In the meantime (during which he received no call from Mr Toots, who wrote to say he was out of town) his own voice began to have a strange sound in his ears; and he acquired such habits of profound meditation from much polishing and stowing away of the stock, and from much sitting behind the counter reading, or looking out of window, that the red rim made on his forehead by the hard glazed hat, sometimes ached again with excess of reflection.

“這麼說，我立刻就可以走了，是不是，船長？”羅布由於取得成功而歡天喜地，喊道，”可是記住！我從沒有請求您讓我立刻就走，船長。您不能再一次敗壞我的名譽，因爲您是出於自願叫我走的。您也沒有權利扣發我的工資，船長！”
他的主人取出錫制的茶葉罐，把應該付給磨工的錢在桌子上全部點清，因此把他所提出的最後一個問題給解決了。羅布裝着可憐相，抽抽嗒嗒地哭泣着；他在感情上雖然受到了極大的傷害，但卻把硬幣一個個地撿起來，每撿起一個就裝着可憐相，抽抽嗒嗒地哭泣一次，並把它們一個個分別塞進用手絹結成的小圓包裏；然後，他登上屋頂，在帽子和口袋裏裝滿了鴿子；然後，他走下來，到櫃檯下面的牀鋪邊，把他的物品捆成一個包袱；這時他裝着可憐相，抽抽嗒嗒地哭泣得更響，彷彿他的心已被往事的回憶撕得粉碎了；接着，他哀哭着，說道，”再見吧，船長，我離開您是沒有惡意的！”然後，他走出到門口的臺階上，把小海軍軍官候補生的鼻子揪了一下，作爲離別時給他的一點侮辱，最後他得意揚揚地露着牙齒笑着，走進了街道。
當只剩下船長一個人的時候，他又重新拿起報紙，彷彿沒有發生過任何不尋常或意外的事情似的，繼續孜孜不倦地念下去。可是卡特爾船長雖然唸了好多，但卻一個字也不明白，因爲磨工羅布一直在報紙各欄之間蹦來跳去。
船長過去是否曾像現在這樣感到被人遺棄過，這很難說；可是現在，老所爾?吉爾斯，沃爾特，心的喜悅，對他來說，是真正失去了，卡克先生又殘酷地欺騙和戲弄了他。虛僞的羅布代表了他們所有的人；船長曾經很多次把心中最美好的回憶講給他聽；他曾經相信這個虛僞的羅布，而且是高高興興地相信他的；他曾經把他當作自己的一位伴侶，就像是一艘船中唯一還活着的朋友一樣；他曾經把他當作得力助手，執行着小海軍軍官候補生的命令；他曾經打算盡他對他的責任；他對這孩子也曾抱有十分親切的感情，彷彿他們曾經在同一艘船中遇難，一道被風浪吹刮到一個荒無人煙的地方似的。可是現在，當虛僞的羅布已把不信任、叛變和卑鄙帶進客廳這個神聖的地方時，卡特爾船長感到客廳彷彿可能就要沉陷下去似的；如果它真正沉陷下去的話，那麼他並不會感到十分驚奇，也不會感到有什麼很大憂慮的。
因此，卡特爾船長十分專心地念着報紙，但卻絲毫也不理解；因此，卡特爾船長沒有自言自語地說到任何有關羅布的話；他不承認他在想他；雖然他感到自己現在像魯濱遜?克魯索一樣孤獨，但他不承認羅布跟他的這種感受有絲毫關係。
在同樣一種鎮靜自若，不慌不忙的情況下，船長在薄暮時步行到倫敦肉類市場，跟那裏一位值班的看守人講好，讓他每天夜間和早上前來關上和打開木製海軍軍官候補生的百葉窗。然後他走進小餐館，把每天從那裏供應給海軍軍官候補生的食物減少一半，又走進酒吧，通知停止向那位叛逆者供應啤酒。”我那位年輕人，”船長向站櫃檯的姑娘解釋說，”我那位年輕人已經找到一份更好的工作了，小姐。”最後，船長作爲產業的唯一看管人，決定把櫃檯下面的牀鋪接收下來，他在夜間就在這裏而不上樓去安息。
從此以後，卡特爾船長每天早上六點鐘就從這張牀上起來，把上了光的帽子扣到額上；那份孤獨的神態就跟克魯索帶上山羊皮帽子，結束梳洗時一樣；雖然他對野蠻部族麥克?斯廷傑的侵襲的恐懼已減少一些，就像那位孤獨的航海家在很長時間內沒有見到吃人肉者的形跡，逐漸減少憂慮相似，可是他仍按照常規，遵守那些防禦措施，每當看到女帽的時候，總要退避到他的堡壘裏，事先偵察一番。在這段時間中（圖茨先生來信說，他到城外去了，所以沒有前來拜訪），他自己的他聽起來都開始覺得奇怪了；同時由於經常不斷地拭擦和安放存貨，並由於長久地坐在櫃檯後面閱讀和向窗外看望，他養成了沉思的習慣，因此他前額上被上了光的堅硬的帽子扣成的紅圈有時因爲過度的思考而發痛。