狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第32章Part 2

'Here's a smart lad for you!' cried the Captain eyeing him sternly, 'as don't know his own native alphabet! Go away a bit and come back again alternate - d'ye understand that?'
'Yes, Captain,' said Rob.
'Very good my lad, then,' said the Captain, relenting. 'Do it!'
That he might do it the better, Captain Cuttle sometimes condescended, of an evening after the shop was shut, to rehearse this scene: retiring into the parlour for the purpose, as into the lodgings of a supposititious MacStinger, and carefully observing the behaviour of his ally, from the hole of espial he had cut in the wall. Rob the Grinder discharged himself of his duty with so much exactness and judgment, when thus put to the proof, that the Captain presented him, at divers times, with seven sixpences, in token of satisfaction; and gradually felt stealing over his spirit the resignation of a man who had made provision for the worst, and taken every reasonable precaution against an unrelenting fate.
Nevertheless, the Captain did not tempt ill-fortune, by being a whit more venturesome than before. Though he considered it a point of good breeding in himself, as a general friend of the family, to attend Mr Dombey's wedding (of which he had heard from Mr Perch), and to show that gentleman a pleasant and approving countenance from the gallery, he had repaired to the church in a hackney cabriolet with both windows up; and might have scrupled even to make that venture, in his dread of Mrs MacStinger, but that the lady's attendance on the ministry of the Reverend Melchisedech rendered it peculiarly unlikely that she would be found in communion with the Establishment.
The Captain got safe home again, and fell into the ordinary routine of his new life, without encountering any more direct alarm from the enemy, than was suggested to him by the daily bonnets in the street. But other subjects began to lay heavy on the Captain's mind. Walter's ship was still unheard of. No news came of old Sol Gills. Florence did not even know of the old man's disappearance, and Captain Cuttle had not the heart to tell her. Indeed the Captain, as his own hopes of the generous, handsome, gallant-hearted youth, whom he had loved, according to his rough manner, from a child, began to fade, and faded more and more from day to day, shrunk with instinctive pain from the thought of exchanging a word with Florence. If he had had good news to carry to her, the honest Captain would have braved the newly decorated house and splendid furniture - though these, connected with the lady he had seen at church, were awful to him - and made his way into her presence. With a dark horizon gathering around their common hopes, however, that darkened every hour, the Captain almost felt as if he were a new misfortune and affliction to her; and was scarcely less afraid of a visit from Florence, than from Mrs MacStinger herself.
It was a chill dark autumn evening, and Captain Cuttle had ordered a fire to be kindled in the little back parlour, now more than ever like the cabin of a ship. The rain fell fast, and the wind blew hard; and straying out on the house-top by that stormy bedroom of his old friend, to take an observation of the weather, the Captain's heart died within him, when he saw how wild and desolate it was. Not that he associated the weather of that time with poor Walter's destiny, or doubted that if Providence had doomed him to be lost and shipwrecked, it was over, long ago; but that beneath an outward influence, quite distinct from the subject-matter of his thoughts, the Captain's spirits sank, and his hopes turned pale, as those of wiser men had often done before him, and will often do again.
Captain Cuttle, addressing his face to the sharp wind and slanting rain, looked up at the heavy scud that was flying fast over the wilderness of house-tops, and looked for something cheery there in vain. The prospect near at hand was no better. In sundry tea-chests and other rough boxes at his feet, the pigeons of Rob the Grinder were cooing like so many dismal breezes getting up. A crazy weathercock of a midshipman, with a telescope at his eye, once visible from the street, but long bricked out, creaked and complained upon his rusty pivot as the shrill blast spun him round and round, and sported with him cruelly. Upon the Captain's coarse blue vest the cold raindrops started like steel beads; and he could hardly maintain himself aslant against the stiff Nor'-Wester that came pressing against him, importunate to topple him over the parapet, and throw him on the pavement below. If there were any Hope alive that evening, the Captain thought, as he held his hat on, it certainly kept house, and wasn't out of doors; so the Captain, shaking his head in a despondent manner, went in to look for it.
Captain Cuttle descended slowly to the little back parlour, and, seated in his accustomed chair, looked for it in the fire; but it was not there, though the fire was bright. He took out his tobacco-box and pipe, and composing himself to smoke, looked for it in the red glow from the bowl, and in the wreaths of vapour that curled upward from his lips; but there was not so much as an atom of the rust of Hope's anchor in either. He tried a glass of grog; but melancholy truth was at the bottom of that well, and he couldn't finish it. He made a turn or two in the shop, and looked for Hope among the instruments; but they obstinately worked out reckonings for the missing ship, in spite of any opposition he could offer, that ended at the bottom of the lone sea.
The wind still rushing, and the rain still pattering, against the closed shutters, the Captain brought to before the wooden Midshipman upon the counter, and thought, as he dried the little officer's uniform with his sleeve, how many years the Midshipman had seen, during which few changes - hardly any - had transpired among his ship's company; how the changes had come all together, one day, as it might be; and of what a sweeping kind they web Here was the little society of the back parlour broken up, and scattered far and wide. Here was no audience for Lovely Peg, even if there had been anybody to sing it, which there was not; for the Captain was as morally certain that nobody but he could execute that ballad, he was that he had not the spirit, under existing circumstances, to attempt it. There was no bright face of 'Wal'r' In the house; - here the Captain transferred his sleeve for a moment from the Midshipman's uniform to his own cheek; - the familiar wig and buttons of Sol Gills were a vision of the past; Richard Whittington was knocked on the head; and every plan and project in connexion with the Midshipman, lay drifting, without mast or rudder, on the waste of waters.
As the Captain, with a dejected face, stood revolving these thoughts, and polishing the Midshipman, partly in the tenderness of old acquaintance, and partly in the absence of his mind, a knocking at the shop-door communicated a frightful start to the frame of Rob the Grinder, seated on the counter, whose large eyes had been intently fixed on the Captain's face, and who had been debating within himself, for the five hundredth time, whether the Captain could have done a murder, that he had such an evil conscience, and was always running away.
'What's that?' said Captain Cuttle, softly.
'Somebody's knuckles, Captain,' answered Rob the Grinder.

“瞧你這機靈的孩子！”船長嚴厲地注視着他，喊道，”連本國話也聽不懂！離開一會兒，然後又回來，這麼輪流着。--現在懂了嗎？”
“懂了，船長，”羅布說道。
“很好，我的孩子，”船長態度溫和下來，心平氣和地說道，”那就這麼辦吧！”
爲了使羅布做得更好，船長有時在晚上關上店門之後，放下架子，跟他演習起來；爲了這個目的，他退藏到客廳裏，那是假想中的麥克斯廷傑的住所；然後從他在牆上挖出的偵察洞中仔細地觀察他的盟友的舉動。磨工羅布十分準確和熟練地完成了他的任務；經過這樣考驗之後，船長表示滿意，好幾次送給他六便士的硬幣，總共送了七枚，並暗暗地在心中逐漸產生了一種安寧的感覺，這是一個對最壞的情況作了準備，併爲對付殘酷命運採取了各種適當防備措施的人才能有的。
可是船長一點也不比過去魯莽隨便，去冒碰上厄運的風險。他從珀奇先生那裏聽到董貝先生將要結婚的消息之後，雖然認爲，作爲他們家裏的朋友，他去參加董貝先生的婚禮，並從樓座向這位先生顯露他高興和贊成的臉孔，是他應該表示的禮貌，但是他乘坐出租單馬篷車前去教堂的時候，兩邊的窗子都是關上的。本來他由於害怕麥克斯廷傑太太，甚至是不是要冒這次風險都是遲疑不決的，但因爲那位太太要去參加梅爾奇斯代克大師主持的禮拜儀式，因此在他要去的那個教堂裏極不可能也看到她。
船長又平安地回到家裏，過着他的新的常規生活。除了每天街道上來往的女帽外，敵人沒有在其他方面引起他驚慌。但是其他的問題開始沉重地壓在船長的心頭。沃爾特的船仍然杳無音訊。老所爾?吉爾斯也毫無消息。弗洛倫斯甚至還不知道老人已經失蹤，卡特爾船長也沒有心情去告訴她。那位豁達大度、外貌英俊、有俠義氣概的青年，從他是個小孩子的時候起，船長就以他粗魯的方式喜愛他；由於船長覺得他得救的希望開始一天天地愈來愈微弱，所以他一想起要跟弗洛倫斯交談一兩句話，都確實會由於本能地感到痛苦而畏縮起來。如果他有好消息帶給她，誠實的船長將會大膽地走進那座裝飾一新的公館，穿過那些光彩奪目的傢俱，找到道路，走到她的面前去（雖然這些豪華的場面和他在教堂裏看到的那位夫人使他感到心寒膽怯）。可是當烏雲聚集在他們共同希望的上空，隨着一小時一小時過去，愈聚愈濃的時候，船長几乎覺得彷彿他本人對她來說就是一個新的不幸與痛苦似的，所以他害怕弗洛倫斯前來訪問，幾乎就跟害怕麥克斯廷傑太太前來訪問一樣。
這是一個寒冷的、黑暗的秋天晚上，卡特爾船長囑咐羅布在小後客廳裏生火，這個小後客廳現在比任何時候都更像是一個船艙了。雨急速地下着，風猛烈地颳着。船長穿過他老朋友的敞開着被暴風吹颳着的臥室，登上屋頂去觀察天氣；當他看到天氣是那麼險惡、淒涼的時候，他心灰意冷了，這並不是說他把這時的天氣跟可憐的沃爾特的命運聯繫起來，也不是說他還懷疑：如果老天爺註定他要遭到船沉人亡的命運的話，那麼這也是好久以前就已過去的事了；而是說，在跟他思考的問題完全不同的外界的影響下，船長的情緒低沉了，他的希望暗淡了，就像那些比他更聰明的人也曾時常有過，今後也會時常再現的情形一樣。
卡特爾船長的臉迎着凜冽的寒風和斜打過來的雨，仰望着從荒涼的屋頂上迅速飛過去的陰沉的雨雲，徒勞無益地企圖從中尋找出一點可以引起高興的東西。周圍的景物並不好一些。在他腳邊各色各樣的茶葉箱和其他粗陋的箱子中，磨工羅布的鴿子在咕咕地叫着，很像吹起微風時的悽惋的。有一位把望遠鏡放在眼睛前面的海軍軍官候補生，過去曾經一度可以從街道上看到他，但是卻長期被磚牆遮擋住了；他是一個搖晃不穩的風向標，當強烈的疾風把他吹颳得團團旋轉，並殘酷地跟他鬧着玩的時候，他在生鏽的樞軸上抱怨訴苦，發出了吱吱嘎嘎的聲音。寒冷的雨點像鋼珠一樣在船長的粗糙的藍色背心上跳起來，猛烈的西北風緊緊吹颳着他的身子，他幾乎歪歪斜斜地站不住腳跟；這狂風不肯罷休地襲擊着他，想把他從欄杆上推翻下去，拋擲到下面的人行道上。船長抓住帽子，心想今晚如果還有保住性命的希望的話，那麼這希望自然是在家裏而不是在戶外，因此，船長就垂頭喪氣地搖晃着腦袋，走進屋子去尋找這希望。
卡特爾船長慢吞吞地下了樓，走到後客廳裏，坐在他平日的椅子中，開始在爐火中尋找希望；雖然爐火熊熊，明明亮亮，但是它不在那裏。他取出菸草盒子和菸斗，安下心來抽菸，並從菸斗中燒紅的煙火中和從他嘴中噴出的繚繞的煙霧中尋找它，可是那裏連希望的一星半點的微粒也找不到。他倒了一杯攙水的烈酒試試，但是他不能喝乾它，否則令人傷感失望的真相就會在杯底露出來了。他在店鋪裏走了一、兩圈，從那些儀器中尋找希望，可是不管他能提出什麼反對意見，它們都固執地計算出那條失蹤的船的航程，指明它沉落在寂寞的海底。
風仍舊在狂吹，雨仍舊在打着關上的百葉窗；船長在櫃檯上的木製海軍軍官候補生的前面停住；當他用袖子擦乾這位小軍官的制服時，心中想道：這位海軍軍官候補生在這世界上已經度過了多少個歲月；在過去這些歲月中，他船上的船員們是很少發生變化的--幾乎沒有任何變化；但這些變化又怎樣幾乎在一天之內驟然一齊來臨；它們又怎樣具有一種摧毀一切的性質。在後客廳裏的經常聚會如今已經土崩瓦解了；這一小羣人如今離散四方，相距遙遠。”可愛的配格姑娘”這支歌曲即使有人唱它，也沒有聽衆了，而實際上並沒有會唱它的人，因爲船長確信，除了他本人之外，沒有別人能唱這個小調，而他在目前的情況下又沒有情緒去唱它。屋子裏看不到沃爾特的歡樂的臉孔--這時船長的袖子離開了海軍軍官候補生的制服，在他自己的臉上擦了一會兒--；所爾?吉爾斯那熟悉的假髮和鈕釦已成爲過去的幻影；理查德?惠廷頓遭到了當頭一棒；與海軍軍官候補生有關的一切計劃與打算，正在茫茫的海浪上漂流，既沒有桅，也沒有舵。
船長臉色沮喪，站在那裏，反覆思考着這些事情，同時擦着海軍軍官候補生；他在擦的時候，部分地懷着對一位老朋友的親切情誼，部分地又有些心不在焉；就在這時候，店門上突然響起了敲門聲，這使坐在櫃檯上的磨工羅布頓時驚恐地哆嗦了一下；在這之前，他的大眼睛一直在聚精會神地注視着船長的臉孔，心中千百次地思考着這個問題：船長是不是殺了人，深感內疚，所以一直在想逃跑呢？
“什麼事？”卡特爾船長低聲問道。
“有人敲門，船長，”磨工羅布回答道。