狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第25章Part 4

'Ay!' said the Captain, mysteriously. 'Why so, my lad?'
'Why,' returned Rob, looking about, 'I don't see his shaving tackle. Nor his brushes, Captain. Nor no shirts. Nor yet his shoes.'
As each of these articles was mentioned, Captain Cuttle took particular notice of the corresponding department of the Grinder, lest he should appear to have been in recent use, or should prove to be in present possession thereof. But Rob had no occasion to shave, was not brushed, and wore the clothes he had on for a long time past, beyond all possibility of a mistake.
'And what should you say,' said the Captain - 'not committing yourself - about his time of sheering off? Hey?'
'Why, I think, Captain,' returned Rob, 'that he must have gone pretty soon after I began to snore.'
'What o'clock was that?' said the Captain, prepared to be very particular about the exact time.
'How can I tell, Captain!' answered Rob. 'I only know that I'm a heavy sleeper at first, and a light one towards morning; and if Mr Gills had come through the shop near daybreak, though ever so much on tiptoe, I'm pretty sure I should have heard him shut the door at all events.
On mature consideration of this evidence, Captain Cuttle began to think that the Instrument-maker must have vanished of his own accord; to which logical conclusion he was assisted by the letter addressed to himself, which, as being undeniably in the old man's handwriting, would seem, with no great forcing, to bear the construction, that he arranged of his own will to go, and so went. The Captain had next to consider where and why? and as there was no way whatsoever that he saw to the solution of the first difficulty, he confined his meditations to the second.
Remembering the old man's curious manner, and the farewell he had taken of him; unaccountably fervent at the time, but quite intelligible now: a terrible apprehension strengthened on the Captain, that, overpowered by his anxieties and regrets for Walter, he had been driven to commit suicide. Unequal to the wear and tear of daily life, as he had often professed himself to be, and shaken as he no doubt was by the uncertainty and deferred hope he had undergone, it seemed no violently strained misgiving, but only too probable.

“是嗎！”船長神祕地說道，“爲什麼你這樣想呢，我的孩子？”
“嗯，比方說，”羅布向四下裏看着，說道，“我沒有看到他刮鬍子的用具，也沒看到他的刷子，船長，還有他的襯衫，他的鞋子，也都沒有看到。”
這些物品每提到一件，卡特爾船長就把磨工身上裝束的相應部分格外注意察看了一下，想看看他是不是最近使用了它們或現在已把它們佔爲己有；可是羅布用不着刮鬍子，頭髮也顯然沒有梳刷過，身上的衣服是他過去長期穿着的，這絲毫也不錯。
“那麼，——你別忙着表白自己，——”船長說，“他什麼時候開航的，這你怎麼說？”
“唔，我想，船長，”羅布回答道，“他一定在我開始打鼾以後很快就走了。”
“那是在幾點鐘？”船長問，他打算查清確切的時間。
“我怎麼能回答這個問題呢？船長！”羅布答道，“我只知道，我剛入睡的時候睡得很深沉，但快到早晨的時候我是容易清醒的；如果吉爾斯先生臨近天亮時穿過店鋪的話，那麼哪怕他是踮着腳尖走路，我也完全能肯定，我無論如何也是能聽到他關門的。”
卡特爾船長對這證詞進行了冷靜的思考以後，開始想；儀器製造商一定是自己有意隱匿不見了；那封寫給他本人的信也幫助他得出這個合乎邏輯的結論；那封信既然是老人親筆寫的，那就似乎不必牽強附會就可以解釋：他自己已經打定主意要走，所以也就這樣走掉了。船長接着得考慮他走到哪裏去和他爲什麼要走。由於他看不到第一個問題有任何解決的途徑，所以他就只是在第二個問題上思考。
船長回想起老人那稀奇古怪的神態和跟他告別時的情形——他當時熱情得令人莫名其妙，但現在卻是容易理解的了——，這時候他心中加深了一種可怕的憂慮：老人受不了對沃爾特掛念和憂愁的沉重壓力，被驅使走上自殺的道路。正像他本人經常所說的，他適應不了日常生活的勞累，情況明暗不定，希望渺茫無期，又無疑使他灰心喪氣，因此這樣的憂慮不僅不是極不自然的，相反地卻是太有可能了。