《魔法師的外甥》第5期:開錯的門(1)

Chapter 2 Digory and his Uncle
IT was so sudden, and so horribly unlike anything that had ever happened to Digory even in a nightmare, that he let out a scream. Instantly Uncle Andrew's hand was over his Mouth. "None of that!" he hissed in Digory's ear. "If you start making a noise your Mother'll hear it. And you know what a fright might do to her."
As Digory said afterwards, the horrible meanness of getting at a chap in that way, almost made him sick. But of course he didn't scream again.
"That's better," said Uncle Andrew. "Perhaps you couldn't help it. It is a shock when you first see someone vanish. Why, it gave even me a turn when the guinea-pig did it the other night."
"Was that when you yelled?" asked Digory.
"Oh, you heard that, did you? I hope you haven't been spying on me?"
"No, I haven't," said Digory indignantly. "But what's happened to Polly?"
"Congratulate me, my dear boy," said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands. "My experiment has succeeded. The little girl's gone - vanished - right out of the world."
"What have you done to her?"
"Sent her to - well - to another place."
"What do you mean?" asked Digory.
Uncle Andrew sat down and said, "Well, I'll tell you all about it. Have you ever heard of old Mrs Lefay?"
"Wasn't she a great-aunt or something?" said Digory.
"Not exactly," said Uncle Andrew. "She was my godmother. That's her, there, on the wall."
Digory looked and saw a faded photograph: it showed the face of an old woman in a bonnet. And he could now remember that he had once seen a photo of the same face in an old drawer, at home, in the country. He had asked his Mother who it was and Mother had not seemed to want to talk about the subject much. It was not at all a nice face, Digory thought, though of course with those early photographs one could never really tell.
"Was there - wasn't there - something wrong about her, Uncle Andrew?" he asked.
"Well," said Uncle Andrew with a chuckle, "it depends what you call wrong. People are so narrow-minded. She certainly got very queer in later life. Did very unwise things. That was why they shut her up."
"In an asylum, do you mean?"
"Oh no, no, no," said Uncle Andrew in a shocked voice. "Nothing of that sort. Only in prison."
"I say!" said Digory. "What had she done?"
"Ah, poor woman," said Uncle Andrew. "She had been very unwise. There were a good many different things. We needn't go into all that. She was always very kind to me."
"But look here, what has all this got to do with Polly? I do wish you'd -"

第2章 迪格雷和他的舅舅
即使在夢中．迪格雷也從未見過如此突然如此恐怖的事情，他尖叫了一聲。安德魯舅舅趕緊用手捂住他的嘴。“別叫！”他在迪格雷的耳邊悄悄說，“你知道，要是你母親聽到了，她可能會受驚的。”
正如迪格雷後來說的，這種引人上鉤的卑鄙手段實在使他感到厭惡。當然，他也沒有再叫。
“好吧，”安德魯舅舅說，“也許你是控制不住才叫的。第一次看見一個人消失是會吃驚的。昨天夜裏，那隻豚鼠的消失甚至把我也嚇了一跳。”
“就在那時，你叫了一聲嗎？”迪格雷說。
“噢，你聽見了。我希望你沒有跟蹤我吧，
“沒有，”迪格雷憤憤地說，”但波莉到底出了什麼事？”
“祝賀我吧，親愛的孩子，”安德魯搓着手說，“我的試驗成功了。那小女孩已經走了——從這個世界消失了。”“你把她怎麼村了？"
“送她到——啊——另一個地方去了。”
“你這是什麼意思？”迪格雷問。
安德魯舅舅坐下說，“好，我把一切都告訴你吧。你聽說過老萊菲夫人嗎，”
“她不是姨婆或其他什麼親戚嗎？”迪格雷說。
“不完全是，”安德魯舅舅說，“她是我的教母。那邊牆上就是她。”
迪格雷望過去，着見一幅褪色的頭像：一位頭戴無邊有帶女式帽的老太太。他想起，在鄉下家中的一箇舊抽屜裏也見過她的一張頭像。他曾經問過媽媽她是誰，但媽媽好像不大願意談這個話題。迪格雷想，雖然不能單憑那些舊照片來分辨美醜：但那張臉的確一點兒也不好看。
“她有——她沒什麼錯吧，安德魯舅舅？”
他問。“哦，”安德魯舅舅抿嘴一笑，說道．“這要看你把什麼當作錯。人們都太心胸狹窄了。她到了晚年的確非常古怪，做事也很不謹鎮。所以，他們把她關了起來。”
“你是說，關在瘋人院？”
“啊不，不是，不是。”安德魯舅舅吃驚地說．“根本不是那種地方，只是監禁起來。”
“天哪！”迪格雷說，“她幹了什麼？"
“唉，可憐的女人．”安德魯舅舅說，“她太不謹慎，做了許多不一般的事。不必細說了。她一直待我很好。”
“可是，這些事跟波莉有什麼關係呢？我真希望你……”