雙語小說連載:《董貝父子》第8章 Part 12大綱

After tea, Berry brought out a little work-box, with the Royal Pavilion on the lid, and fell to working busily; while Mrs Pipchin, having put on her spectacles and opened a great volume bound in green baize, began to nod. And whenever Mrs Pipchin caught herself falling forward into the fire, and woke up, she filliped Master Bitherstone on the nose for nodding too.
喝過茶以後，貝里取出一隻蓋上繪有皇亭的小針線盒，忙碌不停地幹起活 來；皮普欽太太則戴上眼鏡，打開一本以桌面呢做封面的大書以後，開始打瞌睡。每當皮普欽太太身子往前傾斜，快要撲進爐火裏，因而猛醒過來的時候，她總是用指頭彈彈比瑟斯通少爺的鼻子，因爲他也在打瞌睡。

At last it was the children's bedtime, and after prayers they went to bed. As little Miss Pankey was afraid of sleeping alone in the dark, Mrs Pipchin always made a point of driving her upstairs herself, like a sheep; and it was cheerful to hear Miss Pankey moaning long afterwards, in the least eligible chamber, and Mrs Pipchin now and then going in to shake her. At about half-past nine o'clock the odour of a warm sweet-bread (Mrs Pipchin's constitution wouldn't go to sleep without sweet-bread) diversified the prevailing fragrance of the house, which Mrs Wickam said was 'a smell of building;' and slumber fell upon the Castle shortly after.
終於到了孩子們就寢的時間，做完禱告之後他們就上牀睡覺。由於幼小的潘基小姐害怕單獨在黑暗中睡覺，皮普欽太太總認爲有必要由她親自把她像羊似地趕到樓上去；聽到潘基小姐在這根本不合適的臥室裏仍長久地嗚咽不停，皮普欽太太則不時走進去搖晃她，這是有趣的。大約九點半鐘的時候，房屋裏主要的芬芳氣味（威肯姆大娘認爲是建築的氣味）中又增添了一種熱乎乎的羊胰臟的香味（按照皮普欽太太的體質，不吃小羊胰臟是睡不着覺的。）

The breakfast next morning was like the tea over night, except that Mrs Pipchin took her roll instead of toast, and seemed a little more irate when it was over. Master Bitherstone read aloud to the rest a pedigree from Genesis judiciously selected by Mrs Pipchin), getting over the names with the ease and clearness of a person tumbling up the treadmill. That done, Miss Pankey was borne away to be shampoo'd; and Master Bitherstone to have something else done to him with salt water, from which he always returned very blue and dejected. Paul and Florence went out in the meantime on the beach with Wickam - who was constantly in tears - and at about noon Mrs Pipchin presided over some Early Readings. It being a part of Mrs Pipchin's system not to encourage a child's mind to develop and expand itself like a young flower, but to open it by force like an oyster, the moral of these lessons was usually of a violent and stunning character: the hero - a naughty boy - seldom, in the mildest catastrophe, being finished off anything less than a lion, or a bear.
第二天早上的早餐和昨天夜間的茶點一樣，所不同的是，皮普欽太太吃的是麪包卷，而不是烤麪包片，而且吃完之後脾氣更大一些。比瑟斯通少爺向其餘的人高聲朗誦《創世紀》中的一個宗譜（這是皮普欽太太很有卓見地挑選 出來的），像踩踏車的人那樣從容不迫、明白無誤地讀過了那些姓名。在這之後，潘基小姐被領走去洗澡和按摩；比瑟斯通少爺則還要用鹽水來把他折騰一番；他回來的時候總是無精打采，垂頭喪氣。在這期間，保羅和弗洛倫斯跟威肯姆（她總是經常不斷地流淚）一起出去到海邊。大約在中午的時候，由皮普欽太太主持念一些孩子的讀物。皮普欽太太管教孩子的方法的一個方面，就是不鼓勵孩子像一朵花蕾那樣發展與擴張他的智力，而是像一隻牡蠣那樣強迫把它打開，因此這些功課所寓的教訓通常是殘暴無情和使人目瞪口呆的性質：主人公——一個頑皮的孩子——在最溫和的結局中，通常總不外乎被一頭獅子或一頭熊送了終，很少不是這樣的。

Such was life at Mrs Pipchin's. On Saturday Mr Dombey came down; and Florence and Paul would go to his Hotel, and have tea They passed the whole of Sunday with him, and generally rode out before dinner; and on these occasions Mr Dombey seemed to grow, like Falstaff's assailants, and instead of being one man in buckram, to become a dozen. Sunday evening was the most melancholy evening in the week; for Mrs Pipchin always made a point of being particularly cross on Sunday nights. Miss Pankey was generally brought back from an aunt's at Rottingdean, in deep distress; and Master Bitherstone, whose relatives were all in India, and who was required to sit, between the services, in an erect position with his head against the parlour wall, neither moving hand nor foot, suffered so acutely in his young spirits that he once asked Florence, on a Sunday night, if she could give him any idea of the way back to Bengal.
這就是在皮普欽太太那裏的生活。星期六董貝先生到這裏來；弗洛倫斯和保羅則到他的旅館裏去，在那裏喝茶。他們跟她一起度 過整個星期天，通常在晚飯之前乘馬車離開旅館。這些時候，董貝先生似乎像福斯泰夫的敵人一樣增長起來，從一個穿 麻衣的人變成了十二個穿 麻衣的人①。星期天晚上是一星期中最令人憂鬱不樂的晚上，因爲皮普欽太太星期天夜間脾氣總是格外暴躁，她認爲這是完全必要的。潘基小姐通常總是穿着深色的衣服，從住在羅廷丁的一位姨媽那裏接回來；比瑟斯通少爺的親戚全部在印度，所以皮普欽太太就命令他在 做禮拜儀式間歇的時候，身子挺得筆直地坐在那裏，頭靠着客廳的牆壁，手和腳都不準移動；他那年幼的心靈遭受到的痛苦實在十分悽楚，因此有一個星期天的夜間他問弗洛倫斯，她能不能多少指點他一下，回孟加拉的道路是怎麼走的。

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①見莎士比亞戲劇《亨利四世》上篇第二幕第四場。福斯泰夫起先向亨利親王吹牛說，他的敵人是兩個穿 麻衣的惡漢，但不一會兒說成是四個人，最後又說，“憑這柄劍起誓，他們一共有七個，否則我就是個壞人。”於是亨利親王說，“讓他去吧；等一會兒我們還要聽到更多的人數哩。”這裏是指董貝先生在這種時候態度比平時更顯得生硬呆板。