狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第30章Part 7

'Or would next day,' said Mr Dombey, 'suit your engagements better?'
'I have no engagements. I am always at your disposal. Let it be when you like.'
'No engagements, my dear Edith!' remonstrated her mother, 'when you are in a most terrible state of flurry all day long, and have a thousand and one appointments with all sorts of trades-people!'
'They are of your making,' returned Edith, turning on her with a slight contraction of her brow. 'You and Mr Dombey can arrange between you.'
'Very true indeed, my love, and most considerate of you!' said Cleopatra. 'My darling Florence, you must really come and kiss me once more, if you please, my dear!'
Singular coincidence, that these gushes of interest In Florence hurried Cleopatra away from almost every dialogue in which Edith had a share, however trifling! Florence had certainly never undergone so much embracing, and perhaps had never been, unconsciously, so useful in her life.
Mr Dombey was far from quarrelling, in his own breast, with the manner of his beautiful betrothed. He had that good reason for sympathy with haughtiness and coldness, which is found In a fellow-feeling. It flattered him to think how these deferred to him, in Edith's case, and seemed to have no will apart from his. It flattered him to picture to himself, this proud and stately woman doing the honours of his house, and chilling his guests after his own manner. The dignity of Dombey and Son would be heightened and maintained, indeed, in such hands.
So thought Mr Dombey, when he was left alone at the dining-table, and mused upon his past and future fortunes: finding no uncongeniality in an air of scant and gloomy state that pervaded the room, in colour a dark brown, with black hatchments of pictures blotching the walls, and twenty-four black chairs, with almost as many nails in them as so many coffins, waiting like mutes, upon the threshold of the Turkey carpet; and two exhausted negroes holding up two withered branches of candelabra on the sideboard, and a musty smell prevailing as if the ashes of ten thousand dinners were entombed in the sarcophagus below it. The owner of the house lived much abroad; the air of England seldom agreed long with a member of the Feenix family; and the room had gradually put itself into deeper and still deeper mourning for him, until it was become so funereal as to want nothing but a body in it to be quite complete.

"或者后天也可以，如果这更适合您安排料理各种事情的话？"董贝先生说道。
"我没有什么事情要安排料理。我总是听随您支配。您看什么日子就定什么日子吧。"
"没有什么事情要安排料理，我亲爱的伊迪丝！"她的母亲表示异议，说道，"要知道，你得从早到晚忙得团团转，你得跟各种各样的商人打一千零一次交道！"
"这由你去操办吧，"伊迪丝微微皱着眉头，转向她，回答道，"你跟董贝先生两人去商量安排好了。"
"完全正确，我亲爱的，你考虑得真周到！"克利奥佩特拉说道，"我亲爱的弗洛伦斯，你一定得真心到这里来再亲我一次，如果你愿意的话，我亲爱的！"
这是个奇怪的巧合：克利奥佩特拉对弗洛伦斯的这种关切，总是在她急忙要避开伊迪丝进来参加谈话之后，不论她谈的话是多么少！弗洛伦斯确实从来也没有接受过这么多的拥抱，也许在她的一生中也从来没有在无意间成为这样有用的人。
董贝先生在内心深处对他的美丽的未婚妻根本没有什么埋怨。他有充分理由同情她的傲慢与冷淡，因为他本人也同样具有这样的性格。他很高兴地想到，伊迪丝尊重他的意见，似乎他的意志就是她的意志。他很高兴地想象，这位高傲与庄严的女人怎样仿效他的态度在家中接待客人，使得他们拘谨畏缩。是的，董贝父子公司的尊严将会在这样的手中得到增进与维护。
当董贝先生独自一人留在餐桌旁，默默地思考着他的过去与未来的命运时，他是这样想的：他觉得他的这些命运跟这房间笼罩着的简陋与阴沉的气氛并没有什么不适合；房间是深褐色的，像丧徽一样的图画玷污了墙壁；二十四把黑色的椅子像被雇用的送丧人一样，在土耳其地毯的边缘等待着，椅子上装饰着许许多多的钉子，就像棺材的数目一样多；餐具柜上枝状烛台的两枝凋残的烛枝由两位筋疲力尽的黑人托举着；房间里弥漫着一股发霉的气味，仿佛一万顿正餐正封埋在下面的石棺里面。房屋的主人有很多时间住在国外，英国的空气难能长期适合菲尼克斯家族中一位成员的喜爱；房间为他逐渐地穿上了愈来愈深的丧服，直到最后，丧葬的气氛已经十分浓厚了，除了尸体之外，什么也不缺了。