評論
打印
Adele is a degree better, but still far below the mark;
阿黛勒稍微好一些，但還是遠遠低于標準。
Mrs. Fairfax ditto.
費爾法克斯太太同樣如此。
You, I am persuaded, can suit me if you will.
而你，我相信是合我意的，要是你愿意。
You puzzled me the first evening I invited you down here.
第一天晚上我邀請你下樓到這里來的時候，你就使我迷惑不解。
I have almost forgotten you since.
從那時候起，我已幾乎把你忘了。
Other ideas have driven yours from my head.
腦子里盡想著其他事情，顧不上你。
But tonight I am resolved to be at ease.
不過今天晚上我決定安閑自在些，
To dismiss what importunes, and recall what pleases.
忘掉糾纏不休的念頭，回憶回憶愉快的事兒。
It would please me now to draw you out — to learn more of you — therefore speak.
現在我樂于把你的情況掏出來，進一步了解你，所以你就說吧.
Instead of speaking, I smiled, and not a very complacent or submissive smile either.
我沒有說話，卻代之以微笑，既不特別得意，也不順從。
"Speak," he urged.
"說吧，"他催促著。
What about, sir?
說什么呢，先生。
Whatever you like.
愛說什么就說什么，
I leave both the choice of subject and the manner of treating it entirely to yourself.
說的內容和方式，全由你自己選擇吧。
Accordingly I sat and said nothing.
結果我還是端坐著，什么也沒有說。
"If he expects me to talk for the mere sake of talking and showing off,
"要是他希望我為說而說，炫耀一番，
he will find he has addressed himself to the wrong person," I thought.
那他會發現他找錯了人啦，"我想。
You are dumb, Miss Eyre.
你一聲不吭，愛小姐。
I was dumb still.
我依然一聲不吭。
He bent his head a little towards me, and with a single hasty glance seemed to dive into my eyes.
他向我微微低下頭來，匆匆地投過來一瞥，似乎要探究我的眼睛。
"Stubborn?" he said, "and annoyed. Ah! It is consistent.
"固執？"他說，"而且生氣了。噢，這是一致的。
I put my request in an absurd, almost insolent form.
我提出要求的方式，荒謬而近乎蠻橫。
Miss Eyre, I beg your pardon.
愛小姐，請你原諒。
The fact is, once for all, I don't wish to treat you like an inferior. That is " (correcting himself) .
實際上，我永遠不想把你當作下人看待。那就是（糾正他自己）。
"I claim only such superiority as must result from twenty years' difference in age and a century's advance in experience.
我有比你強的地方，但那只不過是年齡上大二十歲，經歷上相差一個世紀的必然結果。
This is legitimate, et j' y tiens, as Adele would say.
這是合理的，就像阿黛勒會說的那樣，etj'ytiens。
And it is by virtue of this superiority,
而憑借這種優勢，
and this alone, that I desire you to have the goodness to talk to me a little now,
也僅僅如此而已，我想請你跟我談一會兒，
and divert my thoughts, which are galled with dwelling on one point — cankering as a rusty nail.
轉移一下我的思想苦苦糾纏在一點上，像一根生銹的釘子那樣正在腐蝕著。
