評論
打印
"Is Mr. Rochester living at Thornfield Hall now?"
“羅切斯特先生如今還住在桑菲爾德府嗎？”
I asked, knowing, of course, what the answer would be, but yet desirous of deferring the direct question as to where he really was.
我問，當然知道他會怎樣回答，但并不想馬上就直截了當地問起他的確實住處。
"No, ma'am -- oh, no! No one is living there.
“不，小姐——呵，不！那兒已沒有人住了，
I suppose you are a stranger in these parts, or you would have heard what happened last autumn, --
我想你對附近地方很陌生，不然你會聽到過去年秋天發生的事情。
Thornfield Hall is quite a ruin: it was burnt down just about harvest-time.
桑菲爾德府已經全毀了。大約秋收的時候燒掉的——
A dreadful calamity!
一場可怕的災難！
such an immense quantity of valuable property destroyed: hardly any of the furniture could be saved.
那么多值錢的財產都毀掉了，幾乎沒有一件家具幸免。
The fire broke out at dead of night, and before the engines arrived from Millcote, the building was one mass of flame.
火災是深夜發生的，從米爾科特來的救火車還沒有開到，府宅已經是一片熊熊大火。
It was a terrible spectacle: I witnessed it myself."
這景象真可怕，我是親眼見到的。”
"At dead of night!" I muttered.
“深夜！”我咕噥著。
Yes, that was ever the hour of fatality at Thornfield.
是呀，在桑菲爾德府那是致命的時刻。
"Was it known how it originated?" I demanded.
“知道是怎么引起的嗎？”我問。
"They guessed, ma'am: they guessed.
“他們猜想，小姐，他們是這么猜想的，
Indeed, I should say it was ascertained beyond a doubt.
其實，我該說那是確然無疑的。
You are not perhaps aware," he continued, edging his chair a little nearer the table, and speaking low,
你也許不知道吧，”他往下說，把椅子往桌子稍稍挪了挪，聲音放得很低，
"that there was a lady -- a -- a lunatic, kept in the house?"
“有一位夫人——一個——一個瘋子，關在屋子里？”
"I have heard something of it."
“我隱隱約約聽到過。”
"She was kept in very close confinement, ma'am: people even for some years was not absolutely certain of her existence.
“她被嚴加看管著，小姐。好幾年了，外人都不能完全確定有她這么個人在。
No one saw her: they only knew by rumour that such a person was at the Hall;
沒有人見過她。他們只不過憑謠傳知道，府里有這樣一個人。
and who or what she was it was difficult to conjecture.
她究竟是誰，干什么的，卻很難想象。
They said Mr. Edward had brought her from abroad, and some believed she had been his mistress.
他們說是愛德華先生從國外把她帶回來的。有人相信，是他的情婦。
But a queer thing happened a year since -- a very queer thing."
但一年前發生了一件奇怪的事情——一件非常奇怪的事情。”
