Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of her father's behaviour as a husband. She had always seen it with pain; but respecting his abilities, and grateful for his affectionate treatment of herself, she endeavoured to forget what she could not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly reprehensible. But she had never felt so strongly as now the disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable a marriage, nor ever been so fully aware of the evils arising from so ill-judged a direction of talents; talents which rightly used, might at least have preserved the respectability of his daughters, even if incapable of enlarging the mind of his wife.
不過伊麗莎白并不是看不出父親的缺德。她老是一看到就覺得痛苦;可是她尊重他的才能,又感謝他對讀書的寵愛,因此,本來忽略不了的地方,她也盡量把它忽略過去,而且縱使父親大不該叫孩子們看不起媽媽,以致使他們老夫婦一天比一天不能夠互敬互愛地相處,她也盡量不去想它。但是,說到不美滿的婚姻給兒女們帶來的不利,她從前決沒有象現(xiàn)在體驗(yàn)得這樣深刻,父親的才能使用不得當(dāng)因而造成種種害處,這一點(diǎn)她從來沒有象現(xiàn)在這樣看得透徹。要是父親的才能運(yùn)用得適當(dāng),即使不能夠擴(kuò)展母親的見識,至少也可以保存女兒們的體面。
When Elizabeth had rejoiced over Wickham's departure, she found little other cause for satisfaction in the loss of the regiment. Their parties abroad were less varied than before; and at home she had a mother and sister whose constant repinings at the dulness of every thing around them threw a real gloom over their domestic circle; and, though Kitty might in time regain her natural degree of sense, since the disturbers of her brain were removed, her other sister, from whose disposition greater evil might be apprehended, was likely to be hardened in all her folly and assurance by a situation of such double danger as a watering place and a camp. Upon the whole, therefore, she found what has been sometimes found before, that an event to which she had looked forward with impatient desire, did not, in taking place, bring all the satisfaction she had promised herself. It was consequently necessary to name some other period for the commencement of actual felicity; to have some other point on which her wishes and hopes might be fixed, and by again enjoying the pleasure of anticipation, console herself for the present, and prepare for another disappointment.
韋翰走了固然使伊麗莎白感到快慰,然而,這個民兵團(tuán)開拔以后,并沒有什么別的地方叫她滿意。外面的宴會不象以前那樣多那樣有趣了,在家里又是成天只聽到母親和妹妹口口聲聲埋怨生活沉悶,使家里籠罩上了一層陰影;至于吉蒂雖說那些鬧得她心猿意馬的人已經(jīng)走了,她不久就會恢復(fù)常態(tài);可是還有那另外一個妹妹,秉性本就不好,加上現(xiàn)在又處身在那兵營和浴場的雙重危險(xiǎn)的環(huán)境里,自然會更加大膽放蕩,闖出更大的禍?zhǔn)聛恚虼藦拇篌w上說來,她發(fā)覺到(其實(shí)以前有一度她早就發(fā)覺到)她眼巴巴望著到來的一件事,等到真正到來了,總不象她預(yù)期的那么滿意。因此她不得不把真正幸福的開端期諸來日,找些別的東西來寄托她的希望和心愿,在期待的心情中自我陶醉一番,暫時(shí)安慰自己一下,準(zhǔn)備再遭受到失望。