評論
打印
"There is no knowing what THEY may expect, " said the lady, "but we are not to think of their expectations: the question is, what you can afford to do. "
“誰知道她們有什么期望，”夫人說道，“不過，我們也犯不著去考慮她們的期望。問題在于：你能拿得出多少。”
"Certainly--and I think I may afford to give them five hundred pounds a-piece. As it is, without any addition of mine, they will each have about three thousand pounds on their mother's death--a very comfortable fortune for any young woman. "
“那當然，我想我可以給她們每人五百鎊，其實，即便沒有我這份補貼，她們的母親一死，她們每人都能得到三干多鎊，對于一個年輕女子來說，這是一筆相當不錯的財產啦。”
"To be sure it is; and, indeed, it strikes me that they can want no addition at all. They will have ten thousand pounds divided amongst them. If they marry, they will be sure of doing well, and if they do not, they may all live very comfortably together on the interest of ten thousand pounds. "
“誰說不是呢！說實在的，我看她們根本不需要額外補貼了。她們有一萬鎊可分。要是出了嫁，日子肯定富得很。即使不出嫁，就靠那一萬鎊得來的利息，也能在一起生活得舒舒服服的。”
"That is very true, and, therefore, I do not know whether, upon the whole, it would not be more advisable to do something for their mother while she lives, rather than for them--something of the annuity kind I mean. --My sisters would feel the good effects of it as well as herself. A hundred a year would make them all perfectly comfortable. "
“的確如此。所以我在琢磨，整個來看，趁她們母親活著的時候，給她點補貼，這是不是比給她們更可取呢？我的意思是給她點年金什么的。這個辦法產生的良好效果，我妹妹和她們的母親都能感覺得到。一年出一百鎊，管叫她們全都心滿意足。”
His wife hesitated a little, however, in giving her consent to this plan.
然而，他妻子沒有馬上同意這個計劃，她猶豫了一會兒。
"To be sure, " said she, "it is better than parting with fifteen hundred pounds at once. But, then, if Mrs. Dashwood should live fifteen years we shall be completely taken in. "
“當然，”她說，“這比一下子送掉一千五百鎊要好。不過，要是達什伍德太太活上十五年，我們豈不上了大當。”
"Fifteen years! my dear Fanny; her life cannot be worth half that purchase. "
“十五年！我親愛的范妮，就她那命呀，連這一半時間也活不到。”
"Certainly not; but if you observe, people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them; and she is very stout and healthy, and hardly forty. An annuity is a very serious business; it comes over and over every year, and there is no getting rid of it. You are not aware of what you are doing. I have known a great deal of the trouble of annuities; for my mother was clogged with the payment of three to old superannuated servants by my father's will, and it is amazing how disagreeable she found it. Twice every year these annuities were to be paid; and then there was the trouble of getting it to them; and then one of them was said to have died, and afterwards it turned out to be no such thing. My mother was quite sick of it. Her income was not her own, she said, with such perpetual claims on it; and it was the more unkind in my father, because, otherwise, the money would have been entirely at my mother's disposal, without any restriction whatever. It has given me such an abhorrence of annuities, that I am sure I would not pin myself down to the payment of one for all the world. "
“當然活不到。不過，你留心觀察一下，人要是能領到一點年金的話，總是活個沒完沒了。她身強力壯的，還不到四十歲。年金可不是鬧著玩的，一年一年地給下去，到時想甩都甩不掉。你不懂這種事，我可體驗到給年金的不少苦楚，因為我母親遵照我父親的遺囑，年年要向三個老仆人支付退休金，她發現這事討厭極了。這些退休金每年支付兩次，要送到仆人手里可麻煩了。此后聽說有一個仆人死了，可后來發現并沒有這回事。我母親傷透了腦筋。她說，她的財產被這樣長久刮下去，她哪里還做得了主？這都怪我父親太狠心，不然這錢還不都是我母親的，愛怎么用就怎么用。加今，我對年金憎惡透了，要是叫我給哪個人付年金，我說什么也不干。”
