評論
打印
The dark cedars on either side of the graveled drive met in an arch overhead, turning the long avenue into a dim tunnel. As soon as she was beneath the gnarled arms of the cedars, she knew she was safe from observation from the house and she slowed her swift pace. She was panting, for her stays were laced too tightly to permit much running, but she walked on as rapidly as she could. Soon she was at the end of the driveway and out on the main road, but she did not stop until she had rounded a curve that put a large clump of trees between her and the house.
沿著碎石的車道兩邊，茂密的柏樹枝葉交錯，形成天然的拱頂，使那長長的林蔭路變成了一條陰暗的甬道。一跑進這甬道里，她便覺得自己已經安全了，家里的人望不見了，這才放慢腳步，她氣喘吁吁，因為她的胸衣箍得太緊，不容許她這樣飛跑，不過她還是盡可能迅速走去。她很快便到了車道盡頭，走上了大路，可是她并不停步，直到拐了個彎，那里有一大叢樹遮掩著她，使家里人再也不能看見了。
Flushed and breathing hard, she sat down on a stump to wait for her father. It was past time for him to come home, but she was glad that he was late. The delay would give her time to quiet her breathing and calm her face so that his suspicions would not be aroused. Every moment she expected to hear the pounding of his horse’s hooves and see him come charging up the hill at his usual breakneck speed. But the minutes slipped by and Gerald did not come. She looked down the road for him, the pain in her heart swelling up again.
她兩頰發紅，呼吸急促，坐在一個樹樁上等待父親。往常這時候，他已經回來了，不過她高興今天他晚一些，這樣她才有時間喘過氣來，使臉色恢復平靜，不致引起父親的猜疑。她分分秒秒地期待著聽到得得的馬蹄聲，看到父親用他那嚇死人的速度馳上山岡。可是一分鐘又一分鐘過去了，杰拉爾德還是不見回來。順著大路望去，想找到他的影子，這時心里的痛楚又膨脹起來了。
“Oh, it can’t be true!” she thought. “Why doesn’t he come?”
“唔，那不可能是真的！"她心想。"他為什么不來呢？"
Her eyes followed the winding road, blood-red now after the morning rain. In her thought she traced its course as it ran down the hill to the sluggish Flint River, through the tangled swampy bottoms and up the next hill to Twelve Oaks where Ashley lived. That was all the road meant now—a road to Ashley and the beautiful white-columned house that crowned the hill like a Greek Temple.
她的眼光沿著那條因早晨下過雨而變得血紅的大路沉思著，在心里跟蹤著這段路程奔下山岡，到那懶洋洋的弗林特河畔，越過荊榛雜亂的沼澤谷底，再爬上下一個山岡到達“十二橡樹”村。艾希禮就住在那里。此時，這條路的全部意義就在這里----它是通向艾希禮和那幢美麗的像希臘神殿般高踞于山岡上的白圓柱房子。
“Oh, Ashley! Ashley!” she thought, and her heart beat faster.
“啊，艾希禮！艾希禮！"她心里喊著，心臟跳得更快了。
Some of the cold sense of bewilderment and disaster that had weighted her down since the Tarleton boys told her their gossip was pushed into the background of her mind, and in its place crept the fever that had possessed her for two years.
自從塔爾頓家那對孿生子把他們的閑話告訴她以后，一種惶惑和災禍的冷酷感一直沉重地壓抑著她，可如今這種意識已被推到她心靈的后壁去，代之而的是兩年以來始終支配著她的那股狂熱之情。
