Having now a good house and very sufficient income, he intended to marry; and in seeking a reconciliation with the Longbourn family he had a wife in view, as he meant to chuse one of the daughters, if he found them as handsome and amiable as they were represented by common report. This was his plan of amends -- of atonement -- for inheriting their father's estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part.
他現在已經有了一幢好房子,一筆可觀的收入,想要結婚了。他所以要和浪博恩這家人家講和修好,原是想要在他們府上找個太太。要是這家人家的幾位小姐果真象大家所傳聞的那么美麗可愛,他一定要挑選一個。這就是他所謂補償的計劃,贖罪的計劃,為的是將來繼承她們父親的遺產時可以問心無愧。他認為這真是個獨出心裁的辦法,既極其妥善得體,又來得慷慨豪爽。
His plan did not vary on seeing them. -- Miss Bennet's lovely face confirmed his views, and established all his strictest notions of what was due to seniority; and for the first evening she was his settled choice. The next morning, however, made an alteration; for in a quarter of an hour's te^te-a`-te^te with Mrs. Bennet before breakfast, a conversation beginning with his parsonage-house, and leading naturally to the avowal of his hopes that a mistress for it might be found at Longbourn, produced from her, amid very complaisant smiles and general encouragement, a caution against the very Jane he had fixed on. --
他看到這幾位小姐之后,并沒有變更本來的計劃。一看到吉英那張可愛的臉蛋兒,他便拿定了主張,而且更加確定了他那些老式的想法,認為一切應當先娶最大的一位小姐。頭一個晚上他就選中了她。不過第二天早上他又變更了主張,因為他和班納特夫人親親密密地談了一刻鐘的話,開頭談談他自己那幢牧師住宅,后來自然而然地把自己的心愿招供了出來,說是要在浪博恩找一位太太,而且要在她的令嬡們中間找一位。
"As to her younger daughters she could not take upon her to say -- she could not positively answer -- but she did not know of any prepossession; -- her eldest daughter, she must just mention -- she felt it incumbent on her to hint, was likely to be very soon engaged."
班納特太太親切地微笑著,而且一再鼓勵他,不過談到他選定了吉英,她就不免要提請他注意一下子了。“講到我幾個小女兒,我沒有什么意見──當然也不能一口答應──不過我還沒有聽說她們有什么對象;至于我的大女兒,我可不得不提一提──我覺得有責任提醒你一下──大女兒可能很快就要訂婚了。”