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Thus in the case of Paul. When Doctor Blimber said he made great progress and was naturally clever, Mr Dombey was more bent than ever on his being forced and crammed. In the case of Briggs, when Doctor Blimber reported that he did not make great progress yet, and was not naturally clever, Briggs senior was inexorable in the same purpose. In short, however high and false the temperature at which the Doctor kept his hothouse, the owners of the plants were always ready to lend a helping hand at the bellows, and to stir the fire.
保羅的情況就是這樣。當布林伯博士說，他天資聰明，取得了很大的進步的時候，董貝先生就比過去更堅決地贊成對他進行強制性教育，在他腦子里填塞得滿滿的。就布里格斯的情況來說，當布林伯博士報告說，他天資不聰明，還沒有取得很大的進步的時候，布里格斯的長輩為了追求同樣的目的也是鐵面無情，一絲不茍。總而言之，布林伯博士把他的溫室的溫度不論弄得多么高，多么不適當，那些植物的主人總是準備伸出手來幫他拉風箱，把火煽旺的。
Such spirits as he had in the outset, Paul soon lost of course. But he retained all that was strange, and old, and thoughtful in his character: and under circumstances so favourable to the development of those tendencies, became even more strange, and old, and thoughtful, than before.
保羅開始時所保持的那種蓬勃的朝氣自然很快就失去了，可是他保留著他性格中所有那些古怪的、老氣的與愛沉思的部分；在有利于發展這些傾向的環境下，他變得比過去更為古怪、更為老氣、更愛沉思了。
The only difference was, that he kept his character to himself. He grew more thoughtful and reserved, every day; and had no such curiosity in any living member of the Doctor's household, as he had had in Mrs Pipchin. He loved to be alone; and in those short intervals when he was not occupied with his books, liked nothing so well as wandering about the house by himself, or sitting on the stairs, listening to the great clock in the hall. He was intimate with all the paperhanging in the house; saw things that no one else saw in the patterns; found out miniature tigers and lions running up the bedroom walls, and squinting faces leering in the squares and diamonds of the floor-cloth.
唯一的差別是他沒有把他的性格向外表露。他一天天變得更加沉思與緘默；他對博士家庭中的任何成員都沒有像他過去對皮普欽太太那樣懷有的好奇心。他喜歡獨自待著；在他沒有忙著讀書的那些短暫的間歇時間中，他最喜愛的事情莫過于一個人在房屋里漫步，或者坐在樓梯上，靜聽著前廳中大鐘的聲音。他熟悉房屋中所有的壁紙，在那些圖案中看到了其他任何人所沒有看到的東西；他在臥室墻上看出那些奔跑的小老虎與小獅子，在鋪地板的漆布的正方形與菱形中看出那些斜眼瞅著的面孔。
The solitary child lived on, surrounded by this arabesque work of his musing fancy, and no one understood him. Mrs Blimber thought him 'odd,' and sometimes the servants said among themselves that little Dombey 'moped;' but that was all.
這孤獨的孩子就這樣繼續生活著；他沉思的想象所構造出的奇異的形象圍繞著他；沒有人了解他。布林伯夫人認為他“古怪”；有時仆人們相互談論時說小董貝“悶悶不樂”，但是也就如此而已。
Unless young Toots had some idea on the subject, to the expression of which he was wholly unequal. Ideas, like ghosts (according to the common notion of ghosts), must be spoken to a little before they will explain themselves; and Toots had long left off asking any questions of his own mind. Some mist there may have been, issuing from that leaden casket, his cranium, which, if it could have taken shape and form,would have become a genie; but it could not; and it only so far followed the example of the smoke in theArabian story, as to roll out in a thick cloud, and there hang and hover. But it left a little figure visible upon a lonely shore, and Toots was always staring at it.
也許，年輕的圖茨對這個問題有某些想法，可是他完全沒有能力把這些想法表達出來。思想就像鬼（一般概念中的鬼）一樣，必須先跟它們先談一會兒，它們才會顯示出自己，而圖茨已長久停止向他的頭腦提出任何問題了。從那個鉛色的殼子——他的頭顱——中可能升起一些迷霧，如果這些迷霧能夠成形，那么它們一定會變成一個精靈；可是這些迷霧不能成形；它們只能仿效阿拉伯故事中的煙霧，噴冒出濃云，在上空懸垂與飛翔，但是在荒涼的海岸上卻留下了一個可以看得見的小人兒；圖茨經常注視著它。
