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Mr Dombey's offices were in a court where there was an old-established stall of choice fruit at the corner: where perambulating merchants, of both sexes, offered for sale at any time between the hours of ten and five, slippers, pocket-books, sponges, dogs' collars, and Windsor soap; and sometimes a pointer or an oil-painting.
董貝先生的營業所的辦公室是在一個院子里；院子的角落里很久以來就設有一個出賣精選水果的貨攤；男女行商在院子里向顧客兜售拖鞋、筆記本、海綿、狗的頸圈、溫莎①肥皂；有時還出售一條獵狗（它能用鼻尖指示獵獲物所在處）或一幅油畫。
The pointer always came that way, with a view to the Stock Exchange, where a sporting taste (originating generally in bets of new hats) is much in vogue. The other commodities were addressed to the general public; but they were never offered by the vendors to Mr Dombey. When he appeared, the dealers in those wares fell off respectfully. The principal slipper and dogs' collar man - who considered himself a public character, and whose portrait was screwed on to an artist's door in Cheapside - threw up his forefinger to the brim of his hat as Mr Dombey went by. The ticket-porter, if he were not absent on a job, always ran officiously before, to open Mr Dombey's office door as wide as possible, and hold it open, with his hat off, while he entered.
指示獵物的獵狗經常在那里出現，是考慮到證券交易所的人們可能對它會有興趣，因為證券交易所里對運動的愛好很時興（通常最早是從對新奇事物的打賭開始的）。其他的商品面向一般公眾，但商販們從來沒有向董貝先生兜售過它們。當他出現的時候，出售這些貨物的商人們都恭恭敬敬地向后退縮。當董貝先生走過的時候，拖鞋與狗的頸圈的主要商人把食指舉到帽邊行禮（這位商人認為自己是一位公眾活動家，他的畫像被釘在切普賽德街②）。搬運員如果當時不是因事不在的話，總是殷勤地跑到前面去把董貝先生營業所辦公室的門盡量開得大大的；當董貝先生進門的時候，他脫下帽子，把門按住。
The clerks within were not a whit behind-hand in their demonstrations of respect. A solemn hush prevailed, as Mr Dombey passed through the outer office. The wit of the Counting-House became in a moment as mute as the row of leathern fire-buckets hanging up behind him. Such vapid and flat daylight as filtered through the ground-glass windows and skylights, leaving a black sediment upon the panes, showed the books and papers, and the figures bending over them, enveloped in a studious gloom, and as much abstracted in appearance, from the world without, as if they were assembled at the bottom of the sea; while a mouldy little strong room in the obscure perspective, where a shaded lamp was always burning, might have represented the cavern of some ocean monster, looking on with a red eye at these mysteries of the deep.
辦公室里的職員們在顯示敬意上絲毫也不遜色。當董貝先生走過最外面的一間辦公室時，房間里一片肅靜。會計室里那位富有機智、好說俏皮話的人片刻間就像掛在他后面的一排皮制的消防桶一樣默不作聲。通過毛玻璃窗與天窗滲透進來的日光缺乏生氣，暗淡無力，在玻璃上面留下了一個黑色的沉淀物；它照出了帳冊、票據以及低頭彎腰坐在它們前面的人們的身影，他們被一片勤勉而陰郁的氣氛籠罩著，從外表看來，他們與外界完全隔絕，仿佛是聚集在海底似的；幽暗的走廊盡頭的一間生了霉的小金庫（那里老是點著一盞燈）則可以代表某個海中妖怪的洞穴，那妖怪用一只紅眼睛看著海底深處的這些神秘事物。
它的后腦殼）。
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①溫莎（Windsor）：英國城市。
②切普賽德街（Cheapside）：倫敦中部東西向的大街，古時為鬧市。
文本來源于在線英文小說網
