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Chapter 17 Captain Cuttle does a little Business for the Young People
第十七章 卡特爾船長為年輕人做了一點事情
Captain Cuttle, in theexerciseof that surprising talent for deep-laid and unfathomable scheming, with which (as is not unusual in men of transparent simplicity) he sincerely believed himself to be endowed by nature, had gone to Mr Dombey's house on the eventful Sunday, winking all the way as a vent for his superfluous sagacity, and had presented himself in the full lustre of the ankle-jacks before the eyes of Towlinson. Hearing from that individual, to his great concern, of the impending calamity, Captain Cuttle, in his delicacy, sheered off again confounded; merely handing in the nosegay as a small mark of his solicitude, and leaving his respectful compliments for the family in general, which he accompanied with an expression of his hope that they would lay their heads well to the wind under existing circumstances, and a friendly intimation that he would 'look up again' to-morrow.
卡特爾船長運用他那驚人的、他真心自信是天賦的才能（就一個無比純樸的人來說，這倒并非異乎尋常），制訂出那個深奧莫測的計劃，在那個多事的星期天，前往董貝先生的公館；他一路上一直眨巴著眼睛，讓他那橫溢的才智有一個排泄的孔道；他腳上穿著那雙光耀奪目的短靴，就這樣出現在托林森的眼前?？ㄌ貭柎L從那人那里聽到了那即將來臨的災難，十分憂慮；由于他一向處事審慎，所以就驚慌失色地急忙“改變航向”，離開那里，而只遞進那個花束，表示他關懷的一點小小心意，還請托林森向全家人轉達他的敬意和問候，希望他們在當前的情況下堅強地頂住風，最后友好地暗示，他明天將“再來看看”。
The Captain's compliments were never heard of any more. The Captain's nosegay, after lying in the hall all night, was swept into the dust-bin next morning; and the Captain's sly arrangement, involved in one catastrophe with greater hopes and loftier designs, was crushed to pieces. So, when an avalanche bears down a mountain-forest, twigs and bushes suffer with the trees, and all perish together.
船長的問候再也沒有被人聽到。船長的花束在前廳里擱了一夜，第二天早晨就被掃進了垃圾箱；船長神機妙算的安排，連同那更為偉大的希望和更為崇高的計劃一道卷進了這場奇災大禍，如今已被徹底粉碎。因此，當雪崩沖毀山間的森林時，細枝和灌木也隨同大樹遭殃，全都蕩然無存。
When Walter returned home on the Sunday evening from his long walk, and its memorable close, he was too much occupied at first by the tidings he had to give them, and by the emotions naturally awakened in his breast by the scene through which he had passed, to observe either that his Uncle was evidently unacquainted with the intelligence the Captain had undertaken to impart, or that the Captain made signals with his hook, warning him to avoid the subject. Not that the Captain's signals were calculated to have proved very comprehensible, however attentively observed; for, like those Chinese sages who are said in their conferences to write certain learned words in the air that are wholly impossible of pronunciation, the Captain made such waves and flourishes as nobody without a previous knowledge of his mystery, would have been at all likely tounderstand.
沃爾特經過長距離的游逛和最后隨著發生的那些難忘的事情之后，星期天晚上回到家里時，最初一心一意想著他必須告訴他們的消息，并徹底沉浸在剛才經歷的情景在他心中自然喚起的情感之中，所以既沒有注意到他舅舅顯然還不知道船長答應通知的信息，也沒有注意到船長用鉤子向他打了個信號，提醒他不要提起這個話題。不過，不論如何聚精會神地觀察，船長的信號也不是很容易理解的；因為就像中國的圣人據說在開會時曾經寫過一些完全不能發音的艱澀高深的詞語一樣，船長那些龍飛鳳舞般的指指劃劃，誰要是事先不了解他的秘密，那是根本不可能看懂的。
