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Chapter 18 Father and Daughter
第十八章 父親和女兒
There is a hush through Mr Dombey's house. Servants gliding up and down stairs rustle, but make no sound of footsteps. They talk together constantly, and sit long at meals, making much of their meat and drink, and enjoying themselves after a grim unholy fashion. Mrs Wickam, with her eyes suffused with tears, relates melancholy anecdotes; and tells them how she always said at Mrs Pipchin's that it would be so, and takes more table-ale than usual, and is very sorry but sociable. Cook's state of mind is similar. She promises a little fry for supper, and struggles about equally against her feelings and the onions. Towlinson begins to think there's a fate in it, and wants to know if anybody can tell him ofany good that ever came of living in a corner house. It seems to all of them as having happened a long time ago; though yet the child lies, calm and beautiful, upon his little bed.
董貝先生的公館中一片寂靜。仆人們躡手躡腳地、窸窸窣窣地上樓、下樓，不讓腳步發出響聲。他們聚在一起沒完沒了地聊天，長時間地坐著用餐，盡情吃喝，仿照那種冷酷無情、不信鬼神的習俗來享受樂趣。威肯姆大嫂眼淚汪汪，敘述著憂傷的往事；她跟他們說，她在皮普欽太太那里就經常說，將來會發生這樣的結果；餐桌上的濃啤酒她比平時喝得更多；她很憂愁，但愛和人交談。廚娘的心情也相似。她答應晚餐做些油炸的食品，并作出同等的努力來克制自己的感傷和忍住洋蔥的氣味。托林森開始覺得這是命中注定；他希望有人能告訴他，居住在坐落于街道拐角的房屋里能有什么好處。他們全都覺得，這似乎是好久以前發生的事情了，雖然那孩子還依舊安安靜靜、漂漂亮亮地躺在他的小床上。
After dark there come some visitors—noiseless visitors, with shoes of felt—who have been there before; and with them comes that bed of rest which is so strange a one for infant sleepers. All this time, the bereaved father has not been seen even by his attendant; for he sits in an inner corner of his own dark room when anyone is there, and never seems to move at other times, except to pace it to and fro. But in the morning it is whispered among the household that he was heard to go upstairs in the dead night, and that he stayed there—in the room—until the sun was shining.
天黑以后來了幾個人，他們穿著氈鞋，默不作聲，以前就曾經到這里來過。隨著他們來的是一張安息的床，這是一張多么奇怪的給孩子睡眠的床啊！失去孩子的父親一直沒有露面，甚至連侍候他的仆人也一直見不到他；因為不論是誰進入他的黑暗的房間，他總是坐在最里面的一個角落里，除了來回踱步外，其他時間似乎就從來不曾移動過身體。可是家里的人們早上都在交頭接耳，竊竊私語說，他們聽到他深夜走上樓去，待在那里——待在房間里——，直到太陽升起為止。
At the offices in the City, the ground-glass windows are made more dim by shutters; and while the lighted lamps upon the desks are half extinguished by the day that wanders in, the day is half extinguished by the lamps, and an unusual gloom prevails. There is not much business done. The clerks are indisposed to work; and they make assignations to eat chops in the afternoon, and go up the river. Perch, the messenger, stays long upon his errands; and finds himself in bars of public-houses, invited thither by friends, and holding forth on the uncertainty of human affairs. He goes home to Ball's Pond earlier in the evening than usual, and treats Mrs Perch to a veal cutlet and Scotch ale. Mr Carker the Manager treats no one; neither is he treated; but alone in his own room he shows his teeth all day; and it would seem that there is something gone from Mr Carker's path—some obstacle removed—which clears his way before him.
在城里公司的辦公室里，由于關上百葉窗，毛玻璃的窗子更為暗淡；當辦公桌上的燈光被悄悄透進的亮光沖淡一半，而白天的亮光又被燈光沖淡一半時，房間里籠罩著一種不尋常的幽暗。沒有辦理多少業務。職員們不愿工作；他們約好下午出去吃排骨，并到河上游逛。信差珀奇磨磨蹭蹭地執行他的差事；他被朋友們邀請到酒吧，在那里高談闊論，感嘆人事的變化無常。晚上他比往常提早回到鮑爾斯池塘家里，請珀奇太太吃小牛肉片和喝蘇格蘭濃啤酒。經理卡克先生沒有宴請別人，也沒有別人宴請他，而是獨自待在自己的辦公室里，整天露著牙齒；似乎在卡克先生的道路上有個什么東西消失了——有個什么障礙被搬除了，他前面的道路已經被掃清了。
