Mr Toots, seeing Florence in tears, had great difficulty in getting beyond this point, and had nearly tumbled into the well again. But a chucKle saved him on the brink.
圖茨先生看到弗洛倫斯眼淚汪汪,覺得再說下去非常困難,幾乎又要滾進井里去了。可是吃吃的一笑把他從井邊救住了。
'I say,' he proceeded, 'Miss Dombey! I could have had him stolen for ten shillings, if they hadn't given him up: and I would: but they were glad to get rid of him, I think. If you'd like to have him, he's at the door. I brought him on purpose for you. He ain't a lady's dog, you know,' said Mr Toots, 'but you won't mind that, will you?'
“我說,”他繼續說道,“董貝小姐!如果他們當時舍不得把他拋棄,我也會出十先令把他給偷出來的,我會的,不過我想,他們當時很高興把他給打發掉。如果您愿意要他的話,那么他就在門口。我是特意把他帶來給您的。您知道,他不是貴婦人養的那種狗。”圖茨先生說,“不過,您不會介意吧,是不是?”
In fact, Diogenes was at that moment, as they presently ascertained from looking down into the street, staring through the window of a hackney cabriolet, into which, for conveyance to that spot, he had been ensnared, on a false pretence of rats among the straw. Sooth to say, he was as unlike a lady's dog as might be; and in his gruff anxiety to get out, presented an appearance sufficiently unpromising, as he gave short yelps out of one side of his mouth, and overbalancing himself by the intensity of every one of those efforts, tumbled down into the straw, and then sprung panting up again, putting out his tongue, as if he had come express to a Dispensary to be examined for his health.
當他們往下面的街道上俯視時,立刻就確證了這個事實;實際上,戴奧吉尼斯這時正從一輛出租單馬篷車的窗口瞪眼往外瞧著;為了把他運到這個地方,他們曾經假裝稻草中間有耗子,用這個法子把他誘騙進這輛單馬篷車里。說實話,他絲毫也不像貴婦人養的狗;他急不可耐地想從車中掙脫出來,顯出一副很不討人喜愛的樣子;他歪著嘴,發出汪汪的短吠;由于每次用力過猛,身子失去平衡,就翻滾到稻草堆里,然后又氣喘吁吁地跳上來,吐出舌頭,仿佛他是特地到診療所來檢查身體似的。
But though Diogenes was as ridiculous a dog as one would meet with on a summer's day; a blundering, ill-favoured, clumsy, bullet-headed dog, continually acting on a wrong idea that there was an enemy in the neighbourhood, whom it was meritorious to bark at; and though he was far from good-tempered, and certainly was not clever, and had hair all over his eyes, and a comic nose, and an inconsistent tail, and a gruff voice; he was dearer to Florence, in virtue of that parting remembrance of him, and that request that he might be taken care of, than the most valuable and beautiful of his kind. So dear, indeed, was this same ugly Diogenes, and so welcome to her, that she took the jewelled hand of Mr Toots and kissed it in her gratitude. And when Diogenes, released, came tearing up the stairs and bouncing into the room (such a business as there was, first, to get him out of the cabriolet!), dived under all the furniture, and wound a long iron chain, that dangled from his neck, round legs of chairs and tables, and then tugged at it until his eyes became unnaturally visible, in consequence of their nearly starting out of his head; and when he growled at Mr Toots, who affected familiarity; and went pell-mell at Towlinson, morally convinced that he was the enemy whom he had barked at round the corner all his life and had never seen yet; Florence was as pleased with him as if he had been a miracle of discretion.
雖然戴奧吉尼斯是一條人們在夏天可以碰見的那種可笑的狗,一條跌跌撞撞跑著、外貌丑陋,四肢笨拙、圓頭圓腦的狗;他的行動老是根據一個錯誤的想法,就是鄰近有一個敵人,向他吠叫是值得贊揚的;雖然他決算不上脾氣好,也的確不聰明,頭毛垂遮著眼睛,鼻子滑稽可笑,尾巴忽左忽右地搖擺,聲音粗啞難聽;可是由于保羅在離開人世之前還惦記著他,還要求好好照料他,所以,對弗洛倫斯來說,他比他最高貴、最漂亮的同類都更為寶貴。確實,這個丑陋的戴奧吉尼斯對她是那么寶貴,那么深受歡迎,因此,她拉起圖茨先生佩帶寶石的手,滿懷感激地吻了吻它。戴奧吉尼斯釋放后飛奔上樓,蹦進房間(把他首先從篷車里弄出來,真是費了多大的工夫啊!),鉆到各種家具底下,把那條掛在他脖子下面、晃來晃去的長長的鐵鏈纏繞在桌子和椅子的腿上,然后拖曳著它,直到他那被蓬松的毛發遮蓋住的眼睛幾乎從眼窩里跳出來為止;他向著假裝跟他很親昵的圖茨先生咆哮,又向托林森猛撲過去,認定托林森就是他一生中從角落里對著狂吠而至今還沒見過面的敵人;弗洛倫斯喜歡他極了,仿佛他是挖空心思才能創造出的奇跡似的。