Mr. Knightley was to dine with them - rather against the inclination of Mr. Woodhouse, who did not like that any one should share with him in Isabella’s first day. —
Emma’s sense of right however had decided it; —
and besides the consideration of what was due to each brother, she had particular pleasure, from the circumstance of the late disagreement between Mr. Knightley and herself, in procuring him the proper invitation.
She hoped they might now become friends again. She thought it was time to make up. —
Making-up indeed would not do. She certainly had not been in the wrong, and he would never own that he had. —
Concession must be out of the question; but it was time to appear to forget that they had ever quarrelled; —
and she hoped it might rather assist the restoration of friendship, that when he came into the room she had one of the children with her - the youngest, a nice little girl about eight months old, who was now making her first visit to Hartfield, and very happy to be danced about in her aunt’s arms. —
It did assist; for though he began with grave looks and short questions, he was soon led on to talk of them all in the usual way, and to take the child out of her arms with all the unceremoniousness of perfect amity. —
Emma felt they were friends again; and the conviction giving her at first great satisfaction, and then a little sauciness, she could not help saying, as he was admiring the baby,
`What a comfort it is, that we think alike about our nephews and nieces. —
As to men and women, our opinions are sometimes very different; —
but with regard to these children, I observe we never disagree.’
`If you were as much guided by nature in your estimate of men and women, and as little under the power of fancy and whim in your dealings with them, as you are where these children are concerned, we might always think alike.’
`To be sure - our discordancies must always arise from my being in the wrong.’
Yes,' said he, smiling -
and reason good. I was sixteen years old when you were born.’
A material difference then,' she replied -
and no doubt you were much my superior in judgment at that period of our lives; —
but does not the lapse of one-and-twenty years bring our understandings a good deal nearer?’
`Yes - a good deal nearer.’
`But still, not near enough to give me a chance of being right, if we think differently.’
`I have still the advantage of you by sixteen years’ experience, and by not being a pretty young woman and a spoiled child. —
Come, my dear Emma, let us be friends, and say no more about it. —
Tell your aunt, little Emma, that she ought to set you a better example than to be renewing old grievances, and that if she were not wrong before, she is now.’
That's true,' she cried -
very true. Little Emma, grow up a better woman than your aunt. —
Be infinitely cleverer and not half so conceited. —
Now, Mr. Knightley, a word or two more, and I have done. —
As far as good intentions went, we were both right, and I must say that no effects on my side of the argument have yet proved wrong. —
I only want to know that Mr. Martin is not very, very bitterly disappointed.’
`A man cannot be more so,’ was his short, full answer.
`Ah! - Indeed I am very sorry. - Come, shake hands with me.’
This had just taken place and with great cordiality, when John Knightley made his appearance, and `How d’ye do, George?’ —
and `John, how are you?’ succeeded in the true English style, burying under a calmness that seemed all but indifference, the real attachment which would have led either of them, if requisite, to do every thing for the good of the other.
The evening was quiet and conversable, as Mr. Woodhouse declined cards entirely for the sake of comfortable talk with his dear Isabella, and the little party made two natural divisions; —
on one side he and his daughter; on the other the two Mr. Knightleys; —
their subjects totally distinct, or very rarely mixing - and Emma only occasionally joining in one or the other.
The brothers talked of their own concerns and pursuits, but principally of those of the elder, whose temper was by much the most communicative, and who was always the greater talker. —
As a magistrate, he had generally some point of law to consult John about, or, at least, some curious anecdote to give; —
and as a farmer, as keeping in hand the home-farm at Donwell, he had to tell what every field was to bear next year, and to give all such local information as could not fail of being interesting to a brother whose home it had equally been the longest part of his life, and whose attachments were strong. —
The plan of a drain, the change of a fence, the felling of a tree, and the destination of every acre for wheat, turnips, or spring corn, was entered into with as much equality of interest by John, as his cooler manners rendered possible; —
and if his willing brother ever left him any thing to inquire about, his inquiries even approached a tone of eagerness.
While they were thus comfortably occupied, Mr. Woodhouse was enjoying a full flow of happy regrets and fearful affection with his daughter.
My poor dear Isabella,' said he, fondly taking her hand, and interrupting, for a few moments, her busy labours for some one of her five children -
How long it is, how terribly long since you were here! —
And how tired you must be after your journey! —
You must go to bed early, my dear - and I recommend a little gruel to you before you go. —
- You and I will have a nice basin of gruel together. —
- 你和我一起吃一碗好羹。 —
My dear Emma, suppose we all have a little gruel.’
Emma could not suppose any such thing, knowing as she did, that both the Mr. Knightleys were as unpersuadable on that article as herself; —
- and two basins only were ordered. After a little more discourse in praise of gruel, with some wondering at its not being taken every evening by every body, he proceeded to say, with an air of grave reflection,
只点了两碗。在更多对粥的赞美中,一些人对为什么不是每个晚上每个人都喝粥感到惊讶,他接着以一种严肃的反思态度说道,
`It was an awkward business, my dear, your spending the autumn at South End instead of coming here. —
I never had much opinion of the sea air.’
`Mr. Wingfield most strenuously recommended it, sir - or we should not have gone. —
He recommended it for all the children, but particularly for the weakness in little Bella’s throat, - both sea air and bathing.’
`Ah! my dear, but Perry had many doubts about the sea doing her any good; —
and as to myself, I have been long perfectly convinced, though perhaps I never told you so before, that the sea is very rarely of use to any body. —
I am sure it almost killed me once.’
Come, come,' cried Emma, feeling this to be an unsafe subject,
I must beg you not to talk of the sea. —
It makes me envious and miserable; - I who have never seen it! —
South End is prohibited, if you please. My dear Isabella, I have not heard you make one inquiry about Mr. Perry yet; —
and he never forgets you.’
`Oh! good Mr. Perry - how is he, sir?’
`Why, pretty well; but not quite well. Poor Perry is bilious, and he has not time to take care of himself - he tells me he has not time to take care of himself - which is very sad - but he is always wanted all round the country. —
I suppose there is not a man in such practice anywhere. —
But then there is not so clever a man any where.’
And Mrs. Perry and the children, how are they? do the children grow? ---
<span><tang1>
佩里夫人和孩子们,他们怎么样?孩子们长大了吗? —
I have a great regard for Mr. Perry. I hope he will be calling soon. —
He will be so pleased to see my little ones.’
I hope he will be here to-morrow, for I have a question or two to ask him about myself of some consequence. ---
<span><tang1>
我希望他明天能来,因为我有一两个问题要问他,关于我自己很重要。 —
And, my dear, whenever he comes, you had better let him look at little Bella’s throat.’
Oh! my dear sir, her throat is so much better that I have hardly any uneasiness about it. ---
<span><tang1>
哦!亲爱的先生,她的嗓子好多了,我几乎不再担心了。 —
Either bathing has been of the greatest service to her, or else it is to be attributed to an excellent embrocation of Mr. Wingfield’s, which we have been applying at times ever since August.’
It is not very likely, my dear, that bathing should have been of use to her - and if I had known you were wanting an embrocation, I would have spoken to -
<span><tang1>
亲爱的,泡澡对她有好处的可能性不大 - 如果我知道你需要一种药膏,我会提起的 -
You seem to me to have forgotten Mrs. and Miss Bates,' said Emma,
I have not heard one inquiry after them.’
你似乎忘了贝茨夫人和贝茨小姐,'艾玛说,
我没听到你对她们的询问。’
Oh! the good Bateses - I am quite ashamed of myself - but you mention them in most of your letters. ---
<span><tang1>
哦!好贝茨一家人 - 我真为自己感到羞愧 - 但你在大多数信中都提到他们。 —
I hope they are quite well. Good old Mrs. Bates - I will call upon her to-morrow, and take my children. —
They are always so pleased to see my children. —
- 他们看到我的孩子们总是那么高兴。 — And that excellent Miss Bates! - such thorough worthy people! —
- 还有那位优秀的贝茨小姐! - 那么真诚可靠的人们! — How are they, sir?’
- 他们怎么样,先生?
Why, pretty well, my dear, upon the whole. But poor Mrs. Bates had a bad cold about a month ago.'
<span><tang1>
嗯,总体来说,亲爱的,他们还不错。但可怜的贝茨夫人大约一个月前感冒了。
How sorry I am! But colds were never so prevalent as they have been this autumn. ---
<span><tang1>
我感到很遗憾!但感冒在这个秋天从未像现在这样盛行。 —
Mr. Wingfield told me that he has never known them more general or heavy - except when it has been quite an influenza.’
That has been a good deal the case, my dear; but not to the degree you mention. ---
<span><tang1>
亲爱的,状况远没有你说的那么严重。 —
Perry says that colds have been very general, but not so heavy as he has very often known them in November. —
Perry does not call it altogether a sickly season.’
No, I do not know that Mr. Wingfield considers it very sickly except -
<span><tang1>
不,我不知道温菲尔德先生认为这是一个非常病态的季节,除非 -
Ah! my poor dear child, the truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. ---
<span><tang1>
啊!我可怜的孩子,事实是,在伦敦总是病态的季节。 —
Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be. —
It is a dreadful thing to have you forced to live there! —
so far off! - and the air so bad!’
No, indeed - we are not at all in a bad air. Our part of London is very superior to most others! ---
<span><tang1>
不,实际上-我们的空气并不糟糕。我们伦敦的这一区比大多数其他地方要好得多! —
- You must not confound us with London in general, my dear sir. —
- 你不应该把我们和伦敦一般相混淆,我亲爱的先生。 —
The neighbourhood of Brunswick Square is very different from almost all the rest. —
We are so very airy! I should be unwilling, I own, to live in any other part of the town; —
- there is hardly any other that I could be satisfied to have my children in: —
- 几乎没有其他地方我能满足让我的孩子们在那里生活: —
but we are so remarkably airy! - Mr. Wingfield thinks the vicinity of Brunswick Square decidedly the most favourable as to air.’
`Ah! my dear, it is not like Hartfield. You make the best of it - but after you have been a week at Hartfield, you are all of you different creatures; —
you do not look like the same. Now I cannot say, that I think you are any of you looking well at present.’
`I am sorry to hear you say so, sir; but I assure you, excepting those little nervous head-aches and palpitations which I am never entirely free from anywhere, I am quite well myself; —
and if the children were rather pale before they went to bed, it was only because they were a little more tired than usual, from their journey and the happiness of coming. —
I hope you will think better of their looks to-morrow; —
for I assure you Mr. Wingfield told me, that he did not believe he had ever sent us off altogether, in such good case. —
I trust, at least, that you do not think Mr. Knightley looking ill,’ turning her eyes with affectionate anxiety towards her husband.
Middling, my dear; I cannot compliment you. I think Mr. John Knightley very far from looking well.'
<span><tang1>
还好吧,亲爱的;我不能夸奖你。我认为约翰·奈特利先生看起来远非健康。
What is the matter, sir? - Did you speak to me?' cried Mr. John Knightley, hearing his own name.
<span><tang1>
怎么了,先生?-你在和我说话吗?’听到自己的名字,约翰·奈特利先生喊道。
I am sorry to find, my love, that my father does not think you looking well - but I hope it is only from being a little fatigued. ---
<span><tang1>
我很抱歉发现,亲爱的,我的父亲认为你看起来不太好-但我希望这只是有点疲劳。 —
I could have wished, however, as you know, that you had seen Mr. Wingfield before you left home.’
My dear Isabella,' - exclaimed he hastily -
pray do not concern yourself about my looks. —
Be satisfied with doctoring and coddling yourself and the children, and let me look as I chuse.’
I did not thoroughly understand what you were telling your brother,' cried Emma,
about your friend Mr. Graham’s intending to have a bailiff from Scotland, to look after his new estate. —
我没有完全明白你告诉你兄弟的话,'艾玛喊道,
关于你的朋友格雷厄姆先生打算请一个苏格兰看守来照看他的新庄园。 —
What will it answer? Will not the old prejudice be too strong?’
And she talked in this way so long and successfully that, when forced to give her attention again to her father and sister, she had nothing worse to hear than Isabella’s kind inquiry after Jane Fairfax; —
and Jane Fairfax, though no great favourite with her in general, she was at that moment very happy to assist in praising.
That sweet, amiable Jane Fairfax!' said Mrs. John Knightley. ---
<span><tang1>
那位可爱、和蔼的简·费尔法克斯!’约翰·奈特利太太说。 —
It is so long since I have seen her, except now and then for a moment accidentally in town! --- <span><tang1>-
自从我在城里偶然见到她以外,我很久没有见到她了! —
What happiness it must be to her good old grandmother and excellent aunt, when she comes to visit them! —
I always regret excessively on dear Emma’s account that she cannot be more at Highbury; —
but now their daughter is married, I suppose Colonel and Mrs. Campbell will not be able to part with her at all. —
She would be such a delightful companion for Emma.’
Mr. Woodhouse agreed to it all, but added,
Our little friend Harriet Smith, however, is just such another pretty kind of young person. ---
<span><tang1>
我们的小友人哈里特·史密斯,不过正是另一种漂亮善良的年轻人。 —
You will like Harriet. Emma could not have a better companion than Harriet.’
I am most happy to hear it - but only Jane Fairfax one knows to be so very accomplished and superior! ---
<span><tang1>
我听到这个消息非常高兴 - 但只有简·费尔法克斯被人们知道是如此之有才华和出色! —
- and exactly Emma’s age.’
- 而且正是与艾玛同岁。
This topic was discussed very happily, and others succeeded of similar moment, and passed away with similar harmony; —
but the evening did not close without a little return of agitation. —
The gruel came and supplied a great deal to be said - much praise and many comments - undoubting decision of its wholesomeness for every constitution, and pretty severe Philippics upon the many houses where it was never met with tolerable; —
- but, unfortunately, among the failures which the daughter had to instance, the most recent, and therefore most prominent, was in her own cook at South End, a young woman hired for the time, who never had been able to understand what she meant by a basin of nice smooth gruel, thin, but not too thin. —
- 但不幸的是,在女儿必须举例的失败中,最近且最显著的是她在南安德的厨师,一个临时雇用的年轻女人,从来就不能理解她所说的一碗美味顺滑,稀薄但不要太稀薄。 —
Often as she had wished for and ordered it, she had never been able to get any thing tolerable. —
Here was a dangerous opening.
`Ah!’ said Mr. Woodhouse, shaking his head and fixing his eyes on her with tender concern. —
- The ejaculation in Emma’s ear expressed, `Ah! —
“啊!”埃玛耳边传来这句感叹。 —
there is no end of the sad consequences of your going to South End. It does not bear talking of.’ —
And for a little while she hoped he would not talk of it, and that a silent rumination might suffice to restore him to the relish of his own smooth gruel. —
After an interval of some minutes, however, he began with,
`I shall always be very sorry that you went to the sea this autumn, instead of coming here.’
`But why should you be sorry, sir? - I assure you, it did the children a great deal of good.’
`And, moreover, if you must go to the sea, it had better not have been to South End. South End is an unhealthy place. —
Perry was surprized to hear you had fixed upon South End.’
`I know there is such an idea with many people, but indeed it is quite a mistake, sir. —
- We all had our health perfectly well there, never found the least inconvenience from the mud; —
我们在那里身体完全健康,从来没有因泥泞而感到不便; —
and Mr. Wingfield says it is entirely a mistake to suppose the place unhealthy; —
and I am sure he may be depended on, for he thoroughly understands the nature of the air, and his own brother and family have been there repeatedly.’
`You should have gone to Cromer, my dear, if you went anywhere. —
- Perry was a week at Cromer once, and he holds it to be the best of all the sea-bathing places. —
佩里曾经在克罗黙待过一个星期,他认为那是所有海滨浴场中最好的地方。 —
A fine open sea, he says, and very pure air. —
And, by what I understand, you might have had lodgings there quite away from the sea - a quarter of a mile off - very comfortable. —
You should have consulted Perry.’
`But, my dear sir, the difference of the journey; —
only consider how great it would have been. —
仅仅考虑一下会有多大的区别。 — An hundred miles, perhaps, instead of forty.’
或许是一百英里,而不是四十英里。”
`Ah! my dear, as Perry says, where health is at stake, nothing else should be considered; —
and if one is to travel, there is not much to chuse between forty miles and an hundred. —
- Better not move at all, better stay in London altogether than travel forty miles to get into a worse air. —
宁愿根本不动,宁愿完全留在伦敦,也不愿意走四十英里去进入更糟糕的空气之中。 —
This is just what Perry said. It seemed to him a very ill-judged measure.’
Emma’s attempts to stop her father had been vain; —
and when he had reached such a point as this, she could not wonder at her brother-in-law’s breaking out.
Mr. Perry,' said he, in a voice of very strong displeasure,
would do as well to keep his opinion till it is asked for. —
Why does he make it any business of his, to wonder at what I do? —
at my taking my family to one part of the coast or another? —
我带着家人去海岸的某个地方,他管得着吗?” — I may be allowed, I hope, the use of my judgment as well as Mr. Perry. - I want his directions no more than his drugs.’ —
- 希望我也被允许利用我的判断力,就像允许佩里先生一样。- 我需要的不仅是他的指示,也需要他的药物。 —
He paused - and growing cooler in a moment, added, with only sarcastic dryness, If Mr. Perry can tell me how to convey a wife and five children a distance of an hundred and thirty miles with no greater expense or inconvenience than a distance of forty, I should be as willing to prefer Cromer to South End as he could himself.'
<span><tang1>他停顿了一下,随即冷静下来,带着讽刺的干燥说道,
如果佩里先生能告诉我如何用比四十英里更少的费用和不便,把妻子和五个孩子送到一百三十英里之外,我会和他一样乐意选择克罗默而不是南安。
True, true,' cried Mr. Knightley, with most ready interposition -
very true. —
真的,真的,'奈特利先生立刻插话道,
非常正确。 —
That’s a consideration indeed. - But John, as to what I was telling you of my idea of moving the path to Langham, of turning it more to the right that it may not cut through the home meadows, I cannot conceive any difficulty. —
I should not attempt it, if it were to be the means of inconvenience to the Highbury people, but if you call to mind exactly the present line of the path. —
… The only way of proving it, however, will be to turn to our maps. —
I shall see you at the Abbey to-morrow morning I hope, and then we will look them over, and you shall give me your opinion.’
Mr. Woodhouse was rather agitated by such harsh reflections on his friend Perry, to whom he had, in fact, though unconsciously, been attributing many of his own feelings and expressions; —
- but the soothing attentions of his daughters gradually removed the present evil, and the immediate alertness of one brother, and better recollections of the other, prevented any renewal of it.
- 但女儿们的安慰渐渐消除了目前的不快,其中一位兄弟的及时警觉和另一位兄弟的更好回忆阻止了任何的重燃。