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这个消息使我心里充满了新的恐惧,我跑到肯尼兹前面,差不多是一路跑回来。小狗还在花园里狺狺叫着。我腾出一分钟的时间好给它开门,可它不进去,却来回在草地上嗅,如果我不把它抓住,把它带进去的话,它还要溜到大路上去呢。我一上楼走到伊莎贝拉的房间里,我的疑虑就证实了:那里没有人。我要是早来一两个钟头,林惇夫人的病也许会阻止她这莽撞的行动。可是现在还能作什么呢?如果我立刻去追,也不见得追上他们。无论如何,我不能追他们。而且我也不敢惊动全家,把大家搞得惊慌失措;更不敢把这件事向我的主人揭露,他正沉浸在他目前的灾难里,经受不住又一次的悲痛了!我看不出有什么法子,除了不吭声,而且听其自然;肯尼兹到了,我带着一副难看的神色去为他通报。凯瑟琳正在不安心的睡眠中:她的丈夫已经平静了她那过分的狂乱,他现在俯在她枕上,瞅着她那带着痛苦表情的脸上的每一个阴影和每一个变化。 The doctor, on examining the case for himself, spoke hopefully to him of its having a favourable termination, if we could only preserve around her perfect and constant tranquillity. To me, he signified the threatening danger was not so much death, as permanent alienation of intellect. 医生亲自检查病状后,抱有希望地跟他说,只要我们能在她四周继续保持完全的平静,这病可以见好。但他向我预示,这面临的危险与其说是死亡,倒不如说是永久的精神错乱。 I did not close my eyes that night, nor did Mr. Linton: indeed, we never went to bed; and the servants were all up long before the usual hour, moving through the house with stealthy tread, and exchanging whispers as they encountered each other in their vocations. Every one was active but Miss Isabella; and they began to remark how sound she slept: her brother, too, asked if she had risen, and seemed impatient for her presence, and hurt that she showed so little anxiety for her sister-in-law. I trembled lest he should send me to call her; but I was spared the pain of being the first proclaimant of her flight. One of the maids, a thoughtless girl, who had been on an early errand to Gimmerton, came panting up-stairs, open-mouthed, and dashed into the chamber, crying: 'Oh, dear, dear! What mun we have next? Master, master, our young lady - ' 那一夜我没合眼,林惇先生也没有。的确,我们根本没上床。仆人们都比平常起得早多了,他们在家里悄悄地走动着,他们在做事时碰到一起,就低声交谈。除了伊莎贝拉小姐,每个人都在活动着。他们开始说起她睡得真香。她哥哥也问她起来了没有,仿佛很急于要她在场,而且仿佛挺伤心,因为她对她嫂嫂表现得如此不关心。我直发抖,唯恐他差我去叫她。可是我倒免掉作第一个宣告她的私逃的人这场痛苦了。有一个女仆,一个轻率的姑娘,一早就被差遣到吉默吞去,这时大口喘着气跑上楼,冲到卧房里来,喊着: “啊,不得了,不得了啦!我们还要闹出什么乱子啊?主人主人,我们小姐--” 'Hold your noise!' cried, I hastily, enraged at her clamorous manner. “别吵!”我赶忙叫,对她那嚷嚷劲儿大为愤怒。 'Speak lower, Mary - What is the matter?' said Mr. Linton. 'What ails your young lady?' “低声点,玛丽--怎么回事?”林惇先生说,“你们小姐怎么啦?” 
“她走啦,她走啦!那个希刺克厉夫带她跑啦!”这姑娘喘着说。 'That is not true!' exclaimed Linton, rising in agitation. 'It cannot be: how has the idea entered your head? Ellen Dean, go and seek her. It is incredible: it cannot be.' “那不会是真的!”林惇叫着,激动地站起来了。“不可能是真的。你脑子里怎么会有这种想法?丁艾伦,去找她。这是没法相信的:不可能。” As he spoke he took the servant to the door, and then repeated his demand to know her reasons for such an assertion. 他一面说着,一面把那仆人带到门口,又反复问她有什么理由说出这种话来。 'Why, I met on the road a lad that fetches milk here,' she stammered, 'and he asked whether we weren't in trouble at the Grange. I thought he meant for missis's sickness, so I answered, yes. Then says he, "There's somebody gone after 'em, I guess?" I stared. He saw I knew nought about it, and he told how a gentleman and lady had stopped to have a horse's shoe fastened at a blacksmith's shop, two miles out of Gimmerton, not very long after midnight! and how the blacksmith's lass had got up to spy who they were: she knew them both directly. And she noticed the man - Heathcliff it was, she felt certain: nob'dy could mistake him, besides - put a sovereign in her father's hand for payment. The lady had a cloak about her face; but having desired a sup of water, while she drank it fell back, and she saw her very plain. Heathcliff held both bridles as they rode on, and they set their faces from the village, and went as fast as the rough roads would let them. The lass said nothing to her father, but she told it all over Gimmerton this morning.' “唉,我在路上遇见一个到这儿取牛奶的孩子,”她结结巴巴地说,“他问我们田庄里是不是出了乱子。我以为他是指太太的病,所以我就回答说,是啊。他就说,‘我猜想有人追他们去了吧?’我愣住了。他看出我根本不知道那事,他就告诉我过了半夜没多久,有位先生和一位小姐怎么在离吉默吞两英里远的一个铁匠铺那儿钉马掌!又是怎么那铁匠的姑娘起来偷偷看他们是谁:她马上认出他们来了。她注意到这人--那是希刺克厉夫,她拿得准一定是:没有人会认错他,而且--他还付了一个金镑,把它交在父亲手里。那位小姐用斗篷遮着脸;可是她想要喝水的时候,斗篷掉在后面,她把她看得清清楚楚。他们骑马向前走,希刺克厉夫抓住两只马的缰绳,他们掉脸离开村子走了,而且在粗糙不平的路上尽量能跑多快就跑多快。那姑娘倒没跟她父亲说,可是今天早上,她把这事传遍了吉默吞。” I ran and peeped, for form's sake, into Isabella's room; confirming, when I returned, the servant's statement. Mr. Linton had resumed his seat by the bed; on my re-entrance, he raised his eyes, read the meaning of my blank aspect, and dropped them without giving an order, or uttering a word. 为了表面上敷衍一下,我跑去望望伊莎贝拉的屋子;当我回来时,便证实了这仆人的话。林惇先生坐在床边他的椅子上。我一进来,他抬起眼睛,从我呆呆的神色中看出了意思,便垂下眼睛,没有吩咐什么,也没有说一个字。 
“我们是不是要想法追她回来呢?”我询问着。“我们怎么办呢?” 'She went of her own accord,' answered the master; 'she had a right to go if she pleased. Trouble me no more about her. Hereafter she is only my sister in name: not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me.' “她是自己要走的,”主人回答,“她有权爱上哪儿,就可以上哪儿。不要再拿她的事烦我吧。从今以后她只有在名份上是我的妹妹;倒不是我不认她,是因为她不认我。” And that was all he said on the subject: he did not make single inquiry further, or mention her in any way, except directing me to send what property she had in the house to her fresh home, wherever it was, when I knew it. 那就是关于这事他说的所有的话:他没有再多问一句,怎么也没提过她,除了命令我,等我知道她的新家时,不管是在哪儿,要把她在家里的所有东西都给她送去。 FOR two months the fugitives remained absent; in those two months, Mrs. Linton encountered and conquered the worst shock of what was denominated a brain fever. No mother could have nursed an only child more devotedly than Edgar tended her. Day and night he was watching, and patiently enduring all the annoyances that irritable nerves and a shaken reason could inflict; and, though Kenneth remarked that what he saved from the grave would only recompense his care by forming the source of constant future anxiety - in fact, that his health and strength were being sacrificed to preserve a mere ruin of humanity - he knew no limits in gratitude and joy when Catherine's life was declared out of danger; and hour after hour he would sit beside her, tracing the gradual return to bodily health, and flattering his too sanguine hopes with the illusion that her mind would settle back to its right balance also, and she would soon be entirely her former self. 两个月以来逃亡的人不见踪影。在这两个月里,林惇夫人受到了而且也克服了所谓脑膜炎的最厉害的冲击。任何一个母亲看护自己的独生子也不能比埃德加照料她更为尽心。日日夜夜,他守着,耐心地忍受着精神混乱与丧失理性的人所能给予的一切麻烦;虽然肯尼兹说他从坟墓中救出来的人日后反而成为使他经常焦虑的根源,--事实上,他牺牲了健康和精力不过是保住了一个废人--当凯瑟琳被宣告脱离生命危险时,他的感激和欢乐是无限的;他一小时一小时地坐在她旁边,看着她的健康渐渐恢复,而且幻想她的心理也会恢复平衡,不久就会完全和她以前本人一样。他就靠这个幻想使他那过于乐观的希望得到安慰。 The first time she left her chamber was at the commencement of the following March. Mr. Linton had put on her pillow, in the morning, a handful of golden crocuses; her eye, long stranger to any gleam of pleasure, caught them in waking, and shone delighted as she gathered them eagerly together. 她第一次离开卧房是在那年三月初。早上,林惇先生在她枕上放一束金色的藏红花。她已经有好久不习惯一点欢乐的光辉,当她醒来一看见这些花,就兴高采烈地把它们拢在一起,眼睛放出愉快的光彩。 
“这些是山庄上开得最早的花,”她叫。“它们使我想起轻柔的暖风,和煦的阳光,还有快融化的雪。埃德加,外面有南风没有,雪是不是快化完啦?” 'The snow is quite gone down here, darling,' replied her husband; 'and I only see two white spots on the whole range of moors: the sky is blue, and the larks are singing, and the becks and brooks are all brim full. Catherine, last spring at this time, I was longing to have you under this roof; now, I wish you were a mile or two up those hills: the air blows so sweetly, I feel that it would cure you.' “这儿的雪差不多全化完了,亲爱的,”她的丈夫回答。 “在整个旷野上我只能看见两个白点:天是蓝的,百灵在歌唱,小河小溪都涨满了水。凯瑟琳,去年春天这时候,我正在渴望着你到这个房子里来;现在,我却希望你到一两哩路外的那些山庄上去:风吹得这么惬意,我觉得这可以医好你的病。”
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