目 录 上一节 下一节 
卡西抬起了头,用那双洞悉一切的乌黑的大眼睛死死地盯着他说:"天啦!我怎么知道究竟是什么人呢?刚才,我还指望你能告诉我,唉!估计你也不知道。" With an oath, Legree struck at her with his riding-whip; but she glided to one side, and passed through the door, and looking back, said, "If you'll sleep in that room, you'll know all about it. Perhaps you'd better try it!" and then immediately she shut and locked the door. 听她这么说,烈格雷愤怒到了极点,他挥起马鞭朝她抽去。卡西机灵地往后一闪,马鞭落空了,她乘机溜进房门,调过头说道:"要想知道事情的真相,你最好自己睡到那间房里,西蒙!这样你能知道得一清二楚了。"说完,她迅速地关紧门,上了锁。 Legree blustered and swore, and threatened to break down the door; but apparently thought better of it, and walked uneasily into the sitting-room. Cassy perceived that her shaft had struck home; and, from that hour, with the most exquisite address, she never ceased to continue the train of influences she had begun. 烈格雷愤怒了,开始发了疯似地诅咒,还扬言要踢开房门。但是他并没有那么做,容易看出,经过细细地掂量,他已经放弃了这个念头。一会儿,他便闷闷不乐地走进了自己的房问。事实证明,卡西的想法是正确的。经过这件事以后,她又采用了一系列装神弄鬼的方法。不断加剧烈格雷的恐惧心理。 In a knot-hole of the garret, that had opened, she had inserted the neck of an old bottle, in such a manner that when there was the least wind, most doleful and lugubrious wailing sounds proceeded from it, which, in a high wind, increased to a perfect shriek, such as to credulous and superstitious ears might easily seem to be that of horror and despair. 她在阁楼迎风的墙头找到了一个洞眼,在里面塞进一个破瓶颈。一旦有风吹进瓶颈,它就会发出一种令人毛骨悚然的悲鸣声。刮大风的时候,这种悲鸣声会转变成鬼哭狼嚎的尖叫声。在那些愚昧、迷信和作恶的人耳中,这种声音像极了地狱之神索命的号召。 These sounds were, from time to time, heard by the servants, and revived in full force the memory of the old ghost legend. A superstitious creeping horror seemed to fill the house; and though no one dared to breathe it to Legree, he found himself encompassed by it, as by an atmosphere. 阁楼里闹鬼了,每当人们在听到这些恐怖声音的同时,他们便开始猜疑,时间长了,大家也不再怀疑从前那个鬼怪故事的可信度。于是这幢阁楼到处弥漫了一种恐怖的气氛,令人不寒而栗。尽管无人向烈格雷先生提及这件事情,他却感觉到自己无时不刻不被这种紧张的气氛包围着。 
世界上最迷信的人莫过于那些叛离上帝,诅咒神灵的人,基督徒们相信公正、慈祥、乐于赐人幸福的上帝存在,所以他们永远都保持着心止如水的平和心态,他们相信未知的世界充满了光明和正义。但对那些无视上帝存在,干坏事的人来说--正如一位名人所言,世界乃是"埋葬死人,到处黑暗的墓地"。根本毫无秩序可言,黑白之分。于是在那些不敬上帝的人看来,他们的周围都有可能是鬼怪出现的地方,阴森、可怕的妖魔会随时来向他们索命。 Legree had had the slumbering moral elements in him roused by his encounters with Tom,--roused, only to be resisted by the determinate force of evil; but still there was a thrill and commotion of the dark, inner world, produced by every word, or prayer, or hymn, that reacted in superstitious dread. 汤姆的正直,有一段时间悄悄地唤醒了烈格雷心中那沉睡已久的道德观。尽管潜在他内心深处的邪恶势力抵制着这种良心的发现,但汤姆的每一句祈祷,每一首赞美诗都使烈格雷从心里震惊和产生混乱。 The influence of Cassy over him was of a strange and singular kind. He was her owner, her tyrant and tormentor. She was, as he knew, wholly, and without any possibility of help or redress, in his hands; and yet so it is, that the most brutal man cannot live in constant association with a strong female influence, and not be greatly controlled by it. When he first bought her, she was, as she said, a woman delicately bred; and then he crushed her, without scruple, beneath the foot of his brutality. But, as time, and debasing influences, and despair, hardened womanhood within her, and waked the fires of fiercer passions, she had become in a measure his mistress, and he alternately tyrannized over and dreaded her. 卡西对烈格雷具有很大的影响力,虽然他是她的主人--她的暴君,是统治和奴虐她的人,他完全相信她被牢牢地掌握在自己的手中,不存在任何人的帮助和欲报复他的可能。可是人就是这样,即使是最凶狠最残暴的恶棍,如果他同一位很有影响力的女人生活在一起,不可否认他会在很大程度上受到这种影响力的感染和对她的防备。正如卡西说的,在他买下她之前,她还是一位受过良好教育和很有修养的女人,但他将她的感觉、感情置之度外,任意地践踏。她的身体不属于自己了,长时间受到精神和肉体上的摧残、蹂躏已经使她心身倍受沧桑。绝望之下,那颗原本仁慈善良的心渐渐地变得凶狠起来,心中慢慢燃烧起愤怒的火焰。因而,她在某些地方几乎成了他的主人。烈格雷欺凌她的同时也在心里害怕她。 This influence had become more harassing and decided, since partial insanity had given a strange, weird, unsettled cast to all her words and language. 卡西不太正常的表现,时时引起众人的怀疑。这使她所有的言谈举止都笼罩上一层神秘的色彩,深不可测。渐渐地,她对烈格雷的影响变得愈来愈明显,愈来愈不可思议了。 A night or two after this, Legree was sitting in the old sitting-room, by the side of a flickering wood fire, that threw uncertain glances round the room. It was a stormy, windy night, such as raises whole squadrons of nondescript noises in rickety old houses. Windows were rattling, shutters flapping, and wind carousing, rumbling, and tumbling down the chimney, and, every once in a while, puffing out smoke and ashes, as if a legion of spirits were coming after them. Legree had been casting up accounts and reading newspapers for some hours, while Cassy sat in the corner; sullenly looking into the fire. Legree laid down his paper, and seeing an old book lying on the table, which he had noticed Cassy reading, the first part of the evening, took it up, and began to turn it over. It was one of those collections of stories of bloody murders, ghostly legends, and supernatural visitations, which, coarsely got up and illustrated, have a strange fascination for one who once begins to read them. 两天后的一个晚上,烈格雷坐在那间破旧的起居室里,他的旁边放着一个火盆,里面燃烧着红红的炭火,火光照在房间里的每件东西上,映出各种飘忽不定的影子。窗外狂风怒吼,夹着倾盆大雨噼噼叭叭地打在屋顶上。在这样的夜晚,室内各种破败的东西常常会发出各种奇怪的声音,窗户吱吱响个不停,几扇百叶窗在风力的作用下嗒嗒作响。狂风夹着雨滴从屋顶的烟囱里直窜进来,卷起浓黑的烟尘,仿佛从天降下很多妖魔鬼怪似的。烈格雷在这间屋子里已经呆了几个小时,他整理了些旧账户,然后又读起了报纸。卡西则安静地端坐在墙角,幽幽寡欢地对着火光出神。接着,烈格雷放下了手中的报纸,一眼瞅见桌子上放着的一本旧书本--就是他以前看见卡西读过的那本书。他随手拿了起来,粗略地浏览了一遍。这是一本有关写鬼怪传说的故事书,里面有凶杀惨案,还有一些善有善报、恶有恶报的故事结局。里面附播各种恐怖、粗糙的图片。书本从印刷、装订、纸张等方面给人的感觉都是粗制滥造,极为简陋。但是它的故事情节却有一股无可推卸的吸引力,激起你继续读下去的欲望。 
烈格雷迅速地翻动书本,看了一页又一页,与此同时他发出"呸!""啐!"之声接连不断,过了一段时间,他突然扔掉了手中的书本,大吼一声。 "You don't believe in ghosts, do you, Cass?" said he, taking the tongs and settling the fire. "I thought you'd more sense than to let noises scare _you_."" 卡西,你不会相信世界上有鬼吧!"他用火钳拨火,吃惊地问道,"我一直认为你是一个胆大的女人,不会因一些奇怪的噪音而感到害怕。" "No matter what I believe," said Cassy, sullenly." 我信与不信,都和你没关系。"卡西冷言以对。 "Fellows used to try to frighten me with their yarns at sea," said Legree. "Never come it round me that way. I'm too tough for any such trash, tell ye."" 过去我在上海的一段时间里,有些老伙计们闲着没事,讲一些妖魔鬼怪的故事恐吓我。但是我从来都没有害怕过,我的胆子大着呢!"烈格雷又说道,"书上这些瞎编胡造的奇闻怪事我才不会害怕呢!" Cassy sat looking intensely at him in the shadow of the corner. There was that strange light in her eyes that always impressed Legree with uneasiness. 卡西一声不吭坐在墙角里,用眼睛狠狠地盯着他,暗淡的光线中,她的神形老让烈格雷感到莫名的惊慌。 
那些响声肯定是老鼠弄出来的,可恶的老鼠们总是爱在某个无人的角落里,弄出些奇怪的声音来。以前我在上海的时候,货舱里经常能听到这种声音,"烈格雷接着说,"还有风,无形的风或许也可能发出这种声音。天啊!你说风声有多奇怪,它就有多奇怪。" Cassy knew Legree was uneasy under her eyes, and, therefore, she made no answer, but sat fixing them on him, with that strange, unearthly expression, as before. 卡西已察觉出烈格雷那微妙的表情,早在自己的注视下惴惴不安了。因此她没有急着接腔,仍旧用那种神秘的眼睛死死地盯着他,像刚才一样。 "Come, speak out, woman,--don't you think so?" said Legree." 喂,你哑啦!干嘛不说话,你觉得我说的对吗?"烈格雷着急地问道。 "Can rats walk down stairs, and come walking through the entry, and open a door when you've locked it and set a chair against it?" said Cassy; "and come walk, walk, walking right up to your bed, and put out their hand, so?"" 你相信老鼠能跑下来,找到你的门口,打开一条你早已上了锁的大门吗?"卡西说,"然后再绕过抵在门后的椅子,慢慢地靠近你的床头,像我这样伸出魔鬼般的双手吗?" Cassy kept her glittering eyes fixed on Legree, as she spoke, and he stared at her like a man in the nightmare, till, when she finished by laying her hand, icy cold, on his, he sprung back, with an oath. 卡西说这话时,眼睛一眨不眨地凝望着烈格雷,形色尤为专注。他惊呆了,像做梦似地看着她。直到卡西说完后,突然用双手抓住他时,烈格雷才清醒过来,往后一退,忍不住大骂起来。 
你这蠢货!快给我说清楚,真的有这回事吗?" "O, no,--of course not,--did I say they did?" said Cassy, with a smile of chilling derision." 噢,如果没有,我会说有这回事吗?"卡西的脸上露出了胜利者的微笑。 "But--did--have you really seen?--Come, Cass, what is it, now,--speak out!"" 好了,卡西,你不要再逗圈子了,你真的亲眼看见过吗?快给我说说。" "You may sleep there, yourself," said Cassy, "if you want to know."" 要我说,如果你真想知道的话,自己何不在那间屋子里睡一个晚上呢!"卡西回答道。 "Did it come from the garret, Cassy?"" 卡西,你清楚它是从阁楼上下来的吗?"
|