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汤姆把头抬起来。谁见了这么一张快乐、年轻而又英俊的脸庞都会喜欢的。汤姆感到眼泪涌了出来，他真心地说："愿上帝保佑你，老爷！" "Well, I hope he will. What's your name? Tom? Quite as likely to do it for your asking as mine, from all accounts. Can you drive horses, Tom?"" 希望如此。你叫什么名字？汤姆？不管怎么样，你替我祈祷可能比我亲自祈祷会更灵验。你会赶马车吗，汤姆？" "I've been allays used to horses," said Tom. "Mas'r Shelby raised heaps of 'em."" 我一直跟马打交道。希尔比先生家里养了许多马。" "Well, I think I shall put you in coachy, on condition that you won't be drunk more than once a week, unless in cases of emergency, Tom."" 那你就替我赶马车吧。可是，汤姆，你一星期只能喝一次酒，多了可不成，除非有什么特殊的情况。" Tom looked surprised, and rather hurt, and said, "I never drink, Mas'r." 汤姆非常惊讶，感到他的自尊心受到了伤害，他说："我从不喝酒，老爷。" 
这种话我听过，我们走着瞧吧。如果你的确不喝酒，那对你我都方便。别介意，汤姆。"看见汤姆的脸色依旧很阴沉，年轻人又快活地说道，"我相信你肯定会好好干的。" "I sartin do, Mas'r," said Tom." 我一定会的，老爷。" "And you shall have good times," said Eva. "Papa is very good to everybody, only he always will laugh at them."" 你今后会过上好日子的，爸爸对谁都非常好，除了爱和人家开玩笑。"伊娃说道。 "Papa is much obliged to you for his recommendation," said St. Clare, laughing, as he turned on his heel and walked away. 圣克莱尔笑着说："爸爸对你的举荐表示谢意。"说完，转身就走开了。 CHAPTER XV 第十五章 
汤姆的新主人及其他 Since the thread of our humble hero's life has now become interwoven with that of higher ones, it is necessary to give some brief introduction to them. 既然我们的主人公的命运已经和一户高贵的人家联系在一块了，那么我们就有必要来对这户高贵的人家作点简要的介绍。 Augustine St. Clare was the son of a wealthy planter of Louisiana. The family had its origin in Canada. Of two brothers, very similar in temperament and character, one had settled on a flourishing farm in Vermont, and the other became an opulent planter in Louisiana. The mother of Augustine was a Huguenot French lady, whose family had emigrated to Louisiana during the days of its early settlement. Augustine and another brother were the only children of their parents. Having inherited from his mother an exceeding delicacy of constitution, he was, at the instance of physicians, during many years of his boyhood, sent to the care of his uncle in Vermont, in order that his constitution might, be strengthened by the cold of a more bracing climate. 奥古斯丁·圣克莱尔的父亲是路易斯安那州一个富有的庄园主，其祖辈是加拿大人。圣克莱尔的母亲是法国雨格诺教派的信徒，祖先刚到美洲来时，就在路易斯安那州定居下来。这对夫妇一生只有两个孩子。圣克莱尔的哥哥是弗蒙特州一个家道兴旺的农庄主，而圣克莱尔则是路易斯安那州一个富有的农庄主。由于受到母亲的遗传，奥古斯丁从小体质就不好，经常生病，于是遵照医生的建议，家里在他还是小孩子的时候，就把他送到弗蒙特州伯父家住了好几年，希望他在北方寒冷干爽的气候下，体质能够被锻炼得更强壮一些。 In childhood, he was remarkable for an extreme and marked sensitiveness of character, more akin to the softness of woman than the ordinary hardness of his own sex. Time, however, overgrew this softness with the rough bark of manhood, and but few knew how living and fresh it still lay at the core. His talents were of the very first order, although his mind showed a preference always for the ideal and the aesthetic, and there was about him that repugnance to the actual business of life which is the common result of this balance of the faculties. Soon after the completion of his college course, his whole nature was kindled into one intense and passionate effervescence of romantic passion. His hour came,--the hour that comes only once; his star rose in the horizon,--that star that rises so often in vain, to be remembered only as a thing of dreams; and it rose for him in vain. To drop the figure,--he saw and won the love of a high-minded and beautiful woman, in one of the northern states, and they were affianced. He returned south to make arrangements for their marriage, when, most unexpectedly, his letters were returned to him by mail, with a short note from her guardian, stating to him that ere this reached him the lady would be the wife of another. Stung to madness, he vainly hoped, as many another has done, to fling the whole thing from his heart by one desperate effort. Too proud to supplicate or seek explanation, he threw himself at once into a whirl of fashionable society, and in a fortnight from the time of the fatal letter was the accepted lover of the reigning belle of the season; and as soon as arrangements could be made, he became the husband of a fine figure, a pair of bright dark eyes, and a hundred thousand dollars; and, of course, everybody thought him a happy fellow. 奥古斯丁的气质具有女性般的温柔，优柔寡断，多愁善感，缺乏男性那种刚毅、果敢的劲儿。但随着岁月的流逝，这种偏女性的气质被掩藏在他那日益成熟、粗硬的外表下，因而很少有人知道，他的那种气质仍旧活在他的心灵深处。他崇尚理想主义和唯美主义，对日常生活琐事则感到十分厌烦，这是通过理智权衡后得出的必然结果。大学刚毕业那时，他的内心充满了强烈的浪漫主义激情。他生命中只降临一次的时刻来临了--他的命运之星在天际升起了--人们的命运之星经常是徒劳升起，到头来只是一场梦，仅仅在记忆中留下美好的回忆。在北方某州，他结识了一位漂亮、高贵的小姐，两人一见倾心，不久就许下终身。他于是返回南方的家中去筹备婚事。可出人意料的是，他写给那位小姐的信全部被退了回来，她的监护人还附寄了一张小纸条，说在他收到信之前，她已经嫁给别人了。在得知这一消息后，他的精神受到了极大的刺激，他很想学别人那样，将这件事完全忘掉，可结果却并非他所希望的那样。由于生性高傲，他不肯向对方寻求解释，不久之后，他便投入到社交场合中寻求心灵的慰藉。在收到那封信半个月之后，他就和当时社交界第一枝花订了婚，婚事稍作筹办，他就和那位有着一双明亮的黑眼睛，拥有十万家产的美丽小姐结了婚，他当时可是众人羡慕不已的对象。 The married couple were enjoying their honeymoon, and entertaining a brilliant circle of friends in their splendid villa, near Lake Pontchartrain, when, one day, a letter was brought to him in _that_ well-remembered writing. It was handed to him while he was in full tide of gay and successful conversation, in a whole room-full of company. He turned deadly pale when he saw the writing, but still preserved his composure, and finished the playful warfare of badinage which he was at the moment carrying on with a lady opposite; and, a short time after, was missed from the circle. In his room, alone, he opened and read the letter, now worse than idle and useless to be read. It was from her, giving a long account of a persecution to which she had been exposed by her guardian's family, to lead her to unite herself with their son: and she related how, for a long time, his letters had ceased to arrive; how she had written time and again, till she became weary and doubtful; how her health had failed under her anxieties, and how, at last, she had discovered the whole fraud which had been practised on them both. The letter ended with expressions of hope and thankfulness, and professions of undying affection, which were more bitter than death to the unhappy young man. He wrote to her immediately: 
正当这对新婚夫妻在庞夏特朗湖边的一所别墅里欢度蜜月，款待好友时，奥古斯丁有一天突然收到一封信。奥古斯丁从笔迹一眼就知道这封信是他那位难以忘怀的小姐写来的，他的脸色立即变得惨白。不过，在客人面前，他还得强装镇静，在和一位小姐舌战一番后，他独自一人回到卧室里，拆开了来信。在信中，那位小姐把她受监护人一家的威逼利诱而嫁给他们的儿子的经过叙述了一番，还谈到她不停地给他写信却迟迟不见他的回信，直到她最后产生了怀疑，又谈到她如何忧虑成疾，日渐消瘦，直到最后她发觉了监护人一家设下的诡计。在信的结尾，那位小姐倾诉了对他的似海深情，话语中充满了期盼和感激。可是，对于这位不幸的年轻人来说，此时收到这封信真比死的滋味还难受。他当即就写了封回信，信中这样写道："来信已收到，可是为时已晚。我对当时听到的话都信以为真，因而不顾一切，彻底绝望了。我现在已经和别人结了婚，我们之间的一切都已经结束了。我们只有忘记过去，才是唯一的出路。" And thus ended the whole romance and ideal of life for Augustine St. Clare. But the _real_ remained,--the _real_, like the flat, bare, oozy tide-mud, when the blue sparkling wave, with all its company of gliding boats and white-winged ships, its music of oars and chiming waters, has gone down, and there it lies, flat, slimy, bare,--exceedingly real. 奥古斯丁·圣克莱尔一生的理想和浪漫史就这么结束了。可是现实却摆在他的面前，这现实如同潮水退去后那平坦、空旷的海滩，全是粘稠的稀泥。当海浪带着点点白帆和迎风荡漾的轻舟，在桨声和波涛声中退去之后，剩下的就是烂泥。平坦、空旷、粘稠的烂泥，简直现实到了极至。 Of course, in a novel, people's hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient. But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us. There is a most busy and important round of eating, drinking, dressing, walking, visiting, buying, selling, talking, reading, and all that makes up what is commonly called _living_, yet to be gone through; and this yet remained to Augustine. Had his wife been a whole woman, she might yet have done something--as woman can--to mend the broken threads of life, and weave again into a tissue of brightness. But Marie St. Clare could not even see that they had been broken. As before stated, she consisted of a fine figure, a pair of splendid eyes, and a hundred thousand dollars; and none of these items were precisely the ones to minister to a mind diseased. 在小说中，人们完全可以因为悲痛心碎而死去，随之一切都将告之结束。在故事中这样很方便，然而在现实生活中，我们不会因为生命中的一切美好失去了而一下子死去。我们还得忙着吃饭、喝水、走路、访友、做生意、谈话、看书，例行公事一般地从事着我们称之为"生活"的一连串事件，当然这也是奥古斯丁必须做下去的事情。如果他的妻子是个身心健全的人，也许还能为他做点什么--女人常有这种本事，把他那根折断了的生命线重新连接起来，织成一条美丽的彩带。可是，玛丽·圣克莱尔根本没注意到丈夫的生命线已经折断。玛丽虽然是个身姿绰约、家财万贯的女人，可这些却不能抚平他心灵的创伤。
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