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她以前从来没有这样过，"末了，贝茜转身对那位艾比盖尔说。 "But it was always in her," was the reply. "I've told Missis oftenmy opinion about the child, and Missis agreed with me. She's anunderhand little thing: I never saw a girl of her age with so muchcover."" 不过她生性如此，"对方回答，"我经常跟太太说起我对这孩子的看法，太太也同意。这小东西真狡猾，从来没见过像她这样年纪的小姑娘，有那么多鬼心眼的。" Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she said--" 贝茜没有搭腔，但不一会便对我说： Youought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs.Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would haveto go to the poorhouse."" 小姐，你该明白，你受了里德太太的恩惠，是她养着你的。要是她把你赶走，你就得进贫民院了。" I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me: myvery first recollections of existence included hints of the samekind. This reproach of my dependence had become a vague sing-songin my ear: very painful and crushing, but only half intelligible.Miss Abbot joined in - 对她们这番活，我无话可说，因为听起来并不新鲜。我生活的最早记忆中就包含着类似的暗示，这些责备我赖别人过活的话，己成了意义含糊的老调，叫人痛苦，让人难受，但又不太好懂。艾博特小姐答话了： 
你不能因为太太好心把你同里德小姐和少爷一块抚养大，就以为自己与他们平等了。他们将来会有很多很多钱，而你却一个子儿也不会有。你得学谦恭些，尽量顺着他们，这才是你的本份。" "What we tell you is for your good," added Bessie, in no harshvoice, "you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, youwould have a home here; but if you become passionate and rude,Missis will send you away, I am sure."" 我们同你说的全是为了你好，"贝茜补充道，口气倒并不严厉，"你做事要巴结些，学得乖一点，那样也许可以把这当个家住下去，要是你意气用事，粗暴无礼，我敢肯定，太太会把你撵走。" "Besides," said Miss Abbot, "God will punish her: He might strikeher dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go?Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn't have her heart foranything. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself;for if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to comedown the chimney and fetch you away."" 另外，"艾博特小姐说，"上帝会惩罚她，也许会在她耍啤气时，把她处死，死后她能上哪儿呢，来，贝茜，咱们走吧，随她去。反正我是无论如何打动不了她啦。爱小姐，你独个儿呆着的时候，祈祷吧。要是你不忏悔，说不定有个坏家伙会从烟囱进来，把你带走。" They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them. 她们走了，关了门，随手上了锁。 The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might saynever, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at GatesheadHall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodationit contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambersin the mansion. A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany,hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernaclein the centre; the two large windows, with their blinds always drawndown, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery;the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was coveredwith a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour with a blushof pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-table, the chairs were ofdarkly polished old mahogany. Out of these deep surrounding shadesrose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses and pillows ofthe bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane. Scarcely lessprominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair near the head of thebed, also white, with a footstool before it; and looking, as Ithought, like a pale throne. 红房子是间空余的卧房，难得有人在里面过夜。其实也许可以说，从来没有。除非盖茨黑德府上偶而拥进一大群客人时，才有必要动用全部房间。但府里的卧室，数它最宽敞、最堂皇了。-张红木床赫然立于房间正中，粗大的床柱上，罩着深红色锦缎帐幔，活像一个帐篷。两扇终日窗帘紧闭的大窗，半掩在清一色织物制成的流苏之中。地毯是红的，床脚边的桌子上铺着深红色的台布，墙呈柔和的黄褐色，略带粉红。大橱、梳妆台和椅子都是乌黑发亮的红木做的。床上高高地叠着褥垫和枕头，上面铺着雪白的马赛布床罩，在周围深色调陈设的映衬下，白得眩目。几乎同样显眼的是床头边一把铺着坐垫的大安乐椅，一样的白色，前面还放着一只脚凳，在我看来，它像一个苍白的宝座。 
房子里难得生火，所以很冷；因为远离保育室和厨房，所以很静；又因为谁都知道很少有人进去，所以显得庄严肃穆。只有女佣每逢星期六上这里来，把一周内静悄悄落在镜子上和家具上的灰尘抹去。还有里德太太本人，隔好久才来一次，查看大橱里某个秘密抽屉里的东西。这里存放着各类羊皮文件，她的首饰盒，以及她已故丈夫的肖像。上面提到的最后几句话，给红房子带来了一种神秘感，一种魔力，因而它虽然富丽堂皇，却显得分外凄清。 Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber hebreathed his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borneby the undertaker's men; and, since that day, a sense of drearyconsecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion. 里德先生死去已经九年了，他就是在这间房子里咽气的，他的遗体在这里让人瞻仰，他的棺材由殡葬工人从这里抬走。从此之后，这里便始终弥漫着一种阴森森的祭奠氛围，所以不常有人闯进来。 My seat, to which Bessie and the bitter Miss Abbot had left meriveted, was a low ottoman near the marble chimney-piece; the bedrose before me; to my right hand there was the high, dark wardrobe,with subdued, broken reflections varying the gloss of its panels; tomy left were the muffled windows; a great looking-glass between themrepeated the vacant majesty of the bed and room. I was not quitesure whether they had locked the door; and when I dared move, I gotup and went to see. Alas! yes: no jail was ever more secure.Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinatedglance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All lookedcolder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and thestrange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and armsspecking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where allelse was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it likeone of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp, Bessie's eveningstories represented as coming out of lone, ferny dells in moors, andappearing before the eyes of belated travellers. I returned to mystool. 贝茜和刻薄的艾博特小姐让我一动不动坐着的，是一条软垫矮凳，摆在靠近大理石壁炉的地方。我面前是高耸的床，我右面是黑漆漆的大橱，橱上柔和、斑驳的反光，使镶板的光泽摇曳变幻。我左面是关得严严实实的窗子，两扇窗子中间有一面大镜子，映照出床和房间的空旷和肃穆。我吃不准他们锁了门没有，等到敢于走动时，便起来看个究竟。哎呀，不错，比牢房锁得还紧呐。返回原地时，我必须经过大镜子跟前。我的目光被吸引住了，禁不住探究起镜中的世界来。在虚幻的映像中，一切都显得比现实中更冷落、更阴沉。那个陌生的小家伙瞅着我，白白的脸上和胳膊上都蒙上了斑驳的阴影，在-切都凝滞时，唯有那双明亮恐惧的眼睛在闪动，看上去真像是一个幽灵。我觉得她像那种半仙半人的小精灵，恰如贝茵在夜晚的故事中所描绘的那样，从沼泽地带山蕨丛生的荒谷中冒出来，现身于迟归的旅行者眼前。我回到丁我的矮凳上。 Superstition was with me at that moment; but it was not yet her hourfor complete victory: my blood was still warm; the mood of therevolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour; I had tostem a rapid rush of retrospective thought before I quailed to thedismal present. 这时候我相信起迷信来了，但并没有到了完全听凭摆布的程度，我依然热血沸腾，反叛的奴隶那种苦涩情绪依然激励着我。往事如潮、在我脑海中奔涌，如果我不加以遏制，我就不会对阴暗的现实屈服。 All John Reed's violent tyrannies, all his sisters' proudindifference, all his mother's aversion, all the servants'partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in aturbid well. 约翰.里德的专横霸道、他姐妹的高傲冷漠、他母亲的厌恶、仆人们的偏心，像一口混沌的水井中黑色的沉淀物，一古脑儿泛起在我烦恼不安的心头。 
为什么我总是受苦，总是遭人白眼，总是让人告状，永远受到责备呢？为什么我永远不能讨人喜欢？为什么我尽力博取欢心，却依然无济于事呢？伊丽莎自私任性，却受到尊敬；乔治亚娜好使性子，心肠又毒，而且强词夺理目空一切，偏偏得到所有人的纵容。她的美貌，她红润的面颊，金色的卷发，使得她人见人爱，一俊便可遮百丑。至于约翰，没有人同他顶撞，更不用说教训他了，虽然他什么坏事都干：捻断鸽子的头颈，弄死小孔雀，放狗去咬羊，采摘温室中的葡萄，掐断暖房上等花木的嫩芽。有时还叫他母亲"老姑娘"，又因为她皮肤黝黑像他自己而破口大骂。他蛮横地与母亲作对，经常撕毁她的丝绸服装，而他却依然是"她的宝贝蛋"。而我不敢有丝毫闪失，干什么都全力以赴，人家还是骂我淘气鬼，讨厌坯，骂我阴丝丝，贼溜溜，从早上骂到下午，从下午骂到晚上。 My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received:no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I hadturned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I wasloaded with general opprobrium. 我因为挨了打、跌了交，头依然疼痛，依然流着血。约翰肆无忌惮地打我，却不受责备，而我不过为了免遭进一步无理殴打，反抗了一下，便成了众矢之的。 "Unjust!--unjust!" said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulusinto precocious though transitory power: and Resolve, equallywrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape frominsupportable oppression--as running away, or, if that could not beeffected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die." 不公呵，不公！"我的理智呼喊着。在痛苦的刺激下我的理智变得早熟，化作了一种短暂的力量。决心也同样鼓动起来，激发我去采取某种奇怪的手段，来摆脱难以忍受的压迫，譬如逃跑，要是不能奏效，那就不吃不喝，活活饿死。 What a consternation of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! Howall my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection! Yetin what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battlefought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question--WHY Ithus suffered; now, at the distance of--I will not say how manyyears, I see it clearly. 那个阴沉的下午，我心里多么惶恐不安！我的整个脑袋如一团乱麻，我的整颗心在反抗：然而那场内心斗争又显得多么茫然，多么无知啊！我无法回答心底那永无休止的问题--为什么我要如此受苦。此刻，在相隔--我不说多少年以后，我看清楚了。
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