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伊丽莎依然不大开口。显然她没有工夫说话，我从来没有见过一位象她看上去那么忙的人，可是很难说她在忙些什么，或者不如说很难发现她忙碌的结果。她有一个闹钟催她早起。我不知道早饭前她干些什么，但饭后她把自己的时间分成固定的部分，每个小时都有规定的任务。她一天三次研读一本小书，我仔细一看，原来是本祈祷书。一次我问她，书中最吸引人的是什么，她说"仪式指示。"三个小时用于缝纫，用金线给一块方形红布上边，这块布足有地毯那么大。我问起它的用途，她告诉我是盖在一个新教堂祭坛上的罩布，这个教堂新近建于盖茨黑德附近。二个小时用来写日记，二个小时在菜园子里劳动，一个小时用来算帐。她似乎不需要人作伴，也不需要交谈。我相信她一定自得其乐，满足于这么按部就班地行事，而没有比那种偶发事件迫使她改变钟表般准确的规律性，更使她恼火的了。 She told me one evening, when more disposed to be communicative thanusual, that John's conduct, and the threatened ruin of the family,had been a source of profound affliction to her: but she had now,she said, settled her mind, and formed her resolution. Her ownfortune she had taken care to secure; and when her mother died--andit was wholly improbable, she tranquilly remarked, that she shouldeither recover or linger long--she would execute a long-cherishedproject: seek a retirement where punctual habits would bepermanently secured from disturbance, and place safe barriersbetween herself and a frivolous world. I asked if Georgiana wouldaccompany her. 一天晚上，她比往常话要多些，告诉我约翰的行为和家庭濒临毁灭的威胁是她烦恼的根源。但她说现在已经静下心来，下定了决心。她已注意保住自己的财产，一旦她母亲去世--她冷静地说，母亲己不可能康复或者拖得很久--她将实现自己盘算已久的计划，寻找一个归隐之处，使自己一板一眼的习惯不受干扰，用一个安全的屏障把她和浮华的世界隔开。我问她，乔治亚娜是不是会陪伴她。 "Of course not. Georgiana and she had nothing in common: theynever had had. She would not be burdened with her society for anyconsideration. Georgiana should take her own course; and she,Eliza, would take hers." 当然不会，乔治亚娜和她没有共同之处，从来没有过。无论如何她不能同她作伴，让自己受累。乔治亚娜应当走她的路，而她伊丽莎也会走自己的路。 Georgiana, when not unburdening her heart to me, spent most of hertime in lying on the sofa, fretting about the dulness of the house,and wishing over and over again that her aunt Gibson would send heran invitation up to town. "It would be so much better," she said,"if she could only get out of the way for a month or two, till allwas over." I did not ask what she meant by "all being over," but Isuppose she referred to the expected decease of her mother and thegloomy sequel of funeral rites. Eliza generally took no more noticeof her sister's indolence and complaints than if no such murmuring,lounging object had been before her. One day, however, as she putaway her account-book and unfolded her embroidery, she suddenly tookher up thus - 乔治亚娜不向我吐露心声的时候大都躺在沙发上，为家里的乏味而发愁，一再希望吉卜森舅妈会寄来邀请信，请她上城里去。她说要是她能避开一、两个月，等一切都过去，那是再好不过了。我并没有问她"一切都过去"的含意，但我猜想她指的是意料中母亲的死，以及阴沉的葬礼余波。伊丽莎对妹妹的懒散和怨言并不在意，仿佛她面前并不存在这个叽叽咕咕、无所事事的家伙。不过有一天，她放好帐册，打开绣花活计时，突然责备起她来： "Georgiana, a more vain and absurd animal than you was certainlynever allowed to cumber the earth. You had no right to be born, foryou make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and withyourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten yourfeebleness on some other person's strength: if no one can be foundwilling to burden her or himself with such a fat, weak, puffy,useless thing, you cry out that you are ill-treated, neglected,miserable. Then, too, existence for you must be a scene ofcontinual change and excitement, or else the world is a dungeon:you must be admired, you must be courted, you must be flattered--youmust have music, dancing, and society--or you languish, you dieaway. Have you no sense to devise a system which will make youindependent of all efforts, and all wills, but your own? Take oneday; share it into sections; to each section apportion its task:leave no stray unemployed quarters of an hour, ten minutes, fiveminutes--include all; do each piece of business in its turn withmethod, with rigid regularity. The day will close almost before youare aware it has begun; and you are indebted to no one for helpingyou to get rid of one vacant moment: you have had to seek no one'scompany, conversation, sympathy, forbearance; you have lived, inshort, as an independent being ought to do. Take this advice: thefirst and last I shall offer you; then you will not want me or anyone else, happen what may. Neglect it--go on as heretofore,craving, whining, and idling--and suffer the results of your idiocy,however bad and insuperable they may be. I tell you this plainly;and listen: for though I shall no more repeat what I am now aboutto say, I shall steadily act on it. After my mother's death, I washmy hands of you: from the day her coffin is carried to the vault inGateshead Church, you and I will be as separate as if we had neverknown each other. You need not think that because we chanced to beborn of the same parents, I shall suffer you to fasten me down byeven the feeblest claim: I can tell you this--if the whole humanrace, ourselves excepted, were swept away, and we two stood alone onthe earth, I would leave you in the old world, and betake myself tothe new."" 乔治亚娜，在地球上过日子的动物中，没有比你更爱虚荣更荒唐了。你没有权利生下来，因为你空耗了生命。你没有象一个有理智的人该做的那样，为自己生活，安分守己地生活，靠自己生活，而是仰仗别的人力量来支撑你的软弱。要是找不到谁愿意背这个肥胖、娇弱、自负、无用的包袱，你会大叫，说人家亏待了你，冷落了你，使你痛苦不堪。而且，在你看来，生活该是变化无穷，激动非凡的一幕，不然世界就是监狱。你要人家爱慕你，追求你，恭维你--你得有音乐、舞会和社交活动--要不你就神衰力竭，一天天憔悴。难道你就没有头脑想出一套办法来，不依赖别人的努力，别人的意志，而只靠你自己？以一天为例，你就把它分成几份，每份钟规定好任务，全部时间都包括在内，不留一刻钟、十分钟、五分钟的零星空闲时间。干每一件事都应当井然有序，有条不紊。这样，一天的日子，你几乎没有觉察它开始，就已经结束了。你就不欠谁的情，帮你消磨片刻空闲。你不必找人作伴和交谈，不必请求别人的同情和忍耐。总之，你象一个独立的人该生活的那样生活。听从我的劝告吧，我给你的第一个，也是最后一个忠告。那样，无论出什么事，你就不需要我，也不需要别人了。要是你置之不理--一意孤行，还是那样想入非非，叽叽咕咕，懒懒散散，你就得吞下你愚蠢行为的苦果，不管怎么糟糕，怎么难受。我要明白告诉你，你好好听着。尽管我不会再重复我要说的话，但我会坚定不移地去做。母亲一死，你的事我就撒手不管了。从她的棺材抬进盖茨黑德教堂墓地那天起，你我便彼此分手，仿佛从来就是陌路人。你不要以为我们碰巧摊着同一个爹娘，我会让你以丝毫站不住脚的理由拖累我。我可以告诉你--就是除了你我，整个人类毁灭了，独有我们两人站在地球上，我也会让你留在旧世界，自己奔往新世界去。" 
她闭了嘴。 "You might have spared yourself the trouble of delivering thattirade," answered Georgiana. "Everybody knows you are the mostselfish, heartless creature in existence: and I know your spitefulhatred towards me: I have had a specimen of it before in the trickyou played me about Lord Edwin Vere: you could not bear me to beraised above you, to have a title, to be received into circles whereyou dare not show your face, and so you acted the spy and informer,and ruined my prospects for ever." Georgiana took out herhandkerchief and blew her nose for an hour afterwards; Eliza satcold, impassable, and assiduously industrious." 你还是少费心思发表长篇大论了，"乔治亚娜回答说，"谁都知道你是世上最自私、最狠心的家伙，我明白你对我有刻骨仇恨，我掌握真凭实据。你在埃德温．维尔勋爵的事情上，对我耍了花招。你不能容忍我爬得比你高，获得贵族爵位，被你连面都不敢露的社交圈子所接纳。因此你暗中监视，进行密告，永远毁了我的前程。"乔治亚娜掏出手帕，擤了一小时鼻子，伊丽莎冷冷地坐着，无动于衷，顾自忙着自己的活儿。 True, generous feeling is made small account of by some, but herewere two natures rendered, the one intolerably acrid, the otherdespicably savourless for the want of it. Feeling without judgmentis a washy draught indeed; but judgment untempered by feeling is toobitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition. 确实，宽厚的感情不被有些人所重视。而这儿的两种性格，却因为少了它，一种刻薄得叫人难以容忍，而另一种枯燥乏味得可鄙。没有理智的感情固然淡而无味，但缺乏感情的理智也太苦涩粗糙，叫人难以下咽。 It was a wet and windy afternoon: Georgiana had fallen asleep onthe sofa over the perusal of a novel; Eliza was gone to attend asaint's-day service at the new church--for in matters of religionshe was a rigid formalist: no weather ever prevented the punctualdischarge of what she considered her devotional duties; fair orfoul, she went to church thrice every Sunday, and as often on week-days as there were prayers. 一个风雨交加的下午，乔治亚娜看着一部小说，便倒在沙发上睡着了。伊丽莎已经去新教堂参加万圣节仪式--因为在宗教方面，她十分看重形式，风雨无阻，按时履行着心中虔诚的义务。不论天好天坏，每个星期上教堂三次，平时如有祷告要做，也一样频繁。 I bethought myself to go upstairs and see how the dying woman sped,who lay there almost unheeded: the very servants paid her but aremittent attention: the hired nurse, being little looked after,would slip out of the room whenever she could. Bessie was faithful;but she had her own family to mind, and could only come occasionallyto the hall. I found the sick-room unwatched, as I had expected:no nurse was there; the patient lay still, and seemingly lethargic;her livid face sunk in the pillows: the fire was dying in thegrate. I renewed the fuel, re-arranged the bedclothes, gazed awhileon her who could not now gaze on me, and then I moved away to thewindow. 我想起要上楼去，看看这个生命垂危的女人病情如何。她躺在那里，几乎没有人照料，佣人们化的心思时多时少；雇佣来的护士，因为没有人看管，想溜就溜。贝茜固然忠心耿耿，但也有自己的家要照应，只能偶尔到府上来。不出所料，我发觉病室里没有人照看，护士不在。病人静静地躺着，似乎在昏睡，铅灰色的脸陷入了枕头，炉中的火将灭未灭。我添了燃料，重新收拾了床单，眼睛盯了她一会儿。这时，她已无法盯我了。随后我走开去到了窗前。 
大雨敲窗，狂风呼啸。"那个躺在那儿的人，"我想，"会很快离开人世间风风雨雨的战场。此刻，灵魂正挣扎着脱离物质的躯壳，一旦解脱，将会到哪里去呢？" In pondering the great mystery, I thought of Helen Burns, recalledher dying words--her faith--her doctrine of the equality ofdisembodied souls. I was still listening in thought to her well-remembered tones--still picturing her pale and spiritual aspect, herwasted face and sublime gaze, as she lay on her placid deathbed, andwhispered her longing to be restored to her divine Father's bosom--when a feeble voice murmured from the couch behind: "Who is that?" 在思索这番伟大的秘密时，我想起了海伦，回忆起她临终时说的话--她的信仰--她的关于游魂平等的信条。心里仍倾听着记忆犹新的声调--仍然描摹着她苍白而脱俗的容貌，消瘦的脸庞和崇高的目光。那时她平静地躺在临终的病榻上，低声地倾吐着要回到神圣的天父怀抱的渴望。--正想着，我身后的床上响起了微弱的响声："是谁呀？" I knew Mrs. Reed had not spoken for days: was she reviving? I wentup to her. 我知道里德太太已经几天没有说话了，难道她醒过来了？我走到她跟前。
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