名著·茶花女 - 第49节

　　“啊，”我开门见山地跟她说，“您老实告诉我，玛格丽特的马车到哪儿去了？”

'Sold.'

　　“卖掉了。”

'Her shawl?'

　　“披肩呢？”

'Sold.'

　　“卖掉了。”

'The diamonds?'

　　“钻石呢？”

　　“当掉了。”

'And who did the selling and the pawning?'

　　“是谁去替她卖的？是谁去替她当的？”

'I did.'

　　“是我。”

'Why didn't you tell me about all this?'

　　“为什么不告诉我。”

'Because Marguerite ordered me not to.'

　　“因为玛格丽特不准我告诉您。”

　　“那您为什么不向我要钱呢？”

'Because she wouldn't let me.'

　　“因为她不愿意。”

'And what's the money been spent on?'

　　“那么这些钱派了什么用场呢？”

'Paying debts.'

　　“还账。”

'So she owes great deal?'

　　“她还欠人家很多钱吗？”

　　“还欠三万法郎左右。啊！我亲爱的，我不是早就跟您讲过了吗？您不肯相信我的话，那么现在总该相信了吧。原来由公爵作保的地毯商去找公爵的时候吃了闭门羹，第二天公爵写信告诉他说他不管戈蒂埃小姐的事了。这个商人来要钱，只好分期付给他，我向您要的那几千法郎就是付给他的。后来一些好心人提醒他说，他的债务人已经被公爵抛弃了，她正在跟一个没有财产的青年过日子；别的债权人也接到了同样的通知，他们也来讨债，来查封玛格丽特的财产。玛格丽特本来想把什么都卖掉，但是时间来不及，何况我也反对她这样做。帐是一定得还的，为了不向您要钱，她卖掉了马匹和开司米披肩，当掉了首饰。您要不要看看买主的收据和当铺的当票？”

And, pulling out a drawer, Prudence showed me the papers.

　　于是普律当丝打开一只抽屉给我看了这些票据。

'Do you imagine, ' she continued, as persistent as any woman who is entitled to say: 'I was right!' 'do you imagine that it's enough to love each other and go off to the country and live some dreamy, rustic life? Oh no, my dear. Alongside the ideal life, there's the necessities to think of, and the purest designs are earthbound, secured by threads which, ludicrous though they may be, are made of steel and cannot be easily snapped. If Marguerite hasn't deceived you twenty times and more it's because she has an exceptional nature. It's not her fault if I advised her to do so, because it grieved me to see the poor girl strip herself of everything. And she wouldn't have anything to do with it! She told me she loved you and wouldn't deceive you for anything. All that's very nice, very poetic, but it's not coin you can pay off criditors with. And now she's reached the stage where she won't get away with it unless she comes up with, let me say it again, thirty thousand francs.'

　　“啊！您相信了吧！”她用有权利说“我是有理的”那种女人的洋洋自得的口气接着说，“啊！您以为只要相亲相爱就够了吗？您以为只要一起到乡下去过那种梦一般的田园生活就行了吗？不行的，我的朋友，不行的。除了这种理想生活，还有物质生活，最纯洁的决心都会有一些庸俗可笑、但又是铁铸成的链索把它拴在这个地上，这些链索是不容易挣断的。如果说玛格丽特从来不骗您，那是因为她的性格与众不同。我劝她并没有劝错，因为我不忍心看到一个可怜的姑娘吃尽当光。她不听我的话！她回答我说她爱您，绝不欺骗您。这真是太美了，太富有诗意了，但这些都不能当作钱来还给债主的呀。我再跟您说一遍，眼下她没有三万法郎是没法过门的。”

'It's all right. I'll find the money.'

　　“好吧，这笔钱我来付。”

'You'll borrow it?'

　　“您去借吗？”

　　“是啊，老天。”

'Now that would be really clever. You'll fall out with your father, tie up your allowance and, anyway, you can't just come up with thirty thousand francs from one day to the next. Take it from me, my dear Armand, I know women better than you do. Don't do it: it would be sheer folly and you'd regret it some day. Be reasonable. I don't say you should leave Marguerite; just live with her on the same footing as at the start of the summer. Let her find ways out of this mess. The Duke will come round gradually. Count de N, if she takes him on, he was telling me just yesterday, will pay all her debts and give her four or five thousand francs a month. He's got two hundred thousand livres a year. She'll be set up, whereas you're going to have to leave her in any case: don't wait until you're ruined, especially since this Count de N is a fool and there'll be nothing to stop you being Marguerite's lover. She'll cry a little to start with, but she'll get used to it in the end, and she'll thank you one day for what you did. Tell yourself that Marguerite's married, and then deceive her husband. That's all there's to it.

　　“您可要干出好事来了，您要跟您父亲闹翻的，他会断绝您的生活来源，再说三万法郎也不是一两天内筹划得到的。相信我吧，亲爱的阿尔芒，我对女人可比您了解得多。别干这种傻事，总有一天您会后悔的。您要理智一些，我不是叫您跟玛格丽特分手，不过您要像夏天开始时那样跟她生活。让她自己去设法摆脱困境。公爵慢慢地会来找她的。N伯爵昨天还在对我说，如果玛格丽特肯接待他的话，他要替她还清所有的债务，每月再给她四五千法郎。他有二十万利弗尔的年金。这对她来说可算是一个依靠，而您呢，您迟早要离开她的；您不要等到破了产再这样做，何况这位N伯爵是个笨蛋，您完全可以继续做玛格丽特的情人。开始时她会伤心一阵子的，但最后还是会习惯的，您这样做了，她总有一天会感谢您的。您就把玛格丽特当作是有夫之妇，您欺骗的是她的丈夫，就是这么回事。

'I've already told you all this once. But then I was just giving you advice. Today, you've got very little option.'

　　“这些话我已经跟您讲过一遍了，那时候还不过是一个忠告，而现在已几乎非这样做不行了。”

Prudence was right, cruelly right.

　　普律当丝讲的话虽然难听，但非常有道理。

'That's how it is, ' she continued, shutting away the papers she had just shown me. 'Kept women always expect that there'll be men around who'll love them, but they never imagine that they themselves will fall in love. Otherwise, they'd put a bit to one side and, by the time they're thirty, they'd be able to afford the luxury of taking a lover who pays nothing. If only I'd known once what I know once what I know now! But that's by the by. Don't say anything to Marguerite; just bring her back to Paris. You've had four or five months alone with her, which isn't bad. Turn a blind eye, that's all you're asked to do. Within a fortnight, she'll take on Count de N, she'll put some money by this winter, and then next summer you can pick up where you left off. That's how it's done, my dear!'

　　“就是这么回事，”她一面收起刚才给我看的票据，一面继续对我说，“做妓女的专等人家来爱她们，而她们永远也不会去爱人；要不然，她们就要攒钱，以便到了三十岁的时候，她们就可以为一个一无所有的情人这么个奢侈品而自己掏腰包。如果我早知今日有多好啊，我！总之，您什么也别跟玛格丽特说，把她带回巴黎来。您和她已经一起过了四五个月了，这已经够好的了；眼开眼闭，这就是对您的要求。半个月以后她就会接待N伯爵。今年冬天她节约一些，明年夏天你们就可以再过这种生活。事情就是这么干的，我亲爱的。”

　　普律当丝似乎对她自己的一番劝告很得意，我却恼怒地拒绝了。

Not only did love and self-respect make it impossible for me to act along these lines, but I was further convinced that, having got to the stage she had now reached, Marguerite would rather die than accept such an arrangement.

　　不单是我的爱情和我的尊严不允许我这样做，而且我深信玛格丽特是宁死也不肯再过以前那种人尽可夫的生活了。

'Enough of this nonsense, ' I told Prudence. 'How much exactly does Marguerite need?'

　　“别开玩笑了，”我对普律当丝说，“玛格丽特到底需要多少钱？”

'I told you. Around thirty thousand francs.'

　　“我跟您讲过了，三万法郎左右。”

'And when must she have it?'

　　“这笔款子什么时候要呢？”