名著·茶花女 - 第61节

　　“在哪里？”普律当丝说，她打量着我，似乎在揣摩我这个人是不是就是她过去认识的那个多情种子。

'On the Champs-Elysees. She was with another, very attractive woman. Who would that be?'

　　“在香榭丽舍大街，她跟另外一个非常漂亮的女人在一起。那个女人是谁啊？”

'What's she look like?

　　“什么模样的？”

''A blonde girl, slim. Had her hair in ringlets. Blue eyes, very fashionably dressed.'

　　“一头鬈曲的金黄色头发，身材苗条，蔚蓝色的眼睛，长得非常漂亮。”

'Ah! That's Olympe. Yes, she's a very pretty girl.'

　　“啊，这是奥林普，的确是一个非常漂亮的姑娘。”

　　“她现在有主吗？”

'Nobody. Everybody.'

　　“没有准主儿。”

'And her address?'

　　“她住在哪里？”

'In the rue Tronchet, I declare! You want to take up with her?'

　　“特隆歇街，啊，原来如此，您想打她的主意吗？”

'You never know what can happen.'

　　“将来的事谁也不知道。”

　　“那么玛格丽特呢？”

'I'd be lying if I told you that I never think of her any more. But I'm one of those men who set great store by the way an affair is ended. Now Marguerite gave me my marching orders in such an offhand sort of way, that I was left feeling I'd been rather silly to have fallen in love with her the way I did ?for I really was in love with her. '

　　“要说我一点也不想念她，那是撒谎。但是我这个人非常讲究分手的方式，玛格丽特那么随随便便地就把我打发了，这使我觉得我过去对她那么多情是太傻了，因为我以前的确非常爱这个姑娘。”

You can guess in what tone of voice I tried to say all this: the perspiration was pouring off my forehead.

　　您猜得出我是用什么样的声调来说这些话的，我的额上沁出了汗珠。

'She loved you too, you know, and still does. You want proof? Well, after she met you today, she came straight round here to tell me all about it. When she got here, she was all of a tremble, almost ill she was.'

　　“她是非常爱您的，嗳，她一直是爱您的。她今天遇到您以后马上就来告诉我，这就是证据。她来的时候浑身发抖，像在生病一样。”

'And what did she tell you?'

　　“那么她对您说什么了？”

　　“她对我说，‘他一定会来看您的，’她托我转达，请您原谅她。”

'I've forgiven her, you can tell her. She's a good girl, but she's a good- time girl, and I should have expected what she did to me. I'm grateful to her for making the break, because I wonder now where my idea that I could live exclusively with her would have got us. It was very silly.'

　　“您可以对她这样说，我已经原谅她了。她是一个好心肠的妓女，但只不过是一个妓女；她这样对待我，我本来是早该预料到的，我甚至还感谢她有这样的决心。因为今天我还在自问我那种要跟她永不分离的想法会有什么后果。那时候我简直荒唐。”

'She'll be very happy when she learns you took it like that when you saw she had no alternative. It was high time she left you, my dear. The rogue of a dealer she'd offered to sell her furniture to, had been to see her creditors to ask how much she owed them. They'd got cold feet and were planning to sell everything in another two days.'

　　“如果她知道您已和她一样认为必须这么做，她一定会十分高兴。亲爱的，她当时离开您正是时候。她曾经提过要把她的家具卖给他的那个混蛋经纪人，已经找到了她的债主，问他们玛格丽特到底欠了他们多少钱；这些人害怕了，准备过两天就进行拍卖。”

'And now, it's all paid back?'

　　“那么现在呢，都还清了吗？”

'Almost.'

　　“差不多还清了。”

　　“是谁出的钱？”

'Count de N. Listen, dear, there are men who were put in this would for paying up. To cut a long story short, he came up with twenty thousand francs ?but he's got what he wanted. He knows Marguerite doesn't love him, but that doesn't prevent him being very nice to her. You saw for yourself that he's bought back her horses and redeemed her jewels, and he gives her as much money as the Duke used to. If she's prepared to settle for a quiet life, then this is one man who'll stay with her for a long time. '

　　“N伯爵，啊！我亲爱的！有些男人是专门干这事的。一句话，他给了两万法郎；但他也终于达到目的了。他很清楚玛格丽特并不爱他，他却并不因此而亏待她。您已经看到了，他把她的马买了回来，把她的首饰也赎回来了，他给她的钱跟公爵给她的一样多；如果她想安安静静地过日子，这个人倒不是朝三暮四的。”

'And what does she do with herself? Does she stay in Paris all the time?'

　　“她在干些什么呢？她一直住在巴黎吗？”

'She's never once wanted to go back to Bougival since the day you left. It was me that went down to fetch all her things, and yours too: I've made a bundle of them that you can send round for. It's all there except for a little pocketbook with your monogram on it. Marguerite wanted to have it, and she's got it with her in the apartment. If you want it particularly, I could ask for it back.'

　　“自从您走了以后，她怎么也不愿意回布吉瓦尔。所有她那些东西还是我到那儿去收拾的，甚至还有您的东西，我把它们另外包了一个小包，回头您可以叫人到这儿来取。您的东西全在里面，除了一只小皮夹子，上面有您名字的起首字母。玛格丽特要它，把它拿走了，现在在她家里，假使您一定要的话，我再去向她要回来。”

'She can keep it, ' I stammered, for I could feel tears welling up from my heart into my eyes at the memory of the village where I had been so happy, and at the thought that Marguerite should want to keep something that had been mine and reminded her of me.

　　“让她留着吧，”我讷讷地说，因为在想到这个我曾经如此幸福地待过的村子，想到玛格丽特一定要留下一件我的东西作纪念，我不禁感到一阵心酸，眼泪直往外冒。

　　如果她在这个时候进来的话，我可能会跪倒在她脚下的。我那复仇的决心也许会烟消云散。

'Mind you, ' Prudence went on, 'I've never seen her the way she is at the minute. She hardly sleeps at all, goes to every ball, eats late suppers and even has too much to drink. Just recently, after a supper party, she was in bed for a week. And when the doctor allowed her up, she started where she'd left off, though she knows it could kill her. Are you going to see her?'

　　“此外，”普律当丝又说，“我从来也没有看到她像现在这副模样，她几乎不再睡觉了，她到处去跳舞，吃夜宵，有时候甚至还喝得醉醺醺的。最近一次夜宵后，她在床上躺了一个星期，医生刚允许她起床，她又不要命地重新开始这样的生活，您想去看看她吗？”

'What's the point? It was you I came to see, because you've always been extremely nice to me, and I knew you before I met Marguerite. It's you I have to thank for having been her lover, just as it's you I must thank for not being her lover any more. Am I right?'

　　“有什么必要呢？我是来看您的，您，因为您对我一直很亲切，我认识您比认识玛格丽特早。就是亏了您，我才做了她的情人；也就是亏了您，我才不再做她的情人了，是不是这样？”

'Well, yes. I did everything I could to make her give you up, and I do believe that, in time, you won't think too badly of me.'

　　“啊，天哪，我尽了一切可能让她离开您，我想您将来就不会埋怨我了。”

'I owe you a double debt of gratitude, ' I added, getting to my feet, 'because I was getting sick of her when I saw how seriously she took everything I said: '

　　“这样我得加倍感激您了，”我站起来又接着说，“因为我讨厌这个女人，她把我对她说的话太当真了。”