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故事讲到这里，孟可司屏住呼吸，全神贯注地谛听着，尽管眼睛没有正对着说话的人。布朗罗先生打住话头，孟可司换了一个姿势，擦了擦发烫的脸和手，一个人骤然间如释重负就是这个样子。 'Before he went abroad, and as he passed through London on his way,' said Mr. Brownlow, slowly, and fixing his eyes upon the other's face, 'he came to me.' “他出国以前路过伦敦，”布朗罗先生目不转睛地望着对方的脸，缓缓地说，“他来找过我。” 'I never heard of that,' interrupted MOnks in a tone intended to appear incredulous, but savouring more of disagreeable surprise. “这我没听说过。”孟可司插了一句，口气中本想表示此话不可信，却反而表明他更多的是感到一阵不愉快的惊奇。 'He came to me, and left with me, among some other things, a picture--a portrait painted by himself--a likeness of this poor girl--which he did not wish to leave behind, and could not carry forward on his hasty journey. He was worn by anxiety and remorse almost to a shadow; talked in a wild, distracted way, of ruin and dishonour worked by himself; confided to me his intention to convert his whole property, at any loss, into money, and, having settled on his wife and you a portion of his recent acquisition, to fly the country--I guessed too well he would not fly alone--and never see it more. Even from me, his old and early friend, whose strong attachment had taken root in the earth that covered one most dear to both--even from me he withheld any more particular confession, promising to write and tell me all, and after that to see me once again, for the last time on earth. Alas! THAT was the last time. I had no letter, and I never saw him more.' “他来找过我，留下了一些东西，其中有一幅画像--他亲笔画的一幅肖像--那个可怜的姑娘的肖像，他不愿意把画丢在家里，但旅途匆匆，又没法带在身边。焦虑悔恨之下，他瘦得形销骨立。他心神不定，语无伦次，谈到了他自己造成的祸患与耻辱，向我吐露他要不惜一切代价，把全部财产变卖成现钱，只等办好手续，将新近所得的一部分遗产授予你们母子，从此离开英国--我完全估计到了，他不会只身出走--永不回来。我虽然是他的老朋友，我们的情义已经深深植根于这一片大地，这里安葬着一个对我们彼此来说都是最亲爱的人--甚至于对我，他也没有进一步倾吐衷肠，只答应写信，把一切都告诉我，并表示事后还会来看我，作为在世的最后一次，啊！那本身就是最后一次。我没有收到信，也再没有见到他。” 'I went,' said Mr. Brownlow, after a short pause, 'I went, when all was over, to the scene of his--I will use the term the world would freely use, for worldly harshness or favour are now alike to him--of his guilty love, resolved that if my fears were realised that erring child should find one heart and home to shelter and compassionate her. The family had left that part a week before; they had called in such trifling debts as were outstanding, discharged them, and left the place by night. Why, or whithter, none can tell.' “等到一切都结束了，”布朗罗先生略微顿了一下，说道，“我到他结下那笔孽债的地方去了--我可以用世人通行的说法，因为世间的苛责或是宽厚对于他已经没有什么两样--我打定主意，如果我的担心变成了现实，也要让那位一时迷途的姑娘找到一个可以栖身的家，找到一颗能够同情她的心。那家人已经在一个星期前搬走了，他们把所有的未偿债务-一结清，哪怕数目不大，有天夜里，一家人离开了那个地方。原因何在，或者说上哪儿去了，谁也说不上来。” 
孟可司越发畅快地舒了一口气，带着胜利的微笑回头看了一眼。 'When your brother,' said Mr. Brownlow, drawing nearer to the other's chair, 'When your brother: a feeble, ragged, neglected child: was cast in my way by a stronger hand than chance, and rescued by me from a life of vice and infamy--' “你的弟弟，”布朗罗先生把椅子朝对方挪近了一些，说道，“你的弟弟，是个身体瘦弱，衣衫褴楼，受人鄙视的孩子，一只比机缘更强有力的手推着他来到我面前，我把他从罪恶可耻的生活中救了出来--” 'What?' cried Monks. “什么？”孟可司嚷起来。 'By me,' said Mr. Brownlow. 'I told you I should interest you before long. I say by me--I see that your cunning associate suppressed my name, although for ought he knew, it would be quite strange to your ears. When he was rescued by me, then, and lay recovering from sickness in my house, his strong resemblance to this picture I have spoken of, struck me with astonishment. Even when I first saw him in all his dirt and misery, there was a lingering expression in his face that came upon me like a glimpse of some old friend flashing on one in a vivid dream. I need not tell you he was snared away before I knew his history--' “是我把他救出来的，”布朗罗先生说道，“我刚才不是说过，我很快就会激起你的兴趣。不错，是我把他救出来的--我明白，你那个狡滑的同伙隐瞒了我的名宇，虽说他才不管你听不听得出说的是谁。当时他被我救出来，住在我家里养病，他与我前边谈到的那幅画上的姑娘长得很像，使我大吃一惊。即使是在我初次见到他的时候，尽管他浑身污垢，可怜巴巴的，他脸上就有一种表情若隐若现，我似乎在一场栩栩如生的梦境里猛然发现了一位老朋友的身影。我用不着告诉你，我还没弄清他的来历，他就被人拐跑了--” 'Why not?' asked Monks hastily. “干吗不说呢？”孟可司赶紧问了一句。 
“因为这事你心里有数。” 'I!' “我” 'Denial to me is vain,' replied Mr. Brownlow. 'I shall show you that I know more than that.' “当面抵赖是无济于事的，”布朗罗先生回答，“我会让你明白，我知道的不只这一件事。” 'You--you--can't prove anything against me,' stammered Monks. 'I defy you to do it!' “你--你--没法证明有什么事情对我不利，”孟可司结结巴巴地说，“我量你也没那么大本事。” 'We shall see,' returned the old gentleman with a searching glance. 'I lost the boy, and no efforts of mine could recover him. Your mother being dead, I knew that you alone could solve the mystery if anybody could, and as when I had last heard of you you were on your own estate in the West Indies--whither, as you well know, you retired upon your mother's death to escape the consequences of vicious courses here--I made the voyage. You had left it, months before, and were supposed to be in London, but no one could tell where. I returned. Your agents had no clue to your residence. You came and went, they said, as strangely as you had ever done: sometimes for days together and sometimes not for months: keeping to all appearance the same low haunts and mingling with the same infamous herd who had been your associates when a fierce ungovernable boy. I wearied them with new applications. I paced the streets by night and day, but until two hours ago, all my efforts were fruitless, and I never saw you for an instant.' “走着瞧吧，”老绅士用犀利的目光看了他一眼，回答，“我失去了那个孩子，虽然我多方努力，还是没能找到他。你母亲已经死了，我知道，只有你能解开这个谜，只有你一个人。我最后一次听到你的消息的时候，你在西印度群岛，呆在你自己的领地上--你很清楚，你在母亲死后退隐到那里去了，为的是逃避在此地的种种恶行的后果--我渡海而去，你却已经在几个月以前离开那儿了，估计是到了伦敦，但谁也不清楚去了什么地方。我又返回来。你的几个代理人也不知道你的住处。他们说，你来来去去，和以前一样神秘--有时一连几天都在，有时又是几个月不在--看起来还是不断出没于那几个下流的场所，跟那班丧尽廉耻的家伙搅在一起，你从还是一个无法无天的孩子的时候起，就和他们打得火热。我一次又一次向他们打听，连他们都嫌烦了。我白天黑夜在街上走来走去，可直到两个小时以前，我所有的努力都毫无结果，我从没有见到过你一次。” 
“你现在真的看见我了，”孟可司大着胆子站起来，“那又怎么样？欺诈和抢劫都是响当当的罪名--你以为，你凭空想像，一个小鬼长得跟一个死人无聊时胡乱涂几笔的什么画长得有点像，就可以证明了？硬说我有个弟弟。你甚至搞不清那一对情种有没有生过孩子，你根本搞不清楚。” 'I DID NOT,' replied Mr. Brownlow, rising too; 'but within the last fortnight I have learnt it all. You have a brother; you know it, and him. There was a will, which your mother destroyed, leaving the secret and the gain to you at her own death. It contained a reference to some child likely to be the result of this sad connection, which child was born, and accidentally encountered by you, when your suspicions were first awakened by his resemblance to your father. You repaired to the place of his birth. There existed proofs--proofs long suppressed--of his birth and parentage. Those proofs were destroyed by you, and now, in your own words to your accomplice the Jew, "THE ONLY PROOFS OF THE BOY'S IDENTITY LIE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER, AND THE OLD HAG THAT RECEIVED THEM FORM THE MOTHER IS ROTTING IN HER COFFIN." “我过去确实不清楚，”布朗罗先生也站了起来，说道，“可是过去半个月里，我一切都打听清楚了。你有一个弟弟。你知道这件事，而且认识他。遗嘱本来也是有的，被你母亲销毁了，她临终的时候，又把这个秘密和得到的好处留给了你。遗嘱里提到一个孩子，可能将成为这一可悲的结合的产物，那个孩子后来还是生下来了，无意之中又叫你给碰上了，最早引起你疑心的就是他长得很像他父亲。你去过他的出生地。那儿存有关于他的出生及血统的证明--那些证明已经压了很久。你把那些证据给毁了，我们眼下就用你自己对和你连手的那个犹太人说过的话好了。‘仅有的几样能够确定那孩子身份的证据掉到河底去了，从他母亲那儿把东西弄到手的那个老妖婆正在棺材里腐烂哩。 Unworthy son, coward, liar,--you, who hold your councils with thieves and murderers in dark rooms at night,--you, whose plots and wiles have brought a violent death upon the head of one worth millions such as you,--you, who from your cradle were gall and bitterness to your own father's heart, and in whom all evil passions, vice, and profligacy, festered, till they found a vent in a hideous disease which had made your face an index even to your mind--you, Edward Leeford, do you still brave me!' ’不肖之子，懦夫，骗子--你，乘黑夜跟一帮盗贼、杀人犯策划于密室之中--你，你的阴谋诡计使一个比你们好一百万倍的姑娘死于非命--你，自幼就伤透了你生身父亲的心，邪念、罪孽、淫欲，这一切都在你身上溃烂，直到它们找到一种可怕的病态才算发泄出来，这种病态甚而把你的面孔变成了你的灵魂的一个缩影--你，爱德华·黎福特，你还敢跟我顶？” 'No, no, no!' returned the coward, overwhelmed by these accumulated charges. “不，不，不！”这个懦夫连声说道，他终于被对方一一历数的控诉压倒了。 'Every word!' cried the gentleman, 'every word that has passed between you and this detested villain, is known to me. Shadows on the wall have caught your whispers, and brought them to my ear; the sight of the persecuted child has turned vice itself, and given it the courage and almost the attributes of virtue. Murder has been done, to which you were morally if not really a party.' “每一句话！”老绅士喝斥道，“你跟那个该死的恶棍之间说的每一句话我都知道。墙上的影子听见了你们的窃窃私语，把你们的话传到了我的耳边。看到那个孩子备受虐待，连一个堕落的姑娘也幡然醒悟，给了她勇气和近乎于美德的品性。凶杀已经发生了，即便你在事实上不是同谋，你在道义上也难逃罪责。” 
“不，不，”孟可司连忙否认，“那--那件事我一点也不知道。我正想去打听一下到底是怎么回事，你就把我抓了来。我不知道起因，还当是一次普普通通的吵架呢。”
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