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Chapter
第十章
THE day passed much as the day before had done. Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid, who continued, though slowly, to mend; and in the evening Elizabeth joined their party in the drawing room.
这一天差不多是跟前一天一样度过的。赫斯特太太和宾格莱小姐在上午陪了病人几个小时，病人尽管恢复得很慢，却在继续好转；傍晚的时候，伊丽莎白来到了大家都在的客厅里。
The loo table, however, did not appear. Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley, seated near him, was watching the progress of his letter, and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs. Hurst was observing their game.
不过，这一回却并没有人玩禄牌（系法国的一种赌钱的牌系）。达西正在写信，宾格莱小姐紧挨他坐着，一边看他写一边不断要求他添些问候的话给他妹妹，这样一来不免分散了达西的注意力。赫斯特先生和宾格莱先生在打皮克牌，赫斯特太太看着他们俩玩。
Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and his companion.
伊丽莎白在做针线，一面留神地听着达西跟宾格莱小姐谈话。
The perpetual commendations of the lady either on his hand-writing, or on the evenness of his lines, or on the length of his letter, with the perfect unconcern with which her praises were received, formed a curious dialogue, and was exactly in unison with her opinion of each.
只听得宾格莱小姐恭维话说个不停，不是说他的字写得好，就是说他的字迹一行行很齐整，要不就是赞美他的信写得仔细，可是对方却完全是冷冰冰爱理不理。这两个人你问我答，形成了一段奇妙的对白。照这样看来，伊丽莎白的确没有把他们俩看错。
"How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!"
“达西小姐收到了这样的一封信该会多么高兴啊！”
He made no answer.
他没有回答。
"You write uncommonly fast."
“你写信写得这样快，真是少见。”
"You are mistaken. I write rather slowly."
“你这话可说得不对。我写得相当慢。”
"How many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of the year! Letters of business too! How odious I should think them!"
“你一年到头得写多少信啊！还有那些生意上的信函！写那种信，我想该是多么枯燥乏味啊！”
"It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of to yours."
“那么，真值得庆幸，那些乏味的信得由我来写，而不是你。”
"Pray tell your sister that I long to see her."
“请你告诉令妹，我很想和她见见面。”
"I have already told her so once, by your desire."
“遵照你的意愿，我已经在前面告诉过她了。”
"I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well."
“你的笔恐怕有点儿不太好用了吧。让我给你修一修，我修笔是很内行的。”
"Thank you — but I always mend my own."
“谢谢你的好意，我一向都是自己修理。”
"How can you contrive to write so even?"
“你怎么把字写得这么工整呢？”
He was silent.
他没有作声。
"Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp, and pray let her know that I am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table, and I think it infinitely superior to Miss Grantley's."
“请告诉令妹，听说她的竖琴弹得又进步了，我很高兴。另外，告诉她看到她设计的漂亮的台布图案，我十分惊喜，我认为它比格兰莱小姐的那一个不知强上多少倍。”
"Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again? -- At present I have not room to do them justice."
“你能允许我在写下一封信时，再转告你的惊喜吗？这封信里实在是放不下了。”
"Oh! it is of no consequence. I shall see her in January. But do you always write such charming long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?"
“噢！那没有关系。反正我一月份便能见到她了。达西先生，你总是给你妹妹写这样又长又迷人的信吗？”
"They are generally long; but whether always charming, it is not for me to determine."
“我的信一般都写得很长；不过是否每封信都写得动人，这就不是我能判定的了。”
"It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter, with ease, cannot write ill."
“不过我总觉得，凡是写起长信来一挥而就的人，无论如何也不会写得不好。”
"That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline," cried her brother -- "because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. -- Do not you, Darcy?"
她的哥哥嚷道：“这种恭维话可不能用在达西身上，珈罗琳，他写起来可并不轻松。他在使用四个音节的词上面刻意地推敲。不是吗，达西？”
"My stile of writing is very different from yours."
“我写信的风格和你很不同。”
"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest."
“噢，”宾格莱小姐叫起来了，“查尔斯写起信来，那种潦草随便的态度，简直不可想象。一封信里他能漏掉一半的词，再涂掉另外的一半。”
"My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them -- by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents."
“我的想法变化得太快了，简直来不及把它们表达出来——就因为这个，我的信有时候让人看了觉得不知所云。”
"Your humility, Mr. Bingley," said Elizabeth, "must disarm reproof."
“宾格莱先生，”伊丽莎白说，“你这样谦虚，真叫人家本来要责备你也不好意思责备了。”
"Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."
“再也没有比这种表面上的谦逊态度更叫人容易上当了，”达西说，“这常常只是一种不愿明辨是非的轻率行为，有时候则是一种间接的自夸。”
"And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?"
“那么，你觉得我刚才那小小的谦虚是属于这两者中间的哪一个呢？”宾格莱问。
"The indirect boast; -- for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.
“间接的自夸。因为你实际上是对你写作上的缺点颇感自豪的，你认为它们是头脑快速思考和表达粗心的结果，即便它们没有什么值得称道的，至少是非常有趣的。做事迅速的人总是为他们拥有的这一能力感到骄傲，而对他们做起事来的敷衍马虎则常常忽略不计。
When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning that if you ever resolved on quitting Netherfield you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, of compliment to yourself -- and yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or any one else?"
今天早晨你对班纳特太太说，一旦你决定了离开，你会在五分钟以后就从尼日斐花园搬走，你说这话时，心里是把它看作对你自己的一种称赞，或者恭维的——可是，这样急于行事有什么值得称道的呢，它会使每一件该做的事情半途而废，无论对人对己都没有一点好处。”
