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"If you are four you are four," she said severely to Lavinia on an occasion of her having—
“如果你是四岁，你就是四岁，”她严厉地冲着拉维尼娅说，因为有一回拉维尼娅——
it must be confessed—slapped Lottie and called her "a brat"; "but you will be five next year, and six the year after that. And,
这是无可抵赖地——打了洛蒂一巴掌，骂她“臭娃娃”，“但是明年你就是五岁，后年六岁。而且，
"opening large, convicting eyes, "it takes sixteen years to make you twenty."
“她瞪着一双令人信服的大眼睛，“只要再过十六年，就是二十岁。”
"Dear me," said Lavinia, "how we can calculate!" In fact, it was not to be denied that sixteen and four made twenty—
“天哪！”拉维尼娅说，“我们怎么能算得那么远！”事实上，不可否认十六加四等于二十——
and twenty was an age the most daring were scarcely bold enough to dream of.
而二十岁这岁数，即使最大胆的孩子也几乎不敢想象。
So the younger children adored Sara.
就这样，年龄较小的孩子都崇拜萨拉。
More than once she had been known to have a tea party, made up of these despised ones, in her own room.
大家都知道，她曾不止一次在自己的房间里举行茶话会，组织那些受轻视的孩子参加。
And Emily had been played with, and Emily's own tea service used—
埃米莉也一起玩，而且用的是埃米莉自己的那套茶具——
the one with cups which held quite a lot of much-sweetened weak tea and had blue flowers on them.
这套茶具的茶杯上有蓝色的花朵图案，杯里盛着大量加糖较多的淡茶。
No one had seen such a very real doll's tea set before.
谁也没见过这么逼真的洋娃娃用的成套茶具。
From that afternoon Sara was regarded as a goddess and a queen by the entire alphabet class.
从那天下午起，萨拉就被整个学字母的初级班尊崇为女神和女皇。
Lottie Legh worshipped her to such an extent that if Sara had not been a motherly person, she would have found her tiresome.
洛蒂·利崇拜萨拉到如此地步，以致如果萨拉不是个慈母般的人儿，就会对她感到厌烦了。
Lottie had been sent to school by a rather flighty young papa who could not imagine what else to do with her.
洛蒂是被她那好发奇想的年轻爸爸送到学校来的，他想不出除此以外还能拿她怎么办。
Her young mother had died,
她妈妈年轻时就死了，
and as the child had been treated like a favorite doll or a very spoiled pet monkey or lap dog ever since the first hour of her life,
这孩子一生下来就像人们心爱的洋娃娃、宠坏了的小猴子和叭儿狗那样被溺爱着，
she was a very appalling little creature. When she wanted anything or did not want anything she wept and howled;
因此她是个会闹得骇人的小家伙。当她要或者不要什么东西时，她又哭又嚎。
and, as she always wanted the things she could not have, and did not want the things that were best for her,
由于她偏偏总是要那不可能给她的东西，而不要那最有益于她的东西，
her shrill little voice was usually to be heard uplifted in wails in one part of the house or another.
所以经常能听到她那令人惊然的小嗓门儿在这栋房子的某一部分升级到哀号。
Her strongest weapon was that in some mysterious way she had found out
洛蒂有她最厉害的武器，就是说她已经神不知鬼不觉地发现，
that a very small girl who had lost her mother was a person who ought to be pitied and made much of.
一个失去母亲的小女孩儿理应受到别人的怜悯和恩宠。
