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If she had been older, Miss Minchin would have given her the bigger girls to teach and saved money by dismissing an instructress;
如果她年龄大一些，铭钦女士早就会让她给大一点儿的姑娘教课了，这样便可以辞退一位女教师以节省开支；
but while she remained and looked like a child, she could be made more useful as a sort of little superior errand girl and maid of all work.
但既然她依然是并且看上去也像个小孩子，把她当做一种干杂务的高级小丫头和做各种工作的女仆就能使她更为有用了。
An ordinary errand boy would not have been so clever and reliable.
一个普通干杂活的男僮不会像她那样聪明可靠。
Sara could be trusted with difficult commissions and complicated messages.
让萨拉去完成困难的任务和传递复杂的口信是可以信赖的。
She could even go and pay bills, and she combined with this the ability to dust a room well and to set things in order.
她甚至能出去按账单付款，另外还能打扫房间，整理家什。
Her own lessons became things of the past. She was taught nothing,
她自己的学业已成为过去的事了。现在什么都不让她学，
and only after long and busy days spent in running here and there at everybody's orders was she grudgingly allowed to go into the deserted schoolroom,
每天被大家呼来唤去，弄得东奔西跑，只是在这样忙碌了一整天后才勉强允许她进入空旷无人的教室，
with a pile of old books, and study alone at night.
带着一摞旧书，独自在夜间用功。
"If I do not remind myself of the things I have learned, perhaps I may forget them," she said to herself.
“如果我不自己复习已经学过的东西，或许我会把它们忘掉的，”她对自己说。
"I am quite a scullery maid, and if I am a scullery maid who knows nothing, I shall be like poor Becky.
“我差不多成为厨房丫头了，如果我是个一无知识的厨房丫头，我就会像可怜的贝基一样了。
I wonder if I could quite forget and begin to drop my H'S and not remember that Henry the Eighth had six wives."
我担心我是否会完全忘记，说话时不发出一些词的“h”音，是否会忘掉亨利八世有六位妻子。”
One of the most curious things in her new existence was her changed position among the pupils.
在她的新生活中，有一桩极稀奇的事情：她在学生中的地位改变了。
Instead of being a sort of small royal personage among them, she no longer seemed to be one of their number at all.
她不再是她们中间的那种小贵族人物，甚至似乎根本不再是她们中的一员了。
She was kept so constantly at work that she scarcely ever had an opportunity of speaking to any of them,
她被人支使，没完没了地工作，几乎没有机会和她们中的任何人说话，
and she could not avoid seeing that Miss Minchin preferred that she should live a life apart from that of the occupants of the schoolroom.
而且她不得不看出，铭钦女士宁愿让她过一种与教室的占据者们相隔离的生活。
"I will not have her forming intimacies and talking to the other children," that lady said.
“我绝不让她与别的孩子形成亲密关系，也不让她同她们谈话，”这位女士说。
"Girls like a grievance, and if she begins to tell romantic stories about herself, she will become an ill-used heroine,
“女孩子们爱发牢骚，如果她开始讲关于她自己的荒诞故事，她会成为其中受虐待的女主人公，
and parents will be given a wrong impression. It is better that she should live a separate life—
这会给学生的家长们一个错误的印象。所以最好让她过隔离的生活——
one suited to her circumstances. I am giving her a home, and that is more than she has any right to expect from me."
一种适合于她的处境的生活。我给了她一个家，这已经超过了她有权指望从我这里得到的东西。”
