评论
打印
Chapter 12 The Other Side of the Wall
第十二章 墙壁的另一边
When one lives in a row of houses, it is interesting to think of the things which are being done and said on the other side of the wall of the very rooms one is living in.
人们住在一排房子中，想想自己所住房间的墙壁的另一边正在做什么事情和说什么话，是很有趣的。
Sara was fond of amusing herself by trying to imagine the things hidden by the wall which divided the Select Seminary from the Indian gentleman's house.
萨拉喜欢努力想象被墙遮住的那一边的事情来解闷儿，这堵墙将高级女童培育院与那位印度绅士的房子分隔开来。
She knew that the schoolroom was next to the Indian gentleman's study,
她知道教室挨着印度绅士的书房，
and she hoped that the wall was thick so that the noise made sometimes after lesson hours would not disturb him.
希望那堵墙厚些，这样，下课后时而会发出的吵闹声就不致打扰他。
"I am growing quite fond of him," she said to Ermengarde;
“我越来越喜欢他了，”她对埃芒加德说，
"I should not like him to be disturbed. I have adopted him for a friend. You can do that with people you never speak to at all.
“我不愿他被打扰。我已经选他做朋友了。你可以同根本没说过话的人做朋友。
You can just watch them, and think about them and be sorry for them, until they seem almost like relations.
你可以只是注视着他们，想着他们，为他们惋惜，直到他们几乎就像是亲戚一样。
I'm quite anxious sometimes when I see the doctor call twice a day."
有时候，当我看到医生一天来两次，感到十分焦急。”
"I have very few relations," said Ermengarde, reflectively,
“我亲戚很少，”埃芒加德回忆着，
"and I'm very glad of it. I don't like those I have. My two aunts are always saying, 'Dear me, Ermengarde! You are very fat. You shouldn't eat sweets,'
“但我很高兴这样。我不喜欢我的那些亲戚。两个姑姑总是说：‘天哪，埃芒加德！你太胖了。你不应该吃甜食，’
and my uncle is always asking me things like, 'When did Edward the Third ascend the throne?'
而我叔叔总是问我这一类问题，‘爱德华三世是什么时候登基的？’
and, 'Who died of a surfeit of lampreys?'"
还有，‘谁死于吃了太多的七鳃鳗？’”
Sara laughed.
萨拉笑了。
"People you never speak to can't ask you questions like that," she said;
“一个你从未和他说过话的人，不会间你这样的问题，”她说，
"and I'm sure the Indian gentleman wouldn't even if he was quite intimate with you. I am fond of him."
“而且我肯定那位印度绅士即使和你十分亲密了也不会那样问你。我喜欢他。”
She had become fond of the Large Family because they looked happy;
她开始喜欢那“大家庭”，因为他们看上去很幸福，
but she had become fond of the Indian gentleman because he looked unhappy.
但她喜欢印度绅士却是因为他看上去很不幸。
He had evidently not fully recovered from some very severe illness.
显然他还没有完全从某种很严重的疾病中康复。
In the kitchen—where, of course, the servants, through some mysterious means, knew everything—there was much discussion of his case.
在厨房里——在那里，仆人们通过一些神秘的途径，当然是无所不知的——有很多关于他的情况的说法。
He was not an Indian gentleman really, but an Englishman who had lived in India.
他并不真是位印度绅士，而是个曾住在印度的英国人。
