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I had once or twice tried, on such occasions, to prevail on Miss Matty to stay, and had succeeded in her sister’s lifetime.
有一两次，在准备吃橙子的时候，我曾试图说服玛蒂小姐留下来，而且在她姐姐在世时我做到了这一点。
I held up a screen, and did not look, and, as she said, she tried not to make the noise very offensive; but now that she was left alone, she seemed quite horrified when I begged her to remain with me in the warm dining-parlour, and enjoy her orange as she liked best.
我撑起屏风，没有看她，而且，正如她所说，她尽量不发出非常不礼貌的声音；但是现在她独自一人生活，当我请求她和我一起留在温暖的餐厅里，按照她最喜欢的方式享用橙子时，她似乎非常害怕。
And so it was in everything.
其实在所有事情上都是如此。
Miss Jenkyns’s rules were made more stringent than ever, because the framer of them was gone where there could be no appeal.
詹金斯小姐的规矩变得比以往任何时候都更加严格，因为制定这些规矩的人已经离开了，坏了规矩就无处可讨理了。
In all things else Miss Matilda was meek and undecided to a fault.
在其他所有事情上，玛蒂尔达小姐都温顺且优柔寡断到这成了她的一个缺点的程度。
I have heard Fanny turn her round twenty times in a morning about dinner, just as the little hussy chose; and I sometimes fancied she worked on Miss Matilda’s weakness in order to bewilder her, and to make her feel more in the power of her clever servant.
我听到过范妮早上为了晚餐的事，随心所欲地让她更改想法不下二十次；我有时觉得她是在利用玛蒂尔达小姐的弱点，好让她晕头转向，更加听任她这个聪明女仆的摆布。
I determined that I would not leave her till I had seen what sort of a person Martha was; and, if I found her trustworthy, I would tell her not to trouble her mistress with every little decision.
我决定，在见到新女仆玛莎是个什么样的人之前，我不会离开她；如果我发现玛莎值得信赖，我会告诉她不要什么小事都去麻烦她的主人。
Martha was blunt and plain-spoken to a fault; otherwise she was a brisk, well-meaning, but very ignorant girl.
玛莎说话有些过分直率、坦诚；除此之外，她是一个活泼、善良但非常无知的女孩。
She had not been with us a week before Miss Matilda and I were astounded one morning by the receipt of a letter from a cousin of hers,
玛莎来家里还不到一个星期，一天早上，玛蒂尔达小姐和我就惊讶地收到了她的一位堂弟的来信，
who had been twenty or thirty years in India, and who had lately, as we had seen by the “Army List,” returned to England, bringing with him an invalid wife who had never been introduced to her English relations.
这位堂弟在印度待了二三十年，正如我们在《陆军名册》上看到的那样，最近回到了英国，还带回了一位体弱多病的妻子，她从未被介绍给英国的亲戚们认识。
Major Jenkyns wrote to propose that he and his wife should spend a night at Cranford, on his way to Scotland—at the inn, if it did not suit Miss Matilda to receive them into her house;
詹金斯少校写信提议，他和妻子在去苏格兰的途中将在克兰福德过夜——如果玛蒂尔达小姐不方便在家里接待他们，他们就住旅馆；
in which case they should hope to be with her as much as possible during the day.
如果是这样，他们希望白天尽可能多地和她待在一起。
Of course it must suit her, as she said; for all Cranford knew that she had her sister’s bedroom at liberty; but I am sure she wished the Major had stopped in India and forgotten his cousins out and out.
当然，就像她说的那样，她“必须”是方便的；因为克兰福德的所有人都知道，她姐姐的卧室还空着；但我敢肯定，她希望少校留在印度，把他的堂亲们忘得一干二净。
“Oh! How must I manage?” asked she helplessly.
“哦！我该怎么安排？”她无助地问道，
“If Deborah had been alive she would have known what to do with a gentleman-visitor.
“要是黛博拉还活着，她会知道如何接待一位先生的来访。
Must I put razors in his dressing-room?
我应该把剃须刀放在他的更衣室吗？
Dear! Dear! And I’ve got none.
天啊！天啊！可是我一个剃须刀都没有。
Deborah would have had them.
要是黛博拉在，她肯定会准备好的。
And slippers, and coat-brushes?”
还有拖鞋和衣刷怎么办？”
I suggested that probably he would bring all these things with him.
我说，他可能会把这些东西都带来。
“And after dinner, how am I to know when to get up and leave him to his wine?
“还有晚餐后，我怎么知道什么时候该起身离开，让他独自享用葡萄酒呢？
Deborah would have done it so well; she would have been quite in her element.
黛博拉会做得很好；她处理这些简直如鱼得水。
Will he want coffee, do you think?”
他会想喝咖啡吗，你觉得呢？”
I undertook the management of the coffee, and told her I would instruct Martha in the art of waiting—in which it must be owned she was terribly deficient—and that I had no doubt Major and Mrs Jenkyns would understand the quiet mode in which a lady lived by herself in a country town.
我负责了咖啡的事，并告诉她我会教玛莎如何服侍用餐——必须承认，玛莎在这方面非常欠缺——而且我毫不怀疑，詹金斯少校和夫人会理解，一位女士独自住在乡下，生活肯定是很安静的。
But she was sadly fluttered.
但她却心慌意乱。
I made her empty her decanters and bring up two fresh bottles of wine.
我让她把斟酒器里的余酒倒掉，再拿两瓶新酒上来。
I wished I could have prevented her from being present at my instructions to Martha, for she frequently cut in with some fresh direction, muddling the poor girl’s mind as she stood open-mouthed, listening to us both.
我真希望我在指导玛莎时，能让她不要待在一旁，因为她经常插嘴提出一些新的指示，把可怜的女孩搞得晕头转向，只能张着嘴呆站着，听我们俩人的话。
“Hand the vegetables round,” said I (foolishly, I see now—for it was aiming at more than we could accomplish with quietness and simplicity); and then, seeing her look bewildered, I added, “take the vegetables round to people, and let them help themselves.”
“把蔬菜传一圈，”我说（现在我才明白，我当时太蠢了，因为这超出了我们安静、简朴的生活所能做的范围）；然后，看到她一脸茫然，我又补充道：“把蔬菜递给大家，让他们自己拿。”
“And mind you go first to the ladies,” put in Miss Matilda. “Always go to the ladies before gentlemen when you are waiting.”
“记住，先给女宾，”玛蒂尔达小姐插嘴说，“服侍用餐的时候，总是女士优先于男士。”
“I’ll do it as you tell me, ma’am,” said Martha; “but I like lads best.”
“我会照你说的做，夫人，”玛莎说，“但我最喜欢小伙子。”
We felt very uncomfortable and shocked at this speech of Martha’s, yet I don’t think she meant any harm;
我们对玛莎的这句话感到非常不自在和震惊，但我认为她并无恶意，
and, on the whole, she attended very well to our directions, except that she “nudged” the major when he did not help himself as soon as she expected to the potatoes, while she was handing them round.
总的来说，她非常听从我们的指示，只是在她给大家递土豆时，少校没有像她期望的那样马上自己拿土豆，她就“推了推”他。
The major and his wife were quiet unpretending people enough when they did come; languid, as all East Indians are, I suppose.
少校和他的妻子来的时候，他们都是非常安静、毫不张扬的人；也都有些懒洋洋的，我想东印度人都是这样吧。
We were rather dismayed at their bringing two servants with them, a Hindoo body-servant for the Major, and a steady elderly maid for his wife;
他们带来两名仆人，对此我们感到相当沮丧，一个是少校的印度男仆，另一个是他妻子的稳重年长的女仆；
but they slept at the inn, and took off a good deal of the responsibility by attending carefully to their master’s and mistress’s comfort.
但是两名仆人睡在旅馆里，并且通过悉心照料男主人和女主人，而给我们减轻了不少负担。
Martha, to be sure, had never ended her staring at the East Indian’s white turban and brown complexion, and I saw that Miss Matilda shrunk away from him a little as he waited at dinner.
玛莎肯定一直在盯着那个东印度人的白色头巾和棕色皮肤看，我看到他在伺候主人用晚餐时，玛蒂尔达小姐有点害怕地躲开了他。
Indeed, she asked me, when they were gone, if he did not remind me of Blue Beard?
的确，他们走后，她问我，那个印度人是否让我想起了蓝胡子？
On the whole, the visit was most satisfactory, and is a subject of conversation even now with Miss Matilda;
总的来说，这次拜访非常令人满意，而且现在仍然是玛蒂尔达小姐的谈资。
at the time it greatly excited Cranford, and even stirred up the apathetic and Honourable Mrs Jamieson to some expression of interest, when I went to call and thank her for the kind answers she had vouchsafed to Miss Matilda’s inquiries as to the arrangement of a gentleman’s dressing-room—
当时这件事让克兰福德非常兴奋，当我去拜访冷漠而尊贵的贾米森夫人，感谢她好意回答了玛蒂尔达小姐关于如何布置先生的更衣室的问题时，这甚至让她也表现出了一些兴趣。
answers which I must confess she had given in the wearied manner of the Scandinavian prophetess—“Leave me, leave me to repose.”
我必须承认，她回答时的神态就像斯堪的纳维亚的女预言家一样疲惫：“去吧，去吧，我要休息了。”
