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I went to see Miss Pole the next day, and took her completely by surprise, for she had not been to see Miss Matilda for two days.
第二天我去看了波尔小姐，她对我的来访非常惊讶，因为她已经有两天没去看玛蒂尔达小姐了。
“And now I must go back with you, my dear, for I promised to let her know how Thomas Holbrook went on;
“现在我得和你一起过去，亲爱的，因为我答应过她，要告诉她托马斯·霍尔布鲁克的情况；
and, I’m sorry to say, his housekeeper has sent me word to-day that he hasn’t long to live.
而且，很遗憾地说，他的管家今天给我捎信来说，他活不了多久了。
Poor Thomas! That journey to Paris was quite too much for him.
可怜的托马斯！这次去巴黎的旅行让他太吃不消了。
His housekeeper says he has hardly ever been round his fields since, but just sits with his hands on his knees in the counting-house, not reading or anything, but only saying what a wonderful city Paris was!
他的管家说，从那以后，他几乎就没怎么去过地里，只是坐在账房，双手放在膝盖上，也不读书什么的，说着巴黎是个多么美妙的城市！
Paris has much to answer for if it’s killed my cousin Thomas, for a better man never lived.”
如果巴黎害死了我的表哥托马斯，那它要承担很大的责任，因为再也没有比他更好的人了。”
“Does Miss Matilda know of his illness?” asked I—a new light as to the cause of her indisposition dawning upon me.
“玛蒂尔达小姐知道他生病了吗？”我问道，一道新的光亮照进了我的脑海，让我明白了她生病的原因。
“Dear! To be sure, yes! Has not she told you?
“亲爱的！肯定知道！她还没有告诉你吗？
I let her know a fortnight ago, or more, when first I heard of it.
我在两周前，或者更早，当我第一次听说的时候就告诉她了。
How odd she shouldn’t have told you!”
她竟然没有告诉你，真是奇怪！”
Not at all, I thought; but I did not say anything.
一点也没对我说，我想道，但我什么也没说。
I felt almost guilty of having spied too curiously into that tender heart, and I was not going to speak of its secrets—hidden, Miss Matty believed, from all the world.
我太过好奇地窥探了那颗温柔的心，对此我几乎感到内疚，我也不打算说出它的秘密——马蒂小姐相信，这些秘密被她好好隐藏起来了，没有人知道。
I ushered Miss Pole into Miss Matilda’s little drawing-room, and then left them alone.
我带波尔小姐进入玛蒂尔达小姐的小客厅，然后就离开了，让她们单独待在一起。
But I was not surprised when Martha came to my bedroom door, to ask me to go down to dinner alone, for that missus had one of her bad headaches.
但是，当玛莎来到我的卧室门口，叫我一个人下楼去吃饭时，我并不感到惊讶，因为太太头痛得厉害。
She came into the drawing-room at tea-time, but it was evidently an effort to her;
下午茶时分，马蒂小姐来到了客厅，但显然是费了好大的劲才来的；
and, as if to make up for some reproachful feeling against her late sister, Miss Jenkyns, which had been troubling her all the afternoon, and for which she now felt penitent, she kept telling me how good and how clever Deborah was in her youth;
她对已故姐姐詹金斯小姐有些许责备的情绪，整个下午她都为此而深受困扰，现在也为此感到懊悔，似乎是为了弥补这种情绪，她不停地跟我说，黛博拉年轻的时候是多么善良，多么聪明；
how she used to settle what gowns they were to wear at all the parties (faint, ghostly ideas of grim parties, far away in the distance, when Miss Matty and Miss Pole were young!);
她过去常常决定她们在聚会上要穿什么礼服（那些黯淡的聚会，在遥远的过去，在马蒂小姐和波尔小姐还年轻的时候！现在对这些聚会只有模糊、朦胧的记忆了）
and how Deborah and her mother had started the benefit society for the poor, and taught girls cooking and plain sewing;
还有，黛博拉和她母亲曾为穷人开办了救济协会，教女孩们烹饪和简单的缝纫；
and how Deborah had once danced with a lord; and how she used to visit at Sir Peter Arley’s, and tried to remodel the quiet rectory establishment on the plans of Arley Hall, where they kept thirty servants;
黛博拉曾与一位勋爵共舞；她曾经常去彼得·阿利爵士家做客，并试图按照阿利府邸的样式改造她们安静的教区长寓所，阿利府邸可是雇了三十个仆人；
and how she had nursed Miss Matty through a long, long illness, of which I had never heard before, but which I now dated in my own mind as following the dismissal of the suit of Mr Holbrook.
她也曾经在马蒂小姐久病不愈的时候照料她，我以前从未听说过这件事，但现在我在心里把这件事的日期定在了霍布鲁克先生求婚被拒绝之后。
So we talked softly and quietly of old times through the long November evening.
在这个漫长的十一月的夜晚，我们就这样轻声谈论着过去的时光。
The next day Miss Pole brought us word that Mr Holbrook was dead.
第二天，波尔小姐给我们带来消息，说霍尔布鲁克先生去世了。
Miss Matty heard the news in silence; in fact, from the account of the previous day, it was only what we had to expect.
马蒂小姐默默地听着这个消息；事实上，从昨天的描述来看，这是我们应该预料到的结果。
Miss Pole kept calling upon us for some expression of regret, by asking if it was not sad that he was gone, and saying—
波尔小姐不停地来拜访我们，想表达她的哀悼，她问我们他的离去是否令人悲伤，还说：
“To think of that pleasant day last June, when he seemed so well!
“想想去年六月那个愉快的一天，他当时看起来那么健康！
And he might have lived this dozen years if he had not gone to that wicked Paris, where they are always having revolutions.”
如果他没有去那个邪恶的巴黎，他本来可以再活十几年的，那里总是在发生革命。”
She paused for some demonstration on our part.
她停顿了一下，等待我们的一些表示。
I saw Miss Matty could not speak, she was trembling so nervously; so I said what I really felt;
我看到马蒂小姐说不出话来，她紧张得浑身发抖；于是我说了我的真实感受；
and after a call of some duration—all the time of which I have no doubt Miss Pole thought Miss Matty received the news very calmly—our visitor took her leave.
在拜访持续了一段时间后——我敢肯定，在这段时间里，波尔小姐认为马蒂小姐非常平静地接受了这个消息——我们的访客离开了。
Miss Matty made a strong effort to conceal her feelings—a concealment she practised even with me, for she has never alluded to Mr Holbrook again, although the book he gave her lies with her Bible on the little table by her bedside.
马蒂小姐努力掩饰自己的感情——甚至在我面前也隐藏了自己的心意，因为她再也没有提起过霍尔布鲁克先生，尽管他送给她的那本书就和她的《圣经》一起放在床边的小桌子上。
She did not think I heard her when she asked the little milliner of Cranford to make her caps something like the Honourable Mrs Jamieson’s, or that I noticed the reply— “But she wears widows’ caps, ma’am?”
她以为我没听见她对克兰福德的女帽裁缝说，要把她的帽子做得和贾米森夫人的帽子一样，她也没注意到对方的回答：“可她戴的是寡妇的帽子，太太？”
“Oh! I only meant something in that style; not widows’, of course, but rather like Mrs Jamieson’s.”
”哦！我只是说那种样式的帽子；当然不是寡妇的，但要像贾米森夫人的那样。”
This effort at concealment was the beginning of the tremulous motion of head and hands which I have seen ever since in Miss Matty.
自从做出这次努力的掩饰之后，我后来就开始在马蒂小姐身上看到，她的头和双手常常颤抖。
The evening of the day on which we heard of Mr Holbrook’s death, Miss Matilda was very silent and thoughtful;
我们听到霍尔布鲁克先生去世的那天晚上，玛蒂尔达小姐非常沉默，而且心事重重；
after prayers she called Martha back and then she stood uncertain what to say.
祈祷后，她把玛莎叫回来，然后她站在那里，不知道该说什么。
“Martha!” she said, at last, “you are young”—
“玛莎！”她终于开口说，“你还年轻”——
and then she made so long a pause that Martha, to remind her of her half-finished sentence, dropped a curtsey, and said— “Yes, please, ma’am; two-and-twenty last third of October, please, ma’am.”
然后她停顿了很久，以至于玛莎为了提醒她还没说完话，只好行了个屈膝礼，并说道：“是的，太太；去年十月三号满二十二岁，太太。”
“And, perhaps, Martha, you may some time meet with a young man you like, and who likes you.
“也许，玛莎，你可能会在某个时候遇到一个你喜欢的年轻人，并且他也喜欢你。
I did say you were not to have followers;
我确实说过你不能有追求者；
but if you meet with such a young man, and tell me, and I find he is respectable, I have no objection to his coming to see you once a week.
但是如果你遇到这样一个年轻人，告诉我，如果我发现他是个正经人，我不反对他每周来看你一次。
God forbid!” said she in a low voice, “that I should grieve any young hearts.”
但愿我不会伤了任何年轻人的心！”她很小声地说。
She spoke as if she were providing for some distant contingency, and was rather startled when Martha made her ready eager answer—
她说这话时，仿佛是在为某个遥远的意外情况做准备，所以当玛莎急切地回答时，她吃了一惊，
“Please, ma’am, there’s Jem Hearn, and he’s a joiner making three-and-sixpence a-day, and six foot one in his stocking-feet, please, ma’am;
“求求了，太太，有个叫杰姆·赫恩的，他是个木匠，每天挣三先令六便士，只穿袜子不穿鞋的话身高六英尺一英寸；（注：六英尺一英寸即186厘米。）
and if you’ll ask about him to-morrow morning, every one will give him a character for steadiness; and he’ll be glad enough to come to-morrow night, I’ll be bound.”
如果您明早去打听他的情况，大家都会说他稳重可靠。我保证，他会非常愿意明晚就来看我。”
Though Miss Matty was startled, she submitted to Fate and Love.
虽然马蒂小姐吃了一惊，但她还是向命运和爱情屈服了。
