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Chapter 18 Father and Daughter
第十八章 父亲和女儿
There is a hush through Mr Dombey's house. Servants gliding up and down stairs rustle, but make no sound of footsteps. They talk together constantly, and sit long at meals, making much of their meat and drink, and enjoying themselves after a grim unholy fashion. Mrs Wickam, with her eyes suffused with tears, relates melancholy anecdotes; and tells them how she always said at Mrs Pipchin's that it would be so, and takes more table-ale than usual, and is very sorry but sociable. Cook's state of mind is similar. She promises a little fry for supper, and struggles about equally against her feelings and the onions. Towlinson begins to think there's a fate in it, and wants to know if anybody can tell him ofany good that ever came of living in a corner house. It seems to all of them as having happened a long time ago; though yet the child lies, calm and beautiful, upon his little bed.
董贝先生的公馆中一片寂静。仆人们蹑手蹑脚地、窸窸窣窣地上楼、下楼，不让脚步发出响声。他们聚在一起没完没了地聊天，长时间地坐着用餐，尽情吃喝，仿照那种冷酷无情、不信鬼神的习俗来享受乐趣。威肯姆大嫂眼泪汪汪，叙述着忧伤的往事；她跟他们说，她在皮普钦太太那里就经常说，将来会发生这样的结果；餐桌上的浓啤酒她比平时喝得更多；她很忧愁，但爱和人交谈。厨娘的心情也相似。她答应晚餐做些油炸的食品，并作出同等的努力来克制自己的感伤和忍住洋葱的气味。托林森开始觉得这是命中注定；他希望有人能告诉他，居住在坐落于街道拐角的房屋里能有什么好处。他们全都觉得，这似乎是好久以前发生的事情了，虽然那孩子还依旧安安静静、漂漂亮亮地躺在他的小床上。
After dark there come some visitors—noiseless visitors, with shoes of felt—who have been there before; and with them comes that bed of rest which is so strange a one for infant sleepers. All this time, the bereaved father has not been seen even by his attendant; for he sits in an inner corner of his own dark room when anyone is there, and never seems to move at other times, except to pace it to and fro. But in the morning it is whispered among the household that he was heard to go upstairs in the dead night, and that he stayed there—in the room—until the sun was shining.
天黑以后来了几个人，他们穿着毡鞋，默不作声，以前就曾经到这里来过。随着他们来的是一张安息的床，这是一张多么奇怪的给孩子睡眠的床啊！失去孩子的父亲一直没有露面，甚至连侍候他的仆人也一直见不到他；因为不论是谁进入他的黑暗的房间，他总是坐在最里面的一个角落里，除了来回踱步外，其他时间似乎就从来不曾移动过身体。可是家里的人们早上都在交头接耳，窃窃私语说，他们听到他深夜走上楼去，待在那里——待在房间里——，直到太阳升起为止。
At the offices in the City, the ground-glass windows are made more dim by shutters; and while the lighted lamps upon the desks are half extinguished by the day that wanders in, the day is half extinguished by the lamps, and an unusual gloom prevails. There is not much business done. The clerks are indisposed to work; and they make assignations to eat chops in the afternoon, and go up the river. Perch, the messenger, stays long upon his errands; and finds himself in bars of public-houses, invited thither by friends, and holding forth on the uncertainty of human affairs. He goes home to Ball's Pond earlier in the evening than usual, and treats Mrs Perch to a veal cutlet and Scotch ale. Mr Carker the Manager treats no one; neither is he treated; but alone in his own room he shows his teeth all day; and it would seem that there is something gone from Mr Carker's path—some obstacle removed—which clears his way before him.
在城里公司的办公室里，由于关上百叶窗，毛玻璃的窗子更为暗淡；当办公桌上的灯光被悄悄透进的亮光冲淡一半，而白天的亮光又被灯光冲淡一半时，房间里笼罩着一种不寻常的幽暗。没有办理多少业务。职员们不愿工作；他们约好下午出去吃排骨，并到河上游逛。信差珀奇磨磨蹭蹭地执行他的差事；他被朋友们邀请到酒吧，在那里高谈阔论，感叹人事的变化无常。晚上他比往常提早回到鲍尔斯池塘家里，请珀奇太太吃小牛肉片和喝苏格兰浓啤酒。经理卡克先生没有宴请别人，也没有别人宴请他，而是独自待在自己的办公室里，整天露着牙齿；似乎在卡克先生的道路上有个什么东西消失了——有个什么障碍被搬除了，他前面的道路已经被扫清了。
