Eric, finding that his father had not yet returned from the college, went into the library and sat down to read a letter he had picked up from the hall table. It was from Larry West, and after the first few lines Eric's face lost the absent look it had worn and assumed an expression of interest.

埃里克见父亲还没从学院回来，就走进书房，坐下来读一封信，从门厅的桌上拿来的。信是拉里·韦斯特写的。才读了几行，埃里克原先挂在脸上那心不在焉的表情就不见了，取而代之的是一副饶有兴趣的神情。

"I am writing to ask a favour of you, Marshall," wrote West. "The fact is, I've fallen into the hands of the Philistines—that is to say, the doctors. I've not been feeling very fit all winter but I've held on, hoping to finish out the year.

“我写信是想请你帮个忙，马歇尔，”韦斯特写道，“实际上，我落到庸人手里了——我是指医生。整个冬天我都不太舒服，但还是挺过来了，希望能坚持到年底。

"Last week my landlady—who is a saint in spectacles and calico—looked at me one morning at the breakfast table and said, very gently, 'You must go to town to-morrow, Master, and see a doctor about yourself.’

“上周一次吃早餐的时候，房东太太——那个戴眼镜、穿白棉布衣服的圣徒——看了看我，非常温柔地说：‘少爷，你明天一定要进城一趟，看下医生了。’”

"I went and did not stand upon the order of my going. Mrs. Williamson is She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. She has an inconvenient habit of making you realize that she is exactly right, and that you would be all kinds of a fool if you didn't take her advice. You feel that what she thinks to-day you will think to-morrow.

“我虽然不想去，可还是去了。威廉森太太的话一定得听。她有个习惯很让人头疼：她一定要让你知道她是完全正确的，如果不听从她的建议，你就会显得自己是个彻头彻尾的傻瓜。你会觉得，今天她的看法，明天，就成了你的看法。”

"In Charlottetown I consulted a doctor. He punched and pounded me, and poked things at me and listened at the other end of them; and finally he said I must stop work 'immejutly and to onct' and hie me straightway to a climate not afflicted with the north-east winds of Prince Edward Island in the spring. I am not to be allowed to do any work until the fall. Such was his dictum and Mrs. Williamson enforces it.

“我在夏洛特敦看了一个大夫。他对我连敲带打，又把一些东西摁到我身上，他在另一头听。最后他说，我必须‘立马’停止工作，还要求我在春天的时候赶紧搬到一个吹不到爱德华王子岛省东北风的地方。秋天以前，我都不得工作。这就是大夫的建议，威廉森太太竭力主张这一建议。”

"I shall teach this week out and then the spring vacation of three weeks begins. I want you to come over and take my place as pedagogue in the Lindsay school for the last week in May and the month of June. The school year ends then and there will be plenty of teachers looking for the place, but just now I cannot get a suitable substitute. I have a couple of pupils who are preparing to try the Queen's Academy entrance examinations, and I don't like to leave them in the lurch or hand them over to the tender mercies of some third-class teacher who knows little Latin and less Greek. Come over and take the school till the end of the term, you petted son of luxury. It will do you a world of good to learn how rich a man feels when he is earning twenty-five dollars a month by his own unaided efforts!

“我会教完这周的课，然后开始我为期三周的春季假期。我希望你能过来替我在林赛学校教一阵课，五月的最后一周和整个六月。之后学年就结束了，那时会有很多老师想要这个差事，可是我这会儿找不到合适的人来替我。我的几个学生正在准备参加女王学院的入学考试，我不想突然撇下他们，或者把他们交给既不懂拉丁语也不懂希腊语、温和仁慈的某个三流老师。贵公子，来帮我把这个学期教完吧。体验一下完全靠自己的感觉，每月挣二十五加元，你会受益匪浅的！”

"Seriously, Marshall, I hope you can come, for I don't know any other fellow I can ask. The work isn't hard, though you'll likely find it monotonous. Of course, this little north-shore farming settlement isn't a very lively place. The rising and setting of the sun are the most exciting events of the average day. But the people are very kind and hospitable; and Prince Edward Island in the month of June is such a thing as you don't often see except in happy dreams. There are some trout in the pond and you'll always find an old salt at the harbour ready and willing to take you out cod-fishing or lobstering.

“说正经的，马歇尔，我希望你能来，因为我没有任何其他人可以求了。虽然你很可能会觉得工作单调乏味，但却并不辛苦。当然了，这个北海岸的农业小镇可不是个很活跃的地方。基本上每天的日出日落就算是最有意思的事了。但当地人非常善良热心，而且六月的爱德华王子岛省美妙如梦，此景不可多得。池塘里有鳟鱼，而且你总会发现海岸边的老水手，他们乐意带你去钓鳕鱼或龙虾。”

"I'll bequeath you my boarding house. You'll find it comfortable and not further from the school than a good constitutional. Mrs. Williamson is the dearest soul alive; and she is one of those old-fashioned cooks who feed you on feasts of fat things and whose price is above rubies.

“我把我租的房子留给你住。你会觉得住处很舒服，而且离学校不远，散个步就到了。威廉森太太是天底下最可爱的人。她是个老派的厨师，会给你做丰盛而又价值不菲的饭菜。”

"Her husband, Robert, or Bob, as he is commonly called despite his sixty years, is quite a character in his way. He is an amusing old gossip, with a turn for racy comment and a finger in everybody's pie. He knows everything about everybody in Lindsay for three generations back.

“她丈夫罗伯特，虽然已经六十岁了，但大家还叫他鲍勃。他可是个特别的人物。这老头很有意思，爱嚼舌根，天生就爱发表些辛辣的评论，而且什么闲事都要管。林赛这里三代人的琐事他全知道。”

"They have no living children, but Old Bob has a black cat which is his especial pride and darling. The name of this animal is Timothy and as such he must always be called and referred to. Never, as you value Robert's good opinion, let him hear you speaking of his pet as 'the cat,' or even as 'Tim.' You will never be forgiven and he will not consider you a fit person to have charge of the school.

“他们夫妇俩没有存活的孩子了，可有只黑猫是老鲍勃独有的骄傲，也是他的心头肉。这小家伙叫蒂莫西，无论是当面叫还是提起它来的时候，都必须这么称呼它。只要你把罗伯特的看法当回事，就千万别让他听见你管他的宠物叫‘那只猫’，叫‘蒂姆’也不行。他永远都不会原谅你的，也不会把你当作接管这个学校的合适人选。”

"You shall have my room, a little place over the kitchen, with a ceiling that follows the slant of the roof down one side, against which you will bump your head times innumerable until you learn to remember that it is there, and a looking glass which will make one of your eyes as small as a pea and the other as big as an orange.

“你将会住我的房间。小屋在厨房边上。屋顶是斜坡，天花板也斜向一边，你得记住有一边屋顶矮，要不会在那边磕着好几次头。屋里还有面镜子，会把你照得一眼小似豆，一眼大如橙。”

"But to compensate for these disadvantages the supply of towels is generous and unexceptionable; and there is a window whence you will daily behold an occidental view over Lindsay Harbour and the gulf beyond which is an unspeakable miracle of beauty. The sun is setting over it as I write and I see such a sea of glass mingled with fire as might have figured in the visions of the Patmian seer. A vessel is sailing away into the gold and crimson and pearl of the horizon; the big revolving light on the tip of the headland beyond the harbour has just been lighted and is winking and flashing like a beacon,

“尽管这些条件不好，但你会从别的方面得到补偿。毛巾很充足，没得挑剔。每天能从其中一个窗户瞥见西洋风格的景致，林赛港和海湾，远景美得难以言喻。我写信的时候，太阳正落到那儿，我看见交织着玻璃与火的海洋，或许先知帕特缅看到过这样的景色。一条船正驶向远方，天际呈现出金、绯红和珠光的混合色。海峡上岬顶的旋转灯刚点亮，如信号灯般闪闪烁烁。”

“'O'er the foam Of perilous seas in faerie lands forlorn.’”

“‘望向泡沫浪花在遗失的仙城中震动了窗扉。’”

"Wire me if you can come; and if you can, report for duty on the twenty-third of May."

你如果能来，给我发个电报。要是可以的话，就五月二十三日报到吧。”

Mr. Marshall, Senior, came in, just as Eric was thoughtfully folding up his letter. The former looked more like a benevolent old clergyman or philanthropist than the keen, shrewd, somewhat hard, although just and honest, man of business that he really was. He had a round, rosy face, fringed with white whiskers, a fine head of long white hair, and a pursed-up mouth. Only in his blue eyes was a twinkle that would have made any man who designed getting the better of him in a bargain think twice before he made the attempt.

埃里克若有所思地把信折起来，这时，老马歇尔先生进来了。他看起来更像个仁慈的牧师，或是慈善家，虽然他实际上是一个敏锐精明、有点儿强硬、却又正直诚实的商人。他长着一张红润的圆脸，胡须全白，小小的头上一头白色长发，一张撅嘴。只是一双蓝眼睛亮晶晶的，透着些许威慑力，会使任何一个在谈生意时设法想从他那儿得到更多好处的人，不得不三思。

It was easily seen that Eric must have inherited his personal beauty and distinction of form from his mother, whose picture hung on the dark wall between the windows. She had died while still young, when Eric was a boy of ten. During her lifetime she had been the object of the passionate devotion of both her husband and son; and the fine, strong, sweet face of the picture was a testimony that she had been worthy of their love and reverence. The same face, cast in a masculine mold, was repeated in Eric; the chestnut hair grew off his forehead in the same way; his eyes were like hers, and in his grave moods they held a similar expression, half brooding, half tender, in their depths.

埃里克一定是从母亲身上继承了漂亮的外表和出众的外形，这点很明显就能看出，因为他母亲的画像就挂在窗户间深色的墙壁上。她年纪轻轻就去世了，那时埃里克才十岁。她一生都深受丈夫和儿子的喜爱；照片上那张漂亮、坚定、甜美的脸证明她值得他俩的敬爱。相同的面容在埃里克脸上重现了，不过带有更多男性气息。栗色头发在额头前的刘海同她一样，眼睛也像母亲。由于沉郁的心情，眼神也相似起来：半是深沉，半是温柔。

Mr. Marshall was very proud of his son's success in college, but he had no intention of letting him see it. He loved this boy of his, with the dead mother's eyes, better than anything on earth, and all his hopes and ambitions were bound up in him.

马歇尔先生对儿子在学校的成就深感骄傲，但他不想让儿子看出来。他深爱着儿子，这孩子有一双与逝去的母亲一样的眼睛，那简直是世间最美的东西。他所有的希望和宏伟的理想也都寄托在这孩子身上。

"Well, that fuss is over, thank goodness," he said testily, as he dropped into his favourite chair.

“哎，乱七八糟的事总算过去了，谢天谢地。”他不耐烦地说着，一边坐在自己最喜欢的那把椅子上。

"Didn't you find the programme interesting?" asked Eric absently.

埃里克漫不经心地问道：“你觉得项目没意思？”

"Most of it was tommyrot," said his father. "The only things I liked were Charlie's Latin prayer and those pretty little girls trotting up to get their diplomas. Latin is the language for praying in, I do believe,—at least, when a man has a voice like Old Charlie's. There was such a sonorous roll to the words that the mere sound of them made me feel like getting down on my marrow bones. And then those girls were as pretty as pinks, now weren't they? Agnes was the finest-looking of the lot in my opinion. I hope it's true that you're courting her, Eric?"

“全是胡闹。”他父亲回答道。“我唯一喜欢的只有查理的拉丁语祷告，还有为拿毕业证书跑来跑去的漂亮姑娘。我的确相信拉丁语是用来祈祷的语言——至少对像老查理那样有着好嗓子的人来说是这样。每个词的发音那样浑厚，仅是听那声音就让我想要跪下来。还有，那些姑娘们美极了，不是吗？要我看，阿格尼丝是她们中最好看的。我想，你追求她的传言属实，是不是呀，埃里克？”

"Confound it, father," said Eric, half irritably, half laughingly, "have you and David Baker entered into a conspiracy to hound me into matrimony whether I will or no?"

“真讨厌，爸爸，”埃里克有些不耐烦，又带着微笑地回答道，“你是不是和戴维·贝克谋划好了要催我赶紧结婚，不管我愿不愿意？”

"I've never said a word to David Baker on such a subject," protested Mr. Marshall.

“我可从来没和戴维·贝克说过这事。”马歇尔先生抗议。

"Well, you are just as bad as he is. He hectored me all the way home from the college on the subject. But why are you in such a hurry to have me married, dad?"

“哎，你和他一样坏。从学校回家的一路上，他都拿这个话题威吓我。但你为什么这么着急让我结婚呢，爸爸？”

"Because I want a homemaker in this house as soon as may be. There has never been one since your mother died. I am tired of housekeepers. And I want to see your children at my knees before I die, Eric, and I'm an old man now."

“因为我希望这所房子里能尽快有个主妇。你母亲去世后，这里一直缺一个这样的人。我已经厌倦请女管家了。我也想在有生之年看到你的孩子，埃里克，而且现在我是个老人了。”

"Well, your wish is natural, father," said Eric gently, with a glance at his mother's picture. "But I can't rush out and marry somebody off-hand, can I? And I fear it wouldn't exactly do to advertise for a wife, even in these days of commercial enterprise."

“哎，你的想法很正常，父亲，”埃里克看了一眼母亲的画像，温柔地说，“可是我总不能匆匆忙忙就娶个人呀，是么？而且我怕，即使在当今商业企业的这个时代里，为选妻子而打广告也未必合适。”

"Isn't there anybody you're fond of?" queried Mr. Marshall, with the patient air of a man who overlooks the frivolous jests of youth.

“你就没有喜欢的人吗？”马歇尔先生耐心地问道，他早就无视了年轻人的俏皮话。

"No. I never yet saw the woman who could make my heart beat any faster."

“没有。从来没有一个女人能让我心跳加速，哪怕一点点。”

"I don't know what you young men are made of nowadays," growled his father. "I was in love half a dozen times before I was your age."

“真不明白现在你们这些年轻人是怎么搞的，”他父亲抱怨道，“我在你这个年龄的时候，都心动过好几次啦！”

"You might have been 'in love.' But you never loved any woman until you met my mother. I know that, father. And it didn't happen till you were pretty well on in life either."

“也许你对别人‘心动’过。但在遇到母亲以前，你还从未爱过哪个女人。这我可知道，父亲。而且，在你涉世较深以前，真爱也还没有来临。”

"You're too hard to please. That's what's the matter, that's what's the matter!”

“你可真难伺候。这才是问题所在，这才是问题所在！”

"Perhaps I am. When a man has had a mother like mine his standard of womanly sweetness is apt to be pitched pretty high. Let's drop the subject, father. Here, I want you to read this letter—it's from Larry."

“可能我就是这样。当一个男人要是有了像我妈妈这样的母亲时，那他对好女人的标准肯定是相当高的。咱们不谈这个了，父亲。我想让你看看这封信——是拉里写来的。”

"Humph!" grunted Mr. Marshall, when he had finished with it. "So Larry's knocked out at last—always thought he would be—always expected it. Sorry, too. He was a decent fellow. Well, are you going?"

“哼！”马歇尔先生看完信后，咕哝了一声。“拉里最终是精疲力竭了——我就知道他会这样——早就预料到了。真抱歉。他也曾经是个体面人。那么，你要去吗？”

"Yes, I think so, if you don't object."

“是啊，我想是的，如果你不反对的话。”

"You'll have a pretty monotonous time of it, judging from his account of Lindsay."

“从他对林赛的描述看，你将会过得非常单调。”

"Probably. But I am not going over in search of excitement. I'm going to oblige Larry and have a look at the Island."

“有可能。不过我又不是去那儿找乐子的。我要去帮帮拉里，顺便看看那个岛。”

"Well, it's worth looking at, some parts of the year," conceded Mr.Marshall. "When I'm on Prince Edward Island in the summer I always understand an old Scotch Islander I met once in Winnipeg. He was always talking of 'the Island.' Somebody once asked him, 'What island do you mean?' He simply looked at that ignorant man. Then he said, 'Why, Prince Edward Island, mon. What other island is there?' Go if you'd like to. You need a rest after the grind of examinations before settling down to business. And mind you don't get into any mischief, young sir."

“嗯，有些时节，那里是值得看一看的，”马歇尔先生不情愿地说道，“我夏天在爱德华王子岛的那段时间，很能理解曾经在温尼伯市遇到的一个老苏格兰岛人。他总是说‘岛’。曾有人问他，‘你说的是哪个岛？’他只是看了看那个无知的人。然后说，‘当然是爱德华王子岛了。那儿还有什么别的岛么？'你要想去就去吧。经历了考试的煎熬，在干正事以前，你是需要休息一下了。还有，记着不要惹事，年轻人。”

"Not much likelihood of that in a place like Lindsay, I fancy," laughed Eric.

“我觉得，林赛那种地方没什么事好惹吧。”埃里克笑着答道。

"Probably the devil finds as much mischief for idle hands in Lindsay as anywhere else. The worst tragedy I ever heard of happened on a backwoods farm, fifteen miles from a railroad and five from a store. However, I expect your mother's son to behave himself in the fear of God and man. In all likelihood the worst thing that will happen to you over there will be that some misguided woman will put you to sleep in a spare room bed. And if that does happen may the Lord have mercy on your soul!”

“没准林赛悠闲的小岛上和别处一样有祸可闯。我听说的最糟糕的祸事发生在边远的农田，那里距离铁路十五英里，距离商店五英里。不过，我认为你母亲的孩子会守规矩的，你懂得敬畏上帝，也明白人言可畏。所有可能的祸事里，最出格的要数受到误导的女子让你睡在屋子里的一张空床上。要是这种事真发生的话，愿主宽恕你！” /U9jbMFR3NkCLpEdIvW1gfhEPdHKZwG/Xkiz5qoCSHud6oPtq/OiwOTVAYpxv9Aj