第十四章（第2/11页）

“怎么回事？来个生人，就怕成那样？母的就是这副德行！赶紧吃恁的晚饭去吧。”他把手搁在它的头上，弗洛西侧着脑袋依靠着主人。他扯弄着它柔滑的长耳朵，动作缓慢而温柔。

"There!" He said. "There! Go an' eat thy supper! Go!” He tilted his chair towards the pot on the mat, and the dog meekly went, and fell to eating.

“去吧！”他说。“去吧！去吃恁的晚饭！快点！”他把椅子往垫子的方向倾斜，猎犬乖乖领命，跑下楼梯吃起食来。

"Do you like dogs?" Connie asked him.

“你喜欢狗吗？”康妮问他。

"No, not really. They're too tame and clinging.” He had taken off his leggings and was unlacing his heavy boots. Connie had turned from the fire. How bare the little room was! Yet over his head on the wall hung a hideous enlarged photograph of a young married couple, apparently him and a bold-faced young woman, no doubt his wife.

“不，不太喜欢。狗的性格太柔顺，总是缠着人不放。”他已经脱去绑腿，正在解那双笨重的长靴。康妮此刻背对着炉火。这间小屋确实简陋！但他头顶墙上挂着的大幅结婚照却格外扎眼，那对年轻的新人分明是他和一个长相轻挑的女子，而那无疑就是他的妻子。

"Is that you?" Connie asked him.

“那是你吗？”康妮问。

He twisted and looked at the enlargement above his head.

他扭头看着头顶的大幅照片。

"Ay! Taken just afore we was married, when I was twenty-one.” He looked at it impassively.

“是呀！俺俩临结婚的时候照的，那阵子我21岁。”他望向结婚照的目光极其冷漠。

"Do you like it?" Connie asked him.

“你喜欢它吗？”康妮问。

"Like it? No! I never liked the thing. But she fixed it all up to have it done, like." He returned to pulling off his boots.

“喜欢？不！我从不会喜欢这劳什子。可她安排好一切，俺也只得随着去照。”他转过脸，继续脱靴子。

"If you don't like it, why do you keep it hanging there? Perhaps your wife would like to have it," she said.

“不喜欢的话，干嘛还挂在这儿？或许你妻子还想要呢。”她说。

He looked up at her with a sudden grin.

他霍得抬头看着她，咧嘴笑起来。

"She carted off iverything as was worth taking from th' 'ouse," he said. "But she left THAT!"

“她走的时候，把家里所有值钱的东西席卷一空。”他说。“可只留下了那张照片！”

"Then why do you keep it? For sentimental reasons?" "Nay, I niver look at it. I hardly knowed it wor theer. It's bin theer sin' we come to this place.” "Why don't you burn it?” She said.

“那你为什么还留着它呢？因为难以忘情？”“才不是呢，俺从不正眼瞧它。几乎都忘记它还挂在那儿。自打俺俩在这里住下，它就挂在那儿。”“干嘛不烧了它？”她提议道。

He twisted round again and looked at the enlarged photograph. It was framed in a brown-and-gilt frame, hideous. It showed a clean-shaven, alert, very young-looking man in a rather high collar, and a somewhat plump, bold young woman with hair fluffed out and crimped, and wearing a dark satin blouse.

他又转过头，盯着那副大照片。它镶嵌在褐金相间的相框里，看着就让人反胃。照片里的新郎胡子剃得溜光，目光机警，模样颇为年轻，领子竖得很高。而新娘则长相泼辣，体型稍显臃肿，满头卷发乱蓬蓬的，穿深色缎料上衣。

"It wouldn't be a bad idea, would it?” He said.

“是个好主意。”他说。

He had pulled off his boots, and put on a pair of slippers. He stood up on the chair, and lifted down the photograph. It left a big pale place on the greenish wall-paper.

他已经脱去长靴，蹬上拖鞋。他站到椅子上，取下照片。浅绿色的壁纸间，留下一大块空白。

"No use dusting it now," he said, setting the thing against the wall.

“现在省得掸灰尘了。”他说着，把相框倚墙放下。

He went to the scullery, and returned with hammer and pincers. Sitting where he had sat before, he started to tear off the back-paper from the big frame, and to pull out the sprigs that held the backboard in position, working with the immediate quiet absorption that was characteristic of him.

他去洗碗池那边，拿回锤子和钳子。他在先前的地方坐下，先把镜框背面的纸撕掉，然后将固定后挡板的图钉拔出，整个过程始终全神贯注，沉静安详，那是他所特有的神态。

He soon had the nails out: then he pulled out the backboards, then the enlargement itself, in its solid white mount. He looked at the photograph with amusement.

他很快将所有钉子拔完，然后取下后挡板，接着把照片从结实的白色衬纸中拿出来。他饶有兴致地看着自己的结婚照。

"Shows me for what I was, a young curate, and her for what she was, a bully," he said. "The prig and the bully!" "Let me look!" Said Connie.

“让我想起自己当年的模样，像个年轻有为的牧师，而她那时候就是个地道的悍妇。”他说。“圣徒与泼妇！”“让我看看！”康妮说。

He did look indeed very clean-shaven and very clean altogether, one of the clean young men of twenty years ago. But even in the photograph his eyes were alert and dauntless. And the woman was not altogether a bully, though her jowl was heavy. There was a touch of appeal in her.

20年前的他确实未曾蓄须，干净利落，是位体态匀称的小伙子。但即便是在照片上，他的双眸依然显得机智敏锐，勇敢无畏。而那女人尽管下颚宽厚，但却并无悍妇模样。反倒有种特殊的魅力。

"One never should keep these things," said Connie. "That one shouldn't! One should never have them made!” He broke the cardboard photograph and mount over his knee, and when it was small enough, put it on the fire.

“没必要留着这种东西。”康妮说。“确实不该留！照都不该照！”他撕扯着硬纸板做成的照片，堆在膝盖上，直到彻底变成碎片，就将其投入炉火中。

"It'll spoil the fire though," he said.

“简直是对火焰的糟蹋。”他说。

The glass and the backboard he carefully took upstairs.

他小心翼翼地把玻璃和后挡板拿到楼上去收好。

The frame he knocked asunder with a few blows of the hammer, making the stucco fly. Then he took the pieces into the scullery.

相框被他几锤砸得粉碎，灰泥扬起，到处乱飞。接着，他将碎片丢到洗涤间。

"We'll burn that tomorrow," he said. "There's too much plaster-moulding on it.” Having cleared away, he sat down.