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Mrs Wickam was a waiter's wife - which would seem equivalent to being any other man's widow - whose application for an engagement in Mr Dombey's service had been favourably considered, on account of the apparent impossibility of her having any followers, or anyone to follow; and who, from within a day or two of Paul's sharp weaning, had been engaged as his nurse. Mrs Wickam was a meek woman, of a fair complexion, with her eyebrows always elevated, and her head always drooping; who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else; and who had a surprising natural gift of viewing all subjects in an utterly forlorn and pitiable light, and bringing dreadful precedents to bear upon them, and deriving the greatest consolation from the exercise of that talent.
威肯姆大嫂是一位侍者的妻子——那似乎就等于是任何其他男子的寡妇——；因为显然不可能有任何人会去追求她或她会去追求任何人，所以她到董贝先生家里求职的申请受到了有利的考虑。在保罗突然断奶以后的一两天之内，她就被雇用当他的保姆。威肯姆大嫂是一位温顺的女人，皮肤白嫩，眉毛总是向上扬起，头总是向下低垂；她总是随时准备怜悯自己或受人怜悯或怜悯其他任何人。她有一份惊人的天赋，就是从极为绝望与可怜的角度来观察一切事物，又援引一些可怕的先例来与它们比较，并从这个才能的发挥中得到极大的安慰。
It is hardly necessary to observe, that no touch of this quality ever reached the magnificent knowledge of Mr Dombey. It would have been remarkable, indeed, if any had; when no one in the house - not even Mrs Chick or Miss Tox - dared ever whisper to him that there had, on any one occasion, been the least reason for uneasiness in reference to little Paul. He had settled, within himself, that the child must necessarily pass through a certain routine of minor maladies, and that the sooner he did so the better. If he could have bought him off, or provided a substitute, as in the case of an unlucky drawing for the militia, he would have been glad to do so, on liberal terms. But as this was not feasible, he merely wondered, in his haughty-manner, now and then, what Nature meant by it; and comforted himself with the reflection that there was another milestone passed upon the road, and that the great end of the journey lay so much the nearer. For the feeling uppermost in his mind, now and constantly intensifying, and increasing in it as Paul grew older, was impatience. Impatience for the time to come, when his visions of their united consequence and grandeur would be triumphantly realized.
不需要指出，庄严的董贝先生丝毫也不知道她有这个优良的品质。如果他知道了，那才真是令人惊异的，因为公馆里从来没有一个人——连奇克夫人或托克斯小姐也包括在内——敢借任何口实向他低声说出小保罗有使人感到不安的一丁点理由。他认为，孩子总难免要通过某些小病小痛的例行过程，通过得愈快就愈好。如果他能出钱使他免受这些病痛，或者可以买一个替身，就像不幸被抽中服兵役时的情形一样，那么他就会毫不吝啬，十分乐意地这样去做。但由于这是行不通的，所以他只是不时傲慢地心中纳闷，大自然这样安排是什么意思；并聊以自慰地想，道路上的一个里程碑又走过了，伟大的旅程终点又接近好多了。因为在他心中压倒一切的情绪就是急不可耐，这种情绪不断地变得愈来愈强烈，并随着保罗年龄的增长愈来愈加深。他曾经梦想他们父子联合起来就会创建宏伟的业绩；他急不可耐地等待着胜利实现这一梦想的时候来到。
Some philosophers tell us that selfishness is at the root of our best loves and affections.' Mr Dombey's young child was, from the beginning, so distinctly important to him as a part of his own greatness, or (which is the same thing) of the greatness of Dombey and Son, that there is no doubt his parental affection might have been easily traced, like many a goodly superstructure of fair fame, to a very low foundation. But he loved his son with all the love he had. If there were a warm place in his frosty heart, his son occupied it; if its very hard surface could receive the impression of any image, the image of that son was there; though not so much as an infant, or as a boy, but as a grown man - the 'Son' of the Firm. Therefore he was impatient to advance into the future, and to hurry over the intervening passages of his history. Therefore he had little or no anxiety' about them, in spite of his love; feeling as if the boy had a charmed life, and must become the man with whom he held such constant communication in his thoughts, and for whom he planned and projected, as for an existing reality, every day.
有些哲学家告诉我们，自私植根于我们最热烈的爱与最深厚的感情之中。董贝先生年幼的儿子从一开始就作为他自己的伟大的一部分，或作为董贝父子公司的伟大的一部分（二者实际上是一回事），对他显然十分重要，所以他所怀的父爱可以像许多享有盛誉的华丽建筑一样，很容易就能追溯到它的埋得很深的基础。但他用他所有的爱去爱他的儿子。如果在他的冰冷的心中有一个温暖的地方，那么这个地方就被他的儿子占据着；如果在它的十分坚硬的表面上可以铭刻什么形象的话，那么铭刻出来的就是他儿子的形象，虽然这形象与其说是一个婴儿或是一个小孩，还不如说是一位成年人——董贝父子公司中的“子”。因此，他急不可耐地进入未来，匆匆地跳过了他历史中的中间阶段。因此，他虽然很爱他，但却很少或根本不替他担忧；他觉得仿佛这孩子具有驱恶避邪的魔力，?一?定能成长为他在思想上经常与他进行相互交谈的那一位成年人，仿佛这位成年人是个已经存在的实体似的，他每天都为他制订计划，作出打算。
Thus Paul grew to be nearly five years old. He was a pretty little fellow; though there was something wan and wistful in his small face, that gave occasion to many significant shakes of Mrs Wickam's head, and many long-drawn inspirations of Mrs Wickam's breath. His temper gave abundant promise of being imperious in after-life; and he had as hopeful an apprehension of his own importance, and the rightful subservience of all other things and persons to it, as heart could desire. He was childish and sportive enough at times, and not of a sullen disposition; but he had a strange, old-fashioned, thoughtful way, at other times, of sitting brooding in his miniature arm-chair, when he looked (and talked) like one of those terrible little Beings in the Fairy tales, who, at a hundred and fifty or two hundred years of age, fantastically represent the children for whom they have been substituted. He would frequently be stricken with this precocious mood upstairs in the nursery; and would sometimes lapse into it suddenly, exclaiming that he was tired: even while playing with Florence, or driving Miss Tox in single harness. But at no time did he fall into it so surely, as when, his little chair being carried down into his father's room, he sat there with him after dinner, by the fire. They were the strangest pair at such a time that ever firelight shone upon. Mr Dombey so erect and solemn, gazing at the blare; his little image, with an old, old face, peering into the red perspective with the fixed and rapt attention of a sage. Mr Dombey entertaining complicated worldly schemes and plans; the little image entertaining Heaven knows what wild fancies, half-formed thoughts, and wandering speculations. Mr Dombey stiff with starch and arrogance; the little image by inheritance, and in unconscious imitation. The two so very much alike, and yet so monstrously contrasted.
保罗就这样长到将近五岁。虽然他小小的脸孔有些缺乏血色，神色有些愁闷，这使得威肯姆大嫂意味深长地摇过好多次头，长长地叹过好多次气；但他是个漂亮的小家伙。从他的性格来看，他在日后的生活中很有希望变得专横傲慢。他也很有希望懂得他自己的重要性，懂得所有其他事物与人们都能随从他的欲望，并理所当然地屈服于它。他是孩子气的，有时还很爱玩爱闹，并不是一种忧闷不乐的性情；但在另一些时候，他却有怪僻地、老气横秋地静坐在小扶手椅子中沉思默想的习惯，在这种时候他看上去（或说起话来）就像是神话故事中那些可怕的小妖精，他们已有一百五十岁或二百岁，但却荒诞古怪地装扮成他们所已替换了的小孩子。他在楼上的育儿室中常会露出这种过早成熟的神态；有时甚至是在跟弗洛伦斯玩耍的时候或者把托克斯小姐当作一匹马驱赶着的时候，也会一边喊着“我累了”，一边突然陷入这种状态。当他的小椅子被搬到楼下他父亲的房间里，他和他晚饭后在壁炉旁边挨近坐着的时候，他准会陷入这种状态之中；在任何其他时候都比不上在这时候这样准定使他陷入这种状态的。这时候，他们是炉火所曾照耀过的最奇怪的一对人。董贝先生身子毕挺，神情十分庄严地凝视着火焰；跟他一模一样的那位小人儿，脸上露出一副老而又老的神态，像圣人一样全神贯注、一动不动地注视着那红色的景象。董贝先生心中怀着复杂的世俗的谋略与计划；跟他一模一样的小人儿心中怀着天知道什么荒诞离奇的幻想、没有定形的思索和飘忽不定的考虑。董贝先生由于古板与傲慢而木然不动；跟他一模一样的小人儿则由于遗传和不自觉的模仿而木然不动。这两个人是多么相像，然而又形成了多么奇异的对照。 |
