第十二章（第3/12页）

“弗洛西！”他召唤着猎犬，那畜生正趴在楼梯下面的小毡垫上。“去扫听一下！”他竖起一根手指，说“扫听”这个词的时候显得声情并茂。猎犬跑出去巡风放哨了。

"Are you sad today?" She asked him. He turned his blue eyes quickly, and gazed direct on her.

“你今天不开心吗？”她问他。他淡蓝色的眼睛迅速转回来，直直地盯着她。

"Sad! No, bored! I had to go getting summonses for two poachers I caught, and, oh well, I don't like people.” He spoke cold, good English, and there was anger in his voice. "Do you hate being a game-keeper?" she asked.

“不开心！不，是有点烦！我抓到两名偷猎者，只得去给他们讨传票，唉，我讨厌和人打交道。”他说着地道的英语，语气冷淡，又夹杂着愤怒。“你不愿做守林人吗？”她问。

"Being a game-keeper, no! So long as I'm left alone. But when I have to go messing around at the police-station, and various other places, and waiting for a lot of fools to attend to me...oh well, I get mad..." and he smiled, with a certain faint humour.

“守林人？我愿意做。前提是能让我一个人呆着。可让我去警察局或者别的什么地方，浪费宝贵的时间，等着那些蠢货来接待我……噢，我简直快要发疯……”他露出微笑，带着些调侃的意味。

"Couldn't you be really independent?" she asked.

“难道你不能真的独自过活吗？”她问。

"Me? I suppose I could, if you mean manage to exist on my pension. I could! But I've got to work, or I should die. That is, I've got to have something that keeps me occupied. And I'm not in a good enough temper to work for myself. It's got to be a sort of job for somebody else, or I should throw it up in a month, out of bad temper. So altogether I'm very well off here, especially lately...” He laughed at her again, with mocking humour.

“我？如果你是指依靠抚恤金度日，我想我能做到。我当然能！可我必须有事可做，不然会闷死。也就是说，我需要做点什么，来打发时间。我脾气太糟，不适合为自己工作。只能被别人雇佣，不然，不出一个月，我的坏脾气发作起来，准会立马甩手不干。总而言之，我在这儿过得挺好，尤其是最近……”他又朝她笑起来，半是嘲讽，半是诙谐。

"But why are you in a bad temper?" she asked. "Do you mean you are ALWAYS in a bad temper?" "Pretty well," he said, laughing. "I don't quite digest my bile.” "But what bile?" she said.

“可你的脾气为何这么糟呀？”她问。“你是说这坏脾气从没改过吗？”“差不多吧。”他笑着说。“我的胆汁分泌过剩。”“什么胆汁？”她问。

"Bile!" he said.

“胆汁！”他说。

"Don't you know what that is?” She was silent, and disappointed. He was taking no notice of her.

“难不成你不晓得是什么？”她沉默不语，神情失落。他并未注意到这一点。

"I'm going away for a while next month," she said.

“我下个月要远行。”她说。

"You are! Where to?" "Venice! With Sir Clifford? For how long?" "For a month or so," she replied. "Clifford won't go.” "He'll stay here?" he asked.

“远行！去哪里？”“威尼斯！和克利福德爵士一起？呆多久？”“大概一个月左右。”她答道。“克利福德不去。”“他留在拉格比？”他问。

"Yes! He hates to travel as he is." "Ay, poor devil!" he said, with sympathy.

“是的！他行动不便，不愿出外旅行。”“是呀，可怜的家伙！”他同情地说。

There was a pause.

两人沉默片刻。

"You won't forget me when I'm gone, will you?" she asked.

“我离开的时候，你不会忘记我吧？”她问。

Again he lifted his eyes and looked full at her.

他又抬起眼睛，全神贯注地凝望着她。

"Forget?" he said.

“忘记？”他说。

"You know nobody forgets. It's not a question of memory;” She wanted to say: "When then?" but she didn't. Instead, she said in a mute kind of voice: "I told Clifford I might have a child." Now he really looked at her, intense and searching.

“要知道，没有人会忘记。这与记忆力无关。”她想问：“那与什么有关？”但话到嘴边又咽下。而是压低声音说：“我跟克利福德说，我或许会身怀六甲。”此刻，他的注意力都集中在她身上，眼神炽热而又充满疑问。

"You did?" He said at last. "And what did he say?" "Oh, he wouldn't mind. He'd be glad, really, so long as it seemed to be his." she dared not look up at him.