第十七章（第10/18页）

姐妹俩的朋友，画家邓肯·福布斯从罗马北上，来到威尼斯，住进埃斯梅拉达别墅。现在，他成为凤尾船的第三位乘客，跟姐妹俩一起到泻湖彼岸畅泳，充当起护花使者的角色。他安静寡言，在艺术上却很有造诣。

She had a letter from Mrs. Bolton: You will be pleased, I am sure, my Lady, when you see Sir Clifford. He's looking quite blooming and working very hard, and very hopeful. Of course he is looking forward to seeing you among us again. It is a dull house without my Lady, and we shall all welcome her presence among us once more.

她接到博尔顿太太的来信：夫人，要是您能见到克利福德爵士，我保证您准会开心不已。他看上去精力旺盛，刻苦工作，对未来充满希望。当然，他期盼着您能回到我们身边。夫人没在，家里变得异常沉闷，大家都盼望着您能早日归来。

About Mr. Mellors, I don't know how much Sir Clifford told you. It seems his wife came back all of a sudden one afternoon, and he found her sitting on the doorstep when he came in from the wood. She said she was come back to him and wanted to live with him again, as she was his legal wife, and he wasn't going to divorce her. But he wouldn't have anything to do with her, and wouldn't let her in the house, and did not go in himself; he went back into the wood without ever opening the door.

关于梅勒斯先生的事，我不清楚克利福德爵士跟您透露过多少。情况似乎是这样，某天下午，他的妻子突然出现，他从树林回到家时，发现她坐在门阶上。她说她回来找他的目的，是想跟他重归于好，因为她是他的合法妻子，不能随随便便就离婚。但他根本不想跟她有任何瓜葛，连门都不让她进，自己也赌气没回家。锁都没开，就回树林去了。

But when he came back after dark, he found the house broken into, so he went upstairs to see what she'd done, and he found her in bed without a rag on her. He offered her money, but she said she was his wife and he must take her back. I don't know what sort of a scene they had. His mother told me about it, she's terribly upset. Well, he told her he'd die rather than ever live with her again, so he took his things and went straight to his mother's on Tevershall hill. He stopped the night and went to the wood next day through the park, never going near the cottage. It seems he never saw his wife that day. But the day after she was at her brother Dan's at Beggarlee, swearing and carrying on, saying she was his legal wife, and that he'd been having women at the cottage, because she'd found a scent-bottle in his drawer, and gold-tipped cigarette-ends on the ash-heap, and I don't know what all. Then it seems the postman Fred Kirk says he heard somebody talking in Mr. Mellors' bedroom early one morning, and a motor-car had been in the lane.

但他晚上再次回来时，发现有人破窗而入，于是，他上楼去看她究竟干了什么勾当，却发现她正一丝不挂地躺在床上。他想用钱把她打发走，但她却说，他是她的丈夫，必须接受她回到家来。我不知道当时他俩究竟吵成啥样。这些事都是我从他母亲那里听来的，她感到很不安。总而言之，他已经跟她挑明，就算死也不愿再跟她过，收拾东西径直搬到特弗沙尔他母亲那里。他在母亲家过夜，第二天直接经过花园去了树林，没再靠近农舍。似乎那天他并没有见到他的妻子。但第三天，她跑去贝加里，上门找她哥哥丹，撒泼打滚，赌咒发愿，说她是他合法的妻子，可他却背地里跟别的女人偷欢。因为她在抽屉里找到个香水瓶，还在炉灰上发现了金嘴的烟头，还有些什么我不太清楚。后来，邮差弗雷德·柯克也说，有天清早，他听到梅勒斯先生卧室里有女人的声音，小路上还停着辆汽车。

Mr. Mellors stayed on with his mother, and went to the wood through the park, and it seems she stayed on at the cottage. Well, there was no end of talk. So at last Mr. Mellors and Tom Phillips went to the cottage and fetched away most of the furniture and bedding, and unscrewed the handle of the pump, so she was forced to go. But instead of going back to Stacks Gate she went and lodged with that Mrs. Swain at Beggarlee, because her brother Dan's wife wouldn't have her. And she kept going to old Mrs. Mellors' house, to catch him, and she began swearing he'd got in bed with her in the cottage and she went to a lawyer to make him pay her an allowance. She's grown heavy, and more common than ever, and as strong as a bull. And she goes about saying the most awful things about him, how he has women at the cottage, and how he behaved to her when they were married, the low, beastly things he did to her, and I don't know what all. I'm sure it's awful, the mischief a woman can do, once she starts talking. And no matter how low she may be, there'll be some as will believe her, and some of the dirt will stick. I'm sure the way she makes out that Mr. Mellors was one of those low, beastly men with women, is simply shocking. And people are only too ready to believe things against anybody, especially things like that. She declared she'll never leave him alone while he lives. Though what I say is, if he was so beastly to her, why is she so anxious to go back to him? But of course she's coming near her change of life, for she's years older than he is. And these common, violent women always go partly insane whets the change of life comes upon them— This was a nasty blow to Connie. Here she was, sure as life, coming in for her share of the lowness and dirt. She felt angry with him for not having got clear of a Bertha Coutts: nay, for ever having married her. Perhaps he had a certain hankering after lowness. Connie remembered the last night she had spent with him, and shivered. He had known all that sensuality, even with a Bertha Coutts! It was really rather disgusting. It would be well to be rid of him, clear of him altogether. He was perhaps really common, really low.