第三章（第4/7页）

"It's very pleasant up here," he said, with his queer smile, as if it hurt him to smile, showing his teeth. "You are wise to get up to the top." "Yes, I think so," she said.

“楼上的房间果然令人心旷神怡，”他说，脸上显出露齿的怪异笑容，好像这样的微笑会使他感到痛苦，“住在顶楼是个明智的选择。”“没错，我也有同感。”她说。

Her room was the only gay, modern one in the house, the only spot in Wragby where her personality was at all revealed. Clifford had never seen it, and she asked very few people up.

她的房间是整座府邸唯一色彩鲜活、具有现代气息的地方，也是整个拉格比唯一能够彰显她全部个性的所在。克利福德从没到过这个房间，她也很少请人上来做客。

Now she and Michaelis sit on opposite sides of the fire and talked. She asked him about himself, his mother and father, his brothers...other people were always something of a wonder to her, and when her sympathy was awakened she was quite devoid of class feeling. Michaelis talked frankly about himself, quite frankly, without affectation, simply revealing his bitter, indifferent, stray-dog's soul, then showing a gleam of revengeful pride in his success.

此刻，她和米凯利斯在壁炉两侧落座，畅谈起来。她问及他自己、他的父母兄弟……康妮对别人的事总有几分好奇，而当心底的同情被唤醒，等级意识便荡然无存。米凯利斯开诚布公地讲起自己，没有丝毫隐瞒，不做半点矫饰，将自己满怀怨恨、麻木不仁、如同丧家犬般的灵魂，彻彻底底地展现在康妮面前，而在讲述自己的成功经历时，则掺杂着复仇的快感以及骄傲的情绪。

"But why are you such a lonely bird?" Connie asked him; and again he looked at her, with his full, searching, hazel look.

“但你为何孤独地好似离群之鸟？”康妮问道。而米凯利斯则又瞪着那双淡褐色的大眼睛，注视着她，目光中含有探寻的意味。

"Some birds ARE that way," he replied. Then, with a touch of familiar irony: "but, look here, what about yourself? Aren't you by way of being a lonely bird yourself?” Connie, a little startled, thought about it for a few moments, and then she said: "Only in a way! Not altogether, like you!" "Am I altogether a lonely bird?" he asked, with his queer grin of a smile, as if he had toothache; it was so wry, and his eyes were so perfectly unchangingly melancholy, or stoical, or disillusioned or afraid.

“有些人本就是如此，”他答道，接着又换上康妮熟悉的嘲讽腔调，“但也不要忘记眼前之人，你自己呢？你又何尝不是某种离群的孤雁？”康妮心中一惊，沉吟片刻后说：“倒也有些道理。但并非像你那样，完全与孤独为伴。”“我拥有的就只是寂寞？”他反问道，咧嘴露出古怪的笑容，脸庞扭曲得好像饱受牙痛的折磨，眼神仍是一成不变的忧郁，或是坚忍，或是幻灭，又或是恐惧。

"Why?" she said, a little breathless, as she looked at him. "You are, aren't you?” She felt a terrible appeal coming to her from him, that made her almost lose her balance.

“为何这么说？”她问，与他目光相接时，不禁有些呼吸急促。“难道你并非如此么？”康妮感到自己被他那股强烈的吸引力慑住，有些心旌旗摇。

"Oh, you're quite right!" he said, turning his head away, and looking sideways, downwards, with that strange immobility of an old race that is hardly here in our present day. It was that that really made Connie lose her power to see him detached from herself.

“嗯，你说得太对了！”他说，扭头把脸侧向一边，目光低垂，呈现出那种古老民族独有、现今罕见的静止状态。眼见对方如此冷淡地对待自己，康妮感到非常气馁。

He looked up at her with the full glance that saw everything, registered everything. At the same time, the infant crying in the night was crying out of his breast to her, in a way that affected her very womb.

他抬起头，饱含深情地凝望着她，将眼前的女子完完全全地收入眼底，也把自己心中的情意彻彻底底地传递出来。与此同时，他的胸腔中发出如同婴儿夜啼的声响，不知为何，这哭声让她的子宫都为之震颤。

"It's awfully nice of you to think of me," he said laconically.

“你能如此为我着想，真是太令人感动了。”他毫不掩饰心中的情感。

"Why shouldn't I think of you?" she exclaimed, with hardly breath to utter it.

“我为何不该为你着想呢？”她惊叫道，激动地几乎透不过气。

He gave the wry, quick hiss of a laugh.

他面容扭曲着快速地发出轻笑。

"Oh, in that way!...

“哦，确实应该！……

May I hold your hand for a minute?" he asked suddenly, fixing his eyes on her with almost hypnotic power, and sending out an appeal that affected her direct in the womb.

能否让我握握你的柔荑？”他突然问道，两眼完全集中在她的身上，放射出近乎催眠的目光，那无可比拟的感染力直接震撼着她的子宫。

She stared at him, dazed and transfixed, and he went over and kneeled beside her, and took her two feet close in his two hands, and buried his face in her lap, remaining motionless. She was perfectly dim and dazed, looking down in a sort of amazement at the rather tender nape of his neck, feeling his face pressing her thighs. In all her burning dismay, she could not help putting her hand, with tenderness and compassion, on the defenceless nape of his neck, and he trembled, with a deep shudder.

她呆呆地望着他，感到头晕目眩，不知所措。他走上前来，跪在她的身旁，两手紧握住她的双足，把脸深埋进她的裙摆，一动不动。她的脑袋一片空白，讶异地望着他那白皙柔嫩的后颈，感觉到他的脸庞挤压着自己的大腿。尽管热血沸腾，心如鹿撞，她还是禁不住将手抚上那毫无防备的脖颈，充满柔情与怜爱，而跪在地上的他则剧烈地颤抖起来。

Then he looked up at her with that awful appeal in his full, glowing eyes. She was utterly incapable of resisting it. From her breast flowed the answering, immense yearning over him; she must give him anything, anything.

接着，他抬起头来望着她，炽热的目光中饱含着骇人的感染力。这目光让她完全失去抵抗的能力。胸中充溢着不可遏制的强烈欲求，那是对他求欢举动的回应。她要将自己的身心完全交托给眼前的这个男人，完全地。

He was a curious and very gentle lover, very gentle with the woman, trembling uncontrollably, and yet at the same time detached, aware, aware of every sound outside.