狄更斯的小说特点 狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第38章Part1

狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第38章Part1  

The forlorn Miss Tox
abandoned by her friend Louisa Chick
and bereft of Mr Dombey's countenance - for no delicate pair of wedding cards
united by a silver thread
graced the chimney-glass in Princess's Place
or the harpsichord
or any of those little posts of display which Lucretia reserved for holiday occupation - became depressed in her spirits
and suffered much from melancholy. For a time the Bird Waltz was unheard in Princess's Place
the plants were neglected
and dust collected on the miniature of Miss Tox's ancestor with the powdered head and pigtail.
Miss Tox
however
was not of an age or of a disposition long to abandon herself to unavailing regrets. Only o notes of the harpsichord were dumb from disuse when the Bird Waltz again warbled and trilled in the crooked drawing-room: only one slip of geranium fell a victim to imperfect nursing
before she was gardening at her green baskets again
regularly every morning; the powdered-headed ancestor had not been under a cloud for more than six weeks
when Miss Tox breathed on his benignant visage
and polished him up with a piece of wash-leather.
Still
Miss Tox was lonely
and at a loss. Her attachments
however ludicrously shown
were real and strong; and she was
as she expressed it
'deeply hurt by the unmerited contumely she had met with from Louisa.' But there was no such thing as anger in Miss Tox's position. If she had ambled on through life
in her soft spoken way
without any opinions
she had
at least
got so far without any harsh passions. The mere sight of Louisa Chick in the street one day
at a considerable distance
so overpowered her milky nature
that she was fain to seek immediate refuge in a pastrycook's
and there
in a musty little back room usually devoted to the consumption of soups
and pervaded by an ox-tail atmosphere
relieve her feelings by weeping plentifully.
Against Mr Dombey Miss Tox hardly felt that she had any reason of plaint. Her sense of that gentleman's magnificence was such
that once removed from him
she felt as if her distance always had been immeasurable
and as if he had greatly condescended in tolerating her at all. No wife could be too handsome or too stately for him
according to Miss Tox's sincere opinion. It was perfectly natural that in looking for one
he should look high. Miss Tox with tears laid down this proposition
and fully admitted it
enty times a day. She never recalled the lofty manner in which Mr Dombey had made her subservient to his convenience and caprices
and had graciously permitted her to be one of the nurses of his little son. She only thought
in her own words
'that she had passed a great many happy hours in that house
which she must ever remember with gratification
and that she could never cease to regard Mr Dombey as one of the most impressive and dignified of men.'