狄更斯长篇小说 狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第42章Part6

狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第42章Part6  

'Indeed
' said Mr Dombey
in his lofty patronage
'anyone might say so. As far as it goes
it is a very modious and well-arranged place - quite elegant.'
'As far as it goes
truly
' returned Carker
with an air of disparagement' 'It wants that qualification. Well! we have said enough about it; and though you can afford to praise it
I thank you noheless. Will you walk in?'
Mr Dombey
entering the house
noticed
as he had reason to do
the plete arrangement of the rooms
and the numerous contrivances for fort and effect that abounded there. Mr Carker
in his ostentation of humility
received this notice with a deferential smile
and said he understood its delicate meaning
and appreciated it
but in truth the cottage was good enough for one in his position - better
perhaps
than such a man should occupy
poor as it was.
'But perhaps to you
who are so far removed
it really does look better than it is
' he said
with his false mouth distended to its fullest stretch. 'Just as monarchs imagine attractions in the lives of beggars.'
He directed a sharp glance and a sharp smile at Mr Dombey as he spoke
and a sharper glance
and a sharper smile yet
when Mr Dombey
drawing himself up before the fire
in the attitude so often copied by his second in mand
looked round at the pictures on the walls. Cursorily as his cold eye wandered over them
Carker's keen glance acpanied his
and kept pace with his
marking exactly where it went
and what it saw. As it rested on one picture in particular
Carker hardly seemed to breathe
his sidelong scrutiny was so cat-like and vigilant
but the eye of his great chief passed from that
as from the others
and appeared no more impressed by it than by the rest.
Carker looked at it - it was the picture that resembled Edith - as if it were a living thing; and with a wicked
silent laugh upon his face
that seemed in part addressed to it
though it was all derisive of the great man standing so unconscious beside him. Breakfast was soon set upon the table; and
inviting Mr Dombey to a chair which had its back towards this picture
he took his own seat opposite to it as usual.
Mr Dombey was even graver than it was his custom to be
and quite silent. The parrot
swinging in the gilded hoop within her gaudy cage
attempted in vain to attract notice
for Carker was too observant of his visitor to heed her; and the visitor
abstracted in meditation
looked fixedly
not to say sullenly
over his stiff neckcloth
without raising his eyes from the table-cloth. As to Rob
who was in attendance
all his faculties and energies were so locked up in observation of his master
that he scarcely ventured to give shelter to the thought that the visitor was the great gentleman before whom he had been carried as a certificate of the family health
in his childhood
and to whom he had been indebted for his leather smalls.
'Allow me
' said Carker suddenly
'to ask how Mrs Dombey is?'