狄更斯长篇小说 狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第37章Part5

狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第37章Part5  

'Well
Ma'am
' replied the frightened maid
'I hardly know. She's making faces!'
Edith hurried with her to her mother's room. Cleopatra was arrayed in full dress
with the diamonds
short sleeves
rouge
curls
teeth
and other juvenility all plete; but Paralysis was not to be deceived
had known her for the object of its errand
and had struck her at her glass
where she lay like a horrible doll that had tumbled down.
They took her to pieces in very shame
and put the little of her that was real on a bed. Doctors were sent for
and soon came. Powerful remedies were resorted to; opinions given that she would rally from this shock
but would not survive another; and there she lay speechless
and staring at the ceiling
for days; sometimes making inarticulate sounds in answer to such questions as did she know who were present
and the like: sometimes giving no reply either by sign or gesture
or in her unwinking eyes.
At length she began to recover consciousness
and in some degree the power of motion
though not yet of speech. One day the use of her right hand returned; and showing it to her maid who was in attendance on her
and appearing very uneasy in her mind
she made signs for a pencil and some paper. This the maid immediately provided
thinking she was going to make a will
or write some last request; and Mrs Dombey being from home
the maid awaited the result with solemn feelings.
After much painful scrawling and erasing
and putting in of wrong characters
which seemed to tumble out of the pencil of their own accord
the old woman produced this document:
'Rose-coloured curtains.'
The maid being perfectly transfixed
and with tolerable reason
Cleopatra amended the manuscript by adding o words more
when it stood thus:
'Rose-coloured curtains for doctors.'
The maid now perceived remotely that she wished these articles to be provided for the better presentation of her plexion to the faculty; and as those in the house who knew her best
had no doubt of the correctness of this opinion
which she was soon able to establish for herself the rose-coloured curtains were added to her bed
and she mended with increased rapidity from that hour. She was soon able to sit up
in curls and a laced cap and nightgown
and to have a little artificial bloom dropped into the hollow caverns of her cheeks.
It was a tremendous sight to see this old woman in her finery leering and mincing at Death
and playing off her youthful tricks upon him as if he had been the Major; but an alteration in her mind that ensued on the paralytic stroke was fraught with as much matter for reflection
and was quite as ghastly.
Whether the weakening of her intellect made her more cunning and false than before
or whether it confused her beeen what she had assumed to be and what she really had been
or whether it had awakened any glimmering of remorse
which could neither struggle into light nor get back into total darkness
or whether
in the jumble of her faculties
a bination of these effects had been shaken up
which is perhaps the more likely supposition
the result was this: - That she became hugely exacting in respect of Edith's affection and gratitude and attention to her; highly laudatory of herself as a most inestimable parent; and very jealous of having any rival in Edith's regard. Further
in place of remembering that pact made beeen them for an avoidance of the subject
she constantly alluded to her daughter's marriage as a proof of her being an inparable mother; and all this
with the weakness and peevishness of such a state
always serving for a sarcastic mentary on her levity and youthfulness.
'Where is Mrs Dombey? she would say to her maid.
'Gone out
Ma'am.'