狄更斯长篇小说 狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第34章Part12

狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第34章Part12  

The old woman nodded in the affirmative; and a few more paces brought them to the threshold. There was the light of fire and candle in the room where Alice had sat to dry her clothes; and on her knocking at the door
John Carker appeared from that room.
He was surprised to see such visitors at such an hour
and asked Alice what she wanted.
'I want your sister
' she said. 'The woman who gave me money to-day.'
At the sound of her raised voice
Harriet came out.
'Oh!' said Alice. 'You are here! Do you remember me?'
'Yes
' she answered
wondering.
The face that had humbled itself before her
looked on her now with such invincible hatred and defiance; and the hand that had gently touched her arm
was clenched with such a show of evil purpose
as if it would gladly strangle her; that she drew close to her brother for protection.
'That I could speak with you
and not know you! That I could e near you
and not feel what blood was running in your veins
by the tingling of my own!' said Alice
with a menacing gesture.
'What do you mean? What have I done?'
'Done!' returned the other. 'You have sat me by your fire; you have given me food and money; you have bestowed your passion on me! You! whose name I spit upon!'
The old woman
with a malevolence that made her uglIness quite awful
shook her withered hand at the brother and sister in confirmation of her daughter
but plucked her by the skirts again
nevertheless
imploring her to keep the money.
'If I dropped a tear upon your hand
may it wither it up! If I spoke a gentle word in your hearing
may it deafen you! If I touched you with my lips
may the touch be poison to you! A curse upon this roof that gave me shelter! Sorrow and shame upon your head! Ruin upon all belonging to you!'
As she said the words
she threw the money down upon the ground
and spurned it with her foot.
'I tread it in the dust: I wouldn't take it if it paved my way to Heaven! I would the bleeding foot that brought me here to-day
had rotted off
before it led me to your house!'
Harriet
pale and trembling
restrained her brother
and suffered her to go on uninterrupted.
'It was well that I should be pitied and fiven by you
or anyone of your name
in the first hour of my return! It was well that you should act the kind good lady to me! I'll thank you when I die; I'll pray for you
and all your race
you may be sure!'
With a fierce action of her hand
as if she sprinkled hatred on the ground
and with it devoted those who were standing there to destruction
she looked up once at the black sky
and strode out into the wild night.
The mother
who had plucked at her skirts again and again in vain
and had eyed the money lying on the threshold with an absorbing greed that seemed to concentrate her faculties upon it
would have prowled about
until the house was dark
and then groped in the mire on the chance of repossessing herself of it. But the daughter drew her away
and they set forth
straight
on their return to their dwelling; the old woman whimpering and bemoaning their loss upon the road
and fretfully bewailing
as openly as she dared
the undutiful conduct of her handsome girl in depriving her of a supper
on the very first night of their reunion.
Supperless to bed she went
saving for a few coarse fragments; and those she sat mumbling and munching over a scrap of fire
long after her undutiful daughter lay asleep.
Were this miserable mother
and this miserable daughter
only the reduction to their lowest grade
of certain social vices sometimes prevailing higher up? In this round world of many circles within circles
do we make a weary journey from the high grade to the low
to find at last that they lie close together
that the o extremes touch
and that our journey's end is but our starting-place? Allowing for great difference of stuff and texture
was the pattern of this woof repeated among gentle blood at all?
Say
Edith Dombey! And Cleopatra
best of mothers
let us have your testimony!