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With these words he came out to where Walter was standing. He turned a little paler when he saw him there, and paler yet when Walter caught him by the hand, and said in a whisper: 'Mr Carker, pray let me thank you! Let me say how much I feel for you! How sorry I am, to have been the unhappy cause of all this! How I almost look upon you now as my protector and guardian! How very, very much, I feel obliged to you and pity you!' said Walter, squeezing both his hands,and hardly knowing, in his agitation, what he did or said.
他说完这些话之后，走出到沃尔特站着的地方。当他看到他在那里的时候，他的脸色稍稍比先前苍白了一些；当沃尔特抓住他的手，低声说了下面一些话的时候，他的脸色就白得更厉害了。“卡克先生，请允许我谢谢您！请允许我说，我对您是多么同情！我成了这一切的根由，我是多么遗憾！我现在几乎把您看成是我的保卫者与庇护人了！我是多么多么感谢您和可怜您啊！”沃尔特紧紧地握着他的双手，说道；他在激动中几乎不知道他做了什么事情或说了什么话。
Mr Morfin's room being close at hand and empty, and the door wide open, they moved thither by one accord: the passage being seldom free from someone passing to or fro. When they were there, and Walter saw in Mr Carker's face some traces of the emotion within, he almost felt as if he had never seen the face before; it was so greatly changed.
莫芬先生的房间就在近旁，里面没有人，门敞开着；他们就不约而同地向里面走去，因为走廊里是难得让人自由来回经过的。当他们到了里面的时候，沃尔特在卡克先生的脸上看到心慌意乱的迹象，这时他几乎感到他以前从来没有见过他的脸孔似的；它变化得多么大啊。
'Walter,' he said, laying his hand on his shoulder. 'I am far removed from you, and may I ever be.Do you know what I am?'
“沃尔特，”他把手搁在他的肩膀上，说道。“我跟您之间隔着一段很远的距离，让我们永远这样吧。您知道我是什么人吗？”
'What you are!' appeared to hang on Walter's lips, as he regarded him attentively.
“您是什么人！”当沃尔特目不转睛地注视着他的时候，这句话好像已经到了他的嘴边了。
'It was begun,' said Carker, 'before my twenty-first birthday - led up to, long before, but not begun till near that time. I had robbed them when I came of age. I robbed them afterwards. Before my twenty-second birthday, it was all found out; and then, Walter, from all men's society, I died.' Again his last few words hung trembling upon Walter's lips, but he could neither utter them, nor any of his own.
“那是在我二十一周岁之前开始的，”卡克说道，“——很久以前早就有了这样的趋向，但一直到大概那个时候才开始。当我开始成年的时候。我盗窃了他们的钱财。后来我又盗窃了他们的钱财。在我二十二周岁之前，全都被发觉了；从那之后，沃尔特，对于整个人类社会来说，我已经死了。”
'The House was very good to me. May Heaven reward the old man for his forbearance! This one, too, his son, who was then newly in the Firm, where I had held great trust! I was called into that room which is now his - I have never entered it since - and came out, what you know me. Formany years I sat in my present seat, alone as now, but then a known and recognised example to the rest. They were all merciful to me, and I lived. Time has altered that part of my poor expiation;and I think, except the three heads of the House, there is no one here who knows my story rightly.Before the little boy grows up, and has it told to him, my corner may be vacant. I would rather that it might be so! This is the only change to me since that day, when I left all youth, and hope, and good men's company, behind me in that room. God bless you, Walter! Keep you, and all dear to you, in honesty, or strike them dead!'
“公司对我很好。那位老人宽大为怀，愿上天为此好好报答他吧！这一位，他的儿子，也一样；那时他刚刚到公司里来，而我在公司里是曾经得到很大信任的！我被召唤到现在属于他的房间里——从那时以后，我再也没有进去过——，出来以后就成了一位您所知道的人。我在我现在的位子上坐了许多年，像现在一样孤独，但那时候对其余的人来说，我成了一个有名的、公认的榜样。他们对我都很仁慈，我也活下来了。随着时间的推移，我在痛苦赎罪的这一方面已经有了改变；我想，现在除了公司的三位头头以外，这里没有一个人真正了解我的历史。在那个小孩子长大，并把这件事告诉他之前，我的那个角落可能是个空缺。我希望就这样！从那天起，对我来说，这是唯一的变化；那天我们青春、希望和与善良人们的交往都留在我身后的那间房间里了。上帝保佑您！沃尔特！让您自己和所有对您亲爱的人们都保持着诚实的品质吧，否则就让他们不得好死！”
Some recollection of his trembling from head to foot, as if with excessive cold, and of his bursting into tears, was all that Walter could add to this, when he tried to recall exactly what had passed between them.
当沃尔特试图准确地回忆他们之间所发生的一切经过的时候，除了上面的情况外，他所能记起的就是他仿佛感到过度寒冷似的，从头到脚，全身颤抖着，而且痛哭流涕。
When Walter saw him next, he was bending over his desk in his old silent, drooping, humbled way. Then, observing him at his work, and feeling how resolved he evidently was that no further intercourse should arise between them, and thinking again and again on all he had seen and heard that morning in so short a time, in connexion with the history of both the Carkers, Walter could hardly believe that he was under orders for the West Indies, and would soon be lost to Uncle Sol, and Captain Cuttle, and to glimpses few and far between of Florence Dombey - no, he meant Paul- and to all he loved, and liked, and looked for, in his daily life.
当沃尔特再次看到他的时候，他又以过去那种不声不响、意气消沉、卑躬屈节的态度伏在他的办公桌前。那时他看到他正在工作，并觉得他显然已坚决不再跟他来往，而且一再想到那天上午在短短的时间中所看到的和所听到的与两位卡克历史有关的所有事情，沃尔特几乎不相信：他已接到前往西印度群岛的命令；所尔舅舅和卡特尔船长不久就将失去他；弗洛伦斯·董贝——不，他是说保罗——不久将不再跟他次数很少、而且远远地相互看上几眼了；他日常生活中所热爱、喜欢与依恋的一切不久就将跟他告别了。
But it was true, and the news had already penetrated to the outer office; for while he sat with a heavy heart, pondering on these things, and resting his head upon his arm, Perch the messenger,descending from his mahogany bracket, and jogging his elbow, begged his pardon, but wished to say in his ear, Did he think he could arrange to send home to England a jar of preserved Ginger, cheap, for Mrs Perch's own eating, in the course of her recovery from her next confinement?
可是这是真实的，消息已流传到外面的办公室中，因为当他一只手支托着头，并怀着沉重的心情坐在那里沉思着这些事情的时候，信差珀奇从他的红木托架上下来，轻轻地推推他的胳膊肘，请他原谅，但又凑着他的耳朵，向他请求说，他想他能不能设法送回一罐价格便宜的腌制的生姜到英国来，好让珀奇太太在下次分娩后康复的过程中滋补滋补身体？
