评论
打印
There was a certain calm Apothecary, 'who attended at the establishment when any of the young gentlemen were ill, and somehow he got into the room and appeared at the bedside, with Mrs Blimber. How they came there, or how long they had been there, Paul didn't know; but when he saw them, he sat up in bed, and answered all the Apothecary's questions at full length, and whispered to him that Florence was not to know anything about it, if he pleased, and that he had set his mind upon her coming to the party. He was very chatty with the Apothecary, and they parted excellent friends. Lying down again with his eyes shut, he heard the Apothecary say, out of the room and quite a long way off - or he dreamed it - that there was a want of vital power (what was that, Paul wondered!) and great constitutional weakness. That as the little fellow had set his heart on parting with his school-mates on the seventeenth, it would be better to indulge the fancy if he grew no worse. That he was glad to hear from Mrs Pipchin, that the little fellow would go to his friends in London on the eighteenth. That he would write to Mr Dombey, when he should have gained a better knowledge of the case, and before that day. That there was no immediate cause for - what? Paul lost that word And that the little fellow had a fine mind, but was an old-fashioned boy.
有一位沉着镇静的药剂师，不论哪一位年轻的先生病了，他就到学校里来。不知怎么的，他进了这个房间，并和布林伯夫人一起出现在床边。保罗不知道他们是怎样来到这里的以及他们在这里待了多久；但是当他看到他们的时候，他在床上坐起来，详详细细地回答药剂师的一切问题，并低声对他说，请他别让弗洛伦斯知道任何情形，还说他已下定决心让她来参加晚会。他跟药剂师絮絮叨叨地聊了很多话；离别的时候，他们已成了十分要好的朋友。当他闭上眼睛重新躺下的时候，他听到药剂师在房间外面很远的一个地方说——或者是他梦见这个情形——，他缺乏生命力（保罗纳闷这是什么！），体质十分虚弱；由于这小家伙决心在十七日那一天跟他的同学们离别，因此如果他的状况没有恶化的话，那么最好是满足他的愿望；保罗又听他说，他很高兴从皮普钦太太那里听到，这小家伙想在十八日到他伦敦的朋友家里去；他对病人的情况了解得更加清楚的时候，他将在十八日以前写信给董贝先生。现在没有直接的理由要——什么？保罗没有听清这个词。保罗还听到他说，这小家伙头脑聪明，但他是个老气的孩子。
What old fashion could that be, Paul wondered with a palpitating heart, that was so visibly expressed in him; so plainly seen by so many people!
他那么明白地表达，许多人又那么清楚地看到的老气究竟是什么呢？保罗怀着一颗跳动的心感到纳闷。
He could neither make it out, nor trouble himself long with the effort. Mrs Pipchin was again beside him, if she had ever been away (he thought she had gone out with the Doctor, but it was all a dream perhaps), and presently a bottle and glass got into her hands magically, and she poured out the contents for him. After that, he had some real good jelly, which Mrs Blimber brought to him herself; and then he was so well, that Mrs Pipchin went home, at his urgent solicitation, and Briggs and Tozer came to bed. Poor Briggs grumbled terribly about his own analysis, which could hardly have discomposed him more if it had been a chemical process; but he was very good to Paul, and so was Tozer, and so were all the rest, for they every one looked in before going to bed, and said, 'How are you now, Dombey?' 'Cheer up, little Dombey!' and so forth. After Briggs had got into bed, he lay awake for a long time, still bemoaning his analysis, and saying he knew it was all wrong, and they couldn't have analysed a murderer worse, and - how would Doctor Blimber like it if his pocket-money depended on it? It was very easy, Briggs said, to make a galley-slave of a boy all the half-year, and then score him up idle; and to crib two dinners a-week out of his board, and then score him up greedy; but that wasn't going to be submitted to, he believed, was it? Oh! Ah!
他弄不明白这一点，也没有长时间花心思去琢磨。皮普钦太太如果曾经离开的话（他想，他跟博士一起出去了，但也可能这全都是一场梦），现在她又在他身边了。不久，一个瓶和一个杯子魔术般地出现在她手里，她为他把瓶子里的东西倒出来。在这之后，布林伯夫人亲自给他送来一些真正美味的果子冻；然后他觉得自己很好，所以在他的迫切的恳求下，皮普钦太太就回家去了；布里格斯与托泽则回来睡觉了。可怜的布里格斯对他本人的分析评语感到愤愤不平；如果它是个化学过程的话，那么它也不会比这更使他烦恼不安；但是他对保罗很好，托泽对保罗也很好，其他所有人对他也都很好，因为他们每个人在就寝之前都前来看望他，并对他说，“您好吗，董贝？”“高兴起来，小董贝！”等等。布里格斯躺到床上以后，醒了好久，对他的分析评语仍旧喃喃抱怨着；他说，他知道它完全错了，他们要是对一个杀人犯进行分析，也不会比这分析得更坏的了；布林伯博士如果靠这挣钱过活的话，那么他怎么能喜欢它呢？布里格斯说，让一个孩子整整半年时间都成为划船的奴隶，然后在分析中把他评为懒惰；每星期从他应得的伙食中克扣去两个正餐，然后在分析中把他评为贪吃，这是很容易的；但他相信，这是不能使人心悦诚服的，是不是？啊！天哪！
Before the weak-eyed young man performed on the gong next morning, he came upstairs to Paul and told him he was to lie still, which Paul very gladly did. Mrs Pipchin reappeared a little before the Apothecary, and a little after the good young woman whom Paul had seen cleaning the stove on that first morning (how long ago it seemed now!) had brought him his breakfast. There was another consultation a long way off, or else Paul dreamed it again; and then the Apothecary, coming back with Doctor and Mrs Blimber, said:
第二天早上，那位弱视的年轻人在敲锣之前上楼来告诉保罗，他还是在床上躺着，不用起来，保罗很高兴地依照他的话做了。皮普钦太太比药剂师早来一些时候，但在她来之前更早一些时候，保罗第一个早上（那时候离现在似乎多长久啊！）看到的那位清扫火炉的善良的年轻女人把他的早饭送来了。他们在一个远远的地方又开始商议，或者保罗又做了这样的梦，然后，药剂师跟布林伯博士和夫人一起走回来，说道：
'Yes, I think, Doctor Blimber, we may release this young gentleman from his books just now; the vacation being so very near at hand.'
“是的，我想，布林伯博士，既然假期很快就要来临，那么我们现在就可以让这位年轻的先生从他的书本中摆脱出来了。”
'By all means,' said Doctor Blimber. 'My love, you will inform Cornelia, if you please.'
“当然可以，”布林伯博士说道。“亲爱的，劳驾你通知科妮莉亚一声。”
