When Connie went up to her bedroom she did what she had not done for a long time: took off all her clothes, and looked at herself naked in the huge mirror. She did not know what she was looking for, or at, very definitely, yet she moved the lamp till it shone full on her.
康妮上楼回到卧室，做了件许久未曾尝试的事情：脱掉所有衣服，对着大镜子端详起自己的裸体。她不清楚自己到底要寻觅什么，或欣赏什么，只是把灯移到近前，让光线洒满整个身体。
And she thought, as she had thought so often, what a frail, easily hurt, rather pathetic thing a human body is, naked; somehow a little unfinished, incomplete!
她陷入沉思，思考着以往就时常思考的问题，赤裸着的身体多么地脆弱，容易受伤，惹人怜爱，却有着不可言喻的欠缺，实在算不得完美！
She had been supposed to have rather a good figure, but now she was out of fashion: a little too female, not enough like an adolescent boy. She was not very tall, a bit Scottish and short; but she had a certain fluent, down-slipping grace that might have been beauty. Her skin was faintly tawny, her limbs had a certain stillness, her body should have had a full, down-slipping richness; but it lacked something.
她曾被认为拥有曲线玲珑的身材，但现在却有些落伍：女人味太浓，缺少几分少年的飒爽英姿。她个子不高，有几分苏格兰姑娘的娇小气质，但线条优美，凹凸有致，倒也是位俏丽佳人。她的皮肤呈浅褐色，举手投足轻柔舒缓，娇躯本应丰盈性感，但却缺少些什么。
Instead of ripening its firm, down-running curves, her body was flattening and going a little harsh. It was as if it had not had enough sun and warmth; it was a little greyish and sapless.
日渐成熟的身体本应拥有更加挺拔流畅的曲线，但却背道而驰，变得有些扁平僵硬。它似乎缺少足够的阳光和热量，变得暗沉，没有活力。
Disappointed of its real womanhood, it had not succeeded in becoming boyish, and unsubstantial, and transparent; instead it had gone opaque.
虽然这副躯体不满自己妩媚的女人味，但也无法变得像少年那般纤细轻盈，晶莹澄澈，相反却晦浊暗淡。
Her breasts were rather small, and dropping pear-shaped. But they were unripe, a little bitter, without meaning hanging there. And her belly had lost the fresh, round gleam it had had when she was young, in the days of her German boy, who really loved her physically. Then it was young and expectant, with a real look of its own. Now it was going slack, and a little flat, thinner, but with a slack thinness. Her thighs, too, they used to look so quick and glimpsy in their female roundness, somehow they too were going flat, slack, meaningless.
丁香小乳垂落在胸前，如梨子般圆润。但它们尚未成熟，稍带苦涩，索然寡味地悬在那里。而她的腹部也褪去了昔日饱满圆润的光泽，当年的德国情郎曾为她的胴体神魂颠倒。那时，她的腹部细腻柔嫩，饱含着希望，拥有别具一格的美感。现在却变得松垮，略显扁平，失去往日的丰盈，又并不紧实。大腿也不若以往那般浑圆饱满，柔软细嫩，变得暗淡松弛，美感全失。
Her body was going meaningless, going dull and opaque, so much insignificant substance. It made her feel immensely depressed and hopeless. What hope was there? She was old, old at twenty-seven, with no gleam and sparkle in the flesh. Old through neglect and denial, yes, denial. Fashionable women kept their bodies bright like delicate porcelain, by external attention. There was nothing inside the porcelain; but she was not even as bright as that. The mental life! Suddenly she hated it with a rushing fury, the swindle!
她的身体暗沉无光，失去应有的魅力，沦落成毫无活力的物质。这让她陷入苦闷绝望的深渊。希望究竟在何方？她不再青春洋溢，27岁便老态尽显，肉体并无半点光泽与亮度。即使回避和否认，也无法改变衰老的事实，没错，就算矢口否认也无济于事。追求时尚的贵妇们总通过悉心护理，把自己的娇躯保养得明艳照人，堪比娇美的瓷器。虽然瓷器内里空空如也，但她就连这点外表的光鲜都没有。精神生活！霎时间，她对精神生活恨得咬牙切齿，那彻头彻尾的空中楼阁！
She looked in the other mirror's reflection at her back, her waist, her loins. She was getting thinner, but to her it was not becoming. The crumple of her waist at the back, as she bent back to look, was a little weary; and it used to be so gay-looking. And the longish slope of her haunches and her buttocks had lost its gleam and its sense of richness. Gone! Only the German boy had loved it, and he was ten years dead, very nearly. How time went by! Ten years dead, and she was only twenty-seven. The healthy boy with his fresh, clumsy sensuality that she had then been so scornful of! Where would she find it now? It was gone out of men. They had their pathetic, two-seconds spasms like Michaelis; but no healthy human sensuality, that warms the blood and freshens the whole being.
她从另一面镜子中，审视着自己的脊背、腰肢以及臀部。她日渐消瘦，但瘦削的体型却与她格格不入。她扭回身，注意到腰部的折皱，顿觉灰心丧气，以往这腰肢是多么地艳丽动人。而修长的臀部曲线失去曾经的光彩，也不再圆润丰腴。不复存在！只有那位德国小伙曾为之倾倒，而再过不久，就是他十周年的忌辰。时光荏苒！昔日情郎故去已有十载，而她如今也仅有27岁。欢好之时，那健康壮硕的少年总显得青涩稚嫩，笨手笨脚，为此她曾经嗤之以鼻。可现在，去哪里找如此如意的情侣呢？男子汉早已绝迹。只剩下米凯利斯这种挺不过两秒的可怜虫，再也找不着精力旺盛的完整性爱，体验不到让血液沸腾、让身心振奋的美好感觉。
Still she thought the most beautiful part of her was the long-sloping fall of the haunches from the socket of the back, and the slumberous, round stillness of the buttocks. Like hillocks of sand, the Arabs say, soft and downward-slipping with a long slope. Here the life still lingered hoping. But here too she was thinner, and going unripe, astringent.
不过，她仍觉得自己身体最美丽的部分是绵延起伏的臀部曲线，以腰眼处为起点，还有那饱满沉静的臀丘。正如阿拉伯人所说，就像沙堆般柔和舒缓地下降。生命唯一的希望仍存于此处。但就连这里也变得纤瘦，褪去成熟圆顺的美感。
But the front of her body made her miserable. It was already beginning to slacken, with a slack sort of thinness, almost withered, going old before it had ever really lived. She thought of the child she might somehow bear. Was she fit, anyhow? She slipped into her nightdress, and went to bed, where she sobbed bitterly. And in her bitterness burned a cold indignation against Clifford, and his writings and his talk: against all the men of his sort who defrauded a woman even of her own body.
但身体的正面更使她难过不已。它已经开始变得松弛消瘦，近乎枯萎，还未曾体验过生活的美好，就已走向衰老。康妮想到自己或许还要诞下婴孩。这样的她是否还能做个合格的母亲？她穿上睡袍，卧在闺床，痛哭失声。酸楚中燃烧着愤懑的怒火，克利福德，他空洞的作品和伪善的言谈，还有所有跟他沆瀣一气的家伙们，康妮都对之深恶痛绝。那些臭男人只会欺骗女人的感情，甚至不会放过她们的身体。
Unjust! Unjust! The sense of deep physical injustice burned to her very soul.
不公平！这不公平！强烈的愤慨燃透身体，在灵魂深处肆虐。
But in the morning, all the same, she was up at seven, and going downstairs to Clifford. She had to help him in all the intimate things, for he had no man, and refused a woman-servant. The housekeeper's husband, who had known him as a boy, helped him, and did any heavy lifting; but Connie did the personal things, and she did them willingly. It was a demand on her, but she had wanted to do what she could.
可次日清晨，她同样要在七点准时起床，下楼去服侍克利福德。她必须照顾他梳洗更衣这等私事，因为克利福德没有贴身男仆，又拒绝差遣女佣。女管家的丈夫看着他长大，帮他做些搬搬抬抬的力气活，而康妮则负责照料他的一切私务，倒也做得心甘情愿。克利福德需要她这样做，她也愿意尽到妻子的责任。
So she hardly ever went away from Wragby, and never for more than a day or two; when Mrs. Betts, the housekeeper, attended to Clifford. He, as was inevitable in the course of time, took all the service for granted. It was natural he should.
因此，她几乎寸步不离拉格比，即使离开，也最多在外逗留一两天，那时便将克利福德交托给女管家贝茨太太。而他也把妻子的照顾当作是理所应当，时间一久，有这样的想法不可避免。他这样想也是天性使然。
And yet, deep inside herself, a sense of injustice, of being defrauded, had begun to burn in Connie. The physical sense of injustice is a dangerous feeling, once it is awakened. It must have outlet, or it eats away the one in whom it is aroused. Poor Clifford, he was not to blame. His was the greater misfortune. It was all part of the general catastrophe.
但现在，康妮心底燃起怒火，感到被欺骗，而忿忿不平。愤懑的感觉一旦苏醒，就会变得异常危险。必须找到发泄的途径，否则就会被它生生吞噬。可怜的克利福德，这并非他的过错。比起康妮，他更加不幸。这都不过是战争浩劫的余波而已。
And yet was he not in a way to blame? This lack of warmth, this lack of the simple, warm, physical contact, was he not to blame for that? He was never really warm, nor even kind, only thoughtful, considerate, in a well-bred, cold sort of way! But never warm as a man can be warm to a woman, as even Connie's father could be warm to her, with the warmth of a man who did himself well, and intended to, but who still could comfort it woman with a bit of his masculine glow.
可是，他没有半点可指摘的地方么？冷酷无情，缺少简单直接、温暖真诚的身体接触，这些不是他的过错吗？他总是冷若冰霜，态度淡漠，凡事经过深思熟虑，面面俱到，保持着知识分子的那份冷傲！在他身上，找不到男人对异性的如火热情，甚至连康妮自己的父亲都赶不上。其父虽然养尊处优，自私自利，但也会用男性的热烈去安慰异性。
But Clifford was not like that. His whole race was not like that. They were all inwardly hard and separate, and warmth to them was just bad taste. You had to get on without it, and hold your own; which was all very well if you were of the same class and race. Then you could keep yourself cold and be very estimable, and hold your own, and enjoy the satisfaction of holding it. But if you were of another class and another race it wouldn't do; there was no fun merely holding your own, and feeling you belonged to the ruling class. What was the point, when even the smartest aristocrats had really nothing positive of their own to hold, and their rule was really a farce, not rule at all? What was the point? It was all cold nonsense.
但克利福德却并不是这样。他这类人都不屑如此。他们都是铁石心肠，自视清高，对他们而言，热诚待人实在不可取。冷酷无情，自命不凡，若身处同等阶层和出身倒也无可厚非。你完全可以孤芳自赏，以期赢得别人的尊敬，装腔作势，并享受其中的满足感。但如果你属于另一阶层和出身，这些就完全行不通，装腔作势，以统治阶层自居，并不是件有趣的事情。这样做有什么意义呢？今时今日，就连最精明的贵族都失去了可维系的地位，他们的统治不过是荒唐的笑柄，根本支配不了任何人或事。这样做还有什么意义呢？简直可笑无聊至极。
A sense of rebellion smouldered in Connie. What was the good of it all? What was the good of her sacrifice, her devoting her life to Clifford? What was she serving, after all? A cold spirit of vanity, that had no warm human contacts, and that was as corrupt as any low-born Jew, in craving for prostitution to the bitch-goddess, Success.
抵触的情绪在康妮心中酝酿。自己所做的一切有什么意义？她甘愿牺牲，为克利福德奉献生命，可这样做换回的又是什么？她究竟为什么而活？空虚虚伪的灵魂，从不愿以诚待人，跟出身低微的犹太人那般自甘堕落，急不可耐地想要献身给堕落女神，以期功成名就。
Even Clifford's cool and contactless assurance that he belonged to the ruling class didn't prevent his tongue lolling out of his mouth, as he panted after the bitch-goddess. After all, Michaelis was really more dignified in the matter, and far, far more successful. Really, if you looked closely at Clifford, he was a buffoon, and a buffoon is more humiliating than a bounder.
就连克利福德这种自以为是、高高在上，自诩为统治阶级的家伙，都不能免俗，吐着舌头，气喘吁吁地在她身后猛追。其实，在这方面，米凯利斯反倒有尊严得多，所取得的成就也远胜克利福德。说实话，若仔细观察，克利福德不过是跳梁小丑，甚至比泼皮无赖更加恬不知耻。
As between the two men, Michaelis really had far more use for her than Clifford had. He had even more need of her. Any good nurse can attend to crippled legs! And as for the heroic effort, Michaelis was a heroic rat, and Clifford was very much of a poodle showing off.
这两个男人相比较，米凯利斯对她的用处远大于克利福德。而米凯利斯也更需要她。任何优秀的护士都能照顾好瘫痪的病人。论及自强不息的精神，米凯利斯算得过街鼠中的好汉，而克利福德不过是只哗众取宠的卷毛狗。
There were people staying in the house, among them Clifford's Aunt Eva, Lady Bennerley. She was a thin woman of sixty, with a red nose, a widow, and still something of a grande DAME. She belonged to one of the best families, and had the character to carry it off. Connie liked her, she was so perfectly simple and rank, as far as she intended to be frank, and superficially kind. Inside herself she was a past-mistress in holding her own, and holding other people a little lower. She was not at all a snob: far too sure of herself. She was perfect at the social sport of coolly holding her own, and making other people defer to her.
家里最近住了好些客人，其中有伊娃·本奈利夫人，克利福德的姑妈。她六十多岁，丈夫早亡，身材干瘦，酒糟鼻，但仍不失贵妇的派头。她出身名门，举手投足间显出大家风范。康妮对她颇有好感，只要她打算直抒胸臆，就会开诚布公，毫无保留，而且外表更是和蔼可亲。至于装腔作势，抬高自己，她更是行家里手。但她绝非势利小人，只是太过夜郎自大。她深谙社交技巧，总能端足架势，让别人唯自己马首是瞻。
She was kind to Connie, and tried to worm into her woman's soul with the sharp gimlet of her well-born observations.
她对康妮甚是友好，试图用自己锐利如锥的高贵眼光，穿透康妮那颗细腻的女人心。
"You're quite wonderful, in my opinion," she said to Connie. "You've done wonders for Clifford. I never saw any budding genius myself, and there he is, all the rage.” Aunt Eva was quite complacently proud of Clifford's success. Another feather in the family cap! She didn't care a straw about his books, but why should she? "Oh, I don't think it's my doing," said Connie.
“我觉得你确实了不起。”她称赞康妮。“你帮克利福德取得惊人的成就。我从未见过如此前程远大的天才作家，而他就是其中之一，如今的确红得发紫。”对于侄儿的成功，伊娃姑妈沾沾自喜，深感骄傲。这可是光宗耀祖的大事！而对于他的作品，她却毫不关心，可她又有什么理由要关心呢？“噢，我认为那并非我的功劳。”康妮说
"It must be! Can't be anybody else's. And it seems to me you don't get enough out of it.” "How?" "Look at the way you are shut up here. I said to Clifford: If that child rebels one day you'll have yourself to thank!
“当然得归功于你！除你之外，还有谁呢？在我看来，你并没有得到应有的回报。”“此话怎讲？”“终日闭门不出可不行。我跟克利福德说过：要是哪天那孩子造起反来，也全是你自食其果！”
"But Clifford never denies me anything," said Connie.
“但克利福德从没阻止我做任何事。”康妮说。
"Look here, my dear child'—and Lady Bennerley laid her thin hand on Connie's arm. "A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it. Believe me!" And she took another sip of brandy, which maybe was her form of repentance.
“听我说，好孩子，”本奈利夫人用她瘦削的手抓住康妮的胳膊，“女人得过自己想要的生活，不然，就会悔之晚矣。相信我！”她又呷了一口白兰地，这或许就是她懊悔的方式吧。
"But I do live my life, don't I?” "Not in my idea! Clifford should bring you to London, and let you go about. His sort of friends are all right for him, but what are they for you? If I were you I should think it wasn't good enough. You'll let your youth slip by, and you'll spend your old age, and your middle age too, repenting it.” Her ladyship lapsed into contemplative silence, soothed by the brandy.
“可我不正过着自己想要的生活么？”“我可不这么看！克利福德应该带你去伦敦，让你四处走走。他那些朋友和他倒是志趣相投，但对你而言则是另一回事。如果换成我，准会感到不满。这样下去，只会让青春从指缝中溜走，而你将在悔恨中度过自己的后半生。”在白兰地的慰藉下，这位贵妇慢慢陷入沉思，不再做声。
But Connie was not keen on going to London, and being steered into the smart world by Lady Bennerley. She didn't feel really smart, it wasn't interesting. And she did feel the peculiar, withering coldness under it all; like the soil of Labrador, which his gay little flowers on its surface, and a foot down is frozen.
但康妮对去伦敦不太感冒，不想涉足本奈利夫人口中那个五光十色的世界。她跟那个花花世界格格不入，觉得没什么兴趣。她深切地感觉到，那时尚社会的底层存在异乎寻常、足以摧毁一切的酷寒，就像拉布拉多（注：北美洲最大的半岛，位于加拿大东部，哈德逊湾与大西洋及圣劳伦斯湾之间。）冰冻的土壤。地表上生长着欣欣向荣的娇艳花朵，而地表下一英尺的地方则完全被冻结。
Tommy Dukes was at Wragby, and another man, Harry Winterslow, and Jack Strangeways with his wife Olive. The talk was much more desultory than when only the cronies were there, and everybody was a bit bored, for the weather was bad, and there was only billiards, and the pianola to dance to.
汤米·杜克斯也在拉格比，此外还有哈里·温特斯洛，以及杰克·斯特兰韦斯和他的妻子奥利夫。谈话有些漫无边际，不像只是朋友间闲聊那么放得开，大家都觉得有点沉闷，天气也不太好，而可以作为消遣的，除了打台球，就是随着钢琴的伴奏跳跳舞。
Olive was reading a book about the future, when babies would be bred in bottles, and women would be "immunized'.
奥利夫在读一本关于未来世界的书，说到时候婴儿都可以通过试管，进行人工培育，而女人们则可以置身事外。
"Jolly good thing too!" she said. "Then a woman can live her own life." Strangeways wanted children, and she didn't.
“真是太棒了！”她感叹道。“这样的话，女人就可以尽情享受生活。”斯特兰韦斯想要孩子，但她却不愿意生。
"How'd you like to be immunized?” Winterslow asked her, with an ugly smile.
“你很想置身事外吗？”温特斯洛问道，脸上露出丑陋的微笑。
"I hope I am; naturally," she said. "Anyhow the future's going to have more sense, and a woman needn't be dragged down by her FUNCTIONS.” "Perhaps she'll float off into space altogether," said Dukes.
“那当然，我希望如此。”她说。“无论如何，未来世界将更趋于合理，女人也不必再为生理机能所累。”“那她们还不乐得飞上天去呀。”杜克斯说。
"I do think sufficient civilization ought to eliminate a lot of the physical disabilities," said Clifford. "All the love-business for example, it might just as well go. I suppose it would if we could breed babies in bottles.” "No!" cried Olive. "That might leave all the more room for fun." "I suppose," said Lady Bennerley, contemplatively, "if the love-business went, something else would take its place. Morphia, perhaps. A little morphine in all the air. It would be wonderfully refreshing for everybody.” "The government releasing ether into the air on Saturdays, for a cheerful weekend!" said Jack. "Sounds all right, but where should we be by Wednesday?" "So long as you can forget your body you are happy," said Lady Bennerley. "And the moment you begin to be aware of your body, you are wretched. So, if civilization is any good, it has to help us to forget our bodies, and then time passes happily without our knowing it." "Help us to get rid of our bodies altogether," said Winterslow. "It's quite time man began to improve on his own nature, especially the physical side of it.” "Imagine if we floated like tobacco smoke," said Connie.
“依我看，随着文明程度的提高，大可以把那些无用的身体机能统统去除。”克利福德说，“比如说性爱，就没有存在的必要。我的意思是，如果孩子可以人工培育，那禁除性爱自然顺理成章。”“不行！”奥利夫大叫起来，“那只是为了留给女人更多的享乐空间。”“在我看来，”本奈利夫人若有所思地说，“如果性爱真的不复存在，总会有别的东西取而代之。说不定会是吗啡。空气中充斥着淡淡的吗啡味道。定能让所有人感到神清气爽，飘飘欲仙。”“每逢周六，政府就在空气中施放乙醚，好让人们过个愉快的周末！”杰克说，“听着倒是个好主意，但到礼拜三，我们又该何去何从呢？”“只要能够忘掉肉体的存在，就可以品尝到快乐。”本奈利夫人说，“若对肉体念念不忘，便会痛苦不堪。如果文明确有好处，那么就帮我们忘却肉体的存在吧，这样一来，时间便会在不知不觉中快乐地逝去。”“干脆帮我们彻底摆脱肉体得了，”温特斯洛说，“人类是时候完善自己的本性了，尤其是肉体的层面。”“试想一下，我们像烟尘般飘来荡去。”康妮憧憬道。
"It won't happen," said Dukes. "Our old show will come flop; our civilization is going to fall. It's going down the bottomless pit, down the chasm. And believe me, the only bridge across the chasm will be the phallus!” "Oh do! DO be impossible, General!" cried Olive.
“根本就不可能发生，”杜克斯说，“我们的老把戏将彻底失败，文明也将土崩瓦解。它将堕入无底深渊，再无重振之日。相信我，横跨在深渊之上的唯一桥梁，就是男人的阳具！”“噢！请别瞎说，将军！”奥利夫叫道。
"I believe our civilization is going to collapse," said Aunt Eva.
“我也认为文明将会走向覆灭。”伊娃姑妈说。
"And what will come after it?" asked Clifford.
“那之后会发生什么？”克利福德问。
"I haven't the faintest idea, but something, I suppose," said the elderly lady.
“我不知道，但在我想来，总会有些了不起的事情发生。”老妇人说。
"Connie says people like wisps of smoke, and Olive says immunized women, and babies in bottles, and Dukes says the phallus is the bridge to what comes next. I wonder what it will really be?" said Clifford.
“康妮说人能化作缕缕青烟，奥利夫期盼试管婴儿能够让女人得到解放，而杜克斯则认为阳具是文明免于覆灭的救命稻草。我想知道真相到底会是怎样？”克利福德说。
"Oh, don't bother! Let's get on with today," said Olive. "Only hurry up with the breeding bottle, and let us poor women off." "There might even be real men, in the next phase," said Tommy. "Real, intelligent, wholesome men, and wholesome nice women! Wouldn't that be a change, an enormous change from us? WE'RE not men, and the women aren't women. We're only cerebrating make-shifts, mechanical and intellectual experiments. There may even come a civilization of genuine men and women, instead of our little lot of clever-jacks, all at the intelligence-age of seven. It would be even more amazing than men of smoke or babies in bottles.” "Oh, when people begin to talk about real women, I give up," said Olive.
“哎，何必自找麻烦！今朝有酒今朝醉吧。”奥利夫说。“只盼着育婴试管赶紧研制出来，好让我们这些可怜的女人得到解脱。”“或许不久就会出现真正意义的男人，”汤米说，“聪明绝伦、身强体壮的真男人，还有身心健康的好女人！与我们相比，那的确意味着变革，翻天覆地的大变革。我们根本称不上男人，而如今女人也算不得女人。我们充其量只是拥有思维的过渡产品，用以进行体能及智能方面的实验。将来或许会出现高度文明，缔造者是那些名副其实的男男女女，而非我们这群聪明的小丑，智商只与七岁顽童旗鼓相当。不管是烟尘般漂浮的人，或者试管里培育的婴孩，都难与之相提并论。”“唉，每当聊起真女人之类的话题，我总会选择缄默。”奥利夫说。
"Certainly nothing but the spirit in us is worth having," said Winterslow.
“毫无疑问，我们所拥有的最宝贵的东西，就是精神。”温特斯洛说。
"Spirits!" said Jack, drinking his whisky and soda.
“精神！”杰克说，一边抿着他的威士忌苏打。
"Think so? Give me the resurrection of the body!" said Dukes.
“都这样认为吗？我却更渴望肉体的重生！”杜克斯说。
"But it'll come, in time, when we've shoved the cerebral stone away a bit, the money and the rest. Then we'll get a democracy of touch, instead of a democracy of pocket.” Something echoed inside Connie: "Give me the democracy of touch, the resurrection of the body! " She didn't at all know what it meant, but it comforted her, as meaningless things may do.
“只要抛开精神上的重负，忘却金钱以及其他桎梏，浴火重生的时刻就会到来。那时，我们将获得官能的解放，而非只是摆脱金钱的束缚。”康妮的心底回荡着这样的话：“让官能得到解放，肉体得以重生！”她根本不明白其中的含义，但这些话却让她感到宽慰，就像许多并无意义的事物都能达到此种效果一样。
Anyhow everything was terribly silly, and she was exasperatedly bored by it all, by Clifford, by Aunt Eva, by Olive and Jack, and Winterslow, and even by Dukes. Talk, talk, talk! What hell it was, the continual rattle of it!
但归根结底，这些夸夸其谈都是极端无聊的，她烦透了这一切，厌倦了克利福德、伊娃姑妈、奥利夫和杰克、还有温特斯洛，甚至连杜克斯都不再可亲。瞎扯，瞎扯，还是瞎扯！这样喋喋不休下去，究竟是为了什么呢！
Then, when all the people went, it was no better. She continued plodding on, but exasperation and irritation had got hold of her lower body, she couldn't escape. The days seemed to grind by, with curious painfulness, yet nothing happened. Only she was getting thinner; even the housekeeper noticed it, and asked her about herself Even Tommy Dukes insisted she was not well, though she said she was all right. Only she began to be afraid of the ghastly white tombstones, that peculiar loathsome whiteness of Carrara marble, detestable as false teeth, which stuck up on the hillside, under Tevershall church, and which she saw with such grim painfulness from the park. The bristling of the hideous false teeth of tombstones on the hill affected her with a grisly kind of horror. She felt the time not far off when she would be buried there, added to the ghastly host under the tombstones and the monuments, in these filthy Midlands.
结果，当人去楼空，康妮的情绪却没有好转。她仍拖着沉重的步履艰难前行，愤懑之情紧紧攫住她的下半身，没有半点摆脱的可能。时间似乎放慢了脚步，生活中充斥着莫名的痛苦，日子就这么平淡无奇地过着。只是康妮日渐消瘦，甚至女管家都注意到这一点，问她是否身体有恙。就连汤米·杜克斯都坚持认为她多半病了，可康妮却说自己没关系。特弗沙尔教堂下方的山坡上，耸立着惨白色的墓碑，卡拉拉（注：意大利托斯卡纳大区一城市，以出产白色及蓝灰色大理石闻名）大理石那奇异的色泽，如同假牙般令人生厌，每当在自家园林中望见这恐怖的景象，康妮总会感到不寒而栗。那些假牙似的阴森墓碑，竖满整个山岗，让康妮体验到毛骨悚然的感觉。她觉得，过不了多久，自己也将被埋葬在那里，在这污秽不堪的中英格兰，长眠在墓石与墓碑之下，与群鬼为伍。
She needed help, and she knew it: so she wrote a little CRI DU COEUR to her sister, Hilda. "I'm not well lately, and I don't know what's the matter with me.” Down posted Hilda from Scotland, where she had taken up her abode. She came in March, alone, driving herself in a nimble two-seater. Up the drive she came, tooting up the incline, then sweeping round the oval of grass, where the two great wild beech-trees stood, on the flat in front of the house.
她需要帮助，她清楚这一点，因此便给姐姐希尔达去信，吐露心声。“最近我感觉不太舒服，至于到底出了什么问题，我自己也不明白。”希尔达匆匆从苏格兰赶来，她早已迁居到那里。希尔达赶到拉格比时，已是初春时节，她独自驾着自己那辆轻巧的双座轿车。她顺着车道驶上山坡，喇叭嘟嘟作响，绕过有两株高大野山毛榉的椭圆形草坪，停在屋前的平地上。
Connie had run out to the steps. Hilda pulled up her car, got out, and kissed her sister.
康妮跑到门外的台阶处迎接姐姐。希尔达停好车，走下来亲吻妹妹。