第二章（第2/8页）

没错，事实就是如此，一切都是命中注定！虽然令人生畏，但抗争又有什么意义呢？摆脱命运的束缚如同痴人说梦。它仍会循路而行。生活也同样如此！夜晚黑压压的低矮云层中，燃烧着的斑驳的红点不断颤动，时而膨胀，时而收缩，如同让人疼痛难忍的灼伤。那是矿区炼煤的高炉。起初，康妮曾因此被某种恐惧攫住，但后来也渐渐习惯了这一切。早晨的时候，天下起了雨来。

Clifford professed to like Wragby better than London. This country had a grim will of its own, and the people had guts. Connie wondered what else they had: certainly neither eyes nor minds. The people were as haggard, shapeless, and dreary as the countryside, and as unfriendly. Only there was something in their deep-mouthed slurring of the dialect, and the thresh-thresh of their hob-nailed pit-boots as they trailed home in gangs on the asphalt from work, that was terrible and a bit mysterious.

克利福德声称比起伦敦，他还是更加青睐拉格比。这里拥有独树一帜的顽强意志，民众个个胆识过人。康妮怀疑除此以外，他们还有什么，高瞻远瞩和真知灼见跟他们是毫不沾边的。这里的居民个个形容枯槁，面貌丑陋，表情阴郁，态度冷漠，一如生养他们的这片土地。只有那低沉含混的土语，以及放工结伙回家时平头钉鞋踩在柏油路上发出的低沉作响踢踏声，让外来者既害怕又好奇。

There had been no welcome home for the young squire, no festivities, no deputation, not even a single flower. Only a dank ride in a motor-car up a dark, damp drive, burrowing through gloomy trees, out to the slope of the park where grey damp sheep were feeding, to the knoll where the house spread its dark brown facade, and the housekeeper and her husband were hovering, like unsure tenants on the face of the earth, ready to stammer a welcome.

当这对年轻的贵族夫妇返回故里，没有听到诚挚热情的问候，没有享受到接风洗尘的宴席，没有看到列队迎候的村众，甚至连朵鲜花都没有见到。只是体验到阴湿寒冷的旅程，汽车驶过漆黑潮湿的大道，钻进阴暗的密林，攀上放牧着湿漉漉的灰色羊群的坡地，停在那座深褐色建筑物坐落的山丘上。女管家及其丈夫正在那里来回踱步，像两个心神不宁的佃户，结结巴巴地编排着欢迎词。

There was no communication between Wragby Hall and Tevershall village, none. No caps were touched, no curtseys bobbed. The colliers merely stared; the tradesmen lifted their caps to Connie as to an acquaintance, and nodded awkwardly to Clifford; that was all. That was all. Gulf impassable, and a quiet sort of resentment on either side. At first Connie suffered from the steady drizzle of resentment that came from the village. Then she hardened herself to it, and it became a sort of tonic, something to live up to. It was not that she and Clifford were unpopular, they merely belonged to another species altogether from the colliers. Gulf impassable, breach indescribable, such as is perhaps nonexistent south of the Trent. But in the Midlands and the industrial North gulf impassable, across which no communication could take place. You stick to your side, I'll stick to mine! A strange denial of the common pulse of humanity.

拉格比府与特弗沙尔村并无半点瓜葛，毫不往来。男人不脱帽致敬，女人不屈膝行礼。矿工们只是瞪眼凝视着他们，商贩们向康妮举举帽子，像是遇到相熟的人，对克里福德则会尴尬地点点头，仅此而已。仅此而已。双方被难以逾越的鸿沟隔开，心中深埋着无言的仇恨。起初，康妮因村民们细雨般不绝的仇恨颇觉苦恼。但还是逐渐硬起心肠，将这种恨意当作赖以为生的某种强身药剂。并非她与丈夫不受欢迎，只是他们与矿工们完全属于不同的阶层而已。人际间难以逾越的鸿沟，无法言喻的裂痕，或许在特伦特河以南的地区难觅其踪。但在中北部的工业区，这种不可调和的分歧却让不同阶级的人们断绝往来。你走你的阳关道，我过我的独木桥！这对人性中共通的情感是种无端地否定。