第六章（第14/15页）

她有满腹的话语想要倾诉，但却只字未言。她只是再次抬头看着他，说：“希望没有打搅你。”略带嘲讽的微笑让他眯起眼睛。

"Only combing my hair, if you don't mind. I'm sorry I hadn't a coat on, but then I had no idea who was knocking. Nobody knocks here, and the unexpected sounds ominous.” He went in front of her down the garden path to hold the gate. In his shirt, without the clumsy velveteen coat, she saw again how slender he was, thin, stooping a little. Yet, as she passed him, there was something young and bright in his fair hair, and his quick eyes. He would be a man about thirty-seven or eight.

“我刚刚在梳头，请您不要见怪。我还没来得及穿上外套，但我真的不晓得是谁在敲门。从来没人敲过门，乍一听到，敲门声还真让我有些紧张。”他走在前面，将她引领到花园尽头，为她打开门。他只穿着衬衫，没套那件笨重的棉绒外衣，那修长清瘦的身材康妮尽览无疑，而且稍稍有点驼背。然而，从他身边走过时，康妮透过其金黄的发丝、敏锐的双眼，发现洋溢着的青春活力。他大概三十七八岁。

She plodded on into the wood, knowing he was looking after her; he upset her so much, in spite of herself.

她步履沉重地走进树林，清楚他正在背后望向自己，他让她如此意乱情迷，难以自持。

And he, as he went indoors, was thinking: "She's nice, she's real! She's nicer than she knows.” She wondered very much about him; he seemed so unlike a game-keeper, so unlike a working-man anyhow; although he had something in common with the local people. But also something very uncommon.

而他呢，往回走的路上也陷入沉思：“她的确优雅大方，毫不做作！她比自己所知道的还要优秀。”她对他充满好奇，他根本不像是个守林人，怎么样也跟工人阶层扯不上边，虽说跟当地村民有相同之处。但他也有出类拔萃的地方。

"The game-keeper, Mellors, is a curious kind of person," she said to Clifford; "he might almost be a gentleman." "Might he?" said Clifford. "I hadn't noticed.” "But isn't there something special about him?” Connie insisted.

“那个守林人，梅勒斯，是个古怪的家伙，”她对克利福德说，“他简直就是位绅士。”“真的吗？”克利福德不以为然，“我没太留意。”“可你不认为他有些与众不同么？”康妮不肯罢休。

"I think he's quite a nice fellow, but I know very little about him. He only came out of the army last year, less than a year ago. From India, I rather think. He may have picked up certain tricks out there, perhaps he was an officer's servant, and improved on his position. Some of the men were like that. But it does them no good, they have to fall back into their old places when they get home again.” Connie gazed at Clifford contemplatively. She saw in him the peculiar tight rebuff against anyone of the lower classes who might be really climbing up, which she knew was characteristic of his breed.

“我觉得他确有可取之处，但对他并无太多了解。他去年刚刚退伍，至今还未满一年。没记错的话，他是从印度回来的。他本可闯出点名堂的，好像是哪位高官的勤务兵，后来职位得到擢升。许多军人都有这样的经历。但他们难以从中受益，一旦退伍返乡，就只能各归各位。”康妮两眼盯着克利福德，陷入沉思。她看得出，丈夫对有机会平步青云的下等人极端抵触，也深知这是贵族阶层的通病。

"But don't you think there is something special about him?" she asked.

“可是，难道你不觉得他有些异乎寻常吗？”她问。

"Frankly, no! Nothing I had noticed." He looked at her curiously, uneasily, half-suspiciously. And she felt he wasn't telling her the real truth; he wasn't telling himself the real truth, that was it. He disliked any suggestion of a really exceptional human being. People must be more or less at his level, or below it.