第八章（第3/13页）

When she got home Clifford asked her: "Where did you go?" "Right across the wood! Look, aren't the little daffodils adorable? To think they should come out of the earth!” "Just as much out of air and sunshine," he said.

她回到家，克利福德问道：“你去哪儿了？”“径直穿过树林！看，这些水仙花多么讨人喜欢啊！想想看，它们竟然生发自泥土！”“也少不了空气和阳光。”他补充说。

"But modelled in the earth," she retorted, with a prompt contradiction, that surprised her a little.

“但却是在泥土中长成的。”康妮随即作出反驳，速度之快让她自己都暗暗吃惊。

The next afternoon she went to the wood again. She followed the broad riding that swerved round and up through the larches to a spring called John's Well. It was cold on this hillside, and not a flower in the darkness of larches. But the icy little spring softly pressed upwards from its tiny well-bed of pure, reddish-white pebbles. How icy and clear it was! Brilliant! The new keeper had no doubt put in fresh pebbles. She heard the faint tinkle of water, as the tiny overflow trickled over and downhill. Even above the hissing boom of the larchwood, that spread its bristling, leafless, wolfish darkness on the down-slope, she heard the tinkle as of tiny water-bells.

次日过午，她再度前往树林。她沿着宽阔的马道前行，道路穿过落叶松林，蜿蜒而上，来到某个唤作约翰井的泉眼处。这侧的山坡气温较低，松林的荫翳下见不到半点花影。可彻骨的细流仍从井台上喷涌而出，那窄小的井台用略带红色的纯白卵石砌成。泉水那样冰凉，那样清澈！闪闪发光！新来的守林人想必又添加过石子。这涓涓细流从泉眼中溢出，向山下流去，发出微弱的叮当声。就算是漫山遍野黑沉沉的松林发出低沉的怒吼，都无法掩盖这银铃般清脆的叮当声。

This place was a little sinister, cold, damp. Yet the well must have been a drinking-place for hundreds of years. Now no more. Its tiny cleared space was lush and cold and dismal.

这地方颇为阴森可怖，寒冷潮湿。几百年来，这眼泉想必始终扮演着水源的角色。而如今却已荒弃。井台狭小的空地四周野草丛生，阴冷而又凄凉。

She rose and went slowly towards home. As she went she heard a faint tapping away on the right, and stood still to listen. Was it hammering, or a woodpecker? It was surely hammering.

她站起身，缓步踏上归途。轻微的敲击声从右侧传来，她停住脚步，侧耳倾听。是锤击声，还是啄木鸟在劳作？肯定是锤击声。

She walked on, listening. And then she noticed a narrow track between young fir-trees, a track that seemed to lead nowhere. But she felt it had been used. She turned down it adventurously, between the thick young firs, which gave way soon to the old oak wood. She followed the track, and the hammering grew nearer, in the silence of the windy wood, for trees make a silence even in their noise of wind.

她循声而进。不久，她发现新栽的杉树丛中有条窄径，似乎通不到任何去处。但她觉得这条小径准有人走过。她壮着胆子，踏上这条林间小路，没走多久，两边幼嫩的杉树便被古老的橡树所取代。她继续前进，距离敲击声越来越近，有风的树林依然宁静，因为即使风声不绝于耳，树木仍能营造出静默的氛围。

She saw a secret little clearing, and a secret little hot made of rustic poles. And she had never been here before! She realized it was the quiet place where the growing pheasants were reared; the keeper in his shirt-sleeves was kneeling, hammering. The dog trotted forward with a short, sharp bark, and the keeper lifted his face suddenly and saw her. He had a startled look in his eyes.

一小块隐蔽的空地出现在眼前，还有座粗糙圆木搭成的秘密小屋。她之前从未到过这里！她恍然大悟，这个安静的所在是饲养雉鸡的地方。那守林人身着衬衣，正跪在地上，敲打着什么。狗儿快步向她冲来，发出短促而尖利的叫声，守林人猛地抬起头，这才发现她。他的双眼流露出错愕的神情。