第十章（第4/42页）

“屋里挺乱的，还请您别介意，”他说，“我已经尽量打扫过了。”“可我没想给你添麻烦！”她说。“噢，一点不麻烦。我要用一周左右时间，把母鸡们安置好。但它们不会怕您。我早晚都得来照看它们，但我会尽量别吵到您。”“但你不会吵到我，”她言辞恳切，“如果真的会那样，我宁愿永远不去。”他那双天蓝色的双眸紧盯着她，目光依然犀利。他似乎和蔼可亲，但又保持着距离感。但他至少四肢健全，心智健康，虽然看上去清瘦孱弱。他咳嗽起来。

"You have a cough," she said.

“你咳嗽。”她关切地说。

"Nothing—a cold! The last pneumonia left me with a cough, but it's nothing.” He kept distant from her, and would not come any nearer.

“没关系——感冒而已！上次患肺炎落下了咳嗽的毛病，但没有大碍。”他总是刻意与她保持着距离，不愿接近一步。

She went fairly often to the hut, in the morning or in the afternoon, but he was never there. No doubt he avoided her on purpose. He wanted to keep his own privacy.

清晨或午后，她常去小屋，但从未碰到过他。毫无疑问，他是有意回避她。他希望保持那份清静。

He had made the hut tidy, put the little table and chair near the fireplace, left a little pile of kindling and small logs, and put the tools and traps away as far as possible, effacing himself. Outside, by the clearing, he had built a low little roof of boughs and straw, a shelter for the birds, and under it stood the live coops. And, one day when she came, she found two brown hens sitting alert and fierce in the coops, sitting on pheasants' eggs, and fluffed out so proud and deep in all the heat of the pondering female blood. This almost broke Connie's heart. She, herself was so forlorn and unused, not a female at all, just a mere thing of terrors.

他把小屋收拾得干干净净，将小桌和椅子放在壁炉旁，留一小堆引火用的柴枝和木块，工具及兽夹都搁得远远的，尽量抹去自己的痕迹。屋外空地旁，他用树枝和稻草搭了个矮棚，为母鸡们遮风挡雨，棚下摆着鸡笼。之后的一天，她来时发现，笼里添了两支棕色母鸡，正卧在那里孵着雉鸡蛋，显得机警而凶悍。它们骄傲地震颤着自己的羽毛，炽热的雌性本能在血液中奔涌。此情此景，让康妮怅然心碎。她孤苦伶仃，毫无价值，哪里还算得上女人，根本只是个微不足道的可怜鬼。

Then all the live coops were occupied by hens, three brown and a grey and a black. All alike, they clustered themselves down on the eggs in the soft nestling ponderosity of the female urge, the female nature, fluffing out their feathers. And with brilliant eyes they watched Connie, as she crouched before them, and they gave short sharp clucks of anger and alarm, but chiefly of female anger at being approached.

后来，所有五个笼子都被母鸡占据，三只棕色的，灰色黑色各有一只。五只母鸡紧紧伏在蛋上，温情款款，动作笨拙，羽毛抖动，彰显着雌性的本能。康妮在笼前蹲下来，母鸡明亮的眼睛圆睁着，喉咙里发出短促而尖利的咯咯声，愤怒地警告她不要靠近，但主要是出于雌性被接近时露出愤怒的本能。

Connie found corn in the corn-bin in the hut. She offered it to the hens in her hand. They would not eat it. Only one hen pecked at her hand with a fierce little jab, so Connie was frightened. But she was pining to give them something, the brooding mothers who neither fed themselves nor drank. She brought water in a little tin, and was delighted when one of the hens drank.

在小屋的粮仓里，康妮找来谷粒。她捧在手里，去喂母鸡。它们理都不理。只有其中一只向她的手猛啄过去，吓了康妮一跳。但她还是想方设法地喂它们，这些一心只想着孵蛋的母亲们却不吃也不喝。她端来一小罐水，其中一只喝了一口，这让她开心不已。