第十八章（第3/17页）

"I hope you had a real man at last," he said to her after a while, sensually alert.

“希望你碰到了真正的男子汉。”过了一会儿，他对女儿说，一副人老心不老的活泼劲儿。

"I did. That's the trouble. There aren't many of them about," she said.

“我碰到的确实是。这正是让我苦恼的地方。世间的男子汉实在是凤毛麟角。”她说。

"No, by God!" he mused.

“没错，天呢！”他沉思片刻。

"There aren't! Well, my dear, to look at you, he was a lucky man. Surely he wouldn't make trouble for you?” "Oh no! He leaves me my own mistress entirely." "Quite! Quite! A genuine man would." Sir Malcolm was pleased. Connie was his favourite daughter, he had always liked the female in her. Not so much of her mother in her as in Hilda. And he had always disliked Clifford. So he was pleased, and very tender with his daughter, as if the unborn child were his child.

“的确如此！哦，亲爱的，看看你牵肠挂肚的模样，他的确是个幸运的家伙。他自然不会给你惹什么麻烦把？”“噢，没有！他让我自己拿主意。”“那是当然！那是当然！这正是大丈夫所为。”马尔科姆爵士兴高采烈。康妮是他最宠爱的女儿，他喜欢她身上的女人味。她不像希尔达，继承了太多母亲的特质。他也从来没青睐过克利福德。这正是他兴高采烈的原因，而且他无微不至地关怀着女儿，简直比孩子的父亲还要尽责。

He drove with her to Hartland's hotel, and saw her installed: then went round to his club. She had refused his company for the evening.

他开车送她去哈特兰饭店，等她安顿好一切，才返回俱乐部。她告诉父亲，晚上不用来陪她。

She found a letter from Mellors.

她收到梅勒斯的信。

I won't come round to your hotel, but I'll wait for you outside the Golden Cock in Adam Street at seven. There he stood, tall and slender, and so different, in a formal suit of thin dark cloth. He had a natural distinction, but he had not the cut-to-pattern look of her class. Yet, she saw at once, he could go anywhere. He had a native breeding which was really much nicer than the cut-to-pattern class thing.

我不想去饭店，晚上七点，我会在亚当街的金鸡咖啡馆门口等你。他果真站在那儿，依旧高挑修长，而身着黑色薄西服，让他与以往判若两人。他有一种自然的超凡脱俗的气质，却不像贵族阶层的人们那样千篇一律。但她早就看出，他绝非池中之物。他那种与生俱来的涵养，比起那种惺惺作态的仪表，实在胜强百倍。

"Ah, there you are! How well you look!" "Yes! But not you." She looked in his face anxiously. It was thin, and the cheekbones showed. But his eyes smiled at her, and she felt at home with him. There it was: suddenly, the tension of keeping up her appearances fell from her. Something flowed out of him physically, that made her feel inwardly at ease and happy, at home. With a woman's now alert instinct for happiness, she registered it at once. "I'm happy when he's there!” Not all the sunshine of Venice had given her this inward expansion and warmth.

“啊，你来了！气色不错呀！”“是啊！可你看上去不太好。”她心疼地望着他的脸庞。他消瘦许多，颧骨向外凸出。但看到她，他的眼睛仍流露出笑意，和他在一起，她感到无拘无束。正因为此，她紧绷着的面孔突然间松弛下来。某种男子的气魄从他身上散发出来，让她发自内心地感觉轻松愉快，安然自得。凭借女性追求幸福的敏锐本能，她立即产生这样的感想。“因为有他在，我才是幸福的！”任威尼斯的阳光怎样灿烂，都无法让她的心感到宽慰和温暖。

"Was it horrid for you?" she asked as she sat opposite him at table.