第九章（第2/9页）

少顷，他按铃示意，她立马就位。接下来，他便发号施令：“今天还是你来帮我刮脸为好。”她的心房微微震颤，更为轻声细语地答道：“遵命，克利福德爵士！”她的动作敏捷熟练，触碰轻柔缠绵，稍显缓慢。起初，他很反感她的手指在自己脸上没完没了的抚触。但现在，他却陶醉其中，享受着日益增强的快感。他几乎每天都让她给自己刮脸，两人的脸庞贴得很近，她总是聚精会神，生怕哪里出了岔子。渐渐地，她的指尖彻底熟悉了他的脸颊、他的双唇、他的下颚以及脖项。他养尊处优，红光满面，脸孔和脖项也算得标致，是位地道的贵族。

She was handsome too, pale, her face rather long and absolutely still, her eyes bright, but revealing nothing. Gradually, with infinite softness, almost with love, she was getting him by the throat, and he was yielding to her.

而她也生得很是端庄，洁白的面孔稍长，显得极为沉静，双目炯炯有神，但却不动声色。渐渐地，她用无尽的柔情，近似于爱的温情，牢牢扼住他的喉咙，使他听命于自己。

She now did almost everything for him, and he felt more at home with her, less ashamed of accepting her menial offices, than with Connie. She liked handling him. She loved having his body in her charge, absolutely, to the last menial offices. She said to Connie one day: "All men are babies, when you come to the bottom of them. Why, I've handled some of the toughest customers as ever went down Tevershall pit. But let anything ail them so that you have to do for them, and they're babies, just big babies. Oh, there's not much difference in men!” At first Mrs. Bolton had thought there really was something different in a gentleman, a real gentleman, like Sir Clifford. So Clifford had got a good start of her. But gradually, as she came to the bottom of him, to use her own term, she found he was like the rest, a baby grown to man's proportions: but a baby with a queer temper and a fine manner and power in its control, and all sorts of odd knowledge that she had never dreamed of, with which he could still bully her.

她几乎帮他打理一切，有她相伴，克利福德觉得更加轻松自在，甚至胜过与康妮相处，可以心安理得地接受她的服侍。她也愿意为他效劳。她热衷于掌控他的身体，甚至为他做最为卑下的服务。有一天，她对康妮说：“所有男人都与婴儿无异，关键是要清楚他们内心的想法。哦，我照料过特弗沙尔矿场最凶悍的矿工。但当遭遇伤痛，需要别人照顾时，他们就会变成婴儿，只是心智成熟的婴儿。噢，男人大抵都是如此！”起先，博尔顿太太以为贵族会与众不同，尤其是像克利福德爵爷这样真正的贵族。因此，才会被克利福德占得先手。但时间一久，她深谙他的脾气秉性，用她自己的话来讲，她发现他跟其他男人没什么两样，虽已长大成人，但本质上仍是个婴孩。只不过这个婴孩脾气性格怪异，举止文雅，手握权柄，懂得各种各样稀奇古怪的知识，她想都未曾想过，仅是这些仍足以让她自惭形秽。

Connie was sometimes tempted to say to him: "For God's sake, don't sink so horribly into the hands of that woman!” But she found she didn't care for him enough to say it, in the long run.

有时候，康妮很想对他说：“看在上帝的份上，千万别被那女人玩弄于股掌！”但她还是没有说出口，因为她发觉，从长远考虑，自己并不太在乎他会怎样。

It was still their habit to spend the evening together, till ten o'clock. Then they would talk, or read together, or go over his manuscript. But the thrill had gone out of it. She was bored by his manuscripts. But she still dutifully typed them out for him. But in time Mrs. Bolton would do even that.

不过，他俩还是照老习惯，每晚一起呆到十点。在那段时间，他们仍会交谈，品读书籍，不然就是校对手稿。但兴致早已荡然无存。他的书稿让她感到厌倦。但她还是尽职尽责，帮他完成打字的工作。但终有一天，这项任务也会由博尔顿太太接手。

For Connie had suggested to Mrs. Bolton that she should learn to use a typewriter. And Mrs. Bolton, always ready, had begun at once, and practised assiduously. So now Clifford would sometimes dictate a letter to her, and she would take it down rather slowly, but correctly. And he was very patient, spelling for her the difficult words, or the occasional phrases in French. She was so thrilled, it was almost a pleasure to instruct her.

因为康妮提议博尔顿太太学习打字。而博尔顿太太保持着时刻待命的作风，立刻投入练习，态度极为勤勉。于是，现在克利福德有时会口述信件给她听，虽然她敲字的速度慢得要命，但从不会犯错。而他也显得很有耐心，每逢生僻单词，或者偶尔的法语词句，都会逐字母地拼读出来。她总是兴致勃勃，因此教导她几乎可说是件乐事。

Now Connie would sometimes plead a headache as an excuse for going up to her room after dinner.

现在，晚饭过后，康妮有时会借口头疼，上楼回到自己的房间。

"Perhaps Mrs. Bolton will play piquet with you," she said to Clifford.

“博尔顿太太会陪你打皮克牌（注：一种两人玩的纸牌游戏）。”她对克利福德说。

"Oh, I shall be perfectly all right. You go to your own room and rest, darling." But no sooner had she gone, than he rang for Mrs. Bolton, and asked her to take a hand at piquet or bezique, or even chess. He had taught her all these games. And Connie found it curiously objectionable to see Mrs. Bolton, flushed and tremulous like a little girl, touching her queen or her knight with uncertain fingers, then drawing away again. And Clifford, faintly smiling with a half-teasing superiority, saying to her: "You must say j'adoube!"

“我会好好照顾自己。你回房休息去吧，亲爱的。”但她前脚刚走，他会立马按铃，把博尔顿太太唤来，一起打皮克牌或者波齐克牌（注：一种两人或四人玩的纸牌游戏），甚至是下象棋。他教会她所有诸如此类的游戏。而博尔顿太太总是面色绯红，小女孩似的战战兢兢，犹豫不决地摩挲着自己的后或者马，然后又抽回手来。这样的场面让康妮感到莫名的反感。而克利福德则面露微笑，洋洋自得，用略带嘲弄的口吻，对博尔顿太太说：“你得说，我还需斟酌！”

She looked up at him with bright, startled eyes, then murmured shyly, obediently: "J'adoube!” Yes, he was educating her. And he enjoyed it, it gave him a sense of power. And she was thrilled. She was coming bit by bit into possession of all that the gentry knew, all that made them upper class: apart from the money. That thrilled her. And at the same time, she was making him want to have her there with him. It was a subtle deep flattery to him, her genuine thrill.