汤姆●琼斯—一个弃儿的个人史01.04B（重译）

Reader, take care. I have unadvisedly led thee to the top of as high a hill as Mr Allworthy's, and how to get thee down without breaking thy neck, I do not well know. However, let us e'en venture to slide down together; for Miss Bridget rings her bell, and Mr Allworthy is summoned to breakfast, where I must attend, and, if you please, shall be glad of your company.

诸位请当心！我带领着您来到了与山顶齐高的万德全先生面前，这样做未免有些冒失鲁莽，我真不晓得如何带您下来而不至于把您的脖子折断。要不然我们冒险一起往下滑吧；因为万丽姬小姐按了铃，招呼万德全先生用早餐，我得去参加，如果您愿意，我很乐意您也来和我作伴。

The usual compliments having past between Mr Allworthy and Miss Bridget, and the tea being poured out, he summoned Mrs Wilkins, and told his sister he had a present for her, for which she thanked him—imagining, I suppose, it had been a gown, or some ornament for her person. Indeed, he very often made her such presents; and she, in complacence to him, spent much time in adorning herself. I say in complacence to him, because she always exprest the greatest contempt for dress, and for those ladies who made it their study.

和往常一样，万德全先生和万丽姬小姐互道早安之后，茶刚刚倒好，他把卫大妈叫到餐桌前，并告诉他妹妹说要送她一件礼物，万丽姬小姐对此表示感谢——我猜测那该是件长袍，或者是佩戴在她身上的某件饰品。事实上，他过去经常给她送这样的礼物；而为了哄哥哥高兴，她总是花很长时间来打扮自己。我之所以说是哄哥哥高兴，是因为其实万丽姬小姐一向对穿戴打扮和那些讲究穿戴打扮的女士表示出极大的瞧不起。

But if such was her expectation, how was she disappointed when Mrs Wilkins, according to the order she had received from her master, produced the little infant? Great surprizes, as hath been observed, are apt to be silent; and so was Miss Bridget, till her brother began, and told her the whole story, which, as the reader knows it already, we shall not repeat.

但假使像万丽姬小姐所期望的那样，卫大妈遵照主人的吩咐将小婴儿抱出来时，她又该是何等的失望啊！正如我们经常所看到的那样，人在受到巨大惊吓时往往会保持沉默；万丽姬小姐也是如此，直到她哥哥开口说话，并将事情原委讲给她听。这些各位读者已经知道了，我们就不再赘述。

Miss Bridget had always exprest so great a regard for what the ladies are pleased to call virtue, and had herself maintained such a severity of character, that it was expected, especially by Wilkins, that she would have vented much bitterness on this occasion, and would have voted for sending the child, as a kind of noxious animal, immediately out of the house; but, on the contrary, she rather took the good-natured side of the question, intimated some compassion for the helpless little creature, and commended her brother's charity in what he had done.

万丽姬小姐一直非常在乎女士们津津乐道的贞洁，她自己也严格保持着这个美德，因此大家会认为，尤其是卫大妈会认为，万丽姬小姐在这种情况下会发泄许多愤懑之气，并会举手表决，赞成把这孩子作为一种毒蛇猛兽，立即扫地出门。但恰恰相反，她对这个问题采取了善意的态度，对这个无依无靠的小家伙表示出了一些怜悯之心，并称赞她哥哥所做的这个善举。

Perhaps the reader may account for this behaviour from her condescension to Mr Allworthy, when we have informed him that the good man had ended his narrative with owning a resolution to take care of the child, and to breed him up as his own; for, to acknowledge the truth, she was always ready to oblige her brother, and very seldom, if ever, contradicted his sentiments. She would, indeed, sometimes make a few observations, as that men were headstrong, and must have their own way, and would wish she had been blest with an independent fortune; but these were always vented in a low voice, and at the most amounted only to what is called muttering.

也许读者可以从她对万德全先生的屈尊俯就来解释她的这种行为，因为我们已经告诉过各位，这位心地善良之人在讲完整个事情经过后，曾下决心要照顾这孩子并当作自己亲生儿子一样抚养。说真的，万丽姬小姐总是讨她哥哥的欢心，而且很少（如果曾经有的话）违拗他的情绪。的确，她有时会只言片语地发表一下自己的看法，比如说男人们固执己见，必须按他们自己的方式行事，同时她说自己要是有一份单独的财产就好了；但她说这些话总是用低声细语，顶多只不过是所谓的嘀咕几句而已。

However, what she withheld from the infant, she bestowed with the utmost profuseness on the poor unknown mother, whom she called an impudent slut, a wanton hussy, an audacious harlot, a wicked jade, a vile strumpet, with every other appellation with which the tongue of virtue never fails to lash those who bring a disgrace on the sex. — A consultation was now entered into how to proceed in order to discover the mother. A scrutiny was first made into the characters of the female servants of the house, who were all acquitted by Mrs Wilkins, and with apparent merit; for she had collected them herself, and perhaps it would be difficult to find such another set of scarecrows.

然而，她对这个婴儿所保留的那些字眼，却一股脑儿地全部发泄在那位不为人知的可怜母亲身上，称她是个厚颜无耻的荡妇，放荡淫乱的婊子，胆大妄为的娼妓，邪恶无比的骚货，卑鄙下流的淫娃，还有其他类似的各种称呼，贞洁烈妇的舌头从来不会不用这些词语来责骂那些不守妇道的女人——现在大家开始商量如何着手寻找婴儿的母亲。首先对房屋中各位女佣人的性格进行了仔细盘查，结果全被卫大妈一一宣判无罪，因为显而易见，这些女佣人生活作风良好，她们全是卫大妈亲自挑选招进来的，也许很难另外再找出这样一群骨瘦如柴的纸老虎了。

The next step was to examine among the inhabitants of the parish; and this was referred to Mrs Wilkins, who was to enquire with all imaginable diligence, and to make her report in the afternoon.

下一步是在教区的居民中进行调查；这件事交由卫大妈处理，她将以十分的努力调查此事，这十分的努力我们大家可以想象得出，并在下午给出调查报告。

Matters being thus settled, Mr Allworthy withdrew to his study, as was his custom, and left the child to his sister, who, at his desire, had undertaken the care of it.

就这样事情得到了解决，万德全先生按照惯例回到了自己的书房，把孩子留给了他妹妹，按照他的意愿，他妹妹承担了照顾孩子的任务。