Amazing Artfulness of Captain Cuttle, and a new Pursuit for Walter Gay
Walter could not, for several days, decide what to do in the Barbados business; and even cherished some faint hope that Mr Dombey might not have meant what he had said, or that he might change his mind, and tell him he was not to go. But as nothing occurred to give this idea (which was sufficiently improbable in itself) any touch of confirmation, and as time was slipping by, and he had none to lose, he felt that he must act, without hesitating any longer.
Walter's chief difficulty was, how to break the change in his affairs to Uncle Sol, to whom he was sensible it would he a terrible blow. He had the greater difficulty in dashing Uncle Sol's spirits with such an astounding piece of intelligence, because they had lately recovered very much, and the old man had become so cheerful, that the little back parlour was itself again. Uncle Sol had paid the first appointed portion of the debt to Mr Dombey, and was hopeful of working his way through the rest; and to cast him down afresh, when he had sprung up so manfully from his troubles, was a very distressing necessity.
Yet it would never do to run away from him. He must know of it beforehand; and how to tell him was the point. As to the question of going or not going, Walter did not consider that he had any power of choice in the matter. Mr Dombey had truly told him that he was young, and that his Uncle's circumstances were not good; and Mr Dombey had plainly expressed, in the glance with which he had accompanied that reminder, that if he declined to go he might stay at home if he chose, but not in his counting-house. His Uncle and he lay under a great obligation to Mr Dombey, which was of Walter's own soliciting. He might have begun in secret to despair of ever winning that gentleman's favour, and might have thought that he was now and then disposed to put a slight upon him, which was hardly just. But what would have been duty without that, was still duty with it - or Walter thought so- and duty must be done.
When Mr Dombey had looked at him, and told him he was young, and that his Uncle's circumstances were not good, there had been an expression of disdain in his face; a contemptuous and disparaging assumption that he would be quite content to live idly on a reduced old man, which stung the boy's generous soul. Determined to assure Mr Dombey, in so far as it was possible to give him the assurance without expressing it in words, that indeed he mistook his nature, Walter had been anxious to show even more cheerfulness and activity after the West Indian interview than he had shown before: if that were possible, in one of his quick and zealous disposition. He was too young and inexperienced to think, that possibly this very quality in him was not agreeable to Mr Dombey, and that it was no stepping-stone to his good opinion to be elastic and hopeful of pleasing under the shadow of his powerful displeasure, whether it were right or wrong. But it may have been - it may have been- that the great man thought himself defied in this new exposition of an honest spirit, and purposed to bring it down.
'Well! at last and at least, Uncle Sol must be told,' thought Walter, with a sigh. And as Walter was apprehensive that his voice might perhaps quaver a little, and that his countenance might not be quite as hopeful as he could wish it to be, if he told the old man himself, and saw the first effects of his communication on his wrinkled face, he resolved to avail himself of the services of that powerful mediator, Captain Cuttle. Sunday coming round, he set off therefore, after breakfast, once more to beat up Captain Cuttle's quarters.
It was not unpleasant to remember, on the way thither, that Mrs MacStinger resorted to a great distance every Sunday morning, to attend the ministry of the Reverend Melchisedech Howler, who, having been one day discharged from the West India Docks on a false suspicion (got up expressly against him by the general enemy) of screwing gimlets into puncheons, and applying his lips to the orifice, had announced the destruction of the world for that day two years, at ten in the morning, and opened a front parlour for the reception of ladies and gentlemen of the Ranting persuasion, upon whom, on the first occasion of their assemblage, the admonitions of the Reverend Melchisedech had produced so powerful an effect, that, in their rapturous performance of a sacred jig, which closed the service, the whole flock broke through into a kitchen below, and disabled a mangle belonging to one of the fold.
This the Captain, in a moment of uncommon conviviality, had confided to Walter and his Uncle, between the repetitions of lovely Peg, on the night when Brogley the broker was paid out. The Captain himself was punctual in his attendance at a church in his own neighbourhood, which hoisted the Union Jack every Sunday morning; and where he was good enough - the lawful beadle being infirm - to keep an eye upon the boys, over whom he exercised great power, in virtue of his mysterious hook. Knowing the regularity of the Captain's habits, Walter made all the haste he could, that he might anticipate his going out; and he made such good speed, that he had the pleasure, on turning into Brig Place, to behold the broad blue coat and waistcoat hanging out of the Captain's oPen window, to air in the sun.
It appeared incredible that the coat and waistcoat could be seen by mortal eyes without the Captain; but he certainly was not in them, otherwise his legs - the houses in Brig Place not being lofty- would have obstructed the street door, which was perfectly clear. Quite wondering at this discovery, Walter gave a single knock.
'Stinger,' he distinctly heard the Captain say, up in his room, as if that were no business of his. Therefore Walter gave two knocks.
'Cuttle,' he heard the Captain say upon that; and immediately afterwards the Captain, in his clean shirt and braces, with his neckerchief hanging loosely round his throat like a coil of rope, and his glazed hat on, appeared at the window, leaning out over the broad blue coat and waistcoat.
'Wal'r!' cried the Captain, looking down upon him in amazement.
'Ay, ay, Captain Cuttle,' returned Walter, 'only me'
'What's the matter, my lad?' inquired the Captain, with great concern. 'Gills an't been and sprung nothing again?'
'No, no,' said Walter. 'My Uncle's all right, Captain Cuttle.'
The Captain expressed his gratification, and said he would come down below and open the door, which he did.
'Though you're early, Wal'r,' said the Captain, eyeing him still doubtfully, when they got upstairs:
'Why, the fact is, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, sitting down, 'I was afraid you would have gone out, and I want to benefit by your friendly counsel.'
'So you shall,' said the Captain; 'what'll you take?'
'I want to take your opinion, Captain Cuttle,' returned Walter, smiling. 'That's the only thing for me.'
'Come on then,' said the Captain. 'With a will, my lad!'
Walter related to him what had happened; and the difficulty in which he felt respecting his Uncle, and the relief it would be to him if Captain Cuttle, in his kindness, would help him to smooth it away; Captain Cuttle's infinite consternation and astonishment at the prospect unfolded to him, gradually swallowing that gentleman up, until it left his face quite vacant, and the suit of blue, the glazed hat, and the hook, apparently without an owner.
'You see, Captain Cuttle,' pursued Walter, 'for myself, I am young, as Mr Dombey said, and not to be considered. I am to fight my way through the world, I know; but there are two points I was thinking, as I came along, that I should be very particular about, in respect to my Uncle. I don't mean to say that I deserve to be the pride and delight of his life - you believe me, I know - but I am. Now, don't you think I am?'
The Captain seemed to make an endeavour to rise from the depths of his astonishment, and get back to his face; but the effort being ineffectual, the glazed hat merely nodded with a mute, unutterable meaning.
'If I live and have my health,' said Walter, 'and I am not afraid of that, still, when I leave England I can hardly hope to see my Uncle again. He is old, Captain Cuttle; and besides, his life is a life of custom - '
'Steady, Wal'r! Of a want of custom?' said the Captain, suddenly reappearing.
'Too true,' returned Walter, shaking his head: 'but I meant a life of habit, Captain Cuttle - that sort of custom. And if (as you very truly said, I am sure) he would have died the sooner for the loss of the stock, and all those objects to which he has been accustomed for so many years, don't you think he might die a little sooner for the loss of - '
'Of his Nevy,' interposed the Captain. 'Right!'
'Well then,' said Walter, trying to speak gaily, 'we must do our best to make him believe that the separation is but a temporary one, after all; but as I know better, or dread that I know better, Captain Cuttle, and as I have so many reasons for regarding him with affection, and duty, and honour, I am afraid I should make but a very poor hand at that, if I tried to persuade him of it. That's my great reason for wishing you to break it out to him; and that's the first point.'
'Keep her off a point or so!' observed the Captain, in a comtemplative voice.
'What did you say, Captain Cuttle?' inquired Walter.
'Stand by!' returned the Captain, thoughtfully.
Walter paused to ascertain if the Captain had any particular information to add to this, but as he said no more, went on.
'Now, the second point, Captain Cuttle. I am sorry to say, I am not a favourite with Mr Dombey. I have always tried to do my best, and I have always done it; but he does not like me. He can't help his likings and dislikings, perhaps. I say nothing of that. I only say that I am certain he does not like me. He does not send me to this post as a good one; he disclaims to represent it as being better than it is; and I doubt very much if it will ever lead me to advancement in the House - whether it does not, on the contrary, dispose of me for ever, and put me out of the way. Now, we must say nothing of this to my Uncle, Captain Cuttle, but must make it out to be as favourable and promising as we can; and when I tell you what it really is, I only do so, that in case any means should ever arise of lending me a hand, so far off, I may have one friend at home who knows my real situation.
'Wal'r, my boy,' replied the Captain, 'in the Proverbs of Solomon you will find the following words, "May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him!" When found, make a note of.'
Here the Captain stretched out his hand to Walter, with an air of downright good faith that spoke volumes; at the same time repeating (for he felt proud of the accuracy and pointed application of his quotation), 'When found, make a note of.'
'Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, taking the immense fist extended to him by the Captain in both his hands, which it completely filled, next to my Uncle Sol, I love you. There is no one on earth in whom I can more safely trust, I am sure. As to the mere going away, Captain Cuttle, I don't care for that; why should I care for that! If I were free to seek my own fortune - if I were free to go as a common sailor - if I were free to venture on my own account to the farthest end of the world - I would gladly go! I would have gladly gone, years ago, and taken my chance of what might come of it. But it was against my Uncle's wishes, and against the plans he had formed for me; and there was an end of that. But what I feel, Captain Cuttle, is that we have been a little mistaken all along, and that, so far as any improvement in my prospects is concerned, I am no better off now than I was when I first entered Dombey's House - perhaps a little worse, for the House may have been kindly inclined towards me then, and it certainly is not now.'
'Turn again, Whittington,' muttered the disconsolate Captain, after looking at Walter for some time.
'Ay,' replied Walter, laughing, 'and turn a great many times, too, Captain Cuttle, I'm afraid, before such fortune as his ever turns up again. Not that I complain,' he added, in his lively, animated, energetic way. 'I have nothing to complain of. I am provided for. I can live. When I leave my Uncle, I leave him to you; and I can leave him to no one better, Captain Cuttle. I haven't told you all this because I despair, not I; it's to convince you that I can't pick and choose in Dombey's House, and that where I am sent, there I must go, and what I am offered, that I must take. It's better for my Uncle that I should be sent away; for Mr Dombey is a valuable friend to him, as he proved himself, you know when, Captain Cuttle; and I am persuaded he won't be less valuable when he hasn't me there, every day, to awaken his dislike. So hurrah for the West Indies, Captain Cuttle! How does that tune go that the sailors sing?
'For the Port of Barbados, Boys!
Cheerily!
Leaving old England behind us, Boys!
Cheerily!' Here the Captain roared in chorus -
'Oh cheerily, cheerily!
Oh cheer-i-ly!'
The last line reaching the quick ears of an ardent skipper not quite sober, who lodged opposite, and who instantly sprung out of bed, threw up his window, and joined in, across the street, at the top of his voice, produced a fine effect. When it was impossible to sustain the concluding note any longer, the skipper bellowed forth a terrific 'ahoy!' intended in part as a friendly greeting, and in part to show that he was not at all breathed. That done, he shut down his window, and went to bed again.
'And now, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, handing him the blue coat and waistcoat, and bustling very much, 'if you'll come and break the news to Uncle Sol (which he ought to have known, days upon days ago, by rights), I'll leave you at the door, you know, and walk about until the afternoon.'
The Captain, however, scarcely appeared to relish the commission, or to be by any means confident of his powers of executing it. He had arranged the future life and adventures of Walter so very differently, and so entirely to his own satisfaction; he had felicitated himself so often on the sagacity and foresight displayed in that arrangement, and had found it so complete and perfect in all its parts; that to suffer it to go to pieces all at once, and even to assist in breaking it up, required a great effort of his resolution. The Captain, too, found it difficult to unload his old ideas upon the subject, and to take a perfectly new cargo on board, with that rapidity which the circumstances required, or without jumbling and confounding the two. Consequently, instead of putting on his coat and waistcoat with anything like the impetuosity that could alone have kept pace with Walter's mood, he declined to invest himself with those garments at all at present; and informed Walter that on such a serious matter, he must be allowed to 'bite his nails a bit'
'It's an old habit of mine, Wal'r,' said the Captain, 'any time these fifty year. When you see Ned Cuttle bite his nails, Wal'r, then you may know that Ned Cuttle's aground.'
Thereupon the Captain put his iron hook between his teeth, as if it were a hand; and with an air of wisdom and profundity that was the very concentration and sublimation of all philosophical reflection and grave inquiry, applied himself to the consideration of the subject in its various branches.
'There's a friend of mine,' murmured the Captain, in an absent manner, 'but he's at present coasting round to Whitby, that would deliver such an opinion on this subject, or any other that could be named, as would give Parliament six and beat 'em. Been knocked overboard, that man,' said the Captain, 'twice, and none the worse for it. Was beat in his apprenticeship, for three weeks (off and on), about the head with a ring-bolt. And yet a clearer-minded man don't walk.'
Despite of his respect for Captain Cuttle, Walter could not help inwardly rejoicing at the absence of this sage, and devoutly hoping that his limpid intellect might not be brought to bear on his difficulties until they were quite settled.
'If you was to take and show that man the buoy at the Nore,' said Captain Cuttle in the same tone, 'and ask him his opinion of it, Wal'r, he'd give you an opinion that was no more like that buoy than your Uncle's buttons are. There ain't a man that walks - certainly not on two legs - that can come near him. Not near him!'
'What's his name, Captain Cuttle?' inquired Walter, determined to be interested in the Captain's friend.
'His name's Bunsby, said the Captain. 'But Lord, it might be anything for the matter of that, with such a mind as his!'
The exact idea which the Captain attached to this concluding piece of praise, he did not further elucidate; neither did Walter seek to draw it forth. For on his beginning to review, with the vivacity natural to himself and to his situation, the leading points in his own affairs, he soon discovered that the Captain had relapsed into his former profound state of mind; and that while he eyed him steadfastly from beneath his bushy eyebrows, he evidently neither saw nor heard him, but remained immersed in cogitation.
In fact, Captain Cuttle was labouring with such great designs, that far from being aground, he soon got off into the deepest of water, and could find no bottom to his penetration. By degrees it became perfectly plain to the Captain that there was some mistake here; that it was undoubtedly much more likely to be Walter's mistake than his; that if there were really any West India scheme afoot, it was a very different one from what Walter, who was young and rash, supposed; and could only be some new device for making his fortune with unusual celerity. 'Or if there should be any little hitch between 'em,' thought the Captain, meaning between Walter and Mr Dombey, 'it only wants a word in season from a friend of both parties, to set it right and smooth, and make all taut again.' Captain Cuttle's deduction from these considerations was, that as he already enjoyed the pleasure of knowing Mr Dombey, from having spent a very agreeable half-hour in his company at Brighton (on the morning when they borrowed the money); and that, as a couple of men of the world, who understood each other, and were mutually disposed to make things comfortable, could easily arrange any little difficulty of this sort, and come at the real facts; the friendly thing for him to do would be, without saying anything about it to Walter at present, just to step up to Mr Dombey's house - say to the servant 'Would ye be so good, my lad, as report Cap'en Cuttle here?' - meet Mr Dombey in a confidential spirit- hook him by the button-hole - talk it over - make it all right - and come away triumphant!
As these reflections presented themselves to the Captain's mind, and by slow degrees assumed this shape and form, his visage cleared like a doubtful morning when it gives place to a bright noon. His eyebrows, which had been in the highest degree portentous, smoothed their rugged bristling aspect, and became serene; his eyes, which had been nearly closed in the severity of his mental exercise, opened freely; a smile which had been at first but three specks - one at the right-hand corner of his mouth, and one at the corner of each eye - gradually overspread his whole face, and, rippling up into his forehead, lifted the glazed hat: as if that too had been aground with Captain Cuttle, and were now, like him, happily afloat again.
Finally, the Captain left off biting his nails, and said, 'Now, Wal'r, my boy, you may help me on with them slops.' By which the Captain meant his coat and waistcoat.
Walter little imagined why the Captain was so particular in the arrangement of his cravat, as to twist the pendent ends into a sort of pigtail, and pass them through a massive gold ring with a picture of a tomb upon it, and a neat iron railing, and a tree, in memory of some deceased friend. Nor why the Captain pulled up his shirt-collar to the utmost limits allowed by the Irish linen below, and by so doing decorated himself with a complete pair of blinkers; nor why he changed his shoes, and put on an unparalleled pair of ankle-jacks, which he only wore on extraordinary occasions. The Captain being at length attired to his own complete satisfaction, and having glanced at himself from head to foot in a shaving-glass which he removed from a nail for that purpose, took up his knotted stick, and said he was ready.
The Captain's walk was more complacent than usual when they got out into the street; but this Walter supposed to be the effect of the ankle-jacks, and took little heed of. Before they had gone very far, they encountered a woman selling flowers; when the Captain stopping short, as if struck by a happy idea, made a purchase of the largest bundle in her basket: a most glorious nosegay, fan-shaped, some two feet and a half round, and composed of all the jolliest-looking flowers that blow.
Armed with this little token which he designed for Mr Dombey, Captain Cuttle walked on with Walter until they reached the Instrument-maker's door, before which they both paused.
'You're going in?' said Walter.
'Yes,' returned the Captain, who felt that Walter must be got rid of before he proceeded any further, and that he had better time his projected visit somewhat later in the day.
'And you won't forget anything?'
'No,' returned the Captain.
'I'll go upon my walk at once,' said Walter, 'and then I shall be out of the way, Captain Cuttle.'
'Take a good long 'un, my lad!' replied the Captain, calling after him. Walter waved his hand in assent, and went his way.
His way was nowhere in particular; but he thought he would go out into the fields, where he could reflect upon the unknown life before him, and resting under some tree, ponder quietly. He knew no better fields than those near Hampstead, and no better means of getting at them than by passing Mr Dombey's house.
It was as stately and as dark as ever, when he went by and glanced up at its frowning front. The blinds were all pulled down, but the upper windows stood wide open, and the pleasant air stirring those curtains and waving them to and fro was the only sign of animation in the whole exterior. Walter walked softly as he passed, and was glad when he had left the house a door or two behind.
He looked back then; with the interest he had always felt for the place since the adventure of the lost child, years ago; and looked especially at those upper windows. While he was thus engaged, a chariot drove to the door, and a portly gentleman in black, with a heavy watch-chain, alighted, and went in. When he afterwards remembered this gentleman and his equipage together, Walter had no doubt be was a physician; and then he wondered who was ill; but the discovery did not occur to him until he had walked some distance, thinking listlessly of other things.
Though still, of what the house had suggested to him; for Walter pleased hImself with thinking that perhaps the time might come, when the beautiful child who was his old friend and had always been so grateful to him and so glad to see him since, might interest her brother in his behalf and influence his fortunes for the better. He liked to imagine this - more, at that moment, for the pleasure of imagining her continued remembrance of him, than for any worldly profit he might gain: but another and more sober fancy whispered to him that if he were alive then, he would be beyond the sea and forgotten; she married, rich, proud, happy. There was no more reason why she should remember him with any interest in such an altered state of things, than any plaything she ever had. No, not so much.
Yet Walter so idealised the pretty child whom he had found wandering in the rough streets, and so identified her with her innocent gratitude of that night and the simplicity and truth of its expression, that he blushed for himself as a libeller when he argued that she could ever grow proud. On the other hand, his meditations were of that fantastic order that it seemed hardly less libellous in him to imagine her grown a woman: to think of her as anything but the same artless, gentle, winning little creature, that she had been in the days of Good Mrs Brown. In a word, Walter found out that to reason with himself about Florence at all, was to become very unreasonable indeed; and that he could do no better than preserve her image in his mind as something precious, unattainable, unchangeable, and indefinite - indefinite in all but its power of giving him pleasure, and restraining him like an angel's hand from anything unworthy.
It was a long stroll in the fields that Walter took that day, listening to the birds, and the Sunday bells, and the softened murmur of the town - breathing sweet scents; glancing sometimes at the dim horizon beyond which his voyage and his place of destination lay; then looking round on the green English grass and the home landscape. But he hardly once thought, even of going away, distinctly; and seemed to put off reflection idly, from hour to hour, and from minute to minute, while he yet went on reflecting all the time.
Walter had left the fields behind him, and was plodding homeward in the same abstracted mood, when he heard a shout from a man, and then a woman's voice calling to him loudly by name. Turning quickly in his surprise, he saw that a hackney-coach, going in the contrary direction, had stopped at no great distance; that the coachman was looking back from his box and making signals to him with his whip; and that a young woman inside was leaning out of the window, and beckoning with immense energy. Running up to this coach, he found that the young woman was Miss Nipper, and that Miss Nipper was in such a flutter as to be almost beside herself.
'Staggs's Gardens, Mr Walter!' said Miss Nipper; 'if you please, oh do!'
'Eh?' cried Walter; 'what is the matter?'
'Oh, Mr Walter, Staggs's Gardens, if you please!' said Susan.
'There!' cried the coachman, appealing to Walter, with a sort of exalting despair; 'that's the way the young lady's been a goin' on for up'ards of a mortal hour, and me continivally backing out of no thoroughfares, where she would drive up. I've had a many fares in this coach, first and last, but never such a fare as her.'
'Do you want to go to Staggs's Gardens, Susan?' inquired Walter.
'Ah! She wants to go there! WHERE IS IT?' growled the coachman.
'I don't know where it is!' exclaimed Susan, wildly. 'Mr Walter, I was there once myself, along with Miss Floy and our poor darling Master Paul, on the very day when you found Miss Floy in the City, for we lost her coming home, Mrs Richards and me, and a mad bull, and Mrs Richards's eldest, and though I went there afterwards, I can't remember where it is, I think it's sunk into the ground. Oh, Mr Walter, don't desert me, Staggs's Gardens, if you please! Miss Floy's darling - all our darlings - little, meek, meek Master Paul! Oh Mr Walter!'
'Good God!' cried Walter. 'Is he very ill?'
'The pretty flower!' cried Susan, wringing her hands, 'has took the fancy that he'd like to see his old nurse, and I've come to bring her to his bedside, Mrs Staggs, of Polly Toodle's Gardens, someone pray!'
Greatly moved by what he heard, and catching Susan's earnestness immediately, Walter, now that he understood the nature of her errand, dashed into it with such ardour that the coachman had enough to do to follow closely as he ran before, inquiring here and there and everywhere, the way to Staggs's Gardens.
There was no such place as Staggs's Gardens. It had vanished from the earth. Where the old rotten summer-houses once had stood, palaces now reared their heads, and granite columns of gigantic girth opened a vista to the railway world beyond. The miserable waste ground, where the refuse-matter had been heaped of yore, was swallowed up and gone; and in its frowsy stead were tiers of warehouses, crammed with rich goods and costly merchandise. The old by-streets now swarmed with passengers and vehicles of every kind: the new streets that had stopped disheartened in the mud and waggon-ruts, formed towns within themselves, originating wholesome comforts and conveniences belonging to themselves, and never tried nor thought of until they sprung into existence. Bridges that had led to nothing, led to villas, gardens, churches, healthy public walks. The carcasses of houses, and beginnings of new thoroughfares, had started off upon the line at steam's own speed, and shot away into the country in a monster train.'
As to the neighbourhood which had hesitated to acknowledge the railroad in its straggling days, that had grown wise and penitent, as any Christian might in such a case, and now boasted of its powerful and prosperous relation. There were railway patterns in its drapers' shops, and railway journals in the windows of its newsmen. There were railway hotels, office-houses, lodging-houses, boarding-houses; railway plans, maps, views, wrappers, bottles, sandwich-boxes, and time-tables; railway hackney-coach and stands; railway omnibuses, railway streets and buildings, railway hangers-on and parasites, and flatterers out of all calculation. There was even railway time observed in clocks, as if the sun itself had given in. Among the vanquished was the master chimney-sweeper, whilom incredulous at Staggs's Gardens, who now lived in a stuccoed house three stories high, and gave himself out, with golden flourishes upon a varnished board, as contractor for the cleansing of railway chimneys by machinery.
To and from the heart of this great change, all day and night, throbbing currents rushed and returned incessantly like its life's blood. Crowds of people and mountains of goods, departing and arriving scores upon scores of times in every four-and-twenty hours, produced a fermentation in the place that was always in action. The very houses seemed disposed to pack up and take trips. Wonderful Members of Parliament, who, little more than twenty years before, had made themselves merry with the wild railroad theories of engineers, and given them the liveliest rubs in cross-examination, went down into the north with their watches in their hands, and sent on messages before by the electric telegraph, to say that they were coming. Night and day the conquering engines rumbled at their distant work, or, advancing smoothly to their journey's end, and gliding like tame dragons into the allotted corners grooved out to the inch for their reception, stood bubbling and trembling there, making the walls quake, as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers yet unsuspected in them, and strong purposes not yet achieved.
But Staggs's Gardens had been cut up root and branch. Oh woe the day when 'not a rood of English ground' - laid out in Staggs's Gardens - is secure!
At last, after much fruitless inquiry, Walter, followed by the coach and Susan, found a man who had once resided in that vanished land, and who was no other than the master sweep before referred to, grown stout, and knocking a double knock at his own door. He knowed Toodle, he said, well. Belonged to the Railroad, didn't he?
'Yes' sir, yes!' cried Susan Nipper from the coach window.
Where did he live now? hastily inquired Walter.
He lived in the Company's own Buildings, second turning to the right, down the yard, cross over, and take the second on the right again. It was number eleven; they couldn't mistake it; but if they did, they had only to ask for Toodle, Engine Fireman, and any one would show them which was his house. At this unexpected stroke of success Susan Nipper dismounted from the coach with all speed, took Walter's arm, and set off at a breathless pace on foot; leaving the coach there to await their return.
'Has the little boy been long ill, Susan?' inquired Walter, as they hurried on.
'Ailing for a deal of time, but no one knew how much,' said Susan; adding, with excessive sharpness, 'Oh, them Blimbers!'
'Blimbers?' echoed Walter.
'I couldn't forgive myself at such a time as this, Mr Walter,' said Susan, 'and when there's so much serious distress to think about, if I rested hard on anyone, especially on them that little darling Paul speaks well of, but I may wish that the family was set to work in a stony soil to make new roads, and that Miss Blimber went in front, and had the pickaxe!'
Miss Nipper then took breath, and went on faster than before, as if this extraordinary aspiration had relieved her. Walter, who had by this time no breath of his own to spare, hurried along without asking any more questions; and they soon, in their impatience, burst in at a little door and came into a clean parlour full of children.
'Where's Mrs Richards?' exclaimed Susan Nipper, looking round. 'Oh Mrs Richards, Mrs Richards, come along with me, my dear creetur!'
'Why, if it ain't Susan!' cried Polly, rising with her honest face and motherly figure from among the group, in great surprIse.
'Yes, Mrs Richards, it's me,' said Susan, 'and I wish it wasn't, though I may not seem to flatter when I say so, but little Master Paul is very ill, and told his Pa today that he would like to see the face of his old nurse, and him and Miss Floy hope you'll come along with me - and Mr Walter, Mrs Richards - forgetting what is past, and do a kindness to the sweet dear that is withering away. Oh, Mrs Richards, withering away!' Susan Nipper crying, Polly shed tears to see her, and to hear what she had said; and all the children gathered round (including numbers of new babies); and Mr Toodle, who had just come home from Birmingham, and was eating his dinner out of a basin, laid down his knife and fork, and put on his wife's bonnet and shawl for her, which were hanging up behind the door; then tapped her on the back; and said, with more fatherly feeling than eloquence, 'Polly! cut away!'
So they got back to the coach, long before the coachman expected them; and Walter, putting Susan and Mrs Richards inside, took his seat on the box himself that there might be no more mistakes, and deposited them safely in the hall of Mr Dombey's house - where, by the bye, he saw a mighty nosegay lying, which reminded him of the one Captain Cuttle had purchased in his company that morning. He would have lingered to know more of the young invalid, or waited any length of time to see if he could render the least service; but, painfully sensible that such conduct would be looked upon by Mr Dombey as presumptuous and forward, he turned slowly, sadly, anxiously, away.
He had not gone five minutes' walk from the door, when a man came running after him, and begged him to return. Walter retraced his steps as quickly as he could, and entered the gloomy house with a sorrowful foreboding.
沃爾特好幾天打不定主意，去巴巴多斯的事情該怎么辦；甚至他還懷著幾分微弱的希望：董貝先生也許說話并不當(dāng)真，或者他也可能會(huì)改變主意，通知他不去了；可是他這種想法本身就是極不可能的，能證實(shí)這種想法的任何跡象也沒有出現(xiàn)，而時(shí)間又在消逝，他不能再延誤下去了，所以他覺得必須毫不遲疑地采取行動(dòng)。
沃爾特的主要困難在于怎樣把他工作的變動(dòng)情況透露給所爾舅舅；他知道這對(duì)他是一個(gè)可怕的打擊。他感到尤其困難的是說出這個(gè)驚人的消息來摧毀所爾舅舅的情緒，因?yàn)槔先俗罱榫w有了很大好轉(zhuǎn)，有說有笑，小后客廳又恢復(fù)了往日歡樂的氣氛。所爾舅舅已經(jīng)把第一批債款歸還給董貝先生，并滿懷希望，能設(shè)法把其余的欠債還清。當(dāng)他勇敢地從艱難中振作起來的時(shí)候，重新讓他垂頭喪氣，這真是一件令人痛苦、迫不得已的事情。
然而決不能背著他悄悄地溜走。應(yīng)當(dāng)事先讓他知道這件事。問題是怎樣告訴他。至于去或不去，沃爾特認(rèn)為他絲毫沒有選擇的權(quán)力。董貝先生明白無誤地跟他說過，他年輕，舅舅的境況又不好；董貝先生還在伴隨的眼光中清楚地提醒他，如果他拒絕去的話，那么他可以待在家中，但卻不能待在他的辦公室里。他舅舅和他都欠董貝先生的恩情；這份恩情還是沃爾特親自去懇求來的。他也許已開始暗暗感到，他永遠(yuǎn)沒有希望博得那位先生的好感，他也許還想到，董貝先生還不時(shí)藐視他，而那是很不公正的?？墒遣徽撉闆r是否這樣，職責(zé)畢竟是職責(zé)，而職責(zé)是必須履行的，沃爾特心里這樣想。
當(dāng)董貝先生看著他，跟他說，他年輕，他舅舅的境況又不好的時(shí)候，臉上曾經(jīng)流露出一種輕蔑的神色，傲慢不恭地、對(duì)他貶損地認(rèn)為，他樂意游手好閑地依靠一個(gè)窮困沒落的老頭子過活；這一點(diǎn)刺痛了這個(gè)孩子高尚的心靈。沃爾特決定不用言語表白，而盡可能使董貝先生相信，他確實(shí)把他的品格看錯(cuò)了，所以在那次有關(guān)去西印度群島的談話之后，他急切地表現(xiàn)出比先前更加愉快和活躍，就像一個(gè)像他那樣機(jī)靈、熱心的孩子所能表現(xiàn)的。他太年輕，太缺乏經(jīng)驗(yàn)，沒有想到，他這種性格本身就可能使董貝先生不喜歡；董貝先生強(qiáng)烈的不高興不論是正確的還是錯(cuò)誤的，反正在它那陰影之下，這孩子表現(xiàn)出應(yīng)變自如，有希望依然快快活活的樣子，是決不會(huì)使他產(chǎn)生好印象的。相反倒很可能，在那位大人物看來，這顆誠(chéng)實(shí)的心靈的這種新的表露是對(duì)他的公然反抗，因此他決意把它壓下去。
“唉！最終反正總得告訴所爾舅舅的，”沃爾特嘆了一口氣，想道。沃爾特?fù)?dān)心的是，如果由他本人告訴老人，并看到這消息在他起了皺紋的臉上所引起的第一陣反應(yīng)的話，那么他的聲音也許會(huì)稍稍顫抖，他臉上的神色也許不能像他所希望的那樣輕松愉快，因此他決定去請(qǐng)卡特爾船長(zhǎng)這位能干的斡旋者來幫忙。于是，星期天吃過早飯以后，他就從家里出發(fā)，再一次出其不意地到卡特爾船長(zhǎng)的住所去。
他在途中愉快地記起，麥克斯廷杰太太每逢星期天上午都要到一個(gè)很遠(yuǎn)的地方去聽梅爾奇斯代克·豪洛爾大師說教。這位大師原先在西印度船塢工作，后來由于仇人誣陷，說他曾用手錐鉆破大酒桶，然后把嘴唇貼住洞孔偷喝桶中的酒，因此有一天他就被解除了職務(wù)；他曾經(jīng)宣稱，世界將在兩年后的那一天上午十點(diǎn)鐘毀滅；他開放一個(gè)客廳來接待狂熱教派①的男女信徒們；在他們第一次的集會(huì)上，梅爾奇斯代克的訓(xùn)戒產(chǎn)生了很大的影響，在儀式結(jié)束時(shí)，他們歡天喜地地大跳圣舞，所以有的人竟都塌陷到下面的廚房里，把一個(gè)信徒的碾壓機(jī)也砸壞了。
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①狂熱教派：早期美以美教派中大聲祈禱或說教的教派。
這些軼事是船長(zhǎng)那天晚上把錢支付給經(jīng)紀(jì)人布羅格里之后，反復(fù)唱那支《佩格姑娘》曲子的中間，在非常歡樂的時(shí)刻講給沃爾特和他舅舅聽的。船長(zhǎng)自己也按時(shí)上一個(gè)鄰近的教堂去。那教堂每逢星期天上午就升起英國(guó)國(guó)旗。因?yàn)榻虆^(qū)事務(wù)員身體病弱，他就在那里好心地照管孩子們；由于他那神秘的鉤子所起的作用，他在孩子們中間享有很高的威望。沃爾特知道船長(zhǎng)從不改變他的習(xí)慣，所以盡快趕路，以便在他出門之前到達(dá)。他的速度很快，當(dāng)他拐彎走進(jìn)布里格廣場(chǎng)的時(shí)候，他高興地看到，那寬大的藍(lán)色外衣和背心正懸掛在船長(zhǎng)的打開的窗子的外面，在太陽下晾曬。
凡人的肉眼居然能看到外衣和背心離開船長(zhǎng)的身體，這似乎是難以使人相信的；但他這時(shí)確實(shí)沒有穿它們，否則他的雙腿就堵塞住那毫無遮攔的臨街的前門了，因?yàn)椴祭锔駨V場(chǎng)的房屋是不高的。沃爾特對(duì)這發(fā)現(xiàn)很感驚奇，敲了一下門。
“斯廷杰，”他清楚地聽到船長(zhǎng)在樓上的房間里說道，仿佛敲門聲跟他不相干似的，所以沃爾特就敲了兩下。
“卡特爾，”他聽到船長(zhǎng)應(yīng)答了一聲，不一會(huì)兒，船長(zhǎng)穿著干凈的襯衣，褲上吊著干凈的背帶，圍巾像一卷繩子一樣松松地掛在脖子周圍，頭上戴著上了光的帽子，出現(xiàn)在窗口，在寬大的藍(lán)色外衣和背心上方探出身來。
“沃爾，”船長(zhǎng)驚奇地朝下看著他，喊道。
“是的，是的，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特回答道，“只是我一個(gè)人。”
“出了什么事了，我的孩子？”船長(zhǎng)十分憂慮地問道，“吉爾斯是不是又有什么不幸了？”
“沒有，沒有，”沃爾特回答道，“舅舅很好，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)?！?BR> 船長(zhǎng)表示高興，說他就下來開門。他這樣做了。
“不過你來得很早，沃爾，”他們上樓之后，船長(zhǎng)仍然懷疑地看著他，說道。
“啊，事情是這樣，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特坐下說道，“我怕您會(huì)出去，而我想請(qǐng)您幫幫忙，像朋友般地給我出出主意?！?BR> “行啊，”船長(zhǎng)說道，“你想要什么呢？”
“我想要您的意見，”沃爾特笑嘻嘻地說道，“我只要這個(gè)?！?BR> “那就往下說吧，”船長(zhǎng)說道，“打起精神來，我的孩子！”
沃爾特向他敘述了發(fā)生的事情，敘述了他感到關(guān)于舅舅的困難，敘述了如果卡特爾船長(zhǎng)能好意地幫助他克服困難的話，那么這對(duì)他來說將會(huì)是如釋重負(fù)?？ㄌ貭柎L(zhǎng)對(duì)展現(xiàn)在面前的未來的情景感到無限的震驚與慌張，這種驚愕的情緒逐漸地把他吞沒，因此他的臉上失去了任何表情，連那藍(lán)色的衣服、上了光的帽子和那只鉤子也像失去了主人似的。
“您知道，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特繼續(xù)說道，“就我自己來說，正如董貝先生所說的，我年輕，不需要考慮我。我明白，我得在這世界上給自己打出條道路來。但是在來這里的路上，我想，關(guān)于舅舅，我必須特別考慮到兩點(diǎn)。我不是想說，我當(dāng)之無愧是他生活的樂趣和他引以自豪的人——請(qǐng)您相信，我明白這一點(diǎn)——，但事實(shí)上我又確實(shí)是那樣的。您說呢，難道您認(rèn)為我不是嗎？”
船長(zhǎng)似乎竭力想從他震驚的深淵中掙扎起來，恢復(fù)臉上的表情，但卻徒勞無益；那上了光的帽子只是默默無聲地、帶著難以表達(dá)的含意點(diǎn)了一下頭。
“如果我活著，身體健康，”沃爾特說道，“這一點(diǎn)我倒并不擔(dān)心，但是盡管這樣，要是我離開了英國(guó)，我就很難希望再見到舅舅了。他已經(jīng)老了，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)；再說，他是按照習(xí)慣生活的——”
“停一下，沃爾！是不是沒有顧客？①”船長(zhǎng)突然恢復(fù)了原來的神態(tài)，問道。
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①英文custom的一個(gè)意義是習(xí)慣，另一個(gè)意義是顧客。沃爾特說的是習(xí)慣，船長(zhǎng)誤會(huì)為顧客。
“完全正確，”沃爾特點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭，回答道，“不過我想說的是，他是按照平時(shí)的習(xí)慣生活的，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我說的是這個(gè)意思。如果說（就像您正確地指出的那樣），他失去了存貨和他這么多年已經(jīng)習(xí)慣了的所有物品，他就會(huì)早死，那么，難道您認(rèn)為他不會(huì)死得更早一些嗎，如果他失去了——”
“他的外甥，”船長(zhǎng)插嘴道，“說得對(duì)！”
“所以說，”沃爾特想法說得高興一些，“我們必須盡的努力讓他相信，這次離別畢竟只不過是一次短暫的離別；但是因?yàn)槲腋私庹媲?，或者說我擔(dān)心我更了解真情，而且因?yàn)槲矣性S許多多的理由要以熱愛、孝順與尊敬的感情來對(duì)待他，因此我害怕，如果由我想方設(shè)法來說服他的話，那么，我會(huì)把事情弄得十分糟糕的，這就是為什么我希望由您來告訴他的主要理由，這是第一點(diǎn)?！?BR> “把方位撥過一點(diǎn)！”①船長(zhǎng)用沉思的聲音說道。
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①由于沃爾特講了一點(diǎn)、二點(diǎn)，引起船長(zhǎng)講了一句航海用語。
“您說什么，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)？”沃爾特問道。
“做好準(zhǔn)備！”船長(zhǎng)若有所思地回答道。
沃爾特停了一下，想聽聽船長(zhǎng)是不是還要再補(bǔ)充一些意見，但是船長(zhǎng)沒有再講什么，沃爾特就繼續(xù)說下去。
“現(xiàn)在講第二點(diǎn)，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)。我很遺憾地告訴您，我不是董貝先生所喜愛的人。我一直來總是想方設(shè)法，作出我的努力，我也確實(shí)總是這樣做的，可是他卻不喜歡我。也許他不能左右自己的喜愛與厭惡，這一點(diǎn)我也不想說什么。我只是說，我敢肯定他不喜歡我。他派我到那里去，并不是因?yàn)槟鞘莻€(gè)好差使；他不想把事情說得比實(shí)際好一些，他不屑于這樣做；我不相信這次調(diào)動(dòng)會(huì)幫助我在公司里晉升職位；相反的，我懷疑是不是要用這個(gè)辦法把我永遠(yuǎn)打發(fā)掉，以便掃除障礙?？墒沁@些話我們一句也別跟舅舅說，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我們一定得盡量把這次派遣說成是一個(gè)有利的、前程遠(yuǎn)大的差使；我向您吐露真情，只是為了我在遠(yuǎn)方萬一需要幫助的時(shí)候，在祖國(guó)能有一個(gè)知道我真實(shí)情況的朋友?！?BR> “沃爾，我的孩子，”船長(zhǎng)回答道，“在所羅門箴言中，你可以找到下面的話：‘讓我們永遠(yuǎn)不缺少患難中的朋友，也不缺少送給他喝的酒！’你找到的時(shí)候，請(qǐng)把它記下來?！?BR> 這時(shí)船長(zhǎng)以勝過千言萬語的坦白真誠(chéng)的神情，向沃爾特伸出手來；由于他對(duì)準(zhǔn)確引用所羅門箴言和運(yùn)用得當(dāng)而感到得意，所以又重復(fù)說道：“你找到的時(shí)候，請(qǐng)把它記下來?！?BR> “卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特把船長(zhǎng)伸出的大拳頭滿滿地握在兩只手中說，“除了所爾舅舅，您是我最愛的人。確實(shí)，在這世界上我沒有更能信賴的人了。單單就離別這件事情本身來說，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我并不把它放在心上；我為什么要把它放在心上呢！如果我可以自由地去尋找運(yùn)氣的話，如果我可以當(dāng)一名普通的船員出去的話，如果我可以自由地自己承擔(dān)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，航行到天涯海角的話，那么我將高高興興地出去！我可能幾年前就已經(jīng)高高興興地出去碰碰我的運(yùn)氣如何了。但是這違背我舅舅的愿望，違背他為我所制訂的計(jì)劃，所以事情也就到此完結(jié)了。但是，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我覺得我們過去有一些錯(cuò)誤；就改善我的前途來說，我現(xiàn)在出去并不比當(dāng)初一進(jìn)董貝公司的時(shí)候就出去更好，也許還更壞一些，因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)公司可能對(duì)我懷有好感，現(xiàn)在則肯定沒有了?！?BR> “回來吧，惠廷頓，”悶悶不樂的船長(zhǎng)向沃爾特看了一些時(shí)候之后，低聲說道。
“好的，”沃爾特哈哈大笑地回答道，“我擔(dān)心，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，在像他那樣的運(yùn)氣來到之前我就回來好多次了。并不是我要抱怨，”他活潑愉快、生氣蓬勃、精神飽滿地補(bǔ)充說道，“我沒有什么要抱怨的。我豐衣足食，我能活下去。當(dāng)我離開舅舅的時(shí)候，我把他交給您。我不能把他交給更好的人了，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)。我跟您講這一切，并不是因?yàn)槲冶^失望。不，我不會(huì)的。我只是讓您相信，我在董貝公司里對(duì)工作安排不能挑挑揀揀；派我到哪里去我就得到哪里去；向我建議什么，我就得接受什么。我被派出去對(duì)舅舅來說反倒更好，因?yàn)槎愊壬撬鹳F的朋友，就像他過去實(shí)際所表明的那樣，這一點(diǎn)您很清楚，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)。我深信，如果我不在公司里天天引起他的厭惡的話，那么他還會(huì)像過去一樣繼續(xù)是他尊貴的朋友。所以說，西印度群島萬歲，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)！船員們的那支歌是怎么唱的？”
“興高采烈地，向著巴巴多斯港口前進(jìn)吧，小伙子們！興高采烈地，把古老的英國(guó)拋在后面吧，小伙子們！”
這時(shí)船長(zhǎng)大聲地參加合唱道：“啊，興高采烈地，興高采烈地！啊，興高——采烈地！”
對(duì)面屋子里住著一位熱心的小商船的船長(zhǎng)，當(dāng)最后一行歌詞傳到他靈敏的耳朵里時(shí)，他醉意未消，沒有完全清醒過來，但卻立刻從床上跳起來，打開窗子，放開嗓門，越過街道，參加合唱，產(chǎn)生了優(yōu)美的效果。當(dāng)他不能把最后的音調(diào)再支撐著唱下去的時(shí)候，他可怕地大叫了一聲：“啊嗬！”，一方面是作為友好的問候，另一方面是想表示他還沒有歇過一口氣。然后，他關(guān)上窗子，重新躺到床上睡覺。
“現(xiàn)在，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特把藍(lán)色的外衣和背心遞給他，手腳十分忙亂地說，“如果您把這個(gè)消息去透露給所爾舅舅（按理說，他本來好幾天以前就該知道它了），那么，到了我家門口，您知道，我就將跟您分手，在附近一帶溜達(dá)溜達(dá)，直到下午?！?BR> 可是船長(zhǎng)看來絲毫也不高興接受這個(gè)任務(wù)，要不就是對(duì)他完成這個(gè)任務(wù)的能力完全沒有信心。他曾經(jīng)給沃爾特未來的生活與事業(yè)作過截然不同的安排，并對(duì)它感到完全稱心滿意；他對(duì)他在這個(gè)安排中所表現(xiàn)出的明智與預(yù)見性時(shí)常沾沾自喜，覺得這個(gè)安排的各個(gè)方面都完美無缺，因此現(xiàn)在要讓這個(gè)安排在頃刻之間土崩瓦解，甚至還要幫助去破壞它，這需要他的意志作出很大的努力才行。船長(zhǎng)還覺得要把他對(duì)這個(gè)問題的老想法從頭腦中去掉，迅速換上全新的想法，就像要按照情勢(shì)所要求的火急速度，把船上的老貨物卸下，裝上一批全新的貨物，而又不把兩批貨物混雜、弄亂一樣困難。因此，他沒有跟沃爾特的心情合拍，急匆匆地穿上外衣和背心，而是拒絕現(xiàn)在就把這些衣服套在身上；他告訴沃爾特，這樣重大的事情，應(yīng)該允許他“咬一下指甲”。
“這是我的*慣，沃爾，”船長(zhǎng)說，“已經(jīng)有五十年了。當(dāng)你看到內(nèi)德·卡特爾在咬指甲，那么，沃爾，你就可以知道，內(nèi)德·卡特爾擱淺了。”
于是，船長(zhǎng)把鐵鉤插在牙齒中間，仿佛那是一只手似的，同時(shí)露出富于智慧和思想深刻的神態(tài)，聚精會(huì)神地思考著這個(gè)問題的各個(gè)方面；他那智慧與深刻的思想是哲學(xué)的思考與認(rèn)真的研究所集中與升華的結(jié)果。
“我有一位朋友，”船長(zhǎng)神情恍惚地低聲說道，“他會(huì)對(duì)這個(gè)問題以及其他任何問題發(fā)表意見；他曾把六比一的有利條件讓給議會(huì)①，來和議會(huì)就某個(gè)問題打賭，結(jié)果他仍能勝過他們；可是他現(xiàn)在正沿著惠特比②岸邊航行?！贝L(zhǎng)繼續(xù)說下去，“這個(gè)人曾經(jīng)兩次從船上被沖打到水里，但卻安然無恙，絲毫不受影響。他當(dāng)學(xué)徒的時(shí)候，頭上曾經(jīng)被環(huán)端螺栓刺扎，斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的加起來有三個(gè)星期之久，可是在世界上仍找不到頭腦比他更聰明的人?！?BR> 沃爾特雖然尊敬卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，但卻不由得由于這位聰明人不在而暗暗高興；他衷心希望，在他的困難妥善解決之前，他的大智大慧不要用來處理它們。
“如果你把諾爾③的一個(gè)浮標(biāo)給他看，”卡特爾船長(zhǎng)用同樣的聲調(diào)說道，“請(qǐng)他談?wù)勊麑?duì)它的看法的話，沃爾，那么他會(huì)說出一個(gè)跟浮標(biāo)毫無關(guān)系的看法，就像你舅舅的鈕扣跟浮標(biāo)毫無關(guān)系一樣。世界上沒有一個(gè)人——至少是沒有一個(gè)靠·兩·條腿走路的人——能比得上他。沒有能比得上他的！”
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①即如議會(huì)勝了，他賠六份；如他勝了，他得一份。
②惠特比（Whitby）：英格蘭北約克郡的一個(gè)城鎮(zhèn)，瀕臨北海，地處埃斯克（Esk）河口港灣東側(cè)。
③諾爾（theNore）：英格蘭肯特郡泰晤士河口灣一段沙灘。
“他姓什么，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)？”沃爾特問道，他決定對(duì)船長(zhǎng)的朋友發(fā)生興趣。
“他姓邦斯貝，”船長(zhǎng)說道，“可是我的天主！其實(shí)，像他那樣頭腦的人，你管他姓什么都可以！”
船長(zhǎng)沒有進(jìn)一步闡明最后一句贊語的確切含意，沃爾特也沒有對(duì)它尋根究底。因?yàn)楫?dāng)他有聲有色地（就他和他的處境來說，這是很自然的）重新敘述他的主要困難時(shí)，他立刻發(fā)現(xiàn)船長(zhǎng)又重新陷入先前那深思遠(yuǎn)慮的狀態(tài)中。雖然他從濃密的眉毛下一動(dòng)不動(dòng)地凝視著他，可是他顯然并沒有看見他，也沒有聽見他說話，而是沉浸在思考之中。
實(shí)際上，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)正在擬訂宏偉的計(jì)劃；他根本沒有擱淺，而是很快就進(jìn)入水的最深處，而且無法探找到他要穿透的底層。船長(zhǎng)逐漸地完全看清了事情的原委：這里存在著一些誤會(huì)，毫無疑問，這很可能是沃爾特而不是他所產(chǎn)生的誤會(huì)。如果真有什么西印度群島計(jì)劃將討諸實(shí)施的話，那么它也跟年輕、性急的沃爾特所設(shè)想的大不相同；它只能是使他飛黃騰達(dá)的一種新安排。船長(zhǎng)心里想，“或者如果在他們之間（他是指在沃爾特與董貝先生之間）有點(diǎn)什么小小的疙瘩的話，那么只消雙方的老朋友適時(shí)地說上一句話，那就可以完全解開，大家就會(huì)重新和好如初，就像把兩條鉤住的船調(diào)理順當(dāng)一樣?！笨ㄌ貭柎L(zhǎng)從這些考慮中得出的想法是，由于他已經(jīng)有幸認(rèn)識(shí)董貝先生，在他們借錢的那個(gè)上午，曾經(jīng)在布賴頓和他在一起很愉快地消度了半個(gè)小時(shí)；再說他們既然都是上流社會(huì)的人，而且相互了解，愿意把事情處理得和順得當(dāng)，那樣就會(huì)很容易解決這樣一類小小的困難，弄清事實(shí)真相；因此，他應(yīng)盡的朋友之誼就是：現(xiàn)在什么話也不對(duì)沃爾特說，而是直接走到董貝先生的公館，對(duì)仆人說，“老弟，勞駕您通報(bào)一下，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)到這里來了?！比缓笤跇O為信任的氣氛中會(huì)見董貝先生——鉤住他的鈕扣孔——，交談一切，把事情處理得完善妥貼，然后得意揚(yáng)揚(yáng)地離開！
當(dāng)這些想法出現(xiàn)在船長(zhǎng)心中，逐漸成形的時(shí)候，他的臉色開朗起來，就像陰云密布的早晨退讓給陽光燦爛的中午一樣。他的眉毛原先極為不祥地緊皺著，現(xiàn)在不再直直地豎立，而是舒展開來，安祥平靜；他的眼睛原先在緊張的思想活動(dòng)過程中幾乎已經(jīng)閉上了，現(xiàn)在則隨意地張開；他的微笑最初只出現(xiàn)在三小點(diǎn)——嘴的右角和兩只眼角——，現(xiàn)在逐漸擴(kuò)展到整個(gè)臉龐，向上波送到前額，掀起了那頂上了光的帽子；這帽子原先仿佛跟卡特爾船長(zhǎng)一樣擱了淺，現(xiàn)在則又跟他一樣，愉快地漂浮起來了。
船長(zhǎng)終于不再咬指甲，說：“現(xiàn)在，沃爾特，我的孩子，你幫我穿上衣服吧！”船長(zhǎng)指的是他的外衣和背心。
沃爾特想不出，船長(zhǎng)系領(lǐng)帶為什么會(huì)那么用心，他把垂下的兩端擰成像辮子一樣的東西，然后穿進(jìn)一個(gè)大金戒指中，戒指上刻著一幅圖畫，畫中有一座墳?zāi)?、一條潔凈的鐵欄桿和一株樹，它是紀(jì)念某個(gè)死去的朋友的。沃爾特也想不出船長(zhǎng)為什么把襯衫領(lǐng)子使勁往上拉，拉到下面的愛爾蘭亞麻布襯衫所許可的限度，這樣一來他看上去就有了一副完好的遮眼罩來裝飾自己了。沃爾特也想不出，船長(zhǎng)為什么脫下鞋子，換上那雙世上無雙的短靴，那是他在不尋常的場(chǎng)合才穿的。船長(zhǎng)終于穿著完畢，自己完全感到稱心滿意；他從墻釘上取下一面修臉用的鏡子，從頭到腳把自己打量了一番，然后拿起他那根多節(jié)的手杖說，他已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好了。
當(dāng)他們走上街道的時(shí)候，船長(zhǎng)的步態(tài)比往常顯得更加躊躇滿志，但沃爾特以為那是由于短靴的作用，對(duì)它并不注意。他們沒走多遠(yuǎn)，遇到一位賣花的女人，船長(zhǎng)突然停下腳步，仿佛心血來潮，閃出一個(gè)巧妙主意似的；他把她籃子里的一束花買下來，那是一個(gè)極為光彩奪目、芳香四溢的花束，形狀像扇子，周圍約有兩英尺半，全都由最鮮艷的花朵組成。
卡特爾船長(zhǎng)準(zhǔn)備了這份打算送給董貝先生的禮品之后，跟沃爾特繼續(xù)向前走去，直到他們到達(dá)儀器制造商門前，兩人才都停下腳步。
“您就進(jìn)去嗎？”沃爾特問道。
“是的，”船長(zhǎng)答道。他覺得在采取下一步行動(dòng)之前必須首先把沃爾特打發(fā)走，他打算進(jìn)行的拜訪推遲到當(dāng)天晚一些時(shí)候。
“您不會(huì)忘記什么嗎？”沃爾特問道。
“不會(huì)，”船長(zhǎng)回答。
“我馬上就去溜達(dá)，”沃爾特說道，“我不妨礙您了，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)?！?BR> “好好地多逛一逛，我的孩子！”般長(zhǎng)在他身后大聲喊道。
沃爾特?fù)]揮手，表示同意，接著就繼續(xù)向前走去。
他沒有特定的地方要去；但他想到田野里去走走，他在那里可以考慮考慮將來未知的生活，可以在樹下一邊休息一邊安靜地思索。他覺得漢姆普斯特德①附近的風(fēng)光最美，而通向那里的道路是從董貝先生公館旁邊經(jīng)過的。
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①漢姆普斯特德（Hampstead）：倫敦郊區(qū)地方。
當(dāng)沃爾特從董貝先生的公館旁邊走過，向上望一眼，看到它那愁眉不展的正面的時(shí)候，它跟往常一樣莊嚴(yán)、陰暗。所有的窗簾都已垂下，但上面的窗子是敞開著的，涼爽的微風(fēng)吹拂著窗簾來回飄動(dòng)，這是整座房屋外部帶有生氣的跡象。沃爾特輕輕地走過，當(dāng)他又走過幾家人家的時(shí)候，他心里覺得高興。
自從幾年前發(fā)生了迷路的女孩子的事情以后，他經(jīng)常對(duì)這房屋感到興趣，這時(shí)他正是懷著這樣的興趣往回看，特別是望著上面一層的窗子。當(dāng)他正這樣看著的時(shí)候，一輛輕便四輪馬車來到門前，一位舉止莊重、穿著黑衣服、掛著一條沉甸甸的表鏈子的先生下了馬車，走進(jìn)屋里去。沃爾特后來回憶起這位先生和他的馬車，他毫無疑問那人是位醫(yī)生，于是心中納悶起來，究竟是誰病了呢？可是他沒有得出答案。他無精打采地想著其他事情，又走了一段距離。
不過他仍然想到這座房屋對(duì)他意味著什么，因?yàn)槲譅柼乜偸菒垡赃@樣的希望來使自己高興，那就是：也許總有那么一天，那位女孩子（她是他的老朋友，從那時(shí)以來，總是那樣感謝他，那樣高興看到他）會(huì)使她弟弟關(guān)心他，使他的命運(yùn)好轉(zhuǎn)。但是在這時(shí)候他更喜歡想到的是，她仍繼續(xù)記得他，而不是他可能得到什么世俗的利益；可是另一個(gè)更為清醒的想法在他耳邊低聲說道，如果那時(shí)候他還活著的話，那么他將在海外漂泊，被她遺忘；她則已經(jīng)成婚，富有，高傲，幸福。世事滄桑，在完全改變了的情況下，她沒有什么理由要比對(duì)一個(gè)她曾經(jīng)有過的玩具更多地記得他；不會(huì)的，那時(shí)在她的記憶中，他可能還不如玩具呢。
可是沃爾特把那位流落在喧鬧的街上、被他找到的那位漂亮的女孩子理想化了，把她與她在那天夜里天真的感謝以及在感謝中所表現(xiàn)出的純樸、真誠(chéng)等同化了，所以他認(rèn)為，把她想成今后會(huì)變得高傲，這是對(duì)她的侮辱，他為此而感到羞愧。另一方面，他的沉思默想又是那么荒誕無稽，在他看來，如果想像到她已成長(zhǎng)為一個(gè)女人，如果不是把她想成她跟善良的布朗太太在一起時(shí)那樣一位純樸、溫柔、可愛的小人兒，而是想成另外一位什么人的話，那么這也同樣是對(duì)她的侮辱?？傊譅柼赜X得由他本人來評(píng)斷弗洛倫斯的是非長(zhǎng)短，確實(shí)是會(huì)很不近情理的；他是把她的形象作為寶貴的、難以達(dá)到的、永不改變的、模糊不清的一種什么東西保存在心中；它具有使他快樂，像一只天使的手一樣制止他進(jìn)行任何卑劣勾當(dāng)?shù)牧α?，這一點(diǎn)卻不是模糊不清的。
沃爾特那天在田野里游逛得很久，他聽著鳥兒的啾鳴、禮拜天的鐘聲、城市中比平日減弱了的喧囂聲，同時(shí)呼吸著芳香的空氣，有時(shí)舉目眺望那朦朧不清的地平線，因?yàn)樗暮匠膛c目的地就在地平線的那一方；然后他又環(huán)顧四周英國(guó)的青草和故鄉(xiāng)的風(fēng)景?？墒撬麕缀鯖]有一次明確地想到他即將遠(yuǎn)離；他似乎一小時(shí)又一小時(shí)，一分鐘又一分鐘地把這思想擱置一旁，不去理會(huì)，盡管他始終在繼續(xù)不斷地想著它。
沃爾特已經(jīng)把田野拋在后面，正懷著同樣恍惚的心情，拖著沉重的腳步往回家的路途上行走，這時(shí)候他聽到一個(gè)男人喊叫了一聲，接著一個(gè)女人的聲音響亮地喊著他的名字。他驚奇地轉(zhuǎn)過身去，看到一輛朝著相反方向跑去的出租轎式馬車在不遠(yuǎn)的地方停了下來；馬車夫從座位上轉(zhuǎn)過頭來看他，向他揮鞭示意；車?yán)镆晃荒贻p的女人從窗子里探出身來，精力充沛地向他打招呼。他跑到馬車跟前，看到這位年輕女人就是尼珀姑娘；她萬分焦急不安，幾乎都要發(fā)狂了。
“斯塔格斯花園，沃爾特先生！”尼珀姑娘說，“勞駕您，幫個(gè)忙吧！”
“什么？”沃爾特喊道，“出了什么事了？”
“啊，沃爾特先生！斯塔格斯花園，勞駕您！”蘇珊說。
“您瞧！”馬車夫以一種興高采烈與灰心絕望交織的神情，向沃爾特懇求道，“這位姑娘已經(jīng)反反復(fù)復(fù)地說了老半天，她想要去的地方路走不通，我正想把車子轉(zhuǎn)過身來找條出路呢。
乘坐過我馬車的客人可多啦，可我從沒見過像她這樣的乘客?！?BR> “您想到斯塔格斯花園去嗎，蘇珊？”沃爾特問道。
“對(duì)啦！她想到那里去。它在哪里？”馬車夫抬高嗓門，粗聲大氣地說道。
“我不知道它在哪里！”蘇珊瘋狂似地大聲說道，“沃爾特先生，我親自到過那里一次，是帶著弗洛伊小姐和我們可憐的、可愛的保羅少爺一起去的，就在您在城里找到弗洛伊小姐的那一天，因?yàn)樵诨貋淼穆飞衔覀儼阉齺G了，理查茲大嫂和我，還有一條瘋牛，還有理查茲大嫂的大兒子，雖然后來我去過那里，可是我卻記不得它在哪里了，我想它已經(jīng)塌陷到地底下去了。啊，沃爾特先生，別拋棄我不管，斯塔格斯花園，勞駕您！弗洛伊小姐最親愛的寶貝——我們大家最親愛的寶貝——、非常非常溫順的小保羅少爺啊！啊沃爾特先生！”
“慈善的上帝！”沃爾特喊道，“他病得很重嗎？”“可愛的花朵兒！”蘇珊絞扭著手哭道：“他一時(shí)想起想要看看他從前的奶媽，我就是來領(lǐng)她到他床邊去
Walter could not, for several days, decide what to do in the Barbados business; and even cherished some faint hope that Mr Dombey might not have meant what he had said, or that he might change his mind, and tell him he was not to go. But as nothing occurred to give this idea (which was sufficiently improbable in itself) any touch of confirmation, and as time was slipping by, and he had none to lose, he felt that he must act, without hesitating any longer.
Walter's chief difficulty was, how to break the change in his affairs to Uncle Sol, to whom he was sensible it would he a terrible blow. He had the greater difficulty in dashing Uncle Sol's spirits with such an astounding piece of intelligence, because they had lately recovered very much, and the old man had become so cheerful, that the little back parlour was itself again. Uncle Sol had paid the first appointed portion of the debt to Mr Dombey, and was hopeful of working his way through the rest; and to cast him down afresh, when he had sprung up so manfully from his troubles, was a very distressing necessity.
Yet it would never do to run away from him. He must know of it beforehand; and how to tell him was the point. As to the question of going or not going, Walter did not consider that he had any power of choice in the matter. Mr Dombey had truly told him that he was young, and that his Uncle's circumstances were not good; and Mr Dombey had plainly expressed, in the glance with which he had accompanied that reminder, that if he declined to go he might stay at home if he chose, but not in his counting-house. His Uncle and he lay under a great obligation to Mr Dombey, which was of Walter's own soliciting. He might have begun in secret to despair of ever winning that gentleman's favour, and might have thought that he was now and then disposed to put a slight upon him, which was hardly just. But what would have been duty without that, was still duty with it - or Walter thought so- and duty must be done.
When Mr Dombey had looked at him, and told him he was young, and that his Uncle's circumstances were not good, there had been an expression of disdain in his face; a contemptuous and disparaging assumption that he would be quite content to live idly on a reduced old man, which stung the boy's generous soul. Determined to assure Mr Dombey, in so far as it was possible to give him the assurance without expressing it in words, that indeed he mistook his nature, Walter had been anxious to show even more cheerfulness and activity after the West Indian interview than he had shown before: if that were possible, in one of his quick and zealous disposition. He was too young and inexperienced to think, that possibly this very quality in him was not agreeable to Mr Dombey, and that it was no stepping-stone to his good opinion to be elastic and hopeful of pleasing under the shadow of his powerful displeasure, whether it were right or wrong. But it may have been - it may have been- that the great man thought himself defied in this new exposition of an honest spirit, and purposed to bring it down.
'Well! at last and at least, Uncle Sol must be told,' thought Walter, with a sigh. And as Walter was apprehensive that his voice might perhaps quaver a little, and that his countenance might not be quite as hopeful as he could wish it to be, if he told the old man himself, and saw the first effects of his communication on his wrinkled face, he resolved to avail himself of the services of that powerful mediator, Captain Cuttle. Sunday coming round, he set off therefore, after breakfast, once more to beat up Captain Cuttle's quarters.
It was not unpleasant to remember, on the way thither, that Mrs MacStinger resorted to a great distance every Sunday morning, to attend the ministry of the Reverend Melchisedech Howler, who, having been one day discharged from the West India Docks on a false suspicion (got up expressly against him by the general enemy) of screwing gimlets into puncheons, and applying his lips to the orifice, had announced the destruction of the world for that day two years, at ten in the morning, and opened a front parlour for the reception of ladies and gentlemen of the Ranting persuasion, upon whom, on the first occasion of their assemblage, the admonitions of the Reverend Melchisedech had produced so powerful an effect, that, in their rapturous performance of a sacred jig, which closed the service, the whole flock broke through into a kitchen below, and disabled a mangle belonging to one of the fold.
This the Captain, in a moment of uncommon conviviality, had confided to Walter and his Uncle, between the repetitions of lovely Peg, on the night when Brogley the broker was paid out. The Captain himself was punctual in his attendance at a church in his own neighbourhood, which hoisted the Union Jack every Sunday morning; and where he was good enough - the lawful beadle being infirm - to keep an eye upon the boys, over whom he exercised great power, in virtue of his mysterious hook. Knowing the regularity of the Captain's habits, Walter made all the haste he could, that he might anticipate his going out; and he made such good speed, that he had the pleasure, on turning into Brig Place, to behold the broad blue coat and waistcoat hanging out of the Captain's oPen window, to air in the sun.
It appeared incredible that the coat and waistcoat could be seen by mortal eyes without the Captain; but he certainly was not in them, otherwise his legs - the houses in Brig Place not being lofty- would have obstructed the street door, which was perfectly clear. Quite wondering at this discovery, Walter gave a single knock.
'Stinger,' he distinctly heard the Captain say, up in his room, as if that were no business of his. Therefore Walter gave two knocks.
'Cuttle,' he heard the Captain say upon that; and immediately afterwards the Captain, in his clean shirt and braces, with his neckerchief hanging loosely round his throat like a coil of rope, and his glazed hat on, appeared at the window, leaning out over the broad blue coat and waistcoat.
'Wal'r!' cried the Captain, looking down upon him in amazement.
'Ay, ay, Captain Cuttle,' returned Walter, 'only me'
'What's the matter, my lad?' inquired the Captain, with great concern. 'Gills an't been and sprung nothing again?'
'No, no,' said Walter. 'My Uncle's all right, Captain Cuttle.'
The Captain expressed his gratification, and said he would come down below and open the door, which he did.
'Though you're early, Wal'r,' said the Captain, eyeing him still doubtfully, when they got upstairs:
'Why, the fact is, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, sitting down, 'I was afraid you would have gone out, and I want to benefit by your friendly counsel.'
'So you shall,' said the Captain; 'what'll you take?'
'I want to take your opinion, Captain Cuttle,' returned Walter, smiling. 'That's the only thing for me.'
'Come on then,' said the Captain. 'With a will, my lad!'
Walter related to him what had happened; and the difficulty in which he felt respecting his Uncle, and the relief it would be to him if Captain Cuttle, in his kindness, would help him to smooth it away; Captain Cuttle's infinite consternation and astonishment at the prospect unfolded to him, gradually swallowing that gentleman up, until it left his face quite vacant, and the suit of blue, the glazed hat, and the hook, apparently without an owner.
'You see, Captain Cuttle,' pursued Walter, 'for myself, I am young, as Mr Dombey said, and not to be considered. I am to fight my way through the world, I know; but there are two points I was thinking, as I came along, that I should be very particular about, in respect to my Uncle. I don't mean to say that I deserve to be the pride and delight of his life - you believe me, I know - but I am. Now, don't you think I am?'
The Captain seemed to make an endeavour to rise from the depths of his astonishment, and get back to his face; but the effort being ineffectual, the glazed hat merely nodded with a mute, unutterable meaning.
'If I live and have my health,' said Walter, 'and I am not afraid of that, still, when I leave England I can hardly hope to see my Uncle again. He is old, Captain Cuttle; and besides, his life is a life of custom - '
'Steady, Wal'r! Of a want of custom?' said the Captain, suddenly reappearing.
'Too true,' returned Walter, shaking his head: 'but I meant a life of habit, Captain Cuttle - that sort of custom. And if (as you very truly said, I am sure) he would have died the sooner for the loss of the stock, and all those objects to which he has been accustomed for so many years, don't you think he might die a little sooner for the loss of - '
'Of his Nevy,' interposed the Captain. 'Right!'
'Well then,' said Walter, trying to speak gaily, 'we must do our best to make him believe that the separation is but a temporary one, after all; but as I know better, or dread that I know better, Captain Cuttle, and as I have so many reasons for regarding him with affection, and duty, and honour, I am afraid I should make but a very poor hand at that, if I tried to persuade him of it. That's my great reason for wishing you to break it out to him; and that's the first point.'
'Keep her off a point or so!' observed the Captain, in a comtemplative voice.
'What did you say, Captain Cuttle?' inquired Walter.
'Stand by!' returned the Captain, thoughtfully.
Walter paused to ascertain if the Captain had any particular information to add to this, but as he said no more, went on.
'Now, the second point, Captain Cuttle. I am sorry to say, I am not a favourite with Mr Dombey. I have always tried to do my best, and I have always done it; but he does not like me. He can't help his likings and dislikings, perhaps. I say nothing of that. I only say that I am certain he does not like me. He does not send me to this post as a good one; he disclaims to represent it as being better than it is; and I doubt very much if it will ever lead me to advancement in the House - whether it does not, on the contrary, dispose of me for ever, and put me out of the way. Now, we must say nothing of this to my Uncle, Captain Cuttle, but must make it out to be as favourable and promising as we can; and when I tell you what it really is, I only do so, that in case any means should ever arise of lending me a hand, so far off, I may have one friend at home who knows my real situation.
'Wal'r, my boy,' replied the Captain, 'in the Proverbs of Solomon you will find the following words, "May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him!" When found, make a note of.'
Here the Captain stretched out his hand to Walter, with an air of downright good faith that spoke volumes; at the same time repeating (for he felt proud of the accuracy and pointed application of his quotation), 'When found, make a note of.'
'Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, taking the immense fist extended to him by the Captain in both his hands, which it completely filled, next to my Uncle Sol, I love you. There is no one on earth in whom I can more safely trust, I am sure. As to the mere going away, Captain Cuttle, I don't care for that; why should I care for that! If I were free to seek my own fortune - if I were free to go as a common sailor - if I were free to venture on my own account to the farthest end of the world - I would gladly go! I would have gladly gone, years ago, and taken my chance of what might come of it. But it was against my Uncle's wishes, and against the plans he had formed for me; and there was an end of that. But what I feel, Captain Cuttle, is that we have been a little mistaken all along, and that, so far as any improvement in my prospects is concerned, I am no better off now than I was when I first entered Dombey's House - perhaps a little worse, for the House may have been kindly inclined towards me then, and it certainly is not now.'
'Turn again, Whittington,' muttered the disconsolate Captain, after looking at Walter for some time.
'Ay,' replied Walter, laughing, 'and turn a great many times, too, Captain Cuttle, I'm afraid, before such fortune as his ever turns up again. Not that I complain,' he added, in his lively, animated, energetic way. 'I have nothing to complain of. I am provided for. I can live. When I leave my Uncle, I leave him to you; and I can leave him to no one better, Captain Cuttle. I haven't told you all this because I despair, not I; it's to convince you that I can't pick and choose in Dombey's House, and that where I am sent, there I must go, and what I am offered, that I must take. It's better for my Uncle that I should be sent away; for Mr Dombey is a valuable friend to him, as he proved himself, you know when, Captain Cuttle; and I am persuaded he won't be less valuable when he hasn't me there, every day, to awaken his dislike. So hurrah for the West Indies, Captain Cuttle! How does that tune go that the sailors sing?
'For the Port of Barbados, Boys!
Cheerily!
Leaving old England behind us, Boys!
Cheerily!' Here the Captain roared in chorus -
'Oh cheerily, cheerily!
Oh cheer-i-ly!'
The last line reaching the quick ears of an ardent skipper not quite sober, who lodged opposite, and who instantly sprung out of bed, threw up his window, and joined in, across the street, at the top of his voice, produced a fine effect. When it was impossible to sustain the concluding note any longer, the skipper bellowed forth a terrific 'ahoy!' intended in part as a friendly greeting, and in part to show that he was not at all breathed. That done, he shut down his window, and went to bed again.
'And now, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, handing him the blue coat and waistcoat, and bustling very much, 'if you'll come and break the news to Uncle Sol (which he ought to have known, days upon days ago, by rights), I'll leave you at the door, you know, and walk about until the afternoon.'
The Captain, however, scarcely appeared to relish the commission, or to be by any means confident of his powers of executing it. He had arranged the future life and adventures of Walter so very differently, and so entirely to his own satisfaction; he had felicitated himself so often on the sagacity and foresight displayed in that arrangement, and had found it so complete and perfect in all its parts; that to suffer it to go to pieces all at once, and even to assist in breaking it up, required a great effort of his resolution. The Captain, too, found it difficult to unload his old ideas upon the subject, and to take a perfectly new cargo on board, with that rapidity which the circumstances required, or without jumbling and confounding the two. Consequently, instead of putting on his coat and waistcoat with anything like the impetuosity that could alone have kept pace with Walter's mood, he declined to invest himself with those garments at all at present; and informed Walter that on such a serious matter, he must be allowed to 'bite his nails a bit'
'It's an old habit of mine, Wal'r,' said the Captain, 'any time these fifty year. When you see Ned Cuttle bite his nails, Wal'r, then you may know that Ned Cuttle's aground.'
Thereupon the Captain put his iron hook between his teeth, as if it were a hand; and with an air of wisdom and profundity that was the very concentration and sublimation of all philosophical reflection and grave inquiry, applied himself to the consideration of the subject in its various branches.
'There's a friend of mine,' murmured the Captain, in an absent manner, 'but he's at present coasting round to Whitby, that would deliver such an opinion on this subject, or any other that could be named, as would give Parliament six and beat 'em. Been knocked overboard, that man,' said the Captain, 'twice, and none the worse for it. Was beat in his apprenticeship, for three weeks (off and on), about the head with a ring-bolt. And yet a clearer-minded man don't walk.'
Despite of his respect for Captain Cuttle, Walter could not help inwardly rejoicing at the absence of this sage, and devoutly hoping that his limpid intellect might not be brought to bear on his difficulties until they were quite settled.
'If you was to take and show that man the buoy at the Nore,' said Captain Cuttle in the same tone, 'and ask him his opinion of it, Wal'r, he'd give you an opinion that was no more like that buoy than your Uncle's buttons are. There ain't a man that walks - certainly not on two legs - that can come near him. Not near him!'
'What's his name, Captain Cuttle?' inquired Walter, determined to be interested in the Captain's friend.
'His name's Bunsby, said the Captain. 'But Lord, it might be anything for the matter of that, with such a mind as his!'
The exact idea which the Captain attached to this concluding piece of praise, he did not further elucidate; neither did Walter seek to draw it forth. For on his beginning to review, with the vivacity natural to himself and to his situation, the leading points in his own affairs, he soon discovered that the Captain had relapsed into his former profound state of mind; and that while he eyed him steadfastly from beneath his bushy eyebrows, he evidently neither saw nor heard him, but remained immersed in cogitation.
In fact, Captain Cuttle was labouring with such great designs, that far from being aground, he soon got off into the deepest of water, and could find no bottom to his penetration. By degrees it became perfectly plain to the Captain that there was some mistake here; that it was undoubtedly much more likely to be Walter's mistake than his; that if there were really any West India scheme afoot, it was a very different one from what Walter, who was young and rash, supposed; and could only be some new device for making his fortune with unusual celerity. 'Or if there should be any little hitch between 'em,' thought the Captain, meaning between Walter and Mr Dombey, 'it only wants a word in season from a friend of both parties, to set it right and smooth, and make all taut again.' Captain Cuttle's deduction from these considerations was, that as he already enjoyed the pleasure of knowing Mr Dombey, from having spent a very agreeable half-hour in his company at Brighton (on the morning when they borrowed the money); and that, as a couple of men of the world, who understood each other, and were mutually disposed to make things comfortable, could easily arrange any little difficulty of this sort, and come at the real facts; the friendly thing for him to do would be, without saying anything about it to Walter at present, just to step up to Mr Dombey's house - say to the servant 'Would ye be so good, my lad, as report Cap'en Cuttle here?' - meet Mr Dombey in a confidential spirit- hook him by the button-hole - talk it over - make it all right - and come away triumphant!
As these reflections presented themselves to the Captain's mind, and by slow degrees assumed this shape and form, his visage cleared like a doubtful morning when it gives place to a bright noon. His eyebrows, which had been in the highest degree portentous, smoothed their rugged bristling aspect, and became serene; his eyes, which had been nearly closed in the severity of his mental exercise, opened freely; a smile which had been at first but three specks - one at the right-hand corner of his mouth, and one at the corner of each eye - gradually overspread his whole face, and, rippling up into his forehead, lifted the glazed hat: as if that too had been aground with Captain Cuttle, and were now, like him, happily afloat again.
Finally, the Captain left off biting his nails, and said, 'Now, Wal'r, my boy, you may help me on with them slops.' By which the Captain meant his coat and waistcoat.
Walter little imagined why the Captain was so particular in the arrangement of his cravat, as to twist the pendent ends into a sort of pigtail, and pass them through a massive gold ring with a picture of a tomb upon it, and a neat iron railing, and a tree, in memory of some deceased friend. Nor why the Captain pulled up his shirt-collar to the utmost limits allowed by the Irish linen below, and by so doing decorated himself with a complete pair of blinkers; nor why he changed his shoes, and put on an unparalleled pair of ankle-jacks, which he only wore on extraordinary occasions. The Captain being at length attired to his own complete satisfaction, and having glanced at himself from head to foot in a shaving-glass which he removed from a nail for that purpose, took up his knotted stick, and said he was ready.
The Captain's walk was more complacent than usual when they got out into the street; but this Walter supposed to be the effect of the ankle-jacks, and took little heed of. Before they had gone very far, they encountered a woman selling flowers; when the Captain stopping short, as if struck by a happy idea, made a purchase of the largest bundle in her basket: a most glorious nosegay, fan-shaped, some two feet and a half round, and composed of all the jolliest-looking flowers that blow.
Armed with this little token which he designed for Mr Dombey, Captain Cuttle walked on with Walter until they reached the Instrument-maker's door, before which they both paused.
'You're going in?' said Walter.
'Yes,' returned the Captain, who felt that Walter must be got rid of before he proceeded any further, and that he had better time his projected visit somewhat later in the day.
'And you won't forget anything?'
'No,' returned the Captain.
'I'll go upon my walk at once,' said Walter, 'and then I shall be out of the way, Captain Cuttle.'
'Take a good long 'un, my lad!' replied the Captain, calling after him. Walter waved his hand in assent, and went his way.
His way was nowhere in particular; but he thought he would go out into the fields, where he could reflect upon the unknown life before him, and resting under some tree, ponder quietly. He knew no better fields than those near Hampstead, and no better means of getting at them than by passing Mr Dombey's house.
It was as stately and as dark as ever, when he went by and glanced up at its frowning front. The blinds were all pulled down, but the upper windows stood wide open, and the pleasant air stirring those curtains and waving them to and fro was the only sign of animation in the whole exterior. Walter walked softly as he passed, and was glad when he had left the house a door or two behind.
He looked back then; with the interest he had always felt for the place since the adventure of the lost child, years ago; and looked especially at those upper windows. While he was thus engaged, a chariot drove to the door, and a portly gentleman in black, with a heavy watch-chain, alighted, and went in. When he afterwards remembered this gentleman and his equipage together, Walter had no doubt be was a physician; and then he wondered who was ill; but the discovery did not occur to him until he had walked some distance, thinking listlessly of other things.
Though still, of what the house had suggested to him; for Walter pleased hImself with thinking that perhaps the time might come, when the beautiful child who was his old friend and had always been so grateful to him and so glad to see him since, might interest her brother in his behalf and influence his fortunes for the better. He liked to imagine this - more, at that moment, for the pleasure of imagining her continued remembrance of him, than for any worldly profit he might gain: but another and more sober fancy whispered to him that if he were alive then, he would be beyond the sea and forgotten; she married, rich, proud, happy. There was no more reason why she should remember him with any interest in such an altered state of things, than any plaything she ever had. No, not so much.
Yet Walter so idealised the pretty child whom he had found wandering in the rough streets, and so identified her with her innocent gratitude of that night and the simplicity and truth of its expression, that he blushed for himself as a libeller when he argued that she could ever grow proud. On the other hand, his meditations were of that fantastic order that it seemed hardly less libellous in him to imagine her grown a woman: to think of her as anything but the same artless, gentle, winning little creature, that she had been in the days of Good Mrs Brown. In a word, Walter found out that to reason with himself about Florence at all, was to become very unreasonable indeed; and that he could do no better than preserve her image in his mind as something precious, unattainable, unchangeable, and indefinite - indefinite in all but its power of giving him pleasure, and restraining him like an angel's hand from anything unworthy.
It was a long stroll in the fields that Walter took that day, listening to the birds, and the Sunday bells, and the softened murmur of the town - breathing sweet scents; glancing sometimes at the dim horizon beyond which his voyage and his place of destination lay; then looking round on the green English grass and the home landscape. But he hardly once thought, even of going away, distinctly; and seemed to put off reflection idly, from hour to hour, and from minute to minute, while he yet went on reflecting all the time.
Walter had left the fields behind him, and was plodding homeward in the same abstracted mood, when he heard a shout from a man, and then a woman's voice calling to him loudly by name. Turning quickly in his surprise, he saw that a hackney-coach, going in the contrary direction, had stopped at no great distance; that the coachman was looking back from his box and making signals to him with his whip; and that a young woman inside was leaning out of the window, and beckoning with immense energy. Running up to this coach, he found that the young woman was Miss Nipper, and that Miss Nipper was in such a flutter as to be almost beside herself.
'Staggs's Gardens, Mr Walter!' said Miss Nipper; 'if you please, oh do!'
'Eh?' cried Walter; 'what is the matter?'
'Oh, Mr Walter, Staggs's Gardens, if you please!' said Susan.
'There!' cried the coachman, appealing to Walter, with a sort of exalting despair; 'that's the way the young lady's been a goin' on for up'ards of a mortal hour, and me continivally backing out of no thoroughfares, where she would drive up. I've had a many fares in this coach, first and last, but never such a fare as her.'
'Do you want to go to Staggs's Gardens, Susan?' inquired Walter.
'Ah! She wants to go there! WHERE IS IT?' growled the coachman.
'I don't know where it is!' exclaimed Susan, wildly. 'Mr Walter, I was there once myself, along with Miss Floy and our poor darling Master Paul, on the very day when you found Miss Floy in the City, for we lost her coming home, Mrs Richards and me, and a mad bull, and Mrs Richards's eldest, and though I went there afterwards, I can't remember where it is, I think it's sunk into the ground. Oh, Mr Walter, don't desert me, Staggs's Gardens, if you please! Miss Floy's darling - all our darlings - little, meek, meek Master Paul! Oh Mr Walter!'
'Good God!' cried Walter. 'Is he very ill?'
'The pretty flower!' cried Susan, wringing her hands, 'has took the fancy that he'd like to see his old nurse, and I've come to bring her to his bedside, Mrs Staggs, of Polly Toodle's Gardens, someone pray!'
Greatly moved by what he heard, and catching Susan's earnestness immediately, Walter, now that he understood the nature of her errand, dashed into it with such ardour that the coachman had enough to do to follow closely as he ran before, inquiring here and there and everywhere, the way to Staggs's Gardens.
There was no such place as Staggs's Gardens. It had vanished from the earth. Where the old rotten summer-houses once had stood, palaces now reared their heads, and granite columns of gigantic girth opened a vista to the railway world beyond. The miserable waste ground, where the refuse-matter had been heaped of yore, was swallowed up and gone; and in its frowsy stead were tiers of warehouses, crammed with rich goods and costly merchandise. The old by-streets now swarmed with passengers and vehicles of every kind: the new streets that had stopped disheartened in the mud and waggon-ruts, formed towns within themselves, originating wholesome comforts and conveniences belonging to themselves, and never tried nor thought of until they sprung into existence. Bridges that had led to nothing, led to villas, gardens, churches, healthy public walks. The carcasses of houses, and beginnings of new thoroughfares, had started off upon the line at steam's own speed, and shot away into the country in a monster train.'
As to the neighbourhood which had hesitated to acknowledge the railroad in its straggling days, that had grown wise and penitent, as any Christian might in such a case, and now boasted of its powerful and prosperous relation. There were railway patterns in its drapers' shops, and railway journals in the windows of its newsmen. There were railway hotels, office-houses, lodging-houses, boarding-houses; railway plans, maps, views, wrappers, bottles, sandwich-boxes, and time-tables; railway hackney-coach and stands; railway omnibuses, railway streets and buildings, railway hangers-on and parasites, and flatterers out of all calculation. There was even railway time observed in clocks, as if the sun itself had given in. Among the vanquished was the master chimney-sweeper, whilom incredulous at Staggs's Gardens, who now lived in a stuccoed house three stories high, and gave himself out, with golden flourishes upon a varnished board, as contractor for the cleansing of railway chimneys by machinery.
To and from the heart of this great change, all day and night, throbbing currents rushed and returned incessantly like its life's blood. Crowds of people and mountains of goods, departing and arriving scores upon scores of times in every four-and-twenty hours, produced a fermentation in the place that was always in action. The very houses seemed disposed to pack up and take trips. Wonderful Members of Parliament, who, little more than twenty years before, had made themselves merry with the wild railroad theories of engineers, and given them the liveliest rubs in cross-examination, went down into the north with their watches in their hands, and sent on messages before by the electric telegraph, to say that they were coming. Night and day the conquering engines rumbled at their distant work, or, advancing smoothly to their journey's end, and gliding like tame dragons into the allotted corners grooved out to the inch for their reception, stood bubbling and trembling there, making the walls quake, as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers yet unsuspected in them, and strong purposes not yet achieved.
But Staggs's Gardens had been cut up root and branch. Oh woe the day when 'not a rood of English ground' - laid out in Staggs's Gardens - is secure!
At last, after much fruitless inquiry, Walter, followed by the coach and Susan, found a man who had once resided in that vanished land, and who was no other than the master sweep before referred to, grown stout, and knocking a double knock at his own door. He knowed Toodle, he said, well. Belonged to the Railroad, didn't he?
'Yes' sir, yes!' cried Susan Nipper from the coach window.
Where did he live now? hastily inquired Walter.
He lived in the Company's own Buildings, second turning to the right, down the yard, cross over, and take the second on the right again. It was number eleven; they couldn't mistake it; but if they did, they had only to ask for Toodle, Engine Fireman, and any one would show them which was his house. At this unexpected stroke of success Susan Nipper dismounted from the coach with all speed, took Walter's arm, and set off at a breathless pace on foot; leaving the coach there to await their return.
'Has the little boy been long ill, Susan?' inquired Walter, as they hurried on.
'Ailing for a deal of time, but no one knew how much,' said Susan; adding, with excessive sharpness, 'Oh, them Blimbers!'
'Blimbers?' echoed Walter.
'I couldn't forgive myself at such a time as this, Mr Walter,' said Susan, 'and when there's so much serious distress to think about, if I rested hard on anyone, especially on them that little darling Paul speaks well of, but I may wish that the family was set to work in a stony soil to make new roads, and that Miss Blimber went in front, and had the pickaxe!'
Miss Nipper then took breath, and went on faster than before, as if this extraordinary aspiration had relieved her. Walter, who had by this time no breath of his own to spare, hurried along without asking any more questions; and they soon, in their impatience, burst in at a little door and came into a clean parlour full of children.
'Where's Mrs Richards?' exclaimed Susan Nipper, looking round. 'Oh Mrs Richards, Mrs Richards, come along with me, my dear creetur!'
'Why, if it ain't Susan!' cried Polly, rising with her honest face and motherly figure from among the group, in great surprIse.
'Yes, Mrs Richards, it's me,' said Susan, 'and I wish it wasn't, though I may not seem to flatter when I say so, but little Master Paul is very ill, and told his Pa today that he would like to see the face of his old nurse, and him and Miss Floy hope you'll come along with me - and Mr Walter, Mrs Richards - forgetting what is past, and do a kindness to the sweet dear that is withering away. Oh, Mrs Richards, withering away!' Susan Nipper crying, Polly shed tears to see her, and to hear what she had said; and all the children gathered round (including numbers of new babies); and Mr Toodle, who had just come home from Birmingham, and was eating his dinner out of a basin, laid down his knife and fork, and put on his wife's bonnet and shawl for her, which were hanging up behind the door; then tapped her on the back; and said, with more fatherly feeling than eloquence, 'Polly! cut away!'
So they got back to the coach, long before the coachman expected them; and Walter, putting Susan and Mrs Richards inside, took his seat on the box himself that there might be no more mistakes, and deposited them safely in the hall of Mr Dombey's house - where, by the bye, he saw a mighty nosegay lying, which reminded him of the one Captain Cuttle had purchased in his company that morning. He would have lingered to know more of the young invalid, or waited any length of time to see if he could render the least service; but, painfully sensible that such conduct would be looked upon by Mr Dombey as presumptuous and forward, he turned slowly, sadly, anxiously, away.
He had not gone five minutes' walk from the door, when a man came running after him, and begged him to return. Walter retraced his steps as quickly as he could, and entered the gloomy house with a sorrowful foreboding.
沃爾特好幾天打不定主意，去巴巴多斯的事情該怎么辦；甚至他還懷著幾分微弱的希望：董貝先生也許說話并不當(dāng)真，或者他也可能會(huì)改變主意，通知他不去了；可是他這種想法本身就是極不可能的，能證實(shí)這種想法的任何跡象也沒有出現(xiàn)，而時(shí)間又在消逝，他不能再延誤下去了，所以他覺得必須毫不遲疑地采取行動(dòng)。
沃爾特的主要困難在于怎樣把他工作的變動(dòng)情況透露給所爾舅舅；他知道這對(duì)他是一個(gè)可怕的打擊。他感到尤其困難的是說出這個(gè)驚人的消息來摧毀所爾舅舅的情緒，因?yàn)槔先俗罱榫w有了很大好轉(zhuǎn)，有說有笑，小后客廳又恢復(fù)了往日歡樂的氣氛。所爾舅舅已經(jīng)把第一批債款歸還給董貝先生，并滿懷希望，能設(shè)法把其余的欠債還清。當(dāng)他勇敢地從艱難中振作起來的時(shí)候，重新讓他垂頭喪氣，這真是一件令人痛苦、迫不得已的事情。
然而決不能背著他悄悄地溜走。應(yīng)當(dāng)事先讓他知道這件事。問題是怎樣告訴他。至于去或不去，沃爾特認(rèn)為他絲毫沒有選擇的權(quán)力。董貝先生明白無誤地跟他說過，他年輕，舅舅的境況又不好；董貝先生還在伴隨的眼光中清楚地提醒他，如果他拒絕去的話，那么他可以待在家中，但卻不能待在他的辦公室里。他舅舅和他都欠董貝先生的恩情；這份恩情還是沃爾特親自去懇求來的。他也許已開始暗暗感到，他永遠(yuǎn)沒有希望博得那位先生的好感，他也許還想到，董貝先生還不時(shí)藐視他，而那是很不公正的?？墒遣徽撉闆r是否這樣，職責(zé)畢竟是職責(zé)，而職責(zé)是必須履行的，沃爾特心里這樣想。
當(dāng)董貝先生看著他，跟他說，他年輕，他舅舅的境況又不好的時(shí)候，臉上曾經(jīng)流露出一種輕蔑的神色，傲慢不恭地、對(duì)他貶損地認(rèn)為，他樂意游手好閑地依靠一個(gè)窮困沒落的老頭子過活；這一點(diǎn)刺痛了這個(gè)孩子高尚的心靈。沃爾特決定不用言語表白，而盡可能使董貝先生相信，他確實(shí)把他的品格看錯(cuò)了，所以在那次有關(guān)去西印度群島的談話之后，他急切地表現(xiàn)出比先前更加愉快和活躍，就像一個(gè)像他那樣機(jī)靈、熱心的孩子所能表現(xiàn)的。他太年輕，太缺乏經(jīng)驗(yàn)，沒有想到，他這種性格本身就可能使董貝先生不喜歡；董貝先生強(qiáng)烈的不高興不論是正確的還是錯(cuò)誤的，反正在它那陰影之下，這孩子表現(xiàn)出應(yīng)變自如，有希望依然快快活活的樣子，是決不會(huì)使他產(chǎn)生好印象的。相反倒很可能，在那位大人物看來，這顆誠(chéng)實(shí)的心靈的這種新的表露是對(duì)他的公然反抗，因此他決意把它壓下去。
“唉！最終反正總得告訴所爾舅舅的，”沃爾特嘆了一口氣，想道。沃爾特?fù)?dān)心的是，如果由他本人告訴老人，并看到這消息在他起了皺紋的臉上所引起的第一陣反應(yīng)的話，那么他的聲音也許會(huì)稍稍顫抖，他臉上的神色也許不能像他所希望的那樣輕松愉快，因此他決定去請(qǐng)卡特爾船長(zhǎng)這位能干的斡旋者來幫忙。于是，星期天吃過早飯以后，他就從家里出發(fā)，再一次出其不意地到卡特爾船長(zhǎng)的住所去。
他在途中愉快地記起，麥克斯廷杰太太每逢星期天上午都要到一個(gè)很遠(yuǎn)的地方去聽梅爾奇斯代克·豪洛爾大師說教。這位大師原先在西印度船塢工作，后來由于仇人誣陷，說他曾用手錐鉆破大酒桶，然后把嘴唇貼住洞孔偷喝桶中的酒，因此有一天他就被解除了職務(wù)；他曾經(jīng)宣稱，世界將在兩年后的那一天上午十點(diǎn)鐘毀滅；他開放一個(gè)客廳來接待狂熱教派①的男女信徒們；在他們第一次的集會(huì)上，梅爾奇斯代克的訓(xùn)戒產(chǎn)生了很大的影響，在儀式結(jié)束時(shí)，他們歡天喜地地大跳圣舞，所以有的人竟都塌陷到下面的廚房里，把一個(gè)信徒的碾壓機(jī)也砸壞了。
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①狂熱教派：早期美以美教派中大聲祈禱或說教的教派。
這些軼事是船長(zhǎng)那天晚上把錢支付給經(jīng)紀(jì)人布羅格里之后，反復(fù)唱那支《佩格姑娘》曲子的中間，在非常歡樂的時(shí)刻講給沃爾特和他舅舅聽的。船長(zhǎng)自己也按時(shí)上一個(gè)鄰近的教堂去。那教堂每逢星期天上午就升起英國(guó)國(guó)旗。因?yàn)榻虆^(qū)事務(wù)員身體病弱，他就在那里好心地照管孩子們；由于他那神秘的鉤子所起的作用，他在孩子們中間享有很高的威望。沃爾特知道船長(zhǎng)從不改變他的習(xí)慣，所以盡快趕路，以便在他出門之前到達(dá)。他的速度很快，當(dāng)他拐彎走進(jìn)布里格廣場(chǎng)的時(shí)候，他高興地看到，那寬大的藍(lán)色外衣和背心正懸掛在船長(zhǎng)的打開的窗子的外面，在太陽下晾曬。
凡人的肉眼居然能看到外衣和背心離開船長(zhǎng)的身體，這似乎是難以使人相信的；但他這時(shí)確實(shí)沒有穿它們，否則他的雙腿就堵塞住那毫無遮攔的臨街的前門了，因?yàn)椴祭锔駨V場(chǎng)的房屋是不高的。沃爾特對(duì)這發(fā)現(xiàn)很感驚奇，敲了一下門。
“斯廷杰，”他清楚地聽到船長(zhǎng)在樓上的房間里說道，仿佛敲門聲跟他不相干似的，所以沃爾特就敲了兩下。
“卡特爾，”他聽到船長(zhǎng)應(yīng)答了一聲，不一會(huì)兒，船長(zhǎng)穿著干凈的襯衣，褲上吊著干凈的背帶，圍巾像一卷繩子一樣松松地掛在脖子周圍，頭上戴著上了光的帽子，出現(xiàn)在窗口，在寬大的藍(lán)色外衣和背心上方探出身來。
“沃爾，”船長(zhǎng)驚奇地朝下看著他，喊道。
“是的，是的，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特回答道，“只是我一個(gè)人。”
“出了什么事了，我的孩子？”船長(zhǎng)十分憂慮地問道，“吉爾斯是不是又有什么不幸了？”
“沒有，沒有，”沃爾特回答道，“舅舅很好，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)?！?BR> 船長(zhǎng)表示高興，說他就下來開門。他這樣做了。
“不過你來得很早，沃爾，”他們上樓之后，船長(zhǎng)仍然懷疑地看著他，說道。
“啊，事情是這樣，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特坐下說道，“我怕您會(huì)出去，而我想請(qǐng)您幫幫忙，像朋友般地給我出出主意?！?BR> “行啊，”船長(zhǎng)說道，“你想要什么呢？”
“我想要您的意見，”沃爾特笑嘻嘻地說道，“我只要這個(gè)?！?BR> “那就往下說吧，”船長(zhǎng)說道，“打起精神來，我的孩子！”
沃爾特向他敘述了發(fā)生的事情，敘述了他感到關(guān)于舅舅的困難，敘述了如果卡特爾船長(zhǎng)能好意地幫助他克服困難的話，那么這對(duì)他來說將會(huì)是如釋重負(fù)?？ㄌ貭柎L(zhǎng)對(duì)展現(xiàn)在面前的未來的情景感到無限的震驚與慌張，這種驚愕的情緒逐漸地把他吞沒，因此他的臉上失去了任何表情，連那藍(lán)色的衣服、上了光的帽子和那只鉤子也像失去了主人似的。
“您知道，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特繼續(xù)說道，“就我自己來說，正如董貝先生所說的，我年輕，不需要考慮我。我明白，我得在這世界上給自己打出條道路來。但是在來這里的路上，我想，關(guān)于舅舅，我必須特別考慮到兩點(diǎn)。我不是想說，我當(dāng)之無愧是他生活的樂趣和他引以自豪的人——請(qǐng)您相信，我明白這一點(diǎn)——，但事實(shí)上我又確實(shí)是那樣的。您說呢，難道您認(rèn)為我不是嗎？”
船長(zhǎng)似乎竭力想從他震驚的深淵中掙扎起來，恢復(fù)臉上的表情，但卻徒勞無益；那上了光的帽子只是默默無聲地、帶著難以表達(dá)的含意點(diǎn)了一下頭。
“如果我活著，身體健康，”沃爾特說道，“這一點(diǎn)我倒并不擔(dān)心，但是盡管這樣，要是我離開了英國(guó)，我就很難希望再見到舅舅了。他已經(jīng)老了，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)；再說，他是按照習(xí)慣生活的——”
“停一下，沃爾！是不是沒有顧客？①”船長(zhǎng)突然恢復(fù)了原來的神態(tài)，問道。
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①英文custom的一個(gè)意義是習(xí)慣，另一個(gè)意義是顧客。沃爾特說的是習(xí)慣，船長(zhǎng)誤會(huì)為顧客。
“完全正確，”沃爾特點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭，回答道，“不過我想說的是，他是按照平時(shí)的習(xí)慣生活的，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我說的是這個(gè)意思。如果說（就像您正確地指出的那樣），他失去了存貨和他這么多年已經(jīng)習(xí)慣了的所有物品，他就會(huì)早死，那么，難道您認(rèn)為他不會(huì)死得更早一些嗎，如果他失去了——”
“他的外甥，”船長(zhǎng)插嘴道，“說得對(duì)！”
“所以說，”沃爾特想法說得高興一些，“我們必須盡的努力讓他相信，這次離別畢竟只不過是一次短暫的離別；但是因?yàn)槲腋私庹媲?，或者說我擔(dān)心我更了解真情，而且因?yàn)槲矣性S許多多的理由要以熱愛、孝順與尊敬的感情來對(duì)待他，因此我害怕，如果由我想方設(shè)法來說服他的話，那么，我會(huì)把事情弄得十分糟糕的，這就是為什么我希望由您來告訴他的主要理由，這是第一點(diǎn)?！?BR> “把方位撥過一點(diǎn)！”①船長(zhǎng)用沉思的聲音說道。
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①由于沃爾特講了一點(diǎn)、二點(diǎn)，引起船長(zhǎng)講了一句航海用語。
“您說什么，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)？”沃爾特問道。
“做好準(zhǔn)備！”船長(zhǎng)若有所思地回答道。
沃爾特停了一下，想聽聽船長(zhǎng)是不是還要再補(bǔ)充一些意見，但是船長(zhǎng)沒有再講什么，沃爾特就繼續(xù)說下去。
“現(xiàn)在講第二點(diǎn)，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)。我很遺憾地告訴您，我不是董貝先生所喜愛的人。我一直來總是想方設(shè)法，作出我的努力，我也確實(shí)總是這樣做的，可是他卻不喜歡我。也許他不能左右自己的喜愛與厭惡，這一點(diǎn)我也不想說什么。我只是說，我敢肯定他不喜歡我。他派我到那里去，并不是因?yàn)槟鞘莻€(gè)好差使；他不想把事情說得比實(shí)際好一些，他不屑于這樣做；我不相信這次調(diào)動(dòng)會(huì)幫助我在公司里晉升職位；相反的，我懷疑是不是要用這個(gè)辦法把我永遠(yuǎn)打發(fā)掉，以便掃除障礙?？墒沁@些話我們一句也別跟舅舅說，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我們一定得盡量把這次派遣說成是一個(gè)有利的、前程遠(yuǎn)大的差使；我向您吐露真情，只是為了我在遠(yuǎn)方萬一需要幫助的時(shí)候，在祖國(guó)能有一個(gè)知道我真實(shí)情況的朋友?！?BR> “沃爾，我的孩子，”船長(zhǎng)回答道，“在所羅門箴言中，你可以找到下面的話：‘讓我們永遠(yuǎn)不缺少患難中的朋友，也不缺少送給他喝的酒！’你找到的時(shí)候，請(qǐng)把它記下來?！?BR> 這時(shí)船長(zhǎng)以勝過千言萬語的坦白真誠(chéng)的神情，向沃爾特伸出手來；由于他對(duì)準(zhǔn)確引用所羅門箴言和運(yùn)用得當(dāng)而感到得意，所以又重復(fù)說道：“你找到的時(shí)候，請(qǐng)把它記下來?！?BR> “卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特把船長(zhǎng)伸出的大拳頭滿滿地握在兩只手中說，“除了所爾舅舅，您是我最愛的人。確實(shí)，在這世界上我沒有更能信賴的人了。單單就離別這件事情本身來說，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我并不把它放在心上；我為什么要把它放在心上呢！如果我可以自由地去尋找運(yùn)氣的話，如果我可以當(dāng)一名普通的船員出去的話，如果我可以自由地自己承擔(dān)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，航行到天涯海角的話，那么我將高高興興地出去！我可能幾年前就已經(jīng)高高興興地出去碰碰我的運(yùn)氣如何了。但是這違背我舅舅的愿望，違背他為我所制訂的計(jì)劃，所以事情也就到此完結(jié)了。但是，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，我覺得我們過去有一些錯(cuò)誤；就改善我的前途來說，我現(xiàn)在出去并不比當(dāng)初一進(jìn)董貝公司的時(shí)候就出去更好，也許還更壞一些，因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)公司可能對(duì)我懷有好感，現(xiàn)在則肯定沒有了?！?BR> “回來吧，惠廷頓，”悶悶不樂的船長(zhǎng)向沃爾特看了一些時(shí)候之后，低聲說道。
“好的，”沃爾特哈哈大笑地回答道，“我擔(dān)心，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，在像他那樣的運(yùn)氣來到之前我就回來好多次了。并不是我要抱怨，”他活潑愉快、生氣蓬勃、精神飽滿地補(bǔ)充說道，“我沒有什么要抱怨的。我豐衣足食，我能活下去。當(dāng)我離開舅舅的時(shí)候，我把他交給您。我不能把他交給更好的人了，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)。我跟您講這一切，并不是因?yàn)槲冶^失望。不，我不會(huì)的。我只是讓您相信，我在董貝公司里對(duì)工作安排不能挑挑揀揀；派我到哪里去我就得到哪里去；向我建議什么，我就得接受什么。我被派出去對(duì)舅舅來說反倒更好，因?yàn)槎愊壬撬鹳F的朋友，就像他過去實(shí)際所表明的那樣，這一點(diǎn)您很清楚，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)。我深信，如果我不在公司里天天引起他的厭惡的話，那么他還會(huì)像過去一樣繼續(xù)是他尊貴的朋友。所以說，西印度群島萬歲，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)！船員們的那支歌是怎么唱的？”
“興高采烈地，向著巴巴多斯港口前進(jìn)吧，小伙子們！興高采烈地，把古老的英國(guó)拋在后面吧，小伙子們！”
這時(shí)船長(zhǎng)大聲地參加合唱道：“啊，興高采烈地，興高采烈地！啊，興高——采烈地！”
對(duì)面屋子里住著一位熱心的小商船的船長(zhǎng)，當(dāng)最后一行歌詞傳到他靈敏的耳朵里時(shí)，他醉意未消，沒有完全清醒過來，但卻立刻從床上跳起來，打開窗子，放開嗓門，越過街道，參加合唱，產(chǎn)生了優(yōu)美的效果。當(dāng)他不能把最后的音調(diào)再支撐著唱下去的時(shí)候，他可怕地大叫了一聲：“啊嗬！”，一方面是作為友好的問候，另一方面是想表示他還沒有歇過一口氣。然后，他關(guān)上窗子，重新躺到床上睡覺。
“現(xiàn)在，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，”沃爾特把藍(lán)色的外衣和背心遞給他，手腳十分忙亂地說，“如果您把這個(gè)消息去透露給所爾舅舅（按理說，他本來好幾天以前就該知道它了），那么，到了我家門口，您知道，我就將跟您分手，在附近一帶溜達(dá)溜達(dá)，直到下午?！?BR> 可是船長(zhǎng)看來絲毫也不高興接受這個(gè)任務(wù)，要不就是對(duì)他完成這個(gè)任務(wù)的能力完全沒有信心。他曾經(jīng)給沃爾特未來的生活與事業(yè)作過截然不同的安排，并對(duì)它感到完全稱心滿意；他對(duì)他在這個(gè)安排中所表現(xiàn)出的明智與預(yù)見性時(shí)常沾沾自喜，覺得這個(gè)安排的各個(gè)方面都完美無缺，因此現(xiàn)在要讓這個(gè)安排在頃刻之間土崩瓦解，甚至還要幫助去破壞它，這需要他的意志作出很大的努力才行。船長(zhǎng)還覺得要把他對(duì)這個(gè)問題的老想法從頭腦中去掉，迅速換上全新的想法，就像要按照情勢(shì)所要求的火急速度，把船上的老貨物卸下，裝上一批全新的貨物，而又不把兩批貨物混雜、弄亂一樣困難。因此，他沒有跟沃爾特的心情合拍，急匆匆地穿上外衣和背心，而是拒絕現(xiàn)在就把這些衣服套在身上；他告訴沃爾特，這樣重大的事情，應(yīng)該允許他“咬一下指甲”。
“這是我的*慣，沃爾，”船長(zhǎng)說，“已經(jīng)有五十年了。當(dāng)你看到內(nèi)德·卡特爾在咬指甲，那么，沃爾，你就可以知道，內(nèi)德·卡特爾擱淺了。”
于是，船長(zhǎng)把鐵鉤插在牙齒中間，仿佛那是一只手似的，同時(shí)露出富于智慧和思想深刻的神態(tài)，聚精會(huì)神地思考著這個(gè)問題的各個(gè)方面；他那智慧與深刻的思想是哲學(xué)的思考與認(rèn)真的研究所集中與升華的結(jié)果。
“我有一位朋友，”船長(zhǎng)神情恍惚地低聲說道，“他會(huì)對(duì)這個(gè)問題以及其他任何問題發(fā)表意見；他曾把六比一的有利條件讓給議會(huì)①，來和議會(huì)就某個(gè)問題打賭，結(jié)果他仍能勝過他們；可是他現(xiàn)在正沿著惠特比②岸邊航行?！贝L(zhǎng)繼續(xù)說下去，“這個(gè)人曾經(jīng)兩次從船上被沖打到水里，但卻安然無恙，絲毫不受影響。他當(dāng)學(xué)徒的時(shí)候，頭上曾經(jīng)被環(huán)端螺栓刺扎，斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的加起來有三個(gè)星期之久，可是在世界上仍找不到頭腦比他更聰明的人?！?BR> 沃爾特雖然尊敬卡特爾船長(zhǎng)，但卻不由得由于這位聰明人不在而暗暗高興；他衷心希望，在他的困難妥善解決之前，他的大智大慧不要用來處理它們。
“如果你把諾爾③的一個(gè)浮標(biāo)給他看，”卡特爾船長(zhǎng)用同樣的聲調(diào)說道，“請(qǐng)他談?wù)勊麑?duì)它的看法的話，沃爾，那么他會(huì)說出一個(gè)跟浮標(biāo)毫無關(guān)系的看法，就像你舅舅的鈕扣跟浮標(biāo)毫無關(guān)系一樣。世界上沒有一個(gè)人——至少是沒有一個(gè)靠·兩·條腿走路的人——能比得上他。沒有能比得上他的！”
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①即如議會(huì)勝了，他賠六份；如他勝了，他得一份。
②惠特比（Whitby）：英格蘭北約克郡的一個(gè)城鎮(zhèn)，瀕臨北海，地處埃斯克（Esk）河口港灣東側(cè)。
③諾爾（theNore）：英格蘭肯特郡泰晤士河口灣一段沙灘。
“他姓什么，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)？”沃爾特問道，他決定對(duì)船長(zhǎng)的朋友發(fā)生興趣。
“他姓邦斯貝，”船長(zhǎng)說道，“可是我的天主！其實(shí)，像他那樣頭腦的人，你管他姓什么都可以！”
船長(zhǎng)沒有進(jìn)一步闡明最后一句贊語的確切含意，沃爾特也沒有對(duì)它尋根究底。因?yàn)楫?dāng)他有聲有色地（就他和他的處境來說，這是很自然的）重新敘述他的主要困難時(shí)，他立刻發(fā)現(xiàn)船長(zhǎng)又重新陷入先前那深思遠(yuǎn)慮的狀態(tài)中。雖然他從濃密的眉毛下一動(dòng)不動(dòng)地凝視著他，可是他顯然并沒有看見他，也沒有聽見他說話，而是沉浸在思考之中。
實(shí)際上，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)正在擬訂宏偉的計(jì)劃；他根本沒有擱淺，而是很快就進(jìn)入水的最深處，而且無法探找到他要穿透的底層。船長(zhǎng)逐漸地完全看清了事情的原委：這里存在著一些誤會(huì)，毫無疑問，這很可能是沃爾特而不是他所產(chǎn)生的誤會(huì)。如果真有什么西印度群島計(jì)劃將討諸實(shí)施的話，那么它也跟年輕、性急的沃爾特所設(shè)想的大不相同；它只能是使他飛黃騰達(dá)的一種新安排。船長(zhǎng)心里想，“或者如果在他們之間（他是指在沃爾特與董貝先生之間）有點(diǎn)什么小小的疙瘩的話，那么只消雙方的老朋友適時(shí)地說上一句話，那就可以完全解開，大家就會(huì)重新和好如初，就像把兩條鉤住的船調(diào)理順當(dāng)一樣?！笨ㄌ貭柎L(zhǎng)從這些考慮中得出的想法是，由于他已經(jīng)有幸認(rèn)識(shí)董貝先生，在他們借錢的那個(gè)上午，曾經(jīng)在布賴頓和他在一起很愉快地消度了半個(gè)小時(shí)；再說他們既然都是上流社會(huì)的人，而且相互了解，愿意把事情處理得和順得當(dāng)，那樣就會(huì)很容易解決這樣一類小小的困難，弄清事實(shí)真相；因此，他應(yīng)盡的朋友之誼就是：現(xiàn)在什么話也不對(duì)沃爾特說，而是直接走到董貝先生的公館，對(duì)仆人說，“老弟，勞駕您通報(bào)一下，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)到這里來了?！比缓笤跇O為信任的氣氛中會(huì)見董貝先生——鉤住他的鈕扣孔——，交談一切，把事情處理得完善妥貼，然后得意揚(yáng)揚(yáng)地離開！
當(dāng)這些想法出現(xiàn)在船長(zhǎng)心中，逐漸成形的時(shí)候，他的臉色開朗起來，就像陰云密布的早晨退讓給陽光燦爛的中午一樣。他的眉毛原先極為不祥地緊皺著，現(xiàn)在不再直直地豎立，而是舒展開來，安祥平靜；他的眼睛原先在緊張的思想活動(dòng)過程中幾乎已經(jīng)閉上了，現(xiàn)在則隨意地張開；他的微笑最初只出現(xiàn)在三小點(diǎn)——嘴的右角和兩只眼角——，現(xiàn)在逐漸擴(kuò)展到整個(gè)臉龐，向上波送到前額，掀起了那頂上了光的帽子；這帽子原先仿佛跟卡特爾船長(zhǎng)一樣擱了淺，現(xiàn)在則又跟他一樣，愉快地漂浮起來了。
船長(zhǎng)終于不再咬指甲，說：“現(xiàn)在，沃爾特，我的孩子，你幫我穿上衣服吧！”船長(zhǎng)指的是他的外衣和背心。
沃爾特想不出，船長(zhǎng)系領(lǐng)帶為什么會(huì)那么用心，他把垂下的兩端擰成像辮子一樣的東西，然后穿進(jìn)一個(gè)大金戒指中，戒指上刻著一幅圖畫，畫中有一座墳?zāi)?、一條潔凈的鐵欄桿和一株樹，它是紀(jì)念某個(gè)死去的朋友的。沃爾特也想不出船長(zhǎng)為什么把襯衫領(lǐng)子使勁往上拉，拉到下面的愛爾蘭亞麻布襯衫所許可的限度，這樣一來他看上去就有了一副完好的遮眼罩來裝飾自己了。沃爾特也想不出，船長(zhǎng)為什么脫下鞋子，換上那雙世上無雙的短靴，那是他在不尋常的場(chǎng)合才穿的。船長(zhǎng)終于穿著完畢，自己完全感到稱心滿意；他從墻釘上取下一面修臉用的鏡子，從頭到腳把自己打量了一番，然后拿起他那根多節(jié)的手杖說，他已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好了。
當(dāng)他們走上街道的時(shí)候，船長(zhǎng)的步態(tài)比往常顯得更加躊躇滿志，但沃爾特以為那是由于短靴的作用，對(duì)它并不注意。他們沒走多遠(yuǎn)，遇到一位賣花的女人，船長(zhǎng)突然停下腳步，仿佛心血來潮，閃出一個(gè)巧妙主意似的；他把她籃子里的一束花買下來，那是一個(gè)極為光彩奪目、芳香四溢的花束，形狀像扇子，周圍約有兩英尺半，全都由最鮮艷的花朵組成。
卡特爾船長(zhǎng)準(zhǔn)備了這份打算送給董貝先生的禮品之后，跟沃爾特繼續(xù)向前走去，直到他們到達(dá)儀器制造商門前，兩人才都停下腳步。
“您就進(jìn)去嗎？”沃爾特問道。
“是的，”船長(zhǎng)答道。他覺得在采取下一步行動(dòng)之前必須首先把沃爾特打發(fā)走，他打算進(jìn)行的拜訪推遲到當(dāng)天晚一些時(shí)候。
“您不會(huì)忘記什么嗎？”沃爾特問道。
“不會(huì)，”船長(zhǎng)回答。
“我馬上就去溜達(dá)，”沃爾特說道，“我不妨礙您了，卡特爾船長(zhǎng)?！?BR> “好好地多逛一逛，我的孩子！”般長(zhǎng)在他身后大聲喊道。
沃爾特?fù)]揮手，表示同意，接著就繼續(xù)向前走去。
他沒有特定的地方要去；但他想到田野里去走走，他在那里可以考慮考慮將來未知的生活，可以在樹下一邊休息一邊安靜地思索。他覺得漢姆普斯特德①附近的風(fēng)光最美，而通向那里的道路是從董貝先生公館旁邊經(jīng)過的。
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①漢姆普斯特德（Hampstead）：倫敦郊區(qū)地方。
當(dāng)沃爾特從董貝先生的公館旁邊走過，向上望一眼，看到它那愁眉不展的正面的時(shí)候，它跟往常一樣莊嚴(yán)、陰暗。所有的窗簾都已垂下，但上面的窗子是敞開著的，涼爽的微風(fēng)吹拂著窗簾來回飄動(dòng)，這是整座房屋外部帶有生氣的跡象。沃爾特輕輕地走過，當(dāng)他又走過幾家人家的時(shí)候，他心里覺得高興。
自從幾年前發(fā)生了迷路的女孩子的事情以后，他經(jīng)常對(duì)這房屋感到興趣，這時(shí)他正是懷著這樣的興趣往回看，特別是望著上面一層的窗子。當(dāng)他正這樣看著的時(shí)候，一輛輕便四輪馬車來到門前，一位舉止莊重、穿著黑衣服、掛著一條沉甸甸的表鏈子的先生下了馬車，走進(jìn)屋里去。沃爾特后來回憶起這位先生和他的馬車，他毫無疑問那人是位醫(yī)生，于是心中納悶起來，究竟是誰病了呢？可是他沒有得出答案。他無精打采地想著其他事情，又走了一段距離。
不過他仍然想到這座房屋對(duì)他意味著什么，因?yàn)槲譅柼乜偸菒垡赃@樣的希望來使自己高興，那就是：也許總有那么一天，那位女孩子（她是他的老朋友，從那時(shí)以來，總是那樣感謝他，那樣高興看到他）會(huì)使她弟弟關(guān)心他，使他的命運(yùn)好轉(zhuǎn)。但是在這時(shí)候他更喜歡想到的是，她仍繼續(xù)記得他，而不是他可能得到什么世俗的利益；可是另一個(gè)更為清醒的想法在他耳邊低聲說道，如果那時(shí)候他還活著的話，那么他將在海外漂泊，被她遺忘；她則已經(jīng)成婚，富有，高傲，幸福。世事滄桑，在完全改變了的情況下，她沒有什么理由要比對(duì)一個(gè)她曾經(jīng)有過的玩具更多地記得他；不會(huì)的，那時(shí)在她的記憶中，他可能還不如玩具呢。
可是沃爾特把那位流落在喧鬧的街上、被他找到的那位漂亮的女孩子理想化了，把她與她在那天夜里天真的感謝以及在感謝中所表現(xiàn)出的純樸、真誠(chéng)等同化了，所以他認(rèn)為，把她想成今后會(huì)變得高傲，這是對(duì)她的侮辱，他為此而感到羞愧。另一方面，他的沉思默想又是那么荒誕無稽，在他看來，如果想像到她已成長(zhǎng)為一個(gè)女人，如果不是把她想成她跟善良的布朗太太在一起時(shí)那樣一位純樸、溫柔、可愛的小人兒，而是想成另外一位什么人的話，那么這也同樣是對(duì)她的侮辱?？傊譅柼赜X得由他本人來評(píng)斷弗洛倫斯的是非長(zhǎng)短，確實(shí)是會(huì)很不近情理的；他是把她的形象作為寶貴的、難以達(dá)到的、永不改變的、模糊不清的一種什么東西保存在心中；它具有使他快樂，像一只天使的手一樣制止他進(jìn)行任何卑劣勾當(dāng)?shù)牧α?，這一點(diǎn)卻不是模糊不清的。
沃爾特那天在田野里游逛得很久，他聽著鳥兒的啾鳴、禮拜天的鐘聲、城市中比平日減弱了的喧囂聲，同時(shí)呼吸著芳香的空氣，有時(shí)舉目眺望那朦朧不清的地平線，因?yàn)樗暮匠膛c目的地就在地平線的那一方；然后他又環(huán)顧四周英國(guó)的青草和故鄉(xiāng)的風(fēng)景?？墒撬麕缀鯖]有一次明確地想到他即將遠(yuǎn)離；他似乎一小時(shí)又一小時(shí)，一分鐘又一分鐘地把這思想擱置一旁，不去理會(huì)，盡管他始終在繼續(xù)不斷地想著它。
沃爾特已經(jīng)把田野拋在后面，正懷著同樣恍惚的心情，拖著沉重的腳步往回家的路途上行走，這時(shí)候他聽到一個(gè)男人喊叫了一聲，接著一個(gè)女人的聲音響亮地喊著他的名字。他驚奇地轉(zhuǎn)過身去，看到一輛朝著相反方向跑去的出租轎式馬車在不遠(yuǎn)的地方停了下來；馬車夫從座位上轉(zhuǎn)過頭來看他，向他揮鞭示意；車?yán)镆晃荒贻p的女人從窗子里探出身來，精力充沛地向他打招呼。他跑到馬車跟前，看到這位年輕女人就是尼珀姑娘；她萬分焦急不安，幾乎都要發(fā)狂了。
“斯塔格斯花園，沃爾特先生！”尼珀姑娘說，“勞駕您，幫個(gè)忙吧！”
“什么？”沃爾特喊道，“出了什么事了？”
“啊，沃爾特先生！斯塔格斯花園，勞駕您！”蘇珊說。
“您瞧！”馬車夫以一種興高采烈與灰心絕望交織的神情，向沃爾特懇求道，“這位姑娘已經(jīng)反反復(fù)復(fù)地說了老半天，她想要去的地方路走不通，我正想把車子轉(zhuǎn)過身來找條出路呢。
乘坐過我馬車的客人可多啦，可我從沒見過像她這樣的乘客?！?BR> “您想到斯塔格斯花園去嗎，蘇珊？”沃爾特問道。
“對(duì)啦！她想到那里去。它在哪里？”馬車夫抬高嗓門，粗聲大氣地說道。
“我不知道它在哪里！”蘇珊瘋狂似地大聲說道，“沃爾特先生，我親自到過那里一次，是帶著弗洛伊小姐和我們可憐的、可愛的保羅少爺一起去的，就在您在城里找到弗洛伊小姐的那一天，因?yàn)樵诨貋淼穆飞衔覀儼阉齺G了，理查茲大嫂和我，還有一條瘋牛，還有理查茲大嫂的大兒子，雖然后來我去過那里，可是我卻記不得它在哪里了，我想它已經(jīng)塌陷到地底下去了。啊，沃爾特先生，別拋棄我不管，斯塔格斯花園，勞駕您！弗洛伊小姐最親愛的寶貝——我們大家最親愛的寶貝——、非常非常溫順的小保羅少爺啊！啊沃爾特先生！”
“慈善的上帝！”沃爾特喊道，“他病得很重嗎？”“可愛的花朵兒！”蘇珊絞扭著手哭道：“他一時(shí)想起想要看看他從前的奶媽，我就是來領(lǐng)她到他床邊去