In which Timely Provision is made for an Emergency that will sometimes arise in the best-regulated Families
'I shall never cease to congratulate myself,' said Mrs Chick,' on having said, when I little thought what was in store for us, - really as if I was inspired by something, - that I forgave poor dear Fanny everything. Whatever happens, that must always be a comfort to me!'
Mrs Chick made this impressive observation in the drawing-room, after having descended thither from the inspection of the mantua-makers upstairs, who were busy on the family mourning. She delivered it for the behoof of Mr Chick, who was a stout bald gentleman, with a very large face, and his hands continually in his pockets, and who had a tendency in his nature to whistle and hum tunes, which, sensible of the indecorum of such sounds in a house of grief, he was at some pains to repress at present.
'Don't you over-exert yourself, Loo,' said Mr Chick, 'or you'll be laid up with spasms, I see. Right tol loor rul! Bless my soul, I forgot! We're here one day and gone the next!'
Mrs Chick contented herself with a glance of reproof, and then proceeded with the thread of her discourse.
'I am sure,' she said, 'I hope this heart-rending occurrence will be a warning to all of us, to accustom ourselves to rouse ourselves, and to make efforts in time where they're required of us. There's a moral in everything, if we would only avail ourselves of it. It will be our own faults if we lose sight of this one.'
Mr Chick invaded the grave silence which ensued on this remark with the singularly inappropriate air of 'A cobbler there was;' and checking himself, in some confusion, observed, that it was undoubtedly our own faults if we didn't improve such melancholy occasions as the present.
'Which might be better improved, I should think, Mr C.,' retorted his helpmate, after a short pause, 'than by the introduction, either of the college hornpipe, or the equally unmeaning and unfeeling remark of rump-te-iddity, bow-wow-wow!' - which Mr Chick had indeed indulged in, under his breath, and which Mrs Chick repeated in a tone of withering scorn.
'Merely habit, my dear,' pleaded Mr Chick.
'Nonsense! Habit!' returned his wife. 'If you're a rational being, don't make such ridiculous excuses. Habit! If I was to get a habit (as you call it) of walking on the ceiling, like the flies, I should hear enough of it, I daresay.
It appeared so probable that such a habit might be attended with some degree of notoriety, that Mr Chick didn't venture to dispute the position.
'Bow-wow-wow!' repeated Mrs Chick with an emphasis of blighting contempt on the last syllable. 'More like a professional singer with the hydrophobia, than a man in your station of life!'
'How's the Baby, Loo?' asked Mr Chick: to change the subject.
'What Baby do you mean?' answered Mrs Chick.
'The poor bereaved little baby,' said Mr Chick. 'I don't know of any other, my dear.'
'You don't know of any other,'retorted Mrs Chick. 'More shame for you, I was going to say.
Mr Chick looked astonished.
'I am sure the morning I have had, with that dining-room downstairs, one mass of babies, no one in their senses would believe.'
'One mass of babies!' repeated Mr Chick, staring with an alarmed expression about him.
'It would have occurred to most men,' said Mrs Chick, 'that poor dear Fanny being no more, - those words of mine will always be a balm and comfort to me,' here she dried her eyes; 'it becomes necessary to provide a Nurse.'
'Oh! Ah!' said Mr Chick. 'Toor-ru! - such is life, I mean. I hope you are suited, my dear.'
'Indeed I am not,' said Mrs Chick; 'nor likely to be, so far as I can see, and in the meantime the poor child seems likely to be starved to death. Paul is so very particular - naturally so, of course, having set his whole heart on this one boy - and there are so many objections to everybody that offers, that I don't see, myself, the least chance of an arrangement. Meanwhile, of course, the child is - '
'Going to the Devil,' said Mr Chick, thoughtfully, 'to be sure.'
Admonished, however, that he had committed himself, by the indignation expressed in Mrs Chick's countenance at the idea of a Dombey going there; and thinking to atone for his misconduct by a bright suggestion, he added:
'Couldn't something temporary be done with a teapot?'
If he had meant to bring the subject prematurely to a close, he could not have done it more effectually. After looking at him for some moments in silent resignation, Mrs Chick said she trusted he hadn't said it in aggravation, because that would do very little honour to his heart. She trusted he hadn't said it seriously, because that would do very little honour to his head. As in any case, he couldn't, however sanguine his disposition, hope to offer a remark that would be a greater outrage on human nature in general, we would beg to leave the discussion at that point.
Mrs Chick then walked majestically to the window and peeped through the blind, attracted by the sound of wheels. Mr Chick, finding that his destiny was, for the time, against him, said no more, and walked off. But it was not always thus with Mr Chick. He was often in the ascendant himself, and at those times punished Louisa roundly. In their matrimonial bickerings they were, upon the whole, a well-matched, fairly-balanced, give-and-take couple. It would have been, generally speaking, very difficult to have betted on the winner. Often when Mr Chick seemed beaten, he would suddenly make a start, turn the tables, clatter them about the ears of Mrs Chick, and carry all before him. Being liable himself to similar unlooked for checks from Mrs Chick, their little contests usually possessed a character of uncertainty that was very animating.
Miss Tox had arrived on the wheels just now alluded to, and came running into the room in a breathless condition. 'My dear Louisa,'said Miss Tox, 'is the vacancy still unsupplied?'
'You good soul, yes,' said Mrs Chick.
'Then, my dear Louisa,' returned Miss Tox, 'I hope and believe - but in one moment, my dear, I'll introduce the party.'
Running downstairs again as fast as she had run up, Miss Tox got the party out of the hackney-coach, and soon returned with it under convoy.
It then appeared that she had used the word, not in its legal or business acceptation, when it merely expresses an individual, but as a noun of multitude, or signifying many: for Miss Tox escorted a plump rosy-cheeked wholesome apple-faced young woman, with an infant in her arms; a younger woman not so plump, but apple-faced also, who led a plump and apple-faced child in each hand; another plump and also apple-faced boy who walked by himself; and finally, a plump and apple-faced man, who carried in his arms another plump and apple-faced boy, whom he stood down on the floor, and admonished, in a husky whisper, to 'kitch hold of his brother Johnny.'
'My dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox, 'knowing your great anxiety, and wishing to relieve it, I posted off myself to the Queen Charlotte's Royal Married Females,' which you had forgot, and put the question, Was there anybody there that they thought would suit? No, they said there was not. When they gave me that answer, I do assure you, my dear, I was almost driven to despair on your account. But it did so happen, that one of the Royal Married Females, hearing the inquiry, reminded the matron of another who had gone to her own home, and who, she said, would in all likelihood be most satisfactory. The moment I heard this, and had it corroborated by the matron - excellent references and unimpeachable character - I got the address, my dear, and posted off again.'
'Like the dear good Tox, you are!' said Louisa.
'Not at all,' returned Miss Tox. 'Don't say so. Arriving at the house (the cleanest place, my dear! You might eat your dinner off the floor), I found the whole family sitting at table; and feeling that no account of them could be half so comfortable to you and Mr Dombey as the sight of them all together, I brought them all away. This gentleman,' said Miss Tox, pointing out the apple-faced man, 'is the father. Will you have the goodness to come a little forward, Sir?'
The apple-faced man having sheepishly complied with this request, stood chuckling and grinning in a front row.
'This is his wife, of course,' said Miss Tox, singling out the young woman with the baby. 'How do you do, Polly?'
'I'm pretty well, I thank you, Ma'am,' said Polly.
By way of bringing her out dexterously, Miss Tox had made the inquiry as in condescension to an old acquaintance whom she hadn't seen for a fortnight or so.
'I'm glad to hear it,' said Miss Tox. 'The other young woman is her unmarried sister who lives with them, and would take care of her children. Her name's Jemima. How do you do, Jemima?'
'I'm pretty well, I thank you, Ma'am,' returned Jemima.
'I'm very glad indeed to hear it,' said Miss Tox. 'I hope you'll keep so. Five children. Youngest six weeks. The fine little boy with the blister on his nose is the eldest The blister, I believe,' said Miss Tox, looking round upon the family, 'is not constitutional, but accidental?'
The apple-faced man was understood to growl, 'Flat iron.
'I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Miss Tox, 'did you?
'Flat iron,' he repeated.
'Oh yes,' said Miss Tox. 'Yes! quite true. I forgot. The little creature, in his mother's absence, smelt a warm flat iron. You're quite right, Sir. You were going to have the goodness to inform me, when we arrived at the door that you were by trade a - '
'Stoker,' said the man.
'A choker!' said Miss Tox, quite aghast.
'Stoker,' said the man. 'Steam ingine.'
'Oh-h! Yes!' returned Miss Tox, looking thoughtfully at him, and seeming still to have but a very imperfect understanding of his meaning.
'And how do you like it, Sir?'
'Which, Mum?' said the man.
'That,' replied Miss Tox. 'Your trade.'
'Oh! Pretty well, Mum. The ashes sometimes gets in here;' touching his chest: 'and makes a man speak gruff, as at the present time. But it is ashes, Mum, not crustiness.'
Miss Tox seemed to be so little enlightened by this reply, as to find a difficulty in pursuing the subject. But Mrs Chick relieved her, by entering into a close private examination of Polly, her children, her marriage certificate, testimonials, and so forth. Polly coming out unscathed from this ordeal, Mrs Chick withdrew with her report to her brother's room, and as an emphatic comment on it, and corroboration of it, carried the two rosiest little Toodles with her. Toodle being the family name of the apple-faced family.
Mr Dombey had remained in his own apartment since the death of his wife, absorbed in visions of the youth, education, and destination of his baby son. Something lay at the bottom of his cool heart, colder and heavier than its ordinary load; but it was more a sense of the child's loss than his own, awakening within him an almost angry sorrow. That the life and progress on which he built such hopes, should be endangered in the outset by so mean a want; that Dombey and Son should be tottering for a nurse, was a sore humiliation. And yet in his pride and jealousy, he viewed with so much bitterness the thought of being dependent for the very first step towards the accomplishment of his soul's desire, on a hired serving-woman who would be to the child, for the time, all that even his alliance could have made his own wife, that in every new rejection of a candidate he felt a secret pleasure. The time had now come, however, when he could no longer be divided between these two sets of feelings. The less so, as there seemed to be no flaw in the title of Polly Toodle after his sister had set it forth, with many commendations on the indefatigable friendship of Miss Tox.
'These children look healthy,' said Mr Dombey. 'But my God, to think of their some day claiming a sort of relationship to Paul!'
' But what relationship is there!' Louisa began -
'Is there!' echoed Mr Dombey, who had not intended his sister to participate in the thought he had unconsciously expressed. 'Is there, did you say, Louisa!'
'Can there be, I mean - '
'Why none,' said Mr Dombey, sternly. 'The whole world knows that, I presume. Grief has not made me idiotic, Louisa. Take them away, Louisa! Let me see this woman and her husband.'
Mrs Chick bore off the tender pair of Toodles, and presently returned with that tougher couple whose presence her brother had commanded.
'My good woman,' said Mr Dombey, turning round in his easy chair, as one piece, and not as a man with limbs and joints, 'I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced. I have no objection to your adding to the comforts of your family by that means. So far as I can tell, you seem to be a deserving object. But I must impose one or two conditions on you, before you enter my house in that capacity. While you are here, I must stipulate that you are always known as - say as Richards - an ordinary name, and convenient. Have you any objection to be known as Richards? You had better consult your husband.'
'Well?' said Mr Dombey, after a pretty long pause. 'What does your husband say to your being called Richards?'
As the husband did nothing but chuckle and grin, and continually draw his right hand across his mouth, moistening the palm, Mrs Toodle, after nudging him twice or thrice in vain, dropped a curtsey and replied 'that perhaps if she was to be called out of her name, it would be considered in the wages.'
'Oh, of course,' said Mr Dombey. 'I desire to make it a question of wages, altogether. Now, Richards, if you nurse my bereaved child, I wish you to remember this always. You will receive a liberal stipend in return for the discharge of certain duties, in the performance of which, I wish you to see as little of your family as possible. When those duties cease to be required and rendered, and the stipend ceases to be paid, there is an end of all relations between us. Do you understand me?'
Mrs Toodle seemed doubtful about it; and as to Toodle himself, he had evidently no doubt whatever, that he was all abroad.
'You have children of your own,' said Mr Dombey. 'It is not at all in this bargain that you need become attached to my child, or that my child need become attached to you. I don't expect or desire anything of the kind. Quite the reverse. When you go away from here, you will have concluded what is a mere matter of bargain and sale, hiring and letting: and will stay away. The child will cease to remember you; and you will cease, if you please, to remember the child.'
Mrs Toodle, with a little more colour in her cheeks than she had had before, said 'she hoped she knew her place.'
'I hope you do, Richards,' said Mr Dombey. 'I have no doubt you know it very well. Indeed it is so plain and obvious that it could hardly be otherwise. Louisa, my dear, arrange with Richards about money, and let her have it when and how she pleases. Mr what's-your name, a word with you, if you please!'
Thus arrested on the threshold as he was following his wife out of the room, Toodle returned and confronted Mr Dombey alone. He was a strong, loose, round-shouldered, shuffling, shaggy fellow, on whom his clothes sat negligently: with a good deal of hair and whisker, deepened in its natural tint, perhaps by smoke and coal-dust: hard knotty hands: and a square forehead, as coarse in grain as the bark of an oak. A thorough contrast in all respects, to Mr Dombey, who was one of those close-shaved close-cut moneyed gentlemen who are glossy and crisp like new bank-notes, and who seem to be artificially braced and tightened as by the stimulating action of golden showerbaths.
'You have a son, I believe?' said Mr Dombey.
'Four on 'em, Sir. Four hims and a her. All alive!'
'Why, it's as much as you can afford to keep them!' said Mr Dombey.
'I couldn't hardly afford but one thing in the world less, Sir.'
'What is that?'
'To lose 'em, Sir.'
'Can you read?' asked Mr Dombey.
'Why, not partick'ler, Sir.'
'Write?'
'With chalk, Sir?'
'With anything?'
'I could make shift to chalk a little bit, I think, if I was put to it,' said Toodle after some reflection.
'And yet,' said Mr Dombey, 'you are two or three and thirty, I suppose?'
'Thereabouts, I suppose, Sir,' answered Toodle, after more reflection
'Then why don't you learn?' asked Mr Dombey.
'So I'm a going to, Sir. One of my little boys is a going to learn me, when he's old enough, and been to school himself.'
'Well,' said Mr Dombey, after looking at him attentively, and with no great favour, as he stood gazing round the room (principally round the ceiling) and still drawing his hand across and across his mouth. 'You heard what I said to your wife just now?'
'Polly heerd it,' said Toodle, jerking his hat over his shoulder in the direction of the door, with an air of perfect confidence in his better half. 'It's all right.'
'But I ask you if you heard it. You did, I suppose, and understood it?' pursued Mr Dombey.
'I heerd it,' said Toodle, 'but I don't know as I understood it rightly Sir, 'account of being no scholar, and the words being - ask your pardon - rayther high. But Polly heerd it. It's all right.'
'As you appear to leave everything to her,' said Mr Dombey, frustrated in his intention of impressing his views still more distinctly on the husband, as the stronger character, 'I suppose it is of no use my saying anything to you.'
'Not a bit,' said Toodle. 'Polly heerd it. She's awake, Sir.'
'I won't detain you any longer then,' returned Mr Dombey, disappointed. 'Where have you worked all your life?'
'Mostly underground, Sir, 'till I got married. I come to the level then. I'm a going on one of these here railroads when they comes into full play.'
As he added in one of his hoarse whispers, 'We means to bring up little Biler to that line,' Mr Dombey inquired haughtily who little Biler was.
'The eldest on 'em, Sir,' said Toodle, with a smile. 'It ain't a common name. Sermuchser that when he was took to church the gen'lm'n said, it wam't a chris'en one, and he couldn't give it. But we always calls him Biler just the same. For we don't mean no harm. Not we.
'Do you mean to say, Man,' inquired Mr Dombey; looking at him with marked displeasure, 'that you have called a child after a boiler?'
'No, no, Sir,' returned Toodle, with a tender consideration for his mistake. 'I should hope not! No, Sir. Arter a BILER Sir. The Steamingine was a'most as good as a godfather to him, and so we called him Biler, don't you see!'
As the last straw breaks the laden camel's back, this piece of information crushed the sinking spirits of Mr Dombey. He motioned his child's foster-father to the door, who departed by no means unwillingly: and then turning the key, paced up and down the room in solitary wretchedness.
It would be harsh, and perhaps not altogether true, to say of him that he felt these rubs and gratings against his pride more keenly than he had felt his wife's death: but certainly they impressed that event upon him with new force, and communicated to it added weight and bitterness. It was a rude shock to his sense of property in his child, that these people - the mere dust of the earth, as he thought them - should be necessary to him; and it was natural that in proportion as he felt disturbed by it, he should deplore the occurrence which had made them so. For all his starched, impenetrable dignity and composure, he wiped blinding tears from his eyes as he paced up and down his room; and often said, with an emotion of which he would not, for the world, have had a witness, 'Poor little fellow!'
It may have been characteristic of Mr Dombey's pride, that he pitied himself through the child. Not poor me. Not poor widower, confiding by constraint in the wife of an ignorant Hind who has been working 'mostly underground' all his life, and yet at whose door Death had never knocked, and at whose poor table four sons daily sit - but poor little fellow!
Those words being on his lips, it occurred to him - and it is an instance of the strong attraction with which his hopes and fears and all his thoughts were tending to one centre - that a great temptation was being placed in this woman's way. Her infant was a boy too. Now, would it be possIble for her to change them?
Though he was soon satisfied that he had dismissed the idea as romantic and unlikely - though possible, there was no denying - he could not help pursuing it so far as to entertain within himself a picture of what his condition would be, if he should discover such an imposture when he was grown old. Whether a man so situated would be able to pluck away the result of so many years of usage, confidence, and belief, from the impostor, and endow a stranger with it?
But it was idle speculating thus. It couldn't happen. In a moment afterwards he determined that it could, but that such women were constantly observed, and had no opportunity given them for the accomplishment of such a design, even when they were so wicked as to entertain it. In another moment, he was remembering how few such cases seemed to have ever happened. In another moment he was wondering whether they ever happened and were not found out.
As his unusual emotion subsided, these misgivings gradually melted away, though so much of their shadow remained behind, that he was constant in his resolution to look closely after Richards himself, without appearing to do so. Being now in an easier frame of mind, he regarded the woman's station as rather an advantageous circumstance than otherwise, by placing, in itself, a broad distance between her and the child, and rendering their separation easy and natural. Thence he passed to the contemplation of the future glories of Dombey and Son, and dismissed the memory of his wife, for the time being, with a tributary sigh or two.
Meanwhile terms were ratified and agreed upon between Mrs Chick and Richards, with the assistance of Miss Tox; and Richards being with much ceremony invested with the Dombey baby, as if it were an Order, resigned her own, with many tears and kisses, to Jemima. Glasses of wine were then produced, to sustain the drooping spirits of the family; and Miss Tox, busying herself in dispensing 'tastes' to the younger branches, bred them up to their father's business with such surprising expedition, that she made chokers of four of them in a quarter of a minute.
'You'll take a glass yourself, Sir, won't you?' said Miss Tox, as Toodle appeared.
'Thankee, Mum,' said Toodle, 'since you are suppressing.'
'And you're very glad to leave your dear good wife in such a comfortable home, ain't you, Sir?'said Miss Tox, nodding and winking at him stealthily.
'No, Mum,' said Toodle. 'Here's wishing of her back agin.'
Polly cried more than ever at this. So Mrs Chick, who had her matronly apprehensions that this indulgence in grief might be prejudicial to the little Dombey ('acid, indeed,' she whispered Miss Tox), hastened to the rescue.
'Your little child will thrive charmingly with your sister Jemima, Richards,' said Mrs Chick; 'and you have only to make an effort - this is a world of effort, you know, Richards - to be very happy indeed. You have been already measured for your mourning, haven't you, Richards?'
'Ye - es, Ma'am,' sobbed Polly.
'And it'll fit beautifully. I know,' said Mrs Chick, 'for the same young person has made me many dresses. The very best materials, too!'
'Lor, you'll be so smart,' said Miss Tox, 'that your husband won't know you; will you, Sir?'
'I should know her,' said Toodle, gruffly, 'anyhows and anywheres.'
Toodle was evidently not to be bought over.
'As to living, Richards, you know,' pursued Mrs Chick, 'why, the very best of everything will be at your disposal. You will order your little dinner every day; and anything you take a fancy to, I'm sure will be as readily provided as if you were a Lady.'
'Yes to be sure!' said Miss Tox, keeping up the ball with great sympathy. 'And as to porter! - quite unlimited, will it not, Louisa?'
'Oh, certainly!' returned Mrs Chick in the same tone. 'With a little abstinence, you know, my dear, in point of vegetables.'
'And pickles, perhaps,' suggested Miss Tox.
'With such exceptions,' said Louisa, 'she'll consult her choice entirely, and be under no restraint at all, my love.'
'And then, of course, you know,' said Miss Tox, 'however fond she is of her own dear little child - and I'm sure, Louisa, you don't blame her for being fond of it?'
'Oh no!' cried Mrs Chick, benignantly.
'Still,' resumed Miss Tox, 'she naturally must be interested in her young charge, and must consider it a privilege to see a little cherub connected with the superior classes, gradually unfolding itself from day to day at one common fountain- is it not so, Louisa?'
'Most undoubtedly!' said Mrs Chick. 'You see, my love, she's already quite contented and comfortable, and means to say goodbye to her sister Jemima and her little pets, and her good honest husband, with a light heart and a smile; don't she, my dear?'
'Oh yes!' cried Miss Tox. 'To be sure she does!'
Notwithstanding which, however, poor Polly embraced them all round in great distress, and coming to her spouse at last, could not make up her mind to part from him, until he gently disengaged himself, at the close of the following allegorical piece of consolation:
'Polly, old 'ooman, whatever you do, my darling, hold up your head and fight low. That's the only rule as I know on, that'll carry anyone through life. You always have held up your head and fought low, Polly. Do it now, or Bricks is no longer so. God bless you, Polly! Me and J'mima will do your duty by you; and with relating to your'n, hold up your head and fight low, Polly, and you can't go wrong!'
Fortified by this golden secret, Folly finally ran away to avoid any more particular leave-taking between herself and the children. But the stratagem hardly succeeded as well as it deserved; for the smallest boy but one divining her intent, immediately began swarming upstairs after her - if that word of doubtful etymology be admissible - on his arms and legs; while the eldest (known in the family by the name of Biler, in remembrance of the steam engine) beat a demoniacal tattoo with his boots, expressive of grief; in which he was joined by the rest of the family.
A quantity of oranges and halfpence thrust indiscriminately on each young Toodle, checked the first violence of their regret, and the family were speedily transported to their own home, by means of the hackney-coach kept in waiting for that purpose. The children, under the guardianship of Jemima, blocked up the window, and dropped out oranges and halfpence all the way along. Mr Toodle himself preferred to ride behind among the spikes, as being the mode of conveyance to which he was best accustomed.
在管理得極好的家庭中有時是會發(fā)生這種突然事件的
“我說過，”奇克夫人說道，“對可憐的親愛的范妮我一切都寬恕了，這一點我將永遠感到慶幸；那時候我根本沒有預(yù)料到將會發(fā)生什么事情，那時候我確實仿佛是得到了什么靈感似的。不論怎么樣，這句話對我來說永遠是一個安慰！”
奇克夫人這些令人難忘的話是她在樓上監(jiān)視女衣裁縫忙著給這個家庭縫制喪服之后，下到客廳里的時候說的。她發(fā)表這些意見是為了點撥奇克先生而說給他聽的。奇克先生是一位肥壯的、禿頂?shù)南壬?，臉很大，兩只手老插在衣袋里，生性愛吹口哨和哼曲子；他知道，在一個沉浸在悲痛氣氛的家庭里發(fā)出這種聲音是不合禮節(jié)的，所以現(xiàn)在正竭力克制著自己。
“別操勞過度了，路，”奇克先生說道，“要不然你就會發(fā)生痙攣而臥床不起了！托魯魯！托魯魯！哎呀，我忘了！我們今天還在這個世界上，明天就可能一命嗚呼了！”
奇克夫人責備地看了他一眼，也就罷了，然后接著剛才的話頭，繼續(xù)說下去。
“說實在的，”她說道，“我希望，發(fā)生了這件令人傷心的事情，對我們大家來說將是個警告：我們必須習(xí)慣于振作起精神，而且當需要的時候，我們就必須及時作出努力。只要我們善于吸取，從每一件事情中都可以吸取教訓(xùn)。如果我們現(xiàn)在看不到這個教訓(xùn)的話，那么這將是我們自己的過錯?！?BR> 在這番議論發(fā)表之后，隨之而來的是肅靜無聲，但奇克先生哼了一個非常不適宜的曲子《有一個補鞋匠》，因此就把它打破了；他有些慌亂地糾正了自己之后說，如果我們不利用這種悲傷的機會來吸取一些教訓(xùn)的話，那么這將無疑是我們自己的過錯。
“我想，奇克先生，”他的妻子在短時間的沉默之后，回答道，“如果你不去哼《學(xué)院號角》或不去哼‘拉姆特伊迪替，波烏烏’之類同樣沒有意義、沒有感情的曲調(diào)的話，那么就可以更好地利用這個機會了?！薄婵讼壬_實壓低了嗓子哼著那些曲調(diào)取樂，奇克夫人則用無比輕蔑的聲調(diào)重復(fù)地哼著它們。
“這不過是習(xí)慣罷了，我親愛的，”奇克先生辯護道。
“胡扯！習(xí)慣！”他的妻子回答道，“如果你是個有理性的動物，你就別作出這樣可笑的辯解。習(xí)慣！如果我得了一個像你所說的習(xí)慣，像蒼蠅一樣在天花板上走來走去，那么我想我對這就會聽夠了?！?BR> 看來這個習(xí)慣很可能在一定程度上會帶來不好的名聲，所以奇克先生不敢再進行爭辯。
“嬰孩怎么樣了，路？”奇克先生改變話題，說道。
“你說的是哪個嬰孩？”奇克夫人反問道，“說實在的，頭腦健全的人誰也不會相信，今天早上我在樓下餐廳里見到了一大群嬰孩。”
“一大群嬰孩？”奇克先生重復(fù)道，一邊露出驚慌的神色，張大眼睛，向四周環(huán)視著。
“大多數(shù)的男子都會想到，”奇克夫人說道，“因為可憐的親愛的范妮已經(jīng)不在了，這樣就有必要去物色一個奶媽?！?BR> “哦！啊！”奇克先生說道，“托—魯—我要說，這就是生活。我希望你已物色到一個中意的，我親愛的。”
“我確實沒有物色到一個中意的，”奇克夫人說道，“照我看，也不大可能物色到了。當然，在這期間，這孩子——”
“將見鬼去了，”奇克先生若有所思地說道，“一定的?！?BR> 可是奇克夫人一聽見他們董貝家里的一個人竟會去到那里去時，臉上露出的憤怒的神色警告他，他已犯了一個大錯誤。為了補救他的過失，他就提出了一個巧妙的建議，說道：
“難道不能臨時用茶壺來喂奶嗎？”
如果他有意趕快結(jié)束這個話題的話，那么他不可能比這取得更大的成功了。奇克夫人默不作聲，無可奈何地看了他一會兒之后，轔轔的車輪聲吸引了她的注意，她就威風凜凜地走到窗前，通過百葉窗向外窺視。奇克先生覺得現(xiàn)在命運跟他作對，于是不再說什么，就走出房間去了。不過奇克先生的情況并不總是這樣的。他常常占據(jù)優(yōu)勢，在這種時候他就嚴厲地懲罰路易莎。他們在夫妻爭吵中總的來說是旗鼓相當，勢均力敵，針鋒相對的一對。一般說來，很難打賭說，誰一定會贏。時常當奇克先生似乎已被打敗了的時候，他會突然發(fā)動反攻，扭轉(zhuǎn)局勢，在奇克夫人的耳邊耀武揚威，終于大獲全勝。由于他本人同樣也可能遭到奇克夫人的突然襲擊，所以他們的小吵小鬧通常具有變化不定的特色。這是很富有生氣的。
托克斯小姐乘著我們剛剛提到的車子來到，氣喘吁吁地跑進房間。
“我親愛的路易莎，”托克斯小姐說道，“是不是還沒有找到奶媽？”
“還沒有呢，我的好人兒，”奇克夫人說道。
“那么，我親愛的路易莎，”托克斯小姐回答道，“我希望，并且相信——不過，等一會兒，我親愛的，我將把當事人，介紹給您?！?BR> 托克斯小姐像跑上樓來一樣快地跑下樓去，把當事人從出租馬車中扶出，并立刻護送著回到樓上。
原來她并不是按照法律上或商業(yè)上的意義來使用當事人這個詞（在這種場合，這個詞只表示一個人），而是把它作為一個群體名詞來使用的，也就是說，它是表示許多人的。因為托克斯小姐護送來的是：一位肥胖的、臉頰紅潤的、身體健全的、臉長得像蘋果一樣的年輕女人，手中抱著一個嬰孩；一位不那么肥胖，但臉也像蘋果一樣的年紀較輕的女人，她每只手中牽著一個肥胖的、臉像蘋果一樣的孩子；另外一位肥胖的、臉也像蘋果一樣的男孩子，他自己走路；最后，一位肥胖的、臉像蘋果一樣的男子，他手中抱著另一個肥胖的、臉像蘋果一樣的男孩子；他把這男孩子放到地上，用干啞的聲音低聲吩咐道；“抓住約翰尼哥哥?！?BR> “我親愛的路易莎，”托克斯小姐說道，“我知道您萬分焦急，并希望讓您放心，所以我就急匆匆地動身到夏洛特皇后的皇家已婚婦女收容所去（您已忘記它了），問她們那里有沒有合適的人？他們說，她們那里沒有；當她們這樣回答我的時候，親愛的，說真的，我都幾乎要為您陷于絕望了?？墒桥銮苫始乙鸦閶D女收容所里的一個人聽到我提出的問題，就向所長提醒說，有一位現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)回家的女人十之八九是能滿足要求的。我聽了這些話，從所長那里又得到證實——她有極好的推薦信，又有無可指責的品格——，于是就立刻查得了地址，我親愛的，我又急匆匆地出發(fā)了?！?BR> “您一向是這樣熱心、善良，我親愛的托克斯！”路易莎說道。
“哪里，”托克斯小姐回答道?！皠e這么說。我到達了她的家（那是極為干凈的地方，我親愛的！您可以在地板上吃飯），發(fā)現(xiàn)全家人正坐桌邊；我覺得我向您和董貝先生不管怎么說，也遠不如讓你們親眼看一看他們?nèi)胰烁苁鼓銈兎判模晕揖桶阉麄內(nèi)紟砹?。這位先生，”托克斯小姐指著那位臉像蘋果一樣的男子說，“是父親。勞駕您能往前站一點兒，好嗎，先生？”
那位臉像蘋果一樣的男子羞怯地聽從了這個請求，站在第一排，露出牙齒，吃吃地笑著。
“這當然是他的妻子羅，”托克斯小姐指著那位抱嬰孩的女人，說道，“您好嗎，波利？”
“我很好，謝謝您，夫人，”波利說道。
為了巧妙地介紹她，托克斯小姐發(fā)問的時候，就仿佛是對待一位她只有兩個星期沒見面的老熟人似的。
“聽您這么說我感到很高興，”托克斯小姐說道，“另外那一位姑娘是她還沒有出嫁的妹妹，她跟他們住在一起，照看她的孩子。她的名字叫杰邁瑪。您好嗎，杰邁瑪？”
“我很好，謝謝您，夫人，”杰邁瑪回答道。
“聽您這么說我感到很高興，”托克斯小姐說道，“我希望您將一直和現(xiàn)在一樣。五個孩子。最小的只六個星期。那個可愛的、鼻子上有一個水皰的小男孩是的孩子。我想那水皰，”托克斯小姐向全家人看了一眼，說道，“不是由于體質(zhì)上的原因，而是由于意外事故產(chǎn)生的吧？”
只聽見那位臉像蘋果一樣的男子粗聲粗氣地說道，“熨斗”。
“對不起，先生，我沒聽清楚，”托克斯小姐說道，“您是說？——”
“熨斗，”他重復(fù)說道。
“啊對了，”托克斯小姐說道，“對了，完全正確。我忘記了。這小家伙當他母親不在的時候，去聞了一下發(fā)燙的熨斗。您說得一點也不錯，先生。當我們到達這個房屋門口的時候，承蒙您的好意，您正要告訴我，您的職業(yè)是——”
“司爐?！?BR> “殺騾？”托克斯小姐十分吃驚地說道。
“司爐，”那男子說道，“蒸汽機?！?BR> “啊，是的！”托克斯小姐答道，一邊若有所思地望著他，似乎還很不完全了解他的意思。
“您喜歡它嗎，先生？”
“什么，夫人？”那男子問道。
“就是那，”托克斯小姐回答道，“您的職業(yè)?！?BR> “啊，挺喜歡的，夫人?；矣袝r跑進這里，”他指一指胸膛，“它使人的聲音粗啞，就像我現(xiàn)在這樣。但這是由于灰，而不是由于脾氣粗暴造成的?！?BR> 這個回答似乎沒有使托克斯小姐聽得更明白，因此她覺得難于把這個話題繼續(xù)談下去。但是奇克夫人這時幫了她的忙，她對波利、她的孩子們、她的結(jié)婚證書、推薦書等等進行了仔細的審查。波利安全無恙地通過了這個嚴峻的考驗之后，奇克夫人就離開客廳，到她哥哥的房間去，向他報告；為了使好的報告有一個生動的注釋和有力的證明，她把臉頰最紅潤的兩位小圖德爾一道帶了去。臉像蘋果一樣的這一家人姓圖德爾。
董貝先生自從妻子逝世以后一直沒有走出他自己的房間，而在專心一意地幻想著他的還是嬰孩的兒子的青年、教育與今后的前程。有個什么東西壓在他的冷淡的心底，比它通常的分量更重，也更冷；但這主要是他感覺到他的兒子遭受了損失，倒不是他感覺到他自己遭受了損失；這種感覺在他心中引起了一種幾乎是憤怒的懊喪。他寄托著這樣重大希望的一個人的生命與發(fā)展竟在一開始的時候就由于缺少這樣區(qū)區(qū)一位小人物而遭到危險；董貝父子公司竟會由于一位奶媽的緣故而搖搖欲墜，這是件令人痛苦的屈辱的事情。他懷著高傲與妒嫉的心情，十分苦惱地想到，完成他所懷抱的理想的第一步竟取決于一位被雇傭的女仆人，這位女仆人對他的孩子來說將暫時成為一切，甚至是他通過結(jié)婚，使他自己的妻子所能做到的一切，因此每當一位新的候選人被拒絕的時候，他心里都會暗暗地感到高興。然而現(xiàn)在，他不能再在這兩種不同的感情中徘徊不決的時候來到了，特別是，當他妹妹一邊對托克斯小姐的不知疲倦的友誼說了許多稱贊的話，報告了波利·圖德爾所具備的條件，從這些條件中似乎找不到什么缺點的時候，就更需要他作出決定了。
“這些孩子看去是健康的，”董貝先生說道，“但是想一想他們有朝一日要求來跟保羅攀扯什么親戚關(guān)系吧！把他們領(lǐng)走，路易莎，讓我看看這位女人和她的丈夫?！?BR> 奇克夫人把這兩位皮膚嬌嫩的圖德爾領(lǐng)走，按照她哥哥的吩咐，很快又把兩位皮膚粗糙一些的圖德爾領(lǐng)回來。
“您這位善良的女人，”董貝先生說道，他整個身體在安樂椅子中轉(zhuǎn)動著，好像他沒有四肢與關(guān)節(jié)似的，“我知道您家境清寒，希望給這個小男孩，我的兒子喂奶來掙點錢，這孩子過早地被奪去了永遠也不能代替的人。我不反對您采用這種方法使您的家庭富裕一些。根據(jù)我的判斷，您似乎是一位合適的對象。但是在您到我的家里擔任這個職務(wù)之前，我必須向您提出一兩條您必須遵守的條件。當您在我家里的時候，我必須規(guī)定大家一直用一個普通的、便于稱呼的姓，比方說理查茲來稱呼您。您反對大家管您叫理查茲嗎？您跟您丈夫商量一下?！?BR> 由于她的丈夫除了咧開嘴吃吃地笑，并不斷地伸出右手捂著嘴，使手掌潮濕一些之外，什么話也沒有說，圖德爾大嫂用胳膊肘輕輕地推了他兩三次也是徒勞無效，因此她就行了個屈膝禮，回答道，如果在這里需要改換個姓來稱呼她的話，那么在給她定工資的時候，請把這一點也考慮進去?！爱斎唬倍愊壬f道，“我希望把這完全作為一個工資問題來考慮?，F(xiàn)在，理查茲，如果您要給我這個失去母親的孩子當奶媽的話，那么我希望您永遠記住下面的一些話：您在履行了一定的職責之后，將會領(lǐng)到一筆豐厚的報酬；在您擔任職務(wù)期間，我希望您盡量少去看望您的家庭。當不再需要您履行這些職責，不再向您支付報酬的時候，我們之間的一切關(guān)系就都結(jié)束了。您明白我的話了嗎？”
圖德爾大嫂似乎對這有些疑問，至于圖德爾本人，他顯然沒有絲毫疑問，因為他根本莫名其妙。
“您有您自己的孩子，”董貝先生說，“在我們的這個交易中，您根本不需要愛上我的孩子。我的孩子也不需要愛上您。我不希望，也不愿意看見這一類事情。恰恰相反，當您離開這里的時候，您就結(jié)束了這純粹是買與賣、雇傭與辭退的交易關(guān)系，然后您就到別的地方去住。孩子就不再記得您。您如果愿意，也可以不再記得孩子?！?BR> 圖德爾大嫂的臉頰比先前更紅了一些，說，她希望她明白自己的身份。
“我希望您明白，理查茲，”董貝先生說道，“我毫不懷疑，您清清楚楚地明白這一點。確實，這是明明白白，顯而易見的事情，不可能是相反的情況。路易莎，我親愛的，請你把有關(guān)錢的事情跟理查茲安排一下，讓她在她認為合適的時候和按她愿意的方式領(lǐng)去。您這位叫什么的先生，如果您愿意，我想跟您談一兩句話?！?BR> 當圖德爾跟著他的妻子正要走出房間的時候，他就這樣在門口被喊住了。他走回來，單獨面對著董貝先生。他是個身強力壯、自由散漫、后背駝曲、行動笨拙、毛發(fā)蓬松的人，他的衣服隨隨便便地搭在身上；頭發(fā)和連鬢胡子又長又密，也許由于煙與煤粉的關(guān)系，比自然的顏色更為濃黑；手上長著厚繭和好多癤疤；方方的前額，上面的紋理就像樹皮一樣粗糙。他與董貝先生在所有方面都形成了鮮明的對照：董貝先生是位胡子刮得干干凈凈、頭發(fā)剪得整整齊齊、錢財富有的上流社會人士，像嶄新的鈔票一樣富有光澤，清脆有聲；他似乎經(jīng)過黃金淋浴這個使人激勵精神的行動之后，已經(jīng)被人為地繃緊和振奮起來了。
“我想您有一個兒子吧？”董貝先生問道。
“有四個，先生。四個小子，一個閨女，全都活著！”
“唔，您把他們?nèi)B(yǎng)下來了，總算還經(jīng)受得起！”董貝先生說道。
“在這世界上我有一件事經(jīng)受不起，先生。”
“什么事？”
“失去他們，先生?！?BR> “您能念書嗎？”董貝先生問道。
“唔，勉勉強強能念一點兒，先生?！?BR> “寫字呢？”
“用粉筆嗎，先生？”
“不論用什么?！?BR> “我想，如果非要我寫不行的話，那么我也能用粉筆對付著寫一點兒，”圖德爾沉思了一會兒，說道。
“不過，”董貝先生說道，“我想，您今年已有三十二、三歲了吧？”
“我想，大概是這么個歲數(shù)，先生，”圖德爾比剛才沉思得長久一些之后，說道。
“那么您為什么不學(xué)習(xí)呢？”董貝先生問道。
“是的，我準備學(xué)，先生。我有一個小男孩，等他長大上學(xué)以后，他將會教我?！?BR> “唔，”董貝先生聚精會神地對他注視之后說道；他對他沒有產(chǎn)生很大的好感，因為他站在那里，眼睛在房間里四處張望（主要是在天花板上溜來溜去），同時依舊不時抽出手來捂著嘴巴哈氣。
“我剛才對您妻子說的話，您聽到了嗎？”
“波利聽到了，”圖德爾把帽子越過肩膀朝門口的方向猛地一揮，露出對他那口子完全信任的神氣?！耙磺卸己芎??！?BR> “既然看來您一切都由她作主，”董貝先生原以為丈夫是家庭中更有力的人物，本打算把他的意見對他說得更加明確，以便加深他的印象，但卻沒有成功，就說道，“我想用不著再對您說什么了?！?BR> “什么也不用說，”圖德爾說道，“波利聽到了。她沒有打盹兒，先生?！?BR> “這么說，我不想再留您了，”董貝先生失望地回答道。
“您過去在哪里工作？”
“過去大部分時間是在地下，先生，直到我結(jié)婚以后才到地面上來。這里修建了鐵路，通車以后我就在一條鐵路上工作?！?BR> 就像最后一根稻草把滿負重載的駱駝的背壓斷一樣，圖德爾曾經(jīng)在地下工作過的這個信息使董貝先生的情緒再也支撐不下去了。他向他兒子奶媽的丈夫指了指房門，于是圖德爾沒有一點不愿意的樣子，離開了這個房間。然后，董貝先生把鑰匙轉(zhuǎn)了一下，鎖上了門，獨自一人在房間里可憐地踱著步子。雖然他古板和固執(zhí)地保持著尊嚴與鎮(zhèn)靜，可是他還是抹去了使他眼睛變得模糊的淚水，懷著他決不愿意在別人面前顯露出來的情緒，不時說道，“可憐的小家伙！”
董貝先生通過他的孩子來可憐自己，這可能是他高傲的特色。不是“可憐的我！”，不是“可憐的鰥夫！”——這個鰥夫迫不得已，只好去信賴一位鄉(xiāng)巴佬的妻子，這位鄉(xiāng)巴佬毫無知識，過去“大部分時間是在地下”工作，可是死神卻從沒有去叩過他的門，他的四個孩子們每天都坐在他的貧窮的餐桌旁——，而是“可憐的小家伙！”
當他嘴里正說著這幾個字的時候，他心里想到，在這位女人的道路上正擺著一個巨大的誘惑物，她的嬰孩也是一個男孩。她是不是可能把他們相互調(diào)換一下呢？——這一個例子正好說明：有一個強大的吸引力正把他的希望與恐懼以及他的全部思想都吸引到一個中心。
雖然不久他就認為這是個荒唐古怪、不大可能（當然不可否認，也有可能）的想法，把它打消了，因而心里也安定下來了，可是他卻情不自禁地沿著這個思路繼續(xù)想下去，以至于在心中構(gòu)思出這樣一幅圖景：如果當他年老的時候發(fā)現(xiàn)了這樣一個騙局的話，那么他將會是怎樣一種狀況呢？在這種情況下，一個人是不是能把由于多年相處所產(chǎn)生的信任與寵愛從這個冒名頂替者的身上除去，然后把它們傾注到一位陌生人的身上呢？
當他這不尋常的情緒平息下來之后，這些顧慮也就逐漸消散了，雖然也留下了好些陰影，因此他決定不讓別人看出，由他親自來密切監(jiān)視理查茲。當他現(xiàn)在心情比較輕松一些的時候，他認為這女人的社會地位反而是一種有利的情況，因為它本身在她與孩子之間就隔開了一道寬闊的距離，因此他們今后相互疏遠將會是容易和自然的。
在同一段時間內(nèi)，在托克斯小姐的幫助下，奇克夫人與理查茲達成并簽訂了協(xié)議；在隆重的儀式下，嬰孩董貝像一枚勛章似地授給了理查茲；她又伴隨著許多眼淚與親吻，把她自己的嬰孩交托給杰邁瑪。在這之后，端來了一杯杯的酒，用來支撐這家人的低沉的情緒。
“您喝一杯好嗎，先生？”當圖德爾回來之后，托克斯小姐說道。
“謝謝您，夫人，”圖德爾說道，“既然您非要我喝不可?！?BR> “您把您親愛的善良的妻子留在這么舒適的家庭里，您很高興吧，先生？”托克斯小姐偷偷地向他點點頭，眨巴眨巴眼睛。
“不，夫人，”圖德爾說道，“我喝這杯酒，祝她早些重新回到家里來?！?BR> 波利聽到這話，哭得更厲害了。奇克夫人有她當家庭主婦的憂慮，生怕這樣放縱地悲傷會對小董貝不利（“真酸，”
她對托克斯小姐說道），所以急忙進行搶救。
“在您的妹妹杰邁瑪?shù)恼樟舷拢男『⒁欢〞芸蓯鄣刈聣殉砷L的，理查茲，”奇克夫人說道，“只是您必須作出努力，使自己高高興興才是；理查茲，您知道，這是個必須作出努力的世界。您已經(jīng)量過您喪服的尺寸了吧，是不是，理查茲？”
“是—是的，夫人，”波利抽抽嗒嗒地哭著。
“您穿起來一定很漂亮，我知道，”奇克夫人說道，“這位年輕人給我做過許多衣服。這是用的布料做的！”
“天主啊，您將會漂漂亮亮，”托克斯小姐說道，“您的丈夫都將會認不出您來了，是不是，先生？”
“我一定認得出她，”圖德爾態(tài)度生硬地說道，“不論在什么情況下，也不論在什么地方。”
圖德爾顯然是收買不了的。
“至于您的生活，理查茲，您知道，”奇克夫人繼續(xù)說道，“所有的東西都將供您隨便使用。您每天定您自己的飯菜；毫無疑問，您想要什么，什么就會立刻提供到您的面前，仿佛您是一位貴夫人似的?！?BR> “是的，確實是這樣！”托克斯小姐懷著極大的同情，接過話頭，繼續(xù)說下去，“至于黑啤酒，那數(shù)量是無限的，是不是，路易莎？”
“啊，當然的！”奇克夫人用同樣的聲調(diào)回答道?！澳溃矣H愛的，只是蔬菜的數(shù)量稍稍有些節(jié)制?！?BR> “也許還有酸菜，”托克斯小姐提示道。
“除了這些例外，”路易莎說道，“她完全可以按照自己的口味來選擇食物，絲毫沒有限制，我親愛的?！?BR> “然后，當然，您知道，”托克斯小姐說道，“不論她對自己親生的小孩子是多么喜愛——毫無疑問，路易莎，您不會責怪她喜愛他吧？”
“啊，不會！”奇克夫人仁慈地喊道。
“可是，”托克斯小姐繼續(xù)說道，“她自然應(yīng)該關(guān)心現(xiàn)在交給她撫養(yǎng)的年幼的孩子，應(yīng)該認為，眼看著一個與上流社會密切聯(lián)系著的小天使一天天地從一個共同的源泉中吸取養(yǎng)料，成長起來，這是一種特殊的榮幸；是不是這樣，路易莎？”
“完全不錯！”奇克夫人說道，“您看，我親愛的，她已經(jīng)很滿意、很安心了，現(xiàn)在正懷著輕松的心情，露出微笑，想要跟她的妹妹杰邁瑪和她的小寶貝們，還有她的善良的、誠實的丈夫告別呢，是不是，我親愛的？”
“啊，是的！”托克斯小姐喊道，“當然是的！”
可是盡管這樣，可憐的波利還是十分悲痛地和他們一一擁抱；最后，為了避免她和孩子們更加戀戀不舍地告別，她跑開了?？墒沁@個策略沒有取得應(yīng)有的成功；因為第二個最小的孩子看穿了她的意圖，立即開始手腳全都著地地跟著她往樓上爬（如果可以使用這個語源有疑義的詞的話）；的孩子（大家在家中都管他叫拜勒①，來紀念蒸汽機）用靴子在地上咚咚地敲出瘋狂般的響聲來表示悲傷；家中其他的人也一起參加到他的行動中去。
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①拜勒（Biler）：為boiler（鍋爐）的誤讀。
許許多多的桔子和半便士不加區(qū)別地塞到了每個小圖德爾的手中，這抑制了他們頭一陣迸發(fā)出來的極度悲痛；一輛專門為了這個目的等待著的出租馬車很快就把全家人送往他們的家中。一路上，在杰邁瑪?shù)氖刈o下，孩子們擁擠在車窗口，把桔子和半便士往外扔。圖德爾先生寧肯乘坐在火車后面的道釘中間（這是他極為習(xí)慣的運輸方式），而不愿意像現(xiàn)在這樣乘坐在馬車中。
'I shall never cease to congratulate myself,' said Mrs Chick,' on having said, when I little thought what was in store for us, - really as if I was inspired by something, - that I forgave poor dear Fanny everything. Whatever happens, that must always be a comfort to me!'
Mrs Chick made this impressive observation in the drawing-room, after having descended thither from the inspection of the mantua-makers upstairs, who were busy on the family mourning. She delivered it for the behoof of Mr Chick, who was a stout bald gentleman, with a very large face, and his hands continually in his pockets, and who had a tendency in his nature to whistle and hum tunes, which, sensible of the indecorum of such sounds in a house of grief, he was at some pains to repress at present.
'Don't you over-exert yourself, Loo,' said Mr Chick, 'or you'll be laid up with spasms, I see. Right tol loor rul! Bless my soul, I forgot! We're here one day and gone the next!'
Mrs Chick contented herself with a glance of reproof, and then proceeded with the thread of her discourse.
'I am sure,' she said, 'I hope this heart-rending occurrence will be a warning to all of us, to accustom ourselves to rouse ourselves, and to make efforts in time where they're required of us. There's a moral in everything, if we would only avail ourselves of it. It will be our own faults if we lose sight of this one.'
Mr Chick invaded the grave silence which ensued on this remark with the singularly inappropriate air of 'A cobbler there was;' and checking himself, in some confusion, observed, that it was undoubtedly our own faults if we didn't improve such melancholy occasions as the present.
'Which might be better improved, I should think, Mr C.,' retorted his helpmate, after a short pause, 'than by the introduction, either of the college hornpipe, or the equally unmeaning and unfeeling remark of rump-te-iddity, bow-wow-wow!' - which Mr Chick had indeed indulged in, under his breath, and which Mrs Chick repeated in a tone of withering scorn.
'Merely habit, my dear,' pleaded Mr Chick.
'Nonsense! Habit!' returned his wife. 'If you're a rational being, don't make such ridiculous excuses. Habit! If I was to get a habit (as you call it) of walking on the ceiling, like the flies, I should hear enough of it, I daresay.
It appeared so probable that such a habit might be attended with some degree of notoriety, that Mr Chick didn't venture to dispute the position.
'Bow-wow-wow!' repeated Mrs Chick with an emphasis of blighting contempt on the last syllable. 'More like a professional singer with the hydrophobia, than a man in your station of life!'
'How's the Baby, Loo?' asked Mr Chick: to change the subject.
'What Baby do you mean?' answered Mrs Chick.
'The poor bereaved little baby,' said Mr Chick. 'I don't know of any other, my dear.'
'You don't know of any other,'retorted Mrs Chick. 'More shame for you, I was going to say.
Mr Chick looked astonished.
'I am sure the morning I have had, with that dining-room downstairs, one mass of babies, no one in their senses would believe.'
'One mass of babies!' repeated Mr Chick, staring with an alarmed expression about him.
'It would have occurred to most men,' said Mrs Chick, 'that poor dear Fanny being no more, - those words of mine will always be a balm and comfort to me,' here she dried her eyes; 'it becomes necessary to provide a Nurse.'
'Oh! Ah!' said Mr Chick. 'Toor-ru! - such is life, I mean. I hope you are suited, my dear.'
'Indeed I am not,' said Mrs Chick; 'nor likely to be, so far as I can see, and in the meantime the poor child seems likely to be starved to death. Paul is so very particular - naturally so, of course, having set his whole heart on this one boy - and there are so many objections to everybody that offers, that I don't see, myself, the least chance of an arrangement. Meanwhile, of course, the child is - '
'Going to the Devil,' said Mr Chick, thoughtfully, 'to be sure.'
Admonished, however, that he had committed himself, by the indignation expressed in Mrs Chick's countenance at the idea of a Dombey going there; and thinking to atone for his misconduct by a bright suggestion, he added:
'Couldn't something temporary be done with a teapot?'
If he had meant to bring the subject prematurely to a close, he could not have done it more effectually. After looking at him for some moments in silent resignation, Mrs Chick said she trusted he hadn't said it in aggravation, because that would do very little honour to his heart. She trusted he hadn't said it seriously, because that would do very little honour to his head. As in any case, he couldn't, however sanguine his disposition, hope to offer a remark that would be a greater outrage on human nature in general, we would beg to leave the discussion at that point.
Mrs Chick then walked majestically to the window and peeped through the blind, attracted by the sound of wheels. Mr Chick, finding that his destiny was, for the time, against him, said no more, and walked off. But it was not always thus with Mr Chick. He was often in the ascendant himself, and at those times punished Louisa roundly. In their matrimonial bickerings they were, upon the whole, a well-matched, fairly-balanced, give-and-take couple. It would have been, generally speaking, very difficult to have betted on the winner. Often when Mr Chick seemed beaten, he would suddenly make a start, turn the tables, clatter them about the ears of Mrs Chick, and carry all before him. Being liable himself to similar unlooked for checks from Mrs Chick, their little contests usually possessed a character of uncertainty that was very animating.
Miss Tox had arrived on the wheels just now alluded to, and came running into the room in a breathless condition. 'My dear Louisa,'said Miss Tox, 'is the vacancy still unsupplied?'
'You good soul, yes,' said Mrs Chick.
'Then, my dear Louisa,' returned Miss Tox, 'I hope and believe - but in one moment, my dear, I'll introduce the party.'
Running downstairs again as fast as she had run up, Miss Tox got the party out of the hackney-coach, and soon returned with it under convoy.
It then appeared that she had used the word, not in its legal or business acceptation, when it merely expresses an individual, but as a noun of multitude, or signifying many: for Miss Tox escorted a plump rosy-cheeked wholesome apple-faced young woman, with an infant in her arms; a younger woman not so plump, but apple-faced also, who led a plump and apple-faced child in each hand; another plump and also apple-faced boy who walked by himself; and finally, a plump and apple-faced man, who carried in his arms another plump and apple-faced boy, whom he stood down on the floor, and admonished, in a husky whisper, to 'kitch hold of his brother Johnny.'
'My dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox, 'knowing your great anxiety, and wishing to relieve it, I posted off myself to the Queen Charlotte's Royal Married Females,' which you had forgot, and put the question, Was there anybody there that they thought would suit? No, they said there was not. When they gave me that answer, I do assure you, my dear, I was almost driven to despair on your account. But it did so happen, that one of the Royal Married Females, hearing the inquiry, reminded the matron of another who had gone to her own home, and who, she said, would in all likelihood be most satisfactory. The moment I heard this, and had it corroborated by the matron - excellent references and unimpeachable character - I got the address, my dear, and posted off again.'
'Like the dear good Tox, you are!' said Louisa.
'Not at all,' returned Miss Tox. 'Don't say so. Arriving at the house (the cleanest place, my dear! You might eat your dinner off the floor), I found the whole family sitting at table; and feeling that no account of them could be half so comfortable to you and Mr Dombey as the sight of them all together, I brought them all away. This gentleman,' said Miss Tox, pointing out the apple-faced man, 'is the father. Will you have the goodness to come a little forward, Sir?'
The apple-faced man having sheepishly complied with this request, stood chuckling and grinning in a front row.
'This is his wife, of course,' said Miss Tox, singling out the young woman with the baby. 'How do you do, Polly?'
'I'm pretty well, I thank you, Ma'am,' said Polly.
By way of bringing her out dexterously, Miss Tox had made the inquiry as in condescension to an old acquaintance whom she hadn't seen for a fortnight or so.
'I'm glad to hear it,' said Miss Tox. 'The other young woman is her unmarried sister who lives with them, and would take care of her children. Her name's Jemima. How do you do, Jemima?'
'I'm pretty well, I thank you, Ma'am,' returned Jemima.
'I'm very glad indeed to hear it,' said Miss Tox. 'I hope you'll keep so. Five children. Youngest six weeks. The fine little boy with the blister on his nose is the eldest The blister, I believe,' said Miss Tox, looking round upon the family, 'is not constitutional, but accidental?'
The apple-faced man was understood to growl, 'Flat iron.
'I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Miss Tox, 'did you?
'Flat iron,' he repeated.
'Oh yes,' said Miss Tox. 'Yes! quite true. I forgot. The little creature, in his mother's absence, smelt a warm flat iron. You're quite right, Sir. You were going to have the goodness to inform me, when we arrived at the door that you were by trade a - '
'Stoker,' said the man.
'A choker!' said Miss Tox, quite aghast.
'Stoker,' said the man. 'Steam ingine.'
'Oh-h! Yes!' returned Miss Tox, looking thoughtfully at him, and seeming still to have but a very imperfect understanding of his meaning.
'And how do you like it, Sir?'
'Which, Mum?' said the man.
'That,' replied Miss Tox. 'Your trade.'
'Oh! Pretty well, Mum. The ashes sometimes gets in here;' touching his chest: 'and makes a man speak gruff, as at the present time. But it is ashes, Mum, not crustiness.'
Miss Tox seemed to be so little enlightened by this reply, as to find a difficulty in pursuing the subject. But Mrs Chick relieved her, by entering into a close private examination of Polly, her children, her marriage certificate, testimonials, and so forth. Polly coming out unscathed from this ordeal, Mrs Chick withdrew with her report to her brother's room, and as an emphatic comment on it, and corroboration of it, carried the two rosiest little Toodles with her. Toodle being the family name of the apple-faced family.
Mr Dombey had remained in his own apartment since the death of his wife, absorbed in visions of the youth, education, and destination of his baby son. Something lay at the bottom of his cool heart, colder and heavier than its ordinary load; but it was more a sense of the child's loss than his own, awakening within him an almost angry sorrow. That the life and progress on which he built such hopes, should be endangered in the outset by so mean a want; that Dombey and Son should be tottering for a nurse, was a sore humiliation. And yet in his pride and jealousy, he viewed with so much bitterness the thought of being dependent for the very first step towards the accomplishment of his soul's desire, on a hired serving-woman who would be to the child, for the time, all that even his alliance could have made his own wife, that in every new rejection of a candidate he felt a secret pleasure. The time had now come, however, when he could no longer be divided between these two sets of feelings. The less so, as there seemed to be no flaw in the title of Polly Toodle after his sister had set it forth, with many commendations on the indefatigable friendship of Miss Tox.
'These children look healthy,' said Mr Dombey. 'But my God, to think of their some day claiming a sort of relationship to Paul!'
' But what relationship is there!' Louisa began -
'Is there!' echoed Mr Dombey, who had not intended his sister to participate in the thought he had unconsciously expressed. 'Is there, did you say, Louisa!'
'Can there be, I mean - '
'Why none,' said Mr Dombey, sternly. 'The whole world knows that, I presume. Grief has not made me idiotic, Louisa. Take them away, Louisa! Let me see this woman and her husband.'
Mrs Chick bore off the tender pair of Toodles, and presently returned with that tougher couple whose presence her brother had commanded.
'My good woman,' said Mr Dombey, turning round in his easy chair, as one piece, and not as a man with limbs and joints, 'I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced. I have no objection to your adding to the comforts of your family by that means. So far as I can tell, you seem to be a deserving object. But I must impose one or two conditions on you, before you enter my house in that capacity. While you are here, I must stipulate that you are always known as - say as Richards - an ordinary name, and convenient. Have you any objection to be known as Richards? You had better consult your husband.'
'Well?' said Mr Dombey, after a pretty long pause. 'What does your husband say to your being called Richards?'
As the husband did nothing but chuckle and grin, and continually draw his right hand across his mouth, moistening the palm, Mrs Toodle, after nudging him twice or thrice in vain, dropped a curtsey and replied 'that perhaps if she was to be called out of her name, it would be considered in the wages.'
'Oh, of course,' said Mr Dombey. 'I desire to make it a question of wages, altogether. Now, Richards, if you nurse my bereaved child, I wish you to remember this always. You will receive a liberal stipend in return for the discharge of certain duties, in the performance of which, I wish you to see as little of your family as possible. When those duties cease to be required and rendered, and the stipend ceases to be paid, there is an end of all relations between us. Do you understand me?'
Mrs Toodle seemed doubtful about it; and as to Toodle himself, he had evidently no doubt whatever, that he was all abroad.
'You have children of your own,' said Mr Dombey. 'It is not at all in this bargain that you need become attached to my child, or that my child need become attached to you. I don't expect or desire anything of the kind. Quite the reverse. When you go away from here, you will have concluded what is a mere matter of bargain and sale, hiring and letting: and will stay away. The child will cease to remember you; and you will cease, if you please, to remember the child.'
Mrs Toodle, with a little more colour in her cheeks than she had had before, said 'she hoped she knew her place.'
'I hope you do, Richards,' said Mr Dombey. 'I have no doubt you know it very well. Indeed it is so plain and obvious that it could hardly be otherwise. Louisa, my dear, arrange with Richards about money, and let her have it when and how she pleases. Mr what's-your name, a word with you, if you please!'
Thus arrested on the threshold as he was following his wife out of the room, Toodle returned and confronted Mr Dombey alone. He was a strong, loose, round-shouldered, shuffling, shaggy fellow, on whom his clothes sat negligently: with a good deal of hair and whisker, deepened in its natural tint, perhaps by smoke and coal-dust: hard knotty hands: and a square forehead, as coarse in grain as the bark of an oak. A thorough contrast in all respects, to Mr Dombey, who was one of those close-shaved close-cut moneyed gentlemen who are glossy and crisp like new bank-notes, and who seem to be artificially braced and tightened as by the stimulating action of golden showerbaths.
'You have a son, I believe?' said Mr Dombey.
'Four on 'em, Sir. Four hims and a her. All alive!'
'Why, it's as much as you can afford to keep them!' said Mr Dombey.
'I couldn't hardly afford but one thing in the world less, Sir.'
'What is that?'
'To lose 'em, Sir.'
'Can you read?' asked Mr Dombey.
'Why, not partick'ler, Sir.'
'Write?'
'With chalk, Sir?'
'With anything?'
'I could make shift to chalk a little bit, I think, if I was put to it,' said Toodle after some reflection.
'And yet,' said Mr Dombey, 'you are two or three and thirty, I suppose?'
'Thereabouts, I suppose, Sir,' answered Toodle, after more reflection
'Then why don't you learn?' asked Mr Dombey.
'So I'm a going to, Sir. One of my little boys is a going to learn me, when he's old enough, and been to school himself.'
'Well,' said Mr Dombey, after looking at him attentively, and with no great favour, as he stood gazing round the room (principally round the ceiling) and still drawing his hand across and across his mouth. 'You heard what I said to your wife just now?'
'Polly heerd it,' said Toodle, jerking his hat over his shoulder in the direction of the door, with an air of perfect confidence in his better half. 'It's all right.'
'But I ask you if you heard it. You did, I suppose, and understood it?' pursued Mr Dombey.
'I heerd it,' said Toodle, 'but I don't know as I understood it rightly Sir, 'account of being no scholar, and the words being - ask your pardon - rayther high. But Polly heerd it. It's all right.'
'As you appear to leave everything to her,' said Mr Dombey, frustrated in his intention of impressing his views still more distinctly on the husband, as the stronger character, 'I suppose it is of no use my saying anything to you.'
'Not a bit,' said Toodle. 'Polly heerd it. She's awake, Sir.'
'I won't detain you any longer then,' returned Mr Dombey, disappointed. 'Where have you worked all your life?'
'Mostly underground, Sir, 'till I got married. I come to the level then. I'm a going on one of these here railroads when they comes into full play.'
As he added in one of his hoarse whispers, 'We means to bring up little Biler to that line,' Mr Dombey inquired haughtily who little Biler was.
'The eldest on 'em, Sir,' said Toodle, with a smile. 'It ain't a common name. Sermuchser that when he was took to church the gen'lm'n said, it wam't a chris'en one, and he couldn't give it. But we always calls him Biler just the same. For we don't mean no harm. Not we.
'Do you mean to say, Man,' inquired Mr Dombey; looking at him with marked displeasure, 'that you have called a child after a boiler?'
'No, no, Sir,' returned Toodle, with a tender consideration for his mistake. 'I should hope not! No, Sir. Arter a BILER Sir. The Steamingine was a'most as good as a godfather to him, and so we called him Biler, don't you see!'
As the last straw breaks the laden camel's back, this piece of information crushed the sinking spirits of Mr Dombey. He motioned his child's foster-father to the door, who departed by no means unwillingly: and then turning the key, paced up and down the room in solitary wretchedness.
It would be harsh, and perhaps not altogether true, to say of him that he felt these rubs and gratings against his pride more keenly than he had felt his wife's death: but certainly they impressed that event upon him with new force, and communicated to it added weight and bitterness. It was a rude shock to his sense of property in his child, that these people - the mere dust of the earth, as he thought them - should be necessary to him; and it was natural that in proportion as he felt disturbed by it, he should deplore the occurrence which had made them so. For all his starched, impenetrable dignity and composure, he wiped blinding tears from his eyes as he paced up and down his room; and often said, with an emotion of which he would not, for the world, have had a witness, 'Poor little fellow!'
It may have been characteristic of Mr Dombey's pride, that he pitied himself through the child. Not poor me. Not poor widower, confiding by constraint in the wife of an ignorant Hind who has been working 'mostly underground' all his life, and yet at whose door Death had never knocked, and at whose poor table four sons daily sit - but poor little fellow!
Those words being on his lips, it occurred to him - and it is an instance of the strong attraction with which his hopes and fears and all his thoughts were tending to one centre - that a great temptation was being placed in this woman's way. Her infant was a boy too. Now, would it be possIble for her to change them?
Though he was soon satisfied that he had dismissed the idea as romantic and unlikely - though possible, there was no denying - he could not help pursuing it so far as to entertain within himself a picture of what his condition would be, if he should discover such an imposture when he was grown old. Whether a man so situated would be able to pluck away the result of so many years of usage, confidence, and belief, from the impostor, and endow a stranger with it?
But it was idle speculating thus. It couldn't happen. In a moment afterwards he determined that it could, but that such women were constantly observed, and had no opportunity given them for the accomplishment of such a design, even when they were so wicked as to entertain it. In another moment, he was remembering how few such cases seemed to have ever happened. In another moment he was wondering whether they ever happened and were not found out.
As his unusual emotion subsided, these misgivings gradually melted away, though so much of their shadow remained behind, that he was constant in his resolution to look closely after Richards himself, without appearing to do so. Being now in an easier frame of mind, he regarded the woman's station as rather an advantageous circumstance than otherwise, by placing, in itself, a broad distance between her and the child, and rendering their separation easy and natural. Thence he passed to the contemplation of the future glories of Dombey and Son, and dismissed the memory of his wife, for the time being, with a tributary sigh or two.
Meanwhile terms were ratified and agreed upon between Mrs Chick and Richards, with the assistance of Miss Tox; and Richards being with much ceremony invested with the Dombey baby, as if it were an Order, resigned her own, with many tears and kisses, to Jemima. Glasses of wine were then produced, to sustain the drooping spirits of the family; and Miss Tox, busying herself in dispensing 'tastes' to the younger branches, bred them up to their father's business with such surprising expedition, that she made chokers of four of them in a quarter of a minute.
'You'll take a glass yourself, Sir, won't you?' said Miss Tox, as Toodle appeared.
'Thankee, Mum,' said Toodle, 'since you are suppressing.'
'And you're very glad to leave your dear good wife in such a comfortable home, ain't you, Sir?'said Miss Tox, nodding and winking at him stealthily.
'No, Mum,' said Toodle. 'Here's wishing of her back agin.'
Polly cried more than ever at this. So Mrs Chick, who had her matronly apprehensions that this indulgence in grief might be prejudicial to the little Dombey ('acid, indeed,' she whispered Miss Tox), hastened to the rescue.
'Your little child will thrive charmingly with your sister Jemima, Richards,' said Mrs Chick; 'and you have only to make an effort - this is a world of effort, you know, Richards - to be very happy indeed. You have been already measured for your mourning, haven't you, Richards?'
'Ye - es, Ma'am,' sobbed Polly.
'And it'll fit beautifully. I know,' said Mrs Chick, 'for the same young person has made me many dresses. The very best materials, too!'
'Lor, you'll be so smart,' said Miss Tox, 'that your husband won't know you; will you, Sir?'
'I should know her,' said Toodle, gruffly, 'anyhows and anywheres.'
Toodle was evidently not to be bought over.
'As to living, Richards, you know,' pursued Mrs Chick, 'why, the very best of everything will be at your disposal. You will order your little dinner every day; and anything you take a fancy to, I'm sure will be as readily provided as if you were a Lady.'
'Yes to be sure!' said Miss Tox, keeping up the ball with great sympathy. 'And as to porter! - quite unlimited, will it not, Louisa?'
'Oh, certainly!' returned Mrs Chick in the same tone. 'With a little abstinence, you know, my dear, in point of vegetables.'
'And pickles, perhaps,' suggested Miss Tox.
'With such exceptions,' said Louisa, 'she'll consult her choice entirely, and be under no restraint at all, my love.'
'And then, of course, you know,' said Miss Tox, 'however fond she is of her own dear little child - and I'm sure, Louisa, you don't blame her for being fond of it?'
'Oh no!' cried Mrs Chick, benignantly.
'Still,' resumed Miss Tox, 'she naturally must be interested in her young charge, and must consider it a privilege to see a little cherub connected with the superior classes, gradually unfolding itself from day to day at one common fountain- is it not so, Louisa?'
'Most undoubtedly!' said Mrs Chick. 'You see, my love, she's already quite contented and comfortable, and means to say goodbye to her sister Jemima and her little pets, and her good honest husband, with a light heart and a smile; don't she, my dear?'
'Oh yes!' cried Miss Tox. 'To be sure she does!'
Notwithstanding which, however, poor Polly embraced them all round in great distress, and coming to her spouse at last, could not make up her mind to part from him, until he gently disengaged himself, at the close of the following allegorical piece of consolation:
'Polly, old 'ooman, whatever you do, my darling, hold up your head and fight low. That's the only rule as I know on, that'll carry anyone through life. You always have held up your head and fought low, Polly. Do it now, or Bricks is no longer so. God bless you, Polly! Me and J'mima will do your duty by you; and with relating to your'n, hold up your head and fight low, Polly, and you can't go wrong!'
Fortified by this golden secret, Folly finally ran away to avoid any more particular leave-taking between herself and the children. But the stratagem hardly succeeded as well as it deserved; for the smallest boy but one divining her intent, immediately began swarming upstairs after her - if that word of doubtful etymology be admissible - on his arms and legs; while the eldest (known in the family by the name of Biler, in remembrance of the steam engine) beat a demoniacal tattoo with his boots, expressive of grief; in which he was joined by the rest of the family.
A quantity of oranges and halfpence thrust indiscriminately on each young Toodle, checked the first violence of their regret, and the family were speedily transported to their own home, by means of the hackney-coach kept in waiting for that purpose. The children, under the guardianship of Jemima, blocked up the window, and dropped out oranges and halfpence all the way along. Mr Toodle himself preferred to ride behind among the spikes, as being the mode of conveyance to which he was best accustomed.
在管理得極好的家庭中有時是會發(fā)生這種突然事件的
“我說過，”奇克夫人說道，“對可憐的親愛的范妮我一切都寬恕了，這一點我將永遠感到慶幸；那時候我根本沒有預(yù)料到將會發(fā)生什么事情，那時候我確實仿佛是得到了什么靈感似的。不論怎么樣，這句話對我來說永遠是一個安慰！”
奇克夫人這些令人難忘的話是她在樓上監(jiān)視女衣裁縫忙著給這個家庭縫制喪服之后，下到客廳里的時候說的。她發(fā)表這些意見是為了點撥奇克先生而說給他聽的。奇克先生是一位肥壯的、禿頂?shù)南壬?，臉很大，兩只手老插在衣袋里，生性愛吹口哨和哼曲子；他知道，在一個沉浸在悲痛氣氛的家庭里發(fā)出這種聲音是不合禮節(jié)的，所以現(xiàn)在正竭力克制著自己。
“別操勞過度了，路，”奇克先生說道，“要不然你就會發(fā)生痙攣而臥床不起了！托魯魯！托魯魯！哎呀，我忘了！我們今天還在這個世界上，明天就可能一命嗚呼了！”
奇克夫人責備地看了他一眼，也就罷了，然后接著剛才的話頭，繼續(xù)說下去。
“說實在的，”她說道，“我希望，發(fā)生了這件令人傷心的事情，對我們大家來說將是個警告：我們必須習(xí)慣于振作起精神，而且當需要的時候，我們就必須及時作出努力。只要我們善于吸取，從每一件事情中都可以吸取教訓(xùn)。如果我們現(xiàn)在看不到這個教訓(xùn)的話，那么這將是我們自己的過錯?！?BR> 在這番議論發(fā)表之后，隨之而來的是肅靜無聲，但奇克先生哼了一個非常不適宜的曲子《有一個補鞋匠》，因此就把它打破了；他有些慌亂地糾正了自己之后說，如果我們不利用這種悲傷的機會來吸取一些教訓(xùn)的話，那么這將無疑是我們自己的過錯。
“我想，奇克先生，”他的妻子在短時間的沉默之后，回答道，“如果你不去哼《學(xué)院號角》或不去哼‘拉姆特伊迪替，波烏烏’之類同樣沒有意義、沒有感情的曲調(diào)的話，那么就可以更好地利用這個機會了?！薄婵讼壬_實壓低了嗓子哼著那些曲調(diào)取樂，奇克夫人則用無比輕蔑的聲調(diào)重復(fù)地哼著它們。
“這不過是習(xí)慣罷了，我親愛的，”奇克先生辯護道。
“胡扯！習(xí)慣！”他的妻子回答道，“如果你是個有理性的動物，你就別作出這樣可笑的辯解。習(xí)慣！如果我得了一個像你所說的習(xí)慣，像蒼蠅一樣在天花板上走來走去，那么我想我對這就會聽夠了?！?BR> 看來這個習(xí)慣很可能在一定程度上會帶來不好的名聲，所以奇克先生不敢再進行爭辯。
“嬰孩怎么樣了，路？”奇克先生改變話題，說道。
“你說的是哪個嬰孩？”奇克夫人反問道，“說實在的，頭腦健全的人誰也不會相信，今天早上我在樓下餐廳里見到了一大群嬰孩。”
“一大群嬰孩？”奇克先生重復(fù)道，一邊露出驚慌的神色，張大眼睛，向四周環(huán)視著。
“大多數(shù)的男子都會想到，”奇克夫人說道，“因為可憐的親愛的范妮已經(jīng)不在了，這樣就有必要去物色一個奶媽?！?BR> “哦！啊！”奇克先生說道，“托—魯—我要說，這就是生活。我希望你已物色到一個中意的，我親愛的。”
“我確實沒有物色到一個中意的，”奇克夫人說道，“照我看，也不大可能物色到了。當然，在這期間，這孩子——”
“將見鬼去了，”奇克先生若有所思地說道，“一定的?！?BR> 可是奇克夫人一聽見他們董貝家里的一個人竟會去到那里去時，臉上露出的憤怒的神色警告他，他已犯了一個大錯誤。為了補救他的過失，他就提出了一個巧妙的建議，說道：
“難道不能臨時用茶壺來喂奶嗎？”
如果他有意趕快結(jié)束這個話題的話，那么他不可能比這取得更大的成功了。奇克夫人默不作聲，無可奈何地看了他一會兒之后，轔轔的車輪聲吸引了她的注意，她就威風凜凜地走到窗前，通過百葉窗向外窺視。奇克先生覺得現(xiàn)在命運跟他作對，于是不再說什么，就走出房間去了。不過奇克先生的情況并不總是這樣的。他常常占據(jù)優(yōu)勢，在這種時候他就嚴厲地懲罰路易莎。他們在夫妻爭吵中總的來說是旗鼓相當，勢均力敵，針鋒相對的一對。一般說來，很難打賭說，誰一定會贏。時常當奇克先生似乎已被打敗了的時候，他會突然發(fā)動反攻，扭轉(zhuǎn)局勢，在奇克夫人的耳邊耀武揚威，終于大獲全勝。由于他本人同樣也可能遭到奇克夫人的突然襲擊，所以他們的小吵小鬧通常具有變化不定的特色。這是很富有生氣的。
托克斯小姐乘著我們剛剛提到的車子來到，氣喘吁吁地跑進房間。
“我親愛的路易莎，”托克斯小姐說道，“是不是還沒有找到奶媽？”
“還沒有呢，我的好人兒，”奇克夫人說道。
“那么，我親愛的路易莎，”托克斯小姐回答道，“我希望，并且相信——不過，等一會兒，我親愛的，我將把當事人，介紹給您?！?BR> 托克斯小姐像跑上樓來一樣快地跑下樓去，把當事人從出租馬車中扶出，并立刻護送著回到樓上。
原來她并不是按照法律上或商業(yè)上的意義來使用當事人這個詞（在這種場合，這個詞只表示一個人），而是把它作為一個群體名詞來使用的，也就是說，它是表示許多人的。因為托克斯小姐護送來的是：一位肥胖的、臉頰紅潤的、身體健全的、臉長得像蘋果一樣的年輕女人，手中抱著一個嬰孩；一位不那么肥胖，但臉也像蘋果一樣的年紀較輕的女人，她每只手中牽著一個肥胖的、臉像蘋果一樣的孩子；另外一位肥胖的、臉也像蘋果一樣的男孩子，他自己走路；最后，一位肥胖的、臉像蘋果一樣的男子，他手中抱著另一個肥胖的、臉像蘋果一樣的男孩子；他把這男孩子放到地上，用干啞的聲音低聲吩咐道；“抓住約翰尼哥哥?！?BR> “我親愛的路易莎，”托克斯小姐說道，“我知道您萬分焦急，并希望讓您放心，所以我就急匆匆地動身到夏洛特皇后的皇家已婚婦女收容所去（您已忘記它了），問她們那里有沒有合適的人？他們說，她們那里沒有；當她們這樣回答我的時候，親愛的，說真的，我都幾乎要為您陷于絕望了?？墒桥銮苫始乙鸦閶D女收容所里的一個人聽到我提出的問題，就向所長提醒說，有一位現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)回家的女人十之八九是能滿足要求的。我聽了這些話，從所長那里又得到證實——她有極好的推薦信，又有無可指責的品格——，于是就立刻查得了地址，我親愛的，我又急匆匆地出發(fā)了?！?BR> “您一向是這樣熱心、善良，我親愛的托克斯！”路易莎說道。
“哪里，”托克斯小姐回答道?！皠e這么說。我到達了她的家（那是極為干凈的地方，我親愛的！您可以在地板上吃飯），發(fā)現(xiàn)全家人正坐桌邊；我覺得我向您和董貝先生不管怎么說，也遠不如讓你們親眼看一看他們?nèi)胰烁苁鼓銈兎判模晕揖桶阉麄內(nèi)紟砹?。這位先生，”托克斯小姐指著那位臉像蘋果一樣的男子說，“是父親。勞駕您能往前站一點兒，好嗎，先生？”
那位臉像蘋果一樣的男子羞怯地聽從了這個請求，站在第一排，露出牙齒，吃吃地笑著。
“這當然是他的妻子羅，”托克斯小姐指著那位抱嬰孩的女人，說道，“您好嗎，波利？”
“我很好，謝謝您，夫人，”波利說道。
為了巧妙地介紹她，托克斯小姐發(fā)問的時候，就仿佛是對待一位她只有兩個星期沒見面的老熟人似的。
“聽您這么說我感到很高興，”托克斯小姐說道，“另外那一位姑娘是她還沒有出嫁的妹妹，她跟他們住在一起，照看她的孩子。她的名字叫杰邁瑪。您好嗎，杰邁瑪？”
“我很好，謝謝您，夫人，”杰邁瑪回答道。
“聽您這么說我感到很高興，”托克斯小姐說道，“我希望您將一直和現(xiàn)在一樣。五個孩子。最小的只六個星期。那個可愛的、鼻子上有一個水皰的小男孩是的孩子。我想那水皰，”托克斯小姐向全家人看了一眼，說道，“不是由于體質(zhì)上的原因，而是由于意外事故產(chǎn)生的吧？”
只聽見那位臉像蘋果一樣的男子粗聲粗氣地說道，“熨斗”。
“對不起，先生，我沒聽清楚，”托克斯小姐說道，“您是說？——”
“熨斗，”他重復(fù)說道。
“啊對了，”托克斯小姐說道，“對了，完全正確。我忘記了。這小家伙當他母親不在的時候，去聞了一下發(fā)燙的熨斗。您說得一點也不錯，先生。當我們到達這個房屋門口的時候，承蒙您的好意，您正要告訴我，您的職業(yè)是——”
“司爐?！?BR> “殺騾？”托克斯小姐十分吃驚地說道。
“司爐，”那男子說道，“蒸汽機?！?BR> “啊，是的！”托克斯小姐答道，一邊若有所思地望著他，似乎還很不完全了解他的意思。
“您喜歡它嗎，先生？”
“什么，夫人？”那男子問道。
“就是那，”托克斯小姐回答道，“您的職業(yè)?！?BR> “啊，挺喜歡的，夫人?；矣袝r跑進這里，”他指一指胸膛，“它使人的聲音粗啞，就像我現(xiàn)在這樣。但這是由于灰，而不是由于脾氣粗暴造成的?！?BR> 這個回答似乎沒有使托克斯小姐聽得更明白，因此她覺得難于把這個話題繼續(xù)談下去。但是奇克夫人這時幫了她的忙，她對波利、她的孩子們、她的結(jié)婚證書、推薦書等等進行了仔細的審查。波利安全無恙地通過了這個嚴峻的考驗之后，奇克夫人就離開客廳，到她哥哥的房間去，向他報告；為了使好的報告有一個生動的注釋和有力的證明，她把臉頰最紅潤的兩位小圖德爾一道帶了去。臉像蘋果一樣的這一家人姓圖德爾。
董貝先生自從妻子逝世以后一直沒有走出他自己的房間，而在專心一意地幻想著他的還是嬰孩的兒子的青年、教育與今后的前程。有個什么東西壓在他的冷淡的心底，比它通常的分量更重，也更冷；但這主要是他感覺到他的兒子遭受了損失，倒不是他感覺到他自己遭受了損失；這種感覺在他心中引起了一種幾乎是憤怒的懊喪。他寄托著這樣重大希望的一個人的生命與發(fā)展竟在一開始的時候就由于缺少這樣區(qū)區(qū)一位小人物而遭到危險；董貝父子公司竟會由于一位奶媽的緣故而搖搖欲墜，這是件令人痛苦的屈辱的事情。他懷著高傲與妒嫉的心情，十分苦惱地想到，完成他所懷抱的理想的第一步竟取決于一位被雇傭的女仆人，這位女仆人對他的孩子來說將暫時成為一切，甚至是他通過結(jié)婚，使他自己的妻子所能做到的一切，因此每當一位新的候選人被拒絕的時候，他心里都會暗暗地感到高興。然而現(xiàn)在，他不能再在這兩種不同的感情中徘徊不決的時候來到了，特別是，當他妹妹一邊對托克斯小姐的不知疲倦的友誼說了許多稱贊的話，報告了波利·圖德爾所具備的條件，從這些條件中似乎找不到什么缺點的時候，就更需要他作出決定了。
“這些孩子看去是健康的，”董貝先生說道，“但是想一想他們有朝一日要求來跟保羅攀扯什么親戚關(guān)系吧！把他們領(lǐng)走，路易莎，讓我看看這位女人和她的丈夫?！?BR> 奇克夫人把這兩位皮膚嬌嫩的圖德爾領(lǐng)走，按照她哥哥的吩咐，很快又把兩位皮膚粗糙一些的圖德爾領(lǐng)回來。
“您這位善良的女人，”董貝先生說道，他整個身體在安樂椅子中轉(zhuǎn)動著，好像他沒有四肢與關(guān)節(jié)似的，“我知道您家境清寒，希望給這個小男孩，我的兒子喂奶來掙點錢，這孩子過早地被奪去了永遠也不能代替的人。我不反對您采用這種方法使您的家庭富裕一些。根據(jù)我的判斷，您似乎是一位合適的對象。但是在您到我的家里擔任這個職務(wù)之前，我必須向您提出一兩條您必須遵守的條件。當您在我家里的時候，我必須規(guī)定大家一直用一個普通的、便于稱呼的姓，比方說理查茲來稱呼您。您反對大家管您叫理查茲嗎？您跟您丈夫商量一下?！?BR> 由于她的丈夫除了咧開嘴吃吃地笑，并不斷地伸出右手捂著嘴，使手掌潮濕一些之外，什么話也沒有說，圖德爾大嫂用胳膊肘輕輕地推了他兩三次也是徒勞無效，因此她就行了個屈膝禮，回答道，如果在這里需要改換個姓來稱呼她的話，那么在給她定工資的時候，請把這一點也考慮進去?！爱斎唬倍愊壬f道，“我希望把這完全作為一個工資問題來考慮?，F(xiàn)在，理查茲，如果您要給我這個失去母親的孩子當奶媽的話，那么我希望您永遠記住下面的一些話：您在履行了一定的職責之后，將會領(lǐng)到一筆豐厚的報酬；在您擔任職務(wù)期間，我希望您盡量少去看望您的家庭。當不再需要您履行這些職責，不再向您支付報酬的時候，我們之間的一切關(guān)系就都結(jié)束了。您明白我的話了嗎？”
圖德爾大嫂似乎對這有些疑問，至于圖德爾本人，他顯然沒有絲毫疑問，因為他根本莫名其妙。
“您有您自己的孩子，”董貝先生說，“在我們的這個交易中，您根本不需要愛上我的孩子。我的孩子也不需要愛上您。我不希望，也不愿意看見這一類事情。恰恰相反，當您離開這里的時候，您就結(jié)束了這純粹是買與賣、雇傭與辭退的交易關(guān)系，然后您就到別的地方去住。孩子就不再記得您。您如果愿意，也可以不再記得孩子?！?BR> 圖德爾大嫂的臉頰比先前更紅了一些，說，她希望她明白自己的身份。
“我希望您明白，理查茲，”董貝先生說道，“我毫不懷疑，您清清楚楚地明白這一點。確實，這是明明白白，顯而易見的事情，不可能是相反的情況。路易莎，我親愛的，請你把有關(guān)錢的事情跟理查茲安排一下，讓她在她認為合適的時候和按她愿意的方式領(lǐng)去。您這位叫什么的先生，如果您愿意，我想跟您談一兩句話?！?BR> 當圖德爾跟著他的妻子正要走出房間的時候，他就這樣在門口被喊住了。他走回來，單獨面對著董貝先生。他是個身強力壯、自由散漫、后背駝曲、行動笨拙、毛發(fā)蓬松的人，他的衣服隨隨便便地搭在身上；頭發(fā)和連鬢胡子又長又密，也許由于煙與煤粉的關(guān)系，比自然的顏色更為濃黑；手上長著厚繭和好多癤疤；方方的前額，上面的紋理就像樹皮一樣粗糙。他與董貝先生在所有方面都形成了鮮明的對照：董貝先生是位胡子刮得干干凈凈、頭發(fā)剪得整整齊齊、錢財富有的上流社會人士，像嶄新的鈔票一樣富有光澤，清脆有聲；他似乎經(jīng)過黃金淋浴這個使人激勵精神的行動之后，已經(jīng)被人為地繃緊和振奮起來了。
“我想您有一個兒子吧？”董貝先生問道。
“有四個，先生。四個小子，一個閨女，全都活著！”
“唔，您把他們?nèi)B(yǎng)下來了，總算還經(jīng)受得起！”董貝先生說道。
“在這世界上我有一件事經(jīng)受不起，先生。”
“什么事？”
“失去他們，先生?！?BR> “您能念書嗎？”董貝先生問道。
“唔，勉勉強強能念一點兒，先生?！?BR> “寫字呢？”
“用粉筆嗎，先生？”
“不論用什么?！?BR> “我想，如果非要我寫不行的話，那么我也能用粉筆對付著寫一點兒，”圖德爾沉思了一會兒，說道。
“不過，”董貝先生說道，“我想，您今年已有三十二、三歲了吧？”
“我想，大概是這么個歲數(shù)，先生，”圖德爾比剛才沉思得長久一些之后，說道。
“那么您為什么不學(xué)習(xí)呢？”董貝先生問道。
“是的，我準備學(xué)，先生。我有一個小男孩，等他長大上學(xué)以后，他將會教我?！?BR> “唔，”董貝先生聚精會神地對他注視之后說道；他對他沒有產(chǎn)生很大的好感，因為他站在那里，眼睛在房間里四處張望（主要是在天花板上溜來溜去），同時依舊不時抽出手來捂著嘴巴哈氣。
“我剛才對您妻子說的話，您聽到了嗎？”
“波利聽到了，”圖德爾把帽子越過肩膀朝門口的方向猛地一揮，露出對他那口子完全信任的神氣?！耙磺卸己芎??！?BR> “既然看來您一切都由她作主，”董貝先生原以為丈夫是家庭中更有力的人物，本打算把他的意見對他說得更加明確，以便加深他的印象，但卻沒有成功，就說道，“我想用不著再對您說什么了?！?BR> “什么也不用說，”圖德爾說道，“波利聽到了。她沒有打盹兒，先生?！?BR> “這么說，我不想再留您了，”董貝先生失望地回答道。
“您過去在哪里工作？”
“過去大部分時間是在地下，先生，直到我結(jié)婚以后才到地面上來。這里修建了鐵路，通車以后我就在一條鐵路上工作?！?BR> 就像最后一根稻草把滿負重載的駱駝的背壓斷一樣，圖德爾曾經(jīng)在地下工作過的這個信息使董貝先生的情緒再也支撐不下去了。他向他兒子奶媽的丈夫指了指房門，于是圖德爾沒有一點不愿意的樣子，離開了這個房間。然后，董貝先生把鑰匙轉(zhuǎn)了一下，鎖上了門，獨自一人在房間里可憐地踱著步子。雖然他古板和固執(zhí)地保持著尊嚴與鎮(zhèn)靜，可是他還是抹去了使他眼睛變得模糊的淚水，懷著他決不愿意在別人面前顯露出來的情緒，不時說道，“可憐的小家伙！”
董貝先生通過他的孩子來可憐自己，這可能是他高傲的特色。不是“可憐的我！”，不是“可憐的鰥夫！”——這個鰥夫迫不得已，只好去信賴一位鄉(xiāng)巴佬的妻子，這位鄉(xiāng)巴佬毫無知識，過去“大部分時間是在地下”工作，可是死神卻從沒有去叩過他的門，他的四個孩子們每天都坐在他的貧窮的餐桌旁——，而是“可憐的小家伙！”
當他嘴里正說著這幾個字的時候，他心里想到，在這位女人的道路上正擺著一個巨大的誘惑物，她的嬰孩也是一個男孩。她是不是可能把他們相互調(diào)換一下呢？——這一個例子正好說明：有一個強大的吸引力正把他的希望與恐懼以及他的全部思想都吸引到一個中心。
雖然不久他就認為這是個荒唐古怪、不大可能（當然不可否認，也有可能）的想法，把它打消了，因而心里也安定下來了，可是他卻情不自禁地沿著這個思路繼續(xù)想下去，以至于在心中構(gòu)思出這樣一幅圖景：如果當他年老的時候發(fā)現(xiàn)了這樣一個騙局的話，那么他將會是怎樣一種狀況呢？在這種情況下，一個人是不是能把由于多年相處所產(chǎn)生的信任與寵愛從這個冒名頂替者的身上除去，然后把它們傾注到一位陌生人的身上呢？
當他這不尋常的情緒平息下來之后，這些顧慮也就逐漸消散了，雖然也留下了好些陰影，因此他決定不讓別人看出，由他親自來密切監(jiān)視理查茲。當他現(xiàn)在心情比較輕松一些的時候，他認為這女人的社會地位反而是一種有利的情況，因為它本身在她與孩子之間就隔開了一道寬闊的距離，因此他們今后相互疏遠將會是容易和自然的。
在同一段時間內(nèi)，在托克斯小姐的幫助下，奇克夫人與理查茲達成并簽訂了協(xié)議；在隆重的儀式下，嬰孩董貝像一枚勛章似地授給了理查茲；她又伴隨著許多眼淚與親吻，把她自己的嬰孩交托給杰邁瑪。在這之后，端來了一杯杯的酒，用來支撐這家人的低沉的情緒。
“您喝一杯好嗎，先生？”當圖德爾回來之后，托克斯小姐說道。
“謝謝您，夫人，”圖德爾說道，“既然您非要我喝不可?！?BR> “您把您親愛的善良的妻子留在這么舒適的家庭里，您很高興吧，先生？”托克斯小姐偷偷地向他點點頭，眨巴眨巴眼睛。
“不，夫人，”圖德爾說道，“我喝這杯酒，祝她早些重新回到家里來?！?BR> 波利聽到這話，哭得更厲害了。奇克夫人有她當家庭主婦的憂慮，生怕這樣放縱地悲傷會對小董貝不利（“真酸，”
她對托克斯小姐說道），所以急忙進行搶救。
“在您的妹妹杰邁瑪?shù)恼樟舷拢男『⒁欢〞芸蓯鄣刈聣殉砷L的，理查茲，”奇克夫人說道，“只是您必須作出努力，使自己高高興興才是；理查茲，您知道，這是個必須作出努力的世界。您已經(jīng)量過您喪服的尺寸了吧，是不是，理查茲？”
“是—是的，夫人，”波利抽抽嗒嗒地哭著。
“您穿起來一定很漂亮，我知道，”奇克夫人說道，“這位年輕人給我做過許多衣服。這是用的布料做的！”
“天主啊，您將會漂漂亮亮，”托克斯小姐說道，“您的丈夫都將會認不出您來了，是不是，先生？”
“我一定認得出她，”圖德爾態(tài)度生硬地說道，“不論在什么情況下，也不論在什么地方。”
圖德爾顯然是收買不了的。
“至于您的生活，理查茲，您知道，”奇克夫人繼續(xù)說道，“所有的東西都將供您隨便使用。您每天定您自己的飯菜；毫無疑問，您想要什么，什么就會立刻提供到您的面前，仿佛您是一位貴夫人似的?！?BR> “是的，確實是這樣！”托克斯小姐懷著極大的同情，接過話頭，繼續(xù)說下去，“至于黑啤酒，那數(shù)量是無限的，是不是，路易莎？”
“啊，當然的！”奇克夫人用同樣的聲調(diào)回答道?！澳溃矣H愛的，只是蔬菜的數(shù)量稍稍有些節(jié)制?！?BR> “也許還有酸菜，”托克斯小姐提示道。
“除了這些例外，”路易莎說道，“她完全可以按照自己的口味來選擇食物，絲毫沒有限制，我親愛的?！?BR> “然后，當然，您知道，”托克斯小姐說道，“不論她對自己親生的小孩子是多么喜愛——毫無疑問，路易莎，您不會責怪她喜愛他吧？”
“啊，不會！”奇克夫人仁慈地喊道。
“可是，”托克斯小姐繼續(xù)說道，“她自然應(yīng)該關(guān)心現(xiàn)在交給她撫養(yǎng)的年幼的孩子，應(yīng)該認為，眼看著一個與上流社會密切聯(lián)系著的小天使一天天地從一個共同的源泉中吸取養(yǎng)料，成長起來，這是一種特殊的榮幸；是不是這樣，路易莎？”
“完全不錯！”奇克夫人說道，“您看，我親愛的，她已經(jīng)很滿意、很安心了，現(xiàn)在正懷著輕松的心情，露出微笑，想要跟她的妹妹杰邁瑪和她的小寶貝們，還有她的善良的、誠實的丈夫告別呢，是不是，我親愛的？”
“啊，是的！”托克斯小姐喊道，“當然是的！”
可是盡管這樣，可憐的波利還是十分悲痛地和他們一一擁抱；最后，為了避免她和孩子們更加戀戀不舍地告別，她跑開了?？墒沁@個策略沒有取得應(yīng)有的成功；因為第二個最小的孩子看穿了她的意圖，立即開始手腳全都著地地跟著她往樓上爬（如果可以使用這個語源有疑義的詞的話）；的孩子（大家在家中都管他叫拜勒①，來紀念蒸汽機）用靴子在地上咚咚地敲出瘋狂般的響聲來表示悲傷；家中其他的人也一起參加到他的行動中去。
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①拜勒（Biler）：為boiler（鍋爐）的誤讀。
許許多多的桔子和半便士不加區(qū)別地塞到了每個小圖德爾的手中，這抑制了他們頭一陣迸發(fā)出來的極度悲痛；一輛專門為了這個目的等待著的出租馬車很快就把全家人送往他們的家中。一路上，在杰邁瑪?shù)氖刈o下，孩子們擁擠在車窗口，把桔子和半便士往外扔。圖德爾先生寧肯乘坐在火車后面的道釘中間（這是他極為習(xí)慣的運輸方式），而不愿意像現(xiàn)在這樣乘坐在馬車中。