(雙語)月亮和六便士 第49章(2)

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She was the best cook on the island, and she adored good food. From morning till night you saw her sitting on a low chair in the kitchen, surrounded by a Chinese cook and two or three native girls, giving her orders, chatting sociably with all and sundry, and tasting the savoury messes she devised. When she wished to do honour to a friend she cooked the dinner with her own hands. Hospitality was a passion with her, and there was no one on the island who need go without a dinner when there was anything to eat at the Hotel de la Fleur. She never turned her customers out of her house because they did not pay their bills. She always hoped they would pay when they could. There was one man there who had fallen on adversity, and to him she had given board and lodging for several months. When the Chinese laundryman refused to wash for him without payment she had sent his things to be washed with hers. She could not allow the poor fellow to go about in a dirty shirt, she said, and since he was a man, and men must smoke, she gave him a franc a day for cigarettes. She used him with the same affability as those of her clients who paid their bills once a week.

她是島上最好的廚師，對美饌佳肴有很深的愛好。從清早直到夜晚，你什么時候都會看見她坐在廚房里一把矮椅上，一名中國廚師和兩三個本地的使女圍著她團團轉(zhuǎn)；她一面發(fā)號施令，一面同所有的人東拉西扯，偷空還要品嘗一下她設(shè)計烹調(diào)出的令人饞涎欲滴的美味。如果要對一位朋友表示敬意，她就親自下廚。殷勤好客是她的本性；只要鮮花旅館有東西吃，島上的人誰也用不著餓肚皮。她從來不因為房客付不出帳而把他們趕走。有一次有一個住在她旅館的人處境不佳，她竟一連幾個月供給這人食宿，分文不收。最后開洗衣店的中國人因為這人付不起錢不再給他洗衣服，她就把這位房客的衣服和自己的混在一起給洗衣店送去。她說，她不能看著這個可憐的人穿臟襯衫，此外，既然他是一個男人，而男人又非抽煙不可，她還每天給這個人一個法郎，專門供他買紙煙。她對這個人同對那些每星期付一次賬的客人一樣殷勤和氣。

Age and obesity had made her inapt for love, but she took a keen interest in the amatory affairs of the young. She looked upon venery as the natural occupation for men and women, and was ever ready with precept and example from her own wide experience.

年齡和發(fā)胖已經(jīng)使她自己不能再談情說愛了；但是她對年輕人的戀愛事卻極有興趣。她認為情欲方面的事是人的本性，男人女人都是如此，她總是從自己的豐富經(jīng)驗中給人以箴言和范例。

"I was not fifteen when my father found that I had a lover," she said. "He was third mate on the Tropic Bird. A good-looking boy."

“我還不到十五歲的時候，我父親就發(fā)現(xiàn)我有了愛人，”她說，“他是熱帶鳥號上的三副。一個漂亮的年輕人?！?/p>

She sighed a little. They say a woman always remembers her first lover with affection; but perhaps she does not always remember him.

她嘆了一口氣。人們都說女人總是不能忘懷自己的第一個愛人；但是也許她并不是永遠把頭一個愛人記在心上的。

"My father was a sensible man."

“我父親是個明白事理的人?！?/p>

"What did he do?" I asked.

“他怎么著你了？”我問。

"He thrashed me within an inch of my life, and then he made me marry Captain Johnson. I did not mind. He was older, of course, but he was good-looking too."

“他差點兒把我打得一命嗚呼，以后他就讓我同約翰生船長結(jié)了婚。我倒也不在乎。當(dāng)然了，約翰生船長年紀大多了，但是他也很漂亮。”