雙語·面紗 第七章

7

Mrs. Garstin was a hard, cruel, managing, ambitious, par-simonious and stupid woman. She was the daughter, one of five, of a solicitor in Liverpool and Bernard Garstin had met her when he was on the Northern Circuit. He had seemed then a young man of promise and her father said he would go far. He hadn't. He was painstaking, industrious and capable, but he had not the will to advance himself. Mrs. Garstin despised him. But she recognised, though with bitterness, that she could only achieve success through him, and she set herself to drive him on the way she desired to go. She nagged him without mercy. She discovered that if she wanted him to do something which his sensitiveness revolted against she had only to give him no peace and eventually, exhausted, he would yield. On her side she set herself to cultivate the people who might be useful. She flattered the solicitors who would send her husband briefs and was familiar with their wives. She was obsequious to the judges and their ladies. She made much of promising politicians.

In twenty-five years Mrs. Garstin never invited any one to dine at her house because she liked him. She gave large dinner parties at regular intervals. But parsimony was as strong in her as ambition. She hated to spend money. She flattered herself that she could make as much show as any one else at half the price. Her dinners were long and elaborate, but thrifty, and she could never persuade herself that people when they were eating and talking knew what they drank. She wrapped sparkling Moselle in a napkin and thought her guests took it for champagne.

Bernard Garstin had a fair, though not a large practice. Men who had been called after him had long outstripped him. Mrs. Garstin made him stand for parliament. The expense of the election was borne by the party, but here again her parsimony balked her ambition, and she could not bring herself to spend enough money to nurse the constituency. The subscriptions Bernard Garstin made to the innumerable funds a candidate is expected to contribute to were always just a little less than adequate. He was beaten. Though it would have pleased Mrs. Garstin to be a member's wife she bore her disappointment with fortitude. The fact of her husband's standing had brought her in contact with a number of prominent persons and she appreciated the addition to her social consequence. She knew that Bernard would never make his mark in the House. She wanted him to be a member only that he might have a claim on the gratitude of his party and surely to fight two or three losing seats would give him that.

But he was still a junior and many younger men than he had already taken silk. It was necessary that he should too, not only because otherwise he could scarcely hope to be made a judge, but on her account also; it mortified her to go into dinner after women ten years younger than herself. But here she encountered in her husband an obstinacy which she had not for years been accustomed to. He was afraid that as a K.C. he would get no work. A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute. He suggested to her the possibility that his income would be halved and he knew that there was no argument which could have greater weight with her. She would not listen. She called him pusillanimous. She gave him no peace and at last, as always, he yielded. He applied for silk and it was promptly awarded him.

His misgivings were justified. He made no headway as a leader and his briefs were few. But he concealed any disappointment he may have felt, and if he reproached his wife it was in his heart. He grew perhaps a little more silent, but he had always been silent at home, and no one in his family noticed a change in him. His daughters had never looked upon him as anything but a source of income; it had always seemed perfectly natural that he should lead a dog's life in order to provide them with board and lodging, clothes, holidays, and money for odds and ends; and now, understanding that through his fault money was less plentiful, the indifference they had felt for him was tinged with an exasperated contempt. It never occurred to them to ask themselves what were the feelings of the subdued little man who went out early in the morning and came home at night only in time to dress for dinner. He was a stranger to them, but because he was their father they took it for granted that he should love and cherish them.

第七章

賈斯汀太太是個(gè)強(qiáng)硬、冷酷、控制欲強(qiáng)、野心勃勃、吝嗇而又愚蠢的女人。她的父親是利物浦的一位律師，生了五個(gè)女兒，賈斯汀太太是其中之一。伯納德·賈斯汀是在北部巡回法庭的任上遇見她的，那時(shí)，他似乎年輕有為，而她的父親說他日后會飛黃騰達(dá)的。然而，事與愿違，他一直默默無聞，雖然他很勤勉、努力、有能力，但沒有向上爬的愿望。賈斯汀太太挺瞧不上他的，但她不得不酸溜溜地承認(rèn)，她若想達(dá)到某種目的也只能通過自己的丈夫。于是，她把自己視為車夫，而她的丈夫則是那架載著她駛向自己想要的生活的馬車。她在他的耳旁喋喋不休，毫不留情。她發(fā)現(xiàn)如果想讓伯納德做他不愿做的事情，她唯一需要做的就是讓他片刻不得安生，最后在筋疲力盡之下，他也就屈服了。在她看來，她的使命就是栽培那些可能對自己有用的人，她會去巴結(jié)可能向她丈夫引介案子的律師們，跟這些律師的妻子們打成一片。她對法官和他們的太太卑躬屈膝，對有可能發(fā)達(dá)的政客們更是阿諛奉承。

二十五年來，賈斯汀太太從未因?yàn)橄矚g某人而邀請他來家里吃飯。但每隔一段時(shí)間她就會舉辦盛大的晚宴。可是吝嗇和野心在她的性格中同時(shí)占有很重要的地位，她對花錢深惡痛絕。她還自詡只花一半的錢就能辦出同樣豪華的晚會。她的晚宴冗長、花樣眾多，但是很省錢，她堅(jiān)信當(dāng)人們邊吃邊高談闊論時(shí)，是不會知道自己喝的是什么的，所以她會把發(fā)泡的摩澤爾酒用餐巾包上，以為客人們會把它當(dāng)成香檳酒喝掉。

伯納德的業(yè)務(wù)規(guī)模不大，也還算不錯，但很多他的后輩都遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地超越了他。賈斯汀太太想讓他競選議員，雖說競選的花銷由黨內(nèi)負(fù)擔(dān)，但在這件事上，她的吝嗇再次壓倒了野心，她無法讓自己投入足夠的資金來取悅選民，而伯納德作為一名候選人，在龐大的競選基金中所出的資金總是少那么一點(diǎn)兒，所以落選了。雖然假如成為一名議員夫人會讓賈斯汀太太很開心，但對落選的失望，她以堅(jiān)忍的意志面對了。她丈夫的參選讓她接觸到了很多了不起的大人物，她很感激這增加了自己的社交資本。她其實(shí)心里明白伯納德絕無可能進(jìn)入議會的，她之所以想讓他參選只是為了賺取他所屬的黨派對伯納德的感激之情，因?yàn)榭隙溥x的兩三席中必定有他的份兒。

然而，他依然還是個(gè)初級律師，很多比他年輕的人已經(jīng)成了王室律師。他也應(yīng)該成為王室律師，這是很必要的，不僅僅是因?yàn)椴幌瘸蔀橥跏衣蓭?，就不太可能有朝一日成為法官，而且不成為王室律師和她為丈夫設(shè)計(jì)的發(fā)展方向也不符。赴宴時(shí)要排在比她年輕十歲的婦人后面，讓她感到屈辱。但是在這點(diǎn)上，她和自己丈夫的觀點(diǎn)相左，而且他的固執(zhí)己見讓她多年來都沒法適應(yīng)。他害怕徒有王室律師的虛名，丟掉了實(shí)際的收入。他告訴她，一鳥在手，勝過雙鳥在林。而她反駁說，這個(gè)諺語只是他沒出息的托詞。他暗示她，如果擔(dān)任了王室律師，他的收入可能會減半，但他也明白她的大道理比他多得多，說什么她也不會聽的。她稱他優(yōu)柔寡斷，讓他片刻不得安寧，最后跟以往一樣，他還是投降了。他去申請了王室律師頭銜，很快就得到了。

他的擔(dān)心證明是對的，他向上爬的路徑困難重重，而手頭接的案子日漸減少，但他設(shè)法隱藏了他感覺到的失望，他如果想責(zé)怪自己的妻子也只是在心里默默念叨，雖然平常在家時(shí)，他總是不怎么吭聲，但現(xiàn)在他變得更加沉默寡言了。家里沒人注意到他身上的這種變化，女兒們除了把他看作是收入的來源以外，沒人尊重他。他得養(yǎng)家糊口，當(dāng)牛做馬，這似乎是再自然不過的事了，他得給她們提供衣食住行的費(fèi)用、度假的花銷，以及日常的零花錢。而現(xiàn)在由于他的過錯，錢來得比以前少了，除了對他漠不關(guān)心外，她們心里對他又多了一層埋怨和蔑視。她們從來不曾想過這位順從的矮小男人心里想的是什么。他每天早早出門上班，晚上準(zhǔn)時(shí)回家換衣吃飯。對于她們來說，他是個(gè)陌生人，但是因?yàn)樗撬齻兊母赣H，她們把他對她們的愛護(hù)和珍視視作天經(jīng)地義、理所當(dāng)然的事。