雙語(yǔ)·面紗 第十章

10

During the next week she met him at three dances and now, his shyness perhaps wearing off a little, he was somewhat more communicative. He was a doctor, certainly, but he did not practise; he was a bacteriologist (Kitty had only a very vague idea what that meant) and he had a job at Hong Kong. He was going back in the autumn. He talked a good deal about China. She made it a practice to appear interested in whatever people talked to her of, but indeed the life in Hong Kong sounded quite jolly; there were clubs and tennis and racing and polo and golf.

“Do people dance much there?”

“Oh, yes, I think so.”

She wondered whether he told her these things with a motive. He seemed to like her society, but never by a pressure of the hand, by a glance or by a word, did he give the smallest indication that he looked upon her as anything but a girl whom you met and danced with. On the following Sunday he came again to their house. Her father happened to come in, it was raining and he had not been able to play golf, and he and Walter Fane had a long chat. She asked her father afterwards what they had talked of.

“It appears he's stationed at Hong Kong. The Chief Justice is an old friend of mine at the Bar. He seems an unusually intelligent young man.”

She knew that her father was as a rule bored to death by the young people whom for her sake and now her sister's he had been forced for years to entertain.

“It's not often you like any of my young men, father,” she said.

His kind, tired eyes rested upon her.

“Are you going to marry him by any chance?”

“Certainly not.”

“Is he in love with you?”

“He shows no sign of it.”

“Do you like him?”

“I don't think I do very much. He irritates me a little.”

He was not her type at all. He was short, but not thick-set, slight rather and thin; dark and clean-shaven, with very regular, clean-cut features. His eyes were almost black, but not large, they were not very mobile and they rested on objects with a singular persistence; they were curious, but not very pleasant eyes. With his straight, delicate nose, his fine brow, and well-shaped mouth he ought to have been good-looking. But surprisingly enough he was not. When Kitty began to think of him at all she was surprised that he should have such good features when you took them one by one. His expression was slightly sarcastic and now that Kitty knew him better she realised that she was not quite at ease with him. He had no gaiety.

By the time the season drew to its end they had seen a good deal of one another, but he had remained as aloof and impenetrable as ever. He was not exactly shy with her, but embarrassed; his conversation remained strangely impersonal. Kitty came to the conclusion that he was not in the least in love with her. He liked her and found her easy to talk to, but when he returned to China in November he would not think of her again. She thought it not impossible that he was engaged all the time to some nurse at a hospital in Hong Kong, the daughter of a clergyman, dull, plain, flat-footed and strenuous; that was the wife that would exactly suit him.

Then came the announcement of Doris's engagement to Geoffrey Dennison. Doris, at eighteen, was making quite a suitable marriage, and she was twenty-five and single. Supposing she did not marry at all? That season the only person who had proposed to her was a boy of twenty who was still at Oxford: she couldn't marry a boy five years younger than herself. She had made a hash of things. Last year she had refused a widowed Knight of the Bath with three children. She almost wished she hadn't. Mother would be horrible now, and Doris, Doris who had always been sacrificed because she, Kitty, was expected to make the brilliant match, would not fail to crow over her. Kitty's heart sank.

第十章

在接下來(lái)的一周中，她在三場(chǎng)舞會(huì)上都遇見(jiàn)了他，現(xiàn)在他的羞澀也許消除了一些，變得稍微健談些了。雖然他是個(gè)醫(yī)生，但并不執(zhí)業(yè)，他是個(gè)細(xì)菌學(xué)家（凱蒂對(duì)這份工作幾乎一無(wú)所知），在香港工作，今年秋天還會(huì)回去。他跟凱蒂講了很多關(guān)于中國(guó)的事情，而凱蒂也早已練就了一個(gè)本事，那就是無(wú)論別人跟她說(shuō)什么，她都能做出聽(tīng)得津津有味的樣子。不過(guò)確實(shí)，香港的生活聽(tīng)上去還是蠻不錯(cuò)的，那兒有俱樂(lè)部、網(wǎng)球場(chǎng)、賽馬會(huì)，還可以打馬球和高爾夫球。

“那兒的人經(jīng)常辦舞會(huì)嗎？”

“哦，當(dāng)然，舞會(huì)很多?！?/p>

她暗自揣摩，他跟她說(shuō)這些事情是不是有所圖。他似乎喜歡和她在一起，但又絕不會(huì)主動(dòng)牽她的手，或者通過(guò)眼神或言語(yǔ)來(lái)表達(dá)他的感情。絲毫看不出他有要主動(dòng)追求她的舉動(dòng)，好像她只是一位他遇到的、一塊兒跳過(guò)舞的女孩。在接下來(lái)的那個(gè)星期天，他再次來(lái)到了凱蒂家。她的父親碰巧進(jìn)來(lái)了，因?yàn)橥饷嫦掠?，他不能去打高爾夫球了，于是他和沃爾特有了一次長(zhǎng)談，她后來(lái)問(wèn)她父親他們談了點(diǎn)兒什么。

“看樣子他的工作地點(diǎn)在香港，那兒的首席大法官是我在法律界的一個(gè)老朋友，他似乎是個(gè)聰明的、非同尋常的年輕人?！?/p>

她心里明白，照常來(lái)說(shuō)，她父親對(duì)多年來(lái)不得不去應(yīng)付接待的追求她的那些年輕人煩得要死，現(xiàn)在她妹妹的追求者也令他如此。

“父親，對(duì)那些圍在我身邊的年輕人你是通常都不怎么喜歡的呀。”她說(shuō)道。

他慈祥而疲倦的目光落在她身上。

“如果有可能，你會(huì)嫁給他嗎？”

“肯定不會(huì)?！?/p>

“他愛(ài)上你了嗎？”

“他沒(méi)有表露出來(lái)。”

“你喜歡他嗎？”

“我覺(jué)得不怎么喜歡。他經(jīng)常讓我有點(diǎn)兒不爽?！?/p>

他根本不是她喜歡的那種類(lèi)型，個(gè)頭不高，但也不怎么胖，反而有點(diǎn)兒偏瘦，皮膚略黑，輪廓清晰規(guī)矩，身材勻稱(chēng)，整齊體面。他的眼珠幾乎是黑色的，眼睛不大，并不經(jīng)常轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)，目光落到的地方，總是帶著特別專(zhuān)注的神色；眼睛里雖然透著好奇，但不是很喜慶；鼻子筆直、精致，前庭飽滿(mǎn)，嘴也很有型，他應(yīng)該是長(zhǎng)得比較耐看的，但讓人匪夷所思的是，實(shí)際上他給人的感覺(jué)并非如此。當(dāng)凱蒂開(kāi)始認(rèn)真地考慮他的長(zhǎng)相時(shí)，她也覺(jué)得有點(diǎn)兒吃驚，如果單看他的五官，每個(gè)都很好，可合到一起，反而不是想當(dāng)然的英俊。他的表達(dá)中稍微帶有一些譏諷的味道，隨著凱蒂對(duì)他的了解逐漸增多，她意識(shí)到自己和他在一起時(shí)，并不很放松，他身上沒(méi)有快樂(lè)的細(xì)胞。

伴隨著社交季節(jié)接近尾聲，他們已經(jīng)見(jiàn)了很多次面了，但是他還是跟以往一樣，對(duì)她仍然保持著不冷不熱、若即若離的態(tài)度。準(zhǔn)確地說(shuō)，他和她在一起時(shí)不再那么不好意思了，但是還是拘謹(jǐn)，所說(shuō)的話(huà)仍然是不自然的、干巴巴的。凱蒂最后得出了結(jié)論，他根本沒(méi)有愛(ài)上她，他只是喜歡她，發(fā)現(xiàn)她是個(gè)容易交流的對(duì)象，等到了十一月份他回中國(guó)時(shí)，就會(huì)把她忘到腦后了。她覺(jué)得很可能他會(huì)一直和香港醫(yī)院中的某個(gè)護(hù)士保持曖昧的關(guān)系，或者找一個(gè)牧師的女兒，雖然這些女子乏味、相貌平平、扁平足，甚至小里小氣，但的確適合做他的妻子。

后來(lái)，杰奧弗瑞·丹尼森宣布與多瑞絲訂婚，多瑞絲才十八歲，就訂了一樁門(mén)當(dāng)戶(hù)對(duì)的婚事，而凱蒂都二十五歲了，還是單身，假如她一輩子都嫁不出去該怎么辦？那個(gè)社交季只有一個(gè)還在牛津大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)的二十歲男孩向她求婚，而她不可能嫁給一個(gè)比她自己還小五歲的男孩。她已經(jīng)把自己的婚事搞得一團(tuán)糟了。去年她拒絕了一個(gè)有著巴斯騎士封號(hào)的鰥夫的求婚，雖然這個(gè)男人還帶著三個(gè)孩子，但是如今她希望當(dāng)初要是答應(yīng)下來(lái)就好了。她母親現(xiàn)在愈發(fā)變本加厲了，而多瑞絲，以前因?yàn)槟赣H把嫁個(gè)好人家的寶都押在了凱蒂身上，處處得讓著凱蒂，現(xiàn)在她在凱蒂面前趾高氣揚(yáng)了起來(lái)。凱蒂的心好像掉入了冰窟窿里。