雙語·面紗 第四十一章

41

The door opened, to Kitty's fancy not quite naturally but as though it swung back of itself on its hinges, and the Mother Superior entered the little room. She stood for an instant on the threshold and a grave smile hovered upon her lips as she looked at the laughing Sister and Waddington's puckered, clownish face. Then she came forward and held out her hand to Kitty.

“Mrs. Fane?” She spoke in English with a good deal of accent, but with a correct pronunciation, and she gave the shadow of a bow.“It is a great pleasure to me to make the acquaintance of the wife of our good and brave doctor.”

Kitty felt that the Superior's eyes held her in a long and unembarrassed look of appraisal. It was so frank that it was not uncivil; you felt that here was a woman whose business it was to form an opinion of others and to whom it never occurred that subterfuge was necessary. With a dignified affability she motioned to her visitors to take chairs and herself sat down. Sister St. Joseph, smiling still but silent, stood at the side but a little behind the Superior.

“I know you English like tea,” said the Mother Superior, “and I have ordered some. But I must make my excuses if it is served in the Chinese fashion. I know that Mr. Waddington prefers whisky, but that I am afraid I cannot offer him.”

She smiled and there was a hint of malice in her grave eyes.

“Oh, come, ma mère, you speak as if I were a confirmed drunkard.”

“I wish you could say that you never drink, Mr. Waddington.”

“I can at all events say that I never drink except to excess.”

The Mother Superior laughed and translated into French for Sister St. Joseph the flippant remark. She looked at him with lingering, friendly eyes.

“We must make allowances for Mr. Waddington because two or three times when we had no money at all and did not know how we were to feed our orphans Mr. Waddington came to our rescue.”

The convert who had opened the door for them now came in with a tray on which were Chinese cups, a teapot, and a little plate of the French cakes called madeleines.

“You must eat the madeleines,” said the Mother Superior,“because Sister St. Joseph made them for you herself this morning.”

They talked of commonplace things. The Mother Superior asked Kitty how long she had been in China and if the journey from Hong Kong had greatly tired her. She asked her if she had been in France and if she did not find the climate of Hong Kong trying. It was a conversation, trivial but friendly, which gained a peculiar savior from the circumstances. The parlour was very quiet, so that you could hardly believe that you were in the midst of the populous city. Peace dwelt there. And yet all round about the epidemic was raging and the people, terrified and restless, were kept in check but by the strong will of a soldier who was more than half a brigand. Within the convent walls the infirmary was crowded with sick and dying soldiers, and of the orphans in the nuns' charge a quarter were dead.

Kitty, impressed she hardly knew why, observed the grave lady who asked her these amiable questions. She was dressed in white and the only color on her habit was the red heart that burned on her breast. She was a woman of middle age, she might have been forty or fifty, it was impossible to say, for there were few wrinkles on her smooth, pale face, and you received the impression that she was far from young chiefly from the dignity of her bearing, her assurance, and the emaciation of her strong and beautiful hands. The face was long, with a large mouth and large, even teeth; the nose, though not small, was delicate and sensitive; but it was the eyes, under their thin black brows, which gave her face its intense and tragic character. They were very large, black, and though not exactly cold, by their calm steadiness strangely compelling. Your first thought when you looked at the Mother Superior was that as a girl she must have been beautiful, but in a moment you realised that this was a woman whose beauty, depending on character, had grown with advancing years. Her voice was deep, low and controlled, and whether she spoke in English or in French she spoke slowly. But the most striking thing about her was the air she had of authority tempered by Christian charity; you felt in her the habit of command. To be obeyed was natural to her, but she accepted obedience with humility. You could not fail to see that she was deeply conscious of the authority of the church which upheld her. But Kitty had a surmise that notwithstanding her austere demeanour she had for human frailty a human tolerance; and it was impossible to look at her grave smile when she listened to Waddington, unabashed, talking nonsense, without being sure that she had a lively sense of the ridiculous.

But there was some other quality in her which Kitty vaguely felt, but could not put a name to. It was something that notwithstanding the Mother Superior's cordiality and the exquisite manners which made Kitty feel like an awkward schoolgirl, held her at a distance.

第四十一章

門開了，讓凱蒂想象不到的是，門不是自然打開的，而是好像沿著門軸自己打開似的。修道院院長在門口站了片刻，然后走進(jìn)了小房間，當(dāng)她看到正在哈哈大笑的修女和威廷頓皺巴巴的、小丑一般的面孔，她的嘴角邊也掛著矜持的笑容，然后向前走來，并向凱蒂伸出了手。

“費(fèi)恩太太？”她用帶著濃重口音，但發(fā)音很準(zhǔn)的英語說道，說話的同時(shí)身子向前欠了欠，“我非常榮幸能夠結(jié)識(shí)我們善良而又勇敢的醫(yī)生的妻子?！?/p>

凱蒂覺得院長的眼睛上上下下地在她身上打量著，目光長久而又不避諱，直率但并不失禮，就好像一位婦女——她的專職工作就是對(duì)別人做出評(píng)判，對(duì)她來說，任何的花招和遮掩都是多余的。謙和中帶著威嚴(yán)，她請(qǐng)客人落座，自己也坐了下來。圣約瑟夫修女不出聲地笑著，站立在院長的旁邊但略微靠后的位置。

“我知道你們英國人喜歡喝茶?！痹洪L說道，“我已經(jīng)叫人準(zhǔn)備了，但是如果這個(gè)茶是以中國人的方式準(zhǔn)備的，我得提前請(qǐng)您諒解。我知道威廷頓先生更喜歡喝威士忌，可我恐怕無法滿足他的要求了。”

她微笑著，但在她嚴(yán)肅的眼里有一種調(diào)皮的神色。

“噢，得了吧，嬤嬤，你這樣說好像我是個(gè)不折不扣的酒鬼似的?！?/p>

“我倒是希望你說你從不喝酒，威廷頓先生。”

“無論如何，我能說我不喝則罷，一喝就一醉方休?！?/p>

院長嬤嬤笑了起來，把這俏皮話翻譯成法語給圣約瑟夫修女聽。她用友善的目光注視著威廷頓。

“我們得體諒?fù)㈩D先生，因?yàn)橛心敲磧扇?，我們一分錢也沒有，正不知如何喂養(yǎng)孤兒的時(shí)候，威廷頓先生來了，救了我們的急?！?/p>

剛才給她們開了大門，并皈依了天主教的小女孩走了進(jìn)來，手里拿著托盤，上面有很多中國式樣的杯子、一個(gè)茶壺，還有一小盤叫作瑪?shù)铝漳鹊姆▏↑c(diǎn)心。

“你一定得吃點(diǎn)兒瑪?shù)铝漳??！痹洪L嬤嬤說道，“因?yàn)檫@是圣約瑟夫修女今天早上親手為你做的?！?/p>

他們聊了會(huì)兒家常，院長嬤嬤問凱蒂來中國多長時(shí)間了，從香港過來的一路上是否把她累壞了，還問她是否去過法國，是否覺得香港的氣候令人難以忍受。兩個(gè)人聊的雖然都是一些瑣碎的事，但是氣氛很友好，與外面險(xiǎn)惡的環(huán)境相比，有一種特殊的意味?？蛷d很安靜，你幾乎無法相信他們正身處人口稠密的城鎮(zhèn)中心地帶，一片平和安詳籠罩著這片院落。然而，它的周圍瘟疫正在肆虐，人們驚恐不安，四處奔逃，而跟土匪似的士兵盛氣凌人地盤查著百姓。在這所修道院的院墻內(nèi)，醫(yī)院里擠滿了病人和垂死的士兵，修女們領(lǐng)養(yǎng)的孤兒有四分之一已經(jīng)死去了。

凱蒂搞不明白自己為什么會(huì)對(duì)這位嚴(yán)肅的院長嬤嬤產(chǎn)生很好的印象。她總是和藹可親地和凱蒂嘮著家常。凱蒂觀察著這位婦人，她穿著白色的衣服，唯一的色彩是在她的教袍胸口處印著的一顆紅心。她是一位中年婦女，年齡大概四十歲或五十歲，不太可能說清楚，因?yàn)樗饣?、蒼白的臉上幾乎沒有什么皺紋，但又遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)稱不上年輕，主要從她舉止的莊重、她的處變不驚和她強(qiáng)有力、美麗而又清瘦的雙手上可以看出來。她的臉比較長，嘴也挺大，甚至牙齒也很突出，鼻子雖然不小，但很精致和靈敏，而她的雙眼，在她細(xì)細(xì)的黑眉毛下，印襯出面孔的冷峻與悲憫，這雙眸子很大，烏黑，雖然確切說不是很冷淡，但它們的沉穩(wěn)給人一種威懾力。當(dāng)你看到院長嬤嬤時(shí)，你第一個(gè)念頭是嬤嬤年輕時(shí)一定是個(gè)美人，但過了一會(huì)兒，你會(huì)認(rèn)識(shí)到她的美麗主要依賴于她的性格，隨著歲月的流逝她愈發(fā)光彩照人。她的聲音低沉、平穩(wěn)，無論是說英語還是法語，都說得緩慢有力。但是，她身上最突出的特點(diǎn)就是天主教的慈悲所鍛煉出來的威嚴(yán)，你能覺察出在她身上有種愛發(fā)號(hào)施令的習(xí)慣，別人順從她的號(hào)令是很自然的，但是她在接受其他人的服從時(shí)，態(tài)度也很謙卑。你不會(huì)看不到她深刻地理解教會(huì)的權(quán)威性，正是這種權(quán)威支撐著她的威嚴(yán)。然而凱蒂有一種猜測，即使她有苦行僧般的態(tài)度，但她也有人類的脆弱，有對(duì)人類缺點(diǎn)的容忍。當(dāng)她聽威廷頓不加掩飾地滿嘴跑火車時(shí)，始終面帶莊重的微笑，對(duì)幽默顯然具備十足的理解力。

在她身上還有一些別的品質(zhì)，這是凱蒂隱隱約約能夠感覺到的，但是就是無法明確地說出來。盡管院長嬤嬤很真誠，舉手投足又很優(yōu)雅，但凱蒂覺得自己像個(gè)笨手笨腳的中學(xué)生，有種要對(duì)她敬而遠(yuǎn)之的感覺。