雙語(yǔ)·面紗 第五十一章

51

But sooner or later Sister St. Joseph returned to the subject of the Mother Superior. Kitty had been conscious from the beginning that the personality of this woman dominated the convent. She was regarded by all that dwelt there with love certainly and with admiration, but also with awe and not a little dread. Notwithstanding her kindliness Kitty herself felt like a schoolgirl in her presence. She was never quite at her ease with her, for she was filled with a sentiment which was so strange that it embarrassed her: reverence. Sister St. Joseph, with an ingenuous desire to impress, told Kitty how great the family was to which the Mother Superior belonged; she had among her ancestors persons of historic importance and she was un peu cousine with half the kings of Europe: Alphonso of Spain had hunted at her father's, and they had chateaux all over France. It must have been hard to leave so much grandeur. Kitty listened smilingly, but not a little impressed.

“Du Teste, you have only to look at her,” said the Sister,“to see that, comme famille, c'est le dessus du panier.”

“She has the most beautiful hands that I have ever seen,” said Kitty.

“Ah, but if you only knew how she had used them. She is not afraid of work, notre bonne mère.”

When they had come to this city there had been nothing. They had built the convent. The Mother Superior had made the plans and supervised the work. The moment they arrived they began to save the poor little unwanted girls from the baby-tower and the cruel hands of the midwife. At first they had had no beds to sleep in and no glass to keep out the night air (“and there is nothing,” said Sister St. Joseph, “which is more unwholesome”); and often they had no money left, not only to pay the builders, but even to buy their simple fare; they lived like peasants, what was she saying? the peasants in France, tenez, the men who worked for her father, would have thrown to the pigs the food they ate. And then the Mother Superior would collect her daughters round her and they would kneel and pray; and the Blessed Virgin would send money. A thousand francs would arrive by post next day, or a stranger, an Englishman (a Protestant, if you please) or even a Chinaman would knock at the door while they were actually on their knees and bring them a present. Once they were in such straits that they all made a vow to the Blessed Virgin that they would recite a neuvaine in her honor if she succored them, and, would you believe it? that funny Mr. Waddington came to see us next day and saying that we looked as though we all wanted a good plate of roast beef gave us a hundred dollars.

What a comic little man he was, with his bald head and his little shrewd eyes(ses petits yeux malins)and his jokes. Mon Dieu, how he murdered the French language, and yet you could not help laughing at him. He was always in a good humor. All through this terrible epidemic he carried himself as if he were enjoying a holiday. He had a heart quite French and a wit so that you could hardly believe he was English. Except for his accent. But sometimes Sister St. Joseph thought he spoke badly on purpose to make you laugh. Of course his morals were not all one could wish; but still that was his business (with a sigh, a shrug, and a shake of the head) and he was a bachelor and a young man.

“What is wrong with his morals, ma soeur?” asked Kitty smiling.

“Is it possible that you do not know? It is a sin for me to tell you. I have no business to say such things. He lives with a Chinese woman, that is to say, not a Chinese woman, but a Manchu. A princess, it appears, and she loves him to distraction.”

“That sounds quite impossible,” cried Kitty.

“No, no, I promise you, it is everything that is most true. It is very wicked of him. Those things are not done. Did you not hear, when you first came to the convent and he would not eat the madeleines that I had made expressly, that notre bonne mère said his stomach was deranged by Manchu cooking? That was what she meant and you should have seen the head that he made. It is a story altogether curious. It appears that he was stationed at Hankow during the revolution when they were massacring the Manchus and this good little Waddington saved the lives of one of their great families. They are related to the Imperial Family. The girl fell violently in love with him and--well, the rest you can imagine. And then when he left Hankow she ran away and followed him and now she follows him everywhere, and he has had to resign himself to keep her, poor fellow, and I daresay he is very fond of her; they are quite charming sometimes, these Manchu women. But what am I thinking of? I have a thousand things to do and I sit here. I am a bad religious. I am ashamed of myself.”

第五十一章

但是，最終圣約瑟夫修女的話題還是會(huì)回到院長(zhǎng)嬤嬤身上。凱蒂?gòu)囊婚_始就意識(shí)到，嬤嬤在修道院絕對(duì)是個(gè)核心人物，毫無(wú)疑問，她不僅受到修道院所有人員的愛戴和崇拜，而且大家對(duì)她還有些敬畏，但不是害怕。盡管凱蒂自己也能感受到她的好意，但在她面前，凱蒂覺得自己好像一個(gè)中學(xué)生站在校長(zhǎng)的面前，往往會(huì)局促不安，因?yàn)樗闹谐錆M一種奇怪的感情——崇敬，甚至讓她覺得有些難為情。圣約瑟夫修女用一種給人感覺很天真的口氣，急切地告訴凱蒂院長(zhǎng)嬤嬤出身多么高貴，她的祖先在歷史上曾經(jīng)有很重要的地位，她和歐洲一半的君主有著或多或少的親戚關(guān)系，西班牙的阿方索國(guó)王在她父親的領(lǐng)地上打過獵，她家在法國(guó)各個(gè)地方都有莊園，要是一般人，很難放棄這樣富貴的生活。凱蒂笑瞇瞇地聽著，但對(duì)她的話并沒留下什么印象。

“另外，[1]你只需看她的樣子，”圣約瑟夫修女說道，“只需看一眼，你就能感覺到，你就能知道她的家庭有多顯赫。[2]”

“她有一雙我所見過的最美麗的手?！眲P蒂說道。

“啊，但是你如果知道她是怎么用這雙手的，你就不會(huì)這么說了。她什么樣的臟活、累活都干過，我們親愛的嬤嬤。[3]”

剛到這座城鎮(zhèn)時(shí)，這兒一無(wú)所有，她們自己動(dòng)手修建了修道院。院長(zhǎng)嬤嬤制定建設(shè)方案，并親自監(jiān)督工程。從她們到的那一刻起，她們就開始從育嬰堂和接生婆殘酷的手上挽救那些被拋棄的貧苦女嬰。開始時(shí)她們沒有床鋪可以睡覺，窗戶上也沒有玻璃來抵擋夜晚的寒風(fēng)（“再?zèng)]有，”圣約瑟夫修女說道，“比這兒更臟的地方了?！保Ｋ齻兘?jīng)常入不敷出，不僅付不起建筑工人的工資，而且連簡(jiǎn)單的食品都買不起。她們那時(shí)的生活就像是一群農(nóng)民，她是怎么說的？法國(guó)的農(nóng)民，不對(duì)，那些為她父親工作的人，他們都會(huì)把這些修女吃的東西扔給豬當(dāng)食物。那個(gè)時(shí)候，院長(zhǎng)嬤嬤把修女們召集到她的周圍，一起跪地祈禱，祈禱圣母瑪利亞能給她們送些錢來。就在她們跪地祈禱的時(shí)候，有人郵寄過來一千法郎，或者某個(gè)陌生人，一個(gè)英國(guó)人（可能是一名新教教徒，如果你愿意這樣想的話），甚至是個(gè)中國(guó)人來敲門，給她們帶來禮物。一旦她們陷入困境，所有的人都會(huì)向圣母瑪利亞發(fā)誓，如果她能施以援手，她們一定會(huì)紀(jì)念她而背誦九日經(jīng)[4]，你會(huì)相信嗎？愛逗笑的威廷頓先生在第二天過來看我們，說我們看上去好像都想大吃一頓了，所以給我們留下了一百美元。

他是個(gè)多么滑稽的小個(gè)兒男人呀，光頭，精明的小眼睛（一雙聰明的小眼睛[5]），喜歡開玩笑。我的上帝呀，看他把法語(yǔ)給糟蹋的，你忍不住要嘲笑他，而他一點(diǎn)兒也不生氣。雖然身處可怕的瘟疫重災(zāi)區(qū)，但他表現(xiàn)得好像是來這兒度假一樣。他性情像法國(guó)人一樣浪漫，又很聰明，除了口音以外，你很難相信他是英國(guó)人。但是，有時(shí)圣約瑟夫修女認(rèn)為，他故意把法語(yǔ)說得亂七八糟就是為了讓你發(fā)笑。當(dāng)然，他的品行不是所有人都認(rèn)同的，但那是他自己的事（修女說這話時(shí)，嘆了口氣，聳了聳肩，又搖了搖頭），他還是個(gè)單身漢，歲數(shù)也并不大。

“他的品行怎么了，我的姐妹？”凱蒂笑著問道。

“你真的不知道？那我不該跟你說這些的，跟你說這些閑話真是罪過。他在和一個(gè)中國(guó)女人同居，確切地說，是個(gè)滿族女人，好像還是一個(gè)格格，她愛他到了發(fā)狂的程度?！?/p>

“聽上去不太可能呀。”凱蒂喊出了聲。

“沒有什么不可能，我向你保證，每件事差不多都是真的，他可缺德了，遠(yuǎn)不止這些呢。你還記得第一次來修道院的時(shí)候，他不想吃我特意做的瑪?shù)铝漳鹊案?，嬤嬤說他的胃被滿族的烹調(diào)給搞亂了的事嗎？她就是指的這件事，你應(yīng)該看到了他的抵觸情緒。說起來，這還是個(gè)蠻有意思的故事呢。好像在辛亥革命發(fā)生的時(shí)候，他正被派駐在漢口，當(dāng)時(shí)革命黨人大肆屠殺滿族人，這位好心的小威廷頓救了很多清朝貴族的性命，這些人都是些皇親國(guó)戚，那位姑娘瘋狂地愛上了他。嗯，后來的事你也能猜到，當(dāng)他離開漢口時(shí)，她也離家出走了，一直追隨著他，現(xiàn)在他走到哪兒，她就跟到哪兒，為了跟她在一起，他不得不辭去公職?？蓱z的家伙，我敢說他也非常喜歡她。有的時(shí)候，這些滿族女人也是很有魅力的。哎呀，我應(yīng)該想到還有上千件事情要做呢，而我坐在這兒跟你閑聊，我真是個(gè)糟糕的神職人員，應(yīng)該感到慚愧?！?/p>

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[1]原文為法語(yǔ)。

[2]原文為法語(yǔ)。

[3]原文為法語(yǔ)。

[4]原文為法語(yǔ)，一連九天祈禱的習(xí)俗，被稱為“九日敬禮”“九日經(jīng)”或“九日禮”，是天主教信徒祈禱方式之一，主要為感恩。

[5]原文為法語(yǔ)。