月亮和六便士 第四十六章(3)

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He suffered from dyspepsia, and he might often be seen sucking a tablet of pepsin; 他长期患消化不良症，嘴里经常含着一片胃蛋白酶药片。

in the morning his appetite was poor; but this affliction alone would hardly have impaired¹ his spirits. 每天上午他的胃口都不很好，但是如果只是这一病痛还不致于使他的精神受到伤害。

He had a greater cause of discontent with life than this. 他的生活还有一桩更大的不幸：

Eight years before he had rashly married a wife. 八年以前他轻率地同一个女人结了婚。

There are men whom a merciful Providence² has undoubtedly³ ordained⁴ to a single life, 有一些男人，慈悲的天意注定叫他们终生作个单身汉，

but who from wilfulness⁵ or through circumstances they could not cope with have flown in the face of its decrees. 但是他们有的人由于任性，有的人由于拗不过环境，却违背了上帝的意旨。

There is no object more deserving of pity than the married bachelor. 再没有谁比这种结了婚的单身汉更叫人可怜了。

Of such was Captain Nichols. 尼柯尔斯船长就是这样一个人。

I met his wife. 我看见过他的老婆；

She was a woman of twenty-eight, I should think, though of a type whose age is always doubtful; 我想，她的年龄不过二十七八岁，但是她是那种永远让人摸不清究竟多大岁数的女人，

for she cannot have looked different when she was twenty, and at forty would look no older. 这种人二十岁的时候不比现在样子年轻，到了四十岁也不会显得更老。

She gave me an impression of extraordinary tightness. 她给我的印象是皮紧肉瘦，

Her plain face with its narrow lips was tight, her skin was stretched tightly over her bones, 一张并不标致的面孔紧绷绷的，嘴唇只是薄薄的一条线，全身皮肤都紧包着骨头。

her smile was tight, her hair was tight, her clothes were tight, and the white drill she wore had all the effect of black bombazine. 她轻易不露笑容，头发紧贴在头上，衣服瘦瘦的，白斜纹料子看去活象是黑色的邦巴辛毛葛。

I could not imagine why Captain Nichols had married her, and having married her why he had not deserted⁶ her. 我想象不出，为什么尼柯尔斯船长要同她结婚，既然结了婚为什么又不把她甩掉。

Perhaps he had, often, and his melancholy⁷ arose from the fact that he could never succeed. 也许他已经不止一次这样做过，他的悲哀就来源于哪次都没有成功。

However far he went and in howsoever secret a place he hid himself, 不论他跑多么远，不论他藏身多么隐秘，

I felt sure that Mrs. Nichols, inexorable as fate and remorseless as conscience, would presently rejoin him. 尼柯尔斯太太就像命运一样无可逃避，像良心一样毫无怜悯，马上就会来到他身边。

He could as little escape her as the cause can escape the effect. 他逃不脱她，就象有因必有果一样。

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