有声名著之双城记Book2 Chapter11

（单词翻译）

　　有声名著之双城记

       CHAPTER XIA Companion Picture

      `SYDNEY,' said Mr. Stryver, on that self-same night, ormorning, to his jackal; `mix another bowl of punch; I havesomething to say to you.'
Sydney had been working double tides that night, and thenight before, and the night before that, and a good manynights in succession, making a grand clearance¹ among Mr.
Stryver's papers before the setting in of the long vacation.
The clearance was effected at last; the Stryver arrears² werehandsomely fetched up; everything was got rid of untilNovember should come with its fogs atmospheric³ and fogs legal,and bring grist to the mill again.
Sydney was none the livelier and none the soberer for so muchapplication. It had taken a deal of extra wet-towelling topull him through the night; a correspondingly extra quantityof wine had preceded the towelling; and he was in a verydamaged condition, as he now pulled his turban off and threwit into the basin in which he had steeped it at intervals⁴ forthe last six hours.
`Are you mixing that other bowl of punch?' said Stryver theportly, with his hands in his waistband, glancing round fromthe sofa where he lay on his back,`I am.'
`Now, look here! I am going to tell you something that willrather surprise you, and that perhaps will make you think menot quite as shrewd as you usually do think me. I intend tomarry.
`Do you?'
`Yes. And not for money. What do you say now?'
`I don't feel disposed to say much. Who is she?'
`Guess.'
`Do I know her?'
`Guess.'
`I am not going to guess, at five o'clock in the morning,with my brains frying and sputtering⁵ in my, head. If you wantme to guess, you must ask me to dinner.
`Well then, I'll tell you,' said Stryver, coming slowly intoa sitting posture<sup>6</sup>. `Sydney, I rather despair of making myselfintelligible to you, because you are such an insensible dog.'
`And you,' returned Sydney, busy concocting<sup>7</sup> the punch, `aresuch a sensitive and poetical⁸ spirit.'
`Come!' rejoined Stryver, laughing boastfully, `though Idon't prefer any claim to being the soul of Romance (for Ihope I, know better), still I am a tenderer sort of fellowthan you. #p#副标题#e#`You are a luckier, if you mean that.'
`I don't mean that. I mean I am a man of more--more---'
`Say gallantry, while you are about it,' suggested Carton.
`Well! I'll say gallantry. My meaning is that I am a man,'
said Stryver, inflating⁹ himself at his friend as he made thepunch, `who cares more to be agreeable, Who takes more painsto be agreeable, who knows better how to be agreeable, in awoman's society, than you do.'
`Go on,' said Sydney Carton.
`No; but before I go on,' said Stryver, shaking his head inhis bullying<sup>10</sup> way, `I'll have this out with you. You've been atDr. Manette's house as much as I have, or more than I have.
Why, I have been ashamed of your moroseness¹¹ there! Yourmanners have been of that silent and sullen¹² and hang-dog kind,that, upon my life and soul, I have been ashamed of you,Sydney!'
`It should be very beneficial to a man in your practice atthe bar, to be ashamed of anything,' returned Sydney; `youought to be much obliged to me.
`You shall not get off in that Way,' rejoined Stryver,shouldering the rejoinder at him; `no, Sydney, it's my duty totell you--and I tell you to your face to do you good--that youare a devilish ill-conditioned fellow in that sort of society.
You are a disagreeable fellow.'
Sydney drank a bumper¹³ of the punch he had made, and laughed.
`Look at me!' said Stryver, squaring himself: `I have lessneed to make myself agreeable than you have, being moreindependent in circumstances. Why do I do it?'
`I never saw you do it yet,' muttered Carton.
`I do it because it's politic¹⁴; I do it on principle. And lookat me! I get on.'
`You don't get on with your account of your matrimonialintentions,' answered Carton, with a careless air; `I wish youwould keep to that. As to me--will you never understand that Iam incorrigible¹⁵?'
He asked the question with some appearance of scorn.
`You have no business to be incorrigible,' was his friend'sanswer, delivered in no very soothing<sup>16</sup> tone.
`I have no business to be, at all, that I know of,' saidSydney Carton. `Who is the lady?' #p#副标题#e#`Now, don't let my announcement of the name make youuncomfortable, Sydney,' said Mr. Stryver, preparing him withostentatious friendliness¹⁷ for the disclosure he was about tomake, `because I know you don't mean half you say; and if youmeant it all, it would be of no importance. I make this littlepreface, because,you once mentioned the young lady to me inslighting terms.
`I did?'
`Certainly; and in these chambers<sup>18</sup>.'
Sydney Carton looked at his punch and looked at hiscomplacent friend; drank his punch and looked at hiscomplacent friend.
`You made mention of the young lady as a golden-haired doll.
The young lady is Miss Manette. If you had been a fellow ofany sensitiveness or delicacy¹⁹ of feeling in that kind of way,Sydney, I might have been a little resentful of your employingsuch a designation; but you are not. You want that sensealtogether; therefore I am no more annoyed when I think of theexpression, than I should be annoyed by a man's opinion of apicture of mine, who had no eye for pictures: or of a piece ofmusic of mine, who had no ear for music.'
Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it bybumpers, looking at his friend.
`Now you know all about it, Syd,' said Mr. Stryver. `I don'tcare about fortune: she is a charming creature, and I havemade up my mind to please myself: on the whole, I think I canafford to please myself. She will have in me a man alreadypretty well off and a rapidly rising man, and a man of somedistinction: it is a piece of good fortune for her, but she isworthy of good fortune. Are you astonished?'
Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, `Why should I beastonished?'
`You approve?'
Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, `Why should I notapprove?' `Well!' said his friend Stryver, `you take it moreeasily than I fancied you would, and are less mercenary on mybehalf than I thought you would be; though, to be sure, youknow well enough by this time that your ancient chum is a manof a pretty strong will. Yes, Sydney, I have had enough ofthis style of life, with no other as a change iron' it; I feelthat it is a pleasant thing for a man to have a home when hefeels inclined to go to it (when he doesn't, he can stayaway), and I feel that Miss Manette will tell well in anystation, and will always do me credit. So I have made up mymind. And now, Sydney, old boy, I want to say a word to youabout your prospects<sup>20</sup>. You are in a bad way, you know; youreally are in a bad way. You don't know the value of money,you live hard, you'll knock up one of these days, and be illand poor; you really ought to think about a nurse.
The prosperous patronage<sup>21</sup> with which he said it, made him looktwice as big as he was, and four times as offensive.
`Now, let me recommend you,' pursued Stryver, `to look it inthe face. I have looked it in the face, in my different way;look it in the face, you, in your different way. Marry.
Provide somebody to take care of you. Never mind your havingno enjoyment<sup>22</sup> of women's society, nor understanding of it, nortact for it. Find out somebody. Find out some respectablewoman with a little property--somebody in the landlady<sup>23</sup> way, orlodging-letting way--and marry her, against a rainy day.
That's the kind of thing for you. Now think of it, Sydney.'
`I'll think of it,' said Sydney.