第十八章

She had to make up her mind what to do. She would leave Venice on the Saturday that he was leaving Wragby: in six days' time. This would bring her to London on the Monday following, and she would then see him. She wrote to him to the London address, asking him to send her a letter to Hartland's hotel, and to call for her on the Monday evening at seven.

她不可以再犹豫不决。六天后，她就要离开威尼斯，像离开拉格比的那天一样是周六。这样她将于下周一抵达伦敦，到时便可与他碰面。她写信到他伦敦的地址，让他将回信寄去哈特兰饭店，并在周一晚七点去那里找她。

Inside herself she was curiously and complicatedly angry, and all her responses were numb. She refused to confide even in Hilda, and Hilda, offended by her steady silence, had become rather intimate with a Dutch woman. Connie hated these rather stifling intimacies between women, intimacy into which Hilda always entered ponderously.

她的内心完全被愤怒所占据，那种感觉奇异而复杂，以至于反应能力全部陷入麻痹的状态。她甚至不愿向希尔达吐露实情，而做姐姐的也因为她的缄默感到不悦，便和一个荷兰女人热络起来。康妮感觉女人间的亲密令人窒息，但希尔达却总是深陷其中。

Sir Malcolm decided to travel with Connie, and Duncan could come on with Hilda. The old artist always did himself well: he took berths on the Orient Express, in spite of Connie's dislike of trains de luxe, the atmosphere of vulgar depravity there is aboard them nowadays. However, it would make the journey to Paris shorter.

马尔科姆爵士决定和康妮同行，而邓肯则陪伴希尔达。这位老艺术家向来养尊处优，他订了两张东方快车的卧铺票，虽说康妮讨厌乘坐豪华列车，讨厌如今火车上那种庸俗堕落的氛围。尽管如此，乘火车能够缩短到巴黎所需的时间。

Sir Malcolm was always uneasy going back to his wife. It was habit carried over from the first wife. But there would be a house-party for the grouse, and he wanted to be well ahead. Connie, sunburnt and handsome, sat in silence, forgetting all about the landscape.

每当马尔科姆爵士要回到妻子身边，总会心神不宁。这是从其亡妻开始便遗留下来的习惯。但家里要搞个松鸡宴会，他想早点赶回去做准备。着上古铜色的康妮显得别有几分韵味，只是静静地坐着，一声不吭，对沿途的景致全然不觉。

"A little dull for you, going back to Wragby," said her father, noticing her glumness.

“要回到拉格比，你想必感觉有些烦闷。”父亲注意到她不悦的神情，关切地说。

"I'm not sure I shall go back to Wragby," she said, with startling abruptness, looking into his eyes with her big blue eyes. His big blue eyes took on the frightened look of a man whose social conscience is not quite clear.

“我还没拿定主意，要不要回到拉格比。”康妮忽闪着蓝色的大眼睛望向父亲，如此唐突的坦言着实吓人一跳。父亲那双蓝色的阔目流露出惊异的神色，而他向来不是过分拘泥于社会伦理道德的人。

"You mean you'll stay on in Paris a while?” "No! I mean never go back to Wragby." He was bothered by his own little problems, and sincerely hoped he was getting none of hers to shoulder.

“你是说，想在巴黎待一阵子？”“不！我的意思是，再也不回拉格比。”老爵士本就麻烦不断，实在不想女儿再给自己添乱。

"How's that, all at once?" he asked.

“怎么会这样？如此突然？”他问。

"I'm going to have a child.” It was the first time she had uttered the words to any living soul, and it seemed to mark a cleavage in her life.

“我怀孕了。”这是她头一次向别人透露这一秘密，这似乎也意味着其人生跨入新的阶段。