英文阅读

伊丽莎白在做针线，一面留神地听着达西跟彬格莱小姐谈话。只听得彬格莱小姐恭维话说个不停，不是说他的字写得好，就是说他的字迹一行行很齐整，要不就是赞美他的信写得仔细，可是对方却完全是冷冰冰爱理不理。

The day passed much as the day before had done. Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid, who continued, though slowly, to mend; and in the evening Elizabeth joined their party in the drawing-room. The loo-table, however, did not appear. Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley, seated near him, was watching the progress of his letter and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs. Hurst was observing their game.

Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and his companion. The perpetual commendations of the lady, either on his handwriting, or on the evenness of his lines, or on the length of his letter, with the perfect unconcern with which her praises were received, formed a curious dialogue, and was exactly in union with her opinion of each.

"How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!"

He made no answer.

"You write uncommonly fast. "

"You are mistaken. I write rather slowly. "

"How many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of a year! Letters of business, too! How odious I should think them!"

"It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of yours. "

"Pray tell your sister that I long to see her. "

"I have already told her so once, by your desire. "

"I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well. "

"Thank you--but I always mend my own. "

"How can you contrive to write so even?"

He was silent.

"Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp; and pray let her know that I am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table, and I think it infinitely superior to Miss Grantley's. "

"Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again? At present I have not room to do them justice. "

"Oh! it is of no consequence. I shall see her in January. But do you always write such charming long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?"

"They are generally long; but whether always charming it is not for me to determine. "

"It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill. "

"That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline, " cried her brother, "because he does NOT write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. Do not you, Darcy?"

"My style of writing is very different from yours. "

"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest. "

"My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them--by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents. "

参考译文

这一天过得和前一天没有多大的不同。赫斯脱太太和彬格莱小姐上午陪了病人几个钟头，病人尽管好转得很慢，却在不断地好转。晚上，伊丽莎白跟她们一块儿待在客厅里。不过这一回却没有看见有人打“禄牌”。达西先生在写信，彬格莱小姐坐在他身旁看他写，一再纠缠不清地要他代她附笔问候他的妹妹。赫斯脱先生和彬格莱先生在打“皮克牌”，赫斯脱太太在一旁看他们打。

伊丽莎白在做针线，一面留神地听着达西跟彬格莱小姐谈话。只听得彬格莱小姐恭维话说个不停，不是说他的字写得好，就是说他的字迹一行行很齐整，要不就是赞美他的信写得仔细，可是对方却完全是冷冰冰爱理不理。这两个人你问我答，形成了一段奇妙的对白。照这样看来，伊丽莎白的确没有把他们俩看错。

“达西小姐收到了这样的一封信，将会怎样高兴啊！”

他没有回答。

“你写信写得这样快，真是少见。”

“你这话可说得不对。我写得相当慢。”

“你一年里头得写多少封信啊。还得写事务上的信，我看这是够厌烦的吧！”

“这么说，这些信总算幸亏碰到了我，没有碰到你。”

“请你告诉令妹，我很想和她见见面。”

“我已经遵命告诉过她了。”

“我怕你那支笔不大管用了吧。让我来代你修理修理。修笔真是我的拿手好戏。”

“谢谢你的好意，我一向都是自己修理。”

“你怎么写得那么整齐来着？”

他没有作声。

“请告诉令妹，就说我听到她的竖琴弹得进步了。真觉得高兴，还请你告诉她说，她寄来给我装饰桌子的那张美丽的小图案，我真喜欢极了，我觉得比起格兰特小姐的那张真好得太多了。”

“可否请你通融一下，让我把你的喜欢，延迟到下一次写信时再告诉她？这一次我可写不下这么多啦。”

“噢，不要紧。正月里我就可以跟她见面。不过，你老是写那么动人的长信给她吗，达西先生？”

“我的信一般都写得很长；不过是否每封信都写得动人，那可不能由我自己来说了。”

“不过我总觉得，凡是写起长信来一挥而就的人，无论如何也不会写得不好。”

她的哥哥嚷道：“这种恭维话可不能用在达西身上，珈罗琳，因为他并不能够大笔一挥而就，他还得在四个音节的字上面多多推敲。……达西，你可不是这样吗？”

“我写信的风格和你很不同。”

“噢，”彬格莱小姐叫起来了，“查尔斯写起信来，那种潦草随便的态度，简直不可想象。他要漏掉一半字，涂掉一半字。”

“我念头转得太快，简直来有及写，因此有时候收信人读到我的信，反而觉得言之无物。”