原文欣赏
Though still, of what the house had suggested to him; for Walter pleased hImself with thinking that perhaps the time might come, when the beautiful child who was his old friend and had always been so grateful to him and so glad to see him since, might interest her brother in his behalf and influence his fortunes for the better. He liked to imagine this—more, at that moment, for the pleasure of imagining her continued remembrance of him, than for any worldly profit he might gain: but another and more sober fancy whispered to him that if he were alive then, he would be beyond the sea and forgotten; she married, rich, proud, happy. There was no more reason why she should remember him with any interest in such an altered state of things, than any plaything she ever had. No, not so much.
不过他仍然想到这座房屋对他意味着什么，因为沃尔特总是爱以这样的希望来使自己高兴，那就是：也许总有那么一天，那位女孩子（她是他的老朋友，从那时以来，总是那样感谢他，那样高兴看到他）会使她弟弟关心他，使他的命运好转。但是在这时候他更喜欢想到的是，她仍继续记得他，而不是他可能得到什么世俗的利益；可是另一个更为清醒的想法在他耳边低声说道，如果那时候他还活着的话，那么他将在海外漂泊，被她遗忘；她则已经成婚，富有，高傲，幸福。世事沧桑，在完全改变了的情况下，她没有什么理由要比对一个她曾经有过的玩具更多地记得他；不会的，那时在她的记忆中，他可能还不如玩具呢。
Yet Walter so idealised the pretty child whom he had found wandering in the rough streets, and so identified her with her innocent gratitude of that night and the simplicity and truth of its expression, that he blushed for himself as a libeller when he argued that she could ever grow proud. On the other hand, his meditations were of that fantastic order that it seemed hardly less libellous in him to imagine her grown a woman: to think of her as anything but the same artless, gentle, winning little creature, that she had been in the days of Good Mrs Brown. In a word, Walter found out that to reason with himself about Florence at all, was to become very unreasonable indeed; and that he could do no better than preserve her image in his mind as something precious, unattainable, unchangeable, and indefinite—indefinite in all but its power of giving him pleasure, and restraining him like an angel's hand from anything unworthy.
可是沃尔特把那位流落在喧闹的街上、被他找到的那位漂亮的女孩子理想化了，把她与她在那天夜里天真的感谢以及在感谢中所表现出的纯朴、真诚等同化了，所以他认为，把她想成今后会变得高傲，这是对她的侮辱，他为此而感到羞愧。另一方面，他的沉思默想又是那么荒诞无稽，在他看来，如果想像到她已成长为一个女人，如果不是把她想成她跟善良的布朗太太在一起时那样一位纯朴、温柔、可爱的小人儿，而是想成另外一位什么人的话，那么这也同样是对她的侮辱。总之，沃尔特觉得由他本人来评断弗洛伦斯的是非长短，确实是会很不近情理的；他最好是把她的形象作为宝贵的、难以达到的、永不改变的、模糊不清的一种什么东西保存在心中；它具有使他快乐，像一只天使的手一样制止他进行任何卑劣勾当的力量，这一点却不是模糊不清的。
It was a long stroll in the fields that Walter took that day, listening to the birds, and the Sunday bells, and the softened murmur of the town—breathing sweet scents; glancing sometimes at the dim horizon beyond which his voyage and his place of destination lay; then looking round on the green English grass and the home landscape. But he hardly once thought, even of going away, distinctly; and seemed to put off reflection idly, from hour to hour, and from minute to minute, while he yet went on reflecting all the time.
沃尔特那天在田野里游逛得很久，他听着鸟儿的啾鸣、礼拜天的钟声、城市中比平日减弱了的喧嚣声，同时呼吸着芳香的空气，有时举目眺望那朦胧不清的地平线，因为他的航程与目的地就在地平线的那一方；然后他又环顾四周英国的青草和故乡的风景。可是他几乎没有一次明确地想到他即将远离；他似乎一小时又一小时，一分钟又一分钟地把这思想搁置一旁，不去理会，尽管他始终在继续不断地想着它。
Walter had left the fields behind him, and was plodding homeward in the same abstracted mood, when he heard a shout from a man, and then a woman's voice calling to him loudly by name. Turning quickly in his surprise, he saw that a hackney-coach, going in the contrary direction, had stopped at no great distance; that the coachman was looking back from his box and making signals to him with his whip; and that a young woman inside was leaning out of the window, and beckoning with immense energy. Running up to this coach, he found that the young woman was Miss Nipper, and that Miss Nipper was in such a flutter as to be almost beside herself.
沃尔特已经把田野抛在后面，正怀着同样恍惚的心情，拖着沉重的脚步往回家的路途上行走，这时候他听到一个男人喊叫了一声，接着一个女人的声音响亮地喊着他的名字。他惊奇地转过身去，看到一辆朝着相反方向跑去的出租轿式马车在不远的地方停了下来；马车夫从座位上转过头来看他，向他挥鞭示意；车里一位年轻的女人从窗子里探出身来，精力充沛地向他打招呼。他跑到马车跟前，看到这位年轻女人就是尼珀姑娘；她万分焦急不安，几乎都要发狂了。
重点讲解
一.suggest:vt.建议, 暗示, 使想起, 表明, 要求
【语法用法】
suggest后可接动名词，不能接不定式。
I suggest asking her advice.
我建议问一下她的想法。
suggest后可接that从句，有多种不同的用法：
在英国，suggest所引导的that从句中的动词可以是一般现在时，也可以是过去时。
Her uncle suggests that she gets a job in a bank.
He suggested that she got a job in a bank.
在英国，从句中加that加不定式也属常见。
给出直接建议的时候，一般省略should，如I suggest (that) you get...。
suggest后有时可直接加主语。
I suggest hamburgers.
我建议汉堡包。
【错句举例与错句分析】
错句: Suggest at sexiness but don't flaunt it.
订正: Suggest at sexiness but don't flaunt it.
翻译: 建议性感，但是不能太过招摇。
分析: suggest是及物动词，后面可直接跟宾语，不需要不介词at。
【词义辨析】
1.mean, imply, indicate, represent, denote, signify, suggest
这些动词均含有“表示……的意思”之意。
mean最普通用词，指文字或符号等所表示的各种明确的或含蓄的意义。
imply侧重用文字或符号表示的联想，暗示。
indicate指明显的表示。
represent指体现或代表。
denote指某一词字面或狭义的意思，或指某些符号或迹象的特指含义。
signify指用文字、说话或表情等表示单纯的意思。
suggest通常指暗含地、隐晦地表达意思。
2.recommend, advocate, propose, suggest, prescribe
这些动词均含“劝告、主张、建议”之意。
recommend指向对方提出公开的建议或规劝。
advocate指公开表明对某事或某行为的完全赞同，语气强于recommend。
propose多指较正式地提出建议。
suggest语气较委婉，指提出不成熟的建议或参见意见。
prescribe多指医生开处方。
【例句用法】
I suggested to him that we should tackle the problem another way.
我向他建议我们用另一种方式处理这个问题。
I suggested going for a walk.
我建议去散步。
二.almost:adv.几乎, 差不多 adj.相近的
【语法用法】
almost no，almost nothing和almost never都指“几乎没有”，属美国英语，而英国人更习惯说scarcely/hardly any，scarcely/hardly anything和scarcely/hardly ever。不过两国人都不说almost not，因almost不可被not修饰，可以说nearly not；
almost与nearly意思相近，不过美国人习惯用almost。
有时，almost只是比nearly更近了那么“一点点”。
It's nearly ten o'clock. (= perhaps 9.45)
It's almost ten o'clock. (= perhaps 9.57)
当描述即将达到目标或者接近于某数据等时，人们更习惯于用almost去表达“接近，但不完全一样”的意思，使得陈述的内容没有那么精确，明确。
Jake is almost like a father to me.
通常nearly不用在否定词前，如never，nobody，nothing，any等，习惯与almost连用。
【词义辨析】
almost, nearly, about, approximately, around, roughly
这些副词均有“大约，差不多”之意。
almost指在程度上相差很小，差不多。
nearly与almost含义基本相同，侧重指数量、时间或空间上的接近。
about常可分almost和nearly换用，但about用于表示时间、数量的“大约”时，实际数量可能多也可能少。
approximately多用于书面语，指精确度接近某个标准以致误差可忽略不计。
around多用于非正式场合，常见于美国英语。
roughly指按粗略估计，常代替about。
【例句用法】
She fell and almost/nearly broke her neck.
她跌倒了，险些跌断了脖子。
It's a mistake they almost always make.
那是他们几乎总要犯的错误。