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Her tone of commiseration smote the chord so often roughly touched, but never listened to while she or anyone looked on. Florence left alone, laid her head upon her hand, and pressing the other over her swelling heart, held free communication with her sorrows.

她的怜悯的声调重重地打击了那条经常被粗暴地碰触，但当她或任何人在场时弗洛伦斯从没有去听过的心弦。弗洛伦斯独自一人留下时，她头低垂在一只手上，另一只手紧压着激烈跳动的心，思潮汹涌，愁绪万千。

It was a wet night; and the melancholy rain fell pattering and dropping with a weary sound. A sluggish wind was blowing, and went moaning round the house, as if it were in pain or grief. A shrill noise quivered through the trees. While she sat weeping, it grew late, and dreary midnight tolled out from the steeples.

这是个雨夜；令人伤感的雨以一种使人厌倦的声音急速地、嗒嗒地下着。懒洋洋的风在吹着，它仿佛由于痛苦或悲伤而一直在房屋四周哀号。树木摇晃，发出了尖锐的响声。当她坐在那里哭泣时，时间渐渐晚了，从教堂尖塔那里传来了凄凉的午夜的钟声。

Florence was little more than a child in years — not yet fourteen — and the loneliness and gloom of such an hour in the great house where Death had lately made its own tremendous devastation, might have set an older fancy brooding on vague terrors. But her innocent imagination was too full of one theme to admit them. Nothing wandered in her thoughts but love — a wandering love, indeed, and castaway — but turning always to her father. There was nothing in the dropping of the rain, the moaning of the wind, the shuddering of the trees, the striking of the solemn clocks, that shook this one thought, or diminished its interest' Her recollections of the dear dead boy — and they were never absent — were itself, the same thing. And oh, to be shut out: to be so lost: never to have looked into her father's face or touched him, since that hour!

就年龄来说，弗洛伦斯几乎还是个孩子——不满十四周岁——，在死神最近进行过可怕的蹂躏的这座宏伟的公馆中，在这样一种时间内，笼罩着的凄凉寂寞、幽暗阴森的气氛，也许会使一个年龄更大的人产生一些莫名的恐怖。可是她在天真无邪的想像中，专心一意地只思考着一个主题，所以顾不得去注意这些情况了。她的思想中，除了爱没有别的东西在转悠——是的，这是漂泊不定、没有归宿的爱，它没有被接受，可是它总是向着她的父亲。

She could not go to bed, poor child, and never had gone yet, since then, without making her nightly pilgrimage to his door. It would have been a strange sad sight, to see her' now, stealing lightly down the stairs through the thick gloom, and stopping at it with a beating heart, and blinded eyes, and hair that fell down loosely and unthought of; and touching it outside with her wet cheek. But the night covered it, and no one knew.

雨的降落，风的哀号，树木的摇晃，圣钟的鸣响，它们全都没有任何东西可以动摇这唯一的思想或减轻它的强烈程度。她从没有停止对亲爱的死去的弟弟的回忆，可是这种回忆不可分割地和这个思想联结在一起，它们是一回事。啊，从她弟弟死去那时起，她就被关在外面，被深深地遗忘，她就从来没有看见过她父亲的脸或抚摸过他！

The moment that she touched the door on this night, Florence found that it was open. For the first time it stood open, though by but a hair's — breadth: and there was a light within. The first impulse of the timid child — and she yielded to it — was to retire swiftly. Her next, to go back, and to enter; and this second impulse held her in irresolution on the staircase.

可怜的孩子，从那时候起，她每天夜间在没有到他门前去参拜之前，她不能，也从来没有迳直去睡觉过。这时，她正穿过深沉的黑暗，轻轻地、偷偷地下楼，并怀着一颗跳动的心，带着一双模糊的眼睛，披着一头不知不觉向下松开的头发，停在门口，用潮湿的脸颊紧贴着门。这真是一幅奇怪的悲惨的景象，可是夜色把它遮盖了，谁也不知道。

重点讲解
一.alone：adj.单独的, 独自一人的, 孤单的 adv.独自地, 仅仅
【语法用法】
alone，lone，lonely和lonesome的比较：
alone是表语形容词，因此能说The man is alone，不能说an alone man。也不能说very alone，只能说much alone或very much alone，且后者比前者普遍。
lone是定语形容词，因此能说a lone man,不能说The man is lone。
alone指“独自的”，lonely指“寂寞的”，一个人也许alone但并不lonely（虽自己一人，但不寂寞），或是虽不alone而感觉lonely（虽不是自己一个人，却还是寂寞）。有时lonely还指“不大有人到的”，如a lonely house。
lonesome同lonely意思相近，指“孤单的”。
Mary is very lonesome with her husband and children so much away.
She alone went指“只有她去”，She went alone指“她独自去”。而leave him alone有时指“听任他独自一个人”，有时指“不干涉他”，let him alone指“不干涉他”；
let alone等于to say nothing of，指“更不用说，莫说”。
The house is uninhabitable in summer, let alone in winter.
这房子夏天都不能住人，更不用说冬天了。
【词义辨析】
1.lonely, alone, desolate, lone, solitary
这些形容词均有“孤单的，寂寞的”之意。
lonely强调孤独感，含“渴望和他人在一起”的意味。
alone普通用词，指独自一人的状态，有时含孤寂之意。
desolate语气强烈，强调遭受损失和失去亲人所带来的难以忍受的痛苦。
lone较文雅，可与lonely换用。
solitary可指因被遗忘或遗弃而产生的孤独感，也可指人的生性孤僻。
2.only, single, sole, unique, alone
这些形容词均可表示“唯一的”之意。
only普通用词，常可与sole换用，但侧重仅限于指定的人或物，而不需要更多。
single语气较强，强调仅此一个，再无第二个。
sole语气强于only，指仅有一个或一群，只考虑这一个或这一群。
unique非正式用词，侧重在一类中唯一无可匹敌、无与伦比的特征。
alone着重专指某人或某物，而不是别的。
【例句用法】
I haven't decided on the menu yet, let alone bought the food.
我还没决定吃什么菜呢，更不必说买好了。
You can't live on bread alone.
你不能仅靠面包维生。
二.retire：v.退休, 撤退, 离去, 就寝, 主动退出比赛, 收回（货币）,赎回（票据） n.退休,退职
【词义辨析】
retire, retreat, withdraw
这些动词均含“退下、退却”之意。
retire指从公开或公共场合退下到私下场所，也指被免除职务或自动辞职、退役等。
retreat含消极意味，多指被迫采取退下或退却的行动。
withdraw侧重因某种原因而有意离开，常含礼貌、谦恭等理由。也指军队的撤退。
【例句用法】
I decided to retire early with a book.
我决定带本书早点就寝。
The boxer retired from the contest with eye injuries.
该拳击手因眼部受伤而退出比赛。