17 The Inconvenience

The Inconvenience Stop looking at me like that," said the beast. "You're acting like you've never seen me eat a meal before." Ebenezer was as pale as a glass of watery milk. His fingers were twitching, and his knees were trembling. "N… n… never seen you eat a human," he stuttered, between a series of deep and jangly

“不要那样看着我，”野兽说。 “你好像从来没见过我吃过饭似的。” 埃比尼泽脸色苍白，像一杯淡牛奶。 他的手指在抽搐，膝盖在颤抖。 “唔……唔……从来没见过你吃人。”他结结巴巴地说，一边是一连串低沉刺耳的声音

breaths. "Humans, cats, statues of Winston Churchill—they're all the same. I don't know why you're getting so worked up about it," said the beast. "Although, I must say, this one tasted wonderful. Mmmnnnh! It was everything I was hoping for." The beast smiled and looked down at its full belly. It burped out Miss Fizzlewick's ears, which bounced along the floor and landed by Ebenezer's feet. "Be a dear and pop those back into my mouth," said the beast. "They were one of my favorite parts of the meal. After the nails and the kneecaps, of course." Ebenezer didn't pop the ears back into the beast. In fact, he didn't move at all—he just stayed quivering and staring at the beast in a

呼吸。“人类、猫、温斯顿·丘吉尔的雕像——它们都是一样的。 我不明白你为什么对这件事这么激动。”野兽说。 “虽然，我必须说，这个味道很好。 Mmmnnnh !这正是我所希望的。” 野兽笑了，低头看着自己饱满的肚子。 它从菲兹乐威小姐的耳朵里打了个嗝，在地板上弹来弹去，落在埃比尼泽的脚边。 “行行好，把它们塞回我嘴里。”野兽说。 “它们是这顿饭中我最喜欢的一部分。 当然是在指甲和膝盖骨之后。” 埃比尼泽没有把耳朵塞回野兽的耳朵里。 事实上，他根本没动——他只是不停地颤抖，用一种

horrified manner. His heart was beating so fast, his whole chest was shaking. "Oh, all right, fine then," said the beast. "I suppose you're right. I shouldn't spoil my appetite before tomorrow's feast." "So… you still want to eat Bethany?" asked Ebenezer. "You're not too full to appreciate her?" he asked hopefully. "Why yes, of course I'm going to eat her, you fool. That Fozzlewocklewhatever woman was just the appetizer!" said the beast. "And I must say, I'm itching to get my mouth around the main course. It'll be interesting to see what younger, fresher meat tastes like." "I need to go downstairs," said Ebenezer. "Good plan, you need a lie-down—you're not yourself at all, old boy."

震惊的方式。他的心跳得如此之快，整个胸膛都在颤抖。 “哦，好吧，那好吧，”野兽说。 “我想你是对的。在明天的盛宴之前，我不应该破坏我的胃口。” “那么……你还想吃伯大尼？”埃比尼泽问。 “你不会吃得太饱而不感激她吧？”他满怀希望地问。 “当然，我当然要吃了她，你这个傻瓜。 那个福滋毛什么的女人只是开胃菜！”野兽说。 “我必须说，我真想尝尝主菜。 看看更年轻、更新鲜的肉尝起来是什么味道会很有趣。” “我要下楼去，”埃比尼泽说。 “好主意，你需要休息一下——你有点不对劲，老伙计。”

Ebenezer picked up Miss Fizzlewick's box and went downstairs, but he didn't lie down. He went straight to his thinking chambers, a series of extravagantly decorated rooms, which were located on the eighth floor. He sat on one of his many thinking chairs and took a moment to come to terms with the terrible thing he had just seen. Ebenezer had seen the beast eat all manner of live animals—from baby kangaroos to old, grizzled polar bears to Lord Tibbles the cat— and he had watched it bite and tear its way through several ancient objects. It had never been pleasant to watch the beast at mealtimes, but nothing had ever been anything quite like what he had just seen. He hadn't fed Miss Fizzlewick to the beast, but he hadn't done enough to stop it from

埃比尼泽拿起菲兹乐威克小姐的箱子下楼去了，但他没有躺下。 他径直走进了他的思考室，那是一系列装饰华丽的房间，位于八楼。 他坐在一张思考椅上，花了一点时间来接受他刚刚看到的可怕的事情。 埃比尼泽见过这头野兽吃各种各样的活动物——从小袋鼠到老灰熊，再到猫蒂布尔斯勋爵——他还看到过它撕咬和撕裂几件古代文物。 在吃饭的时候看着这头野兽从来都不是一件愉快的事，但从来没有像他刚才看到的那样。 他没有把菲兹乐维克小姐喂给野兽，但他也没有尽力阻止它

happening, either. And now, with all that he had been doing to prepare Bethany for the beast, he realized that he was about to let something similar happen again. There was a burning, gnawing at the pit of his stomach, and it took a few minutes for him to realize that he was feeling guilty again. It can be rather a nasty shock when you realize that you've been behaving badly. The feeling is not unlike the one you experience when you look in the mirror and find out that the leopard-print onesie you've been wearing all day doesn't actually suit you. The gnawing, burning in Ebenezer's stomach grew more and more painful, as he started remembering all the things that he had brought the beast to eat over the years. All the whines, squeaks, and tweets sounded in his

发生。现在，在他为伯大尼的巨兽所做的一切准备之后，他意识到他将让类似的事情再次发生。 有一种灼烧感，在他的胃里咬着，过了几分钟他才意识到他又感到内疚了。 当你意识到自己行为不端时，你可能会感到非常震惊。 这种感觉就像你对着镜子，发现自己穿了一整天的豹纹连体衣并不适合自己。 当埃比尼泽回忆起这些年来他带给野兽吃的所有东西时，胃里的灼烧感变得越来越痛。 所有的哀鸣、吱吱声和啾啾声都在他的耳朵里响起

ears, and every surprised face he had seen flashed before his eyes. Ebenezer had always seen the beast as the evil one, and himself as the helper who had no choice over what he was doing. Now, however, he realized that this was not the case. Every time he had decided to help the beast, in order to get a potion or a present for himself, he had committed a dreadful deed. At any time over the past five hundred years, he could have chosen to stop helping the beast, but instead, he had been selfish and cruel. The feeling of guilt was so overpowering that Ebenezer felt he could no longer stay sitting down. He needed to do something to interrupt his train of thought, so he picked up Miss Fizzlewick's box and continued his descent down the stairs.

耳朵，每一张惊奇的脸都在他眼前闪过。 埃比尼泽一直把那只野兽看作是邪恶的，而他自己则是一个帮手，对自己的所作所为没有选择余地。 然而，现在他意识到情况并非如此。 每次他决定帮助野兽，为了给自己弄到魔药或礼物时，他都做了一件可怕的事。 在过去五百年的任何时候，他都可以选择停止帮助野兽，但他却自私而残忍。 负罪感是如此强烈，埃比尼泽觉得自己再也坐不住了。 他需要做点什么来打断他的思路，所以他拿起菲兹乐维克小姐的箱子，继续下楼。