Chapter 16

CHAPTER XVI Diana Is Invited to Tea with Tragic Results OCTOBER was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in aftermaths. Anne reveled in the world of color about her. "Oh, Marilla," she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill-several thrills? I'm going to decorate my room with them." "Messy things," said Marilla, whose aesthetic sense was not noticeably developed. "You clutter

第十六章 戴安娜受邀喝茶，结果出了意外 十月的绿山墙美不胜收，山谷里的白桦树变得像阳光一样金黄，果园后的枫树染上了华贵的深红色，小路旁的野樱树也换上了深红配铜绿的绝美衣装，收割后的旷野正懒洋洋地晒着太阳。 安妮陶醉在周围这片五彩的世界里。 “哦，玛丽拉！”一个周六的早晨，安妮抱着一大捧漂亮的树枝蹦蹦跳跳跑进来喊道：“我真开心，我生活在一个有十月的世界里。 要是我们直接从九月跳到十一月，那多糟糕呀，对不对？ 你看看这些枫树枝。 它们是不是让你心花怒放——开心好多次呀？ 我要拿它们装饰我的房间。” “这些东西乱糟糟的，”没什么审美细胞的玛丽拉说道。 你乱堆

up your room entirely too much with out-of-doors stuff, Anne. Bedrooms were made to sleep in." "Oh, and dream in too, Marilla. And you know one can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things. I'm going to put these boughs in the old blue jug and set them on my table." "Mind you don't drop leaves all over the stairs then. I'm going on a meeting of the Aid Society at Carmody this afternoon, Anne, and I won't likely be home before dark. You'll have to get Matthew and Jerry their supper, so mind you don't forget to put the tea to draw until you sit down at the table as you did last time." "It was dreadful of me to forget," said Anne apologetically, "but that was the afternoon I was trying to think of a name for Violet Vale and it crowded other things out. Matthew was so good. He never scolded a bit. He put the tea down himself and said we could wait awhile as well as not. And I told him a lovely fairy story while we were waiting, so he didn't find the time long at all. It was a beautiful fairy story, Marilla. I forgot the end of it, so I made up an end for it myself and

你的房间全被这些户外捡来的东西堆满啦，安妮。 卧室本来就是用来睡觉的。” “哦，也是用来做梦的呀，玛丽拉。 你想想哦，房间里摆着漂亮东西，做起梦来都舒服多啦。 我要把这些树枝插在旧蓝罐子里，摆在我的桌上。” 那你可别把叶子掉得满楼梯都是。 我今天下午要去卡莫迪参加救济会的聚会，安妮，天黑前我大概率回不来。 你得给马修和杰里准备晚饭，记住可别像上次那样，都坐到桌边了才想起泡茶叶。” “那次忘记真的是我不对，”安妮抱歉地说，“可那天下午我一直在想给紫罗兰谷起名字，满脑子都是这个，就把别的事忘了。 马修可好了。 他半句话都没骂我。 他自己去泡了茶，还说我们多等一会儿也没关系。 我们等的时候我给他讲了一个超好看的仙女故事，所以他一点都没觉得时间难熬。 那个仙女故事可棒了，玛丽拉。 我忘记原来的结局了，就自己编了一个结尾，

Matthew said he couldn't tell where the join came in." "Matthew would think it all right, Anne, if you took a notion to get up and have dinner in the middle of the night. But you keep your wits about you this time. And-I don't really know if I'm doing right-it may make you more addlepated than ever-but you can ask Diana to come over and spend the afternoon with you and have tea here." "Oh, Marilla!" Anne clasped her hands. "How perfectly lovely! You ARE able to imagine things after all or else you'd never have understood how I've longed for that very thing. It will seem so nice and grown-uppish. No fear of my forgetting to put the tea to draw when I have company. Oh, Marilla, can I use the rosebud spray tea set?" "No, indeed! The rosebud tea set! Well, what next? You know I never use that except for the minister or the Aids. You'll put down the old brown tea set. But you can open the little yellow crock of cherry preserves. It's time it was being used anyhow-I believe it's beginning to work. And you can cut some fruit cake and have some of the cookies and snaps."

马修说，他根本没看出来哪里是我续上的结尾。” “就算你大半夜想起来起来吃饭，安妮，马修也会觉得没问题的。 不过这次你可得清醒点，别再忘事啦。 还有——我也不知道这么做到底对不对——说不定会让你更糊涂——不过你可以邀请戴安娜过来玩一下午，在这里喝茶。” “哦，玛丽拉！” 安妮紧紧攥住了双手。 “这简直太美好啦！ 你原来也能懂我的心思呀，不然你怎么会知道我盼这件事盼了多久呢。 想想就觉得又棒又像大人呢。 放心吧，有客人来，我肯定不会忘记泡茶的。 哦，玛丽拉，我能用那个玫瑰花蕾花纹的茶具吗？” “不行，当然不行！ 那可是宝贝玫瑰花蕾茶具呀！ 你还想拿来用这个？ 你知道的，我只有牧师或者救济会的贵客来才会拿出来用。 你就用那套旧棕色茶具就好了。 不过你可以打开那一小黄罐樱桃果酱。 反正也该吃了，我看它都快发酵变味了。 你还可以切一块水果蛋糕，再拿些饼干和脆甜饼出来。”

"I can just imagine myself sitting down at the head of the table and pouring out the tea," said Anne, shutting her eyes ecstatically. "And asking Diana if she takes sugar! I know she doesn't but of course I'll ask her just as if I didn't know. And then pressing her to take another piece of fruit cake and another helping of preserves. Oh, Marilla, it's a wonderful sensation just to think of it. Can I take her into the spare room to lay off her hat when she comes? And then into the parlor to sit?" "No. The sitting room will do for you and your company. But there's a bottle half full of raspberry cordial that was left over from the church social the other night. It's on the second shelf of the sitting-room closet and you and Diana can have it if you like, and a cooky to eat with it along in the afternoon, for I daresay Matthew'll be late coming in to tea since he's hauling potatoes to the vessel." Anne flew down to the hollow, past the Dryad's Bubble and up the spruce path to Orchard Slope, to ask Diana to tea. As a result just after Marilla had driven off to Carmody, Diana came over, dressed in HER second-best dress and looking exactly as it is proper to look when asked out to tea. At other times she was wont to run into

“我都能想象出我坐在桌子头儿倒茶的样子了，”安妮陶醉地闭着眼睛说。 “还要问戴安娜要不要加糖！ 我知道她不加，不过我当然要装成不知道的样子问她呀。 然后还要催她再吃一块水果蛋糕，再舀一勺果酱。 哦，玛丽拉，光是想想都觉得太激动了。 她来了之后，我可以带她去客房放帽子吗？ 然后再带她去客厅坐下吗？” “不用，客厅就够你和你的客人坐了。 前几天教会聚会剩下半瓶树莓甜果汁， 放在客厅壁橱的第二层架子上，你和戴安娜想喝就喝，下午配饼干吃，马修要运土豆去码头，喝茶肯定会晚回来的。” 安妮一溜烟跑下山谷，穿过树仙泡泡泉，沿着云杉小路赶往果园坡，去邀请戴安娜来喝茶。 结果玛丽拉刚动身去卡莫迪，戴安娜就来了，她穿上了自己第二好看的裙子，模样完全就是受邀出来喝茶该有的得体样子。 换作平常，她总爱径直跑进

the kitchen without knocking; but now she knocked primly at the front door. And when Anne, dressed in her second best, as primly opened it, both little girls shook hands as gravely as if they had never met before. This unnatural solemnity lasted until after Diana had been taken to the east gable to lay off her hat and then had sat for ten minutes in the sitting room, toes in position. "How is your mother?" inquired Anne politely, just as if she had not seen Mrs. Barry picking apples that morning in excellent health and spirits. "She is very well, thank you. I suppose Mr. Cuthbert is hauling potatoes to the LILY SANDS this afternoon, is he?" said Diana, who had ridden down to Mr. Harmon Andrews's that morning in Matthew's cart. "Yes. Our potato crop is very good this year. I hope your father's crop is good too." "It is fairly good, thank you. Have you picked many of your apples yet?" "Oh, ever so many," said Anne forgetting to be dignified and jumping up quickly. "Let's go out to the orchard and get some of the Red Sweetings, Diana. Marilla says we can have all that are left on the tree. Marilla is a very generous woman. She

没敲门就冲进厨房；可这回，她规规矩矩地敲了正门。 当安妮穿着自己第二好的衣服，同样端端正正开了门，两个小姑娘郑重握手，就好像她们从来没见过面似的。 这种不自然的严肃一直维持着，直到戴安娜被带去东阁楼摘下帽子，又在客厅端坐着十分钟，脚尖都摆得规规矩矩。 “你妈妈身体好吗？”安妮礼貌地询问，就好像她早上没看见巴里太太明明身体硬朗、心情不错地摘苹果。 “她很好，谢谢你。 我猜卡斯伯特先生今天下午要去百合滩运土豆，对不对？”戴安娜说道，她今早坐马修的马车去了哈蒙·安德鲁斯先生家。 “对呀。 我们家今年土豆收成很好。 也希望你爸爸家的收成也不错。” “还不赖，谢谢你。 你们家苹果摘了很多了吗？” “哦，已经摘了好多啦，”安妮忘了要保持端庄，一下子蹦了起来。 “我们去果园摘红甜苹果吧，戴安娜。 玛丽拉说树上剩下的都可以给我们吃。 玛丽拉真是个大方的好女人。 她

said we could have fruit cake and cherry preserves for tea. But it isn't good manners to tell your company what you are going to give them to eat, so I won't tell you what she said we could have to drink. Only it begins with an R and a C and it's bright red color. I love bright red drinks, don't you? They taste twice as good as any other color." The orchard, with its great sweeping boughs that bent to the ground with fruit, proved so delightful that the little girls spent most of the afternoon in it, sitting in a grassy corner where the frost had spared the green and the mellow autumn sunshine lingered warmly, eating apples and talking as hard as they could. Diana had much to tell Anne of what went on in school. She had to sit with Gertie Pye and she hated it; Gertie squeaked her pencil all the time and it just made her-Diana's-blood run cold; Ruby Gillis had charmed all her warts away, true's you live, with a magic pebble that old Mary Joe from the Creek gave her. You had to rub the warts with the pebble and then throw it away over your left shoulder at the time of the new moon and the warts would all go. Charlie Sloane's name was written up with Em

说我们下午茶可以吃水果蛋糕和樱桃蜜饯。 不过直接告诉客人你准备了什么吃的可不礼貌，所以我就不告诉你她说我们能喝什么啦。 只告诉你它开头是R和C，颜色是亮红色的。 我超爱亮红色的饮料，你呢？ 它们喝起来比其他颜色的好喝一倍呢。” 果园里粗大的枝桠挂满果子弯到地面，这里太舒服了，两个小姑娘大半个下午都待在这儿：她们坐在霜还没冻枯绿草的草地上，暖融融的秋日阳光暖暖地照着，一边吃苹果，一边起劲聊天。 戴安娜有好多学校里的事要讲给安妮听。 她必须和格蒂·派坐一起，可讨厌这点了； 格蒂的铅笔总是吱呀吱呀响，听得戴安娜浑身都不舒服； 鲁比·吉利斯把身上的瘊子都弄掉了，千真万确，用的是溪边老玛丽·乔给她的魔法鹅卵石。 要先用鹅卵石磨瘊子，再在新月的时候把石头从左肩往后扔，瘊子就全都消了。 查理·斯隆的名字和埃姆