Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI Marilla Makes Up Her Mind Get there they did, however, in due season. Mrs. Spencer lived in a big yellow house at White Sands Cove, and she came to the door with surprise and welcome mingled on her benevolent face. "Dear, dear," she exclaimed, "you're the last folks I was looking for today, but I'm real glad to see you. You'll put your horse in? And how are you, Anne?" "I'm as well as can be expected, thank you," said Anne smilelessly. A blight seemed to have descended on her. "I suppose we'll stay a little while to rest the mare," said Marilla, "but I promised Matthew I'd be home early. The fact is, Mrs. Spencer, there's been a queer mistake somewhere, and I've come over to see where it is. We send word, Matthew and I, for you to bring us a boy from the asylum. We told your

第六章 玛丽拉拿定主意 不过，他们终究还是按时抵达了目的地。 斯宾塞太太住在白沙湾一栋大大的黄色房子里，她来到门口，和善的脸上交织着惊讶与欢迎。 “哎呀呀，”她惊呼道，“我今天压根没想到你们会来，不过见到你们我真的太开心了。 要把你的马停进厩里吗？ 安妮，你感觉怎么样呀？” “我还过得去，谢谢你，”安妮面无笑容地说。 一片阴霾仿佛笼罩在了她的心上。 “我想我们留这儿歇会儿，让马也喘口气，”玛丽拉说，“不过我答应过马修要早点回家的。 事实上，斯宾塞太太，不知道哪儿出了个古怪的岔子，我过来就是想弄清楚问题出在哪儿。 我和马修托话给你，让你从孤儿院给我们带个男孩回来。 我们让你的

brother Robert to tell you we wanted a boy ten or eleven years old." "Marilla Cuthbert, you don't say so!" said Mrs. Spencer in distress. "Why, Robert sent word down by his daughter Nancy and she said you wanted a girl-didn't she Flora Jane?" appealing to her daughter who had come out to the steps. "She certainly did, Miss Cuthbert," corroborated Flora Jane earnestly. "I'm dreadful sorry," said Mrs. Spencer. "It's too bad; but it certainly wasn't my fault, you see, Miss Cuthbert. I did the best I could and I thought I was following your instructions. Nancy is a terrible flighty thing. I've often had to scold her well for her heedlessness." "It was our own fault," said Marilla resignedly. "We should have come to you ourselves and not left an important message to be passed along by word of mouth in that fashion. Anyhow, the mistake has been made and the only thing to do is to set it right. Can we send the child back to the asylum? I suppose they'll take her back, won't they?"

弟弟罗伯特转告你，我们想要一个十岁到十一岁的男孩。” “玛丽拉·卡思伯特，你说的是真的吗！”斯宾塞太太慌了神。 “哎呀，罗伯特让女儿南希捎话下来，南希说你们想要个女孩——对不对弗洛拉·简？”她向出门来到台阶上的女儿求证。 “确实是这么说的，卡思伯特小姐，”弗洛拉·简认真地确认道。 “真的太抱歉了，”斯宾塞太太说。 “这太糟糕了，但这真的不是我的错，你看，卡思伯特小姐。 我已经尽了全力，我还以为我完全是按你们的要求做的。 南希这丫头实在太毛躁了。 我总因为她粗心大意好好训她。” “这是我们自己的错，”玛丽拉无奈地说。 “这么重要的消息，我们本该亲自来找你，不该就这么托人层层带口信的。 反正错已经犯下了，现在只能想办法补救。 我们能把这个孩子送回孤儿院吗？ 我猜他们会收回去的，对不对？”

"I suppose so," said Mrs. Spencer thoughtfully, "but I don't think it will be necessary to send her back. Mrs. Peter Blewett was up here yesterday, and she was saying to me how much she wished she'd sent by me for a little girl to help her. Mrs. Peter has a large family, you know, and she finds it hard to get help. Anne will be the very girl for you. I call it positively providential." Marilla did not look as if she thought Providence had much to do with the matter. Here was an unexpectedly good chance to get this unwelcome orphan off her hands, and she did not even feel grateful for it. She knew Mrs. Peter Blewett only by sight as a small, shrewish-faced woman without an ounce of superfluous flesh on her bones. But she had heard of her. "A terrible worker and driver," Mrs. Peter was said to be; and discharged servant girls told fearsome tales of her temper and stinginess, and her family of pert, quarrelsome children. Marilla felt a qualm of conscience at the thought of handing Anne over to her tender mercies. "Well, I'll go in and we'll talk the matter over," she said.

“我想是可以的，”斯宾塞太太若有所思地说，“不过我觉得没必要送她回去。 彼得·布鲁威特太太昨天来我这儿，她说特别想让我帮她找个小女孩给她帮忙。 你知道的，彼得太太家孩子很多，很难找到人帮手。 安妮正好就是合适的人选。 我说这简直就是天意啊。” 玛丽拉可不觉得这事有天意什么事。 眼下有这么个意外的好机会送走这个不受欢迎的孤儿，可她甚至都没觉得感激。 她只和彼得·布鲁威特太太见过一面，知道她是小个子，长着一张悍妇脸，瘦得身上连一点多余的肉都没有。 不过她早就听过对方的名声。 人人都说彼得太太“是个拼命使唤人的工作狂， 被她辞退的女仆都讲过好多她脾气差又小气的吓人故事，她那堆孩子还又爱顶嘴又爱吵架。 一想到要把安妮交给她，玛丽拉就良心不安。 “好吧，我进去咱们把这事说清楚，”她说。

"And if there isn't Mrs. Peter coming up the lane this blessed minute!" exclaimed Mrs. Spencer, bustling her guests through the hall into the parlor, where a deadly chill struck on them as if the air had been strained so long through dark green, closely drawn blinds that it had lost every particle of warmth it had ever possessed. "That is real lucky, for we can settle the matter right away. Take the armchair, Miss Cuthbert. Anne, you sit here on the ottoman and don't wiggle. Let me take your hats. Flora Jane, go out and put the kettle on. Good afternoon, Mrs. Blewett. We were just saying how fortunate it was you happened along. Let me introduce you two ladies. Mrs. Blewett, Miss Cuthbert. Please excuse me for just a moment. I forgot to tell Flora Jane to take the buns out of the oven." Mrs. Spencer whisked away, after pulling up the blinds. Anne sitting mutely on the ottoman, with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, stared at Mrs Blewett as one fascinated. Was she to be given into the keeping of this sharp-faced, sharp-eyed

“你看，可不巧了嘛！彼得太太这会儿正沿着小路过来了！”斯宾塞太太喊着，忙不迭领着客人穿过门厅进了客厅，客厅里凉得吓人，就像空气被紧紧拉着的深绿色窗帘闷了太久，早就把原有的暖意耗光了。 这可太走运了，我们马上就能把这事定下来。 卡思伯特小姐，请坐扶手椅。 安妮，你坐这边的脚凳上，别扭来扭去。 我来帮你们拿帽子。 弗洛拉·简，出去烧壶水。 下午好啊，布鲁威特太太。 我们刚还在说，你刚好路过太幸运了。 我来给两位女士做个介绍。 这位是布鲁威特太太，这位是卡思伯特小姐。 失陪我一会儿。 我忘了告诉弗洛拉·简把烤箱里的小面包拿出来了。” 斯宾塞太太拉好窗帘，就急匆匆走了。 安妮安安静静坐在脚凳上，双手紧紧扣在腿上，像被定住了似的盯着布鲁威特太太。 难道她就要被交给这个脸尖眼厉的女人了吗？

woman? She felt a lump coming up in her throat and her eyes smarted painfully. She was beginning to be afraid she couldn't keep the tears back when Mrs. Spencer returned, flushed and beaming, quite capable of taking any and every difficulty, physical, mental or spiritual, into consideration and settling it out of hand. "It seems there's been a mistake about this little girl, Mrs. Blewett," she said. "I was under the impression that Mr. and Miss Cuthbert wanted a little girl to adopt. I was certainly told so. But it seems it was a boy they wanted. So if you're still of the same mind you were yesterday, I think she'll be just the thing for you." Mrs. Blewett darted her eyes over Anne from head to foot. "How old are you and what's your name?" she demanded. "Anne Shirley," faltered the shrinking child, not daring to make any stipulations regarding the spelling thereof, "and I'm eleven years old." "Humph! You don't look as if there was much to you.

女人？ 她感到喉咙发堵，眼睛刺得生疼。 她正怕自己忍不住掉眼泪，斯宾塞太太回来了，她红光满面、笑容灿烂，不管是身体、心理还是精神上的难题，她都能随手解决掉。 “布鲁埃特太太，这个小女孩好像出了点岔子，”她说。 “我一直以为卡斯伯特先生和卡斯伯特小姐想要收养一个小女孩。 确实是这么告诉我的。 可原来他们想要的是个男孩。 要是你昨天说的意愿还没变，那她正合适给你。” 布鲁埃特太太把安妮从头到脚快速打量了一遍。 “你几岁了？叫什么名字？” 她追问道。 “安妮·雪莉，”这个怯生生的小姑娘结结巴巴地说，连强调名字拼写都不敢，“我十一岁了。” “哼！ 你看着瘦巴巴的，没多少力气啊。

But you're wiry. I don't know but the wiry ones are the best after all. Well, if I take you you'll have to be a good girl, you know-good and smart and respectful. I'll expect you to earn your keep, and no mistake about that. Yes, I suppose I might as well take her off your hands, Miss Cuthbert. The baby's awful fractious, and I'm clean worn out attending to him. If you like I can take her right home now." Marilla looked at Anne and softened at sight of the child's pale face with its look of mute misery-the misery of a helpless little creature who finds itself once more caught in the trap from which it had escaped. Marilla felt an uncomfortable conviction that, if she denied the appeal of that look, it would haunt her to her dying day. Moreover, she did not fancy Mrs. Blewett. To hand a sensitive, "highstrung" child over to such a woman! No, she could not take the responsibility of doing that! "Well, I don't know," she said slowly. "I didn't say that Matthew and I had absolutely decided that we wouldn't keep her. In fact I may say that Matthew is disposed to keep her. I just came over to find out how the mistake had occurred. I think

不过你倒是结实有劲。 说不准，结实能干的到头来反而最好。 行，要是我收下你，你得做个好姑娘，要乖、要机灵还要懂礼貌，知道吗。 你得干活挣自己的饭吃，这点绝不含糊。 行吧，那我就把她从你这儿接走，卡斯伯特小姐。 我家小宝宝太闹人了，照顾他我都累坏了。 要是你们愿意，我现在就能带她回家。” 玛丽拉看着安妮，瞧见这孩子苍白脸上满是无声的痛苦——这个无助的小家伙，刚逃出陷阱又重新落进去，不由得心软了。 玛丽拉心里很不安，她清楚，如果她无视这眼神里的哀求，这份愧疚会缠她一辈子。 再说，玛丽拉本来就不喜欢布鲁埃特太太。 把一个敏感、容易激动的孩子交到这种女人手里！ 不行，她不能这么做，负不起这个责任！ “嗯，我还没拿定主意，”她缓缓说道。 “我没说我和马修已经打定主意不收她了。 其实我可以告诉你，马修是倾向于留她下来的。 我就是过来弄清楚这个错误是怎么发生的。 我觉得