双语·面纱 第四十一章

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The door opened, to Kitty's fancy not quite naturally but as though it swung back of itself on its hinges, and the Mother Superior entered the little room. She stood for an instant on the threshold and a grave smile hovered upon her lips as she looked at the laughing Sister and Waddington's puckered, clownish face. Then she came forward and held out her hand to Kitty.

“Mrs. Fane?” She spoke in English with a good deal of accent, but with a correct pronunciation, and she gave the shadow of a bow.“It is a great pleasure to me to make the acquaintance of the wife of our good and brave doctor.”

Kitty felt that the Superior's eyes held her in a long and unembarrassed look of appraisal. It was so frank that it was not uncivil; you felt that here was a woman whose business it was to form an opinion of others and to whom it never occurred that subterfuge was necessary. With a dignified affability she motioned to her visitors to take chairs and herself sat down. Sister St. Joseph, smiling still but silent, stood at the side but a little behind the Superior.

“I know you English like tea,” said the Mother Superior, “and I have ordered some. But I must make my excuses if it is served in the Chinese fashion. I know that Mr. Waddington prefers whisky, but that I am afraid I cannot offer him.”

She smiled and there was a hint of malice in her grave eyes.

“Oh, come, ma mère, you speak as if I were a confirmed drunkard.”

“I wish you could say that you never drink, Mr. Waddington.”

“I can at all events say that I never drink except to excess.”

The Mother Superior laughed and translated into French for Sister St. Joseph the flippant remark. She looked at him with lingering, friendly eyes.

“We must make allowances for Mr. Waddington because two or three times when we had no money at all and did not know how we were to feed our orphans Mr. Waddington came to our rescue.”

The convert who had opened the door for them now came in with a tray on which were Chinese cups, a teapot, and a little plate of the French cakes called madeleines.

“You must eat the madeleines,” said the Mother Superior,“because Sister St. Joseph made them for you herself this morning.”

They talked of commonplace things. The Mother Superior asked Kitty how long she had been in China and if the journey from Hong Kong had greatly tired her. She asked her if she had been in France and if she did not find the climate of Hong Kong trying. It was a conversation, trivial but friendly, which gained a peculiar savior from the circumstances. The parlour was very quiet, so that you could hardly believe that you were in the midst of the populous city. Peace dwelt there. And yet all round about the epidemic was raging and the people, terrified and restless, were kept in check but by the strong will of a soldier who was more than half a brigand. Within the convent walls the infirmary was crowded with sick and dying soldiers, and of the orphans in the nuns' charge a quarter were dead.

Kitty, impressed she hardly knew why, observed the grave lady who asked her these amiable questions. She was dressed in white and the only color on her habit was the red heart that burned on her breast. She was a woman of middle age, she might have been forty or fifty, it was impossible to say, for there were few wrinkles on her smooth, pale face, and you received the impression that she was far from young chiefly from the dignity of her bearing, her assurance, and the emaciation of her strong and beautiful hands. The face was long, with a large mouth and large, even teeth; the nose, though not small, was delicate and sensitive; but it was the eyes, under their thin black brows, which gave her face its intense and tragic character. They were very large, black, and though not exactly cold, by their calm steadiness strangely compelling. Your first thought when you looked at the Mother Superior was that as a girl she must have been beautiful, but in a moment you realised that this was a woman whose beauty, depending on character, had grown with advancing years. Her voice was deep, low and controlled, and whether she spoke in English or in French she spoke slowly. But the most striking thing about her was the air she had of authority tempered by Christian charity; you felt in her the habit of command. To be obeyed was natural to her, but she accepted obedience with humility. You could not fail to see that she was deeply conscious of the authority of the church which upheld her. But Kitty had a surmise that notwithstanding her austere demeanour she had for human frailty a human tolerance; and it was impossible to look at her grave smile when she listened to Waddington, unabashed, talking nonsense, without being sure that she had a lively sense of the ridiculous.

But there was some other quality in her which Kitty vaguely felt, but could not put a name to. It was something that notwithstanding the Mother Superior's cordiality and the exquisite manners which made Kitty feel like an awkward schoolgirl, held her at a distance.

第四十一章

门开了，让凯蒂想象不到的是，门不是自然打开的，而是好像沿着门轴自己打开似的。修道院院长在门口站了片刻，然后走进了小房间，当她看到正在哈哈大笑的修女和威廷顿皱巴巴的、小丑一般的面孔，她的嘴角边也挂着矜持的笑容，然后向前走来，并向凯蒂伸出了手。

“费恩太太？”她用带着浓重口音，但发音很准的英语说道，说话的同时身子向前欠了欠，“我非常荣幸能够结识我们善良而又勇敢的医生的妻子。”

凯蒂觉得院长的眼睛上上下下地在她身上打量着，目光长久而又不避讳，直率但并不失礼，就好像一位妇女——她的专职工作就是对别人做出评判，对她来说，任何的花招和遮掩都是多余的。谦和中带着威严，她请客人落座，自己也坐了下来。圣约瑟夫修女不出声地笑着，站立在院长的旁边但略微靠后的位置。

“我知道你们英国人喜欢喝茶。”院长说道，“我已经叫人准备了，但是如果这个茶是以中国人的方式准备的，我得提前请您谅解。我知道威廷顿先生更喜欢喝威士忌，可我恐怕无法满足他的要求了。”

她微笑着，但在她严肃的眼里有一种调皮的神色。

“噢，得了吧，嬷嬷，你这样说好像我是个不折不扣的酒鬼似的。”

“我倒是希望你说你从不喝酒，威廷顿先生。”

“无论如何，我能说我不喝则罢，一喝就一醉方休。”

院长嬷嬷笑了起来，把这俏皮话翻译成法语给圣约瑟夫修女听。她用友善的目光注视着威廷顿。

“我们得体谅威廷顿先生，因为有那么两三次，我们一分钱也没有，正不知如何喂养孤儿的时候，威廷顿先生来了，救了我们的急。”

刚才给她们开了大门，并皈依了天主教的小女孩走了进来，手里拿着托盘，上面有很多中国式样的杯子、一个茶壶，还有一小盘叫作玛德琳娜的法国小点心。

“你一定得吃点儿玛德琳娜。”院长嬷嬷说道，“因为这是圣约瑟夫修女今天早上亲手为你做的。”

他们聊了会儿家常，院长嬷嬷问凯蒂来中国多长时间了，从香港过来的一路上是否把她累坏了，还问她是否去过法国，是否觉得香港的气候令人难以忍受。两个人聊的虽然都是一些琐碎的事，但是气氛很友好，与外面险恶的环境相比，有一种特殊的意味。客厅很安静，你几乎无法相信他们正身处人口稠密的城镇中心地带，一片平和安详笼罩着这片院落。然而，它的周围瘟疫正在肆虐，人们惊恐不安，四处奔逃，而跟土匪似的士兵盛气凌人地盘查着百姓。在这所修道院的院墙内，医院里挤满了病人和垂死的士兵，修女们领养的孤儿有四分之一已经死去了。

凯蒂搞不明白自己为什么会对这位严肃的院长嬷嬷产生很好的印象。她总是和蔼可亲地和凯蒂唠着家常。凯蒂观察着这位妇人，她穿着白色的衣服，唯一的色彩是在她的教袍胸口处印着的一颗红心。她是一位中年妇女，年龄大概四十岁或五十岁，不太可能说清楚，因为她光滑、苍白的脸上几乎没有什么皱纹，但又远远称不上年轻，主要从她举止的庄重、她的处变不惊和她强有力、美丽而又清瘦的双手上可以看出来。她的脸比较长，嘴也挺大，甚至牙齿也很突出，鼻子虽然不小，但很精致和灵敏，而她的双眼，在她细细的黑眉毛下，印衬出面孔的冷峻与悲悯，这双眸子很大，乌黑，虽然确切说不是很冷淡，但它们的沉稳给人一种威慑力。当你看到院长嬷嬷时，你第一个念头是嬷嬷年轻时一定是个美人，但过了一会儿，你会认识到她的美丽主要依赖于她的性格，随着岁月的流逝她愈发光彩照人。她的声音低沉、平稳，无论是说英语还是法语，都说得缓慢有力。但是，她身上最突出的特点就是天主教的慈悲所锻炼出来的威严，你能觉察出在她身上有种爱发号施令的习惯，别人顺从她的号令是很自然的，但是她在接受其他人的服从时，态度也很谦卑。你不会看不到她深刻地理解教会的权威性，正是这种权威支撑着她的威严。然而凯蒂有一种猜测，即使她有苦行僧般的态度，但她也有人类的脆弱，有对人类缺点的容忍。当她听威廷顿不加掩饰地满嘴跑火车时，始终面带庄重的微笑，对幽默显然具备十足的理解力。

在她身上还有一些别的品质，这是凯蒂隐隐约约能够感觉到的，但是就是无法明确地说出来。尽管院长嬷嬷很真诚，举手投足又很优雅，但凯蒂觉得自己像个笨手笨脚的中学生，有种要对她敬而远之的感觉。