双语·面纱 第五十一章

51

But sooner or later Sister St. Joseph returned to the subject of the Mother Superior. Kitty had been conscious from the beginning that the personality of this woman dominated the convent. She was regarded by all that dwelt there with love certainly and with admiration, but also with awe and not a little dread. Notwithstanding her kindliness Kitty herself felt like a schoolgirl in her presence. She was never quite at her ease with her, for she was filled with a sentiment which was so strange that it embarrassed her: reverence. Sister St. Joseph, with an ingenuous desire to impress, told Kitty how great the family was to which the Mother Superior belonged; she had among her ancestors persons of historic importance and she was un peu cousine with half the kings of Europe: Alphonso of Spain had hunted at her father's, and they had châteaux all over France. It must have been hard to leave so much grandeur. Kitty listened smilingly, but not a little impressed.

“Du Teste, you have only to look at her,” said the Sister,“to see that, comme famille, c'est le dessus du panier.”

“She has the most beautiful hands that I have ever seen,” said Kitty.

“Ah, but if you only knew how she had used them. She is not afraid of work, notre bonne mère.”

When they had come to this city there had been nothing. They had built the convent. The Mother Superior had made the plans and supervised the work. The moment they arrived they began to save the poor little unwanted girls from the baby-tower and the cruel hands of the midwife. At first they had had no beds to sleep in and no glass to keep out the night air (“and there is nothing,” said Sister St. Joseph, “which is more unwholesome”); and often they had no money left, not only to pay the builders, but even to buy their simple fare; they lived like peasants, what was she saying? the peasants in France, tenez, the men who worked for her father, would have thrown to the pigs the food they ate. And then the Mother Superior would collect her daughters round her and they would kneel and pray; and the Blessed Virgin would send money. A thousand francs would arrive by post next day, or a stranger, an Englishman (a Protestant, if you please) or even a Chinaman would knock at the door while they were actually on their knees and bring them a present. Once they were in such straits that they all made a vow to the Blessed Virgin that they would recite a neuvaine in her honor if she succored them, and, would you believe it? that funny Mr. Waddington came to see us next day and saying that we looked as though we all wanted a good plate of roast beef gave us a hundred dollars.

What a comic little man he was, with his bald head and his little shrewd eyes(ses petits yeux malins)and his jokes. Mon Dieu, how he murdered the French language, and yet you could not help laughing at him. He was always in a good humor. All through this terrible epidemic he carried himself as if he were enjoying a holiday. He had a heart quite French and a wit so that you could hardly believe he was English. Except for his accent. But sometimes Sister St. Joseph thought he spoke badly on purpose to make you laugh. Of course his morals were not all one could wish; but still that was his business (with a sigh, a shrug, and a shake of the head) and he was a bachelor and a young man.

“What is wrong with his morals, ma soeur?” asked Kitty smiling.

“Is it possible that you do not know? It is a sin for me to tell you. I have no business to say such things. He lives with a Chinese woman, that is to say, not a Chinese woman, but a Manchu. A princess, it appears, and she loves him to distraction.”

“That sounds quite impossible,” cried Kitty.

“No, no, I promise you, it is everything that is most true. It is very wicked of him. Those things are not done. Did you not hear, when you first came to the convent and he would not eat the madeleines that I had made expressly, that notre bonne mère said his stomach was deranged by Manchu cooking? That was what she meant and you should have seen the head that he made. It is a story altogether curious. It appears that he was stationed at Hankow during the revolution when they were massacring the Manchus and this good little Waddington saved the lives of one of their great families. They are related to the Imperial Family. The girl fell violently in love with him and--well, the rest you can imagine. And then when he left Hankow she ran away and followed him and now she follows him everywhere, and he has had to resign himself to keep her, poor fellow, and I daresay he is very fond of her; they are quite charming sometimes, these Manchu women. But what am I thinking of? I have a thousand things to do and I sit here. I am a bad religious. I am ashamed of myself.”

第五十一章

但是，最终圣约瑟夫修女的话题还是会回到院长嬷嬷身上。凯蒂从一开始就意识到，嬷嬷在修道院绝对是个核心人物，毫无疑问，她不仅受到修道院所有人员的爱戴和崇拜，而且大家对她还有些敬畏，但不是害怕。尽管凯蒂自己也能感受到她的好意，但在她面前，凯蒂觉得自己好像一个中学生站在校长的面前，往往会局促不安，因为她心中充满一种奇怪的感情——崇敬，甚至让她觉得有些难为情。圣约瑟夫修女用一种给人感觉很天真的口气，急切地告诉凯蒂院长嬷嬷出身多么高贵，她的祖先在历史上曾经有很重要的地位，她和欧洲一半的君主有着或多或少的亲戚关系，西班牙的阿方索国王在她父亲的领地上打过猎，她家在法国各个地方都有庄园，要是一般人，很难放弃这样富贵的生活。凯蒂笑眯眯地听着，但对她的话并没留下什么印象。

“另外，[1]你只需看她的样子，”圣约瑟夫修女说道，“只需看一眼，你就能感觉到，你就能知道她的家庭有多显赫。[2]”

“她有一双我所见过的最美丽的手。”凯蒂说道。

“啊，但是你如果知道她是怎么用这双手的，你就不会这么说了。她什么样的脏活、累活都干过，我们亲爱的嬷嬷。[3]”

刚到这座城镇时，这儿一无所有，她们自己动手修建了修道院。院长嬷嬷制定建设方案，并亲自监督工程。从她们到的那一刻起，她们就开始从育婴堂和接生婆残酷的手上挽救那些被抛弃的贫苦女婴。开始时她们没有床铺可以睡觉，窗户上也没有玻璃来抵挡夜晚的寒风（“再没有，”圣约瑟夫修女说道，“比这儿更脏的地方了。”）。她们经常入不敷出，不仅付不起建筑工人的工资，而且连简单的食品都买不起。她们那时的生活就像是一群农民，她是怎么说的？法国的农民，不对，那些为她父亲工作的人，他们都会把这些修女吃的东西扔给猪当食物。那个时候，院长嬷嬷把修女们召集到她的周围，一起跪地祈祷，祈祷圣母玛利亚能给她们送些钱来。就在她们跪地祈祷的时候，有人邮寄过来一千法郎，或者某个陌生人，一个英国人（可能是一名新教教徒，如果你愿意这样想的话），甚至是个中国人来敲门，给她们带来礼物。一旦她们陷入困境，所有的人都会向圣母玛利亚发誓，如果她能施以援手，她们一定会纪念她而背诵九日经[4]，你会相信吗？爱逗笑的威廷顿先生在第二天过来看我们，说我们看上去好像都想大吃一顿了，所以给我们留下了一百美元。

他是个多么滑稽的小个儿男人呀，光头，精明的小眼睛（一双聪明的小眼睛[5]），喜欢开玩笑。我的上帝呀，看他把法语给糟蹋的，你忍不住要嘲笑他，而他一点儿也不生气。虽然身处可怕的瘟疫重灾区，但他表现得好像是来这儿度假一样。他性情像法国人一样浪漫，又很聪明，除了口音以外，你很难相信他是英国人。但是，有时圣约瑟夫修女认为，他故意把法语说得乱七八糟就是为了让你发笑。当然，他的品行不是所有人都认同的，但那是他自己的事（修女说这话时，叹了口气，耸了耸肩，又摇了摇头），他还是个单身汉，岁数也并不大。

“他的品行怎么了，我的姐妹？”凯蒂笑着问道。

“你真的不知道？那我不该跟你说这些的，跟你说这些闲话真是罪过。他在和一个中国女人同居，确切地说，是个满族女人，好像还是一个格格，她爱他到了发狂的程度。”

“听上去不太可能呀。”凯蒂喊出了声。

“没有什么不可能，我向你保证，每件事差不多都是真的，他可缺德了，远不止这些呢。你还记得第一次来修道院的时候，他不想吃我特意做的玛德琳娜蛋糕，嬷嬷说他的胃被满族的烹调给搞乱了的事吗？她就是指的这件事，你应该看到了他的抵触情绪。说起来，这还是个蛮有意思的故事呢。好像在辛亥革命发生的时候，他正被派驻在汉口，当时革命党人大肆屠杀满族人，这位好心的小威廷顿救了很多清朝贵族的性命，这些人都是些皇亲国戚，那位姑娘疯狂地爱上了他。嗯，后来的事你也能猜到，当他离开汉口时，她也离家出走了，一直追随着他，现在他走到哪儿，她就跟到哪儿，为了跟她在一起，他不得不辞去公职。可怜的家伙，我敢说他也非常喜欢她。有的时候，这些满族女人也是很有魅力的。哎呀，我应该想到还有上千件事情要做呢，而我坐在这儿跟你闲聊，我真是个糟糕的神职人员，应该感到惭愧。”

* * *

[1]原文为法语。

[2]原文为法语。

[3]原文为法语。

[4]原文为法语，一连九天祈祷的习俗，被称为“九日敬礼”“九日经”或“九日礼”，是天主教信徒祈祷方式之一，主要为感恩。

[5]原文为法语。