第一章 任务描述

本次翻译实践报告所分析的文本取自小说The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit（《穿灰色法兰绒西装的男人》）。此次翻译实践是为了适应全国MTI发展的新形势，辅助MTI教学，满足MTI学生对实践、实习机会的需要。

1.1作者简介

斯隆•威尔逊（Sloan Wilson）生于1920年，美国康涅狄克州的诺瓦克，十八岁时曾从波士顿航船到哈瓦那，毕业于美国哈弗大学，曾参加过第二次世界大战，二战后曾做过记者，也曾在大学职教。一生写过15部作品，其中的两部The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit（《穿灰色法兰绒西装的男人》）和A Summer Place（《畸恋》）曾被拍成电影，深受观众喜爱。

1.2文本介绍

小说以第二次世界大战做背景，讲述了一对夫妻汤姆和贝琪在经历了战争的残酷、爱人的背叛等种种考验后，用爱和包容治愈了彼此受伤的心灵，最终携手幸福生活的故事。

汤姆在战争前，对上前线打仗充满了浪漫主义幻想，但从上战场的那一刻，他就意识到了战争的残酷。他在情人玛莉亚那里寻找安慰，玛莉亚成为了他心灵的避风港。战争结束后，汤姆不得不与玛莉亚分开，回到妻子贝琪身边，但战争在汤姆的心里留下了一块无法愈合的伤疤，也使这对夫妻间产生了隔阂。从战场回归生活，二战后的社会发生了巨大的变革，经济快速发展，人们的眼中似乎只有利益，一切都向“钱”看齐，面对这样的落差，汤姆内心失落、无所适从。汤姆在霍普金先生那里得到了一份工作，但他同时也知道自己并不符合霍普金先生的期望，再加上向妻子隐瞒了情人玛莉亚的事情，让汤姆觉得自己生活在谎言之中，一切都那么的虚无缥缈。对于这些谎言，汤姆内心充满了挣扎，最终他选择了坦白，而妻子贝琪也用宽容与爱抚平了汤姆内心的那道伤疤。这部小说在出版后大受欢迎，因为它抚慰了无数从战场上归来的战士，让他们看到了光明与希望。

这是一部叙事性小说，以人物描写为主线，通过人物所在环境、心理、情感的变化，来突出在战争结束后，只有爱和宽容才能抚平人们心中的伤痛，带领人们驶向幸福的彼岸。

第二章 任务过程

2.1 译前准备

2.1.1 译员确定

此次翻译实践任务为文学小说英译汉，翻译的作品是美国著名小说家斯隆•威尔逊（Sloan Wilson）的小说The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit。参与本次任务前，各位候选译员需完成1000个英文单词的试译，试译完成后，译稿由导师审核，译稿合格者方可正式参与该任务。小说The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit最终确定包括笔者在内的四名译员协同完成翻译工作。

2.1.2 任务分配

本次人物按章节分配，笔者在此次任务中共翻译10章，依次为第18章——第19章，第21章——第24章，第34章——第37章。

2.1.3 翻译工具

在翻译过程中，译者使用的工具包括：商务印书馆出版的《牛津高阶英汉双解词典》（第6版），由陆谷孙主编、上海译文出版社出版的《英汉大词典》，以及灵格斯翻译家和有道词典等网络辅助工具。

2.1.4 信息收集

信息收集是译前准备的重要步骤，包括小组成员间的信息收集以及小组外部的信息收集。首先，小组各成员通读原文，对小说内容及主旨进行讨论，加深彼此对于原文的理解。接着，各成员通过图书馆以及网络等各种渠道搜集外部信息，包括作者信息、作品信息、作者同类作品信息等。最后，小组再次讨论，进行信息共享、深入探讨，确定翻译基调。经过信息收集，译员在翻译过程中能够更好地把握整体风格、处理细节问题。

2.1.5 翻译计划

此次翻译任务共持续6个月，2012年7月接到翻译稿件，2013年1月初提交翻译定稿。小组成员商讨决定，每周翻译1000个左右的英文单词。具体计划如下： 周一至周四，四位译员各自进行翻译，每天完成250个左右的英文单词，每天的任务量可根据时间灵活调整，在翻译过程中译员将各自遇到的问题进行整理，每周五下午2:00——5:00进行集中讨论。讨论中未能解决的问题，各自进行再次整理，周五晚8:00前提交给小组组长，小组组长将问题统一提交给导师。导师查阅所提交问题，并将问题反馈发到四位译员的邮箱，译员根据老师的反馈修改译文。

2.2 翻译过程

2.2.1 词汇表的制定

在翻译过程中，如遇到地名、人名则参照导师提供的词汇表进行翻译，词汇表中没有的，由四位译员协商确定，译名确定后，再按照词汇表中的字母顺序，添加至词汇表中。

2.2.2 翻译执行情况

翻译计划制定完成、译名统一之后，译员开始进行翻译工作。按照原定计划，每周翻译1000个左右的英文单词，并分三次向导师提交了译文：

2012年10月底第一次提交译稿，完成8000个左右英文单词的翻译工作。

2012年12月底第二次提交译稿，完成10000个左右英文单词（包括第一次提交的译稿）的翻译工作。

2013年2月中旬第三次提交译稿，完成全部翻译工作。

2.3 译后事项

2.3.1 质量控制

为保证翻译质量，译员在翻译过程中不断抽出时间回顾之前的译文，并且不断进行修改，这是一个自我校对的过程。每完成一章的译稿，四位译员便进行交换校对，从译文准确度、译名的一致性、表达的连贯性、文字及标点符号的书写等方面进行细致检查，对译文质量进行严格把关。

2.3.2 导师审校

除试译外，在完成本次任务的过程中，译员共分为三次向导师提交译稿。译员上交译稿后，由导师进行修改，再将修改后的译文反馈给译员。

第三章 案例分析

在我国几千年的翻译史中，对我们影响最大的翻译标准是严复在《天演论》中提出的“信、达、雅”。“信”是指译文要忠实原文的意思，忠实原作的风格；“达”是指译文要明白通顺；“雅”是指追求原文本身的古雅，然而随着翻译标准的不断改变，“雅”的标准也发生了很大变化，现在我们说的“雅”大多是指在忠于原作的意思和风格的基础上使译文具有美感。译文要达到“信、达、雅”的标准有很多方法和技巧，此次翻译报告，我针对如何使用汉语四字格来帮助我们达到这一标准进行了详尽的讨论，希望能起到抛砖引玉的作用。

四字格，也叫四字结构，是一个较宽泛的概念。它包括：四字成语、四字叠音词、四字熟语和所有临时组合而具有类似四字成语修辞功能的四字短语。四字格通常简洁凝练、内含丰富、形象生动、节奏感强、富有韵律。正是因为汉语四字格的这些特点，我们才能通过四字格的使用，使译文达到“信、达、雅”的标准。下面我根据《穿灰色法兰绒西装的男人》的第22、23、34、35这四章的翻译实践中的若干实例，来体现汉语四字格在文学小说翻译中的应用，希望能给广大文学爱好者带来一些启示。

3.1 按部就班

在翻译过程中，按照原文的结构、风格和节奏采用与原文相近的合适的四字格，这可以使译文在准确表达原文意思的同时，更加贴近原文。

案例1

The breakfast business appointment was routine; it had been routine for ten years. So many people wanted to see Hopkins that it was necessary to fit them in wherever possible.

初译：早餐时谈生意，已经成了惯例；十年来一直都是这样。太多人想约见霍普金，必须一有时间就把他们安排进来。

改译：早餐时谈生意，已经成了惯例；十年来一直都是这样。太多人想约见霍普金，必须把他们安排进来，见缝插针。

分析说明：霍普金先生的私人秘书麦克唐纳小姐正向他介绍早晨要与他共进早餐的艾伯特•皮尔斯先生，书中随后交代商业早餐已经成了霍普金先生的惯例，又举例各色各样的人都想约见霍普金先生，甚至就连霍普金先生早餐的时间也都排满了日程安排，来再次印证霍普金先生工作繁忙，时间安排得很紧凑。Fit them in wherever possible，在初译时翻译为一有可能就要把他们安排进来。在二次修改的过程中，考虑到这里主要想说明的是霍普金先生的时间宝贵，安排紧凑，决定采用“见缝插针”这个词，这样翻译不但与原文形式对应，而且它的解释是比喻尽可能利用一切可以利用的空间或时间，用在这里恰如其分。既能表现出霍普金先生的工作安排紧凑，又非常生动形象。

案例2

He had felt impelled to get up and pace up and down the room, jingling his change in his pockets and glancing at the clock.

初译：他会不由自主地站起来，在屋子里踱步，摆弄他口袋里的零钱发出叮当声，盯着钟表看。

改译：他总是忍不住要站起来，在房间里来回踱步，鼓弄口袋里的硬币，发出哗啦哗啦响声儿，不时地扫一眼挂钟。

分析说明：霍普金先生在他妻子的一再要求下，不再那样无休无止地工作，开始回归家庭，但他发现自己根本适应不了这样的生活，在家中陪伴妻子和孩子，让他觉得内心焦虑，坐立不安。所以霍普金先生才会无聊地鼓弄口袋中的硬币，不时地扫一眼墙上的挂钟，Gingle在这里做动词，初译时，把这个词译为发出叮当声，但改译后“哗啦哗啦”这种拟声词表达得更生动形象，更能将读者带入到原文的语境当中，仿佛读者耳边也响起了霍普金先生在无聊时，鼓弄硬币所发出的哗啦哗啦声儿。

案例3

Helen had remonstrated with him. There had been recriminations, high-pitched arguments, and threats of divorce.

初译：海伦曾跟他提出抗议。她曾对他加以指责，尖声的争吵，还以离婚作为威胁。

改译：海伦老是反驳他。他们互相指责、大吵大闹，甚至以离婚来威胁彼此。

分析说明：霍普金先生把所有时间和精力都扑在工作上，是个十足的工作狂，因此他没有时间去陪伴家人，妻子海伦也为此和他不断产生矛盾。Recriminations, high-pitched arguments这两个名词，在翻译时译为动词，初译时，简单地将这几个词罗列开，译文在形式上看起来有些凌乱，所以在二次修改译文时，将这两个名词翻译成四字格形式，并构成意思上的递进，使得译文的形式更优美，节奏感也强了。

案例4

When he awoke he felt exhausted and so irritable that the high- pitched voices of the children at the breakfast table annoyed him.

初译：当他醒来时，他觉得很疲惫，情绪暴躁，就连孩子们在早餐时大声交谈的声音也让他恼怒。

改译：当他醒来时，他觉得精疲力尽，怒不可遏，就连孩子们在早餐时大声交谈的声音也让他恼怒。

分析说明：汤姆在工作上要担任霍普金先生的私人秘书，工作压力大，节奏快，而另一方面祖母留给汤姆的那套房子产权受到了质疑，还要通过一系列的法律流程，才能敲定房屋的归属权。面对这些烦恼，汤姆晚上经常失眠，第二天早晨起来时人也会比较暴躁。Exhausted and so irritable两个并列形容词的结构，在初次翻译时，将此处译为很疲惫，情绪暴躁，译文没有保留下原文的并列形式，而且情绪暴躁这个词用在此处也不准确，暴躁一般都是用来修饰脾气的，所以在改译时，用四字格“筋疲力尽”来代替很疲惫，用“怒不可遏”来代替情绪暴躁，这样原文中的两个形容词都翻译成了四字格的形式，两个并列四字格使原文的形式得到保留，也使译文更流畅。

案例5

The rocks were massive and craggy, some of them tinged with a dull red hue, which was probably iron ore.

初译：这里有大块的石头，崎岖的峭壁，有些石头略微呈现出暗红色，它们很可能就是铁矿石。

改译：大块大块的石头，嶙峋陡峭，有些还略微呈现出暗红色，很可能是铁矿石。

分析说明：汤姆开车要回到祖母留给他的老房子中，但一路上道路崎岖，都是大块大块的石头，汤姆因为心想着房屋归属权的问题，所以心神不宁，有些走神儿，一不小心撞上了岩石。Massive and craggy这两个形容词都是用来形容岩石的，massive着重描述石头的个头大，craggy描述石头的崎岖和陡峭，将craggy翻译为嶙峋陡峭这种四字格的形式，使译文在表达上短小精炼，而且这个四字格也能恰当地表现出山路的崎岖难行。

案例6

For some reason he didn’t want to go into the dim old house. Instead, he walked alone into the tall grass toward the distant row of pines. In the distance the smooth surface of the Sound glittered. The children bounded after him until Betsy called them back. “Leave your father alone,”she said.

初译：出于某种原因，他不想走进那栋昏暗的老房子中。相反，他独自一人踩着繁茂的草丛，朝远处那一排松树走去。远处松得海峡平静的海面上星光闪耀。孩子们跳着跟在他后面直到贝琪把他们叫回来。“让你爸爸自己待会，”她说。

改译：出于某种原因，他不想走进那栋昏暗的老房子里。相反，他独自一人朝远处那一排松树走去，脚下踩着繁茂的草丛。远处长岛海峡海面平静、波光粼粼。孩子们蹦蹦跳跳地跟在他身后，贝琪却把孩子们都叫了回来。“让你爸爸自己待会儿，”她说。

分析说明：汤姆得知祖母留给他的房子，产权有争议时，心里烦躁。但孩子们对此却一无所知，仍快乐地跟在父亲身后，妻子理解他的苦闷，叫孩子们不要缠着父亲，让丈夫一个人静一静。Bound这里的意思是jump or spring; run with jumping movements (in a specified direction)跳；跃；蹦着跑（向某方向）。为了体现孩子们的活泼好动，将bound译为“蹦蹦跳跳”这种叠字结构，“蹦蹦跳跳”这个词很有动感，给人跳动的感觉，用在这里可以使译文中孩子活泼好动的形象更立体、更鲜活。

案例7

I’ll write copy telling people to eat more corn flakes and smoke more and more cigarettes and buy more refrigerators and automobiles, until they explode with happiness.

初译：我能写些广告文案，告诉人们多吃玉米片，多抽烟，多买些冰箱，汽车，直到他们高兴为止。

改译：我能写些广告文案、告诉人们多吃玉米片、多抽烟、多买些冰箱、汽车，一定能让老板们心花怒放。

分析说明：汤姆在担任霍普金先生的私人秘书时，工作给他带来了很大的压力。他觉得自己很难得到霍普金先生的肯定，迟早会失业。此处就是汤姆在想象自己失业后还可能从事的工作。Explode with happiness在初译时，将其译为高兴，但总觉得这种表达和原文还有些差距，没有将explode的意思展现出来，在改译时，将这里译为“心花怒放”，“怒”和“explode”这个词相对应，表现出了原文的风格，并且使译文的表达更绚丽多彩。

案例8

Immediately a horde of children rushed through the door which Tom had just entered and dashed down the hall. They continued to funnel in from the playground, jostling and pushing each other.

初译：立刻就有一群孩子快速冲进汤姆刚刚走过的那道门，冲向大厅。还有孩子继续从操场汇集进来，他们相互推挤着对方。

改译：立刻就有一群孩子快速冲进汤姆刚刚走过的那道门，冲向大厅。还有孩子继续从操场涌进来，相互挤来挤去。

分析说明：简妮因为学校条件艰苦，而不想去学校，汤姆在无奈之下，只能亲自送女儿上学，正赶上学校的上课铃响起，汤姆看到孩子们迅速地冲进教学楼的大厅，人挤着人，混乱不堪的场景。在翻译jostling and pushing each other时，查阅了句子中两个动词的释义。Jostle: push roughly against (sb), usu in a crowd推、挤（某人）（通常于人群中）。Push: use force in order to move sth away from oneself推；搡。也就是说jostle和push这两个词意思相近，在初译时，将这两个词译为推挤，但总觉得译文在意思表达上不到位。所以在修改译文时，将这里改译为“挤来挤去”，这种四字格的形式，强调学校大厅环境差，学生乱作一团，拥挤不堪的场景。小说原文是两个并列的动词，译文的四字格也是这种形式，使原文和译文在形式上保持一致，也使译文整齐匀称、形式优美。

案例9

“They’re from the public school!” she had said, incorporating a sly slur in the words which none of her pupils had missed.

初译：“他们是公立学校的！”她说道，同时带着心照不宣的诋毁，她的每个学生也都感觉到了。

改译：“他们是公立学校的！”她说道，话中带着心照不宣的侮蔑，她的学生们也都心领神会。

分析说明：公立学校的孩子们经常闯进乡村走读学校的操场上玩滑梯和秋千，而乡村走读学校的老师和孩子们出于自身的一种优越感，对跑来玩儿的公立学校的孩子们嗤之以鼻。Sly在词典中有三种解释，1. (ofen derog 常作贬义) acting or done in a secret, often cunning and deceitful, way 狡猾的；狡诈的 2. suggesting that one knows sth secret; knowing 会意的；会心的 3. mischievous; playful 淘气的；顽皮的。在选择取哪种释义的时，最先排除第三种释义，第一种、第二种释义选择哪个，结合句子，后面的定语从句对前面进行了解释说明，none of her pupils had missed她的学生都没错过，也就是都感觉到了，因此选择会意的；会心的这种解释，这个词在这里有只可意会不可言传之意，所以翻译为“心照不宣正”合适。再说后面定语从句的翻译，这里被导师改为“心领神会”。心领神会：指对方没有明说，心里已经领会。这个词用在这里，不但将not miss的意思翻译了出来，而且还与前文中sly相呼应，使译文与原文中的语境和风格相契合。

案例10

I bet Hopkins knows these by heart. Anyone who seriously intended to make this company his career should study its history.

初译：我确信霍普金熟记它们。真正打算把这家公司当作事业经营的人应该研究它的历史。

改译：想必霍普金一定对这些材料了如指掌。真正想在公司干一番事业的人，都应该好好了解公司的发展史。

分析说明：麦克唐纳小姐按照霍普金先生的吩咐，将介绍公司情况的材料拿给汤姆看。汤姆拿到厚厚的材料后，心中感慨，觉得身为工作狂人的霍普金先生一定对这些资料非常熟悉。自己也要努力工作，迎头赶上才行。Hopkins knows these by heart在初次翻译时，将其译为熟记，和修改后的译文“了如指掌”相比，“了如指掌”更为生动形象。了如指掌：指对事物了解非常清楚，像把东西放在手掌里给人家看一样。用这种形象的比喻能够特别直接地体现出在汤姆眼中霍普金先生勤勤恳恳工作的这一形象。

案例11

It seemed to Tom suddenly that he had managed to get himself into a position which made it necessary to keep secrets from both his employer and his wife—that both, if they knew the truth about him, would abandon him. Maybe that's why I'm on edge all the time, he thought—I have to keep pretending.

初译：汤姆突然觉得，他挣扎着是自己到了这样一种境地，使他必须向他的老板和妻子保密，他们两个人如果知道了有关他的事实，会抛弃他的。可能这就是为什么我总是处在边缘上，他想——我不得不继续装下去。

改译：汤姆突然意识到，自己居然沦落到这种境地，不得不向老板和妻子保密——一旦他们两个人知道了真相，老板就会炒了他，妻子也会离开他。他想，这可能就是自己这段日子焦躁不安的原因，还是继续保密吧。

分析说明：汤姆的心理描写部分，汤姆对妻子隐瞒情人玛利亚的事，对老板霍普金先生许诺做他的私人助理，而自己却并不打算做。对二人的欺骗让汤姆心中烦躁，如果两个人知道了他内心所想，老板一定会炒了他，而妻子也会离开他的。On edge在初译时，仅考虑到edge有边缘的意思，但再次阅读译文时，这里就显得很不通顺。查找词典，发现on edge是固定词组，有紧张不安的；兴奋地；易怒的；烦躁的这些释义。显然这是由于疏忽导致译文翻译的错误，那么查找了on edge的种种释义，就只需对号入座了。此处汤姆欺骗妻子和老板，害怕自己的秘密终有一天会被揭开，内心有烦躁的情绪，也有不安的情绪，所以译为四字格“焦躁不安”，就可以将汤姆心中的那两种情绪都表达出来。

案例12

A half hour after Tom arrived at his new desk, Hopkins came out of his inner office. “Good morning, Tom!” he said briskly. “Good to have you here!”

初译：在汤姆到他的新办公桌半个小时后，霍普金从他里间的办公室出来了。“汤姆，早上好！”他爽快地说。“有你在这儿真好！”

改译：汤姆在新办公桌前等了半个小时后，霍普金从里间办公室走了出来。霍普金看起来神采奕奕，说道“汤姆，早上好！欢迎你到这儿工作！”

分析说明：汤姆作霍普金先生的私人秘书时，第一天早晨来到办公室的场景。Brisk: quick; active; energetic敏捷的；活泼的；精神饱满的。在初译时，采用了brisk的第一种释义quick，翻译为爽快。但在检查时，再次通读前后文，前面介绍的是霍普金先生是一个在工作上很有激情的人，那么这里还是选择第三种energetic的释义比较符合情景，汤姆来到办公室，应该是看到了一位神采奕奕，干劲儿十足的这么一位老板。

案例13

Hopkins was pacing back and forth, looking ill at ease.

初译：霍普金不停地走来走去，看起来很不安。

改译：霍普金踱来踱去，看起来局促不安。

分析说明：霍普金先生在工作中，遇到了难题，所以他在办公室里一边踱来踱去，一边思考着问题。初译时，将look ill at ease翻译为不安，意思的表达上没有什么不妥，但前面pace back and forth，翻译为“踱来踱去”，后文为了使译文形式整齐、优美，将look ill at ease改译为四字格“局促不安”，可以准确表述霍普金内心不安的情绪。两个四字格保留了原文的形式，不但使译文朗朗上口，更增加了译文的文采。

案例14

“Sure, sooner or later. When Louis gets on his feet, they’ll get in touch with Gina’s mother. Anyway, I’ll let you know.”

初译：“是的，早晚会的。当路易斯独立时，他们会和吉娜的母亲联系的。总之，我会让你知道的。”

改译：“肯定会有信儿的，早晚的事儿。一旦路易斯能自食其力，他们就会和吉娜的母亲联系。总之，我会告诉你的。”

分析说明：二战结束后，私生子路易斯与汤姆断了联系。知情人凯撒安慰汤姆，说汤姆会再次得知私生子路易斯的消息。Get on his feet比较前后两次的译文，第一次翻译为独立，但独立在这里用的不是很好，独立通常的主语是国家，一般说哪个国家独立了，或是有脱离的意思，这里也并不想表达路易斯脱离家庭的意思，只是想说路易斯能够自己养活自己，在经济上独立，那么综合上述分析，这里用四字格“自食其力”正合适。

3.2 添枝加叶

英文句子和中文句子有时不可能在意义和形式上都完整对应，这时如果简单地进行逐字翻译，很难准确表述原文，采用四字格修饰翻译这样的句子，需要在原文字面的意思外添枝加叶，这样既可以伸展原文的内含意义，还可以使译文达意、神似。

案例15

In addition to that, he was a member of committees and commissions studying, variously, conditions in South India, Public Health in the United States, Racial Segregation, Higher Standards for Advertising, the Parking Problem in New York City, Farm Subsidies, Safety on the Highways, Freedom of the Press, Atomic Energy, the House Rules of the City Club, and a Code of Decency for Comic Books.

初译：此外，他是多家委员会的成员，这些委员会分别研究印度南部、美国的公共卫生、种族隔离、广告业的高标准、纽约市区的停车问题、农产品补贴、高速公路的安全、出版自由、原子能、俱乐部的规则、漫画书的得体规范这些问题的现状。

改译：除此之外，他还参加了各类委员会，研究的内容五花八门，包括南印度形势、美国公共卫生、种族隔离、提高广告业基准、纽约市的停车问题、农场补贴、高速公路安全问题、新闻自由、原子能、城市俱乐部的管制规则、和漫画书的文明规范。

分析说明：此处为了体现霍普金先生的繁忙，介绍了霍普金先生在多家机构担任要职。查阅英汉双解字典，variously的英文释义为differently according to the particular case, time, place, etc，它的汉语释义为（情况、时间、处所等）不同地。此处主要想说的是这些委员会研究的内容各不相同，但在这里也不能直白地将variously翻译为不同地，这样前后文衔接不上，所以在初次翻译时就将这个词译为了“分别”，暗含不同之意。Variously前后分别用逗号隔开，属于强调的内容，但在初译中却没有体现出这点，结合小说的这个章节，此处突出表现霍普金先生的繁忙，而且后文介绍的是各个委员会所研究的不同领域，这里将variously添枝加叶译为“五花八门”，强调霍普金先生涉猎的领域之广，句子的结构也同原文一样保持不变，前后文用逗号隔开，起到强调的作用。

案例16

Leaving her family to fend for itself most of the time, she had thrown all her energy into working for the local garden club and a bewildering variety of social and civic organizations. As she gained positions of leadership in these groups, her resentment at her serenely undistinguished husband had grown.

初译：她大多数时候都脱离家庭，自行谋生，她把所有精力都投入了当地一家园艺俱乐部里和各色各样的社会和民间机构中。随着她在这些团体中取得的管理职位，她对自己平凡丈夫的不满也越来越大。

改译：母亲长年累月地把家人扔在一边，一心扑在工作上，她经常参加当地的园艺俱乐部，加入令人眼花缭乱的各种社会和民间组织。当她在各种团体中都位高权重时，她对自己平庸的丈夫也越发不满了。

分析说明：霍普金先生在进行心理治疗时，回忆自己的童年，母亲是个事业上的女强人，而父亲的事业却没有什么起色。将父亲的碌碌无为与母亲的成功作对比。Gained positions of leadership按照字面的意思翻译是取得了管理职位，但在这里主要是想强调霍普金先生的母亲取得的成功，和他父亲事业上的平庸做对比，突出这种差距对霍普金先生的人生观造成的影响。霍普金先生的母亲具体得到什么样的职位不是小说关注的重点，主要想用取得管理职位来说明她成功了，所以在翻译时，将此处添枝加叶翻译为“位高权重”，这个词形容地位高权利大，在这里用来描述霍普金先生的母亲取得的成功恰如其分。

案例17

After he had brushed his teeth and shaved, Hopkins went into his dressing room, where his valet had laid out his clothes. The valet was not there—Hopkins liked to have his clothes laid out for him, but hated to have people fussing about him. He dressed himself.

初译：在他刷完牙，刮完胡子之后，霍普金走进了更衣室，侍者已经把他的衣服摆放在那里了。侍者没在那里——霍普金喜欢让人把他的衣服摆出来，但是他不喜欢别人在他身边瞎忙活。他自己穿好了衣服。

改译：刷完牙、刮好胡子之后，霍普金走进了更衣室。仆人已经为他准备好了衣服，他自己穿好了衣服。此刻仆人不在——他喜欢仆人提前为他准备好衣服，但却不喜欢他们在他身边忙来忙去。

分析说明：前文交代了霍普金先生从早晨醒来睁开眼睛的那一刻，就注定要迎来的繁忙的一天。这里说的是霍普金先生出门前的准备工作，洗浴、称体重、刷牙、刮胡子、穿衣服等一系列的事情。霍普金先生喜欢仆人提前为他准备好要用的东西，而不是自己在洗脸、刮胡子、穿衣服时，仆人围在自己身边做事。在翻译fuss这个词时，首先翻阅了词典找到它的双语解释，有两种解释 1. be worried or excited, esp over small things烦恼，激动（尤指对小事）；2. annoy or disturb (sb) 扰乱，打搅（某人）。结合单词所在的句子，选用了它的第二种释义。这里想表达的是霍普金先生不喜欢别人在他身边打扰他。在二次检查时，认为“瞎忙活”用在这里不合适，这个词一般是被用作谦虚客套的话，指没有正事儿可做。而此处仆人要为他准备衣服，做早餐，这些都是很具体的工作，所以在二次翻译时，将此处改译为“忙来忙去”，可以伸展原文的内含意义，明确表现出霍普金先生喜欢仆人提前将他的东西准备好，而不是到要用的时候，仆人在他身边忙忙碌碌的状态。

案例18

Suddenly he longed for the day to be over—he was ashamed to find that for no particular reason he felt exhausted, and he wanted to go home and relax.

初译：他突然渴望这一天的结束——他羞愧地发现，没有什么特殊的理由，他觉得疲惫，他想回家放松一下。

改译：突然间，他渴望这一天的结束——没有什么特别的理由，他就是觉得筋疲力尽，想回家放松一下，对此他深感羞愧。

分析说明：汤姆开始了在霍普金先生那里的工作后，工作节奏紧张，让他身心俱疲。Exhausted: very tired极其疲倦的。在初译时，将其翻译为疲惫。后改译为“筋疲力尽”，“筋疲力尽”所描述的状态比疲惫更加形象，而且语气也更为强烈，充分体现出原文的内含意义。

案例19

He had tried. Especially when their first child, Robert, had come, during the second year of their marriage, he had tried. He had come home every evening at six o'clock and conscientiously played with the baby and sat talking with his wife, and he had been genuinely appalled to find that the baby made him nervous, and that while he was talking to his wife, it was almost impossible for him to sit quietly.

初译：他曾经试过。特别是在婚后第二年，他们的第一个孩子罗伯特降生的时候，他曾努力尝试过。每晚六点钟回家，和孩子玩，陪妻子聊天，结果他发现孩子让他紧张，陪妻子说话时，他也几乎不能安静地坐着，他着实吃了一惊。

改译：他曾尝试过多陪陪家人。特别是在婚后第二年，他们的第一个孩子罗伯特出生之后。他试着这样做过，每晚六点钟回家，和孩子一起玩耍，陪妻子聊聊天。结果却发现和孩子呆在一起会让他精神紧张，陪妻子聊天也会让他坐立不安，这着实让他吃惊不已。

分析说明：霍普金先生在他妻子的一再要求下，不再那样无休无止地工作，开始用更多的时间来陪伴家人，但他发现自己根本适应不了这样的生活。和孩子在一起玩耍，他会很紧张，陪妻子聊天也会让他内心焦虑，坐立不安。一旦脱离了工作，清闲下来，霍普金先生就会无所适从。It was almost impossible for him to sit quietly在初次翻译时，忽略了句子所在的语境。把这个句子翻译成他几乎不能安静地坐着。在二次翻译检查的过程中，结合语境，该段描述的是霍普金先生在回归家庭后，发现他自己无法适应家庭生活的闲适，孩子让他精神紧张，和妻子聊天时也感到坐立不安，两句话是前后句，前文用的是精神紧张，能体现出霍普金先生的心理状态，那么后面描写他和妻子在一起的那个词也应该体现出霍普金先生的心理状态，而且这个词还要有使他不能安静地坐着这个意思，思来想去，将这句话添枝加叶翻译成让他“坐立不安”。“坐立不安”的解释是：坐着也不是，站着也不是。形容心情紧张，情绪不安。这个词不但能体现原文的表层意思，而且也相当符合语境，体现出霍普金先生内心的焦虑。

案例20

Could I say, look, when you come right down to it, I'm just a nine-to-five guy, and I'm not interested in being much more, because life is too short, and I don't want to work evenings and week ends forever?

初译：我可以这样说么？看啊，当你走到这步的时候，我只是个五到九岁的孩子，我对更成功没有兴趣，因为生命太短暂了，我不想永远都要在晚上和周末工作。

改译：我可以这样说吗？其实，说到底，我每天朝九晚五，也不想有什么更大的成就，因为人生苦短，我不想永远都在晚上和周末工作。

分析说明：汤姆在霍普金先生那里工作节奏很快，同时这也让汤姆重新审视了自己。他只是想要找一份养家的工作，安安稳稳地过完自己的一生，他并不希望自己成为像霍普金先生那样把所有时间都扑在工作上的成功人士。这句中的nine-to-five和short这两个词，如果要想翻译得准确，那就必须读懂原文。Nine-to-five在初译时，翻译不准确，后来导师将这个词翻译为“朝九晚五”，才恍然大悟，也只有这么译才和原文最贴切。而short在初译时，将其译为短暂，但如果结合语境，此处汤姆觉得人生短暂，应该珍惜，要懂得生活，不要一味地把所有精力都放在工作上，正是成语“人生苦短”的感慨。这样用一个简单的四字格就可以准确表达出汤姆心中复杂的情感，充分扩展了原文的内含意义，词虽短小，但其中却蕴含了丰富的内容。

案例21

Did she promise Edward her estate just to make sure she would have service the rest of her life? And was she afraid to tell me, unwilling to suffer the slightest unpleasantness? Did she play it both ways, getting the fun of telling me she was leaving me everything and at the same time wringing the last drop of ease out of life?

初译：他真的向爱德华许诺将房产给他，只是为了余生能有人照顾她吗？她却因不想有半点不快，而不敢告诉我？她是当面一套背后一套吗，告诉我说把遗产留给我，享受这其中的乐趣，与此同时却不遗余力地花光最后的财产？

改译：她承诺把自己的房产留给爱德华，难道是为了余生能有人照顾她吗？却因不想让我有半点不快，而不敢告诉我，她是在左右逢源吗？她一边告诉我要把房产留给我，一边又想在她生命的最后过得安逸，她这是在拿我打趣儿吗？

分析说明：在祖母留给汤姆的房子产权受到质疑时，汤姆怀疑祖母是否真的将房子转赠给了仆人爱德华。祖母是否既想在余生让爱德华好好侍奉他，又想不伤了孙子汤姆的心，而同时向两人许诺房产，两不得罪。Play it both ways初次翻译时，从字面上进行理解，玩儿两面派，也就是当面一套背后一套。在检查译文时，认为用“当面一套背后一套”来形容祖母不太恭敬，虽说祖母留给汤姆的房子产权受到质疑，汤姆内心对祖母有些不满，但也不至于用“当面一套背后一套”这种语气较重的表达。在二次翻译时，扩展原文的内含意义，将此处译为左右逢源，表明祖母做事圆滑，谁也不得罪，既能让仆人爱德华对她忠心耿耿，同时也不伤孙子汤姆的心。

案例22

“I’m not going to school，”Janey said.

“Why not?”

“I’m just not going.”

“You have to go,” Tom said. “There’s a law. Anyway, you wouldn’t want to grow up without knowing anything.” 

初译：“我不去学校。”简妮说。

“为什么不去？”

“我就是不会去”

“你必须去，这是自然规律。总之，你也不想什么都没学到就长大了。”

改译：“我不去学校。”简妮说。

“为什么呢？”

“就是不想去。”

“你必须去。”汤姆说，“这是原则问题。总之，你也不想不学无术吧。”

分析说明：简妮因学校拥挤而不想去上学，父亲汤姆正苦口婆心地劝导她。Grow up without knowing anything在初次翻译时，完全没有考虑到小说翻译的整体效果。将其翻译成什么都没学到就长大了，但在二次翻译的检查过程中，扩展此处的内含意义，汤姆在劝导简妮要去上学，告诫她不能呆在家里什么都不学，想强调的是简妮不可以什么都不学，所以干脆将其翻译为“不学无术”，指没有学问，没有本领，也正体现了汤姆对简妮的告诫之意。

案例23

The indefinable smell of an old school building was strong—sweat, chalk dust, and an incongruous trace of cheap perfume.

初译：在这个老旧的学校建筑里，那种不可名状的气味很强烈——是汗水、粉笔灰和不合时宜的廉价香水的味道。

改译：一种旧校舍特有的不可名状的气味扑鼻而来——汗味儿、粉笔灰味儿还有刺鼻的廉价香水味儿。

分析说明：此处是汤姆送女儿去公立学校上学时，对学校环境描写的部分。Indefinable的释义是that can’t be defined不能下定义的；不能解释的；轮廓不清的。不可名状：无法用语言来形容。它的意思与indefinable的英文释义相对应，这个词让原文的意思得到了很好的表达，而且在形式上四字格读起来朗朗上口。Strong这个词在指气味时是味浓的意思。在初译时，很浅显地译出了浓烈的意思，和第二次翻译时“扑鼻而来”这种译法相比，“扑鼻而来”这种译法更加形象生动，充分扩展此处的内含意义，就好似你一进入教学楼，教学楼里浓烈的味道就直冲你的心肺，其表达的效果是强烈这个词所远不能及的。

案例24

The hall quickly became overcrowded, and someone said, “Don't push!” in a high shrill voice.

初译：大厅很快就过于拥挤了，有人用尖锐的声音大声喊道“不要挤了！”

改译：大厅很快就人满为患了，有人尖声喊道“不要挤了！”

分析说明：学校的上课铃响起了，孩子们迅速地冲进教学楼的大厅，人挤着人的场景。Overcrowded: with too many people in ( a place); crowded too much过度拥挤的。在初次翻译时，因为追求“信”，追求忠实于原文的翻译，在翻译的过程中，显得放不开手脚，译文逐字对应，读起来有些生硬，不能很好地表达小说的意思。“人满为患”指因人多造成了困难。原文中虽然在字面上没有体现出“患”的意思，此处扩展原文的内含意义，孩子们一齐冲进大厅，大厅里连站住脚都很困难，再结合前文因学校大厅过于拥挤，简妮被人推到的事实。难道还没体现出“患”吗，这种情况下，原文有一部分意思是隐含在上下文的语境中的，这就要求准确全面地理解原文了。

3.3 去繁就简

汉语四字格的特点之一就是有很强的概括力，简明扼要，短小精炼的四个字背后有着丰富的内涵，如果能在译文中恰当地使用四字格，那么可在节省笔墨的同时，还可以使译文内容更加饱满。

案例25

He had been editor of the school paper, and though he had been too small to excel at athletics, he had been manager of the football and basketball teams. He had stood at the top of his class scholastically, and whenever there had been a dance or a school play, he had always been chairman of the arrangements committee.

初译：那会儿他是校报的编辑；虽然他个头矮小不擅长体育，他却是足球和篮球队的经理。在学习上，他排在班级的最前面，无论什么时候有舞会或是学校剧，他总是组织委员会的主席。

改译：那会儿他是校报的编辑；尽管他个头矮小，不适合参加体育运动，但却是足球队和篮球队的负责人。不但在学业上名列前茅，而且只要是举办舞会或是编排校园剧，他都是组织委员会的主席。

分析说明：此处介绍霍普金先生从还在公立学校上学的时候就表现出众，不但学业上取得好成绩，而且还积极参加各种各样的活动，全面发展。He had stood at the top of his class在初次翻译时，将其翻译为他排在班级的最前面，会给人留下语言表达不利落的感觉。在二次翻译的过程中，把这句话的主语省略，简练地翻译为“名列前茅”。因为前文一直是在讲述霍普金先生的经历，这句话的主语与前句话是一致的，没必要再进行说明，而且此处想说明霍普金先生的优秀，那么用“名列前茅”这四字格中的“前”可以更形象地突出主人公的优秀。

案例26

“Good to be here!” Tom said. He had developed a hesitancy about whether to call Hopkins by his first name.

初译：“很高兴能在这里！”汤姆说道。他对于是否要叫霍普金的名字而犹疑。

改译：“很高兴能到这儿工作！”汤姆说道。他对是否直呼霍普金的大名而犹豫不决。

分析说明：汤姆刚刚开始同霍普金先生一起工作时，不知如何称呼他。如果称为霍普金先生，听起来有些拘谨，但如果直接称呼他的名字，又显得太过随意，对霍普金先生不够尊重。汤姆对如何称呼霍普金先生才能够得体，心里拿不定主意。“犹豫不决”的意思是迟疑，拿不定注意。用在这里恰如其分，能准确表述汤姆心中的迟疑。

案例27

Now, take that letter from Richardson at the Henkel Manufacturing Corporation. That's a long story. They manufacture television sets which go out under various brand names…

初译：现在，找出汉高生产制造公司寄来的那封信。这是个很长的故事。他们是生产电视机的，这些电视机以各种品牌的名义出售……

改译：现在，找出汉高制造公司寄来的那封信。这事儿说来话长。他们公司生产电视机，这些电视机打着各种品牌的名义出售……

分析说明：霍普金先生正在为刚刚来这里工作的汤姆介绍公司正在进行的一些项目。That's a long story是一个小短句，如果在小说中，那就要结合语境了，很明显后面要介绍汉高生产制造公司的一些情况，that's a long story起到引出下文的作用，而且还预示出下面要讲的是一个复杂的情况。在此处用了四字格“说来话长”，不但保留了原文本的意思，还简洁明了地引出了下文霍普金先生要对汤姆说的话。

案例28

The stereotyped notion of the earnest young man arriving early and leaving late, and the complacent boss dropping in for a few hours in the middle of the day to see how things were going was completely reversed.

初译：老一套的观念是——认真的年轻人很早就来了，很晚才走，而自满的老板则在每天之中用几个小时的时间顺便看看事情进展如何，但现在却完全掉了过来。

改译：老一套的观念——勤奋的年轻人应该早来晚走，而洋洋自得的老板则在日上三竿后过来呆几个小时，做做视察而已——现在却完全颠倒了。

分析说明：汤姆在霍普金先生那里工作时，快节奏的工作安排让他无法适应，而老板霍普金先生在工作上却是个十足的工作狂，做起事来勤勤恳恳。员工懈怠，老板勤快，这和传统观念正好相反。Arriving early and leaving late在初译时，将其翻译为很早就来了，很晚才走，在表达意思相近时，第一种表达显然没有改译后的四字格“早来晚走”简洁、有韵律。Complacent: calmly satisfied with oneself, one’s work, etc自满的；自鸣得意的。此处描述的是传统观念中，老板的贬义形象，初译时，直接采用了complacent的第一种汉语释义，译为自满的。但改译后的“洋洋自得”比自满在表达上更鲜活，一个手中叼着烟，大腹便便，洋洋自得的老板形象跃然纸上。In the middle of the day在初译时，简单地逐字对应，译为每天之中，但在仔细思考了整句话所要表达的中心思想后，认为如果按照初译时那样翻译，就完全没能译出暗含在此处的感情色彩，这里想要表达的是洋洋自得的老板到了大中午的时候才会来视察一下，体现出传统观念中老板的慵懒，in the middle of the day侧重的是来得很晚，那么将此处译为“日上三竿”。在整句话的译文中，用了三个四字格，使得译文在语言上短小简练，读起来流利通顺，但其中却蕴含了丰富的情感色彩的表达。

第四章 实践总结

在小说《穿灰色法兰绒西装的男人》的翻译实践中，从拿到小说原文到最后的终稿，经过了一次次的探讨与修改，在这个过程中，译者通过亲身实践，看到了自己身上的诸多不足，感触颇深。在今后的翻译实践过程中，自己要吸取本次实践的经验，注意以下几方面的问题。

4.1通读全文

在拿到要翻译的文章后，在动手翻译前，有一个很重要的步骤，那就是通读全文，通读全文并不是说要把文章中不会的单词一个个挑出来，再一个个地查字典。所谓通读，其目的就是“通”，要对文章的写作风格心中有数，对文章中的叙事有一定的了解，对作者要表达的情感色彩有掌握。对要翻译的文章在整体上有一个脉络，这样在翻译时，就不会过于局限在某个段落，而是从全篇大局出发。

案例29

Maybe it’s better for my kids to begin the way they are, he thought, as he paced up and down the platform of the railroad station. Maybe they’ll have less to learn later.

初译：当他在火车站的站台走来走去时，他想道，也许以这种方式开始对我的孩子们更有益。也许她们将来就可以少学些东西了。

改译：当他在火车站的站台上走来走去时，他想道，也许以这种方式成长对我的孩子们更有益。也许她们将来就可以少受些罪了。

案例分析：汤姆因囊中羞涩，无力将孩子送到南湾乡村走读学校去学习，孩子们只能在环境艰苦的私立学校学习。汤姆觉得愧对孩子们，但他从另一个角度思考，觉得这未尝不是件好事，可以让孩子们融入社会。在初译时，翻译为少学些东西，明显是未从语篇的角度进行分析，整篇小说都在讲述汤姆在战后的艰难生活，可见他的生活是充满了磨难的，也受了很多的罪。在汤姆看来，生活就是受罪，所以将此处修改为少受些罪，与整篇小说的背景契合。

4.2准确用词

在翻译实践中，为了更好地再现原文的风采，译者在翻译每句话、每个词语时都要精雕细琢、反复揣摩。因为译者是原文作者与译文读者之间的桥梁，译者要用词准确，读者才能正确接收到原文作者想要表达的思想。译者在用词时稍有不慎，就可能造成读者在理解上的偏差。

案例30

His mother had been disappointed by the modesty of her husband's achievements and aspirations and had been bitterly condescending to him.

初译：他母亲对丈夫的一事无成和胸无大志感到失望，对委身于他又有说不出的心酸。

改译：父亲业绩平平、胸无大志，对此母亲很是失望，觉得自己下嫁给他很心酸。

案例分析：霍普金先生的母亲面对自己平庸的丈夫，感到失望，所以把精力都放到了自己的事业上，事业上的成功让她在面对自己丈夫时，有一种居高临下的感觉。译文中的下嫁中的“下”就比委身更好地体现出了他们这对夫妻地位上的不平等。

4.3句式表达

在译文中运用反问、排比、感叹等句式有助于译文中情感的表达，在翻译像《穿灰色法兰绒西装的男人》这种叙事性比较强的小说时，恰当地使用这些特殊句式，可以将人物情感准确地融入译文之中。

案例31

“We’re supposed to do the planning for him! That’s what we’re paid for. Get some data together! How much of a staff does the polio outfit have, and what did it start with? How about the cancer outfit? What are their budgets? You’ve got to think these things out for yourself!”

初译：“我们应该给他做计划！这就是我们领薪水要做的事。收集些数据！小儿麻痹机构有多少员工，它是以什么起步的？癌症机构又是怎样的？他们的预算是多少？你必须自己想明白这些事情！”

改译：“应该由我们来给他做计划！要不然花钱雇我们干什么。收集些数据！防治小儿麻痹机构有多少员工，它是以什么起步的？防癌机构又是怎样的？他们的预算是多少？你必须自己想明白这些事情！”

案例分析：奥格登询问汤姆工作进展如何，汤姆一问三不知，奥格登略带不满地对汤姆说，如果要为霍普金先生工作，那就要有主动性，不要等霍普金先生需要用到时再去做，应提前做好充足的准备。That’s what we’re paid for，初译时，忽略了奥格登讲这些话时的语气和心理，改译以后，译为“要不然花钱雇我们干什么”，这种反问语气就能十分恰当地体现奥格登在说这句话时的不满情绪。

4.4译文标点

标点在译文中的作用不可小觑，它并不只是简简单单地表示停顿，它同时也是一种语言可表达情感、动作等信息。如果标点符号运用得当，也可为译文增色不少。

案例32

I'll write copy telling people to eat more corn flakes and smoke more and more cigarettes and buy more refrigerators and automobiles, until they explode with happiness.

初译：我能写些广告文案，告诉人们多吃玉米片，多抽烟，多买些冰箱，汽车，直到他们高兴为止。

改译：我能写些广告文案、告诉人们多吃玉米片、多抽烟、多买些冰箱、汽车，一定能让老板们心花怒放。

分析说明：汤姆想象自己失业后还可能从事的工作。写些广告文案、告诉人们多吃玉米片、多抽烟、多买些冰箱、汽车，这些都是汤姆失业后可能从事的工作，用顿号隔开表示一种并列的选择关系。

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附录1 原文

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Chapter 22

THAT SAME MORNING Ralph Hopkins awoke in his Park Avenue apartment at precisely seven o’clock. He had been working on his speech about mental health until after midnight, and as soon as he opened his eyes, his thoughts were full of it again. The latest draft written by Ogden wasn’t right, and Hopkins was beginning to wonder whether he was ever going to be able to devise a speech on mental health he wanted to give. Maybe the whole idea of starting a mental-health committee was a mistake. Glancing at his wrist watch, he saw it was quarter after seven. No time to worry about the speech now, he thought—there was a busy day ahead. He jumped lightly out of bed, stepped briskly across his small, simply furnished bedroom, and slid open a door leading to a large tiled shower room. Stripping off his white silk pajamas, he stepped into a booth and pulled a curtain. He turned an elaborate chromium dial on the wall in front of him, and hot water shot against him at a high velocity from a dozen nozzles placed in the booth above and on all sides of him. Gradually Hopkins turned the dial until the water was lukewarm—the doctor had forbidden him to take cold showers. He stood there in the lukewarm water for thirty seconds before turning the shower off and stepped out of the booth. From a special slot in the wall he drew an enormous, warm turkish towel. Wrapping himself in this, he walked to the other side of the room and stepped on a set of scales which had been built into the floor. He weighed a hundred and thirty-eight pounds, including the towel. That was three pounds too much, he figured, and made a mental note to cut down on his eating. It was stupid to get fat, he thought—half his friends were eating themselves into their graves.

After he had brushed his teeth and shaved, Hopkins went into his dressing room, where his valet had laid out his clothes. The valet was not there—Hopkins liked to have his clothes laid out for him, but hated to have people fussing about him. He dressed himself.

At quarter to eight Hopkins walked downstairs to the living room of his apartment, just as his personal secretary, Miss MacDonald, the elderly gray-haired woman Tom had observed in Hopkins’ outer office, was arriving. She always began her working day at a quarter to eight in Hopkins’ apartment and went to the office with him.

“Good morning, Miss MacDonald,” he said cheerily. “What have you got on the docket for me today?”

“Mr. Albert Pierce is coming in to have breakfast with you,” she said. “Mr. Pierce owns three television stations in Texas and two in Oklahoma. He has some programming suggestions he wants to discuss with you—remember his letters?”

“Yes,” Hopkins said.

The breakfast business appointment was routine; it had been routine for ten years. So many people wanted to see Hopkins that it was necessary to fit them in wherever possible. First there were all the people who wanted to see him on company business—production people, research men, the top entertainers who had to be flattered, advertising executives with big contracts, the owners of affiliated stations, promotion men, publicity experts, sponsors, writers who were great artists and had never written for television, but now were going to. There were also bankers, real-estate men, investment experts, and lawyers who, under Hopkins’ guidance, administered the holdings of the United Broadcasting Corporation. And in addition to all these people who wanted to see Hopkins, there were executives of the many corporations of which he was a director, and the men and women connected with the good works of which he was a trustee. Hopkins was a trustee of two universities, five hospitals, three public libraries, one fund for orphaned children, two foundations for the advancement of the arts and sciences, a home for the blind, a haven for crippled children, and a snug harbor for retired seamen. In addition to that, he was a member of committees and commissions studying, variously, conditions in South India, Public Health in the United States, Racial Segregation, Higher Standards for Advertising, the Parking Problem in New York City, Farm Subsidies, Safety on the Highways, Freedom of the Press, Atomic Energy, the House Rules of the City Club, and a Code of Decency for Comic Books.

“After Mr. Pierce, Dr. Andrews is coming up—it’s time for your quarterly check-up,” Miss MacDonald said.

Hopkins frowned slightly. It was only common sense to have a quarterly check-up, but he detested it. “All right, what next?” he asked.

“Because of Dr. Andrews, I haven’t scheduled you for anything at the office before ten o’clock this morning. At that time Mr. Hebbard wants a conference with you—he’s got some new cost estimates and time schedules. At eleven there’s a board meeting, lasting through lunch. . .

She was interrupted by the doorbell. Hopkins opened the door. Albert Pierce, a large potbellied man wearing a wide cream-colored sombrero, walked in.

“Hello!” Hopkins said, shaking his hand heartily. “So good of you to come so early. I had hoped to have lunch with you, but my board is meeting today, and you know how it is! I certainly appreciate this chance to see you!”

The big man beamed. “Right nice of you to put yourself out for me!” he said.

Miss MacDonald slipped out a side door, and Hopkins led Pierce to the dining room. A waitress served Pierce a bowl of fresh fruit, waffles, and sausage patties. Hopkins had only a bowl of dry cereal with skim milk and a cup of black coffee. “I wish I had your appetite!” he said to his guest. “It’s this city air that takes it away from a man!”

Throughout the meal Pierce expounded his views on television programs, which consisted mostly of the thought that more old-fashioned shows, such as square dances, rodeos, and hymn sings, would be welcomed by rural audiences. Hopkins agreed with him heartily. At a quarter of nine, the doorbell rang again, and Hopkins jumped up to answer it. That was one of the advantages in not having a servant open the door—it gave Hopkins an opportunity to conclude interviews without being impolite. Dr. Andrews, an urbane man with prematurely white hair, walked in, carrying a small black bag. “Thank you for coming up,” Hopkins said. Til be with you in a few moments. Mr. Pierce, this is Dr. Andrews—don’t go, Mr. Pierce —I had hoped to chat with you longer. Well, if you have to go, I understand. I certainly do appreciate your advice on the programs, and you can be sure it will have effect!”

When Pierce had left, Hopkins and the doctor sat down in the living room. “How have you been feeling?” the doctor asked.

“Fine—better than ever!”

“Trouble getting to sleep?”

“Not a bit!”

The doctor opened his bag and took out a stethoscope. Hopkins took off his coat and opened his shirt. The doctor listened to his heart intently for several seconds. “It sounds pretty good,” he said finally. “Had any more dizziness lately?”

“Not a trace of it!”

“Difficulty breathing?”

“No.”

The doctor put his stethoscope back in his bag and took out his equipment for measuring blood pressure. Hopkins rolled up his sleeve and looked out the window at the green lawn on the roof while the doctor strapped the device to his arm. There was an interval of silence. “It’s up a little,” the doctor said finally. “Not badly— nothing to worry about.”

“That’s good,” Hopkins said, relieved.

“It’s a warning, though,” the doctor continued. “I guess there’s no use in my repeating it: you ought to slow down.”

“I’ve been getting plenty of rest,” Hopkins said.

“I’ll say it to satisfy my own conscience,” the doctor continued. “You ought to take a long vacation—a couple of months, just lying in the sun. You ought to get yourself a hobby, something to help you relax.”

Hopkins looked at him intently, but said nothing.

“You ought to cut way down on your schedule,” the doctor went on. “Start getting into your office about ten-thirty or eleven and leaving about three or four in the afternoon—there’s no reason why a man in your position can’t do that. In the long run, you’d be ensuring yourself more working hours. And cut out all these outside activities of yours—take it easy for a few years. You’ve got to slow down!”

“Are you advising me to retire, Doctor?” Hopkins asked dryly.

“No—I’d be satisfied if you just followed a normal, human routine!”

“I will,” Hopkins said courteously. “I certainly appreciate your advice, Doctor, and I’ll take it. Thanks so much for coming up so early this morning!”

When the doctor had gone, Miss MacDonald called for Hopkins’ car, a black Cadillac five years old, driven by an aging Negro chauffeur. They started driving toward the United Broadcasting building. Before they had gone three blocks the car got caught in a bad traffic jam and could barely crawl. Hopkins put his head back on the soft gray upholstery and closed his eyes. “You’ve got to slow down!” the doctor had said. It seemed to Hopkins that people had been telling him that all his life.

It had started when he was a boy in public school. He had been editor of the school paper, and though he had been too small to excel at athletics, he had been manager of the football and basketball teams. He had stood at the top of his class scholastically, and whenever there had been a dance or a school play, he had always been chairman of the arrangements committee. “You’ve got to slow down!” the teachers had told him. “Take it easy, boy—you’ll wear yourself out!”

At Princeton, where he had gone on a scholarship, it had been more of the same. He had headed the debating team, managed the football team, and engaged in a dozen other activities in addition to maintaining an almost straight A average in his studies. “You’ve got to slow down!” his faculty adviser had told him. “Take it easy!”

But he had not slowed down. Summers he had worked at all kinds of jobs, always astonishing his employers with his energy. After college had come a brief stint in the Army, a period during which his friends had kidded him about wanting to be a general. Upon being released from service in 1919, he had worked for a few years at a brokerage house before going to the United Broadcasting Corporation, which had just been started. A year later he had met Helen Perry, who had at the time been a fashionable beauty in New York. He had pursued her with all the zeal he always devoted to anything he wanted, and on June 3, 1921, he had married her. Up to that time, Hopkins had never had a failure in his life.

“You’ve got to slow down!” Helen had started saying, even before they were married, but unlike the teachers and faculty advisers, she had not let it go at that. As she discovered that it was Hopkins’ habit to spend most of his evenings and week ends at his office, she had become first annoyed, then indignant, and, finally, hurt and bewildered.

“Life isn’t worth living like this,” she had said. “I never see you! You’ve got to slow down!”

He had tried. Especially when their first child, Robert, had come, during the second year of their marriage, he had tried. He had come home every evening at six o’clock and conscientiously played with the baby and sat talking with his wife, and he had been genuinely appalled to find that the baby made him nervous, and that while he was talking to his wife, it was almost impossible for him to sit quietly. He had felt impelled to get up and pace up and down the room, jingling his change in his pockets and glancing at the clock. For the first time in his life he had started to drink heavily during those long evenings at home. Gradually he had started staying late at the office again—by that time he had already had a fairly important job at the United Broadcasting Corporation. Helen had remonstrated with him. There had been recriminations, high-pitched arguments, and threats of divorce.

All right, it’s a problem, he had said to himself after a particularly bitter scene—it’s a problem that must be met head on, like all other problems. To Helen he had said, in a quiet voice, “I don’t want to have any more scenes—they wear us both out. I’m prepared to admit that whatever is wrong is entirely my fault. I am preoccupied with my work—I’ve been that way all my life, and it is nothing for which you should blame yourself.”

She had gone pale. “Do you want a divorce?” she had asked.

“No,” he had said. “Do you?”

“No.”

They had never talked about divorce again, but she had begun to refer to his preoccupation with work as a disease. “You’ve got to do something about it,” she had said, and had suggested a psychiatrist.

For two years Hopkins had submitted to psychoanalysis. Five times a week he had Iain on a couch in the psychoanalyst’s apartment on Sixty-ninth Street and recalled his childhood. His father had been a cheerful, rather ineffectual man who, each afternoon upon returning from his job as assistant manager of a small paper mill in an upstate New York village, had spent most of his time rocking on the front porch of their shabby but comfortable house. His mother had been disappointed by the modesty of her husband’s achievements and aspirations and had been bitterly condescending to him. Leaving her family to fend for itself most of the time, she had thrown all her energy into working for the local garden club and a bewildering variety of social and civic organizations. As she gained positions of leadership in these groups, her resentment at her serenely undistinguished husband had grown. Finally she had established herself in a separate room on the third floor of their house and, throughout most of Ralph’s boyhood, had conducted herself like a great lady temporarily forced to live with poor relatives.

Hopkins was not an introspective man, but in recounting all this to the psychoanalyst, he had said, “I always felt sorry for my father because my mother treated him so badly. She never gave me much time, either, except when I did something she thought was outstanding. Whenever I got a particularly good report card, or won anything, she’d take me up to her room to have tea alone with her. “We’re two of a kind,’ she used to say. ‘We get things done.’ I suppose I got the impression from her that achievement means everything.”

Hopkins had felt quite proud of his efforts at self-diagnosis and had been surprised when the psychoanalyst had disregarded his suggestions in favor of much more bizarre “explanations of neurosis.” He had said that Hopkins probably had a deep guilt complex, and that his constant work was simply an effort to punish and perhaps kill himself. The guilt complex was probably based on a fear of homosexuality, he had said. To Hopkins, who had never consciously worried about homosexuality, or guilt, this had seemed like so much rubbish, but he had tried to believe it, for the psychoanalyst had said it was necessary for him to believe to be cured, and Hopkins had wanted to be cured, in order to make his wife happy.

The trouble had been that every time he left the psychoanalyst’s office the temptation to return to his own office and bury himself in work had been irresistible. At the end of two years he had become the youngest vice-president of United Broadcasting and had told his wife he simply wouldn’t have time for psychoanalysis any longer.

It had been shortly after this that he had rented an apartment to use for business meetings in New York and had drifted into the habit of staying away from his home, which had then been in Darien, for weeks at a time. His wife had not objected. She had gone in for horses for a while and, tiring of that, had become a relentless giver of parties. After Susan had been born in 1935, she had abruptly stopped the parties and had thrown herself into motherhood with abandon, firing the nursemaid who had taken care of her son and surrounding herself with avant-garde parents who discussed their children the way psychiatrists discuss their patients. Hopkins had never complained—he had been too grateful to her for letting him alone and, as he saw it, making up for his deficiencies as a parent.

Things had gone pretty well until 1943, when Robert, their son, had been killed in the war. Hopkins had hurried home when his wife telephoned to tell him and had tried to sympathize with her, but all she had said was, “You never knew him! You never knew him!” Hopkins had stayed with her for three days, at the end of which time he had returned to his office and thrown himself harder than ever into his work.

“Slow down!” the doctors had been saying regularly ever since. “You’ve got to slow down!” But Helen, his wife, had stopped saying that to him. After Robert had been killed, she had gone for a brief time to a sanitarium, leaving Susan, her daughter, with the servants. After returning from the sanitarium, Helen had started to give parties again, and had begun to plan the great show place in South Bay, and had bought the yawl, and had seemed happier than she ever had in her life.

“This traffic!” Hopkins said now, as he sat in his limousine and looked out the window at the pedestrians on the sidewalk, who were making better time. “This traffic is terrible!” He sat back and consciously tried to relax, but it was impossible. A policeman blew his whistle sharply, and a taxi driver ahead started to curse. Hopkins shut his eyes. It was ridiculous to worry, it was unproductive. It would be better to think of the future, of things to be done. There was, for instance, the mental-health speech to revise. Hopkins took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. “Miss MacDonald,” he said, “it looks as though we’re going to be stuck in this traffic for quite a while. Would you mind taking dictation?”

Chapter 23

“THEY WANT TO USE the top of the tower for sky watchers,” Betsy said to Tom when he returned from work Friday night.

“What?” he asked in astonishment.

“It’s Civilian Defense—they’re making a plan for Civilian Defense here. They want to use our tower for airplane spotters until they get a permanent place for themselves.”

“Oh, Lord,” Tom groaned.

“Don’t you approve?”

“I guess so,” he said. “I don’t know, it sounds so absurd. What do they want us to do?”

“Just let them use the tower for a few weeks. It’s the highest place in South Bay, they said, and has the best view. Why is it absurd?”

“It’s not,” he said. “I’m just tired, and I don’t like thinking about another war. I have a million other things to do.”

“Sit down and have a drink,” Betsy said. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”

That night Tom lay awake a long time worrying about Maria, about old Edward’s claim on the estate, about zoning laws, and about the meeting he was to have with Bernstein in the morning. When he awoke he felt exhausted and so irritable that the high- pitched voices of the children at the breakfast table annoyed him. “Be quiet!” he said sharply to Janey when she said, “Daddy, can I have the milk? Can I have the milk? Can I have the milk?” She looked so hurt that he hastily added, “I’m sorry,” gave her the milk, and himself kept quiet for the rest of the meal.

“I’ll drop you off at Judge Bernstein’s office,” Betsy said after he had finished his second cup of coffee. “I’ll take the kids with me and enroll the girls at school.”

“I don’t want to go to school,” Janey said. “I never want to go.”

“It’s not so bad,” Barbara said thoughtfully. “I only hate it a little.”

“Can I go?” Pete asked.

“Nobody has to go for another month,” Betsy said.

They got in the car and drove slowly to the main street of South Bay.

“Now don’t take any nonsense from him,” Betsy said as Tom got out of the car in front of the building in which Bernstein had his office. “We ought to have our first ten houses for sale next spring, and if we’re going to do that, we should start right away.”

Bernstein was sitting behind his scarred pine desk when Tom came in. He glanced up at Tom sharply—somehow he hadn’t expected Mrs. Rath’s grandson to be so tall. “Sit down, Mr. Rath,” he said cordially. “What can I do for you?”

“I want to get some idea of how long it will take for Mrs. Rath’s estate to go through the Probate Court,” Tom said, “and I want to learn about zoning laws a, round here. We’ve got an idea we may want to put up some kind of a housing development.”

“I see,” Bernstein said, and waited.

“How long does it generally take for an estate to be settled?”

“Not long, if there are no complications. A man by the name of Schultz was in here to see me a few days ago. Edward Schultz. Name mean anything to you?”

“He used to work for my grandmother. I want to do what I can for him, but I have to wait until the estate is settled.”

“Mr. Schultz tells me he believes Mrs. Rath meant the entire estate to go to him,” Bernstein said quietly.

“That’s absurd I My grandmother talked to me about him shortly before she died.”

“Apparently he believes he’s entitled to the house,” Bernstein said dryly.

“That’s ridiculous 1”

“Why do you suppose he thinks he has a claim?”

“I think he must be a little crazy,” Tom said. “I don’t know—I feel pretty badly about this. Mrs. Rath was ninety-three years old when she died, and possibly she gave him some reason for hoping she would leave him everything.”

“Do you think she could have promised him the estate in return for his services for the rest of her life?” Bernstein asked mildly.

“Nol She would have told mel Just before she died she told me she was leaving everything to me, and that’s the way the will is written.”

“Mr. Schultz claims that he asked Mrs. Rath for a salary increase about a year before she died, and that she said she couldn’t afford to give him one, but that if he’d stay as long as she lived, she’d leave everything to him.”

“I want to try to be fair about this,” Tom said. “We can’t prove whether she said that or not. She was old and confused, and I suppose it’s possible she said that and forgot it. All I know is she used to talk all the time about saving the house for me, and that’s the way the will is written.”

“Mr. Schultz seems to feel an attempt is being made to cheat him.”

“I can’t help the way the old man feels!” Tom said. “I can’t afford to have the settling of the estate delayed indefinitely! How can he hold things up? He hasn’t got any proof!”

“He says he has,” Bernstein said.

“What kind?”

“He told me he has everything in writing from her, postdating the will Mr. Sims sent me.”

“I don’t believe it!”

“That’s what he says. I have asked him to have a photostat of his document sent to me, and he agreed to.”

“Have you received it yet?”

“No—there hasn’t been time.”

“I can’t understand it!” Tom said. “She wasn’t like that. She never would have done a thing like that without telling mc!”

“The court will have to examine both documents and make a decision.”

“How long will it take?”

“That depends on a lot of things. It may be necessary to get a lot of information together. It could be a matter of months, or even more.”

“Meanwhile, I’m living in my grandmother’s place. What would happen if the court awarded it to him?”

“He could dispossess you and perhaps charge you rent retroactively, I suppose.”

“Is it legal for me to be there now?”

“When a property is in dispute, it’s hard to tell what to do with it. I don’t think Mr. Schultz is trying to dispossess you before the court makes a decision.”

“That’s nice of him,” Tom said bitterly. There was a moment of silence before he added, “I guess I should ask Mr. Sims to represent me—I’ll need a lawyer, won’t I?”

“That would be advisable.”

“You wouldn’t take the case for me?”

“Hardly. I’m the judge.”

“Has Edward, I mean Mr. Schultz, got a lawyer?”

“Yes. A big outfit in New York is representing him. Frankly, I don’t think he could have got them to take the case if he didn’t have a legitimate claim in their opinion.”

“That’s fine,” Tom said.

“All you can do is put the case in the hands of your lawyer and wait,” Bernstein said.

Tom looked at him helplessly for an instant before getting to his feet abruptly. “I guess there’s nothing more I can do,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be much point in asking about zoning laws now.”

“You’re in a ten-acre zone,” Bernstein said. “If you wanted to put a housing development there, you’d have quite a fight on your hands. I wouldn’t go into it until the estate is settled.”

“Thanks,” Tom said, feeling a rush of unreasonable resentment against Bernstein. “Anyway, thanks.” He left the room.

As soon as he had gone, Bernstein walked to the window of his office and stood looking down at the street, where Betsy and the children were waiting in the parked car. His stomach was beginning to ache.

“Why, that school is terrible/” Betsy said as soon as Tom got into the car, before he could say anything. “It’s dingy and overcrowded, and I don’t think it’s safe. I hate to send the kids there! When we get going, I’m going to send them to a private school!”

“Betsy,” Tom said, “I’ve got some news that isn’t very good.”

“What?”

“Edward has put in a claim for the whole estate, and he says he has a will Grandmother signed after she wrote the one we have. He’s got a big firm of lawyers working on it.”

“Oh, no! She told you . . .”

“I know.”

“What’s going to happen?”

“We just have to put Sims to work on it and let the court decide.”

Betsy said nothing. “What’s the matter?” Janey asked.

“Everything’s all right, baby,” Betsy said.

“What did Daddy say?”

“Nothing important,” Tom said. “We’re going home now.”

He started the car. On the way up the hill to the old house they were all silent. When they came to the rock ledge against which his father had slammed the old Packard, Tom stared at it deliberately— it was ridiculous to look away. The rocks were massive and craggy, some of them tinged with a dull red hue, which was probably iron ore.

“Either Edward or your grandmother lied!” Betsy said suddenly, as Tom stopped the car in front of the house. “I know it was Edward! Everything’s going to turn out all rightl”

“Don’t count on it, baby,” he said.

For some reason he didn’t want to go into the dim old house. Instead, he walked alone into the tall grass toward the distant row of pines. In the distance the smooth surface of the Sound glittered. The children bounded after him until Betsy called them back. “Leave your father alone,” she said.

It’s funny, he thought. I’m always sure things are going to turn out badly, and, damn it, they usually do.

“Everything’s going to turn out all right!” Betsy always said.

Sure, he thought, we’ll live here a year or so while this case is being decided, and then Edward will get the house and slap a bill for back rent on us. And we’ll have lawyers’ bills and court costs to pay. And the only job I’ve got now is sitting all day behind a desk doing nothing.

What will happen if we lose this place, and run up a lot of bills, and I get fired? he thought. What will we do? And what will happen if Maria makes trouble?

I can always get a job, he thought. Dick Haver would give me a job again. I can always get a job somewhere.

Maybe, he thought. If Hopkins fired me six months after I was hired, people would want to know why. And if there were any publicity about Maria—if she made any charges—none of the foundations would touch me. And what the hell other kind of work am I trained for?

I could go back in the Army, he thought. They’d make me a major. Good pay, travel, education, and security. Grandmother could look down from heaven and be real proud of me—she could talk to the angels about the family major and be honest.

Grandmother, he thought—by God, what kind of woman was she? Did she promise Edward her estate just to make sure she would have service the rest of her life? And was she afraid to tell me, un?willing to suffer the slightest unpleasantness? Did she play it both ways, getting the fun of telling me she was leaving me everything and at the same time wringing the last drop of ease out of life? Was she, when you come right down to it, only an evil, pretentious, lying old woman who could be expected to beget nothing but evil, a suicide, and a. . .

This is ridiculous, he thought—that’s one thing I won’t do. Money isn’t that important. I’m tough. I can always get a job. I can go back to the Army. Travel, education, security. Times like these are made for me—a tough bastard who knows how to handle a gun. And I wouldn’t even have to do that. If worse came to worst, I could dig a ditch, I could operate an elevator like Caesar, and in heaven Grandmother could say, “My grandson is in the transportation business.”

It’s absurd to think of these things, he thought. I could get a job in an advertising agency. I’ll write copy telling people to eat more corn flakes and smoke more and more cigarettes and buy more refrigerators and automobiles, until they explode with happiness.

Chapter 34

AT QUARTER TO SEVEN the next morning Betsy came into the bathroom while Tom was shaving and said, “I don’t know what to do. Janey says she won’t go to school.”

“She give any reason?”

“No. She just woke up and announced that she wasn’t going. I told her that she had to, and she said she simply wouldn’t.”

“Why don’t you let her stay home a day or two,” Tom said. “At her age it wouldn’t matter.”

“If I let her stay home, Barbara will want to stay too—she’s not very happy about going herself. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she wanted to go even less than Janey does, but she’s different. She does what she thinks she has to do.”

“I’ll talk to Janey,” Tom said.

“The trouble is, I really don’t blame the child,” Betsy said. “It’s such an awful-looking school!”

Tom wiped the soap off his face and walked to the bedroom his daughters shared. Janey was sitting on her bed, still dressed in her pajamas. Her face was set in a determined expression, and her hands were folded stubbornly in her lap. On the other side of the room Barbara was slowly getting dressed. Her face looked strained.

“What’s the matter, kids?” Tom asked. “Janey, if you don’t hurry up and get dressed, you’re going to be late.”

“I’m not going to school,” Janey said.

“Why not?”

“I’m just not going.”

“You have to go,” Tom said. “There’s a law. Anyway, you wouldn’t want to grow up without knowing anything.”

“I’m not going,” Janey said. From her face he saw she was about to cry.

“Did something happen at school yesterday?”

“No.”

“Was someone cross to you?”

“No.” She paused before adding, “I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“The hall.”

“The hall? What do you mean?”

Janey said nothing.

“What’s the matter with the hall?”

“Nothing,” Janey said.

“I’ll take you to school today and you can show me the hall. Will that help?”

Janey looked down at the floor, her face hopeless. She said nothing.

“School is fun when you get used to it,” Tom said hesitantly. Still Janey said nothing.

“If you’re a good girl and go nicely, I’ll bring you home a present tonight. I’ll bring you a surprise.”

“All right,” Janey said woefully. “If you’ll go with me.”

“I’ll take you down,” Tom said, and began to help her get dressed.

At breakfast Betsy said, “I can take her—you’ll miss your train if you go.”

“I’ll take a later train,” Tom said. “There’s something about a hall that bothers Janey. I want to see this school.”

Leaving Betsy at home with Pete, Tom put both his daughters in the car and started down the road toward the school. He remembered being driven down the same road by a chauffeur during his own boyhood, only they had not stopped at the public school; they had gone beyond it to the South Bay Country Day School, where both Tom and his father had gone. The tuition had been six hundred dollars a year, even in the nineteen twenties. Tom wondered what it was now. It was ridiculous to feel that he had to send his children to a private school, he thought. In Westport, the public schools had been just as good as the private schools.

The traffic got heavy as they neared the public school. It was a weather-beaten brick building of Victorian design set in the middle of a black asphalt-covered play yard, part of which had been marked off to form a parking area. The school and its yard was surrounded by a high iron fence, as though it were a zoo. Tom drove through a gate and found a parking place adjoining the play yard, where children of widely varying age were running, jumping’ and shouting together. He and his daughters walked up the front steps of the school and entered a narrow, high-ceilinged hall, the walls of which were painted a dull chocolate brown. The indefinable smell of an old school building was strong—sweat, chalk dust, and an incongruous trace of cheap perfume.

Suddenly an electric bell rang, reverberating harshly against the bare walls. Immediately a horde of children rushed through the door which Tom had just entered and dashed down the hall. They continued to funnel in from the playground, jostling and pushing each other. The hall quickly became overcrowded, and someone said, “Don’t push!” in a high shrill voice. The children continued to jam in, and Tom felt a flash of claustrophobia. Janey clung tightly to his hand. She looked scared. “This is the hall,” she said.

“Yesterday she got knocked down here,” Barbara volunteered. “It won’t happen again,” Tom said, his voice sounding false to himself.

“I guess I better go now,” Barbara said. “My room’s upstairs.” She let go of Tom’s other hand and was immediately swept away in the crowd. A few minutes later Tom caught a glimpse of her going up the stairs at the end of the hall, her small figure very erect. “Stay with me,” Janey said.

“I’ll take you to your classroom,” Tom said. “Where is it?” Janey led the way to a crowded doorway and paused. Inside, Tom could see a small room with many desks jammed together. With so many children jostling by, it was hard to stand still. Janey suddenly let go of his hand. “Thanks,” she said. He saw her go and sit at the very back of the room.

When Tom got outside, the fresh air felt good. He drove to the station and walked up and down the platform waiting for his train.

They shouldn’t have a school building like that, he thought. They shouldn’t have a school like that for anybody’s children. It wasn’t like that in Westport. It’s not just that I can’t afford to send my children to private school.

I wonder what kind of schools they have for the children of the poor in Home, he thought. Suddenly he remembered how easy things had been for him in his boyhood. The old South Bay Country Day School had had ten or, at most, fifteen children in a class, and often the teachers had met with the pupils in the big living room of the old mansion which had been made into the school, and they had all sat in overstuffed chairs. How soft everything was made for me, he thought. Because his father had gone to the South Bay Country Day School, and because his grandmother had given generously to the school in the past, old Miss Trilly, the head mistress, had been especially kind to Tom and had once given a teacher a stern lecture for reprimanding him too harshly. Maybe it’s better for my kids to begin the way they are, he thought, as he paced up and down the platform of the railroad station. Maybe they’ll have less to learn later.

“Rowdies! Young rowdies! They come from the public school!”

He remembered those words being spoken in a high, slightly nasal, indignant voice by Miss Trilly—she had said them often. The public- school children had frequently invaded the playground of the Country Day School to play on the slides and swings. Occasionally they had picked fights with the Country Day children, and this is what had inspired old Miss Trilly’s anger.

“They’re from the public school!” she had said, incorporating a sly slur in the words which none of her pupils had missed.

Tom wondered whether Janey and Barbara would ever sneak into the playground of the Country Day School to play on the slides and the swings, and whether Miss Trilly, or her successor, would say, “They’re from the public school!”

It doesn’t really matter, he thought now, as he reached the end of the station platform and started to pace in the other direction. People are tough, even children. But good Lord, I ought to be able to do something. There’s no particular democratic virtue in jamming so many children into a school like that. Janey isn’t going to learn much by being knocked down in the hall.

Money, I need money, he thought. If they don’t build a new public school, I should be able to afford a private school. I should get everything but money out of my head and really do a job for Hopkins. I ought to be at work now. He glanced at his watch and saw it was quarter after nine—the train was late.

Money, Tom thought. The housing project could make money, but it depends on re-zoning, and Bernstein says we shouldn’t ask for that until they vote on a new school.

A new school, he thought—so much depends on that! Bernstein says there’s going to be a hearing on it and that a lot of people are against it. I should find out all the details. I should work for a new school, and I should work harder for Hopkins, and I should be making plans for our housing project. Where did I ever get the idea that life is supposed to be anything but work? A man’s work should be his pleasure—I shouldn’t expect anything more.

Far up the track the train blew its whistle. He joined a throng of men pushing to get aboard the train and, with chin on his chest, sat thinking about his daughters’ school.

Chapter 35

Two DAYS LATER, Tom moved into Hopkins’ outer office. He sat at a desk in a corner—it had been necessary to move Miss MacDonald’s desk and those of the two typists to make room for him. Hopkins’ office had not been designed with accommodations for a personal assistant. Miss MacDonald seemed flustered by the change. She sat at her desk nervously thumbing through correspondence, and whenever Tom said anything to her, she answered with an exaggerated politeness which was almost worse than the coldness which Ogden displayed. The two stenographers kept glancing from Miss MacDonald to Tom, as though they expected a battle to start between them. Tom missed his private office and his own secretary. In its exterior aspects, the change seemed more like a demotion than a promotion.

A half hour after Tom arrived at his new desk, Hopkins came out of his inner office. “Good morning, Tom!” he said briskly. “Good to have you here!”

“Good to be here!” Tom said. He had developed a hesitancy about whether to call Hopkins by his first name. “Mr. Hopkins” now sounded impolitely formal, and “Ralph” sounded brash. He avoided using either name whenever possible.

“I’ve got some correspondence I’d like you to answer for me,” Hopkins said. “Miss MacDonald, you can give Mr. Rath the morning’s mail after I’ve looked it over and let him rough out the replies “

“Yes, sir,” Miss MacDonald said.

Hopkins returned to his inner office. An hour later Miss Mac-Donald brought Tom a wire basket containing about thirty letters. Some were requests from charities, some suggested various new projects for United Broadcasting, and others concerned complex business transactions already underway. On the latter Hopkins had written in his small, neat handwriting, “See me.” On some of the simple requests he had written, “Tell him no,” and on others, “Tell him yes.” On still others he had written, “Maybe—don’t commit us.”

Tom was not surprised at all this—he knew that the stage after having a girl to take dictation is to have someone to do the dictating. He had often written letters for Dick Haver at the Schanenhauser Foundation. Calling one of the stenographers over to his desk, he began the letters for Hopkins’ signature. In reply to a letter from a newly formed charity on which Hopkins had scribbled, “Tell him no,” he said, “I was most interested to see the information you sent me, and I certainly agree with you that this is an important and worthy endeavor, but it is necessary for us to plan ahead on this sort of thing, and I’m afraid that we’ve already committed ourselves so heavily on other similar projects that we won’t be able to include this one on our list of contributions now. I certainly hope your program is successful, however, and at some later time we would be glad to give your needs thorough consideration. Sincerely, Ralph Hopkins, president, United Broadcasting Corporation.”

When he had several similar letters typed up, he sent them into Hopkins’ office. To his surprise, they came back almost immediately with carefully inked corrections on them. Most of the letters had been made a little more gracious, a little more informal, but on the letter saying no to the charity, Hopkins had written to Tom, “Don’t agree with him that project is important and don’t wish him success. I never heard of this outfit. They might use my letter as an endorsement, and they might be phonies.”

Tom glanced up, and, seeing that Miss MacDonald was looking at him smugly, he realized that she had been the one who had answered the letters before and that she was pleased to see his work needed correction. He called the stenographer to his desk again and redic- tated the letters.

A few moments later, Hopkins spoke to him through the interoffice communication box. “Come in and bring the rest of the mail,” he said. Tom picked up the letters on which Hopkins had written, “See me,” and entered the inner office. Hopkins was pacing back and forth, looking ill at ease. “The reason I’m having you start out on this mail is that I think it’s the best way for you to learn how I work and to get an idea of some of the projects we have underway,” he said. “Now, take that letter from Richardson at the Henkel Manufacturing Corporation. That’s a long story. They manufacture television sets which go out under various brand names. For some time we’ve been trying to work out a deal that will let us market our own sets—United Broadcasting Corporation sets. We’ve got two or three other companies interested in supplying the sets, but this is more than a matter of just getting bids. We’re trying to work out a deal where we tie in with some big retailing outfit. . . .”

He talked on for a long time. To Tom, the whole subject seemed hopelessly complicated. “Anyway,” Hopkins concluded, “the point is, we’ve got to stall Richardson now without letting him think we’ve lost interest. Tell him that several other people here want to study the specifications he sent us and that he’ll hear from us in a few days.”

Hopkins went on to discuss this and other letters, while Tom took notes. By the time Tom got back to his desk, his head was whirling.

“Mr. Ogden called you,” Miss MacDonald said. “He wants you to call him back.”

“Thanks,” Tom replied, and immediately called Ogden. “Oh, Tom,” Ogden said. “Can you drop in at about ten tomorrow to review what you’ve done for the mental-health committee?”

“Sure,” Tom said. “I’ll be there.”

“There was another call for you,” Miss MacDonald said as soon as Tom had hung up. “A Mr. Gardella. He said it was personal.”

“Gardella?”

“Yes. He left his number. He wants you to call him back.”

Miss MacDonald handed him a slip of paper with an outside telephone number written on it. Tom dialed it himself. “Hello,” Caesar’s deep voice answered.

“This is Tom Rath. Did you call me?”

“Yes, Mr. Rath,” Caesar said. “I just thought I ought to tell you. . . .”

“Did you hear anything?” Tom interrupted.

“No—not yet. I just thought I ought to tell you that I’ve got a new job. Gina and I got a job taking care of a new apartment building over in Brooklyn—we’re going to be custodians. We get an apartment for ourselves with the deal and everything. Anyway, I probably won’t be around the United Broadcasting building much any more, but I wanted to tell you that when we hear from Maria, we’ll let you know.”

“You think you will hear?”

“Sure, sooner or later. When Louis gets on his feet, they’ll get in touch with Gina’s mother. Anyway, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks,” Tom said, and hurriedly added, “I’m glad you’ve got a good job. I wish you luck.”

“Same to you,” Gardella said. “Good-by.”

Tom put the telephone receiver down. Miss MacDonald was looking at him curiously. Quickly he picked up a letter lying on his desk and started to read it. So Caesar’s got a new job, he thought—I won’t be running into him on the elevators any more. Suddenly he felt sure he would never see or hear from Caesar again. So that is my punishment, he thought—I probably never will know what happened to Maria and the boy. Maybe this is just retribution. The hardest thing of all for me is going to be never to know. She and the boy could be starving. They could be dead. Or they could be getting along fine. How strange it is never to know. He picked up the piece of paper on which Miss MacDonald had written Caesar’s telephone number and carefully put it in his wallet.

The next morning Ogden said to Tom, “For the time being your duties as Mr. Hopkins’ personal assistant will be in addition to your work on the mental-health committee. We’ll start looking for someone else for that, but until we find someone, it’s still your responsibility.”

Tom hoped he’d go on and discuss an increase in salary. Instead, Ogden said, “As you know, Mr. Hopkins wants to get cracking on the mental-health committee. Fill me in now. Where are we?”

“I’ve been getting some tentative bylaws drawn up to show the exploratory committee when it meets,” Tom said.

“Good. How about a statement on the background of this committee—something to tell how it got started.”

“We haven’t discussed that,” Tom said.

“You mean you haven’t even thought of it? It’s the first thing Hopkins will want. How did this whole thing begin, anyhow? Everybody’s going to be asking that. You’ve got to answer it.”

“I’ll work something out,” Tom said.

“Have you got sample news releases announcing the formation of the committee?”

“Yes.”

“Suggested budget?”

“Nothing yet,” Tom said. “We haven’t discussed that.”

“Haven’t discussed it! Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that someone might inquire how much this whole operation is going to cost? What’s Mr. Hopkins going to say: ‘I’m sorry, but we hadn’t thought of that’?”

“I’ll get some cost estimates together,” Tom said.

“How about plans for staff? How much of a staff is this committee going to need when it gets going? You’re going to have to answer that before you can make out a tentative budget.”

“I’m sorry,” Tom said hotly, “but I’ve never been able to get a very clear idea of just how big a project Mr. Hopkins is planning!”

“We’re supposed to do the planning for him! That’s what we’re paid for. Get some data together! How much of a staff does the polio outfit have, and what did it start with? How about the cancer outfit? What are their budgets? You’ve got to think these things out for yourself!”

“I’ll get some data together,” Tom said.

“You better get cracking. This should have been done two months ago.”

“Ill do my best,” Tom said.

There was an instant of silence before Ogden said, “Now listen, Tom. You wrote a darn good speech for Mr. Hopkins—I know that. And I know you’re Mr. Hopkins’ personal assistant now, but that doesn’t mean you can forget about this mental-health committee. It’s going to grow. Mr. Hopkins can’t be worrying about it all the time. He’s got to be able to rely on you.”

Ogden paused, and Tom waited without saying anything.

“Up till now,” Ogden continued, “there hasn’t been much we could do, but in the future, things will be different. There’s a big administrative job to be done, and a big job of promotion. I of course won’t be the one to determine where you will fit into the structure—ultimately, that will be up to you. It will depend on what you’ve shown us you can do. But if you’re going to be Hopkins’ personal assistant, you should get to the point where you anticipate his needs. Don’t wait for me to tell you.”

“I understand,” Tom said. His face was hot.

“Thanks for coming up,” Ogden said, and swung around in his swivel chair. Picking up the receiver of his telephone, he said, “Now, Miss Horton, you can put that call through to Denver.” He remained with his back turned while Tom got up and walked out of the room.

When Tom returned to Hopkins’ outer office, the first thing he saw was a pile of about fifteen thick leather-bound books on his desk.

“Mr. Hopkins asked me to give you those,” Miss MacDonald said. “They’re the company’s annual reports—there are two to a volume. He said he thought you’d like to go through them.”

“Thanks,” Tom said. He sat down, picked up one of the books, and leafed through it. The pages were full of graphs and statistics showing the progress of United Broadcasting. Of course, he thought —I should be studying these. I should have asked for them myself. I bet Hopkins knows these by heart. Anyone who seriously intended to make this company his career should study its history. I should be spending every spare minute on these. He tried to read one of the pages describing a complicated division of stock. His mind wandered —it was difficult material. I should be getting that work on the mental-health committee done first, he thought—my background reading should be done on evenings and week ends. Work in the office on Saturdays and do your background reading on Sundays—hundreds do it. He glanced at his watch. It was only eleven o’clock. Suddenly he longed for the day to be over—he was ashamed to find that for no particular reason he felt exhausted, and he wanted to go home and relax. An hour and a half until lunch, and then another five and a half hours before he could reasonably catch the train to South Bay. The big sweep hand on his wrist watch seemed to crawl with maddening slowness. Hopkins rarely left his office before seven o’clock, and Tom had sensed he was annoyed to find that Tom usually left earlier. It was embarrassing to have to compete with Hopkins’ hours —it was like taking a Sunday-afternoon walk with a long-distance runner. The stereotyped notion of the earnest young man arriving early and leaving late, and the complacent boss dropping in for a few hours in the middle of the day to see how things were going was completely reversed.

Tom rolled a piece of paper into his typewriter and began to write a brief statement describing the origins of the mental-health committee. After finishing it, he glanced at his watch again. Almost an hour before lunchtime—it was ridiculous to be so restless. I’ll bet Hopkins never was a clock watcher, he thought.

“Don’t wish time away.”

The sentence came abruptly to his mind. Who had said that? It’s just an old saying, he thought. “Don’t wish time away.” Suddenly he remembered sitting with Maria in the abandoned villa so many years before, looking at this same wrist watch and counting each second the way a miser might count his money.

We didn’t wish time away, he thought. I’ve got to stop thinking about Maria. Time, he thought—I need more time. I’ve got to get this work done for the committee, and I’ve got to read the annual reports, and I must get our housing project going. I’ve got no business wishing time away.

Time, he thought: I wonder how much more time I’ve got? I’m thirty-three years old; that’s the halfway point, really—I’m probably halfway through my life. What am I going to do during the other half, ride the commuters’ train, and read annual reports, and write endless letters for Hopkins or someone like him, and pride myself on working every week end? Shall I make a full-time career of being Hopkins’ ghost? Is that what I want?

I don’t know, he thought—who the hell knows what he wants? It’s ridiculous to think of the next thirty-three years stretching ahead like an endless uphill road. Don’t wish time away.

There’s something wrong, he thought. There must be something drastically wrong when a man starts wishing time away. Time was given us like jewels to spend, and it’s the ultimate sacrilege to wish it away. He glanced at his watch and again found himself thinking of Maria. She had not liked the watch. “Take it off,” she had said. “I hate to hear it ticking.”

That had been in her room, only a few days before he had left Rome. “Tick tock!” she had said derisively. “Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick! I would like to break it! And the buckle scratches me.”

He had taken it off and put it on the floor beside the bed. The room had been very dark, and the luminous dial had glowed like the eyes of a cat.

“I can hear your heart beating,” he had said.

“Kiss me. I don’t want you to hear my heart beating.”

“I love the sound of your heart and the sound of your breath.”

Tom’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the telephone ringing on his desk in the United Broadcasting building. He picked up the receiver. It was Betsy. “Hello,” she said cheerfully. “Can you get home a little early tonight?”

“Why?”

“The PTA is having a meeting in advance of the public hearing on the new school. We ought to go—Bernstein says rumors about our housing project have got around, and we may get involved in the discussion tomorrow. We should get boned up on all the facts tonight.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it tonight,” Tom said. “I’m going to have to stay here and work late this evening. I may not be home until after midnight. And don’t count on me for week ends for a long while.”

“Why? What’s happened?”

“Nothing. I just have a lot of work to do.”

“Can’t you do it some other time? This meeting is important.”

“No. Don’t count on me. I’ll go to the hearing tomorrow, but I can’t go anywhere tonight.”

“All right,” Betsy said resignedly.

Tom put the receiver down and turned toward his typewriter. That school thing is important, he thought—I should be helping to work for it. How interconnected everything is! If we could get the school, maybe we could get the housing project through and really make some money. Then maybe I could find and help Maria, and maybe I could work something out with Hopkins. Maybe I could find a good honest job with him which would pay me a decent living, but not require me to work day and night, pretending I want to be some kind of a tycoon. What could I say to him? Could I say, look, when you come right down to it, I’m just a nine-to-five guy, and I’m not interested in being much more, because life is too short, and I don’t want to work evenings and week ends forever? Could a guy like Hopkins ever understand that? Damn it, Tom thought, I’m not lazy! If there were some cause worth working for, I might not mind so much. But what’s the great missionary spirit in United Broadcasting? It seemed to Tom suddenly that he had managed to get himself into a position which made it necessary to keep secrets from both his employer and his wife—that both, if they knew the truth about him, would abandon him. Maybe that’s why I’m on edge all the time, he thought—I have to keep pretending. Maybe if I could tell Betsy about Maria, and if I felt that Hopkins really understood that I don’t want to get as wrapped up in my work as he is, then maybe I might relax. It’s no damn fun to keep the truth from people. And it’s not fair to them. Damn it, I’m really cheating Hopkins—by agreeing to become his personal assistant at all, I in effect promised him something I have no intention of delivering. Of course he’ll be angry when he finds out! And I’m cheating Betsy too. I bet she doesn’t like this kind of life any better than I do. It must not be much fun to have a husband as incommunicative as I’ve been. It’s funny how hard it is for us to understand each other! But how could I ever expect her really to forgive me for Maria and her boy? What would she say: “That’s all right, dear, don’t give it a second thought”?

I’m wasting time, he thought—I’ve got to get to work. The next thing to do, he decided, was to write some introductory remarks for Hopkins to use at the first meeting of the exploratory committee on mental health. “It’s very kind of you to accept my invitation to meet here to discuss one of the great problems of the day,” he wrote. “It is my hope that from this meeting will stem . . .”

附录二译文

穿灰色法兰绒西装的男人

第22章

就在那天早上，在派克大街公寓里，拉尔夫•霍普金准时七点钟醒来。他一直在研究心理健康的演讲稿，一直写到后半夜，早上一睁开眼，脑子里又都是这些事。奥格登起草的最后一稿意思完全不对，霍普金开始怀疑他还能不能起草出一份自己想要的心理健康方面的发言稿。或许最初想要组建心理健康委员会的想法就是错误的。看了眼手表，已经是七点一刻了。现在已经没时间为发言稿发愁了，他想——今天可有得忙的。

他轻轻一跃下了床，快步穿过那间小而简朴的卧室，推开门，走进铺着瓷砖的大浴室。脱掉白色的丝质睡衣，走进淋浴间里，拉上帘子。拧开面前墙上那精致的阀门，热水立马就从淋浴间上方和四壁上的十几个喷嘴里高速冲击到他的身上。霍普金慢慢地拧着阀门直到水变温——医生不让他冲冷水澡。他在温水中站了三十秒钟，然后关上水阀，走出了淋浴间。从墙上的挂钩上拉下来一条又大又暖和的土耳其浴巾。裹上浴巾，来到房间另一侧，站在嵌在地板里的那块体重秤上。裹着浴巾有138磅重。比标准体重重了三磅，他想着，心里想着得少吃点了。发胖真是太蠢了，他想——他一半的朋友都是因为吃喝过度，最后送了命。

刷完牙、刮好胡子之后，霍普金走进了更衣室。仆人已经为他准备好了衣服，他自己穿好了衣服。此刻仆人不在——他喜欢仆人提前为他准备好衣服，但却不喜欢他们在他身边忙来忙去。

差一刻八点的时候，霍普金下楼来到公寓客厅，正好他的私人秘书麦克唐纳小姐也到了，她年纪稍长，头发花白，就是汤姆在霍普金外间办公室看到的那位女士。她每天都在差一刻八点时开始一天的工作，先到霍普金的公寓，之后陪他一同前往办公室。

“早上好，麦克唐纳小姐，”他高兴地说道。“今天的日程都安排什么了？”

“艾伯特•皮尔斯先生会前来同您一起用早餐，”她说。“皮尔斯先生在德克萨斯拥有三家电台，俄克勒荷马州有两家。他有一些关于节目规划方面的建议想跟您谈谈——还记得他的来信吗？”

“是的,” 霍普金说。

早餐时谈生意，已经成了惯例；十年来一直都是这样。太多人想约见霍普金，必须把他们安排进来，见缝插针。

首先，是那些想跟他谈公司生意的人——生产人员、研发人员、必须哄着的那些演艺圈的大腕、手里有大合同的广告经理们、下属电视台的老板、推销员、公关专家、赞助商，还有一些了不起的作家，他们没为电台写过东西，但现在开始想走这条路了。

还有那些银行家、房地产商、投资专家和律师，这批人在霍普金的领导下，管理着联合广播公司的财产。

此外，想见他的还有他旗下许多公司的主管们和他管理的慈善机构的相关人员。 

霍普金管理着两所大学、五家医院、三家公立图书馆、一家孤儿基金、两家艺术与科学发展基金会、一家盲人院、一家残疾儿童救助所和一家退役海员养老院。

除此之外，他还参加了各类委员会，研究的内容五花八门，包括南印度形势、美国公共卫生、种族隔离、提高广告业基准、纽约市的停车问题、农场补贴、高速公路安全问题、新闻自由、原子能、城市俱乐部的管制规则、和漫画书的文明规范。

“在皮尔斯先生之后，安德鲁斯医生会来——到您每季度体检的时候了，”麦克唐纳小姐说。

霍普金微微皱了下眉。每季度体检这是常识，但他却对此感到厌恶。“好吧，接下来呢？”他问。

“因为安德鲁斯医生的缘故，今天上午十点之前，办公室那边我没给您安排别的事。十点的时候赫巴德先生要跟您开个会——他做了一些新的成本估算和时间进度的计划。十一点有董事会议，得开一中午。”

门铃打断了她的话音儿。霍普金打开门。一个大腹便便、戴着米色墨西哥帽的大块头男人走了进来，是艾伯特•皮尔斯。

 “你好！”霍普金说，真诚地跟他握了握手。“谢谢你来得这么早。我本想同你共进午餐的，但今天还有董事会，你也知道怎么回事儿！我真的很高兴这次能见到你。”

这个大块头男人满脸堆笑。“真的很感谢您抽时间见我！”他说。

麦克唐纳小姐悄悄从侧门走了出去，霍普金带皮尔斯来到饭厅。侍女给皮尔斯端上一盘鲜水果、华夫饼和香肠馅饼。霍普金只吃了一碗加脱脂奶的燕麦片，喝了一杯咖啡。“希望能和你的胃口！”他对客人说。“这座城市的空气让人没了食欲。”

吃饭期间，皮尔斯详细阐述了自己对电视节目的看法，中心议题就是要增加老式的表演节目，比如方块舞、竞技表演以及赞美诗吟诵，这些会受到农村观众的喜爱。

霍普金万分同意。九点一刻，门铃又响了，霍普金蹭地起身去开门。 这是不让仆人去开门的一个好处——霍普金可以借此结束会面而又不失礼。安德鲁斯医生，一位彬彬有礼的绅士，头发却过早花白，带着黑色小药箱走进来。

“真谢谢您能来，”霍普金说。“我一会儿就过来。皮尔斯先生，这位是安德鲁斯医生——别走啊，皮尔斯先生——我还想跟您再聊会儿呢。哎，要是你非得走，那我理解。我确实很感谢您提的节目建议，你放心，一定会有成效的！”

皮尔斯走后，霍普金和医生两人在客厅坐下。“你最近怎么样？”医生问。

“挺好的——感觉再好不过了。”

“入睡难吗？”

“一点也不！”

医生打开包，拿出听诊器。霍普金脱下外套，解开衬衫。医生专心地听了几秒钟他的心脏。“听着很好，”他最后说。“最近又头晕了吗？”

“一丝都没有！”

 “呼吸困难吗？”

“不。”

医生把听诊器放回包里，拿出测量血压的仪器。霍普金卷起袖子，医生把血压计绑在他胳膊上时，他望向窗外屋顶的绿草坪。一阵缄默。“有点高，”医生最后说。“不严重——别担心。”

“挺好，”霍普金说，松了口气。

“不过，这是个警告。”医生继续说。“我想不用我再重复了吧：你应该歇一歇了。”

“我休息很充分啊，”霍普金说。

“我说句良心话，”医生继续说。“你应该休个长假——两三个月，就是躺着晒晒太阳。你应该让自己有个爱好，能让你放松下来的爱好。”

霍普金聚精会神地看着他，但是什么也没说。

“你应该削减你的日程安排，”医生继续说。“从现在开始十点半或者十一点上班，下午三四点钟下班——像你这种身份的人没理由不那样做。想的长远些，这样可以确保你的工作时间更长久。把外边的活动都停掉——好好轻松几年。你得歇一歇了。”

 “医生，你是建议我退休吗？”霍普金冷淡地问到。

“不是——你只要按照正常的上班时间作息我就很满足了！”

“我会的，”霍普金礼貌地说。“当然很感谢您的建议，医生，我会听你的。感谢您今天来得这么早。”

医生走之后，麦克唐纳小姐叫来霍普金的车，一辆开了五年的黑色卡迪拉克，司机是个上了年纪的黑人。他们开车前往联合广播大厦。还没走出三个街区就遇上堵车，几乎无法移动。霍普金把头靠在灰色的软垫上，闭着眼睛。“你得歇一歇了！”医生刚刚说。对于霍普金来说，好像这一生，总有人在跟他说这话。

当他还在公立学校上学的时候就有人这么跟他说。那会儿他是校报的编辑；尽管他个头矮小，不适合参加体育运动，但却是足球队和篮球队的负责人。不但在学业上名列前茅，而且只要是举办舞会或是编排校园剧，他都是组织委员会的主席。 “你得歇一歇了！”老师们跟他说。“慢慢来，孩子——你会把自己累垮的。”

他凭着奖学金上了普林斯顿，情况有过之而无不及。他不仅在学习上是全优生，而且领导着辩论队，经营着足球队，还参加了其他十几个活动。“你得歇一歇了！”他的导师跟他说。“慢慢来！”

但他没有放慢脚步。暑假的时候，他干过各类的工作，精力如此充沛，让他的老板都感到震惊。大学毕业后服兵役时他短暂地停下来过，那段时间他的朋友还开他玩笑，说他想当一名将军。1919年退役后，在证券买卖公司干了几年，之后来到刚成立的联合广播大厦。一年之后，他遇到海伦•佩里，她当时是纽约的时尚丽人。他以自己追求梦想的全部热情去追求她。1921年6月3号，他们结婚了。到那时为止，霍普金的人生还没有失败过。

“你得歇一歇！”海伦开始告诫他，甚至在结婚之前就说过，但不像老师和大学导师那样，她不会让事情就这么过去。她发现，霍普金的大多数晚上和周末都待在办公室里，已经成了习惯，起先，她很是恼火，之后很气愤，最后，很痛苦，也很迷惑。

“生活要是这样过就太不值得了，”她说。“我都见不着你！你得歇一歇。”

他曾尝试过多陪陪家人。特别是在婚后第二年，他们的第一个孩子罗伯特出生之后。他试着这样做过，每晚六点钟回家，和孩子一起玩耍，陪妻子聊聊天。结果却发现和孩子呆在一起会让他精神紧张，陪妻子聊天也会让他坐立不安，这着实让他吃惊不已。

他总是忍不住要站起来，在房间里来回踱步，鼓弄口袋里的硬币，发出哗啦哗啦响声儿，不时地扫一眼挂钟。在家的那些漫漫长夜里，他有生以来第一次开始酗酒。渐渐地，他又开始在办公室呆到很晚——那时候，他已经在联合广播公司里身居要职。海伦老是反驳他。他们互相指责、大吵大闹，甚至以离婚来威胁彼此。

是的，这是个问题，在一次特别激烈的争吵之后，他承认——这是一个问题，和所有问题一样必须直接面对。他用安静的语调对海伦说，“我不想再吵下去了——这样下去会让我们俩筋疲力尽。我愿意承认错完全在我。我总是忘乎所以地工作——我这一生都是这样，你不必为任何事情自责。”

她脸色苍白。“你想离婚吗？”她问。

“不，”他说。“你呢？”

“不想。”

他们再也没有谈论过离婚的事，但她把霍普金对工作的疯狂看成是种病。“你不能任其发展了，”她说，暗示他去看精神病医生。

两年里，霍普金一直接受精神分析治疗。每周五次，他都去69号大街心理医生的家里，躺在沙发上，回想着自己的童年。他的爸爸是个开朗的人，一无是处，在纽约州北部一个小造纸厂里当助理，下午一回家，就总是坐在那寒酸却温馨的小屋门廊前晃来晃去。父亲业绩平平、胸无大志，对此母亲很是失望，觉得自己下嫁给他很心酸。母亲长年累月地把家人扔在一边，一心扑在工作上，她经常参加当地的园艺俱乐部，加入令人眼花缭乱的各种社会和民间组织。当她在各种团体中都位高权重时，她对自己平庸的丈夫也越发不满了。后来母亲一个人住在家里三楼的一个单间里，在拉尔夫的整个童年时光中，母亲一直表现得就像一位伟大的女性暂时被迫和穷亲戚住在一起一样。

霍普金不是一个内省的人，不过在跟精神病医生叙旧这些事的时候，他说：“我一直很为父亲难过，因为母亲对他很不好。她也不花时间陪我，除非我做了一些她觉得出色的事。当我取得特别好的成绩或是赢了比赛的时候，她才会把我带到楼上她的房间去，单独跟她一起喝茶。‘我们是一类人，’她过去常常这么说。‘我们能成事儿。’我想她给我留的印象就是成功意味着一切。”

霍普金对自己的自我分析感觉很骄傲，却吃惊地发现，医生毫不理会他的想法，反而提出了一些古怪的“神经衰弱的解释”。他说霍普金可能有很深的愧疚情结，他不停地工作就是要惩罚自己甚至可能想累死自己。他说愧疚情结很有可能是基于对同性恋的畏惧。霍普金从来没担心过自己是同性恋或者内疚，所以对他来说，医生的话听起来就是垃圾，但他还是试着去相信它，因为心理医生说他必须坚信自己能被治好才行，而霍普金为了让妻子高兴，也希望能治好自己。

麻烦的是，每次他离开精神病医生的办公室，他都不可抗拒地想回到自己的办公室，埋头工作。治疗了快两年的时候，他已成为联合广播公司最年轻的副总裁，他告诉妻子他再没时间去看心理医生了。

在这之后不久，他就在纽约租了一间公寓，专门用来谈生意，渐渐地就养成了一连几周不回家的习惯，那时他们的家在达连湾。他的妻子并不反对。有一段时间她痴迷赛马，厌烦了，就在家里开各种各样的派对。1935年苏珊出生之后，她就再没开过派对，狂热地一心一意当起了母亲，解雇了先前照顾儿子的女佣，交往的都是前卫的父母，他们讨论自己的孩子就好像心理医生讨论自己的病人一样。霍普金从不抱怨——他对她心怀感激，因为她不来烦他，而且照他看来，还弥补了他作为父亲的不足。

日子一直过得不错，直到1943年，他们的儿子罗伯特在战前阵亡。一接到妻子打来的电话，他就急忙赶回家，设法安慰她，而海伦只是说，“你根本就不了解他！你根本就不了解他！”霍普金陪了她三天，最后还是回到办公室，比以往更疯狂地埋头于工作。

 “慢慢来！”从那之后医生就总说。“你得歇一歇了！”不过，他妻子海伦却不再跟他说了。罗伯特离开之后，她在疗养院待了一小段时间，把女儿苏珊留给仆人照顾。从疗养院回来之后，海伦又开始开各种各样的派对，并开始计划在南湾建那个巨大的炫耀的房子，买了游艇，看起来似乎从未那么开心过。

“这交通！”霍普金说，坐在那豪华轿车里，望向车窗外人行道上的行人，他们倒是更节省时间。“车太堵了！”他坐在后座，试着让自己放松，但那是不可能的。交警尖声吹着哨，前头的出租车司机开始咒骂。霍普金闭着眼睛。担心不仅可笑也无济于事。还是想想以后要做的事更好些。比如说，要改的心理健康演讲稿。霍普金从兜里拿出一支烟点燃。“麦克唐纳小姐，”他说。“看起来我们要在这里堵一阵子了。我口授你笔录好吗？”

第23章

“他们想用塔顶做观测站，”汤姆周五晚上下班回来时贝琪对他说道。

“什么？”他惊讶地问道。

“是民防——他们正在部署这里的民防。在他们找到一个固定地点之前，想先用我们的塔做飞机监测点。

“哦，天啊，”汤姆嘟囔着。

“你不赞成吗？”

“可能吧，”他说道。“我也说不清楚，这听起来很荒唐。他们想让我们做什么？”

“就是让他们用几周这个塔。他们说，这是南湾的最高处，而且视野最好。这怎么荒唐了？”

“不荒唐，”他说道。“我只是累了，而且我也不想再有一场战争。我还有一大堆事要做。”

“坐下来喝一杯吧，”贝琪说道。“晚餐几分钟以后就好了。”

那晚汤姆躺在床上很久也没睡着，他担心玛莉亚，担心老爱德华的房产诉求申请，担心区划法律，还担心他明天早晨要与伯恩斯坦的见面。当他醒来时，他觉得精疲力尽，怒不可遏，就连孩子们在早餐时大声交谈的声音也让他恼怒。简妮说，“爸爸，我能喝牛奶吗？我能喝牛奶吗？我能喝牛奶吗？”“安静！”他严厉地打断她。她看起来很伤心，他急忙补了句，“对不起，”把牛奶递给她，一直到这顿饭结束，他都没再说话。

“我会把你送到伯恩斯坦法官的办公室，”在他喝完第二杯咖啡之后，贝琪说道。“我会带着孩子们，然后去学校给女儿报名。”

“我不想去学校，”简妮说道。“我根本就不想去。”

“学校没那么糟，”芭芭拉想了想说。“我只恨它一点点。”

“我能去吗？”皮特问道。

“下个月才去呢，”贝琪说道。

他们坐上了车，朝着南湾大街缓缓驶去。

 “现在不要听他胡说，”当汤姆在伯恩斯坦的办公大楼前下车时，贝琪说道。“明年春天，我们就能出售前十栋房子，如果我们打算这样做，现在就得行动了。”

汤姆进去时，伯恩斯坦正坐在一张满是划痕的松木桌后面。他抬眼盯着汤姆——他从未想过拉斯夫人的孙子会这么高。“请坐，拉斯先生，”他亲切地说道。“我能为你做些什么？”

“我想知道拉斯夫人的地产需要多久才能通过遗嘱认证法庭的审查，”汤姆说道，“我想了解一下这里的区划法律。我们想启动一个房屋开发的项目。”

“我知道了，”伯恩斯坦说道，等着他继续说。

“一般来说要用多长时间才能确定产权？”

“如果情况不复杂的话，用不了多久。几天前有个叫舒尔茨的人来这儿找我。爱德华 •舒尔茨。你对这个名字有印象吗？”

“他以前在我祖母那里工作。我想尽我所能地帮他，不过这要等到产权确定之后。”

 “舒尔茨先生跟我说，他认为拉斯夫人打算将整处房产留给他，”伯恩斯坦平静地说道。

“这荒谬至极！我祖母在去世前不久还跟我提过他。”

“显然他认为自己有权得到房产，”伯恩斯坦冷冷地说道。

“这太荒谬了！”

“你猜想他为什么觉得自己有权继承呢？”

“我想他一定是疯了，”汤姆说道。“我也说不清——这事让我特恶心。拉斯夫人去世时已经九十三岁了，她可能给了他希望，让他误认为她会把遗产留给他。”

“你觉得她有没有可能答应把地产留给他作为他照顾自己余生的回报呢？”伯恩斯坦温和地问道。

“不可能！如果是这样，她一定会告诉我的！她在去世之前告诉我，她会把一切留给我，遗嘱上也是这么写的。”

“舒尔茨先生说，在她去世的前一年，他向拉斯夫人提出涨工资，当时她说没钱给他涨工资，但如果他能在她身边伺候，直到她去世，那她就会把所有财产都留给他。”

“我想公平地处理这件事，”汤姆说道。“我们不能证明她是否这样说过。她那时已经上了年纪又很糊涂，我想可能是她这么说过但又忘了吧。我所知道的就是她以前总说要把房子留给我，而且遗嘱上也是这样写的。”

“舒尔茨先生觉得有人企图骗他。”

“这位老人怎么想我管不着！”汤姆说道。“房产的事儿无限期地拖下去，我可等不起！他怎么能证明一切？他没有任何证据！”

“他说他有，”伯恩斯坦说道。

“什么证据？”

“他跟我说他有她的亲笔文书，写于西姆斯寄给我的那份遗嘱之后。”

“我不信！”

“他是这么说的。我让他把文件的复印件寄给我，他同意了。”

“你收到了吗？”

“还没——这才没多久。”

“我真搞不懂！”汤姆说道。“她不是这样的。她从来不会不告诉我就这样做的！”

“法庭会审查两份文件后再做决定。”

“这要用多久？”

“这要涉及很多事情。也许有必要收集很多信息。可能要用几个月的时间，甚至更久。”

“期间，我会住在祖母的房子里。要是法庭把房子判给了他会怎么样？”

“我想，他会把你赶走，也许还会收你以前的房租。”

“我现在呆在那儿合法吗？”

“当财产有争议时，要怎么处理它，这很难说。我认为在法庭做出决定之前，舒尔茨先生不会撵你的。”

“他真好，”汤姆苦涩地说道。沉默了一阵，他才继续说道，“我想应该请西姆斯先生代理我——我需要找位律师，对吧？”

“这是明智的做法。”

“你能为我接这场官司吗？”

“恐怕不行。我是法官。”

“那爱德华，我是说舒尔茨先生找律师了吗？”

“嗯。纽约一家大公司为他做代理。坦白说，我认为如果在他们看来他没有合法权利的话，他们是不会帮他打这场官司的。”

“那很好，”汤姆说道。

“你所能做的就是把这场官司交给你的律师，然后等待结果，”伯恩斯坦说道。

汤姆无助地盯着他看了一会儿，然后突然站了起来。“我想我也做不了什么啦，”他说。“现在问区划法律的事儿似乎也没什么意义了。”

“那片地有十英亩，”伯恩斯坦说道。“如果你想在那里进行房屋开发的话，你手头可有一场大仗要打了。我要是你，我会等到产权判定了之后再做这件事。”

“谢谢，”汤姆说道，突然对伯恩斯坦有一种莫名的反感。“还是要谢谢你的。”他离开了房间。

他一走，伯恩斯坦就走到办公室的窗边，站在那儿俯看下面的街道，贝琪和孩子们都在车里等着。他的胃开始疼了起来。

“啊呀，那所学校糟糕透了！”汤姆一走进车子里，还没来得及说什么，就听到贝琪这样说。“又脏人又多，我觉得那里不安全。我不想把我的孩子送到那儿去！工程动工后，我就把孩子们送到私立学校去！”

“贝琪，”汤姆说道，“我有些不太好的消息。”

“什么消息？”

“爱德华已经提出整处房产归他所有，而且他说，他有一份祖母写的遗嘱，是在我们这份遗嘱之后写的。他已经请了一家大律师事务所帮他打这场官司。”

“噢，不！她跟你说……”

“我知道。”

“结果会怎样呢？”

“我们只能把这场官司交给西姆斯然后等待法庭的判决。”

贝琪没再说什么。“怎么了？”简妮问道。

“没什么事，宝贝儿，”贝琪说道。

“爸爸刚才说什么了？”

“小事情，”汤姆说道。“我们现在要回家了。”

他发动了车子。驱车上山回老房子的路上，他们都一言不发。到岩礁处，也就是他父亲开着那辆旧帕卡德撞到岩石的地方，汤姆刻意地盯着那儿看——把头扭过去太可笑了。大块大块的石头，嶙峋陡峭，有些还略微呈现出暗红色，很可能是铁矿石。

 “爱德华和祖母两个人中，有一个人在说谎！”当汤姆把车停在房前时，贝琪突然说道。“我知道那是爱德华搞的鬼！所有的事情都会水落石出的！。”

“别指望了，宝贝儿，”他说道。

出于某种原因，他不想走进那栋昏暗的老房子里。相反，他独自一人朝远处那一排松树走去，脚下踩着繁茂的草丛。远处长岛海峡海面平静、波光粼粼。孩子们蹦蹦跳跳地跟在他身后，贝琪却把孩子们都叫了回来。“让你爸爸自己待会儿，”她说。很可笑，他想道。我总觉得事情会朝坏的方向发展，而且，该死的，现实也总是这个样子。

“一切都会好起来的！”贝琪总是这样说。

是的，他想道，在这场官司判决期间，我们可以在这儿住一年左右，然后爱德华就会继承这栋房子，跟我们要拖欠的租金。我们还要付律师费和诉讼费。而我现在唯一的一份工作就是整天坐在办公桌前无所事事。

如果我们得不到这处房产，又欠了一大笔债，我还被炒了，那会怎么样？他想道。我们该怎么办？如果玛莉亚来找麻烦，那该怎么办？

我总能找到一份工作的，他想道。迪克•哈维会再给我找一份工作的。我总会再找到工作的。

也许吧，他想道。如果霍普金在雇佣我六个月之后把我炒掉，人们就会想知道原因。如果玛莉亚的事情被公诸于众——如果她想起诉——就不会有一家基金会想和我沾边儿了。那么除此之外我到底还能做些什么工作呢？

我可以回到军队去，他想。他们会任命我做少校。优厚的薪金，到处去旅行，可以受教育，还有安全保障。祖母会在天堂上看着我，真正地以我为荣——她可以和天使们谈论这个家族中的少校，不用再说谎了。

祖母，他想道——天啊，她是一个什么样的女人？她承诺把自己的房产留给爱德华，难道是为了余生能有人照顾她吗？却因不想让我有半点不快，而不敢告诉我，她是在左右逢源吗？她一边告诉我要把房产留给我，一边又想在她生命的最后过得安逸，她这是在拿我打趣儿吗？归根结底，她难道只是一个邪恶、虚伪、说谎的老女人，只会带来不幸，自取灭亡……

这太荒唐了，他想道——我绝不会这样想的。钱没那么重要。我能扛得住。我总会找到工作的。我可以回到军队。这样可以旅行，可以受教育，还有安全保障。这样的时代是为我而产生的——一个会持枪杀人的坚强的混蛋。我甚至都不用持枪杀人。如果情况遭到极点，我可以挖沟，可以像凯撒那样开电梯，天堂中的祖母会说，“我的孙子从事运输业。”

想这些事情太离谱了。他想着。我可以在广告公司找份工作。我能写些广告文案、告诉人们多吃玉米片、多抽烟、多买些冰箱、汽车，一定能让老板们心花怒放。

第34章

第二天早上六点四十五的时候，贝琪走进了浴室，对正在刮胡子的汤姆说，“我不知道该怎么办。简妮说她不想去学校。”

“她说为什么了吗？”

“没有。她刚醒，就说她不去了。我告诉她必须去，她说她就是不去。”

“要不让她在家待一两天吧，”汤姆说。“她现在还小，不要紧。”

“如果我让她留在家里，那芭芭拉也不会去学校的——她很不愿意自己去上学。实际上，我清楚芭芭拉比简妮更不愿意去学校，但是她觉得必须做的事她就会去做。”

“我去跟简妮谈谈。”汤姆说。

“问题是，真的不能怪孩子，”贝琪说。“那个学校看起来多差啊！”

汤姆抹掉脸上的泡沫，向两个女儿的房间走去。简妮穿着睡衣，还坐在床上。她的面部表情坚定，双手倔强地叠放在大腿上。房间的另一侧，芭芭拉慢腾腾地穿着衣服。神情很不自然。

“怎么了，孩子们？”汤姆问。“简妮，不快点穿好衣服的话，就要迟到了。”

“我不去学校。”简妮说。

“为什么呢？”

“就是不想去。”

“你必须去。”汤姆说，“这是原则问题。总之，你也不想不学无术吧。”

 “我不去，”简妮说。从她的表情看得出来她快要哭了。

 “昨天在学校发生了什么事吗？”

“没有。”

“有人对你发脾气了吗？”

“没有。”她停了一下，接着补充道，“我害怕。”

“害怕什么？”

“大厅。”

“大厅？什么意思？”

简妮不支声了。

“大厅怎么了？”

“没什么。”简妮说道。

 “我今天送你去学校，你可以让我看看大厅。这样可以吗？”

简妮低头看着地板，表情绝望。她什么也没说。

“当你习惯之后，会觉得学校很有趣的，”汤姆迟疑地说道。简妮仍旧什么也不说。

“如果你是个听话的女孩，好好地去学校，我今晚回家会给你带份礼物。我会给你一个惊喜的。”

“好吧，”简妮悲伤地说。“可你得跟我去。”

“我会送你去的，”汤姆说道，然后开始帮她穿衣服。

早餐时，贝琪说，“我可以送她去——如果你去就赶不上火车了。”

“我坐晚点儿的车去，”汤姆说，“大厅里有什么困扰着简妮。我想去这个学校看看。”

汤姆把贝琪和皮特留在家里，把两个女儿放进车里，向学校开去。他记得小时候，也曾让司机载着，在同样的路上行驶，只是他们不停在公立学校；那时他们路过公立学校开向南湾乡村走读学校，汤姆和他的父亲都在那里上的学。那儿的学费是每年六百美元，在二十世纪二十年代就这么贵。汤姆想知道现在的学费要多少。他认为一定要把孩子送到私立学校的这种想法很可笑。在韦斯特波特，公立学校和私立学校一样好。

当他们到公立学校附近时，交通变得很拥挤。学校是一栋饱经风雨侵蚀的维多利亚式的砖砌建筑，坐落在铺着黑色沥青的操场中间，部分操场已经被划分出来，作了停车区。学校和它的操场周围立着高高的铁栅栏，好像动物园似的。汤姆开车驶过大门，在操场旁边找到了停车位，操场上不同年龄段的孩子们在一起跑啊、跳啊、喊啊。他和女儿们走上学校的前门台阶，走进了狭窄的大厅，大厅的天花板很高，墙面喷成了哑光巧克力的棕色，看起来很沉闷。一种旧校舍特有的不可名状的气味扑鼻而来——汗味儿、粉笔灰味儿还有刺鼻的廉价香水味儿。

电铃突然响起，在空荡荡的墙壁间刺耳地回响着。立刻就有一群孩子快速冲进汤姆刚刚走过的那道门，冲向大厅。还有孩子继续从操场涌进来，相互挤来挤去。大厅很快就人满为患了，有人尖声喊道“不要挤了！”孩子们继续使劲儿往里挤，汤姆一瞬间感到了幽闭恐惧。简妮紧紧地抓着他的手。她看起来很害怕。“这就是那个大厅，”她说。

 “昨天她在这里被撞倒了，”芭芭拉主动说起来。“这种事情不会再发生了，”汤姆说道，他感觉自己的声音听起来很假。

“我想我最好还是现在就走，”芭芭拉说道。“我的房间在楼上。”她放开汤姆的另一只手就立刻被人群冲走了。几分钟后，汤姆瞥见她在大厅的尽头正往楼上走，她那小小的身躯站得笔直。“别离开我，”简妮说道。

 “我会把你送到教室的，教室在哪里？”汤姆说道。简妮领他到了一个拥挤的门口后，停了下来。汤姆可以看到里面是一间小教室，教室里有很多桌子挤在一起。有那么多孩子在推挤，要想平稳站立都很困难。简妮突然松开了他的手，“谢谢你，”她说。他看到她走进去，然后坐在教室的最后面。

当汤姆出来时，新鲜的空气让他感觉很好。他把车开到火车站，在站台走来走去，等他的那班火车。

他想道，她们学校的大楼不应该是那样的。谁家的孩子都不应该上那样的学校。在韦斯特波特这是行不通的。不仅仅是因为我没钱把孩子送到私立学校去。

他想道，不知道霍姆的那些穷孩子去什么样的学校。他突然想起在他的童年时代，事情是多么简单。以前南湾乡村走读学校每个班级只有十个孩子，最多也就十五个孩子，大宅被改造成学校，老师在它那宽敞的起居室里和学生见面，而且他们都坐在软软的椅子上。他想着，那时我的一切是多么舒适啊。因为他的父亲曾在南湾乡村走读学校学习，而且他的祖母也曾慷慨捐助过学校，所以年迈的女校长特瑞丽小姐对他格外地友善，也曾为他严厉地教训过一位教师，就是因为那个老师过于严厉地斥责了汤姆。当他在火车站的站台上走来走去时，他想道，也许以这种方式成长对我的孩子们更有益。也许她们将来就可以少受些罪了。