文章简介

《老古玩店 The Old Curiosity Shop（外文版）》作者：[英]查尔斯·狄更斯【完结】

CHAPTER 1

Although I am an old man, night is generally my time for walking. In the

summer I often leave home early in the morning, and roam about fields

and lanes all day, or even escape for days or weeks together; but,

saving in the country, I seldom go out until after dark, though, Heaven

be thanked, I love its light and feel the cheerfulness it sheds upon the

earth, as much as any creature living.

I have fallen insensibly into this habit, both because it favours my

infirmity and because it affords me greater opportunity of speculating

on the characters and occupations of those who fill the streets. The

glare and hurry of broad noon are not adapted to idle pursuits like

mine; a glimpse of passing faces caught by the light of a street-lamp

or a shop window is often better for my purpose than their full

revelation in the daylight; and, if I must add the truth, night is

kinder in this respect than day, which too often destroys an air-built

castle at the moment of its completion, without the least ceremony or

remorse.

That constant pacing to and fro, that never-ending restlessness, that

incessant tread of feet wearing the rough stones smooth and glossy--is

it not a wonder how the dwellers in narrows ways can bear to hear it!

Think of a sick man in such a place as Saint Martin's Court, listening

to the footsteps, and in the midst of pain and weariness obliged,

despite himself (as though it were a task he must perform) to detect

the child's step from the man's, the slipshod beggar from the booted

exquisite, the lounging from the busy, the dull heel of the sauntering

outcast from the quick tread of an expectant pleasure-seeker--think of

the hum and noise always being present to his sense, and of the stream

of life that will not stop, pouring on, on, on, through all his

restless dreams, as if he were condemned to lie, dead but conscious, in

a noisy churchyard, and had no hope of rest for centuries to come.

Then, the crowds for ever passing and repassing on the bridges (on

those which are free of toll at last), where many stop on fine evenings

looking listlessly down upon the water with some vague idea that by and

by it runs between green banks which grow wider and wider until at last

it joins the broad vast sea--where some halt to rest from heavy loads

and think as they look over the parapet that to smoke and lounge away

one's life, and lie sleeping in the sun upon a hot tarpaulin, in a

dull, slow, sluggish barge, must be happiness unalloyed--and where

some, and a very different class, pause with heavier loads than they,

remembering to have heard or read in old time that drowning was not a

hard death, but of all means of suicide the easiest and best.

Covent Garden Market at sunrise too, in the spring or summer, when the

fragrance of sweet flowers is in the air, over-powering even the

unwholesome streams of last night's debauchery, and driving the dusky

thrush, whose cage has hung outside a garret window all night long,

half mad with joy! Poor bird! the only neighbouring thing at all akin

to the other little captives, some of whom, shrinking from the hot

hands of drunken purchasers, lie drooping on the path already, while

others, soddened by close contact, await the time when they shall be

watered and freshened up to please more sober company, and make old

clerks who pass them on their road to business, wonder what has filled

their breasts with visions of the country.

But my present purpose is not to expatiate upon my walks. The story I

am about to relate, and to which I shall recur at intervals, arose out

of one of these rambles; and thus I have been led to speak of them by

way of preface.

One night I had roamed into the City, and was walking slowly on in my

usual way, musing upon a great many things, when I was arrested by an

inquiry, the purport of which did not reach me, but which seemed to be

addressed to myself, and was preferred in a soft sweet voice that

struck me very pleasantly. I turned hastily round and found at my elbow

a pretty little girl, who begged to be directed to a certain street at

a considerable distance, and indeed in quite another quarter of the

town.

'It is a very long way from here,' said I, 'my child.'

'I know that, sir,' she replied timidly. 'I am afraid it is a very long

way, for I came from there to-night.'

'Alone?' said I, in some surprise.

'Oh, yes, I don't mind that, but I am a little frightened now, for I

had lost my road.'

'And what made you ask it of me? Suppose I should tell you wrong?'

'I am sure you will not do that,' said the little creature,' you are

such a very old gentleman, and walk so slow yourself.'

I cannot describe how much I was impressed by this appeal and the

energy with which it was made, which brought a tear into the child's

clear eye, and made her slight figure tremble as she looked up into my

face.

'Come,' said I, 'I'll take you there.'

She put her hand in mine as confidingly as if she had known me from her

cradle, and we trudged away together; the little creature accommodating

her pace to mine, and rather seeming to lead and take care of me than I

to be protecting her. I observed that every now and then she stole a

curious look at my face, as if to make quite sure that I was not

deceiving her, and that these glances (very sharp and keen they were

too) seemed to increase her confidence at every repetition.

For my part, my curiosity and interest were at least equal to the

child's, for child she certainly was, although I thought it probably

from what I could make out, that her very small and delicate frame

imparted a peculiar youthfulness to her appearance. Though more

scantily attired than she might have been she was dressed with perfect

neatness, and betrayed no marks of poverty or neglect.

'Who has sent you so far by yourself?' said I.

'Someone who is very kind to me, sir.'

'And what have you been doing?'

'That, I must not tell,' said the child firmly.

There was something in the manner of this reply which caused me to look

at the little creature with an involuntary expression of surprise; for

I wondered what kind of errand it might be that occasioned her to be

prepared for questioning. Her quick eye seemed to read my thoughts, for

as it met mine she added that there was no harm in what she had been

doing, but it was a great secret--a secret which she did not even know

herself.

This was said with no appearance of cunning or deceit, but with an

unsuspicious frankness that bore the impress of truth. She walked on as

before, growing more familiar with me as we proceeded and talking

cheerfully by the way, but she said no more about her home, beyond

remarking that we were going quite a new road and asking if it were a

short one.

While we were thus engaged, I revolved in my mind a hundred different

explanations of the riddle and rejected them every one. I really felt

ashamed to take advantage of the ingenuousness or grateful feeling of

the child for the purpose of gratifying my curiosity. I love these

little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh

from God, love us. As I had felt pleased at first by her confidence I

determined to deserve it, and to do credit to the nature which had

prompted her to repose it in me.

There was no reason, however, why I should refrain from seeing the

person who had inconsiderately sent her to so great a distance by night

and alone, and as it was not improbable that if she found herself near

home she might take farewell of me and deprive me of the opportunity, I

avoided the most frequented ways and took the most intricate, and thus

it was not until we arrived in the street itself that she knew where we

were. Clapping her hands with pleasure and running on before me for a

short distance, my little acquaintance stopped at a door and remaining

on the step till I came up knocked at it when I joined her.

A part of this door was of glass unprotected by any shutter, which I

did not observe at first, for all was very dark and silent within, and

I was anxious (as indeed the child was also) for an answer to our

summons. When she had knocked twice or thrice there was a noise as if

some person were moving inside, and at length a faint light appeared

through the glass which, as it approached very slowly, the bearer

having to make his way through a great many scattered articles, enabled

me to see both what kind of person it was who advanced and what kind of

place it was through which he came.

It was an old man with long grey hair, whose face and figure as he held

the light above his head and looked before him as he approached, I

could plainly see. Though much altered by age, I fancied I could

recognize in his spare and slender form something of that delicate

mould which I had noticed in the child. Their bright blue eyes were

certainly alike, but his face was so deeply furrowed and so very full

of care, that here all resemblance ceased.

The place through which he made his way at leisure was one of those

receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd

corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public

eye in jealousy and distrust. There were suits of mail standing like

ghosts in armour here and there, fantastic carvings brought from

monkish cloisters, rusty weapons of various kinds, distorted figures in

china and wood and iron and ivory: tapestry and strange furniture that

might have been designed in dreams. The haggard aspect of the little

old man was wonderfully suited to the place; he might have groped among

old churches and tombs and deserted houses and gathered all the spoils

with his own hands. There was nothing in the whole collection but was

in keeping with himself nothing that looked older or more worn than he.

As he turned the key in the lock, he surveyed me with some astonishment

which was not diminished when he looked from me to my companion. The

door being opened, the child addressed him as grandfather, and told him

the little story of our companionship.

'Why, bless thee, child,' said the old man, patting her on the head,

'how couldst thou miss thy way? What if I had lost thee, Nell!'

'I would have found my way back to YOU, grandfather,' said the child

boldly; 'never fear.'

The old man kissed her, then turning to me and begging me to walk in, I

did so. The door was closed and locked. Preceding me with the light, he

led me through the place I had already seen from without, into a small

sitting-room behind, in which was another door opening into a kind of

closet, where I saw a little bed that a fairy might have slept in, it

looked so very small and was so prettily arranged. The child took a

candle and tripped into this little room, leaving the old man and me

together.

'You must be tired, sir,' said he as he placed a chair near the fire,

'how can I thank you?'

'By taking more care of your grandchild another time, my good friend,'

I replied.

'More care!' said the old man in a shrill voice, 'more care of Nelly!

Why, who ever loved a child as I love Nell?'

He said this with such evident surprise that I was perplexed what

answer to make, and the more so because coupled with something feeble

and wandering in his manner, there were in his face marks of deep and

anxious thought which convinced me that he could not be, as I had been

at first inclined to suppose, in a state of dotage or imbecility.

'I don't think you consider--' I began.

'I don't consider!' cried the old man interrupting me, 'I don't

consider her! Ah, how little you know of the truth! Little Nelly,

little Nelly!'

It would be impossible for any man, I care not what his form of speech

might be, to express more affection than the dealer in curiosities did,

in these four words. I waited for him to speak again, but he rested his

chin upon his hand and shaking his head twice or thrice fixed his eyes

upon the fire.

While we were sitting thus in silence, the door of the closet opened,

and the child returned, her light brown hair hanging loose about her

neck, and her face flushed with the haste she had made to rejoin us.

She busied herself immediately in preparing supper, and while she was

thus engaged I remarked that the old man took an opportunity of

observing me more closely than he had done yet. I was surprised to see

that all this time everything was done by the child, and that there

appeared to be no other persons but ourselves in the house. I took

advantage of a moment when she was absent to venture a hint on this

point, to which the old man replied that there were few grown persons

as trustworthy or as careful as she.

'It always grieves me,' I observed, roused by what I took to be his

selfishness, 'it always grieves me to contemplate the initiation of

children into the ways of life, when they are scarcely more than

infants. It checks their confidence and simplicity--two of the best

qualities that Heaven gives them--and demands that they share our

sorrows before they are capable of entering into our enjoyments.'

'It will never check hers,' said the old man looking steadily at me,

'the springs are too deep. Besides, the children of the poor know but

few pleasures. Even the cheap delights of childhood must be bought and

paid for.'

'But--forgive me for saying this--you are surely not so very

poor'--said I.

'She is not my child, sir,' returned the old man. 'Her mother was, and

she was poor. I save nothing--not a penny--though I live as you see,

but'--he laid his hand upon my arm and leant forward to whisper--'she

shall be rich one of these days, and a fine lady. Don't you think ill

of me because I use her help. She gives it cheerfully as you see, and