“要我交给爸爸吗？”弗洛伦斯问道。
“交给你想交给的人，”她回答道。“这是给你的。这是你得到的。他永远也不能通过其他途径得到它。”
她们又默默无言地在愈来愈深的黑暗中坐着。
“妈妈，”弗洛伦斯说道，“他已丧失了他的财产；他曾经处于死亡的边缘；甚至现在他也可能不会痊愈。您有什么话需要我转告他的吗？”
“你是否跟我说过，”伊迪丝说道，“他很爱你？”
“是的，”弗洛伦斯用颤抖的回答道。
“请跟他说，我感到遗憾，我们两人过去会相遇。”
“没有别的了吗？”弗洛伦斯沉默了一会儿之后问道。
“请告诉他，如果他问起的话，我并不后悔我所做过的事情，——现在还不后悔——因为如果明天要再做的话，我也还会那样做的。但是如果他是一个改变了的人的话——”
她停住了。在弗洛伦斯的手的默默的抚摸中，有一种东西使她停下来。
“——但是因为他已是一个改变了的人，他知道，现在决不会发生那样的事情了。请告诉他，我真但愿过去从来不曾发生过那样的事情。”
“我是否能说，”弗洛伦斯说道，“您听到他所遭受到的痛苦，您感到伤心？”
“不，”她回答道，“如果这些痛苦使他认识到，他的女儿对他是很宝贵的话，那么我是不会感到伤心的。如果有一天他从这些痛苦中得到了这个教训的话，那么他本人也不会因为这些痛苦而感到伤心的。”
“您祝他好，祝他幸福。我相信您会的！”弗洛伦斯说道。
“请让我将来什么时候能这样说好吗？”
伊迪丝的黑眼睛全神贯注地凝视着前面，坐在那里，没有回答，直到弗洛伦斯重复她的请求，她才把手从弗洛伦斯的胳膊中抽回，然后沉思地凝视着外面的黑夜，说道：
“请告诉他，如果他现在能找到什么理由来怜悯我的过去的话，那么我请求他这样做。请告诉他，如果他现在能找到什么理由想到我的时候不那么怨恨的话，那么我请求他这样做。请告诉他，虽然对我们彼此来说，我们都已经死去了，在永恒的世界的这一边也永远不会再相遇了，但他知道，我们之间现在已有了一种共同的感情，这在过去是从来不曾有过的。”
她那坚决的意志似乎有些退让；在她的黑眼睛中包含着泪水。
“我这样说，”她说道，“是因为我相信他将会把我想得好一些，我也会把他想得好一些。当他将来愈爱他的弗洛伦斯时，他也就将会愈少恨我。当他将来对她和她的孩子们愈感到自豪时，他对他在我们婚姻生活黑暗的梦幻中所扮演的角色也将会愈感到悔恨。那时候，我也会悔恨的——那时候让他知道这一点吧——，那时候，我也会想到，当我对我之所以成为我过去那样的人的原因想得很多的时候，我应该同时对他之所以成为他过去那样的人的原因想得更多才是。那时候，我将设法宽恕他犯了他的那一份过错。让他也设法宽恕我犯了我的那一份过错！”
“啊，妈妈！”弗洛伦斯说道。“即使是在这样的相见与离别中听到这些话，它也使我的心情感到轻松了好多！”
“是的，这些话我自己听起来也是感到陌生的，”伊迪丝说道，“这些过去也从来没有从我的嘴中发出过！但是即使我曾经是个卑劣的人（我使他有理由相信我是这样的人），当我听到你们现在彼此十分亲爱的时候，我觉得我仍然能说出这些话来。当你是他最亲爱的人的时候，让他有一天想到我的时候是极为宽容的，而我在想到他的时候也是极为宽容的吧！这些就是我最后想要对他说的话！现在，让我们告别吧，我的生命！”
她把她搂在怀里，似乎倾注了她女性心灵中所聚积的全部热爱与深情。
“这个吻是给你的孩子的！这些吻是表示对你的祝福！我的亲爱的心肝弗洛伦斯，我的可爱的女儿，向你告别了！”
“再见吧！”弗洛伦斯喊道。
“永远不会了！永远不会了！当你把我留在这个黑暗的房间里的时候，你就想你已经把我留在坟墓里了。只要记得我曾经到这世界上来过，记得我曾经爱过你就行了！”
弗洛伦斯没有再看见她的脸，但直到最后都感到她的拥抱与爱抚，就这样离开了她。
菲尼克斯表哥在门口迎接了她，把她带到在楼下昏暗的餐厅中沃尔特的身边；她的头伏在他的肩上，哭着。
“我非常遗憾，”菲尼克斯表哥说道，一边极为纯朴地、毫无掩饰地举起衣袖去擦眼泪，“刚刚结束的会晤会使我的朋友董贝的可爱的、多才多艺的女儿、我的朋友盖伊的和蔼可爱的妻子的善感的天性受到这样心碎肠断的万分痛苦。可是我希望，并且相信，我是怀着最良好的愿望行事的，我的尊敬的朋友董贝在明白所发生的一切情形之后，将会感到安慰。我十分遗憾，我的朋友董贝跟我们家庭结亲之后使自己事实上落到一个非常糟糕的境况中；但我坚决认为，要是没有那个穷凶极恶的流氓巴克①——那个一口白牙齿的家伙——，那么一切事情都会十分顺利地进行的。关于我的亲戚（她对我本人有很高的评价，这使我感到十分荣幸），我可以向我的朋友盖伊的和蔼可亲的妻子保证，她可以指望我会像父亲一样地对待她。关于人生的变化以及我们经常不断处事为人的异乎寻常的态度，我和我的朋友莎士比亚——他不是一位属于一个时期，而是属于千秋万代的人物②，我的朋友盖伊无疑是知道他的——所能说的就是，生活就像一个梦的影子。”
--------
①菲尼克斯表哥把卡克误记为巴克。
②评价莎士比亚的这句话是莎士比亚的朋友，著名的英国剧作家本•琼生（BenJonson，1573—1637）年说的。
Chapter 62
Final
A bottle that has been long excluded from the light of day, and is hoary with dust and cobwebs, has been brought into the sunshine; and the golden wine within it sheds a lustre on the table.
It is the last bottle of the old Madiera.
'You are quite right, Mr Gills,' says Mr Dombey. 'This is a very rare and most delicious wine.'
The Captain, who is of the party, beams with joy. There is a very halo of delight round his glowing forehead.
'We always promised ourselves, Sir,' observes Mr Gills,' Ned and myself, I mean - '
Mr Dombey nods at the Captain, who shines more and more with speechless gratification.
'-that we would drink this, one day or other, to Walter safe at home: though such a home we never thought of. If you don't object to our old whim, Sir, let us devote this first glass to Walter and his wife.'
'To Walter and his wife!' says Mr Dombey. 'Florence, my child' - and turns to kiss her.
'To Walter and his wife!' says Mr Toots.
'To Wal'r and his wife!' exclaims the Captain. 'Hooroar!' and the Captain exhibiting a strong desire to clink his glass against some other glass, Mr Dombey, with a ready hand, holds out his. The others follow; and there is a blithe and merry ringing, as of a little peal of marriage bells.
Other buried wine grows older, as the old Madeira did in its time; and dust and cobwebs thicken on the bottles.
Mr Dombey is a white-haired gentleman, whose face bears heavy marks of care and suffering; but they are traces of a storm that has passed on for ever, and left a clear evening in its track.
Ambitious projects trouble him no more. His only pride is in his daughter and her husband. He has a silent, thoughtful, quiet manner, and is always with his daughter. Miss Tox is not infrequently of the family party, and is quite devoted to it, and a great favourite. Her admiration of her once stately patron is, and has been ever since the morning of her shock in Princess's Place, platonic, but not weakened in the least.
Nothing has drifted to him from the wreck of his fortunes, but a certain annual sum that comes he knows not how, with an earnest entreaty that he will not seek to discover, and with the assurance that it is a debt, and an act of reparation. He has consulted with his old clerk about this, who is clear it may be honourably accepted, and has no doubt it arises out of some forgotten transaction in the times of the old House.
That hazel-eyed bachelor, a bachelor no more, is married now, and to the sister of the grey-haired Junior. He visits his old chief sometimes, but seldom. There is a reason in the greyhaired Junior's history, and yet a stronger reason in his name, why he should keep retired from his old employer; and as he lives with his sister and her husband, they participate in that retirement. Walter sees them sometimes - Florence too - and the pleasant house resounds with profound duets arranged for the Piano-Forte and Violoncello, and with the labours of Harmonious Blacksmiths.
And how goes the wooden Midshipman in these changed days? Why, here he still is, right leg foremost, hard at work upon the hackney coaches, and more on the alert than ever, being newly painted from his cocked hat to his buckled shoes; and up above him, in golden characters, these names shine refulgent, GILLS AND CUTTLE.
Not another stroke of business does the Midshipman achieve beyond his usual easy trade. But they do say, in a circuit of some half-mile round the blue umbrella in Leadenhall Market, that some of Mr Gills's old investments are coming out wonderfully well; and that instead of being behind the time in those respects, as he supposed, he was, in truth, a little before it, and had to wait the fulness of the time and the design. The whisper is that Mr Gills's money has begun to turn itself, and that it is turning itself over and over pretty briskly. Certain it is that, standing at his shop-door, in his coffee-coloured suit, with his chronometer in his pocket, and his spectacles on his forehead, he don't appear to break his heart at customers not coming, but looks very jovial and contented, though full as misty as of yore.
As to his partner, Captain Cuttle, there is a fiction of a business in the Captain's mind which is better than any reality. The Captain is as satisfied of the Midshipman's importance to the commerce and navigation of the country, as he could possibly be, if no ship left the Port of London without the Midshipman's assistance. His delight in his own name over the door, is inexhaustible. He crosses the street, twenty times a day, to look at it from the other side of the way; and invariably says, on these occasions, 'Ed'ard Cuttle, my lad, if your mother could ha' know'd as you would ever be a man o' science, the good old creetur would ha' been took aback in-deed!'
But here is Mr Toots descending on the Midshipman with violent rapidity, and Mr Toots's face is very red as he bursts into the little parlour.
'Captain Gills,' says Mr Toots, 'and Mr Sols, I am happy to inform you that Mrs Toots has had an increase to her family.
'And it does her credit!' cries the Captain.
'I give you joy, Mr Toots!' says old Sol.
'Thank'ee,' chuckles Mr Toots, 'I'm very much obliged to you. I knew that you'd be glad to hear, and so I came down myself. We're positively getting on, you know. There's Florence, and Susan, and now here's another little stranger.'
'A female stranger?' inquires the Captain.
'Yes, Captain Gills,' says Mr Toots, 'and I'm glad of it. The oftener we can repeat that most extraordinary woman, my opinion is, the better!'
'Stand by!' says the Captain, turning to the old case-bottle with no throat - for it is evening, and the Midshipman's usual moderate provision of pipes and glasses is on the board. 'Here's to her, and may she have ever so many more!'
'Thank'ee, Captain Gills,' says the delighted Mr Toots. 'I echo the sentiment. If you'll allow me, as my so doing cannot be unpleasant to anybody, under the circumstances, I think I'll take a pipe.'
Mr Toots begins to smoke, accordingly, and in the openness of his heart is very loquacious.
'Of all the remarkable instances that that delightful woman has given of her excellent sense, Captain Gills and Mr Sols,' said Mr Toots, 'I think none is more remarkable than the perfection with which she has understood my devotion to Miss Dombey.'
Both his auditors assent.
'Because you know,' says Mr Toots, 'I have never changed my sentiments towards Miss Dombey. They are the same as ever. She is the same bright vision to me, at present, that she was before I made Walters's acquaintance. When Mrs Toots and myself first began to talk of - in short, of the tender passion, you know, Captain Gills.'
'Ay, ay, my lad,' says the Captain, 'as makes us all slue round - for which you'll overhaul the book - '
'I shall certainly do so, Captain Gills,' says Mr Toots, with great earnestness; 'when we first began to mention such subjects, I explained that I was what you may call a Blighted Flower, you know.'
The Captain approves of this figure greatly; and murmurs that no flower as blows, is like the rose.
'But Lord bless me,' pursues Mr Toots, 'she was as entirely conscious of the state of my feelings as I was myself. There was nothing I could tell her. She was the only person who could have stood between me and the silent Tomb, and she did it, in a manner to command my everlasting admiration. She knows that there's nobody in the world I look up to, as I do to Miss Dombey. Knows that there's nothing on earth I wouldn't do for Miss Dombey. She knows that I consider Miss Dombey the most beautiful, the most amiable, the most angelic of her sex. What is her observation upon that? The perfection of sense. "My dear, you're right. I think so too."'
'And so do I!' says the Captain.
'So do I,' says Sol Gills.
'Then,' resumes Mr Toots, after some contemplative pulling at his pipe, during which his visage has expressed the most contented reflection, 'what an observant woman my wife is! What sagacity she possesses! What remarks she makes! It was only last night, when we were sitting in the enjoyment of connubial bliss - which, upon my word and honour, is a feeble term to express my feelings in the society of my wife - that she said how remarkable it was to consider the present position of our friend Walters. "Here," observes my wife, "he is, released from sea-going, after that first long voyage with his young bride" - as you know he was, Mr Sols.'
'Quite true,' says the old Instrument-maker, rubbing his hands.
"'Here he is," says my wife, "released from that, immediately; appointed by the same establishment to a post of great trust and confidence at home; showing himself again worthy; mounting up the ladder with the greatest expedition; beloved by everybody; assisted by his uncle at the very best possible time of his fortunes" - which I think is the case, Mr Sols? My wife is always correct.'
'Why yes, yes - some of our lost ships, freighted with gold, have come home, truly,' returns old Sol, laughing. 'Small craft, Mr Toots, but serviceable to my boy!'
'Exactly so,' says Mr Toots. 'You'll never find my wife wrong. "Here he is," says that most remarkable woman, "so situated, - and what follows? What follows?" observed Mrs Toots. Now pray remark, Captain Gills, and Mr Sols, the depth of my wife's penetration. "Why that, under the very eye of Mr Dombey, there is a foundation going on, upon which a - an Edifice;" that was Mrs Toots's word,' says Mr Toots exultingly, "'is gradually rising, perhaps to equal, perhaps excel, that of which he was once the head, and the small beginnings of which (a common fault, but a bad one, Mrs Toots said) escaped his memory. Thus," said my wife, "from his daughter, after all, another Dombey and Son will ascend" - no "rise;" that was Mrs Toots's word - "triumphant!"'
Mr Toots, with the assistance of his pipe - which he is extremely glad to devote to oratorical purposes, as its proper use affects him with a very uncomfortable sensation - does such grand justice to this prophetic sentence of his wife's, that the Captain, throwing away his glazed hat in a state of the greatest excitement, cries:
'Sol Gills, you man of science and my ould pardner, what did I tell Wal'r to overhaul on that there night when he first took to business? Was it this here quotation, "Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, and when you are old you will never depart from it". Was it them words, Sol Gills?'
'It certainly was, Ned,' replied the old Instrument-maker. 'I remember well.'
'Then I tell you what,' says the Captain, leaning back in his chair, and composing his chest for a prodigious roar. 'I'll give you Lovely Peg right through; and stand by, both on you, for the chorus!'
Buried wine grows older, as the old Madeira did, in its time; and dust and cobwebs thicken on the bottles.
Autumn days are shining, and on the sea-beach there are often a young lady, and a white-haired gentleman. With them, or near them, are two children: boy and girl. And an old dog is generally in their company.
The white-haired gentleman walks with the little boy, talks with him, helps him in his play, attends upon him, watches him as if he were the object of his life. If he be thoughtful, the white-haired gentleman is thoughtful too; and sometimes when the child is sitting by his side, and looks up in his face, asking him questions, he takes the tiny hand in his, and holding it, forgets to answer. Then the child says:
'What, grandpa! Am I so like my poor little Uncle again?'
'Yes, Paul. But he was weak, and you are very strong.'
'Oh yes, I am very strong.'
'And he lay on a little bed beside the sea, and you can run about.'
And so they range away again, busily, for the white-haired gentleman likes best to see the child free and stirring; and as they go about together, the story of the bond between them goes about, and follows them.
