| Reader, take care. I have unadvisedly led thee to the top of as high a hill as Mr Allworthy's, and how to get thee down without breaking thy neck, I do not well know. However, let us e'en venture to slide down together; for Miss Bridget rings her bell, and Mr Allworthy is summoned to breakfast, where I must attend, and, if you please, shall be glad of your company. | 諸位請當心！我帶領著您來到了與山頂齊高的萬德全先生麵前，這樣做未免有些冒失魯莽，我真不曉得如何帶您下來而不至於把您的脖子折斷。要不然我們冒險一起往下滑吧；因為萬麗姬小姐按了鈴，招呼萬德全先生用早餐，我得去參加，如果您願意，我很樂意您也來和我作伴。 |
| The usual compliments having past between Mr Allworthy and Miss Bridget, and the tea being poured out, he summoned Mrs Wilkins, and told his sister he had a present for her, for which she thanked him—imagining, I suppose, it had been a gown, or some ornament for her person. Indeed, he very often made her such presents; and she, in complacence to him, spent much time in adorning herself. I say in complacence to him, because she always exprest the greatest contempt for dress, and for those ladies who made it their study. | 和往常一樣，萬德全先生和萬麗姬小姐互道早安之後，茶剛剛倒好，他把衛大媽叫到餐桌前，並告訴他妹妹說要送她一件禮物，萬麗姬小姐對此表示感謝——我猜測那該是件長袍，或者是佩戴在她身上的某件飾品。事實上，他過去經常給她送這樣的禮物；而為了哄哥哥高興，她總是花很長時間來打扮自己。我之所以說是哄哥哥高興，是因為其實萬麗姬小姐一向對穿戴打扮和那些講究穿戴打扮的女士表示出極大的瞧不起。 |
| But if such was her expectation, how was she disappointed when Mrs Wilkins, according to the order she had received from her master, produced the little infant? Great surprizes, as hath been observed, are apt to be silent; and so was Miss Bridget, till her brother began, and told her the whole story, which, as the reader knows it already, we shall not repeat. | 但假使像萬麗姬小姐所期望的那樣，衛大媽遵照主人的吩咐將小嬰兒抱出來時，她又該是何等的失望啊！正如我們經常所看到的那樣，人在受到巨大驚嚇時往往會保持沉默；萬麗姬小姐也是如此，直到她哥哥開口說話，並將事情原委講給她聽。這些各位讀者已經知道了，我們就不再贅述。 |
| Miss Bridget had always exprest so great a regard for what the ladies are pleased to call virtue, and had herself maintained such a severity of character, that it was expected, especially by Wilkins, that she would have vented much bitterness on this occasion, and would have voted for sending the child, as a kind of noxious animal, immediately out of the house; but, on the contrary, she rather took the good-natured side of the question, intimated some compassion for the helpless little creature, and commended her brother's charity in what he had done. | 萬麗姬小姐一直非常在乎女士們津津樂道的貞潔，她自己也嚴格保持著這個美德，因此大家會認為，尤其是衛大媽會認為，萬麗姬小姐在這種情況下會發泄許多憤懣之氣，並會舉手表決，讚成把這孩子作為一種毒蛇猛獸，立即掃地出門。但恰恰相反，她對這個問題采取了善意的態度，對這個無依無靠的小家夥表示出了一些憐憫之心，並稱讚她哥哥所做的這個善舉。 |
| Perhaps the reader may account for this behaviour from her condescension to Mr Allworthy, when we have informed him that the good man had ended his narrative with owning a resolution to take care of the child, and to breed him up as his own; for, to acknowledge the truth, she was always ready to oblige her brother, and very seldom, if ever, contradicted his sentiments. She would, indeed, sometimes make a few observations, as that men were headstrong, and must have their own way, and would wish she had been blest with an independent fortune; but these were always vented in a low voice, and at the most amounted only to what is called muttering. | 也許讀者可以從她對萬德全先生的屈尊俯就來解釋她的這種行為，因為我們已經告訴過各位，這位心地善良之人在講完整個事情經過後，曾下決心要照顧這孩子並當作自己親生兒子一樣撫養。說真的，萬麗姬小姐總是討她哥哥的歡心，而且很少（如果曾經有的話）違拗他的情緒。的確，她有時會隻言片語地發表一下自己的看法，比如說男人們固執己見，必須按他們自己的方式行事，同時她說自己要是有一份單獨的財產就好了；但她說這些話總是用低聲細語，頂多隻不過是所謂的嘀咕幾句而已。 |
| However, what she withheld from the infant, she bestowed with the utmost profuseness on the poor unknown mother, whom she called an impudent slut, a wanton hussy, an audacious harlot, a wicked jade, a vile strumpet, with every other appellation with which the tongue of virtue never fails to lash those who bring a disgrace on the sex. — A consultation was now entered into how to proceed in order to discover the mother. A scrutiny was first made into the characters of the female servants of the house, who were all acquitted by Mrs Wilkins, and with apparent merit; for she had collected them herself, and perhaps it would be difficult to find such another set of scarecrows. | 然而，她對這個嬰兒所保留的那些字眼，卻一股腦兒地全部發泄在那位不為人知的可憐母親身上，稱她是個厚顏無恥的蕩婦，放蕩淫亂的婊子，膽大妄為的娼妓，邪惡無比的騷貨，卑鄙下流的淫娃，還有其他類似的各種稱呼，貞潔烈婦的舌頭從來不會不用這些詞語來責罵那些不守婦道的女人——現在大家開始商量如何著手尋找嬰兒的母親。首先對房屋中各位女傭人的性格進行了仔細盤查，結果全被衛大媽一一宣判無罪，因為顯而易見，這些女傭人生活作風良好，她們全是衛大媽親自挑選招進來的，也許很難另外再找出這樣一群骨瘦如柴的紙老虎了。 |
| The next step was to examine among the inhabitants of the parish; and this was referred to Mrs Wilkins, who was to enquire with all imaginable diligence, and to make her report in the afternoon. | 下一步是在教區的居民中進行調查；這件事交由衛大媽處理，她將以十分的努力調查此事，這十分的努力我們大家可以想象得出，並在下午給出調查報告。 |
| Matters being thus settled, Mr Allworthy withdrew to his study, as was his custom, and left the child to his sister, who, at his desire, had undertaken the care of it. | 就這樣事情得到了解決，萬德全先生按照慣例回到了自己的書房，把孩子留給了他妹妹，按照他的意願，他妹妹承擔了照顧孩子的任務。 |
