【荆棘鸟】第三章 11

Meggie pulled a square of white towel from the huge pile sitting by the stove warming and spread it carefully on the work table, then lifted the crying child out of the wicker crib. The Cleary hair glittered sparsely 1 on his little skull 2 as Meggie changed his diaper swiftly, and as efficiently 3 as her mother could have done.
  "Little Mother Meggie," Frank said, to tease her. "I'm not!" she answered indignantly. "I'm just helping 4 Mum." "I know," he said gently. "You're a good girl, wee Meggie." He tugged 5 at the white taffeta bow on the back of her head until it hung lopsided. Up came the big grey eyes to his face adoringly; over the nodding head of the baby she might have been his own age, or older. There was a pain in his chest, that this should have fallen upon her at an age when the only baby she ought to be caring for was Agnes, now relegated 6 forgotten to the bedroom. If it wasn't for her and their mother, he would have been gone long since. He looked at his father sourly, the cause of the new life creating such chaos 7 in the house. Served him right, getting done out of his shed.
  Somehow the other boys and even Meggie had never intruded 8 on his thoughts the way Hal did; but when Fee's waistline began to swell 9 this time, he was old enough himself to be married and a father. Everyone except little Meggie had been uncomfortable about it, his mother especially. The furtive 10 glances of the boys made her shrink like a rabbit; she could not meet Frank's eyes or quench 11 the shame in her own. Nor should any woman go through that, Frank said to himself for the thousandth time, remembering the horrifying 12 moans and cries which had come from her bedroom the night Hal was born; of age now, he hadn't been packed off elsewhere like the others. Served Daddy right, losing his shed.
  A decent man would have left her alone. His mother's head in the new electric light was spun 13 gold, the pure profile as she looked down the long table at Paddy unspeakably beautiful. How had someone as lovely and refined as she married an itinerant 14 shearer 15 from the bogs 16 of Galway? Wasting herself and her Spode china, her damask table napery and her Persian rugs in the parlor 17 that no one ever saw, because she didn't fit in with the wives of Paddy's peers. She made them too conscious of their vulgar loud voices, their bewilderment when faced with more than one fork. Sometimes on a Sunday she would go into the lonely parlor, sit down at the spinet 18 under the window and play,
 

梅吉从放在炉子边上的一大堆白毛巾中挑出了一块四方的，暖了暖，在案子上小心地铺开，然后，把那啼哭的孩子从柳条摇篮里抱了出来。在梅吉像她妈妈一样一丝不差地、利索地给他换尿布的时候，孩子的小脑壳上长着稀稀拉拉的克利里家的头发在闪闪发亮。
　　"小妈妈梅吉。"弗兰克逗着她说道。
　　"我才不是呢！"她愤愤地答道。"我不过是在帮妈妈的忙罢了。"
　　"我知道，"他温和地说。"你是个好姑娘，小梅吉。"他使劲地拉了拉她脑后的白塔夫绸蝴蝶结，把它拉得歪歪斜斜地挂在一边。
　　她那双灰色的大眼睛抬了起来，敬慕地望着他的脸；她的身子又俯在了那正瞌睡的婴儿的脑袋上。他觉得，看上去她象是已经到了他自己这样的年龄了，或者甚至比他还要老成。在她这样一个只该照看艾格尼丝（现在它已经被遗忘在卧室里了）的年龄，竟然要干这种事，不禁使他心里感到痛楚。要不是为了她和他们的妈妈，那他老早就走了。他愁眉不展地望着他的父亲，是他使这个把家里弄得乱糟糟的新生命出世的。他丢了剪羊毛的活儿，真是活该倒霉！
　　不知怎么的，其他的男孩子，甚至连梅吉也从来没象哈尔这样使他伤过神；这一回，当菲的腰身开始大起来的时候，他自己的年龄都已经足够成婚做父亲了。除了小梅吉以外，谁心里都对此感到不对劲儿，尤其是他的母亲。男孩子们的偷窥使她像兔子似地感到胆怯和畏缩；她无怯正视弗兰克的眼睛，也无法掩饰自己目光中的羞愧。想起哈尔出生的那天晚上从她的卧室里传出来的可怕的呻吟和叫喊，弗兰克反反复复地对自己说，无论哪个女人也不该经受这样的痛苦；现在他已经成年了，可他还没象别的人那样离开家庭去自己谋生。现在你这个当爸爸的把剪羊毛的活儿都丢了，这是活该受罪。一个庄重的男人本来就不该再碰她的。
　　他妈妈的头在崭新的电灯光下闪着金色的光彩，在她低头望着坐在长桌那边的帕迪时，她那纯洁的面部轮廓显示出一种难以形容的美。像她这样一个可爱而文雅的人是怎样才嫁给了一个来自高尔韦沼地的巡回剪羊毛工呢？真是糟踏了她自己，糟踏了她的斯波底瓷器，她的缎子餐巾和起居室里的那些未曾示人的波斯小地毯，因为她和那些与帕达地位相当的老娘们儿是格格不入的。她使她们强烈地感到她们的大嗓门儿俗不可耐，放在面前的餐叉超过一把，她们就不知如何是好了。
 
　　有时在星期天她会走进那冷冷清清的起居室，坐在临窗的那架古钢琴旁，弹起乐曲