【荆棘鸟】第三章 20

"Well! And who are you?" he asked her, smiling. "Meggie," she said.
  "Her name's Meghann." Frank scowled 1, hating this beautiful man, his stunning 2 height.
  "My favorite name, Meghann." He straightened, but held Meggie's hand in his. "It will be better for you to stay at the presbytery tonight," he said, leading Meggie toward the car. "I'll drive you out to Drogheda in the morning; it's too far after the train ride from Sydney."
  Aside from the Hotel Imperial, the Catholic church, school, convent and presbytery were the only brick edifices 3 in Gillanbone, even the big public school having to content itself with timber frame. Now that darkness had fallen, the air had grown incredibly chill; but in the presbytery lounge a huge log fire was blazing, and the smell of food came tantalizingly 4 from somewhere beyond. The housekeeper 5, a wizened 6 old Scotswoman with amazing energy, bustled 7 about showing them their 89 rooms, chattering 8 all the while in a broad western Highlands accent. Used to the touch-me-not reserve of the Wahine priests, the Clearys found it hard to cope with Father Ralph's easy, cheerful bonhomie. Only Paddy thawed 9, for he could remember the friendliness 10 of the priests in his native Galway, their closeness to lesser 11 beings. The rest ate their supper in careful silence and escaped upstairs as soon as they could, Paddy reluctantly following. To him, his religion was a warmth and a consolation 12; but to the rest of his family it was something rooted in fear, a do-it-or-thou-shah-be-damned compulsion.
  When they had gone, Father Ralph stretched out in his favorite chair, staring at the fire, smoking a cigarette and smiling. In his mind's eye he was passing the Clearys in review, as he had first seen them from the station yard. The man so like Mary, but bowed with hard work and very obviously not of her malicious 13 disposition 14; his weary, beautiful wife, who looked as if she ought to have descended 15 from a landaulet drawn 16 by matched white horses; dark and surly Frank, with black eyes, black eyes; the sons, most of them like their father, but the youngest one, Stuart, very like his mother, he'd be a handsome man when he grew up; impossible to tell what the baby would become; and Meggie.
 

“啊！你是谁呀？”他微笑着，问她。
 
    “梅吉。”她说道。 
    “她的名字叫梅格安。”弗兰克绷着脸说道。他讨厌这漂亮的男人和他那令人惊讶的高大身材。
 
    “梅格安，这是我最喜欢的名字。”他站起身来，但仍拉着梅吉的手。“今晚你们最好在神父宅邸落脚，”他说道。领着梅吉向汽车走去。“早晨我开车送你们去德罗海达。从悉尼坐了一路火车，再跑这段路就太长了。”
 
    在基兰博，除了帝国旅馆、天主教堂、教会学校和女修道院之外，神父宅邸就是唯一的砖瓦楼房了，甚至连那所很大的公共学校还是木框架结构的呢。现在，夜色已经降临，空气变得奇冷，可是在神父宅邸的客厅里，烧圆木的炉火烧得正旺，客厅外的什么地方飘来怪馋人的饭菜香味。女管家是一个形容枯槁但却精力过人的苏格兰老太太。她一边东奔西忙地指给他们看自己的房间，一边用她那浓重的西部苏格兰高地腔喋喋不休地说着。
    克利里一家由于习惯了韦汉的教士们的傲慢和冷漠，因此对于拉尔夫神父的平易爽快以及和蔼可亲倒反而觉得难以应付了。只有帕迪一个人的神态慢慢地自然了起来，因为他回想起了老家高尔韦的教士们的友善的态度，和他们与地位较低的人之间的那种亲密的关系。其余的人则小心谨慎，一言不发地吃着晚饭，并且尽快地溜到楼上去了，帕迪也勉强地跟了上去。他的宗教信仰对他来说，是一种温暖的慰藉，可是，对他家别的人来说，这是某种出于恐惧并为了免进地狱而不得不为之的权宜之计。 
    他们都走了以后，拉尔夫神父伸开手脚，坐进了他那把心爱的椅子。他抽着烟，呆呆地望着那炉火，微笑着。他脑子里回想着在车站广场第一次见到克里利一家的情景。那男的真像玛丽，但却让繁重的劳动压弯了腰，很显然，他的性格也不像玛丽那样刻薄；他那倦慵的处处动人妻子，看上去却像是该从白色俊马四轮马车里走出来的高贵美人；黑黑的弗兰克性情乖戾，长着一双黑眼睛，一双目光阴郁的眼睛；其他的儿子呢，大多数都象他们的父亲，但最小的斯图尔特却很象他的妈妈，长大以后他会成为一个美男子的。那个小娃娃将来会长成什么样子，那就难说了；
     还有梅吉。