【荆棘鸟】第四章 15

他买来了新窗帘和床上用的新被褥。斯图尔特继续住在那间用米黄色和棕色重新漆过两遍的房间里：斯图尔特是不是快乐，拉尔夫神父似乎从来就没有操过心。他是为了避免得罪那些不得不邀请而请了又叫人后悔的人的。
　　拉尔夫神父既不知道自己为什么如此喜爱梅吉，也没有花很多时间去伤这个脑筋。喜爱出于怜悯，这是那天在灰飞尘扬的车站广场上，他看到她躲在后面的时候开始的；他敏锐地猜到是她女性的贞淑才使她区别于家人的。至于弗兰克为什么也索然离群，他根本就不感兴趣，也没有感到要怜悯弗兰克。弗兰克的身上有某种使人温情顿消的东西：一颗阴郁的心，一个缺少内心闪光的灵魂。可是梅吉呢？梅吉使他无法遏制地深为动心，他真不知道这是什么原因。她头发的颜色使他心旷神怡，她眼睛的色彩和样子像她的母亲，非常美丽，但却更加可爱，更加传神；至于她的性格，他认为那是完美无暇的女性的性格，温良内向而又极其坚强。梅吉不是一个叛逆者；相反，她将毕生顺从，不越女性命运雷池一步。
　　但是，所有这些并未改变事情的全貌。也许，如果他更深刻地剖析一下自己的话，他会明白，他对她的感受是时间、地点和人所产生的奇怪的结果。谁也不觉得她举足轻重，这就意味着，在她的生活中存在着能让他插足并极有把握她、赢得她的爱的空间。她是个孩子，因此，对他的生活道路和教士的声誉没有任何危险，她楚楚动人，而他则以美为乐；他最不愿意承认的是：她填补了他生活的空缺，这是他的上帝所无能为力的，因为她是一个有情有爱的血肉之躯。倘若他送给她礼物，她的家人会感到窘迫，他不能这样做，因此，他就尽量地多和她在一起，用重新装修她在神父宅邸里的房间来消磨时间和精力；这与其说是为了使她高兴，毋宁说是在搞个镶嵌来衬托他的瑰宝。为梅吉所做的一切都是货真价实的。
　　五月初的时候，剪羊工们来到了德罗海达。"玛丽·卡森对德罗海达的一切情况，事无巨细，都是了如指掌的。
 

buy new curtains for the windows and a new quilt for the bed. Stuart continued to sleep in a room which had been cream and brown through two redecorations; it simply never occurred to Father Ralph to wonder if Stuart was happy. He was the afterthought who to avoid offense 1 must also be invited. Just why he was so fond of Meggie Father Ralph didn't know, nor for that matter did he spend much time wondering about it. It had begun with pity that day in the dusty station yard when he had noticed her lagging behind; set apart from the rest of her family by virtue 2 of her sex, he had shrewdly guessed. 
As to why Frank also moved on an outer perimeter 3, this did not intrigue 4 him at all, nor did he feel moved to pity Frank. There was something in Frank which killed tender emotions: a dark heart, a spirit lacking inner light. But Meggie? She had moved him unbearably 5, and he didn't really know why. There was the color of her hair, which pleased him; the color and form of her eyes, like her mother's and therefore beautiful, but so much sweeter, more expressive 6; and her character, which he saw as the perfect female character, passive yet enormously strong. No rebel, Meggie; on the contrary. All her life she would obey, move within the boundaries of her female fate.
Yet none of it added up to the full total. Perhaps, had he looked more deeply into himself, he might have seen that what he felt for her was the curious result of time, and place, and person. No one thought of her as important, which meant there was a space in her life into which he could fit himself and be sure of her love; she was a child, and therefore no danger to his way of life or his priestly reputation; she was beautiful, and he enjoyed beauty; and, least acknowledged of all, she filled an empty space in his life which his God could not, for she had warmth and a human solidity. Because he could not embarrass her family by giving her gifts, he gave her as much of his company as he could, and spent time and thought on redecorating her room at the presbytery; not so much to see her pleasure as to create a fitting setting for his jewel. No pinchbeck for Meggie. At the beginning of May the shearers arrived on Drogheda. Mary Carson was extraordinarily aware of how everything on Drogheda was done, from deploying the sheep to cracking a stock whip;