【荆棘鸟】第五章 01

"Let me buy the next one, old man," Paddy said genially 1 to his son. "I've got to take Auntie Mary to the Picnic Races luncheon 2, and I need moral sustenance 3 if I'm going to get through the ordeal 4 without Mum." Habit and awe 5 are harder to overcome than people realize until they actually try to circumvent 6 the conduct of years; Frank found he could not do what he longed to do, he could not throw the contents of his glass in his father's face, not in front of a bar crowd. So he downed what was left of his beer at a gulp 7, smiled a little sickly and said, "Sorry, Daddy, I've promised to meet some blokes down at the showground."
"Well, off you go, then. But here, take this and spend it on yourself. Have a good time, and if you get drunk don't let your mother find out." Frank stared at the crisp blue five-pound note in his hand, longing 8 to tear it into shreds 9 and fling them in Paddy's face, but custom won again; he folded it, put it in his fob pocket and thanked his father. He couldn't get out of the bar quickly enough.
In his best blue suit, waistcoat buttoned, gold watch secured by a gold chain and a weight made from a nugget off the Lawrence goldfields, Paddy tugged 10 at his celluloid collar and looked down the bar for a face he might recognize. He had not been into Gilly very often during the nine months since he arrived on Drogheda, but his position as Mary Carson's brother and heir apparent meant that he had been treated very hospitably 11 whenever he had been in town, and that his face was well remembered. Several men beamed at him, voices offered to shout him a beer, and he was soon in the middle of a comfortable little crowd; Frank was forgotten.
Meggie's hair was braided these days, no nun 12 being willing (in spite of Mary Carson's money) to attend to its curling, and it lay in two thick cables over her shoulders, tied with navy-blue ribbons. Clad in the sober navy-blue uniform of a Holy Cross student, she was escorted across the lawn from the convent to the presbytery by a nun and handed over to Father Ralph's housekeeper 13, who adored her.
"Och, it's the wee bairn's bonnie Hielan' hair," she explained to the priest once when he questioned her, amused; Annie wasn't given to liking 14 little girls, and had deplored 15 the presbytery's proximity 16 to the school. "Come now, Annie! Hair's inanimate; you can't like someone just because of the color of her hair," he said, to tease her.
"Ah, week she's a puir wee lassie-skeggy, ye ken 17."
He didn't ken at all, but he didn't ask her what "skeggy" meant, either, or pass any remarks about the fact that it rhymed with Meggie. 
 

"下一杯我来买吧，伙计。"帕迪和蔼地对儿子说道。"我得送玛丽姑姑去参加赛马会的午餐会，如果要我在你妈不在的时候去受这份洋罪，我得有点精神食粮才成。"
　　习惯和畏惧心理的克服比人们实际想去一反多年形成的惯常行为要困难得多。弗兰克发现他干不出他渴望干的事，他不能当着酒吧的许多人的面把杯子里的酒泼到他父亲的脸上去。于是，他把剩下的啤酒一饮而尽，有点儿不痛快地笑了笑。说，"对不起，爸，我已经答应到娱乐场去会几个哥们儿了。"
　　"哦，那就去吧。不过这个你拿去，你爱怎么花就怎么花吧。痛痛快快地玩一玩，要是你喝醉了，可别让你妈发觉啊。"
　　弗兰克瞪眼瞧着他手中那张蓝色的、皱皱巴巴的五镑钞票，恨不得把它撕成碎片，摔在帕迪的脸上。然而，习惯又一次占了上风；他折起那张票子，放进他的表袋里，谢了谢他父亲。他无法尽快地走出酒吧了。
　　帕迪穿着他那件最好的蓝色西服，背心扣得整整齐齐，金表上拴着一条金链和一个劳伦斯金矿出产的天然金块做成的坠子。他拉了位他的赛璐珞硬领，看了看酒吧间里是否有他熟悉的面孔。在他到德罗海达以来的九个月里，他不常到基里来，但是他作为玛丽·卡森的弟弟和显而易见的继承者的地位就意味着他无论在城里什么地方，都会受到殷勤备至的接待，人们也清楚地记得他的面孔。有几个男人在冲他微笑着，大声喊叫着要请他来一杯啤酒。不一会儿,他便混到那一小群兴致勃勃的人中间去了，把弗兰克忘在了脑后。
　　这些日子，梅吉的头发梳起了辫子，因为没有一个修女情愿会侍候那头卷发（尽管玛丽·卡森有钱），卷发被编成了两条粗辫子垂在肩头，上面扎着两条海蓝色的丝带。她穿着"圣十字架"学校学生的那套素静的海蓝色制服，一位修女陪着她从修道院穿过草坪，把她交给了拉尔夫神父的女管家；她很喜欢这姑娘。
　　"哎哟，这小姑娘的头发长得真好看，简直和希兰的一模一样，"有一次神父问到她的时候，她高高兴兴地向他解释道：安妮一向是不怎么喜欢小姑娘的，并且还曾为神父宅邸与学校太近而感到遗憾。
　　"得啦，安妮！头发是没有生命；你不可能仅仅因为她头发的颜色就喜欢她呀，"他故意逗着她说道。
　　"啊，哦，你明白，她是个纯洁的小姑娘--挺哏儿的。"
　　他根本不明白，但他既没问她"挺哏儿的"是什么意思，也没有对这个词与梅吉的名字念得一样顺溜发表什么评论。