Shipping Intelligence and Office Business
Mr Dombey's offices were in a court where there was an old-established stall of choice fruit at the corner: where perambulating merchants, of both sexes, offered for sale at any time between the hours of ten and five, slippers, pocket-books, sponges, dogs' collars, and Windsor soap; and sometimes a pointer or an oil-painting.
The pointer always came that way, with a view to the Stock Exchange, where a sporting taste (originating generally in bets of new hats) is much in vogue. The other commodities were addressed to the general public; but they were never offered by the vendors to Mr Dombey. When he appeared, the dealers in those wares fell off respectfully. The principal slipper and dogs' collar man - who considered himself a public character, and whose portrait was screwed on to an artist's door in Cheapside - threw up his forefinger to the brim of his hat as Mr Dombey went by. The ticket-porter, if he were not absent on a job, always ran officiously before, to open Mr Dombey's office door as wide as possible, and hold it open, with his hat off, while he entered.
The clerks within were not a whit behind-hand in their demonstrations of respect. A solemn hush prevailed, as Mr Dombey passed through the outer office. The wit of the Counting-House became in a moment as mute as the row of leathern fire-buckets hanging up behind him. Such vapid and flat daylight as filtered through the ground-glass windows and skylights, leaving a black sediment upon the panes, showed the books and papers, and the figures bending over them, enveloped in a studious gloom, and as much abstracted in appearance, from the world without, as if they were assembled at the bottom of the sea; while a mouldy little strong room in the obscure perspective, where a shaded lamp was always burning, might have represented the cavern of some ocean monster, looking on with a red eye at these mysteries of the deep.
When Perch the messenger, whose place was on a little bracket, like a timepiece, saw Mr Dombey come in - or rather when he felt that he was coming, for he had usually an instinctive sense of his approach - he hurried into Mr Dombey's room, stirred the fire, carried fresh coals from the bowels of the coal-box, hung the newspaper to air upon the fender, put the chair ready, and the screen in its place, and was round upon his heel on the instant of Mr Dombey's entrance, to take his great-coat and hat, and hang them up. Then Perch took the newspaper, and gave it a turn or two in his hands before the fire, and laid it, deferentially, at Mr Dombey's elbow. And so little objection had Perch to being deferential in the last degree, that if he might have laid himself at Mr Dombey's feet, or might have called him by some such title as used to be bestowed upon the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, he would have been all the better pleased.
As this honour would have been an innovation and an experiment, Perch was fain to content himself by expressing as well as he could, in his manner, You are the light of my Eyes. You are the Breath of my Soul. You are the commander of the Faithful Perch! With this imperfect happiness to cheer him, he would shut the door softly, walk away on tiptoe, and leave his great chief to be stared at, through a dome-shaped window in the leads, by ugly chimney-pots and backs of houses, and especially by the bold window of a hair-cutting saloon on a first floor, where a waxen effigy, bald as a Mussulman in the morning, and covered, after eleven o'clock in the day, with luxuriant hair and whiskers in the latest Christian fashion, showed him the wrong side of its head for ever.
Between Mr Dombey and the common world, as it was accessible through the medium of the outer office - to which Mr Dombey's presence in his own room may be said to have struck like damp, or cold air - there were two degrees of descent. Mr Carker in his own office was the first step; Mr Morfin, in his own office, was the second. Each of these gentlemen occupied a little chamber like a bath-room, opening from the passage outside Mr Dombey's door. Mr Carker, as Grand Vizier, inhabited the room that was nearest to the Sultan. Mr Morfin, as an officer of inferior state, inhabited the room that was nearest to the clerks.
The gentleman last mentioned was a cheerful-looking, hazel-eyed elderly bachelor: gravely attired, as to his upper man, in black; and as to his legs, in pepper-and-salt colour. His dark hair was just touched here and there with specks of gray, as though the tread of Time had splashed it; and his whiskers were already white. He had a mighty respect for Mr Dombey, and rendered him due homage; but as he was of a genial temper himself, and never wholly at his ease in that stately presence, he was disquieted by no jealousy of the many conferences enjoyed by Mr Carker, and felt a secret satisfaction in having duties to discharge, which rarely exposed him to be singled out for such distinction. He was a great musical amateur in his way - after business; and had a paternal affection for his violoncello, which was once in every week transported from Islington, his place of abode, to a certain club-room hard by the Bank, where quartettes of the most tormenting and excruciating nature were executed every Wednesday evening by a private party.
Mr Carker was a gentleman thirty-eight or forty years old, of a florid complexion, and with two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in it like the snarl of a cat. He affected a stiff white cravat, after the example of his principal, and was always closely buttoned up and tightly dressed. His manner towards Mr Dombey was deeply conceived and perfectly expressed. He was familiar with him, in the very extremity of his sense of the distance between them. 'Mr Dombey, to a man in your position from a man in mine, there is no show of subservience compatible with the transaction of business between us, that I should think sufficient. I frankly tell you, Sir, I give it up altogether. I feel that I could not satisfy my own mind; and Heaven knows, Mr Dombey, you can afford to dispense with the endeavour.' If he had carried these words about with him printed on a placard, and had constantly offered it to Mr Dombey's perusal on the breast of his coat, he could not have been more explicit than he was.
This was Carker the Manager. Mr Carker the Junior, Walter's friend, was his brother; two or three years older than he, but widely removed in station. The younger brother's post was on the top of the official ladder; the elder brother's at the bottom. The elder brother never gained a stave, or raised his foot to mount one. Young men passed above his head, and rose and rose; but he was always at the bottom. He was quite resigned to occupy that low condition: never complained of it: and certainly never hoped to escape from it.
'How do you do this morning?' said Mr Carker the Manager, entering Mr Dombey's room soon after his arrival one day: with a bundle of papers in his hand.
'How do you do, Carker?' said Mr Dombey.
'Coolish!' observed Carker, stirring the fire.
'Rather,' said Mr Dombey.
'Any news of the young gentleman who is so important to us all?' asked Carker, with his whole regiment of teeth on parade.
'Yes - not direct news- I hear he's very well,' said Mr Dombey. Who had come from Brighton over-night. But no one knew It.
'Very well, and becoming a great scholar, no doubt?' observed the Manager.
'I hope so,' returned Mr Dombey.
'Egad!' said Mr Carker, shaking his head, 'Time flies!'
'I think so, sometimes,' returned Mr Dombey, glancing at his newspaper.
'Oh! You! You have no reason to think so,' observed Carker. 'One who sits on such an elevation as yours, and can sit there, unmoved, in all seasons - hasn't much reason to know anything about the flight of time. It's men like myself, who are low down and are not superior in circumstances, and who inherit new masters in the course of Time, that have cause to look about us. I shall have a rising sun to worship, soon.'
'Time enough, time enough, Carker!' said Mr Dombey, rising from his chair, and standing with his back to the fire. 'Have you anything there for me?'
'I don't know that I need trouble you,' returned Carker, turning over the papers in his hand. 'You have a committee today at three, you know.'
'And one at three, three-quarters,' added Mr Dombey.
'Catch you forgetting anything!' exclaimed Carker, still turning over his papers. 'If Mr Paul inherits your memory, he'll be a troublesome customer in the House. One of you is enough'
'You have an accurate memory of your own,' said Mr Dombey.
'Oh! I!' returned the manager. 'It's the only capital of a man like me.'
Mr Dombey did not look less pompous or at all displeased, as he stood leaning against the chimney-piece, surveying his (of course unconscious) clerk, from head to foot. The stiffness and nicety of Mr Carker's dress, and a certain arrogance of manner, either natural to him or imitated from a pattern not far off, gave great additional effect to his humility. He seemed a man who would contend against the power that vanquished him, if he could, but who was utterly borne down by the greatness and superiority of Mr Dombey.
'Is Morfin here?' asked Mr Dombey after a short pause, during which Mr Carker had been fluttering his papers, and muttering little abstracts of their contents to himself.
'Morfin's here,' he answered, looking up with his widest and almost sudden smile; 'humming musical recollections - of his last night's quartette party, I suppose - through the walls between us, and driving me half mad. I wish he'd make a bonfire of his violoncello, and burn his music-books in it.'
'You respect nobody, Carker, I think,' said Mr Dombey.
'No?' inquired Carker, with another wide and most feline show of his teeth. 'Well! Not many people, I believe. I wouldn't answer perhaps,' he murmured, as if he were only thinking it, 'for more than one.'
A dangerous quality, if real; and a not less dangerous one, if feigned. But Mr Dombey hardly seemed to think so, as he still stood with his back to the fire, drawn up to his full height, and looking at his head-clerk with a dignified composure, in which there seemed to lurk a stronger latent sense of power than usual.
'Talking of Morfin,' resumed Mr Carker, taking out one paper from the rest, 'he reports a junior dead in the agency at Barbados, and proposes to reserve a passage in the Son and Heir - she'll sail in a month or so - for the successor. You don't care who goes, I suppose? We have nobody of that sort here.'
Mr Dombey shook his head with supreme indifference.
'It's no very precious appointment,' observed Mr Carker, taking up a pen, with which to endorse a memorandum on the back of the paper. 'I hope he may bestow it on some orphan nephew of a musical friend. It may perhaps stop his fiddle-playing, if he has a gift that way. Who's that? Come in!'
'I beg your pardon, Mr Carker. I didn't know you were here, Sir,' answered Walter; appearing with some letters in his hand, unopened, and newly arrived. 'Mr Carker the junior, Sir - '
At the mention of this name, Mr Carker the Manager was or affected to be, touched to the quick with shame and humiliation. He cast his eyes full on Mr Dombey with an altered and apologetic look, abased them on the ground, and remained for a moment without speaking.
'I thought, Sir,' he said suddenly and angrily, turning on Walter, 'that you had been before requested not to drag Mr Carker the Junior into your conversation.'
'I beg your pardon,' returned Walter. 'I was only going to say that Mr Carker the Junior had told me he believed you were gone out, or I should not have knocked at the door when you were engaged with Mr Dombey. These are letters for Mr Dombey, Sir.'
'Very well, Sir,' returned Mr Carker the Manager, plucking them sharply from his hand. 'Go about your business.'
But in taking them with so little ceremony, Mr Carker dropped one on the floor, and did not see what he had done; neither did Mr Dombey observe the letter lying near his feet. Walter hesitated for a moment, thinking that one or other of them would notice it; but finding that neither did, he stopped, came back, picked it up, and laid it himself on Mr Dombey's desk. The letters were post-letters; and it happened that the one in question was Mrs Pipchin's regular report, directed as usual - for Mrs Pipchin was but an indifferent penwoman - by Florence. Mr Dombey, having his attention silently called to this letter by Walter, started, and looked fiercely at him, as if he believed that he had purposely selected it from all the rest.
'You can leave the room, Sir!' said Mr Dombey, haughtily.
He crushed the letter in his hand; and having watched Walter out at the door, put it in his pocket without breaking the seal.
'These continual references to Mr Carker the Junior,' Mr Carker the Manager began, as soon as they were alone, 'are, to a man in my position, uttered before one in yours, so unspeakably distressing - '
'Nonsense, Carker,' Mr Dombey interrupted. 'You are too sensitive.'
'I am sensitive,' he returned. 'If one in your position could by any possibility imagine yourself in my place: which you cannot: you would be so too.'
As Mr Dombey's thoughts were evidently pursuing some other subject, his discreet ally broke off here, and stood with his teeth ready to present to him, when he should look up.
'You want somebody to send to the West Indies, you were saying,' observed Mr Dombey, hurriedly.
'Yes,' replied Carker.
'Send young Gay.'
'Good, very good indeed. Nothing easier,' said Mr Carker, without any show of surprise, and taking up the pen to re-endorse the letter, as coolly as he had done before. '"Send young Gay."'
'Call him back,' said Mr Dombey.
Mr Carker was quick to do so, and Walter was quick to return.
'Gay,' said Mr Dombey, turning a little to look at him over his shoulder. 'Here is a -
'An opening,' said Mr Carker, with his mouth stretched to the utmost.
'In the West Indies. At Barbados. I am going to send you,' said Mr Dombey, scorning to embellish the bare truth, 'to fill a junior situation in the counting-house at Barbados. Let your Uncle know from me, that I have chosen you to go to the West Indies.'
Walter's breath was so completely taken away by his astonishment, that he could hardly find enough for the repetition of the words 'West Indies.'
'Somebody must go,' said Mr Dombey, 'and you are young and healthy, and your Uncle's circumstances are not good. Tell your Uncle that you are appointed. You will not go yet. There will be an interval of a month - or two perhaps.'
'Shall I remain there, Sir?' inquired Walter.
'Will you remain there, Sir!' repeated Mr Dombey, turning a little more round towards him. 'What do you mean? What does he mean, Carker?'
'Live there, Sir,' faltered Walter.
'Certainly,' returned Mr Dombey.
Walter bowed.
'That's all,' said Mr Dombey, resuming his letters. 'You will explain to him in good time about the usual outfit and so forth, Carker, of course. He needn't wait, Carker.'
'You needn't wait, Gay,' observed Mr Carker: bare to the gums.
'Unless,' said Mr Dombey, stopping in his reading without looking off the letter, and seeming to listen. 'Unless he has anything to say.'
'No, Sir,' returned Walter, agitated and confused, and almost stunned, as an infinite variety of pictures presented themselves to his mind; among which Captain Cuttle, in his glazed hat, transfixed with astonishment at Mrs MacStinger's, and his uncle bemoaning his loss in the little back parlour, held prominent places. 'I hardly know - I - I am much obliged, Sir.'
'He needn't wait, Carker,' said Mr Dombey.
And as Mr Carker again echoed the words, and also collected his papers as if he were going away too, Walter felt that his lingering any longer would be an unpardonable intrusion - especially as he had nothing to say - and therefore walked out quite confounded.
Going along the passage, with the mingled consciousness and helplessness of a dream, he heard Mr Dombey's door shut again, as Mr Carker came out: and immediately afterwards that gentleman called to him.
'Bring your friend Mr Carker the Junior to my room, Sir, if you please.'
Walter went to the outer office and apprised Mr Carker the Junior of his errand, who accordingly came out from behind a partition where he sat alone in one corner, and returned with him to the room of Mr Carker the Manager.
That gentleman was standing with his back to the fire, and his hands under his coat-tails, looking over his white cravat, as unpromisingly as Mr Dombey himself could have looked. He received them without any change in his attitude or softening of his harsh and black expression: merely signing to Walter to close the door.
'John Carker,' said the Manager, when this was done, turning suddenly upon his brother, with his two rows of teeth bristling as if he would have bitten him, 'what is the league between you and this young man, in virtue of which I am haunted and hunted by the mention of your name? Is it not enough for you, John Carker, that I am your near relation, and can't detach myself from that - '
'Say disgrace, James,' interposed the other in a low voice, finding that he stammered for a word. 'You mean it, and have reason, say disgrace.'
'From that disgrace,' assented his brother with keen emphasis, 'but is the fact to be blurted out and trumpeted, and proclaimed continually in the presence of the very House! In moments of confidence too? Do you think your name is calculated to harmonise in this place with trust and confidence, John Carker?'
'No,' returned the other. 'No, James. God knows I have no such thought.'
'What is your thought, then?' said his brother, 'and why do you thrust yourself in my way? Haven't you injured me enough already?'
'I have never injured you, James, wilfully.'
'You are my brother,' said the Manager. 'That's injury enough.'
'I wish I could undo it, James.'
'I wish you could and would.'
During this conversation, Walter had looked from one brother to the other, with pain and amazement. He who was the Senior in years, and Junior in the House, stood, with his eyes cast upon the ground, and his head bowed, humbly listening to the reproaches of the other. Though these were rendered very bitter by the tone and look with which they were accompanied, and by the presence of Walter whom they so much surprised and shocked, he entered no other protest against them than by slightly raising his right hand in a deprecatory manner, as if he would have said, 'Spare me!' So, had they been blows, and he a brave man, under strong constraint, and weakened by bodily suffering, he might have stood before the executioner.
Generous and quick in all his emotions, and regarding himself as the innocent occasion of these taunts, Walter now struck in, with all the earnestness he felt.
'Mr Carker,' he said, addressing himself to the Manager. 'Indeed, indeed, this is my fault solely. In a kind of heedlessness, for which I cannot blame myself enough, I have, I have no doubt, mentioned Mr Carker the Junior much oftener than was necessary; and have allowed his name sometimes to slip through my lips, when it was against your expressed wish. But it has been my own mistake, Sir. We have never exchanged one word upon the subject - very few, indeed, on any subject. And it has not been,' added Walter, after a moment's pause, 'all heedlessness on my part, Sir; for I have felt an interest in Mr Carker ever since I have been here, and have hardly been able to help speaking of him sometimes, when I have thought of him so much!'
Walter said this from his soul, and with the very breath of honour. For he looked upon the bowed head, and the downcast eyes, and upraised hand, and thought, 'I have felt it; and why should I not avow it in behalf of this unfriended, broken man!'
Mr Carker the Manager looked at him, as he spoke, and when he had finished speaking, with a smile that seemed to divide his face into two parts.
'You are an excitable youth, Gay,' he said; 'and should endeavour to cool down a little now, for it would be unwise to encourage feverish predispositions. Be as cool as you can, Gay. Be as cool as you can. You might have asked Mr John Carker himself (if you have not done so) whether he claims to be, or is, an object of such strong interest.'
'James, do me justice,' said his brother. 'I have claimed nothing; and I claim nothing. Believe me, on my -
'Honour?' said his brother, with another smile, as he warmed himself before the fire.
'On my Me - on my fallen life!' returned the other, in the same low voice, but with a deeper stress on his words than he had yet seemed capable of giving them. 'Believe me, I have held myself aloof, and kept alone. This has been unsought by me. I have avoided him and everyone.
'Indeed, you have avoided me, Mr Carker,' said Walter, with the tears rising to his eyes; so true was his compassion. 'I know it, to my disappointment and regret. When I first came here, and ever since, I am sure I have tried to be as much your friend, as one of my age could presume to be; but it has been of no use.
'And observe,' said the Manager, taking him up quickly, 'it will be of still less use, Gay, if you persist in forcing Mr John Carker's name on people's attention. That is not the way to befriend Mr John Carker. Ask him if he thinks it is.'
'It is no service to me,' said the brother. 'It only leads to such a conversation as the present, which I need not say I could have well spared. No one can be a better friend to me:' he spoke here very distinctly, as if he would impress it upon Walter: 'than in forgetting me, and leaving me to go my way, unquestioned and unnoticed.'
'Your memory not being retentive, Gay, of what you are told by others,' said Mr Carker the Manager, warming himself with great and increased satisfaction, 'I thought it well that you should be told this from the best authority,' nodding towards his brother. 'You are not likely to forget it now, I hope. That's all, Gay. You can go.
Walter passed out at the door, and was about to close it after him, when, hearing the voices of the brothers again, and also the mention of his own name, he stood irresolutely, with his hand upon the lock, and the door ajar, uncertain whether to return or go away. In this position he could not help overhearing what followed.
'Think of me more leniently, if you can, James,' said John Carker, 'when I tell you I have had - how could I help having, with my history, written here' - striking himself upon the breast - 'my whole heart awakened by my observation of that boy, Walter Gay. I saw in him when he first came here, almost my other self.'
'Your other self!' repeated the Manager, disdainfully.
'Not as I am, but as I was when I first came here too; as sanguine, giddy, youthful, inexperienced; flushed with the same restless and adventurous fancies; and full of the same qualities, fraught with the same capacity of leading on to good or evil.'
'I hope not,' said his brother, with some hidden and sarcastic meaning in his tone.
'You strike me sharply; and your hand is steady, and your thrust is very deep,' returned the other, speaking (or so Walter thought) as if some cruel weapon actually stabbed him as he spoke. 'I imagined all this when he was a boy. I believed it. It was a truth to me. I saw him lightly walking on the edge of an unseen gulf where so many others walk with equal gaiety, and from which
'The old excuse,' interrupted his brother, as he stirred the fire. 'So many. Go on. Say, so many fall.'
'From which ONE traveller fell,' returned the other, 'who set forward, on his way, a boy like him, and missed his footing more and more, and slipped a little and a little lower; and went on stumbling still, until he fell headlong and found himself below a shattered man. Think what I suffered, when I watched that boy.'
'You have only yourself to thank for it,' returned the brother.
'Only myself,' he assented with a sigh. 'I don't seek to divide the blame or shame.'
'You have divided the shame,' James Carker muttered through his teeth. And, through so many and such close teeth, he could mutter well.
'Ah, James,' returned his brother, speaking for the first time in an accent of reproach, and seeming, by the sound of his voice, to have covered his face with his hands, 'I have been, since then, a useful foil to you. You have trodden on me freely in your climbing up. Don't spurn me with your heel!'
A silence ensued. After a time, Mr Carker the Manager was heard rustling among his papers, as if he had resolved to bring the interview to a conclusion. At the same time his brother withdrew nearer to the door.
'That's all,' he said. 'I watched him with such trembling and such fear, as was some little punishment to me, until he passed the place where I first fell; and then, though I had been his father, I believe I never could have thanked God more devoutly. I didn't dare to warn him, and advise him; but if I had seen direct cause, I would have shown him my example. I was afraid to be seen speaking with him, lest it should be thought I did him harm, and tempted him to evil, and corrupted him: or lest I really should. There may be such contagion in me; I don't know. Piece out my history, in connexion with young Walter Gay, and what he has made me feel; and think of me more leniently, James, if you can.
With these words he came out to where Walter was standing. He turned a little paler when he saw him there, and paler yet when Walter caught him by the hand, and said in a whisper:
'Mr Carker, pray let me thank you! Let me say how much I feel for you! How sorry I am, to have been the unhappy cause of all this! How I almost look upon you now as my protector and guardian! How very, very much, I feel obliged to you and pity you!' said Walter, squeezing both his hands, and hardly knowing, in his agitation, what he did or said.
Mr Morfin's room being close at hand and empty, and the door wide open, they moved thither by one accord: the passage being seldom free from someone passing to or fro. When they were there, and Walter saw in Mr Carker's face some traces of the emotion within, he almost felt as if he had never seen the face before; it was so greatly changed.
'Walter,' he said, laying his hand on his shoulder. 'I am far removed from you, and may I ever be. Do you know what I am?'
'What you are!' appeared to hang on Walter's lips, as he regarded him attentively.
'It was begun,' said Carker, 'before my twenty-first birthday - led up to, long before, but not begun till near that time. I had robbed them when I came of age. I robbed them afterwards. Before my twenty-second birthday, it was all found out; and then, Walter, from all men's society, I died.'
Again his last few words hung trembling upon Walter's lips, but he could neither utter them, nor any of his own.
'The House was very good to me. May Heaven reward the old man for his forbearance! This one, too, his son, who was then newly in the Firm, where I had held great trust! I was called into that room which is now his - I have never entered it since - and came out, what you know me. For many years I sat in my present seat, alone as now, but then a known and recognised example to the rest. They were all merciful to me, and I lived. Time has altered that part of my poor expiation; and I think, except the three heads of the House, there is no one here who knows my story rightly. Before the little boy grows up, and has it told to him, my corner may be vacant. I would rather that it might be so! This is the only change to me since that day, when I left all youth, and hope, and good men's company, behind me in that room. God bless you, Walter! Keep you, and all dear to you, in honesty, or strike them dead!'
Some recollection of his trembling from head to foot, as if with excessive cold, and of his bursting into tears, was all that Walter could add to this, when he tried to recall exactly what had passed between them.
When Walter saw him next, he was bending over his desk in his old silent, drooping, humbled way. Then, observing him at his work, and feeling how resolved he evidently was that no further intercourse should arise between them, and thinking again and again on all he had seen and heard that morning in so short a time, in connexion with the history of both the Carkers, Walter could hardly believe that he was under orders for the West Indies, and would soon be lost to Uncle Sol, and Captain Cuttle, and to glimpses few and far between of Florence Dombey - no, he meant Paul - and to all he loved, and liked, and looked for, in his daily life.
But it was true, and the news had already penetrated to the outer office; for while he sat with a heavy heart, pondering on these things, and resting his head upon his arm, Perch the messenger, descending from his mahogany bracket, and jogging his elbow, begged his pardon, but wished to say in his ear, Did he think he could arrange to send home to England a jar of preserved Ginger, cheap, for Mrs Perch's own eating, in the course of her recovery from her next confinement?
董貝先生的營業(yè)所的辦公室是在一個院子里；院子的角落里很久以來就設(shè)有一個出賣精選水果的貨攤；男女行商在院子里向顧客兜售拖鞋、筆記本、海綿、狗的頸圈、溫莎①肥皂；有時還出售一條獵狗（它能用鼻尖指示獵獲物所在處）或一幅油畫。
指示獵物的獵狗經(jīng)常在那里出現(xiàn)，是考慮到證券交易所的人們可能對它會有興趣，因為證券交易所里對運動的愛好很時興（通常最早是從對新奇事物的打賭開始的）。其他的商品面向一般公眾，但商販們從來沒有向董貝先生兜售過它們。當(dāng)他出現(xiàn)的時候，出售這些貨物的商人們都恭恭敬敬地向后退縮。當(dāng)董貝先生走過的時候，拖鞋與狗的頸圈的主要商人把食指舉到帽邊行禮（這位商人認(rèn)為自己是一位公眾活動家，他的畫像被釘在切普賽德街②）。搬運員如果當(dāng)時不是因事不在的話，總是殷勤地跑到前面去把董貝先生營業(yè)所辦公室的門盡量開得大大的；當(dāng)董貝先生進門的時候，他脫下帽子，把門按住。
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①溫莎（Windsor）：英國城市。
②切普賽德街（Cheapside）：倫敦中部東西向的大街，古時為鬧市。
辦公室里的職員們在顯示敬意上絲毫也不遜色。當(dāng)董貝先生走過最外面的一間辦公室時，房間里一片肅靜。會計室里那位富有機智、好說俏皮話的人片刻間就像掛在他后面的一排皮制的消防桶一樣默不作聲。通過毛玻璃窗與天窗滲透進來的日光缺乏生氣，暗淡無力，在玻璃上面留下了一個黑色的沉淀物；它照出了帳冊、票據(jù)以及低頭彎腰坐在它們前面的人們的身影，他們被一片勤勉而陰郁的氣氛籠罩著，從外表看來，他們與外界完全隔絕，仿佛是聚集在海底似的；幽暗的走廊盡頭的一間生了霉的小金庫（那里老是點著一盞燈）則可以代表某個海中妖怪的洞穴，那妖怪用一只紅眼睛看著海底深處的這些神秘事物。
信差珀奇像時鐘一樣，在托架上有一個座位①。當(dāng)他看到董貝先生進來——或者正確地說，當(dāng)他感覺到他正在進來，因為他通常對他的來到有一種直覺——的時候，他就急忙走進董貝先生的房間，捅一捅火，從煤箱的深處挖出新鮮的煤塊，把報紙掛在火爐圍欄上烘暖，把椅子擺好，并把圍屏移到適當(dāng)?shù)奈恢?；在董貝先生進來的那一瞬間，他立即轉(zhuǎn)過身去，接下他的厚大衣和帽子，把它們掛好。然后珀奇取下報紙，在爐前把它在手里轉(zhuǎn)上一兩轉(zhuǎn)，畢恭畢敬地放在董貝先生的身邊。珀奇向董貝先生表示程度的敬意，他是絲毫也沒有什么不愿意的；如果他可以躺在董貝先生的腳邊，或者可以用人們通常對哈里發(fā)何魯納·拉施德②所使用的那樣一些尊稱來稱呼他的話，那么他就只會感到更加高興。
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①有一種小鐘是擺放在托架上的，稱為托架小鐘（bracketclock）。
②《天方夜譚》（或譯《一千零一夜》）故事中的一位阿拉伯國王。在阿拉伯語中，哈里發(fā)是王位繼承人的意思，后成為阿拉伯國王的通稱。
但由于采用這種致敬的方式將會是一種革新與試驗，所以珀奇樂意按照他自己的方式，用他所能表達的話來滿足自己的心愿：“您是我眼睛的亮光。您是我心靈的氣息。您是忠實的珀奇的司令官！”這樣高高興興、但意猶未竟地向他表達敬意之后，他就會輕輕地關(guān)上門，踮著腳走出去，把他偉大的老板留下，讓丑陋的煙囪頂管、房屋的后墻、特別是二層樓理發(fā)廳的一扇突出的窗子，通過圓頂形的窗子，凝視著他（那理發(fā)廳里有一個蠟象，早上像穆斯林一樣，頭光禿禿的，十一點鐘以后則仿照基督徒最時新的式樣，蓄著連鬢胡子，它永遠向董貝先生顯露出它的后腦殼）。
董貝先生與普通世界之間有兩級階梯（因為要通過外面的辦公室才能到達那個世界，而董貝先生在他自己的房間中，對外面的辦公室來說可以說是潑上了冷水或者吹去了冷空氣一樣）。在自己辦公室中的卡克先生是第一級階梯；在自己辦公室中的莫芬先生是第二階梯。這兩位先生每人都有一個像浴室般大小的房間，房門通向董貝先生門外的過道。作為內(nèi)閣總理的卡克先生待在最挨近皇帝的房間里；作為職位略低的官員，莫芬先生待在最挨近職員們的房間里。
最后提到的這位先生是一位神情愉快、眼睛淡褐色、年紀(jì)較大的單身漢；他衣著莊重，上半身黑色，腿部是胡椒與鹽的顏色。他的黑發(fā)中間這里那里夾雜著灰色的斑點。仿佛是時間老人行進時濺潑上的；他的連鬢胡子早已白了。他非常尊敬董貝先生，并向他表示適當(dāng)?shù)捻槒模捎谒且晃恍愿裼淇斓娜?，在那位莊嚴(yán)的人的面前總是感到局促不安，所以他從來沒有因為妒嫉卡克先生參加過許多商談而煩惱；由于他必須履行他的職責(zé)，他很少得到那份特殊的光榮，他還為此暗暗感到高興。他在某種程度上是一位偉大的業(yè)余音樂愛好者，對他的大提琴懷著父親般的感情；他每個星期都要把它從他在伊斯靈頓①寓所搬到銀行鄰近的某個俱樂部里；有一個私人樂團每星期三晚上都在那里演出最令人傷心斷腸的四重奏。
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①伊斯靈頓（Islington）：英格蘭大倫敦內(nèi)一自治市。
卡克先生是一位三十八歲或四十歲的有身份的先生，臉色紅潤，有兩排完整發(fā)亮的牙齒，那種整齊和白色使人看了十分難受。要想避開它們是不可能的，因為他一講話總是露出它們；他微笑的時候嘴巴張得十分寬闊（可是他的微笑很少浮現(xiàn)在嘴巴以外的臉上），因此其中總有某些像貓叫一樣的東西。他仿效他的老板，愛系一條硬挺的白領(lǐng)帶，衣服穿得緊緊貼貼，總是扣上全部鈕扣。他對待董貝先生的態(tài)度是經(jīng)過深思熟慮的，而且出色地表達出來。他跟他無拘無束，但又深知他們之間存在的距離?！岸愊壬?，根據(jù)我們之間的業(yè)務(wù)關(guān)系，一位像我這種地位的人向一位像您這種地位的人不論表示什么樣效忠的敬意，我都不認(rèn)為已經(jīng)足夠了。坦率地對您說，先生，我完全否認(rèn)這一點。我覺得我做得還不能使我自己稱心滿意；天知道，董貝先生，如果免除我進行這種努力，那么您怎么還能受得了?！比绻堰@些話印在招貼上，放在他外衣的胸前，供董貝先生隨時閱讀，他也不會比他的行為表露得更為明顯的了。
這就是經(jīng)理卡克。沃爾特的朋友，低級職員卡克先生是他的哥哥，比他大兩三歲，但地位比他低一大截。弟弟的位子是在職務(wù)階梯的頂端，哥哥的位子則是在它的最底層。哥哥從來沒有上升到上面的一個梯級或者抬起腳來攀登一下。年輕人從他的頭頂跨越過去，步步高升，但他總是在最底層。他對占有那個低下的地位完全心安理得，從不抱怨，當(dāng)然也從來不希望改變它。
“您今天早上好嗎？”有一天董貝先生來到之后不久，經(jīng)理卡克先生手里拿著一卷公文，走進他的房間，問道。
“您好嗎，卡克？”董貝先生從椅子上站起來，背對著壁爐，問道，“您有什么事情需要告訴我的？”
“我不知道我是否需要打擾您，”卡克翻著手中的公文，回答道；“您知道，今天三點鐘，委員會有一個會議您要參加。”
“還有一個會議是在三點三刻，”董貝先生補充說道。
“您從來不會忘記任何事情！”卡克高聲喊道，一邊仍在翻著公文。“如果保羅少爺把您的記性繼承了下來，那么他將成為使公司不得安寧的人物了。有您一位就已足夠了。”
“您自己的記性也很好，”董貝先生說道。
“啊，我嗎？”經(jīng)理回答道。“像我這樣的人，這是的資本哪?！?BR> 董貝先生背靠著壁爐，站在那里，從頭到腳打量著他的下屬（當(dāng)然是無意識的），這時他那高傲自負的神色沒有稍減半分，也沒有任何不愉快的樣子?？讼壬鷩?yán)謹(jǐn)而雅致的衣著和有幾分妄自尊大的態(tài)度（也許是他生性如此，也許是從離他不遠的榜樣中模仿到的）給他的謙恭增添了特別的效果。如果他能夠的話，他似乎是一位會對征服他的力量進行反抗的人；但是董貝先生的崇高與優(yōu)越的地位卻把他完全壓倒了。
“莫芬在這里嗎？”董貝先生在短短的沉默之后，問道；卡克先生在那段時間中一直在翻著他的公文，并自言自語地嘀咕幾句公文的摘要。
“莫芬在這里，”他抬起眼睛，露出那極為寬闊、極為急速的微笑，回答道：“正通過我們之間的隔墻哼唱著，我想大概是回想他昨天四重奏樂團的音樂吧，它把我弄得都快要瘋了。我真希望他把他的大提琴燒了，把他的樂譜也一道扔到火里去?！?BR> “我覺得，您什么人也不尊敬，卡克，”董貝先生說道。
“是嗎？”卡克問道，一邊又露出了一個寬闊的、極為狡詐的微笑，露出了他的牙齒；“唔！不是對好多人都尊敬，我想。也許是，”他低聲嘀咕著，仿佛他只是在想這件事，“我不想對一個以上的人負責(zé)。”
如果這是真的話，那么這是危險的品質(zhì)；如果這是假裝的話，那么它也同樣危險?？墒嵌愊壬坪醪⒉贿@樣想；這時他挺直了身子，仍舊背對著壁爐站著，同時威嚴(yán)而鎮(zhèn)靜地望著他下屬中這位第一把手，在神態(tài)中似乎對他自己的權(quán)力隱藏著比平時更為強烈的潛在的意識。
“說到莫芬?！笨讼壬鷱墓闹谐槌鲆豁摷垇恚^續(xù)說道，“他報告說，巴巴多斯①代銷處的一位低級職員死了，因此建議為接替他的人訂購一張船票，乘‘兒子與繼承人’這條船去，它大約在一個月左右開航。我想，您認(rèn)為誰去都一樣吧？我們這里沒有合適的人?！?BR> --------
①巴巴多斯（Barbados）：位于西印度群島最東端，為一珊瑚島；在狄更斯寫作此書時，它是英國的殖民地。
董貝先生非常漠不關(guān)心地點點頭。
“這不是一項很重要的任命，”卡克先生取出一支筆，在公文背面簽署了意見?！拔蚁胨赡馨堰@個職位贈送給一位孤兒，他一位音樂朋友的侄子了。它也許會終止他的提琴演奏，如果他有那方面的天賦的話。是誰？進來吧！”
“請原諒，卡克先生。我不知道您在這里，先生，”沃爾特手里拿了幾封沒有啟封的新到的信件，走進來，回答道：
“是低級職員卡克先生，先生——”
經(jīng)理卡克先生一聽到這個名字，立刻被觸到了痛處，感到羞恥與屈辱，或者裝出這種樣子；他換了一副抱歉的神色，低垂著眼睛，注視著董貝先生，片刻間一言不發(fā)。
“我想，先生，”他突然怒沖沖地轉(zhuǎn)身對著沃爾特，說道：“我以前曾經(jīng)請求您在談話中別把低級職員卡克先生扯進來的?！?BR> “請您原諒，”沃爾特回答道?！拔抑皇窍胍f，低級職員卡克先生告訴我，他想您出去了；否則，您與董貝先生正有事商談的時候，我就不會來敲門了。這些是給董貝先生的信，先生?！?BR> “很好，先生，”經(jīng)理卡克先生把信從他手里猛搶過去，回答道。“回去干您的事情去吧。”
可是卡克先生把信拿到手里那樣隨便無禮，因此他把一封信掉在地上了，而且他自己還沒有注意到這一點。董貝先生也沒有留意到掉在他腳邊的那封信。沃爾特遲疑了一會兒，心想他們兩人當(dāng)中這一位或那一位會注意到的，但發(fā)現(xiàn)他們誰也沒有注意到，他就停下腳步，走回來，把它撿起來，親自擱在董貝先生的辦公桌上。這些信都是郵寄來的；我們提到的這封信碰巧是皮普欽太太的定期報告，寄發(fā)地址像往常一樣，是由弗洛倫斯寫的，因為皮普欽太太是一位不擅長寫字的女人。當(dāng)董貝先生的注意力被沃爾特默默地吸引到這封信的時候，他吃了一驚，兇猛地看著他，仿佛他相信他是故意把它從所有信中挑出來似的。
“您可以離開這個房間了，先生，”董貝先生傲慢地說道。
他把信在手里揉成一團，注視著沃爾特走出門外以后，沒有啟封就把它塞進衣袋。
“您剛才說，您要派一個人到西印度群島去，”董貝先生急忙說道。
“是的，”卡克回答道。
“派年輕人蓋伊去?！?BR> “好，確實很好。沒有什么比這更容易的了，”卡克先生說道；他沒有露出任何驚奇的表情，而是像先前一樣，冷冰冰地在公文背面重新簽署了意見。“派年輕人蓋伊去?！?BR> “喊他回來，”董貝先生說道。
卡克先生迅速照辦；沃爾特也迅速地回來了。
“蓋伊，”董貝先生稍稍轉(zhuǎn)過身子，以便回過頭來看著他。
“有一個——”
“空缺，”卡克先生嘴巴張得極為寬闊地說道。
“在西印度群島。在巴巴多斯。我打算派您去，”董貝先生說道；他不屑美化明擺著的事實真相，“去接替巴巴多斯會計室里一個低級的職位。請代我轉(zhuǎn)告您的舅舅，我已選擇您到西印度群島去了?！?BR> 沃爾特驚愕得完全停止了呼吸，因此連“西印度群島”這幾個字也不能重復(fù)說出來。
“總得派個人去，”董貝先生說道，“您年輕，健康，舅舅的境況又不好。告訴您舅舅，已經(jīng)指派您了?，F(xiàn)在還不走。還有一個月的時間——或者也許是兩個月。”
“我將留在那里嗎，先生？”沃爾特問道。
“您將留在那里嗎，先生！”董貝先生把身子朝他那邊稍稍轉(zhuǎn)過來一點，重復(fù)地說道?！澳脑捠鞘裁匆馑?？他的話是什么意思，卡克？”
“住在那里，先生，”沃爾特結(jié)結(jié)巴巴地說道。
“當(dāng)然，”董貝先生回答道。
沃爾特鞠了個躬。
“我的話已經(jīng)說完了，”董貝先生說道，一邊重新看他的信?！爱?dāng)然，卡克，您在適當(dāng)?shù)臅r候向他交代一下旅行用品等等事情。他不必待在這里了，卡克?！?BR> “您不必待在這里了，蓋伊，”卡克先生露出牙床，說道。
“除非，”董貝先生說道，他停止閱讀，但眼睛沒有離開信件，好像在聽話似的?！俺撬惺裁丛捯f?！?BR> “沒有，先生，”沃爾特回答道；當(dāng)無數(shù)種形形色色的景象涌現(xiàn)到他的心頭時，他感到激動和慌亂，幾乎昏了過去；在這些景象當(dāng)中，卡特爾船長戴著上了光的帽子，在麥克斯廷杰太太家里驚愕得目瞪口呆；他的舅舅在小后客廳里悲嘆著他的損失，是最為突出的兩幅?！拔覍嵲诓恢馈摇液芨兄x，先生。”
“他不必待在這里了，卡克，”董貝先生說道。
卡克先生又隨聲重復(fù)了這句話，而且還收拾著他的公文，仿佛他也要走似的，這時候沃爾特覺得他再遲延下去就會是不可原諒的打擾了——特別是他已沒有什么話要說的了——，因此就十分狼狽地走出了辦公室。
他沿著走廊走過去，像在夢中一樣感到既清醒而又束手無策，這時候他聽到卡克先生走出來時董貝先生的房門又關(guān)上的聲音，因為在這之后，這位先生立即喊住了他。
“勞駕您把您的朋友，低級職員卡克先生領(lǐng)到我的房間里來，先生。”
沃爾特走到外面的辦公室里，把他的使命告訴了低級職員卡克先生。于是低級職員卡克先生就從一個隔板后面（他單獨坐在一個角落里）走出來，沃爾特跟他一起回到經(jīng)理卡克先生的房間里。
那位先生背對著壁爐站著，手抄在燕尾服里面，從白領(lǐng)帶上面看著前面，那種嚴(yán)厲可怕的神色只有董貝先生本人才能有。他接待他們的時候，絲毫沒有改變姿勢或使他那生硬與陰沉的表情柔和下來，而僅僅向沃爾特示意，要他把門關(guān)上。
“約翰·卡克，”門關(guān)上以后，經(jīng)理突然轉(zhuǎn)向他的哥哥，露出兩排牙齒，仿佛想要咬他似的?！澳@位年輕人之間訂立了什么同盟，憑著它，把我的名字掛在嘴上，來跟我糾纏不休？約翰·卡克，難道你覺得還不夠嗎？我是你的近親，不能擺脫掉那份——”
“說恥辱吧，詹姆斯，”另一位看到他在整個詞上結(jié)巴住了，就低聲插嘴道?！澳闶窍脒@樣說，也有理由這樣說的，就說恥辱吧。”
“那份恥辱，”他的弟弟同意，并強烈地加重了語氣，“可是難道有必要把這事實在公司的老板面前不斷地吆喝、張揚和通告嗎？甚至在我受到信任的時候也要這樣做嗎？你以為提到你的名字跟在這里博得信賴與重用是協(xié)調(diào)的嗎，約翰·卡克？”
“不是，”那一位回答道?！安皇?，詹姆斯。上帝知道，我沒有這樣的想法?！?BR> “那么，你的想法是什么呢？”他的弟弟說道，“你又為什么硬要擋住我的道路？難道你還嫌傷害我不夠嗎？”
“我從來沒有故意傷害過你，詹姆斯?！?BR> “你是我的哥哥，”經(jīng)理說道，“這傷害就足夠了?！?BR> “我但愿我能消除這個傷害，詹姆斯?！?BR> “我但愿你能消除它，而且將消除它。”
在這談話中間，沃爾特懷著痛苦與驚奇的心情，望望這一位，又望望那一位弟兄。那位年齡較大、但在公司里職務(wù)很低的人的眼睛向地面低垂著，腦袋搭拉著，站在那里，恭順地聽著另一位的譴責(zé)。雖然譴責(zé)的語氣很尖刻，神色很嚴(yán)厲，而且當(dāng)著震驚的沃爾特的面，但他卻沒有表示什么*，而只是用哀求的態(tài)度，稍稍抬起右手，仿佛想說：“饒恕我吧！”如果這些譴責(zé)是打擊，而他是一位體力衰弱的勇士，那么他也會在劊子手面前站著。
沃爾特在感情上是一位寬厚與急躁的人，他認(rèn)為他本人是無意間引起這些辱罵的原因，所以這時懷著誠摯的心情插進來說話。
“卡克先生，”他對經(jīng)理說道，“這完全是我一個人的過錯，這一點是千真萬確的。由于我粗心大意，這一點我怎么責(zé)怪自己也不會過分，因此我，我，毫無疑問，我經(jīng)常提到職務(wù)較低的卡克先生，提到的次數(shù)大大地超過了必要，有時我也允許讓他的名字脫口而出地說了出來，而這是違背您的明確的意愿的。但這都是我本人的錯誤，先生。我們從沒有在這個問題上交談過一句話——說實在的，我們在任何問題上都很少交談。就我這方面來說，先生，”沃爾特停了片刻之后，接著說道，“也并不是完全由于粗心大意。自從我到這里來以后，我對卡克先生一直很感興趣，當(dāng)我多么想念他的時候，有時就情不自禁地提到了他?！?BR> 沃爾特是真心誠意，并懷著高尚的心情講這些話的。因為他看到那搭拉的腦袋、低垂的眼睛和抬起的手，心中想道，“我感覺到這點；我為什么不為這位孤立無援、傷心失望的人認(rèn)錯呢？”
“事實上，您一直在避開我，卡克先生，”沃爾特說道；他對他真正感到憐憫，因此淚水都涌到眼睛里了?！拔抑肋@一點，它使我感到失望和惋惜。當(dāng)我初到這里來的時候，而且從那時候起，我確實很想成為您的好朋友，像我這樣年齡的人所指望的那樣，可是一切都是白費心思?！?BR> “請注意，蓋伊，”經(jīng)理迅速接過他的話頭，說下去，“如果您還像過去那么硬要人們注意約翰·卡克的名字的話，那么您還會更加白費心思。那不是以朋友態(tài)度對待約翰·卡克先生的方式。問問他，他是不是這樣認(rèn)為的？”
“那對我不是幫助，”哥哥說道?！八粫鹣瘳F(xiàn)在這樣的一場談話；我不用說，我本來很可以避免參加的。誰要想成為我更好的朋友，”這時他說得很清楚，仿佛想要引起沃爾特的格外注意似的，“那就是忘掉我，讓我沒人理睬、默默無聞地過我自己的日子?！?BR> “別人對您說的話您是記不住的，蓋伊，”經(jīng)理卡克先生感到極為滿意，心情興奮起來，“所以我想應(yīng)當(dāng)讓最有權(quán)威的人來對您說這一點，”這時他向他的哥哥點了點頭，“我希望現(xiàn)在您不至于再把這忘掉了吧。這就是我要說的一切。蓋伊。
您可以走了?！?BR> 沃爾特走到門口，正想把門在身后關(guān)上，這時他又聽到了兄弟兩人的聲音，而且還提到了他自己的名字，于是猶豫不決地站住，手還握著門的拉手，門還半開著，他不知道究竟是回去還是走開。在這種情況下，他不是有意地聽到了隨后發(fā)生的談話。
“如果你能夠的話，詹姆斯，請想到我的時候?qū)捄褚恍┌桑奔s翰·卡克說道，“當(dāng)我告訴你，我對那孩子，沃爾特·蓋伊的觀察，已把我整個心靈都喚醒了；——我怎么能不這樣呢。我的歷史寫在這里，”——這時他敲打著自己的胸膛——“當(dāng)他初到這里來的時候，我在他身上看到了幾乎是另一個我?！?BR> “另一個你！”經(jīng)理輕蔑地重復(fù)著。
“并不是現(xiàn)在的我，而是也是初到這里時的我，那時候我跟他一樣樂觀、輕率、年輕、沒有經(jīng)驗，跟他一樣揚揚得意地充滿了永不平靜、愛好冒險的幻想，跟他一樣賦有能通向善良或通向邪惡的品質(zhì)?！?BR> “我希望不是，”他的弟弟說道，語氣中有著某種隱藏的與諷刺的意義。
“你把我刺得很痛；你的手沒有顫抖，你戳進得很深，”另一位回答道，仿佛在他說話的時候，什么殘酷的武器真正捅了他似的（或者沃爾特覺得是這樣）?！爱?dāng)他初到這里來的時候，我想像著這一切。我相信它。對我來說，這是真實的。我看到他在一個看不到的深淵的邊緣輕快地走著，那么多其他的人們都以同樣愉快的神情在那里走著，并且從那里——”
“老借口，”弟弟捅捅爐火，插嘴道，“那么多的人們。說下去吧。說，那么多的人們掉下去了。”
“一位走著的人從那里掉下去了；”另一位回答道，“一位像他那樣的孩子開始走上路途，一次又一次地失足，一點一點地往下滑，繼續(xù)摔倒，直到后來，他倒栽蔥地掉下去，并在底層發(fā)現(xiàn)他自己成了一個體無完膚的人。請想一想當(dāng)我注意觀察那個孩子的時候，我心里是多么痛苦呵?！?BR> “那只能怪你自己，”弟弟回答道。
“只怪我自己，”他嘆了一口氣，表示同意?！啊の也幌雽ふ覄e人來分擔(dān)我的罪過或恥辱?！?BR> “你·已·經(jīng)讓別人來分擔(dān)你的恥辱了，”詹姆斯·卡克通過他的牙齒咕噥著。雖然他的牙齒那么多那么密，但是他卻能咕噥得清清楚楚。
“啊，詹姆斯，”他的哥哥回答道；他第一次用責(zé)備的聲調(diào)說話，而且從他說話的聲音聽起來，他似乎用手捂著臉，“從那時起，我就成了你的一個有用的襯托物。在你向上爬的時候，你任意地踐踏我。請別用你的腳后跟踢我吧！”
接著是靜默無聲。過了一些時候，只聽到經(jīng)理卡克沙沙地翻閱公文的聲音，仿佛他已決定結(jié)束這次會晤了。在這同時，他的哥哥退到門口。
“這就是一切，”他說道。“我是那么擔(dān)心、那么害怕地注意觀察著他，就像這是對我的一種小小的懲罰一樣，直到他走過了我第一次失足掉下的地方，那時候我相信，即使我是他的父親，我也不會比那更為虔誠地感謝上帝的了。我不敢預(yù)先警戒他，向他提出忠告；但是如果我看到了直接的原因的話，那么我就會向他顯示我本人經(jīng)歷過的先例。我怕被別人看到我跟他講話，唯恐人們會認(rèn)為我加害于他，引誘他走向邪惡，使他墮落，或者唯恐我真正這樣做。也許在我身上有這種傳染性的病毒；有誰知道呢？請把我的歷史跟沃爾特·蓋伊聯(lián)系起來想一下，也請把它跟他使我產(chǎn)生的感覺聯(lián)系起來想一下，詹姆斯，如果你能夠的話，那么請想到我的時候更寬厚一些吧！”
他說完這些話之后，走出到沃爾特站著的地方。當(dāng)他看到他在那里的時候，他的臉色稍稍比先前蒼白了一些；當(dāng)沃爾特抓住他的手，低聲說了下面一些話的時候，他的臉色就白得更厲害了。
“卡克先生，請允許我謝謝您！請允許我說，我對您是多么同情！我成了這一切的根由，我是多么遺憾！我現(xiàn)在幾乎把您看成是我的保衛(wèi)者與庇護人了！我是多么多么感謝您和可憐您啊！”沃爾特緊緊地握著他的雙手，說道；他在激動中幾乎不知道他做了什么事情或說了什么話。
莫芬先生的房間就在近旁，里面沒有人，門敞開著；他們就不約而同地向里面走去，因為走廊里是難得讓人自由來回經(jīng)過的。當(dāng)他們到了里面的時候，沃爾特在卡克先生的臉上看到心慌意亂的跡象，這時他幾乎感到他以前從來沒有見過他的臉孔似的；它變化得多么大啊。
“沃爾特，”他把手?jǐn)R在他的肩膀上，說道。“我跟您之間隔著一段很遠的距離，讓我們永遠這樣吧。您知道我是什么人嗎？”
“您是什么人！”當(dāng)沃爾特目不轉(zhuǎn)睛地注視著他的時候，這句話好像已經(jīng)到了他的嘴邊了。
“那是在我二十一周歲之前開始的，”卡克說道，“——很久以前早就有了這樣的趨向，但一直到大概那個時候才開始。當(dāng)我開始成年的時候。我盜竊了他們的錢財。后來我又盜竊了他們的錢財。在我二十二周歲之前，全都被發(fā)覺了；從那之后，沃爾特，對于整個人類社會來說，我已經(jīng)死了?！?BR> 他最后的那幾個字又顫抖著到了沃爾特的嘴邊，但是他說不出來，也說不出他自己想要說的任何一句話。
“公司對我很好。那位老人寬大為懷，愿上天為此好好報答他吧！這一位，他的兒子，也一樣；那時他剛剛到公司里來，而我在公司里是曾經(jīng)得到很大信任的！我被召喚到現(xiàn)在屬于他的房間里——從那時以后，我再也沒有進去過——，出來以后就成了一位您所知道的人。我在我現(xiàn)在的位子上坐了許多年，像現(xiàn)在一樣孤獨，但那時候?qū)ζ溆嗟娜藖碚f，我成了一個有名的、公認(rèn)的榜樣。他們對我都很仁慈，我也活下來了。隨著時間的推移，我在痛苦贖罪的這一方面已經(jīng)有了改變；我想，現(xiàn)在除了公司的三位頭頭以外，這里沒有一個人真正了解我的歷史。在那個小孩子長大，并把這件事告訴他之前，我的那個角落可能是個空缺。我希望就這樣！從那天起，對我來說，這是的變化；那天我們青春、希望和與善良人們的交往都留在我身后的那間房間里了。上帝保佑您！沃爾特！讓您自己和所有對您親愛的人們都保持著誠實的品質(zhì)吧，否則就讓他們不得好死！”
當(dāng)沃爾特試圖準(zhǔn)確地回憶他們之間所發(fā)生的一切經(jīng)過的時候，除了上面的情況外，他所能記起的就是他仿佛感到過度寒冷似的，從頭到腳，全身顫抖著，而且痛哭流涕。
當(dāng)沃爾特再次看到他的時候，他又以過去那種不聲不響、意氣消沉、卑躬屈節(jié)的態(tài)度伏在他的辦公桌前。那時他看到他正在工作，并覺得他顯然已堅決不再跟他來往，而且一再想到那天上午在短短的時間中所看到的和所聽到的與兩位卡克歷史有關(guān)的所有事情，沃爾特幾乎不相信：他已接到前往西印度群島的命令；所爾舅舅和卡特爾船長不久就將失去他；弗洛倫斯·董貝——不，他是說保羅——不久將不再跟他次數(shù)很少、而且遠遠地相互看上幾眼了；他日常生活中所熱愛、喜歡與依戀的一切不久就將跟他告別了。
可是這是真實的，消息已流傳到外面的辦公室中，因為當(dāng)他一只手支托著頭，并懷著沉重的心情坐在那里沉思著這些事情的時候，信差珀奇從他的紅木托架上下來，輕輕地推推他的胳膊肘，請他原諒，但又湊著他的耳朵，向他請求說，他想他能不能設(shè)法送回一罐價格便宜的腌制的生姜到英國來，好讓珀奇太太在下次分娩后康復(fù)的過程中滋補滋補身體？
Mr Dombey's offices were in a court where there was an old-established stall of choice fruit at the corner: where perambulating merchants, of both sexes, offered for sale at any time between the hours of ten and five, slippers, pocket-books, sponges, dogs' collars, and Windsor soap; and sometimes a pointer or an oil-painting.
The pointer always came that way, with a view to the Stock Exchange, where a sporting taste (originating generally in bets of new hats) is much in vogue. The other commodities were addressed to the general public; but they were never offered by the vendors to Mr Dombey. When he appeared, the dealers in those wares fell off respectfully. The principal slipper and dogs' collar man - who considered himself a public character, and whose portrait was screwed on to an artist's door in Cheapside - threw up his forefinger to the brim of his hat as Mr Dombey went by. The ticket-porter, if he were not absent on a job, always ran officiously before, to open Mr Dombey's office door as wide as possible, and hold it open, with his hat off, while he entered.
The clerks within were not a whit behind-hand in their demonstrations of respect. A solemn hush prevailed, as Mr Dombey passed through the outer office. The wit of the Counting-House became in a moment as mute as the row of leathern fire-buckets hanging up behind him. Such vapid and flat daylight as filtered through the ground-glass windows and skylights, leaving a black sediment upon the panes, showed the books and papers, and the figures bending over them, enveloped in a studious gloom, and as much abstracted in appearance, from the world without, as if they were assembled at the bottom of the sea; while a mouldy little strong room in the obscure perspective, where a shaded lamp was always burning, might have represented the cavern of some ocean monster, looking on with a red eye at these mysteries of the deep.
When Perch the messenger, whose place was on a little bracket, like a timepiece, saw Mr Dombey come in - or rather when he felt that he was coming, for he had usually an instinctive sense of his approach - he hurried into Mr Dombey's room, stirred the fire, carried fresh coals from the bowels of the coal-box, hung the newspaper to air upon the fender, put the chair ready, and the screen in its place, and was round upon his heel on the instant of Mr Dombey's entrance, to take his great-coat and hat, and hang them up. Then Perch took the newspaper, and gave it a turn or two in his hands before the fire, and laid it, deferentially, at Mr Dombey's elbow. And so little objection had Perch to being deferential in the last degree, that if he might have laid himself at Mr Dombey's feet, or might have called him by some such title as used to be bestowed upon the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, he would have been all the better pleased.
As this honour would have been an innovation and an experiment, Perch was fain to content himself by expressing as well as he could, in his manner, You are the light of my Eyes. You are the Breath of my Soul. You are the commander of the Faithful Perch! With this imperfect happiness to cheer him, he would shut the door softly, walk away on tiptoe, and leave his great chief to be stared at, through a dome-shaped window in the leads, by ugly chimney-pots and backs of houses, and especially by the bold window of a hair-cutting saloon on a first floor, where a waxen effigy, bald as a Mussulman in the morning, and covered, after eleven o'clock in the day, with luxuriant hair and whiskers in the latest Christian fashion, showed him the wrong side of its head for ever.
Between Mr Dombey and the common world, as it was accessible through the medium of the outer office - to which Mr Dombey's presence in his own room may be said to have struck like damp, or cold air - there were two degrees of descent. Mr Carker in his own office was the first step; Mr Morfin, in his own office, was the second. Each of these gentlemen occupied a little chamber like a bath-room, opening from the passage outside Mr Dombey's door. Mr Carker, as Grand Vizier, inhabited the room that was nearest to the Sultan. Mr Morfin, as an officer of inferior state, inhabited the room that was nearest to the clerks.
The gentleman last mentioned was a cheerful-looking, hazel-eyed elderly bachelor: gravely attired, as to his upper man, in black; and as to his legs, in pepper-and-salt colour. His dark hair was just touched here and there with specks of gray, as though the tread of Time had splashed it; and his whiskers were already white. He had a mighty respect for Mr Dombey, and rendered him due homage; but as he was of a genial temper himself, and never wholly at his ease in that stately presence, he was disquieted by no jealousy of the many conferences enjoyed by Mr Carker, and felt a secret satisfaction in having duties to discharge, which rarely exposed him to be singled out for such distinction. He was a great musical amateur in his way - after business; and had a paternal affection for his violoncello, which was once in every week transported from Islington, his place of abode, to a certain club-room hard by the Bank, where quartettes of the most tormenting and excruciating nature were executed every Wednesday evening by a private party.
Mr Carker was a gentleman thirty-eight or forty years old, of a florid complexion, and with two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in it like the snarl of a cat. He affected a stiff white cravat, after the example of his principal, and was always closely buttoned up and tightly dressed. His manner towards Mr Dombey was deeply conceived and perfectly expressed. He was familiar with him, in the very extremity of his sense of the distance between them. 'Mr Dombey, to a man in your position from a man in mine, there is no show of subservience compatible with the transaction of business between us, that I should think sufficient. I frankly tell you, Sir, I give it up altogether. I feel that I could not satisfy my own mind; and Heaven knows, Mr Dombey, you can afford to dispense with the endeavour.' If he had carried these words about with him printed on a placard, and had constantly offered it to Mr Dombey's perusal on the breast of his coat, he could not have been more explicit than he was.
This was Carker the Manager. Mr Carker the Junior, Walter's friend, was his brother; two or three years older than he, but widely removed in station. The younger brother's post was on the top of the official ladder; the elder brother's at the bottom. The elder brother never gained a stave, or raised his foot to mount one. Young men passed above his head, and rose and rose; but he was always at the bottom. He was quite resigned to occupy that low condition: never complained of it: and certainly never hoped to escape from it.
'How do you do this morning?' said Mr Carker the Manager, entering Mr Dombey's room soon after his arrival one day: with a bundle of papers in his hand.
'How do you do, Carker?' said Mr Dombey.
'Coolish!' observed Carker, stirring the fire.
'Rather,' said Mr Dombey.
'Any news of the young gentleman who is so important to us all?' asked Carker, with his whole regiment of teeth on parade.
'Yes - not direct news- I hear he's very well,' said Mr Dombey. Who had come from Brighton over-night. But no one knew It.
'Very well, and becoming a great scholar, no doubt?' observed the Manager.
'I hope so,' returned Mr Dombey.
'Egad!' said Mr Carker, shaking his head, 'Time flies!'
'I think so, sometimes,' returned Mr Dombey, glancing at his newspaper.
'Oh! You! You have no reason to think so,' observed Carker. 'One who sits on such an elevation as yours, and can sit there, unmoved, in all seasons - hasn't much reason to know anything about the flight of time. It's men like myself, who are low down and are not superior in circumstances, and who inherit new masters in the course of Time, that have cause to look about us. I shall have a rising sun to worship, soon.'
'Time enough, time enough, Carker!' said Mr Dombey, rising from his chair, and standing with his back to the fire. 'Have you anything there for me?'
'I don't know that I need trouble you,' returned Carker, turning over the papers in his hand. 'You have a committee today at three, you know.'
'And one at three, three-quarters,' added Mr Dombey.
'Catch you forgetting anything!' exclaimed Carker, still turning over his papers. 'If Mr Paul inherits your memory, he'll be a troublesome customer in the House. One of you is enough'
'You have an accurate memory of your own,' said Mr Dombey.
'Oh! I!' returned the manager. 'It's the only capital of a man like me.'
Mr Dombey did not look less pompous or at all displeased, as he stood leaning against the chimney-piece, surveying his (of course unconscious) clerk, from head to foot. The stiffness and nicety of Mr Carker's dress, and a certain arrogance of manner, either natural to him or imitated from a pattern not far off, gave great additional effect to his humility. He seemed a man who would contend against the power that vanquished him, if he could, but who was utterly borne down by the greatness and superiority of Mr Dombey.
'Is Morfin here?' asked Mr Dombey after a short pause, during which Mr Carker had been fluttering his papers, and muttering little abstracts of their contents to himself.
'Morfin's here,' he answered, looking up with his widest and almost sudden smile; 'humming musical recollections - of his last night's quartette party, I suppose - through the walls between us, and driving me half mad. I wish he'd make a bonfire of his violoncello, and burn his music-books in it.'
'You respect nobody, Carker, I think,' said Mr Dombey.
'No?' inquired Carker, with another wide and most feline show of his teeth. 'Well! Not many people, I believe. I wouldn't answer perhaps,' he murmured, as if he were only thinking it, 'for more than one.'
A dangerous quality, if real; and a not less dangerous one, if feigned. But Mr Dombey hardly seemed to think so, as he still stood with his back to the fire, drawn up to his full height, and looking at his head-clerk with a dignified composure, in which there seemed to lurk a stronger latent sense of power than usual.
'Talking of Morfin,' resumed Mr Carker, taking out one paper from the rest, 'he reports a junior dead in the agency at Barbados, and proposes to reserve a passage in the Son and Heir - she'll sail in a month or so - for the successor. You don't care who goes, I suppose? We have nobody of that sort here.'
Mr Dombey shook his head with supreme indifference.
'It's no very precious appointment,' observed Mr Carker, taking up a pen, with which to endorse a memorandum on the back of the paper. 'I hope he may bestow it on some orphan nephew of a musical friend. It may perhaps stop his fiddle-playing, if he has a gift that way. Who's that? Come in!'
'I beg your pardon, Mr Carker. I didn't know you were here, Sir,' answered Walter; appearing with some letters in his hand, unopened, and newly arrived. 'Mr Carker the junior, Sir - '
At the mention of this name, Mr Carker the Manager was or affected to be, touched to the quick with shame and humiliation. He cast his eyes full on Mr Dombey with an altered and apologetic look, abased them on the ground, and remained for a moment without speaking.
'I thought, Sir,' he said suddenly and angrily, turning on Walter, 'that you had been before requested not to drag Mr Carker the Junior into your conversation.'
'I beg your pardon,' returned Walter. 'I was only going to say that Mr Carker the Junior had told me he believed you were gone out, or I should not have knocked at the door when you were engaged with Mr Dombey. These are letters for Mr Dombey, Sir.'
'Very well, Sir,' returned Mr Carker the Manager, plucking them sharply from his hand. 'Go about your business.'
But in taking them with so little ceremony, Mr Carker dropped one on the floor, and did not see what he had done; neither did Mr Dombey observe the letter lying near his feet. Walter hesitated for a moment, thinking that one or other of them would notice it; but finding that neither did, he stopped, came back, picked it up, and laid it himself on Mr Dombey's desk. The letters were post-letters; and it happened that the one in question was Mrs Pipchin's regular report, directed as usual - for Mrs Pipchin was but an indifferent penwoman - by Florence. Mr Dombey, having his attention silently called to this letter by Walter, started, and looked fiercely at him, as if he believed that he had purposely selected it from all the rest.
'You can leave the room, Sir!' said Mr Dombey, haughtily.
He crushed the letter in his hand; and having watched Walter out at the door, put it in his pocket without breaking the seal.
'These continual references to Mr Carker the Junior,' Mr Carker the Manager began, as soon as they were alone, 'are, to a man in my position, uttered before one in yours, so unspeakably distressing - '
'Nonsense, Carker,' Mr Dombey interrupted. 'You are too sensitive.'
'I am sensitive,' he returned. 'If one in your position could by any possibility imagine yourself in my place: which you cannot: you would be so too.'
As Mr Dombey's thoughts were evidently pursuing some other subject, his discreet ally broke off here, and stood with his teeth ready to present to him, when he should look up.
'You want somebody to send to the West Indies, you were saying,' observed Mr Dombey, hurriedly.
'Yes,' replied Carker.
'Send young Gay.'
'Good, very good indeed. Nothing easier,' said Mr Carker, without any show of surprise, and taking up the pen to re-endorse the letter, as coolly as he had done before. '"Send young Gay."'
'Call him back,' said Mr Dombey.
Mr Carker was quick to do so, and Walter was quick to return.
'Gay,' said Mr Dombey, turning a little to look at him over his shoulder. 'Here is a -
'An opening,' said Mr Carker, with his mouth stretched to the utmost.
'In the West Indies. At Barbados. I am going to send you,' said Mr Dombey, scorning to embellish the bare truth, 'to fill a junior situation in the counting-house at Barbados. Let your Uncle know from me, that I have chosen you to go to the West Indies.'
Walter's breath was so completely taken away by his astonishment, that he could hardly find enough for the repetition of the words 'West Indies.'
'Somebody must go,' said Mr Dombey, 'and you are young and healthy, and your Uncle's circumstances are not good. Tell your Uncle that you are appointed. You will not go yet. There will be an interval of a month - or two perhaps.'
'Shall I remain there, Sir?' inquired Walter.
'Will you remain there, Sir!' repeated Mr Dombey, turning a little more round towards him. 'What do you mean? What does he mean, Carker?'
'Live there, Sir,' faltered Walter.
'Certainly,' returned Mr Dombey.
Walter bowed.
'That's all,' said Mr Dombey, resuming his letters. 'You will explain to him in good time about the usual outfit and so forth, Carker, of course. He needn't wait, Carker.'
'You needn't wait, Gay,' observed Mr Carker: bare to the gums.
'Unless,' said Mr Dombey, stopping in his reading without looking off the letter, and seeming to listen. 'Unless he has anything to say.'
'No, Sir,' returned Walter, agitated and confused, and almost stunned, as an infinite variety of pictures presented themselves to his mind; among which Captain Cuttle, in his glazed hat, transfixed with astonishment at Mrs MacStinger's, and his uncle bemoaning his loss in the little back parlour, held prominent places. 'I hardly know - I - I am much obliged, Sir.'
'He needn't wait, Carker,' said Mr Dombey.
And as Mr Carker again echoed the words, and also collected his papers as if he were going away too, Walter felt that his lingering any longer would be an unpardonable intrusion - especially as he had nothing to say - and therefore walked out quite confounded.
Going along the passage, with the mingled consciousness and helplessness of a dream, he heard Mr Dombey's door shut again, as Mr Carker came out: and immediately afterwards that gentleman called to him.
'Bring your friend Mr Carker the Junior to my room, Sir, if you please.'
Walter went to the outer office and apprised Mr Carker the Junior of his errand, who accordingly came out from behind a partition where he sat alone in one corner, and returned with him to the room of Mr Carker the Manager.
That gentleman was standing with his back to the fire, and his hands under his coat-tails, looking over his white cravat, as unpromisingly as Mr Dombey himself could have looked. He received them without any change in his attitude or softening of his harsh and black expression: merely signing to Walter to close the door.
'John Carker,' said the Manager, when this was done, turning suddenly upon his brother, with his two rows of teeth bristling as if he would have bitten him, 'what is the league between you and this young man, in virtue of which I am haunted and hunted by the mention of your name? Is it not enough for you, John Carker, that I am your near relation, and can't detach myself from that - '
'Say disgrace, James,' interposed the other in a low voice, finding that he stammered for a word. 'You mean it, and have reason, say disgrace.'
'From that disgrace,' assented his brother with keen emphasis, 'but is the fact to be blurted out and trumpeted, and proclaimed continually in the presence of the very House! In moments of confidence too? Do you think your name is calculated to harmonise in this place with trust and confidence, John Carker?'
'No,' returned the other. 'No, James. God knows I have no such thought.'
'What is your thought, then?' said his brother, 'and why do you thrust yourself in my way? Haven't you injured me enough already?'
'I have never injured you, James, wilfully.'
'You are my brother,' said the Manager. 'That's injury enough.'
'I wish I could undo it, James.'
'I wish you could and would.'
During this conversation, Walter had looked from one brother to the other, with pain and amazement. He who was the Senior in years, and Junior in the House, stood, with his eyes cast upon the ground, and his head bowed, humbly listening to the reproaches of the other. Though these were rendered very bitter by the tone and look with which they were accompanied, and by the presence of Walter whom they so much surprised and shocked, he entered no other protest against them than by slightly raising his right hand in a deprecatory manner, as if he would have said, 'Spare me!' So, had they been blows, and he a brave man, under strong constraint, and weakened by bodily suffering, he might have stood before the executioner.
Generous and quick in all his emotions, and regarding himself as the innocent occasion of these taunts, Walter now struck in, with all the earnestness he felt.
'Mr Carker,' he said, addressing himself to the Manager. 'Indeed, indeed, this is my fault solely. In a kind of heedlessness, for which I cannot blame myself enough, I have, I have no doubt, mentioned Mr Carker the Junior much oftener than was necessary; and have allowed his name sometimes to slip through my lips, when it was against your expressed wish. But it has been my own mistake, Sir. We have never exchanged one word upon the subject - very few, indeed, on any subject. And it has not been,' added Walter, after a moment's pause, 'all heedlessness on my part, Sir; for I have felt an interest in Mr Carker ever since I have been here, and have hardly been able to help speaking of him sometimes, when I have thought of him so much!'
Walter said this from his soul, and with the very breath of honour. For he looked upon the bowed head, and the downcast eyes, and upraised hand, and thought, 'I have felt it; and why should I not avow it in behalf of this unfriended, broken man!'
Mr Carker the Manager looked at him, as he spoke, and when he had finished speaking, with a smile that seemed to divide his face into two parts.
'You are an excitable youth, Gay,' he said; 'and should endeavour to cool down a little now, for it would be unwise to encourage feverish predispositions. Be as cool as you can, Gay. Be as cool as you can. You might have asked Mr John Carker himself (if you have not done so) whether he claims to be, or is, an object of such strong interest.'
'James, do me justice,' said his brother. 'I have claimed nothing; and I claim nothing. Believe me, on my -
'Honour?' said his brother, with another smile, as he warmed himself before the fire.
'On my Me - on my fallen life!' returned the other, in the same low voice, but with a deeper stress on his words than he had yet seemed capable of giving them. 'Believe me, I have held myself aloof, and kept alone. This has been unsought by me. I have avoided him and everyone.
'Indeed, you have avoided me, Mr Carker,' said Walter, with the tears rising to his eyes; so true was his compassion. 'I know it, to my disappointment and regret. When I first came here, and ever since, I am sure I have tried to be as much your friend, as one of my age could presume to be; but it has been of no use.
'And observe,' said the Manager, taking him up quickly, 'it will be of still less use, Gay, if you persist in forcing Mr John Carker's name on people's attention. That is not the way to befriend Mr John Carker. Ask him if he thinks it is.'
'It is no service to me,' said the brother. 'It only leads to such a conversation as the present, which I need not say I could have well spared. No one can be a better friend to me:' he spoke here very distinctly, as if he would impress it upon Walter: 'than in forgetting me, and leaving me to go my way, unquestioned and unnoticed.'
'Your memory not being retentive, Gay, of what you are told by others,' said Mr Carker the Manager, warming himself with great and increased satisfaction, 'I thought it well that you should be told this from the best authority,' nodding towards his brother. 'You are not likely to forget it now, I hope. That's all, Gay. You can go.
Walter passed out at the door, and was about to close it after him, when, hearing the voices of the brothers again, and also the mention of his own name, he stood irresolutely, with his hand upon the lock, and the door ajar, uncertain whether to return or go away. In this position he could not help overhearing what followed.
'Think of me more leniently, if you can, James,' said John Carker, 'when I tell you I have had - how could I help having, with my history, written here' - striking himself upon the breast - 'my whole heart awakened by my observation of that boy, Walter Gay. I saw in him when he first came here, almost my other self.'
'Your other self!' repeated the Manager, disdainfully.
'Not as I am, but as I was when I first came here too; as sanguine, giddy, youthful, inexperienced; flushed with the same restless and adventurous fancies; and full of the same qualities, fraught with the same capacity of leading on to good or evil.'
'I hope not,' said his brother, with some hidden and sarcastic meaning in his tone.
'You strike me sharply; and your hand is steady, and your thrust is very deep,' returned the other, speaking (or so Walter thought) as if some cruel weapon actually stabbed him as he spoke. 'I imagined all this when he was a boy. I believed it. It was a truth to me. I saw him lightly walking on the edge of an unseen gulf where so many others walk with equal gaiety, and from which
'The old excuse,' interrupted his brother, as he stirred the fire. 'So many. Go on. Say, so many fall.'
'From which ONE traveller fell,' returned the other, 'who set forward, on his way, a boy like him, and missed his footing more and more, and slipped a little and a little lower; and went on stumbling still, until he fell headlong and found himself below a shattered man. Think what I suffered, when I watched that boy.'
'You have only yourself to thank for it,' returned the brother.
'Only myself,' he assented with a sigh. 'I don't seek to divide the blame or shame.'
'You have divided the shame,' James Carker muttered through his teeth. And, through so many and such close teeth, he could mutter well.
'Ah, James,' returned his brother, speaking for the first time in an accent of reproach, and seeming, by the sound of his voice, to have covered his face with his hands, 'I have been, since then, a useful foil to you. You have trodden on me freely in your climbing up. Don't spurn me with your heel!'
A silence ensued. After a time, Mr Carker the Manager was heard rustling among his papers, as if he had resolved to bring the interview to a conclusion. At the same time his brother withdrew nearer to the door.
'That's all,' he said. 'I watched him with such trembling and such fear, as was some little punishment to me, until he passed the place where I first fell; and then, though I had been his father, I believe I never could have thanked God more devoutly. I didn't dare to warn him, and advise him; but if I had seen direct cause, I would have shown him my example. I was afraid to be seen speaking with him, lest it should be thought I did him harm, and tempted him to evil, and corrupted him: or lest I really should. There may be such contagion in me; I don't know. Piece out my history, in connexion with young Walter Gay, and what he has made me feel; and think of me more leniently, James, if you can.
With these words he came out to where Walter was standing. He turned a little paler when he saw him there, and paler yet when Walter caught him by the hand, and said in a whisper:
'Mr Carker, pray let me thank you! Let me say how much I feel for you! How sorry I am, to have been the unhappy cause of all this! How I almost look upon you now as my protector and guardian! How very, very much, I feel obliged to you and pity you!' said Walter, squeezing both his hands, and hardly knowing, in his agitation, what he did or said.
Mr Morfin's room being close at hand and empty, and the door wide open, they moved thither by one accord: the passage being seldom free from someone passing to or fro. When they were there, and Walter saw in Mr Carker's face some traces of the emotion within, he almost felt as if he had never seen the face before; it was so greatly changed.
'Walter,' he said, laying his hand on his shoulder. 'I am far removed from you, and may I ever be. Do you know what I am?'
'What you are!' appeared to hang on Walter's lips, as he regarded him attentively.
'It was begun,' said Carker, 'before my twenty-first birthday - led up to, long before, but not begun till near that time. I had robbed them when I came of age. I robbed them afterwards. Before my twenty-second birthday, it was all found out; and then, Walter, from all men's society, I died.'
Again his last few words hung trembling upon Walter's lips, but he could neither utter them, nor any of his own.
'The House was very good to me. May Heaven reward the old man for his forbearance! This one, too, his son, who was then newly in the Firm, where I had held great trust! I was called into that room which is now his - I have never entered it since - and came out, what you know me. For many years I sat in my present seat, alone as now, but then a known and recognised example to the rest. They were all merciful to me, and I lived. Time has altered that part of my poor expiation; and I think, except the three heads of the House, there is no one here who knows my story rightly. Before the little boy grows up, and has it told to him, my corner may be vacant. I would rather that it might be so! This is the only change to me since that day, when I left all youth, and hope, and good men's company, behind me in that room. God bless you, Walter! Keep you, and all dear to you, in honesty, or strike them dead!'
Some recollection of his trembling from head to foot, as if with excessive cold, and of his bursting into tears, was all that Walter could add to this, when he tried to recall exactly what had passed between them.
When Walter saw him next, he was bending over his desk in his old silent, drooping, humbled way. Then, observing him at his work, and feeling how resolved he evidently was that no further intercourse should arise between them, and thinking again and again on all he had seen and heard that morning in so short a time, in connexion with the history of both the Carkers, Walter could hardly believe that he was under orders for the West Indies, and would soon be lost to Uncle Sol, and Captain Cuttle, and to glimpses few and far between of Florence Dombey - no, he meant Paul - and to all he loved, and liked, and looked for, in his daily life.
But it was true, and the news had already penetrated to the outer office; for while he sat with a heavy heart, pondering on these things, and resting his head upon his arm, Perch the messenger, descending from his mahogany bracket, and jogging his elbow, begged his pardon, but wished to say in his ear, Did he think he could arrange to send home to England a jar of preserved Ginger, cheap, for Mrs Perch's own eating, in the course of her recovery from her next confinement?
董貝先生的營業(yè)所的辦公室是在一個院子里；院子的角落里很久以來就設(shè)有一個出賣精選水果的貨攤；男女行商在院子里向顧客兜售拖鞋、筆記本、海綿、狗的頸圈、溫莎①肥皂；有時還出售一條獵狗（它能用鼻尖指示獵獲物所在處）或一幅油畫。
指示獵物的獵狗經(jīng)常在那里出現(xiàn)，是考慮到證券交易所的人們可能對它會有興趣，因為證券交易所里對運動的愛好很時興（通常最早是從對新奇事物的打賭開始的）。其他的商品面向一般公眾，但商販們從來沒有向董貝先生兜售過它們。當(dāng)他出現(xiàn)的時候，出售這些貨物的商人們都恭恭敬敬地向后退縮。當(dāng)董貝先生走過的時候，拖鞋與狗的頸圈的主要商人把食指舉到帽邊行禮（這位商人認(rèn)為自己是一位公眾活動家，他的畫像被釘在切普賽德街②）。搬運員如果當(dāng)時不是因事不在的話，總是殷勤地跑到前面去把董貝先生營業(yè)所辦公室的門盡量開得大大的；當(dāng)董貝先生進門的時候，他脫下帽子，把門按住。
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①溫莎（Windsor）：英國城市。
②切普賽德街（Cheapside）：倫敦中部東西向的大街，古時為鬧市。
辦公室里的職員們在顯示敬意上絲毫也不遜色。當(dāng)董貝先生走過最外面的一間辦公室時，房間里一片肅靜。會計室里那位富有機智、好說俏皮話的人片刻間就像掛在他后面的一排皮制的消防桶一樣默不作聲。通過毛玻璃窗與天窗滲透進來的日光缺乏生氣，暗淡無力，在玻璃上面留下了一個黑色的沉淀物；它照出了帳冊、票據(jù)以及低頭彎腰坐在它們前面的人們的身影，他們被一片勤勉而陰郁的氣氛籠罩著，從外表看來，他們與外界完全隔絕，仿佛是聚集在海底似的；幽暗的走廊盡頭的一間生了霉的小金庫（那里老是點著一盞燈）則可以代表某個海中妖怪的洞穴，那妖怪用一只紅眼睛看著海底深處的這些神秘事物。
信差珀奇像時鐘一樣，在托架上有一個座位①。當(dāng)他看到董貝先生進來——或者正確地說，當(dāng)他感覺到他正在進來，因為他通常對他的來到有一種直覺——的時候，他就急忙走進董貝先生的房間，捅一捅火，從煤箱的深處挖出新鮮的煤塊，把報紙掛在火爐圍欄上烘暖，把椅子擺好，并把圍屏移到適當(dāng)?shù)奈恢?；在董貝先生進來的那一瞬間，他立即轉(zhuǎn)過身去，接下他的厚大衣和帽子，把它們掛好。然后珀奇取下報紙，在爐前把它在手里轉(zhuǎn)上一兩轉(zhuǎn)，畢恭畢敬地放在董貝先生的身邊。珀奇向董貝先生表示程度的敬意，他是絲毫也沒有什么不愿意的；如果他可以躺在董貝先生的腳邊，或者可以用人們通常對哈里發(fā)何魯納·拉施德②所使用的那樣一些尊稱來稱呼他的話，那么他就只會感到更加高興。
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①有一種小鐘是擺放在托架上的，稱為托架小鐘（bracketclock）。
②《天方夜譚》（或譯《一千零一夜》）故事中的一位阿拉伯國王。在阿拉伯語中，哈里發(fā)是王位繼承人的意思，后成為阿拉伯國王的通稱。
但由于采用這種致敬的方式將會是一種革新與試驗，所以珀奇樂意按照他自己的方式，用他所能表達的話來滿足自己的心愿：“您是我眼睛的亮光。您是我心靈的氣息。您是忠實的珀奇的司令官！”這樣高高興興、但意猶未竟地向他表達敬意之后，他就會輕輕地關(guān)上門，踮著腳走出去，把他偉大的老板留下，讓丑陋的煙囪頂管、房屋的后墻、特別是二層樓理發(fā)廳的一扇突出的窗子，通過圓頂形的窗子，凝視著他（那理發(fā)廳里有一個蠟象，早上像穆斯林一樣，頭光禿禿的，十一點鐘以后則仿照基督徒最時新的式樣，蓄著連鬢胡子，它永遠向董貝先生顯露出它的后腦殼）。
董貝先生與普通世界之間有兩級階梯（因為要通過外面的辦公室才能到達那個世界，而董貝先生在他自己的房間中，對外面的辦公室來說可以說是潑上了冷水或者吹去了冷空氣一樣）。在自己辦公室中的卡克先生是第一級階梯；在自己辦公室中的莫芬先生是第二階梯。這兩位先生每人都有一個像浴室般大小的房間，房門通向董貝先生門外的過道。作為內(nèi)閣總理的卡克先生待在最挨近皇帝的房間里；作為職位略低的官員，莫芬先生待在最挨近職員們的房間里。
最后提到的這位先生是一位神情愉快、眼睛淡褐色、年紀(jì)較大的單身漢；他衣著莊重，上半身黑色，腿部是胡椒與鹽的顏色。他的黑發(fā)中間這里那里夾雜著灰色的斑點。仿佛是時間老人行進時濺潑上的；他的連鬢胡子早已白了。他非常尊敬董貝先生，并向他表示適當(dāng)?shù)捻槒模捎谒且晃恍愿裼淇斓娜?，在那位莊嚴(yán)的人的面前總是感到局促不安，所以他從來沒有因為妒嫉卡克先生參加過許多商談而煩惱；由于他必須履行他的職責(zé)，他很少得到那份特殊的光榮，他還為此暗暗感到高興。他在某種程度上是一位偉大的業(yè)余音樂愛好者，對他的大提琴懷著父親般的感情；他每個星期都要把它從他在伊斯靈頓①寓所搬到銀行鄰近的某個俱樂部里；有一個私人樂團每星期三晚上都在那里演出最令人傷心斷腸的四重奏。
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①伊斯靈頓（Islington）：英格蘭大倫敦內(nèi)一自治市。
卡克先生是一位三十八歲或四十歲的有身份的先生，臉色紅潤，有兩排完整發(fā)亮的牙齒，那種整齊和白色使人看了十分難受。要想避開它們是不可能的，因為他一講話總是露出它們；他微笑的時候嘴巴張得十分寬闊（可是他的微笑很少浮現(xiàn)在嘴巴以外的臉上），因此其中總有某些像貓叫一樣的東西。他仿效他的老板，愛系一條硬挺的白領(lǐng)帶，衣服穿得緊緊貼貼，總是扣上全部鈕扣。他對待董貝先生的態(tài)度是經(jīng)過深思熟慮的，而且出色地表達出來。他跟他無拘無束，但又深知他們之間存在的距離?！岸愊壬?，根據(jù)我們之間的業(yè)務(wù)關(guān)系，一位像我這種地位的人向一位像您這種地位的人不論表示什么樣效忠的敬意，我都不認(rèn)為已經(jīng)足夠了。坦率地對您說，先生，我完全否認(rèn)這一點。我覺得我做得還不能使我自己稱心滿意；天知道，董貝先生，如果免除我進行這種努力，那么您怎么還能受得了?！比绻堰@些話印在招貼上，放在他外衣的胸前，供董貝先生隨時閱讀，他也不會比他的行為表露得更為明顯的了。
這就是經(jīng)理卡克。沃爾特的朋友，低級職員卡克先生是他的哥哥，比他大兩三歲，但地位比他低一大截。弟弟的位子是在職務(wù)階梯的頂端，哥哥的位子則是在它的最底層。哥哥從來沒有上升到上面的一個梯級或者抬起腳來攀登一下。年輕人從他的頭頂跨越過去，步步高升，但他總是在最底層。他對占有那個低下的地位完全心安理得，從不抱怨，當(dāng)然也從來不希望改變它。
“您今天早上好嗎？”有一天董貝先生來到之后不久，經(jīng)理卡克先生手里拿著一卷公文，走進他的房間，問道。
“您好嗎，卡克？”董貝先生從椅子上站起來，背對著壁爐，問道，“您有什么事情需要告訴我的？”
“我不知道我是否需要打擾您，”卡克翻著手中的公文，回答道；“您知道，今天三點鐘，委員會有一個會議您要參加。”
“還有一個會議是在三點三刻，”董貝先生補充說道。
“您從來不會忘記任何事情！”卡克高聲喊道，一邊仍在翻著公文。“如果保羅少爺把您的記性繼承了下來，那么他將成為使公司不得安寧的人物了。有您一位就已足夠了。”
“您自己的記性也很好，”董貝先生說道。
“啊，我嗎？”經(jīng)理回答道。“像我這樣的人，這是的資本哪?！?BR> 董貝先生背靠著壁爐，站在那里，從頭到腳打量著他的下屬（當(dāng)然是無意識的），這時他那高傲自負的神色沒有稍減半分，也沒有任何不愉快的樣子?？讼壬鷩?yán)謹(jǐn)而雅致的衣著和有幾分妄自尊大的態(tài)度（也許是他生性如此，也許是從離他不遠的榜樣中模仿到的）給他的謙恭增添了特別的效果。如果他能夠的話，他似乎是一位會對征服他的力量進行反抗的人；但是董貝先生的崇高與優(yōu)越的地位卻把他完全壓倒了。
“莫芬在這里嗎？”董貝先生在短短的沉默之后，問道；卡克先生在那段時間中一直在翻著他的公文，并自言自語地嘀咕幾句公文的摘要。
“莫芬在這里，”他抬起眼睛，露出那極為寬闊、極為急速的微笑，回答道：“正通過我們之間的隔墻哼唱著，我想大概是回想他昨天四重奏樂團的音樂吧，它把我弄得都快要瘋了。我真希望他把他的大提琴燒了，把他的樂譜也一道扔到火里去?！?BR> “我覺得，您什么人也不尊敬，卡克，”董貝先生說道。
“是嗎？”卡克問道，一邊又露出了一個寬闊的、極為狡詐的微笑，露出了他的牙齒；“唔！不是對好多人都尊敬，我想。也許是，”他低聲嘀咕著，仿佛他只是在想這件事，“我不想對一個以上的人負責(zé)。”
如果這是真的話，那么這是危險的品質(zhì)；如果這是假裝的話，那么它也同樣危險?？墒嵌愊壬坪醪⒉贿@樣想；這時他挺直了身子，仍舊背對著壁爐站著，同時威嚴(yán)而鎮(zhèn)靜地望著他下屬中這位第一把手，在神態(tài)中似乎對他自己的權(quán)力隱藏著比平時更為強烈的潛在的意識。
“說到莫芬?！笨讼壬鷱墓闹谐槌鲆豁摷垇恚^續(xù)說道，“他報告說，巴巴多斯①代銷處的一位低級職員死了，因此建議為接替他的人訂購一張船票，乘‘兒子與繼承人’這條船去，它大約在一個月左右開航。我想，您認(rèn)為誰去都一樣吧？我們這里沒有合適的人?！?BR> --------
①巴巴多斯（Barbados）：位于西印度群島最東端，為一珊瑚島；在狄更斯寫作此書時，它是英國的殖民地。
董貝先生非常漠不關(guān)心地點點頭。
“這不是一項很重要的任命，”卡克先生取出一支筆，在公文背面簽署了意見?！拔蚁胨赡馨堰@個職位贈送給一位孤兒，他一位音樂朋友的侄子了。它也許會終止他的提琴演奏，如果他有那方面的天賦的話。是誰？進來吧！”
“請原諒，卡克先生。我不知道您在這里，先生，”沃爾特手里拿了幾封沒有啟封的新到的信件，走進來，回答道：
“是低級職員卡克先生，先生——”
經(jīng)理卡克先生一聽到這個名字，立刻被觸到了痛處，感到羞恥與屈辱，或者裝出這種樣子；他換了一副抱歉的神色，低垂著眼睛，注視著董貝先生，片刻間一言不發(fā)。
“我想，先生，”他突然怒沖沖地轉(zhuǎn)身對著沃爾特，說道：“我以前曾經(jīng)請求您在談話中別把低級職員卡克先生扯進來的?！?BR> “請您原諒，”沃爾特回答道?！拔抑皇窍胍f，低級職員卡克先生告訴我，他想您出去了；否則，您與董貝先生正有事商談的時候，我就不會來敲門了。這些是給董貝先生的信，先生?！?BR> “很好，先生，”經(jīng)理卡克先生把信從他手里猛搶過去，回答道。“回去干您的事情去吧。”
可是卡克先生把信拿到手里那樣隨便無禮，因此他把一封信掉在地上了，而且他自己還沒有注意到這一點。董貝先生也沒有留意到掉在他腳邊的那封信。沃爾特遲疑了一會兒，心想他們兩人當(dāng)中這一位或那一位會注意到的，但發(fā)現(xiàn)他們誰也沒有注意到，他就停下腳步，走回來，把它撿起來，親自擱在董貝先生的辦公桌上。這些信都是郵寄來的；我們提到的這封信碰巧是皮普欽太太的定期報告，寄發(fā)地址像往常一樣，是由弗洛倫斯寫的，因為皮普欽太太是一位不擅長寫字的女人。當(dāng)董貝先生的注意力被沃爾特默默地吸引到這封信的時候，他吃了一驚，兇猛地看著他，仿佛他相信他是故意把它從所有信中挑出來似的。
“您可以離開這個房間了，先生，”董貝先生傲慢地說道。
他把信在手里揉成一團，注視著沃爾特走出門外以后，沒有啟封就把它塞進衣袋。
“您剛才說，您要派一個人到西印度群島去，”董貝先生急忙說道。
“是的，”卡克回答道。
“派年輕人蓋伊去?！?BR> “好，確實很好。沒有什么比這更容易的了，”卡克先生說道；他沒有露出任何驚奇的表情，而是像先前一樣，冷冰冰地在公文背面重新簽署了意見。“派年輕人蓋伊去?！?BR> “喊他回來，”董貝先生說道。
卡克先生迅速照辦；沃爾特也迅速地回來了。
“蓋伊，”董貝先生稍稍轉(zhuǎn)過身子，以便回過頭來看著他。
“有一個——”
“空缺，”卡克先生嘴巴張得極為寬闊地說道。
“在西印度群島。在巴巴多斯。我打算派您去，”董貝先生說道；他不屑美化明擺著的事實真相，“去接替巴巴多斯會計室里一個低級的職位。請代我轉(zhuǎn)告您的舅舅，我已選擇您到西印度群島去了?！?BR> 沃爾特驚愕得完全停止了呼吸，因此連“西印度群島”這幾個字也不能重復(fù)說出來。
“總得派個人去，”董貝先生說道，“您年輕，健康，舅舅的境況又不好。告訴您舅舅，已經(jīng)指派您了?，F(xiàn)在還不走。還有一個月的時間——或者也許是兩個月。”
“我將留在那里嗎，先生？”沃爾特問道。
“您將留在那里嗎，先生！”董貝先生把身子朝他那邊稍稍轉(zhuǎn)過來一點，重復(fù)地說道?！澳脑捠鞘裁匆馑?？他的話是什么意思，卡克？”
“住在那里，先生，”沃爾特結(jié)結(jié)巴巴地說道。
“當(dāng)然，”董貝先生回答道。
沃爾特鞠了個躬。
“我的話已經(jīng)說完了，”董貝先生說道，一邊重新看他的信?！爱?dāng)然，卡克，您在適當(dāng)?shù)臅r候向他交代一下旅行用品等等事情。他不必待在這里了，卡克?！?BR> “您不必待在這里了，蓋伊，”卡克先生露出牙床，說道。
“除非，”董貝先生說道，他停止閱讀，但眼睛沒有離開信件，好像在聽話似的?！俺撬惺裁丛捯f?！?BR> “沒有，先生，”沃爾特回答道；當(dāng)無數(shù)種形形色色的景象涌現(xiàn)到他的心頭時，他感到激動和慌亂，幾乎昏了過去；在這些景象當(dāng)中，卡特爾船長戴著上了光的帽子，在麥克斯廷杰太太家里驚愕得目瞪口呆；他的舅舅在小后客廳里悲嘆著他的損失，是最為突出的兩幅?！拔覍嵲诓恢馈摇液芨兄x，先生。”
“他不必待在這里了，卡克，”董貝先生說道。
卡克先生又隨聲重復(fù)了這句話，而且還收拾著他的公文，仿佛他也要走似的，這時候沃爾特覺得他再遲延下去就會是不可原諒的打擾了——特別是他已沒有什么話要說的了——，因此就十分狼狽地走出了辦公室。
他沿著走廊走過去，像在夢中一樣感到既清醒而又束手無策，這時候他聽到卡克先生走出來時董貝先生的房門又關(guān)上的聲音，因為在這之后，這位先生立即喊住了他。
“勞駕您把您的朋友，低級職員卡克先生領(lǐng)到我的房間里來，先生。”
沃爾特走到外面的辦公室里，把他的使命告訴了低級職員卡克先生。于是低級職員卡克先生就從一個隔板后面（他單獨坐在一個角落里）走出來，沃爾特跟他一起回到經(jīng)理卡克先生的房間里。
那位先生背對著壁爐站著，手抄在燕尾服里面，從白領(lǐng)帶上面看著前面，那種嚴(yán)厲可怕的神色只有董貝先生本人才能有。他接待他們的時候，絲毫沒有改變姿勢或使他那生硬與陰沉的表情柔和下來，而僅僅向沃爾特示意，要他把門關(guān)上。
“約翰·卡克，”門關(guān)上以后，經(jīng)理突然轉(zhuǎn)向他的哥哥，露出兩排牙齒，仿佛想要咬他似的?！澳@位年輕人之間訂立了什么同盟，憑著它，把我的名字掛在嘴上，來跟我糾纏不休？約翰·卡克，難道你覺得還不夠嗎？我是你的近親，不能擺脫掉那份——”
“說恥辱吧，詹姆斯，”另一位看到他在整個詞上結(jié)巴住了，就低聲插嘴道?！澳闶窍脒@樣說，也有理由這樣說的，就說恥辱吧。”
“那份恥辱，”他的弟弟同意，并強烈地加重了語氣，“可是難道有必要把這事實在公司的老板面前不斷地吆喝、張揚和通告嗎？甚至在我受到信任的時候也要這樣做嗎？你以為提到你的名字跟在這里博得信賴與重用是協(xié)調(diào)的嗎，約翰·卡克？”
“不是，”那一位回答道?！安皇?，詹姆斯。上帝知道，我沒有這樣的想法?！?BR> “那么，你的想法是什么呢？”他的弟弟說道，“你又為什么硬要擋住我的道路？難道你還嫌傷害我不夠嗎？”
“我從來沒有故意傷害過你，詹姆斯?！?BR> “你是我的哥哥，”經(jīng)理說道，“這傷害就足夠了?！?BR> “我但愿我能消除這個傷害，詹姆斯?！?BR> “我但愿你能消除它，而且將消除它。”
在這談話中間，沃爾特懷著痛苦與驚奇的心情，望望這一位，又望望那一位弟兄。那位年齡較大、但在公司里職務(wù)很低的人的眼睛向地面低垂著，腦袋搭拉著，站在那里，恭順地聽著另一位的譴責(zé)。雖然譴責(zé)的語氣很尖刻，神色很嚴(yán)厲，而且當(dāng)著震驚的沃爾特的面，但他卻沒有表示什么*，而只是用哀求的態(tài)度，稍稍抬起右手，仿佛想說：“饒恕我吧！”如果這些譴責(zé)是打擊，而他是一位體力衰弱的勇士，那么他也會在劊子手面前站著。
沃爾特在感情上是一位寬厚與急躁的人，他認(rèn)為他本人是無意間引起這些辱罵的原因，所以這時懷著誠摯的心情插進來說話。
“卡克先生，”他對經(jīng)理說道，“這完全是我一個人的過錯，這一點是千真萬確的。由于我粗心大意，這一點我怎么責(zé)怪自己也不會過分，因此我，我，毫無疑問，我經(jīng)常提到職務(wù)較低的卡克先生，提到的次數(shù)大大地超過了必要，有時我也允許讓他的名字脫口而出地說了出來，而這是違背您的明確的意愿的。但這都是我本人的錯誤，先生。我們從沒有在這個問題上交談過一句話——說實在的，我們在任何問題上都很少交談。就我這方面來說，先生，”沃爾特停了片刻之后，接著說道，“也并不是完全由于粗心大意。自從我到這里來以后，我對卡克先生一直很感興趣，當(dāng)我多么想念他的時候，有時就情不自禁地提到了他?！?BR> 沃爾特是真心誠意，并懷著高尚的心情講這些話的。因為他看到那搭拉的腦袋、低垂的眼睛和抬起的手，心中想道，“我感覺到這點；我為什么不為這位孤立無援、傷心失望的人認(rèn)錯呢？”
“事實上，您一直在避開我，卡克先生，”沃爾特說道；他對他真正感到憐憫，因此淚水都涌到眼睛里了?！拔抑肋@一點，它使我感到失望和惋惜。當(dāng)我初到這里來的時候，而且從那時候起，我確實很想成為您的好朋友，像我這樣年齡的人所指望的那樣，可是一切都是白費心思?！?BR> “請注意，蓋伊，”經(jīng)理迅速接過他的話頭，說下去，“如果您還像過去那么硬要人們注意約翰·卡克的名字的話，那么您還會更加白費心思。那不是以朋友態(tài)度對待約翰·卡克先生的方式。問問他，他是不是這樣認(rèn)為的？”
“那對我不是幫助，”哥哥說道?！八粫鹣瘳F(xiàn)在這樣的一場談話；我不用說，我本來很可以避免參加的。誰要想成為我更好的朋友，”這時他說得很清楚，仿佛想要引起沃爾特的格外注意似的，“那就是忘掉我，讓我沒人理睬、默默無聞地過我自己的日子?！?BR> “別人對您說的話您是記不住的，蓋伊，”經(jīng)理卡克先生感到極為滿意，心情興奮起來，“所以我想應(yīng)當(dāng)讓最有權(quán)威的人來對您說這一點，”這時他向他的哥哥點了點頭，“我希望現(xiàn)在您不至于再把這忘掉了吧。這就是我要說的一切。蓋伊。
您可以走了?！?BR> 沃爾特走到門口，正想把門在身后關(guān)上，這時他又聽到了兄弟兩人的聲音，而且還提到了他自己的名字，于是猶豫不決地站住，手還握著門的拉手，門還半開著，他不知道究竟是回去還是走開。在這種情況下，他不是有意地聽到了隨后發(fā)生的談話。
“如果你能夠的話，詹姆斯，請想到我的時候?qū)捄褚恍┌桑奔s翰·卡克說道，“當(dāng)我告訴你，我對那孩子，沃爾特·蓋伊的觀察，已把我整個心靈都喚醒了；——我怎么能不這樣呢。我的歷史寫在這里，”——這時他敲打著自己的胸膛——“當(dāng)他初到這里來的時候，我在他身上看到了幾乎是另一個我?！?BR> “另一個你！”經(jīng)理輕蔑地重復(fù)著。
“并不是現(xiàn)在的我，而是也是初到這里時的我，那時候我跟他一樣樂觀、輕率、年輕、沒有經(jīng)驗，跟他一樣揚揚得意地充滿了永不平靜、愛好冒險的幻想，跟他一樣賦有能通向善良或通向邪惡的品質(zhì)?！?BR> “我希望不是，”他的弟弟說道，語氣中有著某種隱藏的與諷刺的意義。
“你把我刺得很痛；你的手沒有顫抖，你戳進得很深，”另一位回答道，仿佛在他說話的時候，什么殘酷的武器真正捅了他似的（或者沃爾特覺得是這樣）?！爱?dāng)他初到這里來的時候，我想像著這一切。我相信它。對我來說，這是真實的。我看到他在一個看不到的深淵的邊緣輕快地走著，那么多其他的人們都以同樣愉快的神情在那里走著，并且從那里——”
“老借口，”弟弟捅捅爐火，插嘴道，“那么多的人們。說下去吧。說，那么多的人們掉下去了。”
“一位走著的人從那里掉下去了；”另一位回答道，“一位像他那樣的孩子開始走上路途，一次又一次地失足，一點一點地往下滑，繼續(xù)摔倒，直到后來，他倒栽蔥地掉下去，并在底層發(fā)現(xiàn)他自己成了一個體無完膚的人。請想一想當(dāng)我注意觀察那個孩子的時候，我心里是多么痛苦呵?！?BR> “那只能怪你自己，”弟弟回答道。
“只怪我自己，”他嘆了一口氣，表示同意?！啊の也幌雽ふ覄e人來分擔(dān)我的罪過或恥辱?！?BR> “你·已·經(jīng)讓別人來分擔(dān)你的恥辱了，”詹姆斯·卡克通過他的牙齒咕噥著。雖然他的牙齒那么多那么密，但是他卻能咕噥得清清楚楚。
“啊，詹姆斯，”他的哥哥回答道；他第一次用責(zé)備的聲調(diào)說話，而且從他說話的聲音聽起來，他似乎用手捂著臉，“從那時起，我就成了你的一個有用的襯托物。在你向上爬的時候，你任意地踐踏我。請別用你的腳后跟踢我吧！”
接著是靜默無聲。過了一些時候，只聽到經(jīng)理卡克沙沙地翻閱公文的聲音，仿佛他已決定結(jié)束這次會晤了。在這同時，他的哥哥退到門口。
“這就是一切，”他說道。“我是那么擔(dān)心、那么害怕地注意觀察著他，就像這是對我的一種小小的懲罰一樣，直到他走過了我第一次失足掉下的地方，那時候我相信，即使我是他的父親，我也不會比那更為虔誠地感謝上帝的了。我不敢預(yù)先警戒他，向他提出忠告；但是如果我看到了直接的原因的話，那么我就會向他顯示我本人經(jīng)歷過的先例。我怕被別人看到我跟他講話，唯恐人們會認(rèn)為我加害于他，引誘他走向邪惡，使他墮落，或者唯恐我真正這樣做。也許在我身上有這種傳染性的病毒；有誰知道呢？請把我的歷史跟沃爾特·蓋伊聯(lián)系起來想一下，也請把它跟他使我產(chǎn)生的感覺聯(lián)系起來想一下，詹姆斯，如果你能夠的話，那么請想到我的時候更寬厚一些吧！”
他說完這些話之后，走出到沃爾特站著的地方。當(dāng)他看到他在那里的時候，他的臉色稍稍比先前蒼白了一些；當(dāng)沃爾特抓住他的手，低聲說了下面一些話的時候，他的臉色就白得更厲害了。
“卡克先生，請允許我謝謝您！請允許我說，我對您是多么同情！我成了這一切的根由，我是多么遺憾！我現(xiàn)在幾乎把您看成是我的保衛(wèi)者與庇護人了！我是多么多么感謝您和可憐您啊！”沃爾特緊緊地握著他的雙手，說道；他在激動中幾乎不知道他做了什么事情或說了什么話。
莫芬先生的房間就在近旁，里面沒有人，門敞開著；他們就不約而同地向里面走去，因為走廊里是難得讓人自由來回經(jīng)過的。當(dāng)他們到了里面的時候，沃爾特在卡克先生的臉上看到心慌意亂的跡象，這時他幾乎感到他以前從來沒有見過他的臉孔似的；它變化得多么大啊。
“沃爾特，”他把手?jǐn)R在他的肩膀上，說道。“我跟您之間隔著一段很遠的距離，讓我們永遠這樣吧。您知道我是什么人嗎？”
“您是什么人！”當(dāng)沃爾特目不轉(zhuǎn)睛地注視著他的時候，這句話好像已經(jīng)到了他的嘴邊了。
“那是在我二十一周歲之前開始的，”卡克說道，“——很久以前早就有了這樣的趨向，但一直到大概那個時候才開始。當(dāng)我開始成年的時候。我盜竊了他們的錢財。后來我又盜竊了他們的錢財。在我二十二周歲之前，全都被發(fā)覺了；從那之后，沃爾特，對于整個人類社會來說，我已經(jīng)死了?！?BR> 他最后的那幾個字又顫抖著到了沃爾特的嘴邊，但是他說不出來，也說不出他自己想要說的任何一句話。
“公司對我很好。那位老人寬大為懷，愿上天為此好好報答他吧！這一位，他的兒子，也一樣；那時他剛剛到公司里來，而我在公司里是曾經(jīng)得到很大信任的！我被召喚到現(xiàn)在屬于他的房間里——從那時以后，我再也沒有進去過——，出來以后就成了一位您所知道的人。我在我現(xiàn)在的位子上坐了許多年，像現(xiàn)在一樣孤獨，但那時候?qū)ζ溆嗟娜藖碚f，我成了一個有名的、公認(rèn)的榜樣。他們對我都很仁慈，我也活下來了。隨著時間的推移，我在痛苦贖罪的這一方面已經(jīng)有了改變；我想，現(xiàn)在除了公司的三位頭頭以外，這里沒有一個人真正了解我的歷史。在那個小孩子長大，并把這件事告訴他之前，我的那個角落可能是個空缺。我希望就這樣！從那天起，對我來說，這是的變化；那天我們青春、希望和與善良人們的交往都留在我身后的那間房間里了。上帝保佑您！沃爾特！讓您自己和所有對您親愛的人們都保持著誠實的品質(zhì)吧，否則就讓他們不得好死！”
當(dāng)沃爾特試圖準(zhǔn)確地回憶他們之間所發(fā)生的一切經(jīng)過的時候，除了上面的情況外，他所能記起的就是他仿佛感到過度寒冷似的，從頭到腳，全身顫抖著，而且痛哭流涕。
當(dāng)沃爾特再次看到他的時候，他又以過去那種不聲不響、意氣消沉、卑躬屈節(jié)的態(tài)度伏在他的辦公桌前。那時他看到他正在工作，并覺得他顯然已堅決不再跟他來往，而且一再想到那天上午在短短的時間中所看到的和所聽到的與兩位卡克歷史有關(guān)的所有事情，沃爾特幾乎不相信：他已接到前往西印度群島的命令；所爾舅舅和卡特爾船長不久就將失去他；弗洛倫斯·董貝——不，他是說保羅——不久將不再跟他次數(shù)很少、而且遠遠地相互看上幾眼了；他日常生活中所熱愛、喜歡與依戀的一切不久就將跟他告別了。
可是這是真實的，消息已流傳到外面的辦公室中，因為當(dāng)他一只手支托著頭，并懷著沉重的心情坐在那里沉思著這些事情的時候，信差珀奇從他的紅木托架上下來，輕輕地推推他的胳膊肘，請他原諒，但又湊著他的耳朵，向他請求說，他想他能不能設(shè)法送回一罐價格便宜的腌制的生姜到英國來，好讓珀奇太太在下次分娩后康復(fù)的過程中滋補滋補身體？