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"Is Mr. Rochester living at Thornfield Hall now?"
“罗切斯特先生如今还住在桑菲尔德府吗？”
I asked, knowing, of course, what the answer would be, but yet desirous of deferring the direct question as to where he really was.
我问，当然知道他会怎样回答，但并不想马上就直截了当地问起他的确实住处。
"No, ma'am -- oh, no! No one is living there.
“不，小姐——呵，不！那儿已没有人住了，
I suppose you are a stranger in these parts, or you would have heard what happened last autumn, --
我想你对附近地方很陌生，不然你会听到过去年秋天发生的事情。
Thornfield Hall is quite a ruin: it was burnt down just about harvest-time.
桑菲尔德府已经全毁了。大约秋收的时候烧掉的——
A dreadful calamity!
一场可怕的灾难！
such an immense quantity of valuable property destroyed: hardly any of the furniture could be saved.
那么多值钱的财产都毁掉了，几乎没有一件家具幸免。
The fire broke out at dead of night, and before the engines arrived from Millcote, the building was one mass of flame.
火灾是深夜发生的，从米尔科特来的救火车还没有开到，府宅已经是一片熊熊大火。
It was a terrible spectacle: I witnessed it myself."
这景象真可怕，我是亲眼见到的。”
"At dead of night!" I muttered.
“深夜！”我咕哝着。
Yes, that was ever the hour of fatality at Thornfield.
是呀，在桑菲尔德府那是致命的时刻。
"Was it known how it originated?" I demanded.
“知道是怎么引起的吗？”我问。
"They guessed, ma'am: they guessed.
“他们猜想，小姐，他们是这么猜想的，
Indeed, I should say it was ascertained beyond a doubt.
其实，我该说那是确然无疑的。
You are not perhaps aware," he continued, edging his chair a little nearer the table, and speaking low,
你也许不知道吧，”他往下说，把椅子往桌子稍稍挪了挪，声音放得很低，
"that there was a lady -- a -- a lunatic, kept in the house?"
“有一位夫人——一个——一个疯子，关在屋子里？”
"I have heard something of it."
“我隐隐约约听到过。”
"She was kept in very close confinement, ma'am: people even for some years was not absolutely certain of her existence.
“她被严加看管着，小姐。好几年了，外人都不能完全确定有她这么个人在。
No one saw her: they only knew by rumour that such a person was at the Hall;
没有人见过她。他们只不过凭谣传知道，府里有这样一个人。
and who or what she was it was difficult to conjecture.
她究竟是谁，干什么的，却很难想象。
They said Mr. Edward had brought her from abroad, and some believed she had been his mistress.
他们说是爱德华先生从国外把她带回来的。有人相信，是他的情妇。
But a queer thing happened a year since -- a very queer thing."
但一年前发生了一件奇怪的事情——一件非常奇怪的事情。”
