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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
"Do you think I'm without a relative in the world and must leave my money and my land to Mother Church, is that it?"
"I have no idea," he said tranquilly1, pouring himself more tea.
"As a matter of fact, I have a brother with a large and thriving family of sons."
"When I married I was quite without worldly goods. I knew I'd never marry well in Ireland, where a woman has to have breeding and background to catch a rich husband. So I worked my fingers to the bone to save my passage money to a land where the rich men aren't so fussy3. All I had when I got here were a face and a figure and a better brain than women are supposed to have, and they were adequate to catch Michael Carson, who was a rich fool. He doted on me until the day he died."
"And your brother?" he prompted, thinking she was going off at a tangent. "My brother is eleven years younger than I am, which would make him fifty-four now. We're the only two still alive. I hardly know him; he was a small child when I left Galway. At present he lives in New Zealand, though if he emigrated4 to make his fortune he hasn't succeeded. "But last night when the station hand brought me the news that Arthur Teviot had packed his traps and gone, I suddenly thought of Padraic. Here I am, not getting any younger, with no family around me. And it occurred to me that Paddy is an experienced man of the land, without the means to own land. Why not, I thought, write to him and ask him to bring himself and his sons here? When I die he'll inherit Drogheda and Michar Limited, as he's my only living relative closer than some unknown cousins back in Ireland." She smiled. "It seems silly to wait, doesn't it? He might as well come now as later, get used to running sheep on the black soil plains, which I'm sure is quite different from sheep in New Zealand. Then when I'm gone he can step into my shoes without feeling the pinch." Head lowered, she watched Father Ralph closely.
"I wonder you didn't think of it earlier," he said. "Oh, I did. But until recently I thought the last thing I wanted was a lot of vultures waiting anxiously for me to breathe my last. Only lately the day of my demise5 seems a lot closer than it used to, and I feel . . . oh, I don't know. As if it might be nice to be surrounded by people of my own flesh and blood."
"What's the matter, do you think you're ill?" he asked quickly, a real concern in his eyes.
“你认为我在世上无亲无眷，非得
把我的财产和土地留给教会，是吗？”
“我不知道，”他平静地说着，给自己又倒了点儿茶。
“实际上，我有个弟弟，他家大口巨，人丁兴旺。”
“这太好了。”他一本正经地说道。
“我结婚的时候，几乎没有什么财产。我知道，在爱尔兰我是永远找不上一门好亲事的；在那里一个女人非得有教养、有背景，才能找上一位阔丈夫。于是，我用两只手没命地干活，攒够了盘缠，到有钱的男人没那么多罗嗦事的国土上来了。我到这儿的时候，我所有的一切只是一张脸、一个身子和一个比人们认为女人应该有的更聪明的头脑。就凭这些，我就抓到了迈克尔·卡森；他是个傻阔老，一直到死都非常宠爱我。”
“那你弟弟呢？”他觉得她扯远了，便提醒道。
“我弟弟比我小11岁，算来现在也该有54岁了。现在活着的就我们两个人了。我几乎不认识他，我离开高尔韦的时候，他还是个小孩子。眼下他住在新西兰；如果他是为了发财而移居国外的话，他到如今也并未成功。”
“可是昨天晚上，当牧场的工人给我带来消息，说是阿瑟·蒂维厄特已经打铺盖卷走了的时候，我突然想起了帕德里克。我在这里，不会再年轻了，身边没有家人。我想到了帕迪是个经营土地很有经验的人，可是没有钱去买自己的土地。我想，干嘛不给他写封信，叫他带着儿子们到这儿来呢？我死了以后，他就继承德罗海达和米查尔有限公司，因为比起那些在爱尔兰的堂表亲来，他是我唯一活着的近亲。”
她笑了笑：“等到现在也许显得有些愚蠢了吧，对吗？他早晚会来的，也会习惯在黑土平原上放羊的。我敢肯定，在黑土平原上放羊和在新西兰放羊大不一样。然后，在我死了以后，他就可以顺顺当当地继承我的事业。”她低下了头，凝神注视着拉尔夫神父。
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1
tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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2
demurely
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| adv.装成端庄地，认真地 | |
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3
fussy
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| adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的 | |
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4
emigrated
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| 移居国外( emigrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
demise
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| n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让 | |
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