|
XIV. Phoebe′s Good-Bye |
XIV. El adiós a Phoebe |
| HOLGRAVE, plunging into his tale with the
energy and absorption natural to a young
author, had given a good deal of action to the
parts capable of being developed and
exemplified in that manner. He now observed
that a certain remarkable drowsiness (wholly
unlike that with which the reader possibly
feels himself affected) had been flung over
the senses of his auditress. It was the effect,
unquestionably, of the mystic gesticulations
by which he had sought to bring bodily before
Phoebe′s perception the figure of the
mesmerizing carpenter. With the lids
drooping over her eyes,--now lifted for an
instant, and drawn down again as with leaden
weights,--she leaned slightly towards him,
and seemed almost to regulate her breath by
his. Holgrave gazed at her, as he rolled up his
manuscript, and recognized an incipient stage
of that curious psychological condition
which, as he had himself told Phoebe, he
possessed more than an ordinary faculty of
producing. A veil was beginning to be
muffled about her, in which she could behold
only him, and live only in his thoughts and
emotions. His glance, as he fastened it on the
young girl, grew involuntarily more
concentrated; in his attitude there was the
consciousness of power, investing his hardly
mature figure with a dignity that did not
belong to its physical manifestation.
It was evident, that, with but one wave of his hand and a corresponding effort of his will, he could complete his mastery over Phoebe′s yet free and virgin spirit: he could establish an influence over this good, pure, and simple child, as dangerous, and perhaps as disastrous, as that which the carpenter of his legend had acquired and exercised over the ill-fated Alice. | CON el entusiasmo natural en un autor joven,
Holgrave dio mucha acción a su relato. Al
terminar, observó que una especie de estupor
o adormecimiento se había apoderado de los
sentidos de Phoebe, sin duda efecto de los
gestos o de la mímica realista con que quiso
representar a los ojos de Phoebe la figura del
carpintero hipnotizador. Con los párpados
caídos -a veces abiertos por un instante, y
luego bajados otra vez como por un peso de
plomo- Phoebe se le fue acercando; parecía
regular su respiración con la de Holgrave.
Este la miró, y reconoció que presentaba un
estado incipiente de aquel extraño estado
psicológico que, según dijo a la muchacha, él
poseía la facultad de producir. Comenzaba a
rodear a Phoebe un velo y ya sólo veía a
Holgrave y vivía únicamente sus
pensamientos y emociones. Involuntariamente
la mirada del daguerrotipista, al fijarse en la
muchacha, se hizo más concentrada.
Era evidente que con un gesto más completaría su dominio sobre el espíritu todavía libre y virginal de Phoebe; podía ejercer sobre aquella criatura buena, sencilla y pura, una influencia tan peligrosa y quizá tan catastrófica como había sido la del carpintero sobre la desventurada Alice. |
| To a disposition like Holgrave′s, at once speculative and active, there is no temptation so great as the opportunity of acquiring empire over the human spirit; nor any idea more seductive to a young man than to become the arbiter of a young girl′s destiny. Let us, therefore,--whatever his defects of nature and education, and in spite of his scorn for creeds and institutions,--concede to the daguerreotypist the rare and high quality of reverence for another′s individuality. Let us allow him integrity, also, forever after to be confided in; since he forbade himself to twine that one link more which might have rendered his spell over Phoebe indissoluble. | Para un hombre como Holgrave, especulativo y activo a la par, no hay tentación tan grande como la de adquirir un profundo dominio sobre otro ser, ni existe idea más seductora, especialmente para un joven, que la de convertirse en el arbitro de los destinos de una muchacha. A pesar de sus defectos de educación y temperamento y de su desdén por las instituciones, hemos de conceder al daguerrotipista la virtud de sentir profundo respeto por la individualidad de otra persona. Y reconozcamos su integridad, que le prohibió apretar más el lazo, que tan fácil le habría sido convertir en indisoluble. |
| He made a slight gesture upward with his hand. | Hizo un gesto con la mano y dijo: |
| "You really mortify me, my dear Miss Phoebe !" he exclaimed, smiling half-sarcastically at her. "My poor story, it is but too evident, will never do for Godey or Graham ! Only think of your falling asleep at what I hoped the newspaper critics would pronounce a most brilliant, powerful, imaginative, pathetic, and original winding up ! Well, the manuscript must serve to light lamps with;--if, indeed, being so imbued with my gentle dulness, it is any longer capable of flame !" | -¡Me está usted humillando, miss Phoebe ! -sonrió con sarcasmo-. Ahora veo que mi historia será un fracaso. Usted se ha dormido escuchándola, y yo que creía que los críticos dirían que el final es brillante, patético y original. Bueno; el manuscrito servirá para encender lámparas, a no ser que mi sosería la haga incapaz incluso de arder. |
| "Me asleep ! How can you say so ?" answered Phoebe, as unconscious of the crisis through which she had passed as an infant of the precipice to the verge of which it has rolled. "No, no ! I consider myself as having been very attentive; and, though I don′t remember the incidents quite distinctly, yet I have an impression of a vast deal of trouble and calamity,--so, no doubt, the story will prove exceedingly attractive." | -¿Que me he dormido ? ¿Cómo puede decir eso ? -protestó Phoebe, inconsciente de la crisis por la que había pasado, como un niño, sin darse cuenta, por el borde de un precipicio-. No, al contrario; estaba atentísima, y aunque no recuerdo los detalles, tengo la impresión de que han ocurrido muchas calamidades... de modo que la historia resultará muy interesante. |
| By this time the sun had gone down, and was
tinting the clouds towards the zenith with
those bright hues which are not seen there
until some time after sunset, and when the
horizon has quite lost its richer brilliancy.
The moon, too, which had long been climbing
overhead, and unobtrusively melting its disk
into the azure,--like an ambitious
demagogue, who hides his aspiring purpose
by assuming the prevalent hue of popular
sentiment,--now began to shine out, broad
and oval, in its middle pathway. These silvery
beams were already powerful enough to
change the character of the lingering daylight.
They softened and embellished the aspect of
the old house; although the shadows fell
deeper into the angles of its many gables, and
lay brooding under the projecting story, and
within the half-open door.
With the lapse of every moment, the garden grew more picturesque; the fruit-trees, shrubbery, and flower-bushes had a dark obscurity among them. The commonplace characteristics--which, at noontide, it seemed to have taken a century of sordid life to accumulate--were now transfigured by a charm of romance. A hundred mysterious years were whispering among the leaves, whenever the slight sea-breeze found its way thither and stirred them. Through the foliage that roofed the little summer-house the moonlight flickered to and fro, and fell silvery white on the dark floor, the table, and the circular bench, with a continual shift and play, according as the chinks and wayward crevices among the twigs admitted or shut out the glimmer. | El sol teñía las nubes del cénit con esos
matices brillantes que no se ven hasta después
del crepúsculo, cuando el horizonte ha
perdido su riqueza policroma. La luna
comenzó a brillar, ancha y redonda. Sus rayos
plateados cambiaron el tono de la luz,
suavizaron y embellecieron el aspecto de la
vieja casa, las sombras se hundieron por los
ángulos de los tejados, cubriendo el piso
saliente y la puerta entreabierta.
El jardín se volvía más y más pintoresco; los
árboles y las flores soportaban imperturbables
la oscuridad. Las cosas más vulgares, que a la
luz de la luna parecían acumular la sórdida
vida de todo un siglo, se transfiguraban con
encanto romántico.
|
| So sweetly cool was the atmosphere, after all the feverish day, that the summer eve might be fancied as sprinkling dews and liquid moonlight, with a dash of icy temper in them, out of a silver vase. Here and there, a few drops of this freshness were scattered on a human heart, and gave it youth again, and sympathy with the eternal youth of nature. The artist chanced to be one on whom the reviving influence fell. It made him feel--what he sometimes almost forgot, thrust so early as he had been into the rude struggle of man with man--how youthful he still was. | Tan suave y fresca era la atmósfera, después del día febril y canicular, que podía imaginarse aquella velada de verano como un chorro de helada luna que se escapase de un vaso de plata. Aquí y allá, unas gotas de esta frescura se deslizaban hasta un corazón humano, rejuveneciéndole, como por simpatía con la eterna juventud de la naturaleza. Holgrave fue uno de los que experimentaron esta influencia vivificante. Le hizo sentir qué joven era todavía, lo que a veces olvidaba, pues había sido lanzado pronto a la ruda lucha por la vida. |
| "It seems to me," he observed, "that I never watched the coming of so beautiful an eve, and never felt anything so very much like happiness as at this moment. After all, what a good world we live in ! How good, and beautiful ! How young it is, too, with nothing really rotten or age-worn in it ! This old house, for example, which sometimes has positively oppressed my breath with its smell of decaying timber ! And this garden, where the black mould always clings to my spade, as if I were a sexton delving in a graveyard ! Could I keep the feeling that now possesses me, the garden would every day be virgin soil, with the earth′s first freshness in the flavor of its beans and squashes; and the house !--it would be like a bower in Eden, blossoming with the earliest roses that God ever made. Moonlight, and the sentiment in man′s heart responsive to it, are the greatest of renovators and reformers. And all other reform and renovation, I suppose, will prove to be no better than moonshine !" | -Me parece -observó- que jamás he pasado una velada como ésta y que nunca como ahora he sentido algo tan cercano a la felicidad. A fin de cuentas, ¡qué maravilloso es nuestro mundo !, ¡qué bueno y qué bello !, ¡qué joven, también, sin contener nada realmente podrido ni añoso ! Esa casa, por ejemplo, que casi me quitaba el aliento con su atmósfera de madera carcomida... y ese jardín, cuya tierra se me pegaba al azadón y me hacía creer que yo era un sepulturero que abría una tumba. Si pudiera conservar el sentimiento que ahora me embarga, el jardín sería cada día un suelo virgen, con la tierra refrescada por el aroma de las plantas y las flores... ¡y la casa ! La casa sería una glorieta en el Edén, adornada con las primeras rosas que Dios creó. La luz de la luna y los sentimientos que despierta en el hombre son los reformadores más eficaces del mundo. Y sospecho que ninguna reforma resultaría más duradera que la luz de la luna. |
| "I have been happier than I am now; at least, much gayer," said Phoebe thoughtfully. "Yet I am sensible of a great charm in this brightening moonlight; and I love to watch how the day, tired as it is, lags away reluctantly, and hates to be called yesterday so soon. I never cared much about moonlight before. What is there, I wonder, so beautiful in it, to-night ?" | -Pues yo he sido más feliz que ahora, o por lo menos, he estado mucho más alegre-dijo Phoebe pensativa-. Pero yo también experimento el encanto de la luz de la luna y me agrada ver cómo el día se marcha lentamente. Antes nunca me fijé en los crepúsculos. ¿Qué hay en el de hoy que resulta tan hermoso ? |
| "And you have never felt it before ?" inquired the artist, looking earnestly at the girl through the twilight. | -¿Nunca lo había sentido antes ? -preguntó el artista, mirando gravemente a la muchacha. |
| "Never," answered Phoebe; "and life does not look the same, now that I have felt it so. It seems as if I had looked at everything, hitherto, in broad daylight, or else in the ruddy light of a cheerful fire, glimmering and dancing through a room. Ah, poor me !" she added, with a half-melancholy laugh. "I shall never be so merry as before I knew Cousin Hepzibah and poor Cousin Clifford. I have grown a great deal older, in this little time. Older, and, I hope, wiser, and,--not exactly sadder,--but, certainly, with not half so much lightness in my spirits ! I have given them my sunshine, and have been glad to give it; but, of course, I cannot both give and keep it. They are welcome, notwithstanding !" | -Nunca -respuso Phoebe- y ahora la vida no me parece la misma. Es como si hasta hoy todo lo hubiese mirado a la cruda luz del día o, por lo menos, a la luz de las llamas de una hoguera que danza alegremente en las paredes. ¡Pobre de mí ! -añadió melancólica-. Nunca volveré a ser tan alegre como antes de conocer al primo Clifford y a la prima Hepzibah. En este corto tiempo último he envejecido. Soy mayor y espero que más prudente y... no precisamente más triste, pero he perdido algo de mi alegría. Les he dado la mía y estoy contenta de haberlo hecho. Desde luego no puedo darla y conservarla a la vez. De todas formas, ¡bien venidos sean ! |
| "You have lost nothing, Phoebe, worth keeping, nor which it was possible to keep," said Holgrave after a pause. "Our first youth is of no value; for we are never conscious of it until after it is gone. But sometimes--always, I suspect, unless one is exceedingly unfortunate--there comes a sense of second youth, gushing out of the heart′s joy at being in love; or, possibly, it may come to crown some other grand festival in life, if any other such there be. This bemoaning of one′s self (as you do now) over the first, careless, shallow gayety of youth departed, and this profound happiness at youth regained,--so much deeper and richer than that we lost,--are essential to the soul′s development. In some cases, the two states come almost simultaneously, and mingle the sadness and the rapture in one mysterious emotion." | -No ha perdido usted nada, Phoebe, nada que valga la pena de conservar y que sea posible conservar dijo Holgrave tras una pausa-. Nuestra primera juventud no tiene valor, porque nunca nos damos cuenta de que pasa hasta que ha desaparecido, pero a veces sospecho que siempre... a no ser que sea uno muy desgraciado... aparece algo así como una sensación de segunda juventud, que brota del corazón al conocer la alegría del amor. Quizá corone también alguna otra grata fiesta de la vida, si es que existe. Este lamento sobre la primera alegría despreocupada y trivial de la juventud perdida, y esa profunda dicha de la juventud recobrada, más rica y honda que la otra, todo eso es esencial para el refinamiento del alma. En algunos casos, los dos estados se presentan casi simultáneamente y mezclan la tristeza y el éxtasis de una misma y misteriosa emoción. |
| "I hardly think I understand you," said Phoebe. | -¡Qué difícil es entenderlo ! -dijo Phoebe. |
| "No wonder," replied Holgrave, smiling; "for I have told you a secret which I hardly began to know before I found myself giving it utterance. Remember it, however; and when the truth becomes clear to you, then think of this moonlight scene !" | -Nada tiene de particular -explicó Holgrave sonriendo-, pues le acabo de revelar un secreto que yo no había entrevisto antes de comenzar a decírselo. Recuérdelo, sin embargo, y cuando la verdad se le aparezca claramente, piense en esta escena a la luz de la luna. |
| "It is entirely moonlight now, except only a little flush of faint crimson, upward from the west, between those buildings," remarked Phoebe. "I must go in. Cousin Hepzibah is not quick at figures, and will give herself a headache over the day′s accounts, unless I help her." | -Ya casi no hay más que la luz de la luna, excepto esas manchas carmesíes al oeste, entre aquellas casas... Tengo que irme. A prima Hepzibah no le gusta contar y si no voy a ayudarla, las cuentas del día le darán dolor de cabeza. |
| But Holgrave detained her a little longer. | Holgrave la detuvo un poco más. |
| "Miss Hepzibah tells me," observed he, "that you return to the country in a few days." | -Miss Hepzibah me ha dicho que dentro de unos días regresa usted al campo. |
| "Yes, but only for a little while," answered Phoebe; "for I look upon this as my present home. I go to make a few arrangements, and to take a more deliberate leave of my mother and friends. It is pleasant to live where one is much desired and very useful; and I think I may have the satisfaction of feeling myself so here." | -Sí, pero por poco tiempo -contestó Phoebe-, pues considero que aquí está mi hogar. Voy a arreglar unos asuntos y a despedirme con más calma de mi madre y de mis amigos. Es agradable vivir donde aprecian a una y donde una es útil, y creo que aquí puedo tener la satisfacción de serlo. -Creo que sí y más de lo que se imagina -dijo el artista-. |
| "You surely may, and more than you imagine," said the artist. "Whatever health, comfort, and natural life exists in the house is embodied in your person. These blessings came along with you, and will vanish when you leave the threshold. Miss Hepzibah, by secluding herself from society, has lost all true relation with it, and is, in fact, dead; although she galvanizes herself into a semblance of life, and stands behind her counter, afflicting the world with a greatly-to-be-deprecated scowl. Your poor cousin Clifford is another dead and long-buried person, on whom the governor and council have wrought a necromantic miracle. I should not wonder if he were to crumble away, some morning, after you are gone, and nothing be seen of him more, except a heap of dust. Miss Hepzibah, at any rate, will lose what little flexibility she has. They both exist by you." | La salud, la comodidad y la vida en esta casa dependen de usted. Esas bendiciones desaparecerán en cuanto usted se marche. Miss Hepzibah, al recluirse del mundo, ha perdido toda relación con la sociedad y está, realmente, muerta, aunque presente aspecto de vida y permanezca detrás del mostrador, asustando con su ceño a la gente. El pobre Clifford es otra persona muerta y enterrada, con la cual el gobernador y el Consejo del Estado han realizado un milagro de nigromancia. No me extrañaría que un día de estos, después que usted se haya ido, se derrumbara y no le viéramos más. Miss Hepzibah, en todo caso, perderá la poca flexibilidad que aún conserva. Sus dos primos existen sólo gracias a usted. |
| "I should be very sorry to think so," answered Phoebe gravely. "But it is true that my small abilities were precisely what they needed; and I have a real interest in their welfare,--an odd kind of motherly sentiment,--which I wish you would not laugh at ! And let me tell you frankly, Mr. Holgrave, I am sometimes puzzled to know whether you wish them well or ill." | -Me apenaría mucho pensar así -repuso gravemente Phoebe-. Pero es verdad que necesitaban cuidados y me interesa realmente su bienestar..., es un especie de sentimiento maternal del que espero no se reirá. Y permítame que le diga, míster Holgrave, que muchas veces me pregunto si les quiere usted. |
| "Undoubtedly," said the daguerreotypist, "I do feel an interest in this antiquated, poverty-stricken old maiden lady, and this degraded and shattered gentleman,--this abortive lover of the beautiful. A kindly interest, too, helpless old children that they are ! But you have no conception what a different kind of heart mine is from your own. It is not my impulse, as regards these two individuals, either to help or hinder; but to look on, to analyze, to explain matters to myself, and to comprehend the drama which, for almost two hundred years, has been dragging its slow length over the ground where you and I now tread. If permitted to witness the close, I doubt not to derive a moral satisfaction from it, go matters how they may. There is a conviction within me that the end draws nigh. But, though Providence sent you hither to help, and sends me only as a privileged and meet spectator, I pledge myself to lend these unfortunate beings whatever aid I can !" | -No hay duda -contestó el daguerrotipista- que me interesan la vieja solterona perseguida por la pobreza y el caballero abatido y deshecho, tan amante de lo bello. Porque son como niños desamparados. Pero usted no puede imaginar qué distinto es mi corazón del suyo. No me siento impulsado a ayudar o a perjudicar a sus dos primos, sino a analizarlos, a explicármelos, a comprender el drama que durante doscientos años ha rondado este jardín. Si se me permitiera ser testigo del desenlace, no dudo que sacaría satisfacción moral de ello, ocurriera lo que ocurriere. Tengo la íntima convicción de que se acerca el final. La Providencia la ha enviado a usted para ayudarles y a mí sólo como simple espectador. Y, sin embargo, me propongo ser todo lo útil que pueda a esos dos infortunados. |
| "I wish you would speak more plainly," cried Phoebe, perplexed and displeased; "and, above all, that you would feel more like a Christian and a human being ! How is it possible to see people in distress without desiring, more than anything else, to help and comfort them ? You talk as if this old house were a theatre; and you seem to look at Hepzibah′s and Clifford′s misfortunes, and those of generations before them, as a tragedy, such as I have seen acted in the hall of a country hotel, only the present one appears to be played exclusively for your amusement. I do not like this. The play costs the performers too much, and the audience is too cold-hearted." | -¡Ojalá hablara usted más llanamente ! -exclamó Phoebe, perpleja y disgustada-. Y, sobre todo, ojalá sintiese usted más como un cristiano y un ser humano. ¿Es posible ver a gente en desgracia sin desear ayudarles y consolarles ? Habla usted como si esta vieja casa fuera un teatro y parece considerar los infortunios de Clifford, de Hepzibah y de sus antepasados, como una tragedia, igual que esas que he visto representar en el patio del hotel de mi pueblo, sólo que ésta de aquí se representa únicamente para usted. No me agrada esto. La representación es demasiado costosa para sus actores y el público demasiado frío. |
| "You are severe," said Holgrave, compelled to recognize a degree of truth in the piquant sketch of his own mood. | -Es usted muy severa -dijo Holgrave, obligado a reconocer cierto grado de verdad en esas agudas frases. |
| "And then," continued Phoebe, "what can you mean by your conviction, which you tell me of, that the end is drawing near ? Do you know of any new trouble hanging over my poor relatives ? If so, tell me at once, and I will not leave them !" | -¿Y qué quiere decir con eso de su convicción de que el desenlace se acerca ? -continuó Phoebe-. ¿Sabe usted alguna nueva desgracia que amenace a mis pobres primos ? Si es así, dígamelo en seguida y no los dejaré. |
| "Forgive me, Phoebe !" said the daguerreotypist, holding out his hand, to which the girl was constrained to yield her own. "I am somewhat of a mystic, it must be confessed. The tendency is in my blood, together with the faculty of mesmerism, which might have brought me to Gallows Hill, in the good old times of witchcraft. Believe me, if I were really aware of any secret, the disclosure of which would benefit your friends,--who are my own friends, likewise,--you should learn it before we part. But I have no such knowledge." | -Perdóneme, Phoebe -contestó el daguerrotipista, tendiendo una mano a lo que la muchacha tuvo que alargar la suya-. He de confesar que a veces tengo algo de místico. Es una tendencia que llevo en la sangre, igual que mis facultades de hipnotizador y que en tiempos de brujería me hubieran llevado a la horca. Créame: si supiera algún secreto cuya revelación fuera útil a sus amigos, que son también míos, se lo diría inmediatamente. Pero no sé nada. |
| "You hold something back !" said Phoebe. | -Usted se calla algo -dijo Phoebe. |
| "Nothing,--no secrets but my own," answered Holgrave. "I can perceive, indeed, that Judge Pyncheon still keeps his eye on Clifford, in whose ruin he had so large a share. His motives and intentions, however are a mystery to me. He is a determined and relentless man, with the genuine character of an inquisitor; and had he any object to gain by putting Clifford to the rack, I verily believe that he would wrench his joints from their sockets, in order to accomplish it. But, so wealthy and eminent as he is,--so powerful in his own strength, and in the support of society on all sides,--what can Judge Pyncheon have to hope or fear from the imbecile, branded, half-torpid Clifford ?" | . -Nada... no hay más secretos que los míos. Es evidente que el juez Pyncheon sigue de cerca a Clifford, en cuya ruina tiene no poca parte. Pero sus motivos y sus intenciones están envueltos en el misterio. Es un hombre decidido e inexorable, un verdadero inquisidor. Si pudiera ganar algo con poner a Clifford en la rueda del tormento, él mismo sujetaría sus articulaciones, para estar más seguro. Pero es tan rico y poderoso que no veo qué puede desear o temer de Clifford, un hombre torpe, difamado y casi inconsciente. |
| "Yet," urged Phoebe, "you did speak as if misfortune were impending !" | -Pues habla usted como si la desgracia estuviera cercana. |
| "Oh, that was because I am morbid !" replied the artist. "My mind has a twist aside, like almost everybody′s mind, except your own. Moreover, it is so strange to find myself an inmate of this old Pyncheon House, and sitting in this old garden--(hark, how Maule′s well is murmuring !)--that, were it only for this one circumstance, I cannot help fancying that Destiny is arranging its fifth act for a catastrophe." | -¡Oh !, soy un tipo morboso -replicó el artista-. Mi espíritu es algo anormal, como el de todo el mundo, menos el de usted. Además, es tan extraño encontrarse con que uno rvive en este viejo jardín... Fíjese cómo murmura la fuente de Maule... Aunque sólo fuera por eso, no puedo evitar imaginarme que el destino está preparando el quinto acto para una catástrofe. |
| "There !" cried Phoebe with renewed vexation; for she was by nature as hostile to mystery as the sunshine to a dark corner. "You puzzle me more than ever !" | -¡Vaya ! -exclamó Phoebe irritada; era hostil por naturaleza a todo misterio, como el sol es enemigo de los rincones donde no puede penetrar-. Me deja usted más perpleja que antes. |
| "Then let us part friends !" said Holgrave, pressing her hand. "Or, if not friends, let us part before you entirely hate me. You, who love everybody else in the world !" | -Separémonos amigos -acabó Holgrave, estrechándole la mano- o por lo menos, separémonos antes de que llegue usted a odiarme... Usted, que ama a todo el mundo... |
| "Good-by, then," said Phoebe frankly. "I do not mean to be angry a great while, and should be sorry to have you think so. There has Cousin Hepzibah been standing in the shadow of the doorway, this quarter of an hour past ! She thinks I stay too long in the damp garden. So, good-night, and good-by." | -Adiós, pues -dijo Phoebe francamente-. No quiero enfadarme y me sabría mal que lo supusiera... Mire, prima Hepzibah ha permanecido en la puerta durante el último cuarto de hora. Ahora me dirá que he estado demasiado rato en la humedad del jardín. Buenas noches y adiós. |
| On the second morning thereafter, Phoebe might have been seen, in her straw bonnet, with a shawl on one arm and a little carpet-bag on the other, bidding adieu to Hepzibah and Cousin Clifford. She was to take a seat in the next train of cars, which would transport her to within half a dozen miles of her country village. | Dos días después, por la mañana, hubiéramos podido ver a Phoebe, con su sombrero de paja, un pañolón al brazo y la maleta en la mano, despidiéndose de Hepzibah y de Clifford. Iba a coger el próximo tren que la llevaría a seis millas de su pueblo. |
| The tears were in Phoebe′s eyes; a smile, dewy with affectionate regret, was glimmering around her pleasant mouth. She wondered how it came to pass, that her life of a few weeks, here in this heavy-hearted old mansion, had taken such hold of her, and so melted into her associations, as now to seem a more important centre-point of remembrance than all which had gone before. How had Hepzibah--grim, silent, and irresponsive to her overflow of cordial sentiment--contrived to win so much love ? And Clifford,--in his abortive decay, with the mystery of fearful crime upon him, and the close prison-atmosphere yet lurking in his breath,--how had he transformed himself into the simplest child, whom Phoebe felt bound to watch over, and be, as it were, the providence of his unconsidered hours ! Everything, at that instant of farewell, stood out prominently to her view. Look where she would, lay her hand on what she might, the object responded to her consciousness, as if a moist human heart were in it. | Casi lloraba y una sonrisa triste se dibujaba en sus labios. Se preguntaba cómo era posible que, en unas semanas, aquella casa fría y dura, se hubiera apoderado de ella, mezclándose en sus ideas hasta el extremo que le parecía un punto de referencia más importante que cualquier otro de su vida anterior. ¿Cómo pudo Hepzibah -silenciosa, huraña, insensible a su cordialidad-, cómo pudo hacerse querer tanto ? Y Clifford, en su decadencia, rodeado del misterio de un crimen terrible y de la atmósfera de prisión que aún respiraba, ¿cómo se había transformado en el más simple de los niños, al cual Phoebe debía vigilar, constituyéndose en la Providencia de sus horas sin importancia ? En aquel momento de despedida, todo le parecía claro. Mirara donde mirase, el objeto respondía a su mirada, cual si contuviese en su interior un corazón vivo. |
| She peeped from the window into the garden, and felt herself more regretful at leaving this spot of black earth, vitiated with such an age-long growth of weeds, than joyful at the idea of again scenting her pine forests and fresh clover-fields. She called Chanticleer, his two wives, and the venerable chicken, and threw them some crumbs of bread from the breakfast-table. These being hastily gobbled up, the chicken spread its wings, and alighted close by Phoebe on the window-sill, where it looked gravely into her face and vented its emotions in a croak. Phoebe bade it be a good old chicken during her absence, and promised to bring it a little bag of buckwheat. | Miró al jardín y sintió pena al tener que abandonar aquel pedazo de tierra negra infectada por interminables años de cizaña y hierbas. Tanta era su pena, que olvidó la alegría de oler el aroma de los bosques de pinos y los campos de lúpulo. Llamó a Cantaclaro, a sus dos esposas y al venerable poUuelo y les arrojó algunas migas de pan. Engullidas rápidamente, el polluelo abrió las alas y se posó en el marco de la ventana, cerca de Phoebe, mirándola con gravedad y manifestando su emoción con un suave cloqueo. Phoebe le dijo que se portara durante su ausencia como un polluelo bueno y obediente, prometiendo traerle, al regreso, un saquito de alforfón. |
| "Ah, Phoebe !" remarked Hepzibah, "you do not smile so naturally as when you came to us ! Then, the smile chose to shine out; now, you choose it should. It is well that you are going back, for a little while, into your native air. There has been too much weight on your spirits. The house is too gloomy and lonesome; the shop is full of vexations; and as for me, I have no faculty of making things look brighter than they are. Dear Clifford has been your only comfort !" | -¡Oh, Phoebe ! -observó Hepzibah-, no sonríes tan naturalmente como cuando viniste. Entonces la sonrisa se te escapaba de los labios, y ahora eres tú la que la hace asomar a ellos. Una temporada en tu pueblo te sentará bien. Has respirado un aire demasiado pesado. Esta casa es solitaria y sombría, la tienda significa una constante humillación, y en cuanto a mí no sé hacer las cosas más agradables de lo que son. Nuestro querido Clifford ha sido tu único solaz. |
| "Come hither, Phoebe," suddenly cried her cousin Clifford, who had said very little all the morning. "Close !--closer !--and look me in the face !" | -Ven acá, Phoebe -exclamó súbitamente Clifford, que apenas había abierto los labios en toda la mañana-. Acércate más... y mírame al rostro... |
| Phoebe put one of her small hands on each elbow of his chair, and leaned her face towards him, so that he might peruse it as carefully as he would. It is probable that the latent emotions of this parting hour had revived, in some degree, his bedimmed and enfeebled faculties. At any rate, Phoebe soon felt that, if not the profound insight of a seer, yet a more than feminine delicacy of appreciation, was making her heart the subject of its regard. A moment before, she had known nothing which she would have sought to hide. Now, as if some secret were hinted to her own consciousness through the medium of another′s perception, she was fain to let her eyelids droop beneath Clifford′s gaze. A blush, too,--the redder, because she strove hard to keep it down,--ascended bigger and higher, in a tide of fitful progress, until even her brow was all suffused with it. | Phoebe puso una mano en cada brazo del sillón y aproximó la cara a la de Clifford, para que éste pudiera contemplarla a su gusto. Es probable que la emoción de aquella partida hubiera reavivado sus débiles facultades. Sea lo que fuera, Phoebe se dio cuenta de que Clifford le escudriñaba el corazón. Un momento antes, no sentía deseos de ocfiltar nada. Ahora ansiaba dejar caer los párpados para protegerse de los ojos de Clifford. Un sonrojo -tanto más súbito cuanto más se esforzaba en dominarlo- cubrió su rostro. |
| "It is enough, Phoebe," said Clifford, with a melancholy smile. "When I first saw you, you were the prettiest little maiden in the world; and now you have deepened into beauty. Girlhood has passed into womanhood; the bud is a bloom ! Go, now--I feel lonelier than I did." | -Basta, Phoebe -dijo Clifford con melancólica sonrisa:-. Cuando te vi por vez primera eras la muchacha más linda del mundo. Ahora, tu belleza se ha hecho más profunda... Ya eres una mujer. El capullo ha florecido... Vete... aunque me sentiré más solitario que nunca... |
| Phoebe took leave of the desolate couple, and passed through the shop, twinkling her eyelids to shake off a dew-drop; for--considering how brief her absence was to be, and therefore the folly of being cast down about it--she would not so far acknowledge her tears as to dry them with her handkerchief. On the doorstep, she met the little urchin whose marvellous feats of gastronomy have been recorded in the earlier pages of our narrative. She took from the window some specimen or other of natural history,--her eyes being too dim with moisture to inform her accurately whether it was a rabbit or a hippopotamus,--put it into the child′s hand as a parting gift, and went her way. Old Uncle Venner was just coming out of his door, with a wood-horse and saw on his shoulder; and, trudging along the street, he scrupled not to keep company with Phoebe, so far as their paths lay together; nor, in spite of his patched coat and rusty beaver, and the curious fashion of his tow-cloth trousers, could she find it in her heart to outwalk him. | Phoebe se despidió de la desolada pareja y atravesó la tienda parpadeando para contener unas lágrimas, pues su ausencia sería tan corta que no quería concederles la beligerancia de secarlas con el pañuelo. En la puerta se encontró con el rapaz cuyas hazañas gastronómicas quedaron consignadas en las primeras páginas de nuestra narración. Cogió del escaparate varios ejemplares de Historia Natural -sus ojos estaban demasiado empañados para saber si se trataba de conejos o de hipopótamos-, se los dio al niño como regalo de despedida y salió a la calle. El tío Venner asomaba justamente por una puerta -con la sierra y un caballete de madera al hombro- y cruzando la calle, no tuvo inconveniente en acompañar a Phoebe durante el trecho que su camino coincidía. Ella, a pesar de los remiendos y la extraña forma de los pantalones de estopa del viejo, no encontró fuerzas para oponerse o desviarse. |
| "We shall miss you, next Sabbath afternoon," observed the street philosopher. "It is unaccountable how little while it takes some folks to grow just as natural to a man as his own breath; and, begging your pardon, Miss Phoebe (though there can be no offence in an old man′s saying it), that′s just what you′ve grown to me ! My years have been a great many, and your life is but just beginning; and yet, you are somehow as familiar to me as if I had found you at my mother′s door, and you had blossomed, like a running vine, all along my pathway since. Come back soon, or I shall be gone to my farm; for I begin to find these wood-sawing jobs a little too tough for my back-ache." | -El domingo la echaremos muy de menos -observó el filosofo callejero-. Parece mentira ... en qué poco tiempo algunas personas se hacen a uno tan habituales como el respirar... y, con perdón sea dicho, miss Phoebe, aunque no puede haber ofensa en que se lo diga un viejo, eso es, precisamente, lo que me ha ocurrido con usted. Yo tengo muchos años, usted apenas comienza a vivir y, sin embargo, se me ha hecho tan familiar como si la hubiera encontrado en la puerta de la casa de mi madre y desde entonces hubiese florecido a lo largo de todo mi camino. Regrese pronto o de lo contrario me iré a mi granja, porque el trabajo de aserrar madera resulta demasiado duro para mis riñones. |
| "Very soon, Uncle Venner," replied Phoebe. | -Volveré muy pronto, tío Venner -aseguró Phoebe. |
| "And let it be all the sooner, Phoebe, for the sake of those poor souls yonder," continued her companion. "They can never do without you, now,--never, Phoebe; never--no more than if one of God′s angels had been living with them, and making their dismal house pleasant and comfortable ! Don′t it seem to you they′d be in a sad case, if, some pleasant summer morning like this, the angel should spread his wings, and fly to the place he came from ? Well, just so they feel, now that you′re going home by the railroad ! They can′t bear it, Miss Phoebe; so be sure to come back !" | -Hágalo en bien de esas pobres almas de la vieja casa -continuó su compañero-. No podrán vivir sin usted. ¿Quién podría acostumbrarse a la ausencia del ángel que hace tan agradable y cómoda una casa desamparada ? ¿No le parecería triste si, una mañana de verano como la de hoy, el ángel extendiera las alas y se fuera al sitio de donde Vino ? Eso es lo que ellos sienten, al verla marchar. No podrán soportarlo; así es que vuelva pronto... |
| "I am no angel, Uncle Venner," said Phoebe, smiling, as she offered him her hand at the street-corner. "But, I suppose, people never feel so much like angels as when they are doing what little good they may. So I shall certainly come back !" | -Yo no soy un ángel, tío Venner -repuso Phoebe sonriendo y ofreciéndole la mano. Habían llegado a la esquina-. Pero supongo que las gentes se parecen un poco a los ángeles cuando hacen el poco bien que pueden... ¡Le prometo que regresaré pronto !... |
| Thus parted the old man and the rosy girl; and Phoebe took the wings of the morning, and was soon flitting almost as rapidly away as if endowed with the aerial locomotion of the angels to whom Uncle Venner had so graciously compared her. | Así se separaron el viejo y la muchacha. Phoebe tomó las alas de la mañana" y pronto voló por los campos casi tan rápidamente como si estuviera dotada de los medios de locomoción aérea de los ángeles, a los cuales tan graciosamente la había comparado el tío Venner. |