Having mounted beside her, Alec d'Urberville drove rapidly along the crest of the first hill, chatting compliments to Tess as they went, the cart with her box being left far behind. Rising still, an immense landscape stretched around them on every side; behind, the green valley of her birth, before, a gray country of which she knew nothing except from her first brief visit to Trantridge. Thus they reached the verge of an incline down which the road stretched in a long straight descent of nearly a mile.
阿歷克·德貝維爾上車在苔絲身邊坐下，就趕馬沿著第一座山的山脊快速向前駛?cè)ィ宦飞喜蛔】诘匕烟z恭維贊揚，而給苔絲運送箱子的大車遠遠地落在后面。他們越走越高，一大片風(fēng)景在他們四周伸展開來，一望無垠；在他們身后，是她出生的綠色山谷，在他們前面，是一片灰色的田野，除了她在第一次到特蘭里奇的短暫旅行中知道的地方而外，其它的地方她一無所知。他們就這樣走到了一個山坡的頂上，再往前就是從山坡上通向下面的一條筆直大道，差不多有一英里長。

Ever since the accident with her father's horse Tess Durbeyfield, courageous as she naturally was, had been exceedingly timid on wheels; the least irregularity of motion startled her. She began to get uneasy at a certain recklessness in her conductor's driving.
盡管苔絲·德北菲爾德生來膽子就大，但是自從她父親的馬被撞死以后，苔絲一坐車就感到非常害怕；馬車的行駛稍微有點兒搖晃，她就感到心驚肉跳。阿歷克趕著馬車橫沖直撞，苔絲心里就開始感到不安了。

'You will go down slow, sir, I suppose?' she said with attempted unconcern.
“我想下山時你會慢些走吧，先生？”

D'Urberville looked round upon her, nipped his cigar with the tips of his large white centre-teeth, and allowed his lips to smile slowly of themselves.
德貝維爾扭頭看看苔絲，用他的又白又大的門牙叼著雪茄煙，慢慢咧開兩片嘴唇笑開了。

'Why, Tess,' he answered, after another whiff or two, 'it isn't a brave bouncing girl like you who asks that? Why, I always go down at full gallop. There's nothing like it for raising your spirits.'
“噢，苔絲，”他抽了一兩口雪茄煙后回答說，“像你這樣一個又大膽又健壯的大姑娘，怎么問起這個問題來了？噢，我總是打著馬飛跑下山的。再沒有像那樣叫人痛快的了。”

'But perhaps you need not now?'
“不過現(xiàn)在你也許不必那樣下山吧？”

'Ah,' he said, shaking his head, 'there are two to be reckoned with. It is not me alone. Tib has to be considered, and she has a very queer temper.'
“啊，”他說，“這可是兩個人的事兒呀，不是我一個人作得了主。提布也要算在里面，她的脾氣可是古怪得很。”

'Who?'
“提布是誰？”

'Why, this mare. I fancy she looked round at me in a very grim way 'just then. Didn't you notice it?'
“噢，就是這匹母馬呀。我覺得剛才它回過頭來惡狠狠地看了我一眼。你沒有看見嗎？”