For several days after Tess's arrival Clare, sitting abstractedly reading from some book, periodical, or piece of music just come by post, hardly noticed that she was present at table. She talked so little, and the other maids talked so much, that the babble did not strike him as possessing a new note, and he was ever in the habit of neglecting the particulars of an outward scene for the general impression. One day, however, when he had been conning one of his music-scores, and by force of imagination was hearing the tune in his head, he lapsed into listlessness, and the music-sheet rolled to the hearth. He looked at the fire of logs, with its one flame pirouetting on the top in a dying dance after the breakfast-cooking and boiling, and it seemed to jig to his inward tune; also at the two chimney crooks dangling down from the cotterer or cross-bar, plumed with soot which quivered to the same melody; also at the half-empty kettle whining an accompaniment. The conversation at the table mixed in with his phantasmal orchestra till he thought: 'What a fluty voice one of those milkmaids has! I suppose it is the new one.'
在苔絲來后的好幾天里，克萊爾老是坐在那兒聚精會神地讀書，讀雜志，或者是讀他剛收到的郵局寄來的樂譜，幾乎沒有注意到桌子上苔絲的出現(xiàn)。苔絲說話不多，其他的女孩子又說話太多，所以在那一片喧嘩里，他心里沒有留下多了一種新的說話聲的印象，而且他也只習(xí)慣于獲得外界的大致印象，而不太注意其中的細(xì)節(jié)。但是有一天，他正在熟悉一段樂譜，并在頭腦里集中了他的全部想象力欣賞這段樂譜的時候，突然走了神，樂譜掉到了帶爐的邊上。那時已經(jīng)做完了早飯，燒過了開水，他看見燃燒的木頭只剩下一點火苗還在跳動著，快要熄火了，似乎在和著他內(nèi)心的旋律跳吉爾舞；他還看見從壁爐的橫梁或十字架上垂下來的兩根掛鉤，鉤子沾滿了煙灰，也和著同樣的旋律顫抖著；鉤子上的水壺已經(jīng)空了一半，在用低聲的傾訴和著旋律伴奏。桌子上的談話混合在他幻想中的管弦樂曲里，他心里想：“在這些擠奶女工中間，有一個姑娘的聲音多么清脆悅耳呀！我猜想這是一個新來的人的聲音。”

Clare looked round upon her, seated with the others.
克萊爾扭頭看去，只見她同其他的女工坐在一起。

She was not looking towards him. Indeed, owing to his long silence, his presence in the room was almost forgotten.
她沒有向他這邊看。實在的情形是，因為他在那兒坐了很久，默不作聲，差不多已經(jīng)被人忘記了。

'I don't know about ghosts,' she was saying; 'but I do know that our souls can be made to go outside our bodies when we are alive.'
“我不知道有沒有鬼怪，”她正在說，“但是我的確知道我們活著的時候，是能夠讓我們的靈魂出竅的?！?/div>

The dairyman turned to her with his mouth full, his eyes charged with serious inquiry, and his great knife and fork (breakfasts were breakfasts here) planted erect on the table, like the beginning of a gallows.
奶牛場的老板一聽，驚訝得合不上嘴，轉(zhuǎn)過身看著她，眼睛里帶著認(rèn)真的詢問；他把手里拿的大刀子和大叉子豎在桌子上（因為這兒的早餐是正規(guī)的早餐），就像是一副絞刑架子。

'What - really now? And is it so, maidy?' he said.
“什么呀——真的嗎？真的是這樣嗎，姑娘？”他問。