'Yes - well, my father has been talking a good deal to me of his troubles and difficulties, and the subject always tends to depress me. He is so zealous that he gets many snubs and buffetings from people of a different way of thinking from himself, and I don't like to hear of such humiliations to a man of his age, the more particularly as I don't think earnestness does any good when carried so far. He has been telling me of a very unpleasant scene in which he took part quite recently. He went as the deputy of some missionary society to preach in the neighbourhood of Trantridge, a place forty miles from here, and made it his business to expostulate with a lax young cynic he met with somewhere about there - son of some landowner up that way - and who has a mother afflicted with blindness. My father addressed himself to the gentleman point-blank, and there was quite a disturbance. It was very foolish of my father, I must say, to intrude his conversation upon a stranger when the probabilities were so obvious that it would be useless. But whatever he thinks to be his duty, that he'll do, in season or out of season; and, of course, he makes many enemies, not only among the absolutely vicious, but among the easy-going, who hate being bothered. He says he glories in what happened, and that good may be done indirectly; but I wish he would not so wear himself out now he is getting old, and would leave such pigs to their wallowing.'
“是的——哦，我父親跟我談了許多的話，談他的煩惱，談他的困難，他談的話對我總是有一種壓抑的感覺。他是一個熱情認真的人，遇到同他的想法不同的人，他們不僅冷淡他，甚至還動手打他，像他這樣大年紀的一個人，我不愿意他遭受侮辱，尤其是一個人熱心到那種程度，我認為并沒有什么用處。他還告訴過我新近他遭遇的一件叫人非常不痛快的事。有一次他當一個講道團的代表，到附近的特蘭里奇去講道，那是離這兒四十英里的一個地方，在那兒遇見了一個地主的兒子，媽媽是個瞎子。兒子是一個放蕩狂妄的青年，我父親就擔負起教導他的責任，直截了當?shù)亟虒Y(jié)果竟引出了一場麻煩。我一定要說，我父親太傻了，既然勸說明顯是沒有用的，何必去對一個素不相識的人費口舌呢。但是不管什么事，他只要認為是他的職責，他就不管什么時候，都要去做；當然，他結(jié)下了不少的仇人，其中不僅有絕對的壞人，也有一些容易相處的人，他們恨父親多管閑事。他說，他的光榮就在發(fā)生的這些事情里，說善是在間接中實現(xiàn)的；可是我希望他不要老是這樣自找苦吃，他已經(jīng)漸漸老了，就讓那些豬玀在污泥中打滾好了。”

Tess's look had grown hard and worn, and her ripe mouth tragical; but she no longer showed any tremulousness. Clare's revived thoughts of his father prevented his noticing her particularly; and so they went on down the white row of liquid rectangles till they had finished and drained them off, when the other maids returned, and took their pails, and Deb came to scald out the leads for the new milk. As Tess withdrew to go afield to the cows he said to her softly--
苔絲的臉色變得呆滯憔悴了，紅潤的嘴唇露出凄慘的情態(tài)；但是再也沒有看見她有顫栗的表現(xiàn)。克萊爾又想起了他的父親，因此沒有注意到苔絲的特別表現(xiàn)；他們就這樣繼續(xù)撇那一長排方形盆子里的牛奶，直到都撇完了，牛奶都放掉了才歇手。其他的擠奶女工也來了，拎起了她們的牛奶桶，德貝拉也下來刷洗鉛桶，預備裝新的牛奶。在首絲到草場上去擠牛奶的時候，克萊爾溫柔地問她——

'And my question, Tessy?'
“我問的問題你還沒有回答呢，苔絲？”

'O no - no!' replied she with grave hopelessness, as one who had heard anew the turmoil of her own past in the allusion to Alec d'Urberville. 'It can't be!'
“啊，不行——不行！”苔絲鄭重和絕望地說，因為她剛才聽見克萊爾說的德貝維爾的故事，又引發(fā)了她過去的痛苦?！拔也豢赡芗藿o你?！?/div>

She went out towards the mead, joining the other milkmaids with a bound, as if trying to make the open air drive away her sad constraint. All the girls drew onward to the spot where the cows were grazing in the farther mead, the bevy advancing with the bold grace of wild animals - the reckless unchastened motion of women accustomed to unlimited space - in which they abandoned themselves to the air as a swimmer to the wave. It seemed natural enough to him now that Tess was again in sight to choose a mate from unconstrained Nature, and not from the abodes of Art.
她出了門，向草場走去，一步就跨進了擠奶女工的隊伍中，仿佛要利用戶外的新鮮空氣，來趕走心中的不快。所有的女工們都向在遠處草場上吃草的奶牛走去，這一群勇敢的姑娘身上帶著野性的美，她們是一群已經(jīng)習慣了不受任何拘束的姑娘，邁著自由隨便的步子，在空曠的野外走著，就好像游泳的人去追逐波浪一樣?？巳R爾又看見了苔絲，現(xiàn)在他覺得，從無拘無束的自然中選擇一個伴侶，而不是從藝術(shù)的宮殿里去選擇伴侶，這都是再自然不過的。