Having now a good house and very sufficient income, he intended to marry; and in seeking a reconciliation with the Longbourn family he had a wife in view, as he meant to chuse one of the daughters, if he found them as handsome and amiable as they were represented by common report. This was his plan of amends -- of atonement -- for inheriting their father's estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part.
他现在已经有了一幢好房子,一笔可观的收入,想要结婚了。他所以要和浪博恩这家人家讲和修好,原是想要在他们府上找个太太。要是这家人家的几位小姐果真象大家所传闻的那么美丽可爱,他一定要挑选一个。这就是他所谓补偿的计划,赎罪的计划,为的是将来继承她们父亲的遗产时可以问心无愧。他认为这真是个独出心裁的办法,既极其妥善得体,又来得慷慨豪爽。
His plan did not vary on seeing them. -- Miss Bennet's lovely face confirmed his views, and established all his strictest notions of what was due to seniority; and for the first evening she was his settled choice. The next morning, however, made an alteration; for in a quarter of an hour's te^te-a`-te^te with Mrs. Bennet before breakfast, a conversation beginning with his parsonage-house, and leading naturally to the avowal of his hopes that a mistress for it might be found at Longbourn, produced from her, amid very complaisant smiles and general encouragement, a caution against the very Jane he had fixed on. --
他看到这几位小姐之后,并没有变更本来的计划。一看到吉英那张可爱的脸蛋儿,他便拿定了主张,而且更加确定了他那些老式的想法,认为一切应当先娶最大的一位小姐。头一个晚上他就选中了她。不过第二天早上他又变更了主张,因为他和班纳特夫人亲亲密密地谈了一刻钟的话,开头谈谈他自己那幢牧师住宅,后来自然而然地把自己的心愿招供了出来,说是要在浪博恩找一位太太,而且要在她的令嫒们中间找一位。
"As to her younger daughters she could not take upon her to say -- she could not positively answer -- but she did not know of any prepossession; -- her eldest daughter, she must just mention -- she felt it incumbent on her to hint, was likely to be very soon engaged."
班纳特太太亲切地微笑着,而且一再鼓励他,不过谈到他选定了吉英,她就不免要提请他注意一下子了。“讲到我几个小女儿,我没有什么意见──当然也不能一口答应──不过我还没有听说她们有什么对象;至于我的大女儿,我可不得不提一提──我觉得有责任提醒你一下──大女儿可能很快就要订婚了。”