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Thus in the case of Paul. When Doctor Blimber said he made great progress and was naturally clever, Mr Dombey was more bent than ever on his being forced and crammed. In the case of Briggs, when Doctor Blimber reported that he did not make great progress yet, and was not naturally clever, Briggs senior was inexorable in the same purpose. In short, however high and false the temperature at which the Doctor kept his hothouse, the owners of the plants were always ready to lend a helping hand at the bellows, and to stir the fire.
保罗的情况就是这样。当布林伯博士说，他天资聪明，取得了很大的进步的时候，董贝先生就比过去更坚决地赞成对他进行强制性教育，在他脑子里填塞得满满的。就布里格斯的情况来说，当布林伯博士报告说，他天资不聪明，还没有取得很大的进步的时候，布里格斯的长辈为了追求同样的目的也是铁面无情，一丝不苟。总而言之，布林伯博士把他的温室的温度不论弄得多么高，多么不适当，那些植物的主人总是准备伸出手来帮他拉风箱，把火煽旺的。
Such spirits as he had in the outset, Paul soon lost of course. But he retained all that was strange, and old, and thoughtful in his character: and under circumstances so favourable to the development of those tendencies, became even more strange, and old, and thoughtful, than before.
保罗开始时所保持的那种蓬勃的朝气自然很快就失去了，可是他保留着他性格中所有那些古怪的、老气的与爱沉思的部分；在有利于发展这些倾向的环境下，他变得比过去更为古怪、更为老气、更爱沉思了。
The only difference was, that he kept his character to himself. He grew more thoughtful and reserved, every day; and had no such curiosity in any living member of the Doctor's household, as he had had in Mrs Pipchin. He loved to be alone; and in those short intervals when he was not occupied with his books, liked nothing so well as wandering about the house by himself, or sitting on the stairs, listening to the great clock in the hall. He was intimate with all the paperhanging in the house; saw things that no one else saw in the patterns; found out miniature tigers and lions running up the bedroom walls, and squinting faces leering in the squares and diamonds of the floor-cloth.
唯一的差别是他没有把他的性格向外表露。他一天天变得更加沉思与缄默；他对博士家庭中的任何成员都没有像他过去对皮普钦太太那样怀有的好奇心。他喜欢独自待着；在他没有忙着读书的那些短暂的间歇时间中，他最喜爱的事情莫过于一个人在房屋里漫步，或者坐在楼梯上，静听着前厅中大钟的声音。他熟悉房屋中所有的壁纸，在那些图案中看到了其他任何人所没有看到的东西；他在卧室墙上看出那些奔跑的小老虎与小狮子，在铺地板的漆布的正方形与菱形中看出那些斜眼瞅着的面孔。
The solitary child lived on, surrounded by this arabesque work of his musing fancy, and no one understood him. Mrs Blimber thought him 'odd,' and sometimes the servants said among themselves that little Dombey 'moped;' but that was all.
这孤独的孩子就这样继续生活着；他沉思的想象所构造出的奇异的形象围绕着他；没有人了解他。布林伯夫人认为他“古怪”；有时仆人们相互谈论时说小董贝“闷闷不乐”，但是也就如此而已。
Unless young Toots had some idea on the subject, to the expression of which he was wholly unequal. Ideas, like ghosts (according to the common notion of ghosts), must be spoken to a little before they will explain themselves; and Toots had long left off asking any questions of his own mind. Some mist there may have been, issuing from that leaden casket, his cranium, which, if it could have taken shape and form,would have become a genie; but it could not; and it only so far followed the example of the smoke in theArabian story, as to roll out in a thick cloud, and there hang and hover. But it left a little figure visible upon a lonely shore, and Toots was always staring at it.
也许，年轻的图茨对这个问题有某些想法，可是他完全没有能力把这些想法表达出来。思想就像鬼（一般概念中的鬼）一样，必须先跟它们先谈一会儿，它们才会显示出自己，而图茨已长久停止向他的头脑提出任何问题了。从那个铅色的壳子——他的头颅——中可能升起一些迷雾，如果这些迷雾能够成形，那么它们一定会变成一个精灵；可是这些迷雾不能成形；它们只能仿效阿拉伯故事中的烟雾，喷冒出浓云，在上空悬垂与飞翔，但是在荒凉的海岸上却留下了一个可以看得见的小人儿；图茨经常注视着它。
