'Is it too sudden to be asked thus, my Pretty?'
“是不是我這樣向你求婚太突然了，我的美人兒？”

'Yes - I did not expect it.'
“是的——我一點兒也沒有想到?！?/div>

'If you will let it pass, please, Tessy, I will give you time,' he said. 'It was very abrupt to come home and speak to you all at once. I'll not allude to it again for a while.'
“如果你想把這件事拖一拖，也行，苔絲，我會給你時間的，”他說。“我一回來就立刻向你提這件事，的確是太唐突了。隔一陣兒我再提這件事吧。”

She again took up the shining skimmer, held it beneath the pump, and began anew. But she could not, as at other times, hit the exact under-surface of the cream with the delicate dexterity required, try as she might: sometimes she was cutting down into the milk, sometimes in the air. She could hardly see, her eyes having filled with two blurring tears drawn forth by a grief which, to this her best friend and dear advocate, she could never explain.
她又拿起了撇奶油的勺子，把勺子伸到水管子下面，重新開始工作起來。可是她無法像在其它時候那樣，能夠用所需要的靈巧手法，把勺子精確地伸到奶油的底層下面。她盡力而為，但是有時候她把勺子撇到了牛奶里，有時候什么也撇不著。她的眼睛幾乎看不見了，悲傷給她的一雙眼睛注滿了淚水，模糊了她的視線；對于她這位最好的朋友，她親愛的辯護(hù)人，她是永遠(yuǎn)無法向他解釋的。

'I can't skim - I can't!' she said, turning away from him.
“我撇不著奶油了——我撇不著了！”她轉(zhuǎn)過身去說。

Not to agitate and hinder her longer the considerate Clare began talking in a more general way:
為了不讓她激動，不妨礙她的工作，細(xì)心體貼的克萊爾開始用一種更加輕松的方式同她說話：

'You quite misapprehend my parents. They are the most simple-mannered people alive, and quite unambitious. They are two of the few remaining Evangelical school. Tessy, are you an Evangelical?'
“你完全誤解了我的父母。他們都是最樸實的人，也是完全沒有野心的人。福音派的教徒所剩無幾了，他們就是其中的兩個。苔絲，你是一個福音教徒嗎？”

'I don't know.'
“我不知道。”

'You go to church very regularly, and our parson here is not very High, they tell me.'
“你是定期上教堂的，他們告訴我，我們這兒的牧師并不是什么高教派。”

Tess's ideas on the views of the parish clergyman, whom she heard every week, seemed to be rather more vague than Clare's, who had never heard him at all.
苔絲每個星期都去教堂聽教區(qū)的牧師講道，但是她對那個牧師的印象卻十分模糊，甚至比從來都沒有見過那個牧師的克萊爾還要模糊。