第九章（第6/9页）

“啊！”博尔顿夫人说，“倒是听到有小撮人叫嚣过。但多是负债的婆娘们。男人们不关心这些。我不相信特弗沙尔会遍地红色。他们都太本分，闹不起革命。但年轻人有时也会信口开河。但他们并非真想造反。他们只希望兜里有俩钱，能去矿工之家喝杯小酒，或者去谢菲尔德找点乐子。他们在乎的只是这些。没钱的时候，他们才会去听革命党高谈阔论。不过，没人真正相信那些。”“那么说，依你看，不会有暴乱发生？”“噢，不会！只要能够维持生计，就不会有人闹事。但如果矿场的情况总不见好转，年轻人们或许会骚动。我跟您说，他们都是些自私自利的家伙，从小就被惯坏了。但依我看，他们闹不出什么动静。他们做什么事都吊儿郎当，只知道骑着摩托车四处招摇，或者是去谢菲尔德的舞厅狂欢。谁也无法让他们正经起来。正经点的只晓得穿上晚礼服，跑去舞厅在姑娘面前瞎晃，大跳新式查尔斯顿舞什么的。我相信，总有一天，公交车上会挤满这些身着晚礼服的年轻人，矿工的儿子们，为的是赶去舞厅泡妞，更不用说那些开车或者骑摩托载女友去耍的小子们。他们从未认真考虑过任何事——除了唐卡斯特和德比的赛马会，他们从来不会错过下注的机会。当然还有足球！但就连足球也不如往日那般火爆，比以前差得太远。他们说踢球就像做苦工。不，每周六下午，他们更愿意骑着摩托，去谢菲尔德或者诺丁汉厮混。”“他们去那儿做什么呢？”“哦，消磨时光——去帝王茶社这样的高档地方喝茶——带着马子，去舞厅、电影院或者帝国剧院。女孩们跟男孩一样无所顾忌。她们想干啥就干啥。”“可没钱做这些的时候，他们怎么办呢？”“他们也能得过且过。不过会骂骂脏话。男孩们只想有钱享乐，女孩们则追求漂亮衣装，他们对其他事情都漠不关心，所以不会跟布尔什维克有啥关联。他们没那个头脑，成不了社会主义者。他们不会认真地对待任何事，也永远无法正经起来。”听到这里，康妮想，底层阶级跟其他阶层真是如出一辙。无论是特弗沙尔、梅费尔或者肯辛顿，都没啥两样。如今只存在一个阶级，那就是拜金主义者。拜金男和拜金女，唯一的差别是你拥有多少钱，想得到多少钱。

Under Mrs. Bolton's influence, Clifford began to take a new interest in the mines. He began to feel he belonged. A new sort of self-assertion came into him. After all, he was the real boss in Tevershall, he was really the pits. It was a new sense of power, something he had till now shrunk from with dread.

受到博尔顿太太的影响，克利福德对煤矿生出新的兴趣。他渐渐找到某种归属感。新的雄心壮志油然而生。他毕竟是特弗沙尔真正的主人，矿场的存亡与他息息相关。他重新体验到大权在握的感觉，而之前，他曾对此权柄望而生畏。

Tevershall pits were running thin. There were only two collieries: Tevershall itself, and New London. Tevershall had once been a famous mine, and had made famous money. But its best days were over. New London was never very rich, and in ordinary times just got along decently. But now times were bad, and it was pits like New London that got left.

特弗沙尔地区的矿坑产量日减。还在经营的煤矿仅剩两处，除特弗沙尔之外，还有新伦敦。特弗沙尔煤矿也曾远近闻名，收益颇丰。但其巅峰时代已经逝去。新伦敦则从未有过好景气，平时也只是勉强维持而已。如今，大环境如此糟糕，新伦敦这样的煤矿迟早要关门大吉。

"There's a lot of Tevershall men left and gone to Stacks Gate and Whiteover," said Mrs. Bolton. "You've not seen the new works at Stacks Gate, opened after the war, have you, Sir Clifford? Oh, you must go one day, they're something quite new: great big chemical works at the pit-head, doesn't look a bit like a colliery. They say they get more money out of the chemical by-products than out of the coal—I forget what it is. And the grand new houses for the men, fair mansions! Of course it's brought a lot of riff-raff from all over the country. But a lot of Tevershall men got on there, and doin' well, a lot better than our own men. They say Tevershall's done, finished: only a question of a few more years, and it'll have to shut down. And New London'll go first. My word, won't it be funny when there's no Tevershall pit working. It's bad enough during a strike, but my word, if it closes for good, it'll be like the end of the world. Even when I was a girl it was the best pit in the country, and a man counted himself lucky if he could on here. Oh, there's been some money made in Tevershall. And now the men say it's a sinking ship, and it's time they all got out. Doesn't it sound awful! But of course there's a lot as'll never go till they have to. They don't like these new fangled mines, such a depth, and all machinery to work them. Some of them simply dreads those iron men, as they call them, those machines for hewing the coal, where men always did it before. And they say it's wasteful as well. But what goes in waste is saved in wages, and a lot more. It seems soon there'll be no use for men on the face of the earth, it'll be all machines. But they say that's what folks said when they had to give up the old stocking frames. I can remember one or two. But my word, the more machines, the more people, that's what it looks like! They say you can't get the same chemicals out of Tevershall coal as you can out of Stacks Gate, and that's funny, they're not three miles apart. But they say so. But everybody says it's a shame something can't be started, to keep the men going a bit better, and employ the girls. All the girls traipsing off to Sheffield every day! My word, it would be something to talk about if Tevershall Collieries took a new lease of life, after everybody saying they're finished, and a sinking ship, and the men ought to leave them like rats leave a sinking ship. But folks talk so much, of course there was a boom during the war. When Sir Geoffrey made a trust of himself and got the money safe for ever, somehow. So they say! But they say even the masters and the owners don't get much out of it now. You can hardly believe it, can you! Why I always thought the pits would go on for ever and ever. Who'd have thought, when I was a girl! But New England's shut down, so is Colwick Wood: yes, it's fair haunting to go through that coppy and see Colwick Wood standing there deserted among the trees, and bushes growing up all over the pit-head, and the lines red rusty. It's like death itself, a dead colliery. Why, whatever should we do if Tevershall shut down—? It doesn't bear thinking of. Always that throng it's been, except at strikes, and even then the fan-wheels didn't stand, except when they fetched the ponies up. I'm sure it's a funny world, you don't know where you are from year to year, you really don't.” It was Mrs. Bolton's talk that really put a new fight into Clifford. His income, as she pointed out to him, was secure, from his father's trust, even though it was not large. The pits did not really concern him. It was the other world he wanted to capture, the world of literature and fame; the popular world, not the working world.