There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.
那天，出門散步是不可能的了。其實，我們早晨還在寸草不生的灌木叢裡閒逛了一小時；但自從午飯後（沒有客人造訪時，裡德夫人就會早些用餐），便颳起了冬日的寒風，接著烏雲滿天，大雨傾盆，戶外活動也就此作罷。
I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.
我倒是很高興。我從來都不喜歡遠距離散步，尤其是在寒冷的下午。一想到在陰冷的黃昏回到家，手腳都凍麻了，還要受到保姆貝西的責備，又覺得自己體力不如伊萊扎、約翰和喬治亞娜，心裡既難過又慚愧，這情形是很糟的。
The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, "She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance;but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.”
現在，前面提到的伊萊扎、約翰和喬治亞娜正在客廳裡，圍著他們的媽媽。她則斜靠在火爐邊的沙發上，身邊是自己的寶貝兒們（他們此時既沒爭吵也沒哭鬧），看起來十分幸福。至於我，她批准我不必加入他們。說她很遺憾，不得不讓我離得遠一點兒。但是，直到她從貝西那裡聽到並親眼見到，我在努力認真地培養更加隨和、天真的性情，更加活潑、可愛的舉止——更輕鬆、率真、自然，可以這麼說——那她就真得剝奪我享受那些只有快樂知足的孩子才配擁有的特權了。
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