'No. I have thought it sad - especially since coming here, and knowing that many of the hills and fields I see once belonged to my father's people. But other hills and fields belonged to Retty's people, and perhaps others to Marian's, so that I don't value it particularly.'“不。我倒覺得悲傷——尤其是我來到這兒以后，聽人說到這兒許多山林田地過去都是我們家的，我倒覺得悲傷。不過，有些山林田地屬于萊蒂家里，有些屬于瑪麗安家里，因此我也不特別覺得這有什么用處了。”

'Yes - it is surprising how many of the present tillers of the soil were once owners of it, and I sometimes wonder that a certain school of politicians don't make capital of the circumstance; but they don't seem to know it... . I wonder that I did not see the resemblance of your name to d'Urberville, and trace the manifest corruption. And this was the carking secret!'“不錯——現在是這兒土地的佃戶而過去是它們主人的人，多得讓人感到吃驚呢，有時候我在想，為什么某一派的政治家不利用這種情形；不過他們好像不知道這種情形……我還想知道，為什么我看不出你的名字同德貝維爾有相同的地方，也查考不出有什么明顯衰敗的地方。原來這就是你焦慮不安的秘密啊！”

She had not told. At the last moment her courage had failed her, she feared his blame for not telling him sooner; and her instinct of self-preservation was stronger than her candour.她沒有把她的秘密講出來。她的勇氣在最后一刻消失了，她擔心他會埋怨她沒有早點告訴他；她自我保護的力量比她想坦白的勇氣大得多。

'Of course,' continued the unwitting Clare, 'I should have been glad to know you to be descended exclusively from the long-suffering, dumb, unrecorded rank and file of the English nation, and not from the self-seeking few who made themselves powerful at the expense of the rest. But I am corrupted away from that by my affection for you, Tess [he laughed as he spoke], and made selfish likewise. For your own sake I rejoice in your descent. Society is hopelessly snobbish, and this fact of your extraction may make an appreciable difference to its acceptance of you as my wife, after I have made you the well-read woman that I mean to make you. My mother too, poor soul, will think so much better of you on account of it. Tess, you must spell your name correctly - d'Urberville - from this very day.'“當然，”蒙在鼓里的克萊爾繼續說，“我的確希望知道，你純粹是出生在一個長期受苦、默默無聞和在英國檔案和世家中沒有記載的家庭，而不是出生在一個為了一己之私而犧牲多數人利益使自己得勢的少數家庭。但是因為我愛上了你，所以我也學壞了，苔絲，我也變得自私了。為了你的緣故，我喜歡你的出身。社會的勢利是沒有辦法了，我要按照我的意思讓你變成一個博學的女子，然后再做我的妻子就能被人接受了，你的德貝維爾后裔的身分也要變得大不一樣了。我的母親，可憐的人，也會因此而看重你了。苔絲，從今天起，你應該把你的姓改過來，改成德貝維爾。”

'I like the other way rather best.'“我寧肯要另外一個姓。”