'Is it too sudden to be asked thus, my Pretty?'
“是不是我这样向你求婚太突然了，我的美人儿？”

'Yes - I did not expect it.'
“是的——我一点儿也没有想到。”

'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.'
“如果你想把这件事拖一拖，也行，苔丝，我会给你时间的，”他说。“我一回来就立刻向你提这件事，的确是太唐突了。隔一阵儿我再提这件事吧。”

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，重新开始工作起来。可是她无法像在其它时候那样，能够用所需要的灵巧手法，把勺子精确地伸到奶油的底层下面。她尽力而为，但是有时候她把勺子撇到了牛奶里，有时候什么也撇不着。她的眼睛几乎看不见了，悲伤给她的一双眼睛注满了泪水，模糊了她的视线；对于她这位最好的朋友，她亲爱的辩护人，她是永远无法向他解释的。

'I can't skim - I can't!' she said, turning away from him.
“我撇不着奶油了——我撇不着了！”她转过身去说。

Not to agitate and hinder her longer the considerate Clare began talking in a more general way:
为了不让她激动，不妨碍她的工作，细心体贴的克莱尔开始用一种更加轻松的方式同她说话：

'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?'
“你完全误解了我的父母。他们都是最朴实的人，也是完全没有野心的人。福音派的教徒所剩无几了，他们就是其中的两个。苔丝，你是一个福音教徒吗？”

'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，他们告诉我，我们这儿的牧师并不是什么高教派。”

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.
苔丝每个星期都去教堂听教区的牧师讲道，但是她对那个牧师的印象却十分模糊，甚至比从来都没有见过那个牧师的克莱尔还要模糊。