孩子。

Does your throat hurt you? Added the mother to the child.女孩的表情没有任何变化，而她的目光却一直没有从我的脸上移开。

But the little girl’s expression didn’t change nor did she move her eyes from my face.你看过她的嗓子了吗？Have you looked?我想看，孩子的母亲说，但看不见。

I tried to, said the mother but II couldn’t see.这个月碰巧她上学的那个学校已经有好几例白喉病。

虽然到目前为止没有人说出这件事，但很显然，我们心里都想到了。

As it happens we had been having a number of cases of diphtheria in the school to which this child went during that month and we were all, quite apparently, thinking of that, though no one had as yet spoken of the thing.好了，我说，我们先看看嗓子吧。

Well, I said, suppose we take a look at the throat first.我以医生特有的职业方式微笑着，叫着孩子的名字。

我说，来吧，玛蒂尔达，张开嘴，让我看一下你的嗓子。

I smiled in my best professional manner and asking for the child’s first name I said, come on, Mathilda, open your mouth and let’s take a look at your throat.没有任何反应。

Nothing doing.哦，来吧，我劝道，张大你的嘴，让我看看。

看，我说着把两只手伸开，我的手里没有东西，张大嘴，让我看看。

Aw, come on, I coaxed, just open your mouth wide and let me take a look. Look, I said opening both hands wide, I haven’t anything in my hands. Just open up and let me see.他是一个多好的人呀，她的母亲插话道。

你看他对你多好呀，来，听话。

他不会伤害你的。

Such a nice man, put in the mother. Look how kind he is to you. Come on, do what he tells you to. He won’t hurt you.听到这里我狠狠地咬了咬牙，要是他们没用“伤害”这个词，我也许能做点什么，但是我没有着急或恼怒，而是慢声细语地说着话，一边再次靠近这个孩子。

As that I ground my teeth in disgust. If only they wouldn’t use the word “hurt”I might be able to get somewhere. But I did not allow myself to be hurried or disturbed but speaking quietly and slowly I approached the child again.我刚将椅子拉近一点，突然，她像猫一样双手本能地朝我的两眼抓去，我差一点被她抓到。

As I moved my chair a little nearer suddenly with one catlike movement both her hands clawed instinctively for my eyes and she almost reached them too.好在她只是打掉了我的眼镜，虽然眼镜没有碎，但已落到了离我几英尺远的厨房地板上。

In fact she knocked my glasses flying and they fell, though unbroken, several feet away from me on the kitchen floor.父母两人都非常尴尬，充满歉意，你这个坏孩子，母亲一边说，一边抓着她，并摇晃着她的一只手，你看看你做的事。

这么一个好人。

Both the mother and father almost turned themselves inside out in embarrassment and apology. You bad girl, said the mother, taking her and shaking here by one arm. Look what you’ve done. The nice man…看在上帝的份上，我打断了她的话，请不要再在她面前说我是一个好人。

For heaven’s sake, I broke in. Don’t call me a nice man to her.我来是看看她的嗓子，也许她患了白喉，而且很可能会死于这种病。

I’m here to look at her throat on the chance that she might have diphtheria and possibly die of it.但这一切她都不在乎，看这儿，我对女孩说，我们想看看你的嗓子，你不小了，应该明白我说的话，你是自己张开嘴呢，还是我们帮你张开？But that’s nothing to her. Look here, I said to the child, we’re going to look at your throat. You’re old enough to understand what I’m saying. Will you open itnow by yourself or shall we have to open it for you?她仍然一动不动，甚至连表情都没有任何变化。

Not a move. Even her expression hadn’t changed.但是她的呼吸却越来越急促。

Her breaths, however, were coming faster and faster.接着一场战役开始了，我不得不这样做。

Then the battle began. I had to do it.由于她的自我保护，我必须检查一下她的嗓子。

I had to have a throat culture for her own protection.可是我首先告诉家长这完全取决于他们。

But first I told the parents that it was entirely up to them.我说明了其危险性，但同时提出只要他们承担责任我就不会坚持做这次喉咙检查。

I explained the danger but said that I would not insist on a throat examination so long as they would take the responsibility.如果你不按大夫说的去做，你就要去医院了，母亲严厉地警告她。

If you don’t do what the doctor says you’ll have to go to the hospital, the mother admonished her severely.是吗？我只好暗自笑了笑。

毕竟我已经喜欢上了这个野蛮的小东西，但却看不起这对父母。

Oh yeah? I had to smile to myself. After all, I had already fallen in love with the savage brat, the parents were contemptible to me.在接下来的“战斗”中他们越来越难堪，被摧垮了，直至精疲力竭。

而这个女孩由于恐惧，她对我的抗拒达到了惊人的地步。

In the ensuing struggle they grew more and more abject, crushed, exhausted while she surely rose to magnificent heights of insane fury of effort bred of her terror of me.父亲尽了最大的努力，他块头很大，然而事实上他面对着的是他的女儿，由于对她的所作所为感到愧疚和担心伤到她，他每次在我几乎就要成功了的关键时刻放开了她，我真恨不得杀了他。

The father tried his best, and he was a big man but the fact that she was his daughter, his shame at her behavior and his dread of hurting her made him release her just at the critical times when I had almost achieved success, till I wanted to kill him.可是，因为又担心她真会患上白喉，尽管他自己就快昏到了，他又告诉我继续，继续，而她的母亲在我们的身后走来走去，忧愁万分地抖着双手。

But his dread also that she might have diphtheria made him tell me to go on, go on though he himself was almost fainting, while the mother moved back and forth behind us raising and lowering her hands in an agony of apprehension. 把她放在你的大腿上，我命令道，抓住她的两个手腕。

Put her in front of you on your lap, I ordered, and hold both her wrists.然而他刚一动手，女孩就尖叫了一声。

But as soon as he did the child let out a scream.别这样，你会弄疼我的．Don’t, you’re hurting me.放开我的手，放手，我告诉你。