This penitential mood kept her from naming the wedding-day. The beginning of November found its date still in abeyance, though he asked her at the most tempting times. But Tess's desire seemed to be for a perpetual betrothal in which everything should remain as it was then.
苔絲這種悔恨的心情，妨礙她遲遲不能把婚期確定下來。到了十一月初，盡管克萊爾曾經(jīng)多次抓住良機問她，但是結婚的日子仍然遙遙無期。苔絲的愿望似乎是要永遠保持一種訂婚的狀態(tài)，要讓一切都和現(xiàn)在一樣維持不動。

The meads were changing now; but it was still warm enough in early afternoons before milking to idle there awhile, and the state of dairy-work at this time of year allowed a spare hour for idling. Looking over the damp sod in the direction of the sun, a glistening ripple of gossamer webs was visible to their eyes under the luminary, like the track of moonlight on the sea. Gnats, knowing nothing of their brief glorification, wandered across the shimmer of this pathway, irradiated as if they bore fire within them, then passed out of its line, and were quite extinct. In the presence of these things he would remind her that the date was still the question.
草場現(xiàn)在正發(fā)生著變化；不過太陽仍然很暖和，在下午之前還可以出去散一會兒步，在一年中的這個時候，奶牛場的活兒不緊，還有空余的時間出去散步。朝太陽方向的濕潤的草地上望去，只見游絲一樣的蛛網(wǎng)在太陽下起伏，形成閃亮的細小波浪，好像灑落在海浪中的天上月光。蚊蟲似乎對自己的短暫光榮一無所知，它們從小路上的亮光中飛過去，閃耀著光芒，仿佛身上帶有火焰，它們一飛出了亮光，就完全消失不見了。在這樣的情景里，克萊爾就會提醒苔絲，他們的婚期仍然還沒有定下來。

Or he would ask her at night, when he accompanied her on some mission invented by Mrs Crick to give him the opportunity. This was mostly a journey to the farmhouse on the slopes above the vale, to inquire how the advanced cows were getting on in the straw-barton to which they were relegated. For it was a time of the year that brought great changes to the world of kine. Batches of the animals were sent away daily to this lying-in hospital, where they lived on straw till their calves were born, after which event, and as soon as the calf could walk, mother and offspring were driven back to the dairy. In the interval which elapsed before the calves were sold there was, of course, little milking to be done, but as soon as the calf had been taken away the milkmaids would have to set to work as usual.
有時候克里克太太想法給他在晚上派一些差事，讓他有機會和苔絲在一起，他也會在這種時候問她。這種差事，大多是到谷外山坡上的農(nóng)舍里去，打聽飼養(yǎng)在干草場里快要生產(chǎn)的母牛情況。因為在一年中的這個季節(jié)，正是母牛群發(fā)生巨大變化的時候。每天都有一批批母牛被送進這所產(chǎn)科醫(yī)院，它們要在醫(yī)院里喂養(yǎng)起來，一直到小牛出生了，然后才被送回到奶牛場里去。在奶牛被賣掉的這一段時間里，自然沒有什么牛奶可擠，但是小牛一旦被賣掉以后，擠奶姑娘們就又要像往常一樣工作了。