第1032页 第五十八章

I had always felt my weakness, in comparison with her constancy and fortitude; and now I felt it more and more. Whatever I might have been to her, or she to me, if I had been more worthy of her long ago, I was not now, and she was not. The time was past. I had let it go by, and had deservedly lost her.
That I suffered much in these contentions, that they filled me with unhappiness and remorse, and yet that I had a sustaining sense that it was required of me, in right and honour, to keep away from myself, with shame, the thought of turning to the dear girl in the withering of my hopes, from whom I had frivolously turned when they were bright and fresh - which consideration was at the root of every thought I had concerning her - is all equally true. I made no effort to conceal from myself, now, that I loved her, that I was devoted to her; but I brought the assurance home to myself, that it was now too late, and that our long-subsisting relation must be undisturbed.
I had thought, much and often, of my Dora's shadowing out to me what might have happened, in those years that were destined not to try us; I had considered how the things that never happen, are often as much realities to us, in their effects, as those that are accomplished. The very years she spoke of, were realities now, for my correction; and would have been, one day, a little later perhaps, though we had parted in our earliest folly. I endeavoured to convert what might have been between myself and Agnes, into a means of making me more self-denying, more resolved, more conscious of myself, and my defects and errors. Thus, through the reflection that it might have been, I arrived at the conviction that it could never be.
这几段是理解David对Agnes真实感情的关键内容。张老先生的翻译看起来实在有点费解，我重译如下：
 我总是感受到自己的软弱，却感受到她的坚定与坚韧；而我现在对此感受更深。不管我对她可能意味着什么，或者她对我可能意味着什么，如果说很久以前我更加配得上她，我已经不是那个我了，她也不是那个她了。时间过去了，我让它过去了，于是理所当然地失去了她。 
我在这种内心的挣扎中受尽折磨，它们使我满怀痛楚与悔恨，以及我持续感觉到，我得在尊荣中要求自己带着羞愧远离那种想法，那种在我的希望已经枯萎的时候回头倾心这位亲爱的女子的想法，因我在我的希望正新鲜、光明的时候愚蠢地背向了她——这种考虑是我一切与她有关想法的根基——凡此种种，都同样的真实。我现在完全对自己坦白：我爱她，我眷恋她；但我让自己确信，现在已经太迟了，我们长期保持的关系应该不受打扰。
我现在常常想到我的Dora向我暗示可能要发生的一些事情，在那些年头里命中注定没有发生；我想到有些事情虽然没有发生，而在其产生的影响上来说，却跟实实在在发生过的事情是一样的。她所说的那些年头，现在成为事实了，来纠正我了；即使我们在愚不更事的早年就分离了，这也可能在稍晚一些时候，总有一天成为事实的。我努力想要将我和Agnes之间可能存在的，转化为一种使我更加克己、更加坚定、更加意识到自己和自己的缺点与错误的方法。于是，从它可能实现的映像中，我获得了它永远不可能实现的信念。