Though he was soon satisfied that he had dismissed the idea as romantic and unlikely though possible, there was no denying he could not help pursuing it so far as to entertain within himself a picture of what his condition would be, if he should discover such an imposture when he was grown old. Whether a man so situated would be able to pluck away the result of so many years of usage, confidence, and belief, from the impostor, and endow a stranger with it? But it was idle speculating thus. It couldn't happen. In a moment afterwards he determined that it could, but that such women were constantly observed, and had no opportunity given them for the accomplishment of such a design, even when they were so wicked as to entertain it. In another moment, he was remembering how few such cases seemed to have ever happened. In another moment he was wondering whether they ever happened and were not found out.

虽然不久他就认为这是个荒唐古怪、不大可能（当然不可否认，也有可能）的想法，把它打消了，因而心里也安定下来了，可是他却情不自禁地沿着这个思路继续想下去，以至于在心中构思出这样一幅图景：如果当他年老的时候发现了这样一个骗局的话，那么他将会是怎样一种状况呢？在这种情况下，一个人是不是能把由于多年相处所产生的信任与宠爱从这个冒名顶替者的身上除去，然后把它们倾注到一位陌生人的身上呢？

As his unusual emotion subsided, these misgivings gradually melted away, though so much of their shadow remained behind, that he was constant in his resolution to look closely after Richards himself, without appearing to do so. Being now in an easier frame of mind, he regarded the woman's station as rather an advantageous circumstance than otherwise, by placing, in itself, a broad distance between her and the child, and rendering their separation easy and natural. Thence he passed to the contemplation of the future glories of Dombey and Son, and dismissed the memory of his wife, for the time being, with a tributary sigh or two.

当他这不寻常的情绪平息下来之后，这些顾虑也就逐渐消散了，虽然也留下了好些阴影，因此他决定不让别人看出，由他亲自来密切监视理查兹。当他现在心情比较轻松一些的时候，他认为这女人的社会地位反而是一种有利的情况，因为它本身在她与孩子之间就隔开了一道宽阔的距离，因此他们今后相互疏远将会是容易和自然的。