But it rusted and cankered at your father's heart for years.

但多年来，它在你父亲的心中生锈腐烂。

It cankered his heart to think he was confronted by the closest instance of a worse state of things than any he had assumed in the pleasant social philosophy and satire of his essays.

一想到他遇到了比他在愉快的社会哲学和讽刺文章中所假设的任何事情都更糟糕的最接近的事例，他的心就痛不欲生。