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He knew, of course, that whatever man dared (within Fifth Avenue's limits)
他当然知道，男人敢做的任何事，第五大街范围之内，
that old Mrs. Manson Mingott, the Matriarch of the line, would dare.
老曼森·明戈特太太这位女族长都敢做。
He had always admired the high and mighty old lady,
他一向崇拜这位高大刚毅的老夫人，
who, in spite of having been only Catherine Spicer of Staten Island,
尽管她原来不过是斯塔腾岛的凯瑟琳·斯派塞，
with a father mysteriously discredited, and neither money nor position enough to make people forget it,
有一位神秘的名誉扫地的父亲，那件事无论金钱还是地位都难以让人们忘记。
had allied herself with the head of the wealthy Mingott line, married two of her daughters to "foreigners" (an Italian marquis and an English banker),
然而，她却与富有的明戈特家族的领头人联了姻，把两个女儿嫁给了 “外国人”，一个意大利侯爵，一个英国银行家，
and put the crowning touch to her audacities by building a large house of pale cream-coloured stone (when brown sandstone seemed as much the only wear as a frock-coat in the afternoon)
并且她的刚毅手段达到了登峰造极的地步，因为她建了一所乳白色石头大宅院(正值棕色沙石仿佛像下午的长礼服那样清一色的时候)，
in an inaccessible wilderness near the Central Park.
而且就在中央公园附近无法插足的荒地里。
Old Mrs. Mingott's foreign daughters had become a legend.
老明戈特太太的两个外籍女儿成了一则神话故事。
They never came back to see their mother, and the latter being, like many persons of active mind and dominating will,
她们从不回来看望母亲。母亲像许多思想活跃、意志专横的人那样，
sedentary and corpulent in her habit, had philosophically remained at home.
端坐高堂，身体发福，一直达观地留在家中。
But the cream-coloured house (supposed to be modelled on the private hotels of the Parisian aristocracy) was there as a visible proof of her moral courage;
而那幢乳白色的房子，据说是仿照巴黎贵族的私人旅馆建造的，却成了她大无畏精神的见证。
and she throned in it, among pre-Revolutionary furniture and souvenirs of the Tuileries of Louis Napoleon (where she had shone in her middle age),
她在里面登上宝座，在独立战争前的家具与路易·拿破仑杜伊勒利宫(她中年时曾在那儿大出风头)的纪念品中间，
as placidly as if there were nothing peculiar in living above Thirty-fourth Street, or in having French windows that opened like doors instead of sashes that pushed up.
平静地生活，仿佛住在34街以北、用开得像门一样大的法式窗户代替推拉式吊窗丝毫不足为怪似的。
Every one (including Mr. Sillerton Jackson) was agreed that old Catherine had never had beauty—
人人(包括西勒顿·杰克逊先生)都一致认为，老凯瑟琳从没拥有过美貌，
a gift which, in the eyes of New York, justified every success, and excused a certain number of failings.
而在纽约人眼中，美貌是成功的保证，也可作为某些失败的借口。
Unkind people said that, like her Imperial namesake,
不友善的人们说，像她那位大英帝国的同名女人一样，
she had won her way to success by strength of will and hardness of heart,
她获得成功靠的是意志力量与冷酷心肠，
and a kind of haughty effrontery that was somehow justified by the extreme decency and dignity of her private life.
外加一种由于私生活绝对正派而使她在一定程度上免遭非议的傲慢。
