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Chapter 4
第四章
In the course of the next day the first of the usual betrothal visits were exchanged.
第二天，进行了第一轮例行的订婚互访。
The New York ritual was precise and inflexible in such matters;
在这类事情上，纽约的礼规一丝不苟，毫无变动可言。
and in conformity with it Newland Archer first went with his mother and sister to call on Mrs. Welland,
遵照这一礼节，纽兰·阿切尔先与母亲、妹妹一起去拜访了韦兰太太，
after which he and Mrs. Welland and May drove out to old Mrs. Manson Mingott's to receive that venerable ancestress's blessing.
然后再与韦兰太太和梅乘车去曼森·明戈特老太太家接受这位尊敬的老祖宗的祝福。
A visit to Mrs. Manson Mingott was always an amusing episode to the young man.
拜访曼森·明戈特太太永远是年轻人的一件乐事。
The house in itself was already an historic document,
那房子本身就是一个历史的见证，
though not, of course, as venerable as certain other old family houses in University Place and lower Fifth Avenue.
尽管它自然不会像大学区与第五大街南部某些住宅那样令人肃然起敬。
Those were of the purest 1830, with a grim harmony of cabbage-rose-garlanded carpets, rosewood consoles,
那些住宅清一色是1830年建的，里面那些百叶蔷薇图案的地毯、黄檀木的蜗形支腿桌案、
round-arched fire-places with black marble mantels,
黑大理石面饰的圆拱形壁炉，
and immense glazed book-cases of mahogany;
还有锃亮的红木大书橱，显得既古板又协调。
whereas old Mrs. Mingott, who had built her house later,
而明戈特老太太的住宅建得晚一些，
had bodily cast out the massive furniture of her prime,
她悉数摈弃了年轻时代那些笨重的家具，
and mingled with the Mingott heirlooms the frivolous upholstery of the Second Empire.
将第二帝国轻浮的室内装饰品与明戈特的传家宝熔为一炉。
It was her habit to sit in a window of her sitting-room on the ground floor,
她坐在一楼客厅的窗户后面，
as if watching calmly for life and fashion to flow northward to her solitary doors.
仿佛是在安详地等候着社交活动与时尚的潮流滚滚北上，流向她冷落的门坎。
She seemed in no hurry to have them come, for her patience was equalled by her confidence.
她看起来并不急于让它们来到，因为她的耐心与她的信心不相上下。
She was sure that presently the hoardings, the quarries,
她深信那些囤积物与猎获物，
the one-story saloons, the wooden green-houses in ragged gardens, and the rocks from which goats surveyed the scene,
那些单层的厅房、荒芜花园里的木制暖房以及山羊登临的石基，
would vanish before the advance of residences as stately as her own
不久就会随着新住宅的推进而提前消逝，而那些新的宅邸将跟她的家一样富丽堂皇
--perhaps (for she was an impartial woman) even statelier;
——或许（她是个不带偏见的女人）比她的更为壮观。
and that the cobble-stones over which the old clattering omnibuses bumped would be replaced by smooth asphalt,
而且，那些老式公共马车卡嗒卡嗒颠簸于其上的卵石路也将被平滑的柏油路面取代，
such as people reported having seen in Paris.
就像人们传闻在巴黎见过的那样。
Meanwhile, as every one she cared to see came to HER
同时，由于她乐于接见的人全都过来看她
(and she could fill her rooms as easily as the Beauforts, and without adding a single item to the menu of her suppers),
她能像博福特夫妇那样，轻而易举把她家的客厅塞满，而且无须往晚餐菜单里加一道菜，
she did not suffer from her geographic isolation.
她也并不因为住处偏僻而受与世隔绝之苦。
