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These indications of inward disturbance moved Archer the more that he too felt that the Mingotts had gone a little too far.
这些内心不安的暗示更加让阿切尔感动，以致他也觉得明戈特家走得有点太远了。
But, as it was against all the rules of their code that the mother and son should ever allude to what was uppermost in their thoughts,
但是，母亲与儿子之间谈论心中刚生的念头，是完全违背他们的道德规范的，
he simply replied:
所以他只是回答说：
"Oh, well, there's always a phase of family parties to be gone through when one gets engaged, and the sooner it's over the better."
“唉，一个人订婚后总要参加一系列的家族聚会，这种活动结束得越快越好。”
At which his mother merely pursed her lips under the lace veil that hung down from her grey velvet bonnet trimmed with frosted grapes.
听了这话，他母亲只是隔着从饰有霜冻葡萄的灰丝绒帽上垂下的网状面纱撇了撇嘴。
Her revenge, he felt--her lawful revenge--would be to "draw" Mr. Jackson that evening on the Countess Olenska;
他觉得，她的报复——她的合法的报复——就是要在今晚从杰克逊先生口中“引出”奥兰斯卡伯爵夫人的事。
and, having publicly done his duty as a future member of the Mingott clan,
年轻人既然已经当众尽了明戈特家族未来成员的义务，
the young man had no objection to hearing the lady discussed in private--
他并不反对听一听对那位夫人的私下议论——
except that the subject was already beginning to bore him.
只不过这话题已经开始让他感到厌烦。
Mr. Jackson had helped himself to a slice of the tepid filet which the mournful butler had handed him with a look as sceptical as his own,
杰克逊先生吃了一片那位脸色阴沉的男仆带着跟他相同的怀疑目光递给他的半冷不热的鱼片。
and had rejected the mushroom sauce after a scarcely perceptible sniff.
他用让人难以觉察的动作嗅了嗅蘑菇浇头，拒绝了它。
He looked baffled and hungry, and Archer reflected that he would probably finish his meal on Ellen Olenska.
他脸色沮丧，样子很饿。阿切尔心想，他很可能要靠谈论埃伦·奥兰斯卡来充饥了。
Mr. Jackson leaned back in his chair,
杰克逊先生在椅子里向后靠了靠，
and glanced up at the candlelit Archers, Newlands and van der Luydens hanging in dark frames on the dark walls.
抬眼看了看烛光下挂在昏暗墙壁上深色相框里的阿切尔们、纽兰们，以及范德卢顿们。
"Ah, how your grandfather Archer loved a good dinner, my dear Newland!"
“唉，你的祖父阿切尔多么喜爱丰盛的晚餐啊，亲爱的纽兰！”
he said, his eyes on the portrait of a plump full-chested young man in a stock and a blue coat,
他说，眼睛盯着一位胖胖的胸部饱满的年轻人的画像，那人打着宽领带，穿一件蓝外套，
with a view of a white-columned country-house behind him.
身后是一所带白色圆柱的乡间别墅。
"Well--well--well . . . I wonder what he would have said to all these foreign marriages!"
“可——可——可不知他会如何看待这些异国婚姻！”
Mrs. Archer ignored the allusion to the ancestral cuisine and Mr. Jackson continued with deliberation:
阿切尔太太没有理睬他有关老祖母的菜肴的话，杰克逊先生从容地接下去说：
"No, she was NOT at the ball."
“不，她没到舞会上去。”
"Ah--" Mrs. Archer murmured, in a tone that implied: "She had that decency."
“噢——”阿切尔太太低声说，那口气仿佛是说：“她总算还知礼。”
