After dinner, according to immemorial custom, Mrs. Archer and Janey trailed their long silk draperies up to the drawing-room,
晚餐之后,按照自古以来的习惯,阿切尔太太与詹尼拖着长长的绸裙到楼上客厅里去了。
where, while the gentlemen smoked below stairs, they sat beside a Carcel lamp with an engraved globe,
当绅士们在楼下吸烟的时候,她们在一台带搂刻灯罩的卡索式灯旁,
facing each other across a rosewood work-table with a green silk bag under it,
面对面地在一张黄檀木缝纫桌两边坐下,桌底下挂一个绿色丝绸袋,
and stitched at the two ends of a tapestry band of field-flowers destined to adorn an "occasional" chair in the drawing- room of young Mrs. Newland Archer.
两人在一块花罩毯两端缝缀起来,那以鲜花铺底的罩毯是预定用来装饰小纽兰·阿切尔太太的客厅里那把“备用”椅子的。
While this rite was in progress in the drawing-room,
这一仪式在客厅里进行的同时,
Archer settled Mr. Jackson in an armchair near the fire in the Gothic library and handed him a cigar.
在那间哥特式的图书室里,阿切尔正让杰克逊先生坐进火炉近处的一把扶手椅,并递给他一支雪茄。
Mr. Jackson sank into the armchair with satisfaction,
杰克逊先生舒舒服服坐在椅子里,
lit his cigar with perfect confidence (it was Newland who bought them),
信心十足地点着了雪茄(这是纽兰买的)。
and stretching his thin old ankles to the coals, said:
他把瘦削的脚踝朝煤炉前伸了伸,说:
"You say the secretary merely helped her to get away, my dear fellow?
“你说那个秘书仅仅是帮她逃跑吗。亲爱的?
Well, he was still helping her a year later, then; for somebody met 'em living at Lausanne together."
可一年之后他仍然在继续帮助她呢。有人在洛桑亲眼看见他们住在一起。”
Newland reddened.
纽兰脸红了。
"Living together? Well, why not? Who had the right to make her life over if she hadn't?
“住在一起?哎,为什么不可以?假如她自己没有结束她的人生,又有谁有权去结束呢?
I'm sick of the hypocrisy that would bury alive a woman of her age if her husband prefers to live with harlots."
把她这样年轻的女子活活葬送,而她的丈夫却可以与娼妓在一起鬼混。我痛恨这种伪善的观点。”
He stopped and turned away angrily to light his cigar.
他打住话头,气愤地转过身去点着雪茄。
"Women ought to be free--as free as we are,"
“女人应当有自由——跟我们一样的自由,”
he declared, making a discovery of which he was too irritated to measure the terrific consequences.
他断然地说。他仿佛有了一种新的发现,而由于过分激动,还无法估量其可怕的后果。
Mr. Sillerton Jackson stretched his ankles nearer the coals and emitted a sardonic whistle.
西勒顿·杰克逊先生把脚踝伸得离炉火更近一些,嘲讽地打了一个唿哨。
"Well," he said after a pause,
“嗯,”他停了一下说,
"apparently Count Olenski takes your view; for I never heard of his having lifted a finger to get his wife back."
“奥兰斯卡伯爵显然和你持相同的观点;因为我从未听说他动过一根指头去把妻子弄回来。”