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He was touched, as he had been the evening before when she spoke of her need of guidance.
他深受感动，就像前一天晚上听她说到她需要指导时那样。
"That's what your friends want you to feel. New York's an awfully safe place," he added with a flash of sarcasm.
“你的朋友们就是希望你有安全感，纽约是个极为安全的地方。”他略带挖苦地补上一句。
"Yes, isn't it? One feels that," she cried, missing the mockery.
“不错，是这样。我能感觉到，”她大声地说，并没有觉察他话中的讽刺。
"Being here is like--like--being taken on a holiday when one has been a good little girl and done all one's lessons."
“住在这儿就像——就像——一个听话的小姑娘做完所有的功课，被带去度假一样。”
The analogy was well meant, but did not altogether please him.
这个比喻本是善意的，但却不能让他完全满意。
He did not mind being flippant about New York, but disliked to hear any one else take the same tone.
他不在乎自己对纽约社会说些轻浮的话，却不喜欢听别人使用同样的腔调。
He wondered if she did not begin to see what a powerful engine it was, and how nearly it had crushed her.
他不知她是否真的还没看出，纽约社会是个威力强大的机器，曾经险些将她碾得粉碎。
The Lovell Mingotts' dinner, patched up in extremis out of all sorts of social odds and ends,
洛弗尔·明戈特家的宴会动用了各种社交手段，才在最后时刻得到补救——
ought to have taught her the narrowness of her escape;
这件事应该让她明白，她的处境是多么危险。
but either she had been all along unaware of having skirted disaster,
然而，要么她对躲过的灾难压根儿一无所知，
or else she had lost sight of it in the triumph of the van der Luyden evening. Archer inclined to the former theory;
要么是范德卢顿晚会的成功使她视而不见。阿切尔倾向于前一种推测。
he fancied that her New York was still completely undifferentiated, and the conjecture nettled him.
他想，她眼中的纽约对人依然是一视同仁的，这一揣测让他心烦意乱。
"Last night," he said, "New York laid itself out for you. The van der Luydens do nothing by halves."
“昨天晚上，”他说，“纽约社交界竭尽全力地欢迎你；范德卢顿夫妇干什么事都是全心全意。”
"No, how kind they are! It was such a nice party. Every one seems to have such an esteem for them."
“是啊，他们对我太好了！这次聚会非常愉快。人人好像都很敬重他们。”
The terms were hardly adequate; she might have spoken in that way of a tea-party at the dear old Miss Lannings'.
这说法很难算得上准确；她若如此评价可爱的老拉宁小姐的茶会还差不多。
"The van der Luydens," said Archer, feeling himself pompous as he spoke, "are the most powerful influence in New York society.
阿切尔自命不凡地说：“范德卢顿夫妇是纽约上流社会最有影响的人物。
Unfortunately--owing to her health--they receive very seldom."
不幸的是——由于她的健康原因——他们极少接待客人。”
She unclasped her hands from behind her head, and looked at him meditatively.
她松开脑袋后面的两只手，沉思地看着他。
"Isn't that perhaps the reason?"
“也许正是这个原因吧？”
"The reason--?"
“原因——？”
"For their great influence; that they make themselves so rare."
“他们有巨大影响的原因啊；他们故意很少露面。”
He coloured a little, stared at her--and suddenly felt the penetration of the remark.
他脸色有点发红，瞪大眼睛看着她——猛然顿悟了这句话的洞察力。
At a stroke she had pricked the van der Luydens and they collapsed. He laughed, and sacrificed them.
经她轻轻一击，范德卢顿夫妇便垮台了。他放声大笑，把他们做了牺牲品。
