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"I had sat for about twenty minutes turning the thing over in my mind and trying to find some possible explanation.
"我坐了有二十分钟，脑中翻腾着这件事，设法寻找一些可能的解释。
The more I thought, the more extraordinary and inexplicable did it appear.
我越想越觉得离奇古怪，莫名片妙。
I was still puzzling over it when I heard the door gently close again, and her footsteps coming up the stairs.
我正在苦苦思索这件事时，听到门又轻轻关上了，我妻子走上楼来。
'Where in the world have you been, Effie?' I asked as she entered.
'你半夜三更到哪里去了，艾菲？'她一进来，我便问道。
She gave a violent start and a kind of gasping cry when I spoke,
听我一说，她立即大惊失色，猛然尖叫了一声。
and that cry and start troubled me more than all the rest, for there was something indescribably guilty about them.
这一惊一叫比其他的事更使我烦恼，因为这里面具有难以形容的内疚之意。
My wife had always been a woman of a frank, open nature,
我妻子向来是一个真诚而性情直爽的女人，
and it gave me a chill to see her slinking into her own room and crying out and wincing when her own husband spoke to her.
看到她悄悄溜进自己的屋内，而当丈夫问话时竟然惊呼出声，畏缩不安，这真使我异常寒心。
'You awake, Jack!' she cried with a nervous laugh. 'Why, I thought that nothing could awake you.'
'你醒了，杰克！'她勉强笑了笑，大声说道，'怎么，我还以为没有什么能把你吵醒呢。'
'Where have you been?' I asked, more sternly.
'你到哪里去了？'我更加严厉地问道。
'I don't wonder that you are surprised,' said she, and I could see that her fingers were trembling as she undid the fastenings of her mantle.
'无怪乎你要觉得惊奇了，'她说道。我看到她在解斗篷上的钮扣时，手指不住颤抖。
'Why, I never remember having done such a thing in my life before.
'呃，以前我从未做过这样的事。
The fact is that I felt as though I were choking and had a perfect longing for a breath of fresh air.
事实是这样的：我觉得好像有些气闷，特别想透一透新鲜空气。
I really think that I should have fainted if I had not gone out. I stood at the door for a few minutes, and now I am quite myself again.'
假如我不出去，我真以为我要晕倒了。我在门外站了几分钟，现在已经完全恢复过来了。'
All the time that she was telling me this story she never once looked in my direction, and her voice was quite unlike her usual tones.
她说这番话的时候，始终不敢向我这边看一眼，她的声音也完全不象平常的语调。
It was evident to me that she was saying what was false.
这就说明她说的都是假话。
I said nothing in reply, but turned my face to the wall, sick at heart, with my mind filled with a thousand venomous doubts and suspicions.
我没有回答，把脸转向墙壁，非常伤心，心中充满了千百种恶意的猜测和怀疑。
What was it that my wife was concealing from me? Where had she been during that strange expedition?
我妻子对我隐瞒什么呢？她这次奇怪的外出，究竟到哪里去了？
I felt that I should have no peace until I knew, and yet I shrank from asking her again after once she had told me what was false.
我感到，在我查明这件事的底细以前，我是不会安宁的，可是，在她向我说过一次假话以后，我不愿再问她什么了。
All the rest of the night I tossed and tumbled, framing theory after theory, each more unlikely than the last."
这一夜我一直辗转反侧，忐忑不安，猜来猜去，越想越糊涂。"
