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Book 2, Chapter 23.
第二册，第23章。
The next morning, when Archer got out of the Fall River train, he emerged upon a steaming midsummer Boston.
第二天清晨，阿切尔走下福尔里弗号火车，出现在仲夏季节热气腾腾的波士顿。
The streets near the station were full of the smell of beer and coffee and decaying fruit and a shirt- sleeved populace moved through them with the intimate abandon of boarders going down the passage to the bathroom.
邻近车站的街道上弥漫着啤酒、咖啡和腐烂水果的气味，衣着随便的居民穿行其间，他们亲切放纵的神态宛如过道里向洗手间走去的乘客。
Archer found a cab and drove to the Somerset Club for breakfast.
阿切尔租了辆马车去萨默塞特俱乐部吃早餐。
Even the fashionable quarters had the air of untidy domesticity to which no excess of heat ever degrades the European cities.
甚至高级住宅区也同样透出一股杂乱无章的气息；
Care-takers in calico lounged on the door-steps of the wealthy, and the Common looked like a pleasure-ground on the morrow of a Masonic picnic.
而在欧洲，即使天气再热，那些城市也是不会堕落到这种境地的。穿印花布的看门人在富人的门阶上荡来荡去，广场看起来就像共济会野餐后的游乐场。
If Archer had tried to imagine Ellen Olenska in improbable scenes he could not have called up any into which it was more difficult to fit her than this heat-prostrated and deserted Boston.
如果说阿切尔曾竭力想象埃伦·奥兰斯卡所处环境的恶劣不堪，他却从没想到过有哪个地方，会比热浪肆虐、遭人遗弃的波士顿对她更不合适。
He breakfasted with appetite and method, beginning with a slice of melon, and studying a morning paper while he waited for his toast and scrambled eggs.
他慢条斯理地吃着早餐。他胃口极好。他先吃了一片甜瓜，然后一边等吐司和炒蛋，一边读一份晨报。
A new sense of energy and activity had possessed him ever since he had announced to May the night before that he had business in Boston, and should take the Fall River boat that night and go on to New York the following evening.
自从昨晚告诉梅他要去波士顿办公事，需乘当晚的福尔里弗号并于翌日傍晚回纽约之后，他心中就产生了一种充满活力的新鲜感觉。
It had always been understood that he would return to town early in the week, and when he got back from his expedition to Portsmouth a letter from the office, which fate had conspicuously placed on a corner of the hall table, sufficed to justify his sudden change of plan.
大家一直认为，他可能要在周初回城。但显然是命运在作怪，当他从普茨茅斯探险归来时，一封来自事务所的信摆在门厅的桌子角上，为他突然改变计划提供了充足的理由。
He was even ashamed of the ease with which the whole thing had been done: it reminded him, for an uncomfortable moment, of Lawrence Lefferts's masterly contrivances for securing his freedom.
如此轻而易举地把事情安排停当，他甚至感到羞愧：这使他想起了劳伦斯·莱弗茨为获得自由而施展的巧妙伎俩，一时间心中感到不安。
But this did not long trouble him, for he was not in an analytic mood.
但这并没有困扰他很久，因为他此时已无心细细琢磨。
After breakfast he smoked a cigarette and glanced over the Commercial Advertiser.
早餐后，他燃起一支烟，浏览着《商业广告报》。
While he was thus engaged two or three men he knew came in, and the usual greetings were exchanged: it was the same world after all, though he had such a queer sense of having slipped through the meshes of time and space.
其间进来了两三个熟人，彼此照例互致寒暄：这个世界毕竟还是老样子，尽管他有一种稀奇古怪的感觉，仿佛自己是从时空之网悄悄溜了出来似的。
He looked at his watch, and finding that it was half-past nine got up and went into the writing-room.
他看了看表，见时间已是9点半，便起身进了写字间，
There he wrote a few lines, and ordered a messenger to take a cab to the Parker House and wait for the answer.
在里面写了几行字，指示信差坐马车送到帕克旅馆，他立候回音。
He then sat down behind another newspaper and tried to calculate how long it would take a cab to get to the Parker House.
然后便坐下展开另一张报纸，试着计算马车到帕克旅馆需要多少时间。
"The lady was out, sir," he suddenly heard a waiter's voice at his elbow; and he stammered: "Out?--" as if it were a word in a strange language.
“那位女士出去了，先生，”他猛然听到身边侍者的声音。他结结巴巴地重复说：“出去了——”这话听起来仿佛是用一种陌生语言讲的。
He got up and went into the hall. It must be a mistake: she could not be out at that hour.
他起身走进门厅。一定是弄错了：这个时候她是不会出去的。
He flushed with anger at his own stupidity: why had he not sent the note as soon as he arrived?
他因自己的愚蠢而气得满脸通红：为什么没有一到这儿就派人送信去呢？
He found his hat and stick and went forth into the street.
他找到帽子和手杖，径直走到街上。
The city had suddenly become as strange and vast and empty as if he were a traveller from distant lands.
这座城市突然变得陌生。辽阔并且空漠，他仿佛是个来自遥远国度的旅行者。
For a moment he stood on the door-step hesitating; then he decided to go to the Parker House.
他站在门前的台阶上迟疑了一阵，然后决定去帕克旅馆。
What if the messenger had been misinformed, and she were still there?
万一信差得到的消息是错误的，她还在那儿呢？
He started to walk across the Common; and on the first bench, under a tree, he saw her sitting.
他举步穿过广场，只见她正坐在树下第一条凳子上。
She had a grey silk sunshade over her head--how could he ever have imagined her with a pink one?
一把灰色的丝绸阳伞挡在她头上——他怎么会想象她带着粉红色阳伞呢？
As he approached he was struck by her listless attitude: she sat there as if she had nothing else to do.
他走上前去，被她无精打采的神态触动了：她坐在那儿，一副百无聊赖的样子。
He saw her drooping profile, and the knot of hair fastened low in the neck under her dark hat, and the long wrinkled glove on the hand that held the sunshade.
她低垂着头，侧对着他，黑色的帽子下面，发结低低地打在脖颈处，撑着伞的手上戴着打褶的长手套。
He came a step or two nearer, and she turned and looked at him.
他又向前走了一两步，她一转身看到了他。
"Oh"--she said; and for the first time he noticed a startled look on her face; but in another moment it gave way to a slow smile of wonder and contentment.
“哦——”她说，阿切尔第一次见到她脸上露出惊讶的神情；但一会功夫，它便让位于困惑而又满足的淡淡笑容。
