Half the width of the room was still between them, and neither made any show of moving.
他们两人之间仍有半室之隔,而彼此都没有移动的表示。
Archer was conscious of a curious indifference to her bodily presence: he would hardly have been aware of it if one of the hands she had flung out on the table had not drawn his gaze as on the occasion when, in the little Twenty- third Street house, he had kept his eye on it in order not to look at her face.
阿切尔意识到自己对她的肉体存在有一种奇怪的冷漠:假如不是她突然伸到桌子上的一只手吸引住他的视线,他几乎就没有觉察到它。就像那一次在23街那个小房子里一样,为了不去看她的脸庞,他一直盯着这只手。
Now his imagination spun about the hand as about the edge of a vortex; but still he made no effort to draw nearer.
他的想像力在这只手上盘旋着,就像在旋涡的边缘那样;但他仍不想接近她。
He had known the love that is fed on caresses and feeds them; but this passion that was closer than his bones was not to be superficially satisfied.
他知道爱抚会激化爱情,而爱情又会激化爱抚;但这种难分难解的爱却是表面的接触无法满足的,
His one terror was to do anything which might efface the sound and impression of her words; his one thought, that he should never again feel quite alone.
他惟恐任何举动会抹去她话语的声音与印象,他惟一的心思是他永远不再感到孤独。
But after a moment the sense of waste and ruin overcame him.
但过了一会儿,一种荒废时光的感觉又控制了他。
There they were, close together and safe and shut in; yet so chained to their separate destinies that they might as well have been half the world apart.
在这儿,他们就在这儿,靠得很近,安全而又隐蔽;然而他们却被各自的命运所束缚,仿佛隔着半个世界。
"What's the use--when you will go back?" he broke out, a great hopeless HOW ON EARTH CAN I KEEP YOU?
“这还有什么意义呢--既然你准备回去?”他突然喊道。
crying out to her beneath his words.
他的言外之意是绝望地向她乞求:我究竟怎样才能留住你?
She sat motionless, with lowered lids. "Oh--I shan't go yet!"
她坐着纹丝不动,眼睑低垂。“哦--我现在还不会走嘛!”
"Not yet? Some time, then? Some time that you already foresee?"
“还不会?那么,到某一时间就走?你已经预定了时间?”
At that she raised her clearest eyes. "I promise you: not as long as you hold out.
听到这儿,她抬起一双清澈的眼睛说:“我答应你:只要你坚持住,
Not as long as we can look straight at each other like this."
只要我们能像现在这样正视对方,我就不走。”
He dropped into his chair. What her answer really said was: "If you lift a finger you'll drive me back: back to all the abominations you know of, and all the temptations you half guess."
他坐进自己的椅子里。她的回答实际上是说:“如果你抬起一根指头就会把我赶回去:回到你了解的所有那些令人厌恶的事情中去,回到你部分地猜中的那些诱惑中去。”
He understood it as clearly as if she had uttered the words, and the thought kept him anchored to his side of the table in a kind of moved and sacred submission.
他心里完全明白,仿佛她真的说出了这些话。这念头使他怀着激动、虔诚的心情顺从地固定在桌子这一边。
"What a life for you!--" he groaned.
“这对你将是怎样一种生活啊!--”他呻吟着说。
"Oh--as long as it's a part of yours."
“哦--只要它属于你生活的一部分。”
"And mine a part of yours?" She nodded.
“我的生活也属于你生活的一部分?”她点了点头。
"And that's to be all--for either of us?"
“而这就是全部--对我们两人来说?”
"Well; it IS all, isn't it?"
“对,这就是全部,不是吗?”
At that he sprang up, forgetting everything but the sweetness of her face.
听到这儿,他跳了起来,除了她可爱的面容,他什么都不记得了。
She rose too, not as if to meet him or to flee from him, but quietly, as though the worst of the task were done and she had only to wait; so quietly that, as he came close, her outstretched hands acted not as a check but as a guide to him.
她也站了起来,既不像是迎接他,也不像是逃避他,而是很镇静。既然任务最棘手的部分已经完成,那么她只需等待了。她是那样镇静,当他走近时,她伸出双手,不是阻挡他而是引导他。
They fell into his, while her arms, extended but not rigid, kept him far enough off to let her surrendered face say the rest.
她的双手被他握住,她伸开的前臂并不僵硬,却把他隔在一定的距离,让她那张已经屈服的脸讲完余下的话。
They may have stood in that way for a long time, or only for a few moments; but it was long enough for her silence to communicate all she had to say, and for him to feel that only one thing mattered.
也许他们这样站了很久,也许只有几秒钟时间,但这已足够让她默默地传达出她要说的一切了,同时也使他感觉到只有一件事是重要的:
He must do nothing to make this meeting their last; he must leave their future in her care, asking only that she should keep fast hold of it.
他一定不能轻举妄动,以免使这次相会成为诀别;他必须把他们的未来交给她安排,他只能请求她牢牢把它抓住。
"Don't--don't be unhappy," she said, with a break in her voice, as she drew her hands away; and he answered: "You won't go back--you won't go back?" as if it were the one possibility he could not bear.
“不要--不要不高兴,”她说,声音有点嘶哑,同时把手抽了回去;他答道:“你不回去了--你是不回去了?”仿佛那是他惟一无法忍受的事情。
"I won't go back," she said; and turning away she opened the door and led the way into the public dining-room.
“我不回去了,”她说罢,转身打开门,率先朝公共餐厅走去。
The strident school-teachers were gathering up their possessions preparatory to a straggling flight to the wharf; across the beach lay the white steam-boat at the pier; and over the sunlit waters Boston loomed in a line of haze.
那群叽叽喳喳的教师正整理行装,准备三五成群地奔向码头;沙滩对面的防波堤前停着那艘白色的汽船;在阳光照耀的水面那一边,波士顿隐约出现在一片雾霭之中。