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"Why the devil," Archer explosively continued, "should you have thought-since I suppose you're appealing to me on the ground of my relationship to Madame Olenska-that I should take a view contrary to the rest of her family?"
“究竟为什么，”阿切尔咆哮般地接着说，“你竟认为--我料想你来求我是因为我与奥兰斯卡夫人的亲缘关系--我会采取与其他家庭成员相反的态度呢？”
The change of expression in M. Riviere's face was for a time his only answer.
在一段时间内，里维埃先生脸上表情的变化成了他惟一的回答。
His look passed from timidity to absolute distress: for a young man of his usually resourceful mien it would have been difficult to appear more disarmed and defenceless.
他的神色由胆怯渐渐变成纯粹的痛苦；对于他这样一个平时颇为机敏的年轻人来说，其孤立无助、束手无策的样子简直已到了无以复加的地步。
"Oh, Monsieur--"
“哎呀，先生--”
"I can't imagine," Archer continued, "why you should have come to me when there are others so much nearer to the Countess; still less why you thought I should be more accessible to the arguments I suppose you were sent over with."
“我想象不出，”阿切尔继续说，“在还有很多人与伯爵夫人关系更密切的情况下，你为什么会来找我；更不明白你为什么以为我更容易接受你奉命带来的那些观点。”
M. Riviere took this onslaught with a disconcerting humility.
里维埃先生窘迫、谦恭地忍受了这种攻击。
"The arguments I want to present to you, Monsieur, are my own and not those I was sent over with."
“先生，我想向你提出的观点是属于我自己的，而不是奉命带来的。”
"Then I see still less reason for listening to them."
“那我就更没有理由要洗耳恭听了。”
M. Riviere again looked into his hat, as if considering whether these last words were not a sufficiently broad hint to put it on and be gone.
里维埃注视的目光又一次落到帽子上，他仿佛在考虑最后这句话是否是明显提醒他该戴上帽子走人了。
Then he spoke with sudden decision. "Monsieur--will you tell me one thing? Is it my right to be here that you question?
后来，他突然下定了决心说：“先生--我只问你一件事好吗？你想知道我来这儿的原因吗？
Or do you perhaps believe the whole matter to be already closed?"
要么，你大概以为事情已经全部结束了吧？”
His quiet insistence made Archer feel the clumsiness of his own bluster.
他沉静坚定的态度反使阿切尔觉得自己的咆哮有些笨拙，里维埃的软磨硬缠成功了。
M. Riviere had succeeded in imposing himself: Archer, reddening slightly, dropped into his chair again, and signed to the young man to be seated.
阿切尔有点脸红，又坐回自己的椅子里，同时示意那年轻人也坐下。
"I beg your pardon: but why isn't the matter closed?"
“请你再讲一遍：为什么事情还没结束呢？”
M. Riviere gazed back at him with anguish.
里维埃又痛苦地凝视着他。
"You do, then, agree with the rest of the family that, in face of the new proposals I have brought, it is hardly possible for Madame Olenska not to return to her husband?"
“这么说，你也同意其他家庭成员的意见，认为面对我带来的这些新提议，奥兰斯卡大人不回到她丈夫身边几乎是不可能的了？”
"Good God!" Archer exclaimed; and his visitor gave out a low murmur of confirmation.
“我的上帝！”阿切尔大声喊道，他的客人也认同地低声哼了一声。
"Before seeing her, I saw--at Count Olenski's request-Mr. Lovell Mingott, with whom I had several talks before going to Boston.
“在见她之前，我按奥兰斯基伯爵的要求，先会见了洛弗尔·明戈特先生。去波士顿之前我与他交谈过好几次。
I understand that he represents his mother's view; and that Mrs. Manson Mingott's influence is great throughout her family."
据我所知，他代表他母亲的意见，而曼森·明戈特太太对整个家庭的影响很大。”
Archer sat silent, with the sense of clinging to the edge of a sliding precipice.
阿切尔坐着一言不发，他觉得仿佛是攀在一块滑动的悬崖边上似的。
The discovery that he had been excluded from a share in these negotiations, and even from the knowledge that they were on foot, caused him a surprise hardly dulled by the acuter wonder of what he was learning.
发现自己被排除在这些谈判之外，甚至谈判的事都没让他知道，这使他大为惊讶，以致对刚刚听到的消息都有点儿见怪不怪了。
He saw in a flash that if the family had ceased to consult him it was because some deep tribal instinct warned them that he was no longer on their side; and he recalled, with a start of comprehension, a remark of May's during their drive home from Mrs. Manson Mingott's on the day of the Archery Meeting:
刹那间他意识到，如果这个家的人已不再同他商量，那是因为某种深层的家族本能告诫他们，他已经不站在他们一边了。他猛然会意地想起梅的一句话--射箭比赛那大他们从曼森·明戈特家坐车回家时她曾说：
"Perhaps, after all, Ellen would be happier with her husband."
“也许，埃伦还是同她丈夫在一起更幸福。”
Even in the tumult of new discoveries Archer remembered his indignant exclamation, and the fact that since then his wife had never named Madame Olenska to him.
即使因为这些新发现而心烦意乱，阿切尔也还记得他那声愤慨的喊叫，以及自那以后他妻子再也没对他提过奥兰斯卡夫人的事实。
Her careless allusion had no doubt been the straw held up to see which way the wind blew; the result had been reported to the family, and thereafter Archer had been tacitly omitted from their counsels.
她那样漫不经心地提及她，无疑是想拿根草试试风向；试探的结果报告给了全家人，此后阿切尔便从他们的协商中被悄悄地排除了。
He admired the tribal discipline which made May bow to this decision.
他对计梅服从这一决定的家族纪律深感赞赏，
She would not have done so, he knew, had her conscience protested; but she probably shared the family view that Madame Olenska would be better off as an unhappy wife than as a separated one, and that there was no use in discussing the case with Newland, who had an awkward way of suddenly not seeming to take the most fundamental things for granted.
他知道，假如受到良心责备，她是不会那样做的。不过很可能她与家族的观点一致，认为奥兰斯卡夫人做个不幸的妻子要比分居好，并认为与纽兰讨论这事毫无用处，他有时桀骛不驯，无视常规，让人挺为难。
Archer looked up and met his visitor's anxious gaze.
阿切尔抬头一望，遇到了客人忧虑的目光。
"Don't you know, Monsieur--is it possible you don't know-that the family begin to doubt if they have the right to advise the Countess to refuse her husband's last proposals?"
“先生，难道你不知道--你可能不知道吧--她的家人开始怀疑，他们是否有权劝说怕爵夫人拒绝她丈夫的提议。”
"The proposals you brought?"
“你带来的提议？”
"The proposals I brought."
“是我带来的提议。”
It was on Archer's lips to exclaim that whatever he knew or did not know was no concern of M. Riviere's; but something in the humble and yet courageous tenacity of M. Riviere's gaze made him reject this conclusion, and he met the young man's question with another.
阿切尔真想对里维埃大叫大喊：不管他知道什么还是不知道什么，都与他里维埃毫不相干；但里维埃目光中谦恭而又顽强的神情使他放弃了自己的决定。他用另一个问题回答了那位年轻人的提问：
"What is your object in speaking to me of this?"
“你对我讲这件事的目的是什么呢？”
