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He had not to wait a moment for the answer.
他立即听到了回答：
"To beg you, Monsieur--to beg you with all the force I'm capable of-not to let her go back.--Oh, don't let her!" M. Riviere exclaimed.
“请求你，先生--用我的全部力量请求你--别让她回去--啊，别让她回去！”里维埃大声喊道。
Archer looked at him with increasing astonishment.
阿切尔越发震惊地看着他。
There was no mistaking the sincerity of his distress or the strength of his determination:
毫无疑问，他的痛苦是真诚的，他的决心是坚定的：
he had evidently resolved to let everything go by the board but the supreme need of thus putting himself on record. Archer considered.
他显然已打定主意，要不顾一切地申明自己的观点。阿切尔沉思着。
"May I ask," he said at length, "if this is the line you took with the Countess Olenska?"
“我可否问一下，”他终于说，“你是不是本来就站在奥兰斯卡夫人一边？”
M. Riviere reddened, but his eyes did not falter.
里维埃先生脸红了，但目光却没有动摇。
"No, Monsieur: I accepted my mission in good faith. I really believed--for reasons I need not trouble you with-that it would be better for Madame Olenska to recover her situation, her fortune, the social consideration that her husband's standing gives her."
“不，先生：我忠实地接受了任务。由于不必烦扰你的理由，我当时真地相信，对奥兰斯卡夫人来说，恢复她的地位、财产以及她丈夫的地位给她带来的社会尊重，会是一件好事。”
"So I supposed: you could hardly have accepted such a mission otherwise."
“因此我想：否则的话，你是很难接受这一任务的。”
"I should not have accepted it."
“否则我是不会接受的。”
"Well, then--?" Archer paused again, and their eyes met in another protracted scrutiny.
“唔，后来呢--？”阿切尔又停住口，两双眼睛又一次久久地互相打量着。
"Ah, Monsieur, after I had seen her, after I had listened to her, I knew she was better off here."
“哦，先生，在我见过她之后，听她讲过之后，我明白了：她还是在这儿更好。”
"You knew--?"
“你明白了--？”
"Monsieur, I discharged my mission faithfully: I put the Count's arguments, I stated his offers, without adding any comment of my own.
“先生，我忠实地履行了我的使命：我陈述了伯爵的观点，说明了他的提议，丝毫没有附加我个人的评论。
The Countess was good enough to listen patiently; she carried her goodness so far as to see me twice; she considered impartially all I had come to say.
伯爵夫人十分善意地耐心听了；她真是太好了，竟然接见了我两次。她不带偏见地认真考虑了我讲的全部内容。
And it was in the course of these two talks that I changed my mind, that I came to see things differently."
正是在这两次交谈的过程中我改变了想法，对事情产生了不同的看法。”
"May I ask what led to this change?"
“可否问一下，是什么原因导致了这一变化吗？”
"Simply seeing the change in HER," M. Riviere replied.
“只因为看到了她的变化，”里维埃回答说。
"The change in her? Then you knew her before?"
“她的变化？这么说你以前就认识她？”
The young man's colour again rose.
年轻人的脸又红了。
"I used to see her in her husband's house. I have known Count Olenski for many years.
“过去在她丈夫家我经常见她。我和奥兰斯基伯爵相识已经多年了。
You can imagine that he would not have sent a stranger on such a mission."
你可以设想，他不会把这样的使命派给一位陌生人吧。”
Archer's gaze, wandering away to the blank walls of the office, rested on a hanging calendar surmounted by the rugged features of the President of the United States.
阿切尔凝视的目光不觉转向办公室空荡荡的墙壁，停在一本挂历上面。挂历顶上是粗眉大眼的美国总统的尊容。
That such a conversation should be going on anywhere within the millions of square miles subject to his rule seemed as strange as anything that the imagination could invent.
这样一场谈话居然发生在他统治下的几百万平方英里的版图之内，真是令人难以想象的怪事。
"The change--what sort of a change?"
“你说改变--是什么样的改变？”
"Ah, Monsieur, if I could tell you!" M. Riviere paused.
“啊，先生，要是我能向你说明就好了！”里维埃停顿了一下又说：
"Tenez--the discovery, I suppose, of what I'd never thought of before: that she's an American.
“我想，是我以前从未想到过的发现：她是个美国人。而且，假如你是一个她那样的--你们那样的--美国人，
And that if you're an American of HER kind--of your kind--things that are accepted in certain other societies, or at least put up with as part of a general convenient give-and- take--become unthinkable, simply unthinkable.
那么，在另外某些社会里被认可的东西，或者至少是在一般公平交换中可以容忍的东西，在这里就变得不可思议了，完全不可思议了。
If Madame Olenska's relations understood what these things were, their opposition to her returning would no doubt be as unconditional as her own; but they seem to regard her husband's wish to have her back as proof of an irresistible longing for domestic life."
假如奥兰斯卡夫人的亲属了解这些事情，那么，他们无疑就会跟她的意见一样，绝对不会同意她回去了；但是，他们好像认为她丈夫既然希望她回去，就说明他强烈地渴望过家庭生活。”
M. Riviere paused, and then added: "Whereas it's far from being as simple as that."
里维埃停了停又继续说：“而事情并非这么简单。”
Archer looked back to the President of the United States, and then down at his desk and at the papers scattered on it.
阿切尔又回头看了看那位美国总统，然后低头看着他的办公桌，以及桌上散乱的文件。
For a second or two he could not trust himself to speak.
有一会儿功夫，他觉得自己说不出话来了。
During this interval he heard M. Riviere's chair pushed back, and was aware that the young man had risen.
这当儿他听见里维埃坐的椅子被推到后面，感觉到那年轻人已经站了起来。
When he glanced up again he saw that his visitor was as moved as himself.
他又抬头一望，只见他的客人跟他一样地激动。
"Thank you," Archer said simply.
“谢谢你，”阿切尔仅仅说。
"There's nothing to thank me for, Monsieur: it is I, rather--" M. Riviere broke off, as if speech for him too were difficult.
“我没什么可谢的，先生。倒是我，更应--”里维埃突然住了口，好像讲话也变得困难了。“不过我还想--补充一件事，”随后他以镇定下来的声音说：
"I should like, though," he continued in a firmer voice, "to add one thing. You asked me if I was in Count Olenski's employ.
“你刚才问我是否受雇于奥兰斯基伯爵。眼下我是受雇于他。
I am at this moment: I returned to him, a few months ago, for reasons of private necessity such as may happen to any one who has persons, ill and older persons, dependent on him.
几个月前，由于个人需要的原因--那种任何一个要供养家中病人和老人的人都会有的原因--我回到了他的身边。
But from the moment that I have taken the step of coming here to say these things to you I consider myself discharged, and I shall tell him so on my return, and give him the reasons. That's all, Monsieur."
不过从我决定到这儿来给你说这些事的那一刻起，我认为自己已经被解雇了。我回去之后就这样告诉他，并向他说明理由。就这样吧，先生。”
M. Riviere bowed and drew back a step.
里维埃先生鞠了个躬，向后退了一步。
"Thank you," Archer said again, as their hands met.
“谢谢你，”阿切尔又说了一遍，这时，他们的手握在了一起。
