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Book 2, Chapter 26.
第二册，第26章。
Every year on the fifteenth of October Fifth Avenue opened its shutters, unrolled its carpets and hung up its triple layer of window-curtains.
每年到了10月15日这一天，第五大街便打开百叶窗，铺开地毯，挂起三层的窗帘。
By the first of November this household ritual was over, and society had begun to look about and take stock of itself.
到11月1日，这种家政仪式便告结束，社交界已开始审时度势，并进行自我评估。
By the fifteenth the season was in full blast, Opera and theatres were putting forth their new attractions, dinner-engagements were accumulating, and dates for dances being fixed.
到15日这天，社交季节便进入鼎盛时期，歌剧院与剧场推出新的精彩剧目，宴会预约与日俱增，各式舞会也在择定时日。
And punctually at about this time Mrs. Archer always said that New York was very much changed.
大约就在这个时候，阿切尔太太总是要评论说：纽约真是今非昔比了。
Observing it from the lofty stand-point of a non- participant, she was able, with the help of Mr. Sillerton Jackson and Miss Sophy, to trace each new crack in its surface, and all the strange weeds pushing up between the ordered rows of social vegetables.
她站在一个非参与者超然的立场上观察上流社会，在杰克逊先生与索菲小姐的帮助下，能够发现它表面的每一点假疵，以及社交界井然有序的植物中冒出来的所有陌生的萎草。
It had been one of the amusements of Archer's youth to wait for this annual pronouncement of his mother's, and to hear her enumerate the minute signs of disintegration that his careless gaze had overlooked.
在阿切尔的少年时代，一年一度等着听母亲的评判，听她列举他粗心漏过的那些细微的衰败迹象，曾经是他的一件乐事。
For New York, to Mrs. Archer's mind, never changed without changing for the worse; and in this view Miss Sophy Jackson heartily concurred.
在阿切尔太太的心目中，纽约不变则已，一变总是每况愈下，而索菲·杰克逊小姐也衷心赞同这一观点。
Mr. Sillerton Jackson, as became a man of the world, suspended his judgment and listened with an amused impartiality to the lamentations of the ladies.
饱经世故的西勒顿·杰克逊先生总是保留自己的看法，以一种不偏不倚的调侃态度倾听二位女士的哀叹。
But even he never denied that New York had changed; and Newland Archer, in the winter of the second year of his marriage, was himself obliged to admit that if it had not actually changed it was certainly changing.
然而就连他也从不否认纽约已经变了。在纽兰·阿切尔婚后第二年的冬天，他本人也不得不承认，如果说纽约尚没有实际的变化，那么，它肯定已经开始在变了。
These points had been raised, as usual, at Mrs. Archer's Thanksgiving dinner.
这些观点照例是在阿切尔太太的感恩节宴会上提出来的。
At the date when she was officially enjoined to give thanks for the blessings of the year it was her habit to take a mournful though not embittered stock of her world, and wonder what there was to be thankful for.
这一天，当她按法定的要求为一年的祝福谢恩时，她总是习惯地对自己的处境进行一番虽算不上痛苦、却很悲伤的审视，并且想不出有什么事情值得感谢。
At any rate, not the state of society; society, if it could be said to exist, was rather a spectacle on which to call down Biblical imprecations-and in fact, every one knew what the Reverend Dr. Ashmore meant when he chose a text from Jeremiah (chap. ii., verse 25) for his Thanksgiving sermon.
不管怎么说，上流社会已没有上流社会的样子了；上流社会--如果说还存在的话--反而成了一种招圣经诅咒的光景。实际上，当阿什莫尔牧师选取耶利米书的一篇作为感恩节训导辞时，人人都明白他的意图是什么。
Dr. Ashmore, the new Rector of St. Matthew's, had been chosen because he was very "advanced": his sermons were considered bold in thought and novel in language.
阿什莫尔是圣马修教堂新任教区牧师，他被选出来任职是因为他思想“先进”：他的布道辞被认为思想大胆、语言新颖。
When he fulminated against fashionable society he always spoke of its "trend"; and to Mrs. Archer it was terrifying and yet fascinating to feel herself part of a community that was trending.
当他怒斥上流社会的痼疾时，总是说起它的“潮流”。对阿切尔太太来说，感觉自己属于一个像潮水般流动的群体，既令人可怕，却又有些诱人。
"There's no doubt that Dr. Ashmore is right: there IS a marked trend," she said, as if it were something visible and measurable, like a crack in a house.
“阿什莫尔牧师的话无疑是对的：的确，有一股明显的潮流，”她说，仿佛它像房子上的裂缝，是看得见摸得着的。
"It was odd, though, to preach about it on Thanksgiving," Miss Jackson opined; and her hostess drily rejoined: "Oh, he means us to give thanks for what's left."
“可仍然在感恩节这天宣扬它，真有些奇怪，”杰克逊小姐发表意见说。女主人冷冰冰地说：“唔，他的意思是让我们对剩下的东西表示感激。”
Archer had been wont to smile at these annual vaticinations of his mother's; but this year even he was obliged to acknowledge, as he listened to an enumeration of the changes, that the "trend" was visible.
阿切尔过去对母亲一年一度的预言常常付之一笑，可今年听了列举的那些变化，连他也不得不承认，这种“潮流”是显而易见的。
"The extravagance in dress--" Miss Jackson began.
“就说穿着上的奢侈吧--”杰克逊小姐开始了。
"Sillerton took me to the first night of the Opera, and I can only tell you that Jane Merry's dress was the only one I recognised from last year; and even that had had the front panel changed.
“西勒顿带我去看了首场歌剧，说真的，只有詹尼·梅里那身衣服还能看出是跟去年一样的，不过连这身衣服也把前片的镶条给改过了。
Yet I know she got it out from Worth only two years ago, because my seamstress always goes in to make over her Paris dresses before she wears them."
可我知道她仅仅二年前才从沃思订购的，因为我的女裁缝常到那儿去，把她的巴黎服装改过再穿。”
"Ah, Jane Merry is one of US," said Mrs. Archer sighing, as if it were not such an enviable thing to be in an age when ladies were beginning to flaunt abroad their Paris dresses as soon as they were out of the Custom House, instead of letting them mellow under lock and key, in the manner of Mrs. Archer's contemporaries.
“唉，詹尼·梅里跟我们还是同一代人呢，”阿切尔太太叹口气说。生活在这样的时代，仿佛并不是件令人羡慕的事。这年头，女士们一走出海关就到处炫耀她们的巴黎服装，而不像她这一代人那样，先把衣服锁在衣柜里压一压。
"Yes; she's one of the few. In my youth," Miss Jackson rejoined, "it was considered vulgar to dress in the newest fashions; and Amy Sillerton has always told me that in Boston the rule was to put away one's Paris dresses for two years.
“是啊，像她这样的人为数不多。在我年轻的时候，”杰克逊小姐应声说，“穿最新的时装被认为很粗俗。阿米·西勒顿一直对我说，波士顿的规矩是把自己的巴黎服装先搁置两年再穿。
Old Mrs. Baxter Pennilow, who did everything handsomely, used to import twelve a year, two velvet, two satin, two silk, and the other six of poplin and the finest cashmere.
老巴克斯特·彭尼洛太太是个事事都出手大方的人，她过去每年进口12套，两身丝绒的，两身缎子的，两身丝绸的，另外6套是府绸和开司米精品。
It was a standing order, and as she was ill for two years before she died they found forty-eight Worth dresses that had never been taken out of tissue paper; and when the girls left off their mourning they were able to wear the first lot at the Symphony concerts without looking in advance of the fashion."
那属于长期订购，由于她去世前生了两年病，人们发现有48套沃思衣服压根没从纱纸包中取出来过。她的女儿们停止服丧后，在交响音乐会上穿上第一批，一点儿也不显得超前。”
"Ah, well, Boston is more conservative than New York; but I always think it's a safe rule for a lady to lay aside her French dresses for one season," Mrs. Archer conceded.
“唉，波士顿比纽约保守。不过我总觉得，女士们将巴黎服装搁置一季再穿，这规矩就很稳妥，”阿切尔太太退让地说。
"It was Beaufort who started the new fashion by making his wife clap her new clothes on her back as soon as they arrived: I must say at times it takes all Regina's distinction not to look like... like..."
“是博福特开的新风，让他妻子刚一回到家就穿新衣服。我得说，有时候，这可让里吉纳煞费苦心了--为了不像……不像……”
Miss Jackson glanced around the table, caught Janey's bulging gaze, and took refuge in an unintelligible murmur.
杰克逊小姐向桌子周围打量了一下，瞥见詹尼正瞪大了眼睛，于是令人费解地咕哝着支吾过去。
