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Once established before the grate, and consoling himself for the inadequacy of the dinner by the perfection of his cigar, Mr. Jackson became portentous and communicable.
在壁炉前坐定后，杰克逊先生美滋滋地吸上优质雪茄，以此抚慰晚餐的不适，然后便自命不凡地夸夸其谈起来。
"If the Beaufort smash comes," he announced, "there are going to be disclosures."
“若是博福特破了产，”他说，“很多事情就会随之暴露出来。”
Archer raised his head quickly: he could never hear the name without the sharp vision of Beaufort's heavy figure, opulently furred and shod, advancing through the snow at Skuytercliff.
阿切尔迅速抬起了头：每一次听见他的名字，他总会清晰地回想起博福特那笨拙的身影，穿着豪华的皮衣皮靴在斯库特克利夫的雪地上大步行走的样子。
"There's bound to be," Mr. Jackson continued, "the nastiest kind of a cleaning up.
“肯定会清出大量的污泥浊水，”杰克逊接着说。“
He hasn't spent all his money on Regina."
他的钱并不是都花在里吉纳身上的呀。”
"Oh, well--that's discounted, isn't it? My belief is he'll pull out yet," said the young man, wanting to change the subject.
“噢，唔--是打了折扣的，对吗？我想他还是会逢凶化吉的，”年轻人说，他想改变一下话题。
"Perhaps--perhaps. I know he was to see some of the influential people today. Of course," Mr. Jackson reluctantly conceded, "it's to be hoped they can tide him over--this time anyhow.
“也许吧--也许。据我所知，他今天要去见几位最有影响的人物，”杰克逊先生勉强地让步说。“当然了，希望他们能帮他度过难关--至少是这一次。
I shouldn't like to think of poor Regina's spending the rest of her life in some shabby foreign watering-place for bankrupts."
我不愿设想让可怜的里吉纳到专为破产者办的寒酸的国外温泉地去度过余生。”
Archer said nothing.
阿切尔没有作声。
It seemed to him so natural-- however tragic--that money ill-gotten should be cruelly expiated, that his mind, hardly lingering over Mrs. Beaufort's doom, wandered back to closer questions.
他觉得，无论后果多么悲惨，一个人若是得了不义之财自然应当受到无情的报应。因而他几乎想也没想博福特太太的厄运，心思又回到眼前的问题上。
What was the meaning of May's blush when the Countess Olenska had been mentioned?
在提到奥兰斯卡夫人时梅的脸红了，这是什么意思呢？
Four months had passed since the midsummer day that he and Madame Olenska had spent together; and since then he had not seen her.
他与奥兰斯卡夫人一起度过的那个盛夏之日已经过去4个多月了，自那以后再没有见过她。
He knew that she had returned to Washington, to the little house which she and Medora Manson had taken there:
他知道她已回到华盛顿，回到了她与梅多拉在那儿租下的那所小房子。
he had written to her once--a few words, asking when they were to meet again--and she had even more briefly replied: "Not yet."
他曾给她写过一封信，简短几句话，问她什么时候能再相见，而她的回信则更为简短，只说：“还不行。”
Since then there had been no farther communication between them, and he had built up within himself a kind of sanctuary in which she throned among his secret thoughts and longings.
从那以后，他们之间再不曾有过交流。他仿佛已经在自己心中筑起了一座圣殿，她就在他隐秘的思想与期盼中执掌王权。
Little by little it became the scene of his real life, of his only rational activities; thither he brought the books he read, the ideas and feelings which nourished him, his judgments and his visions.
渐渐地，渐渐地，这座圣殿变成了他真实生活的背景，他的理性行为的惟一背景，他把他所读的书、滋养他的思想感情、他的判断与见解，统统都带进了这座殿堂。
Outside it, in the scene of his actual life, he moved with a growing sense of unreality and insufficiency, blundering against familiar prejudices and traditional points of view as an absent-minded man goes on bumping into the furniture of his own room.
在它的外面，在他实际生活的现场中，他却怀着一种与日俱增的不真实感与缺憾，跌跌撞撞地与那些熟悉的偏见和传统观念发生撞击，就像一个心不在焉的人碰撞自己屋里的家具一样。
Absent--that was what he was: so absent from everything most densely real and near to those about him that it sometimes startled him to find they still imagined he was there.
心不在焉--这正是他目前的状态，他对于周围人们觉得实实在在的东西一概视而不见，以致有时候，当他发现人们依然认为他还在场时，竟会让他大吃一惊。
He became aware that Mr. Jackson was clearing his throat preparatory to farther revelations.
他注意到杰克逊先生在清理喉咙，准备做进一步的披露。
"I don't know, of course, how far your wife's family are aware of what people say about--well, about Madame Olenska's refusal to accept her husband's latest offer."
“当然，我不知道你妻子家对人们关于--唔--关于奥兰斯卡夫人拒绝她丈夫最新提议的看法有多少了解。”
Archer was silent, and Mr. Jackson obliquely continued: "It's a pity--it's certainly a pity--that she refused it."
阿切尔没有吭声，杰克逊转弯抹角地接下去说：“很可惜--实在很可惜--她竟然拒绝了。”
"A pity? In God's name, why?"
“可惜？究竟为什么？”
Mr. Jackson looked down his leg to the unwrinkled sock that joined it to a glossy pump.
杰克逊低头顺着他的腿向下望去，一直看到那只没有皱褶的短袜及下面发亮的轻便舞鞋。
"Well--to put it on the lowest ground--what's she going to live on now?"
“唔--从最起码的理由说吧--现在，她准备靠什么生活呢？”
"Now--?" "If Beaufort--"
“现在--？”“假如博福特--”
Archer sprang up, his fist banging down on the black walnut-edge of the writing-table.
阿切尔跳了起来，他的拳头嘭的一声砸在黑胡桃木边的写字台上。
The wells of the brass double-inkstand danced in their sockets.
那一对铜墨水池在座窝里跳起了舞。
"What the devil do you mean, sir?"
“你说这话究竟是什么意思，先生？”
Mr. Jackson, shifting himself slightly in his chair, turned a tranquil gaze on the young man's burning face.
杰克逊先生在椅子里稍微动了动，以平静的目光盯着年轻人那张激怒的脸。
"Well--I have it on pretty good authority--in fact, on old Catherine's herself-that the family reduced Countess Olenska's allowance considerably when she definitely refused to go back to her husband; and as, by this refusal, she also forfeits the money settled on her when she married-which Olenski was ready to make over to her if she returned-why, what the devil do YOU mean, my dear boy, by asking me what I mean?" Mr. Jackson good-humouredly retorted.
“唔--我从相当可靠的方面得知--事实上，是从老凯瑟琳本人那儿--当奥兰斯卡夫人断然拒绝回到她丈夫那儿去之后，她家里大大削减了对她的贴补，而且由于她的拒绝，她还丧失了结婚时赠予她的那些钱--假如她回去，奥兰斯基随时准备把钱移交给她。既然如此，那么，亲爱的孩子，你还问我什么意思，你究竟是什么意思呢？”杰克逊和善地反驳说。
Archer moved toward the mantelpiece and bent over to knock his ashes into the grate.
阿切尔走到壁炉台前，弯身把他的烟灰弹到炉格里。
"I don't know anything of Madame Olenska's private affairs; but I don't need to, to be certain that what you insinuate--"
“对奥兰斯卡夫人的私事我一无所知，可我也毫无必要搞清楚你所暗示的--”
"Oh, I don't: it's Lefferts, for one," Mr. Jackson interposed.
“哦，我可没作什么暗示呀。是莱弗茨，他算一个，”杰克逊先生打断他道。
"Lefferts--who made love to her and got snubbed for it!" Archer broke out contemptuously.
“莱弗茨--那个向她求爱、并受到责骂的家伙！”阿切尔轻蔑地喊道。
"Ah--DID he?" snapped the other, as if this were exactly the fact he had been laying a trap for.
“啊--是吗？”对方急忙说，仿佛这正是他设下圈套等他说出的内容。
He still sat sideways from the fire, so that his hard old gaze held Archer's face as if in a spring of steel.
他仍然斜对炉火坐着，那双老眼尖刻地盯着阿切尔，仿佛把他的脸用弹簧给顶住了似的。
"Well, well: it's a pity she didn't go back before Beaufort's cropper," he repeated.
“唉呀呀，她没有在博福特栽跟斗前回去真是太遗憾了，”他重复地说。
"If she goes NOW, and if he fails, it will only confirm the general impression: which isn't by any means peculiar to Lefferts, by the way.
“假如她现在走，又假如他破了产，那只会证实大家普遍的看法。顺便说一句，这种看法可决不是莱弗茨一个人特有的。”
"Oh, she won't go back now: less than ever!"
“噢，她现在是不会回去的，决不会！”
Archer had no sooner said it than he had once more the feeling that it was exactly what Mr. Jackson had been waiting for.
阿切尔话一出口就又意识到，这恰恰是杰克逊在等候的。
