评论
打印
The old gentleman considered him attentively. "That's your opinion, eh? Well, no doubt you know.
老绅士留心地打量了他一番。“这是你的意见吧，嗯？唔，无疑你是知道的。
But everybody will tell you that the few pennies Medora Manson has left are all in Beaufort's hands; and how the two women are to keep their heads above water unless he does, I can't imagine.
不过人人都了解，梅多拉剩下的那几个钱都掌握在博福特手里。我真想不出，没有他帮忙，她们两个女人怎么活下去。
Of course, Madame Olenska may still soften old Catherine, who's been the most inexorably opposed to her staying; and old Catherine could make her any allowance she chooses.
当然，奥兰斯卡夫人说不定还能让老凯瑟琳的心软下来--她一直坚决地反对她留在这儿--老凯瑟琳愿意给她多少贴补就能给多少。
But we all know that she hates parting with good money; and the rest of the family have no particular interest in keeping Madame Olenska here."
不过大家都知道她把钱看得很重，而家中其他人都没有特别的兴趣一定要把奥兰斯卡夫人留下。”
Archer was burning with unavailing wrath: he was exactly in the state when a man is sure to do something stupid, knowing all the while that he is doing it.
阿切尔怒火中烧，但也只能干着急：他完全处于明知要干蠢事却还一直在干的那种状态。
He saw that Mr. Jackson had been instantly struck by the fact that Madame Olenska's differences with her grandmother and her other relations were not known to him, and that the old gentleman had drawn his own conclusions as to the reasons for Archer's exclusion from the family councils.
他发现杰克逊立即就看出他并不了解奥兰斯卡夫人与祖母及其他亲属的分歧，而且，对于他被排除在家庭会议之外的理由，老绅士也已得出了自己的结论。
This fact warned Archer to go warily; but the insinuations about Beaufort made him reckless.
这一事实告诫阿切尔必须小心从事，有关博福特的含沙射影已使他气得不顾一切了。
He was mindful, however, if not of his own danger, at least of the fact that Mr. Jackson was under his mother's roof, and consequently his guest.
然而，尽管他可以不顾个人的安危，他仍然没有忘记杰克逊先生现在是在他母亲家里，因此也是他的客人。
Old New York scrupulously observed the etiquette of hospitality, and no discussion with a guest was ever allowed to degenerate into a disagreement.
而老纽约一丝不苟遵循的待客礼节，是决不允许把与客人的讨论变为争吵的。
"Shall we go up and join my mother?" he suggested curtly, as Mr. Jackson's last cone of ashes dropped into the brass ashtray at his elbow.
“我们上楼去找我母亲吧？”杰克逊先生最后一截烟灰落进臂下的铜烟灰缸时，他唐突地提议说。
On the drive homeward May remained oddly silent; through the darkness, he still felt her enveloped in her menacing blush.
坐车回家的路上，梅一直奇怪地沉默无语，黑暗中，他仍然感觉到她严严实实地包在那层威胁性的潮红之中。
What its menace meant he could not guess: but he was sufficiently warned by the fact that Madame Olenska's name had evoked it.
那威胁意味着什么，他不得而知，但它是由奥兰斯卡夫人的名字引起的--这一事实足以引起他的戒备。
They went upstairs, and he turned into the library.
他俩上了楼。他转身进了图书室。
She usually followed him; but he heard her passing down the passage to her bedroom.
平时她总是跟他进来的，但他却听见她沿着过道往前走去，进了她的卧室。
"May!" he called out impatiently; and she came back, with a slight glance of surprise at his tone.
“梅！”他急躁地大声喊道。她过来了，轻轻瞥了他一眼，对他的口气有些惊讶。
"This lamp is smoking again; I should think the servants might see that it's kept properly trimmed," he grumbled nervously.
“这盏灯又冒烟了。我想仆人们该注意把灯芯剪整齐点吧，”他神经质地抱怨说。
"I'm so sorry: it shan't happen again," she answered, in the firm bright tone she had learned from her mother; and it exasperated Archer to feel that she was already beginning to humour him like a younger Mr. Welland.
“对不起，以后再不会出这样的事了，”她用从母亲那儿学来的坚定愉快的口吻回答说。这使阿切尔更加烦恼，觉得她已经开始拿他像个小韦兰先生似的加以迁就了。
She bent over to lower the wick, and as the light struck up on her white shoulders and the clear curves of her face he thought: "How young she is! For what endless years this life will have to go on!"
她弯下身去捻低灯芯，灯光反照着她那雪白的肩膀和那张轮廓鲜明的脸，阿切尔心想：“她真年轻啊！这种生活还得没完没了地持续多少年！”
He felt, with a kind of horror, his own strong youth and the bounding blood in his veins.
他怀着一种恐惧，感觉到了自己旺盛的青春、血管里热血的悸动。
"Look here," he said suddenly, "I may have to go to Washington for a few days--soon; next week perhaps."
“听我说，”他冷不丁地说，“我可能得去华盛顿呆几天，不久--大概下星期吧。”
Her hand remained on the key of the lamp as she turned to him slowly.
她一只手依然停在灯钮上，慢慢朝他转过身来。
The heat from its flame had brought back a glow to her face, but it paled as she looked up.
灯火的热力使她脸上恢复了一丝红润，不过当她抬起头时，脸色又变得苍白了。
"On business?" she asked, in a tone which implied that there could be no other conceivable reason, and that she had put the question automatically, as if merely to finish his own sentence.
“有公事？”她问，那语气表示不可能有其他原因，她提这个问题是未经思索的，仿佛仅仅为了完成他那句话。
"On business, naturally. There's a patent case coming up before the Supreme Court--"
“当然是有公事了。有一起专利权的案子要提交最高法院--”
He gave the name of the inventor, and went on furnishing details with all Lawrence Lefferts's practised glibness, while she listened attentively, saying at intervals: "Yes, I see."
他说出了发明者的姓名，进而以劳伦斯·莱弗茨惯用的那种伶牙俐齿提供细节，而她则专心致志地洗耳恭听，并不时说：“是的，我明白。”
"The change will do you good," she said simply, when he had finished; "and you must be sure to go and see Ellen," she added, looking him straight in the eyes with her cloudless smile, and speaking in the tone she might have employed in urging him not to neglect some irksome family duty.
“换换环境对你会有好处，”他讲完后她坦然地说。“你一定得去看看埃伦，”她又补充道，一面带着开朗的笑容直视着他的眼睛。她讲话的口气就像是在劝告他不要忘记某种令人厌烦的家庭义务一样。
It was the only word that passed between them on the subject; but in the code in which they had both been trained it meant:
这是他们两人中间有关这个问题所讲的惟一一句话，然而按照他们所受训练的那套规范，这话的含义却是：
"Of course you understand that I know all that people have been saying about Ellen, and heartily sympathise with my family in their effort to get her to return to her husband.
“你当然明白，我了解人们对埃伦的那些说法，并且真诚地同情我的家人让她回到丈夫身边去的努力。
I also know that, for some reason you have not chosen to tell me, you have advised her against this course, which all the older men of the family, as well as our grandmother, agree in approving; and that it is owing to your encouragement that Ellen defies us all, and exposes herself to the kind of criticism of which Mr. Sillerton Jackson probably gave you, this evening, the hint that has made you so irritable....
我还了解--由于某种原因你没有主动告诉我--你曾经劝说她抵制这种做法，而全家年纪大的人，包括我们的外祖母，都一致同意那样做。还有，正是由于你的鼓励，埃伦才公然违抗我们大家的心意，才招致杰克逊先生今晚大概已向你暗示的那种非难。这暗示使你那么气愤……
Hints have indeed not been wanting; but since you appear unwilling to take them from others, I offer you this one myself, in the only form in which well-bred people of our kind can communicate unpleasant things to each other: by letting you understand that I know you mean to see Ellen when you are in Washington, and are perhaps going there expressly for that purpose; and that, since you are sure to see her, I wish you to do so with my full and explicit approval-and to take the opportunity of letting her know what the course of conduct you have encouraged her in is likely to lead to."
暗示确实有不少，不过，既然你好像不愿接受别人的暗示，那么就让我亲自给你一个吧，用我们这种有教养的人能够相互交流不愉快的事的惟一方式：让你明白我知道你打算到了华盛顿去看埃伦。也许你是特意为这个目的而去的呢。既然你肯定要见她，那么，我希望你得到我充分明确的赞同去见她--并借此机会让她明白，你怂恿她采取的行为方针可能导致什么样的结果。”
Her hand was still on the key of the lamp when the last word of this mute message reached him.
当这种无声信息的最后一句传达给他的时候，她的手依然停在灯钮上。
She turned the wick down, lifted off the globe, and breathed on the sulky flame.
她把灯芯捻低，取下灯罩，对着发蔫的火头哈了口气。
"They smell less if one blows them out," she explained, with her bright housekeeping air.
“把它吹火气味就小些，”她带着精于理家的神气解释说。
On the threshold she turned and paused for his kiss.
她在门口转过身，停下来接受了他的吻。
