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May looked pale but smiling: Dr. Bencomb, who had just come for the second time, took a more hopeful view, and Mrs. Mingott's dauntless determination to live and get well was already having an effect on her family.
梅脸色苍白，但露着笑容告诉他：本科姆医生刚刚第二次光临，他的态度更加乐观了。明戈特太太活下去并恢复健康的坚强决心已经对家人产生影响。
May led Archer into the old lady's sitting-room, where the sliding doors opening into the bedroom had been drawn shut, and the heavy yellow damask portieres dropped over them; and here Mrs. Welland communicated to him in horrified undertones the details of the catastrophe.
她领着阿切尔进了老夫人的起居室，里面那直通卧室的斜拉门已经关上，沉甸甸的黄缎门帘挂在上面。韦兰太太在这儿用惊恐的低音向他转述了灾难的详情。
It appeared that the evening before something dreadful and mysterious had happened.
似乎是在前一大晚上，发生了一件神秘而又可怕的事。
At about eight o'clock, just after Mrs. Mingott had finished the game of solitaire that she always played after dinner, the door-bell had rung, and a lady so thickly veiled that the servants did not immediately recognise her had asked to be received.
大约8点钟，明戈特太太刚结束她平时在饭后玩的单人纸牌游戏，这时门铃响了，一位戴着厚面纱的夫人求见，仆人当时没认出是谁。
The butler, hearing a familiar voice, had thrown open the sitting-room door, announcing: "Mrs. Julius Beaufort"--and had then closed it again on the two ladies.
管家听声音很熟，便推开起居室的门通报道：“朱利叶斯·博福特太太到。”
They must have been together, he thought, about an hour.
接着又为两位夫人关上了门，他觉得她们俩一起待了大约一个小时光景。
When Mrs. Mingott's bell rang Mrs. Beaufort had already slipped away unseen, and the old lady, white and vast and terrible, sat alone in her great chair, and signed to the butler to help her into her room.
当明戈特太太的铃声响起时，博福特太太已悄然离去。只见老夫人独自坐在她那把大椅子里，脸色煞白，十分吓人，她示意管家帮她进卧室。那时候，
She seemed, at that time, though obviously distressed, in complete control of her body and brain.
她看起来尽管明显十分苦恼，但身体与头脑仍能完全控制。
The mulatto maid put her to bed, brought her a cup of tea as usual, laid everything straight in the room, and went away; but at three in the morning the bell rang again, and the two servants, hastening in at this unwonted summons (for old Catherine usually slept like a baby), had found their mistress sitting up against her pillows with a crooked smile on her face and one little hand hanging limp from its huge arm.
那位混血女佣把她安置在床上，跟平时一样给她端来一杯茶，把屋子里一一收拾停当，便走了。但在凌晨3点钟，铃声又响了，两个仆人听到这不寻常的召唤急忙赶来（因为老凯瑟琳平时睡得像婴儿一般甜），发现他们的女主人抵着枕头坐着，脸上挂着一丝苦笑，一只小手从大胳臂上无力地垂下来。
The stroke had clearly been a slight one, for she was able to articulate and to make her wishes known; and soon after the doctor's first visit she had begun to regain control of her facial muscles.
这次中风显然还属轻度，因为她吐字还算清晰，能表达自己的愿望；而且医生第一次诊治之后，很快便恢复了面部肌肉的控制。
But the alarm had been great; and proportionately great was the indignation when it was gathered from Mrs. Mingott's fragmentary phrases that Regina Beaufort had come to ask her--incredible effrontery!-to back up her husband, see them through--not to "desert" them, as she called it-in fact to induce the whole family to cover and condone their monstrous dishonour.
然而，这件事不仅引起全家人极大的惊恐，同时在了解真相后，他们也产生了极大的愤慨。大家从明戈特太太支离破碎的话语中得知，里吉纳·博福特是来要求她--真是厚颜无耻！--支持她丈夫，帮他们度过难关，照她的说法，别“抛弃”他们--实际上是功全家人掩盖并宽恕他们的丑恶行径。
"I said to her: "Honour's always been honour, and honesty honesty, in Manson Mingott's house, and will be till I'm carried out of it feet first,'" the old woman had stammered into her daughter's ear, in the thick voice of the partly paralysed.
“我对她说了：‘名誉终归是名誉，诚实终归是诚实，在曼森·明戈特家，永远不会变，直到人家把我脚朝前从这儿抬出去，’”老太太用半瘫痪病人的沙哑声音结结巴巴对着女儿的耳朵说。
"And when she said: 'But my name, Auntie--my name's Regina Dallas,' I said: 'It was Beaufort when he covered you with jewels, and it's got to stay Beaufort now that he's covered you with shame.'"
“当她说‘可是姑妈，我的姓名--我的姓名是里吉纳·达拉斯’时，我说：‘博福特用珠宝把你包裹起来，你的姓就是博福特了，现在他又用耻辱包裹了你，你只好还叫博福特。’”
So much, with tears and gasps of horror, Mrs. Welland imparted, blanched and demolished by the unwonted obligation of having at last to fix her eyes on the unpleasant and the discreditable.
韦兰太太流着眼泪，惊恐万状地喘息着转述了这些情况。由于承担了这不寻常的义务，最终不得不面对这些讨厌而又可耻的事实，她脸色惨白，摇摇欲坠。
"If only I could keep it from your father-in-law: he always says: 'Augusta, for pity's sake, don't destroy my last illusions' -and how am I to prevent his knowing these horrors?" the poor lady wailed.
“我要是能瞒住你岳父该多好啊！他老是说：‘奥古斯塔，可怜可怜，别毁了我最后的幻想。’--可我怎么才能不让他知道这些可怕的事呢？”可怜的夫人哭泣着说。
"After all, Mamma, he won't have SEEN them," her daughter suggested; and Mrs. Welland sighed: "Ah, no; thank heaven he's safe in bed. And Dr. Bencomb has promised to keep him there till poor Mamma is better, and Regina has been got away somewhere."
“妈妈，他毕竟见不到这些事了，”女儿提示说。韦兰太太则叹息道：“啊，是的；感谢上天，他躺在床上很安全。本科姆医生答应让他躺着，直到可怜的妈妈病情好转。而里吉纳也已经不知去向了。”
Archer had seated himself near the window and was gazing out blankly at the deserted thoroughfare.
阿切尔坐在窗口，茫然地凝望着空无人迹的大街。
It was evident that he had been summoned rather for the moral support of the stricken ladies than because of any specific aid that he could render.
显然，他被召来更多地是为了给罹难的夫人们以精神的支持，而不是因为他能提供什么具体帮助。
Mr. Lovell Mingott had been telegraphed for, and messages were being despatched by hand to the members of the family living in New York; and meanwhile there was nothing to do but to discuss in hushed tones the consequences of Beaufort's dishonour and of his wife's unjustifiable action.
已经给洛弗尔· 明戈特先生发了电报，给住在纽约的家族成员的信息也在派人传送。这期间，除了悄声议论博福特的耻辱与他妻子的不正当行为造成的恶果别无他事。
Mrs. Lovell Mingott, who had been in another room writing notes, presently reappeared, and added her voice to the discussion.
洛弗尔·明戈特太太刚才在另一间屋里写信，现在又过来加入了讨论。
In THEIR day, the elder ladies agreed, the wife of a man who had done anything disgraceful in business had only one idea: to efface herself, to disappear with him.
年长的夫人们一致认为，在她们那个时代，－。个在生意上丢了脸的男人，他妻子只能有一种想法：就是隐退，跟他一起销声匿迹。
