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"Hello, Dad--Yes: Dallas. I say--how do you feel about sailing on Wednesday? Mauretania: Yes, next Wednesday as ever is.
“喂，爸--是的，我是达拉斯，我说--星期三航行一趟你觉得怎样？去毛里塔尼亚，对，就是下周三。
Our client wants me to look at some Italian gardens before we settle anything, and has asked me to nip over on the next boat. I've got to be back on the first of June--" the voice broke into a joyful conscious laugh--"so we must look alive. I say, Dad, I want your help: do come."
我们的顾客想让我先看几个意大利花园再做决定。要我赶紧乘下一班船过去，我必须在6月1日回来--”他的话音突然变成得意的笑声--“所以我们必须抓紧，我说爸，我需要你的帮助，你来吧。”
Dallas seemed to be speaking in the room: the voice was as near by and natural as if he had been lounging in his favourite arm-chair by the fire.
达拉斯好像就在屋子里讲话，他的声音那样近，那样真切，仿佛他就懒洋洋地倚在炉边他最喜爱的那张扶手椅里。
The fact would not ordinarily have surprised Archer, for long-distance telephoning had become as much a matter of course as electric lighting and five-day Atlantic voyages.
若不是长途电话已经变得跟电灯和5天横渡大西洋一样司空见惯，这件事准得让阿切尔惊得非同小可。
But the laugh did startle him; it still seemed wonderful that across all those miles and miles of country--forest, river, mountain, prairie, roaring cities and busy indifferent millions--Dallas's laugh should be able to say: "Of course, whatever happens, I must get back on the first, because Fanny Beaufort and I are to be married on the fifth."
不过这笑声还是让他吓了一跳，他依然感到非常奇妙：隔着这么遥远的疆域--森林、江河、山脉、草原、喧嚣的城市与数百万忙碌的局外人--达拉斯的笑声竟能向他表示：“当然了，不管发生什么事，我必须在1号回来。因为我和范妮·博福特要在5号结婚。”
The voice began again: "Think it over? No, sir: not a minute.
耳机里又响起儿子的声音：“考虑考虑？不行，先生。一分钟也不行，
You've got to say yes now. Why not, I'd like to know? If you can allege a single reason-No; I knew it.
你现在就得答应。为什么不？我想问一问。假如你能提出一条理由--不行，这我知道。
Then it's a go, eh? Because I count on you to ring up the Cunard office first thing tomorrow; and you'd better book a return on a boat from Marseilles.
那就一言为定？因为我料想你明天第一件事就是去摁丘纳德办公室的门铃。还有，你最好订一张到马赛的往返船票。
I say, Dad; it'll be our last time together, in this kind of way--. Oh, good! I knew you would."
我说爸，这将是我们最后一次一起旅行了--以这种方式。啊--太好了！我早知道你会的。”
Chicago rang off, and Archer rose and began to pace up and down the room.
芝加哥那边挂断了，阿切尔站起来，开始在屋里来回踱步。
It would be their last time together in this kind of way: the boy was right.
这将是他们最后一次以这种方式一起旅行了：孩子说得对。
They would have lots of other "times" after Dallas's marriage, his father was sure; for the two were born comrades, and Fanny Beaufort, whatever one might think of her, did not seem likely to interfere with their intimacy.
达拉斯婚后他们还会有另外“很多次”一起旅行，父亲对此深信不疑，因为他们俩天生地志同道合，而范妮·博福特，不论人们对她有何看法，似乎不可能会干涉父子间的亲密关系。
On the contrary, from what he had seen of her, he thought she would be naturally included in it.
相反，根据他对她的观察，他倒认为她会很自然地被吸引到这种关系中来。
Still, change was change, and differences were differences, and much as he felt himself drawn toward his future daughter-in-law, it was tempting to seize this last chance of being alone with his boy.
然而变化终归是变化，差别依然是差别。尽管他对未来的儿媳颇有好感，但单独跟儿子一起的最后机会对他也很有诱惑力。
There was no reason why he should not seize it, except the profound one that he had lost the habit of travel.
除了他已失去旅行的习惯这一深层原因之外，他没有任何理由不抓住这次机会。
May had disliked to move except for valid reasons, such as taking the children to the sea or in the mountains: she could imagine no other motive for leaving the house in Thirty-ninth Street or their comfortable quarters at the Wellands' in Newport.
梅一直不爱活动，除非有正当的理由，譬如带孩子们到海边或山里去，否则她想不出还有别的原因要离开39街的家，或者离开纽波特韦兰家他们那舒适的住处。
After Dallas had taken his degree she had thought it her duty to travel for six months; and the whole family had made the old-fashioned tour through England, Switzerland and Italy.
达拉斯取得学位之后，她认为出去旅游6个月是她应尽的职责。全家人到英国。瑞典和意大利作了一次老式的旅行。
Their time being limited, no one knew why, they had omitted France.
因为时间有限，谁也不知为什么，他们只得略去了法国。
Archer remembered Dallas's wrath at being asked to contemplate Mont Blanc instead of Rheims and Chartres.
阿切尔还记得，在要求达拉斯考虑布朗峰而不去兰斯与沙特尔时儿子那副激怒的样子。
But Mary and Bill wanted mountain-climbing, and had already yawned their way in Dallas's wake through the English cathedrals; and May, always fair to her children, had insisted on holding the balance evenly between their athletic and artistic proclivities.
但玛丽和比尔想要爬山，而且在游览英国那些大教堂的路上，他俩早就跟在达拉斯后面打呵欠了。梅对孩子们一贯持公平态度，坚决维持他们运动爱好与艺术爱好之间的平衡。
She had indeed proposed that her husband should go to Paris for a fortnight, and join them on the Italian lakes after they had "done" Switzerland; but Archer had declined.
她确实曾提议，让丈夫去巴黎呆上两周，等他们“进行”完瑞士，再到意大利湖畔与他们汇合。但阿切尔拒绝了。
We'll stick together," he said; and May's face had brightened at his setting such a good example to Dallas.
“我们要始终在一起，”他说。见他为达拉斯树立了榜样，梅脸上露出了喜色。
Since her death, nearly two years before, there had been no reason for his continuing in the same routine.
她去世快两年了，自那以后，他没有理由继续恪守原有的常规了。
His children had urged him to travel: Mary Chivers had felt sure it would do him good to go abroad and "see the galleries."
孩子们曾劝他去旅游，玛丽·奇弗斯坚信，到国外去“看看画展”，
The very mysteriousness of such a cure made her the more confident of its efficacy.
肯定对他大有益处。那种治疗方法的神秘性使她愈发相信其功效。
But Archer had found himself held fast by habit, by memories, by a sudden startled shrinking from new things.
然而，阿切尔发觉自己被习惯、回忆以及对新事物的惊惧紧紧束缚住了。
Now, as he reviewed his past, he saw into what a deep rut he had sunk.
此刻，在他回首往事的时候，他看清了自己是多么墨守成规。
The worst of doing one's duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else.
尽义务最不幸的后果，是使人变得对其他事情明显不适应了。
At least that was the view that the men of his generation had taken.
至少这是他那一代男人所持的观点。
The trenchant divisions between right and wrong, honest and dishonest, respectable and the reverse, had left so little scope for the unforeseen.
对与错、诚实与虚伪、高尚与卑鄙，这些界限太分明了，对预料之外的情况不留半点余地。
There are moments when a man's imagination, so easily subdued to what it lives in, suddenly rises above its daily level, and surveys the long windings of destiny. Archer hung there and wondered…
容易受环境压抑的想像力，有时候会突然超越平日的水平，去审视命运漫长曲折的行程。阿切尔呆坐在那儿，感慨着……
What was left of the little world he had grown up in, and whose standards had bent and bound him?
他成长于其中的那个小小天地--是它的准则压制并束缚了他--现在还剩下了什么呢？
He remembered a sneering prophecy of poor Lawrence Lefferts's, uttered years ago in that very room: "If things go on at this rate, our children will be marrying Beaufort's bastards."
他记起浅薄的劳伦斯·莱弗茨就在这屋子里说过的一句嘲讽的预言：“假如世态照这种速度发展，我们的下一代就会与博福特家的杂种结亲。”
