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"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Dallas pursued. "Fanny made me swear to do three things while I was in Paris: get her the score of the last Debussy songs, go to the Grand-Guignol and see Madame Olenska.
“噢，我没告诉你吗，”达拉斯接下去说，“范妮让我到巴黎后保证做三件事：买德彪西歌曲总谱，去潘趣大剧场看木偶戏，还有看望奥兰斯卡夫人。
You know she was awfully good to Fanny when Mr. Beaufort sent her over from Buenos Ayres to the Assomption.
你知道博福特先生从布宜诺斯艾利斯送范妮来过圣母节的时候，奥兰斯卡夫人对她特别好。
Fanny hadn't any friends in Paris, and Madame Olenska used to be kind to her and trot her about on holidays.
范妮在巴黎一个朋友也没有，她对她很友好，假日带她到各处玩。
I believe she was a great friend of the first Mrs. Beaufort's. And she's our cousin, of course.
我相信她和第一位博福特太太是好朋友，当然她还是我们的表亲。
So I rang her up this morning, before I went out, and told her you and I were here for two days and wanted to see her."
所以，上午我出去之前给她打了个电话。告诉她你我在此地呆两天，并且想去看她。”
Archer continued to stare at him. "You told her I was here?"
阿切尔继续瞪大眼睛盯着他。“你告诉她我在这儿了？”
"Of course--why not?" Dallas's eye brows went up whimsically.
“当然啦--干吗不呢？”达拉斯怪兮兮地把眉毛往上一挑说。
Then, getting no answer, he slipped his arm through his father's with a confidential pressure.
接着，因为没得到回答，他便悄悄把胳膊搭到父亲的胳膊上，信任地按了一下。
"I say, father: what was she like?"
“哎，爸爸，她长得什么样？”
Archer felt his colour rise under his son's unabashed gaze.
在儿子泰然自若的凝视下，阿切尔觉得自己脸红了。
"Come, own up: you and she were great pals, weren't you? Wasn't she most awfully lovely?"
“咳，坦白吧：你和她过去是好朋友，对吗？她是不是非常可爱？”
"Lovely? I don't know. She was different."
“可爱？不知道。她很不同。”
"Ah--there you have it! That's what it always comes to, doesn't it?
“啊--你算说对了！结果往往就是这样，对吗？
When she comes, she's different--and one doesn't know why. It's exactly what I feel about Fanny."
当她出现时，非常地不同--可你却不知为什么。这跟我对范妮的感觉完全相同。”
His father drew back a step, releasing his arm. "About Fanny? But, my dear fellow--I should hope so! Only I don't see--"
父亲向后退了一步，挣脱开他的胳膊。“对范妮？可亲爱的伙计--我倒希望如此呢！不过我看不出--”
"Dash it, Dad, don't be prehistoric! Wasn't she-- once--your Fanny?"
“算了，爸，别那么陈腐了！她是否曾经是--你的范妮？”
Dallas belonged body and soul to the new generation.
达拉斯完完全全属于一代新人。
He was the first-born of Newland and May Archer, yet it had never been possible to inculcate in him even the rudiments of reserve.
他是纽兰与梅·阿切尔的头生儿子，但向他灌输最基本的矜持原则都办不到。
"What's the use of making mysteries? It only makes people want to nose 'em out," he always objected when enjoined to discretion.
“何必搞得那么神秘？那样只会促使人们探出真相。”叮嘱他谨慎的时候，他总是这样提出异议。
But Archer, meeting his eyes, saw the filial light under their banter.
然而，阿切尔迎着他的目光，看出了调笑背后流露出的孝心。
"My Fanny?"
“我的范妮--？”
"Well, the woman you'd have chucked everything for: only you didn't," continued his surprising son.
“哦，就是你肯为之抛弃一切的女人：只不过你没那样做。”儿子令他震惊地接着说。
"I didn't," echoed Archer with a kind of solemnity.
“我没有，”阿切尔带着几分庄严，重复说。
"No: you date, you see, dear old boy. But mother said--"
“是的：瞧，你很守旧，亲爱的。但母亲说过--”
"Your mother?"
“你母亲？”
"Yes: the day before she died. It was when she sent for me alone--you remember?
“是啊，她去世的前一天。当时她把我一个人叫了去--你还记得吗？
She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted."
她说她知道我们跟你在一起很安全，而且会永远安全，因为有一次，当她放你去做你自己特别向往的那件事，可你并没有做。”
Archer received this strange communication in silence.
阿切尔听了这一新奇的消息默然无语，
His eyes remained unseeingly fixed on the thronged sunlit square below the window.
眼睛依旧茫然地盯着窗下阳光明媚、人群蜂拥的广场。
At length he said in a low voice: "She never asked me."
终于，他低声说：“她从没有让我去做。”
"No. I forgot. You never did ask each other anything, did you? And you never told each other anything.
“对，是我忘记了。你们俩从没有相互要求过什么事，对吗？而你们也从没有告诉过对方任何事。
You just sat and watched each other, and guessed at what was going on underneath. A deaf-and-dumb asylum, in fact!
你们仅仅坐着互相观察，猜测对方心里想些什么。实际就像在聋哑人收容院！
Well, I back your generation for knowing more about each other's private thoughts than we ever have time to find out about our own.
哎，我敢打赌，你们那一代人了解对方隐私比我们了解自己还多，我们根本没时间去挖掘，”达拉斯突然住了口。
I say, Dad," Dallas broke off, "you're not angry with me? If you are, let's make it up and go and lunch at Henri's.
“我说爸，你不生我的气吧？如果你生气，那么让我们到亨利餐馆吃顿午饭弥补一下。
I've got to rush out to Versailles afterward."
饭后我还得赶紧去凡尔赛呢。”
Archer did not accompany his son to Versailles.
阿切尔没有陪儿子去凡尔赛。
He preferred to spend the afternoon in solitary roamings through Paris.
他宁愿一下午独自在巴黎街头闲逛。
He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.
他必须立刻清理一下终生闷在心里的悔恨与记忆。
After a little while he did not regret Dallas's indiscretion.
过了一会儿，他不再为达拉斯的鲁莽感到遗憾了。
It seemed to take an iron band from his heart to know that, after all, some one had guessed and pitied…
知道毕竟有人猜出了他的心事并给予同情，这仿佛从他的心上除去了一道铁箍……
And that it should have been his wife moved him indescribably.
而这个人竟是他的妻子，更使他难以形容地感动。
Dallas, for all his affectionate insight, would not have understood that.
达拉斯尽管有爱心与洞察力，但他是不会理解的。
To the boy, no doubt, the episode was only a pathetic instance of vain frustration, of wasted forces. But was it really no more?
在孩于看来，那段插曲无疑不过是一起无谓挫折、白费精力的可悲事例。然而仅此而已吗？
For a long time Archer sat on a bench in the Champs Elysees and wondered, while the stream of life rolled by...
阿切尔坐在爱丽舍大街的长凳上久久地困惑着，生活的急流在他身边滚滚向前……
A few streets away, a few hours away, Ellen Olenska waited.
就在几条街之外、几个小时之后，埃伦·奥兰斯卡将等他前往。
She had never gone back to her husband, and when he had died, some years before, she had made no change in her way of living.
她始终没有回她丈夫身边，几年前他去世后，她的生活方式也没有任何变化。
There was nothing now to keep her and Archer apart--and that afternoon he was to see her.
如今再没有什么事情让她与阿切尔分开了--而今天下午他就要去见她。
