身主
Mcmurdo was a man who made his mark quickly. Wherever he was the folk around soon knew it.
麦克默多很快就使自己出了名。无论他到哪里,周围的人立刻就知道了。
Within a week he had become infinitely the most important person at Shafter's.
不到一个星期,麦克默多已经变成谢夫特寓所的一个极为重要的人物。
There were ten or a dozen boarders there; but they were honest foremen or commonplace clerks from the stores, of a very different calibre from the young Irishman.
这里有十到十二个寄宿者,不过他们是诚实的工头或者是商店的普通店员,与这个年轻的爱尔兰人的脾性完全不同。
Of an evening when they gathered together his joke was always the readiest, his conversation the brightest, and his song the best.
晚上,他们聚在一起,麦克默多总是谈笑风生,出语不凡,而他的歌声则异常出色。
He was a born boon companion, with a magnetism which drew good humour from all around him.
他是一个天生的挚友,具有使他周围的人心情舒畅的魅力。
And yet he showed again and again, as he had shown in the railway carriage, a capacity for sudden, fierce anger, which compelled the respect and even the fear of those who met him.
但是他一次又一次像他在火车上那样,显出超人的智力和突如其来的暴怒,使人敬畏。
For the law, too, and all who were connected with it, he exhibited a bitter contempt which delighted some and alarmed others of his fellow boarders.
他从来不把法律和一切执法的人放在眼里,这使他的一些同宿人感到高兴,使另一些人惊恐不安。
From the first he made it evident, by his open admiration, that the daughter of the house had won his heart from the instant that he had set eyes upon her beauty and her grace.
一开始,他就做得很明显,公然赞美说,从他看到她的美貌容颜和娴雅丰姿起,这房主人的女儿就俘获了他的心。
He was no backward suitor.
他不是一个畏缩不前的求婚者。
On the second day he told her that he loved her, and from then onward he repeated the same story with an absolute disregard of what she might say to discourage him.
第二天他就向姑娘表诉衷情,从此以后,他总是翻来覆去地说爱她,完全不顾她会说些什么使他灰心丧气的话。
"Someone else?" he would cry. "Well, the worse luck for someone else! Let him look out for himself!
"还有什么人呢!"他大声说道,"好,让他倒霉吧!让他小心点吧!
Am I to lose my life's chance and all my heart's desire for someone else?
我能把我一生的机缘和我全部身心所向往的人让给别人吗?
You can keep on saying no, Ettie: the day will come when you will say yes, and I'm young enough to wait."
你可以坚持说'不',伊蒂!但总有一天你会说'行',我还年轻,完全可以等待。"
He was a dangerous suitor, with his glib Irish tongue, and his pretty, coaxing ways.
麦克默多是一个危险的求婚者,他有一张爱尔兰人能说会道的嘴巴和一套随机应变、连哄带骗的手段。
There was about him also that glamour of experience and of mystery which attracts a woman's interest, and finally her love.
他还有丰富的经验和神秘莫测的魅力,颇能博得妇女的欢心,最终得到她的爱情。
He could talk of the sweet valleys of County Monaghan from which he came, of the lovely, distant island,
他谈其他出身地莫纳根郡那些可爱的山谷,谈到引人入胜的遥远的岛屿、
the low hills and green meadows of which seemed the more beautiful when imagination viewed them from this place of grime and snow.
低矮的小山和绿油油的湖边草地,从这种到处是尘土和积雪的地方去想像那里的景色,更仿佛使人觉得它愈发美妙无穷。
Then he was versed in the life of the cities of the North, of Detroit, and the lumber camps of Michigan, and finally of Chicago, where he had worked in a planing mill.
然后他把话题转到北方城市的生活,他熟悉底特律和密歇根州一些伐木区新兴的市镇,最后还到过芝加哥,他在那里一家锯木厂里作工。
And afterwards came the hint of romance, the feeling that strange things had happened to him in that great city, so strange and so intimate that they might not be spoken of.
然后就暗示地说到风流韵事,说到在那个大都会遇到的奇事,而那些奇事是那么离奇,又是那么隐秘,简直非言语所能讲述。
He spoke wistfully of a sudden leaving, a breaking of old ties, a flight into a strange world, ending in this dreary valley,
他有时忽然若有所思地远离话题,有时话题突然中断,有时飞往一个神奇的世界,有时结局就在这沉闷而荒凉的山谷里,
and Ettie listened, her dark eyes gleaming with pity and with sympathy -- those two qualities which mayturn so rapidly and so naturally to love.
而伊蒂静静地听他讲述,她那一双乌黑的大眼里闪现出怜悯和同情的光彩,而这两种心情一定会那么急速、那么自然地转变成爱情。