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The room in which we were expected to sit was a stiffly-furnished, ugly apartment;
我们本被安排就座的房间布置得呆板，样子也很丑；
but that in which we did sit was what Mr Holbrook called the counting-house, where he paid his labourers their weekly wages at a great desk near the door.
但我们实际坐的是霍尔布鲁克先生所说的账房，他在靠近门口的一张大桌子旁给工人支付周薪。
The rest of the pretty sitting-room—looking into the orchard, and all covered over with dancing tree-shadows—was filled with books.
这个漂亮的会客室——窗外是果园，到处都映着舞动的树影——的其余部分都摆满了书。
They lay on the ground, they covered the walls, they strewed the table.
书本或躺在地上，或覆盖着墙壁，或散落在桌子上。
He was evidently half ashamed and half proud of his extravagance in this respect.
他显然对自己在这方面的奢侈行为感到半是羞愧，半是自豪。
They were of all kinds—poetry and wild weird tales prevailing.
书籍种类繁多——主要是诗歌和狂野怪诞的故事。
He evidently chose his books in accordance with his own tastes, not because such and such were classical or established favourites.
他显然是根据自己的口味选书，而不是因为某些书是经典或是公认的流行读物。
“Ah!” he said, “we farmers ought not to have much time for reading; yet somehow one can’t help it.”
“啊！”他说，“我们农民不应该有太多时间读书；然而不知怎的，总是忍不住想读。”
“What a pretty room!” said Miss Matty, sotto voce.
“多么漂亮的房间啊！”马蒂小姐低声说道。
“What a pleasant place!” said I, aloud, almost simultaneously.
“多么宜人的地方啊！”我说，声音很大，几乎和马蒂小姐同时。
“Nay! If you like it,” replied he; “but can you sit on these great, black leather, three-cornered chairs?
“不！如果你们喜欢的话，”他回答说，“但是你们能坐在这些黑皮大三角椅上吗？
I like it better than the best parlour; but I thought ladies would take that for the smarter place.”
我更喜欢这里，胜过最好的客厅；但我想女士们会觉得那里更漂亮。”
It was the smarter place, but, like most smart things, not at all pretty, or pleasant, or home-like;
那里是个更漂亮的地方，但是，就像大多数漂亮的东西一样，它一点也不可爱，也不令人愉快，也不像家；
so, while we were at dinner, the servant-girl dusted and scrubbed the counting-house chairs, and we sat there all the rest of the day.
所以，当我们吃晚饭的时候，女仆打扫了账房的椅子，我们就在那里坐了一整天。
We had pudding before meat; and I thought Mr Holbrook was going to make some apology for his old-fashioned ways, for he began—
我们在吃肉之前先吃了布丁；我以为霍尔布鲁克先生会为他的老式做法道歉，因为他开始说——
“I don’t know whether you like newfangled ways.”
“我不知道你是否喜欢新奇的方式。”
“Oh, not at all!” said Miss Matty.
“哦，一点也不！”马蒂小姐说。
“No more do I,” said he.
“我也一样，”他说，
“My housekeeper will have these in her new fashion; or else I tell her that, when I was a young man, we used to keep strictly to my father’s rule, ‘No broth, no ball; no ball, no beef’; and always began dinner with broth.
“我的管家要用新的方式上菜；但我告诉她，当我还是个年轻人的时候，我们一直严格遵守我父亲的规定，“没上肉汤，就不吃肉丸；没上肉丸，就不吃牛肉”；而且总是晚餐先吃肉汤。
Then we had suet puddings, boiled in the broth with the beef: and then the meat itself.
然后再吃板油布丁，和牛肉一起在肉汤里煮：然后才是肉本身。
If we did not sup our broth, we had no ball, which we liked a deal better; and the beef came last of all, and only those had it who had done justice to the broth and the ball.
如果我们没有喝肉汤，就没有肉丸，我们更喜欢肉丸；牛肉最后才上，只有那些好好吃了肉汤和肉丸的人才能吃牛肉。
Now folks begin with sweet things, and turn their dinners topsy-turvy.”
现在人们一开始就吃甜食，把正餐的顺序完全颠倒了。”
When the ducks and green peas came, we looked at each other in dismay; we had only two-pronged, black-handled forks.
当鸭肉和豌豆端上来时，我们惊愕地对视了一下；我们只有二齿的、黑色手柄的叉子。
It is true the steel was as bright as silver; but what were we to do?
这钢叉子的确像银子一样闪亮；但我们该怎么吃呢？
Miss Matty picked up her peas, one by one, on the point of the prongs, much as Amine ate her grains of rice after her previous feast with the Ghoul.
马蒂小姐一粒一粒地用叉子尖叉起豌豆，就像阿米娜与食尸鬼共进晚餐后吃米饭一样。
Miss Pole sighed over her delicate young peas as she left them on one side of her plate untasted, for they would drop between the prongs.
波尔小姐对着她那盘青翠的嫩豌豆叹了口气，她把豌豆留在盘子的一边，没有吃，因为豌豆会从叉子的齿间掉下去。
I looked at my host: the peas were going wholesale into his capacious mouth, shovelled up by his large round-ended knife.
我看着主人：豌豆正被他用圆头的大餐刀铲起来，大把大把地送进他张大的嘴里。
I saw, I imitated, I survived!
我看到，我模仿，我渡过难关了！
My friends, in spite of my precedent, could not muster up courage enough to do an ungenteel thing;
尽管有我的先例，但我的朋友们还是鼓不起足够的勇气去做一件不文雅的事；
and, if Mr Holbrook had not been so heartily hungry, he would probably have seen that the good peas went away almost untouched.
而且，如果霍尔布鲁克先生不是那么饿的话，他可能会看到那些美味的豌豆几乎没人动过。
After dinner, a clay pipe was brought in, and a spittoon;
晚饭后，有人拿来一根陶土烟斗和一个痰盂，
and, asking us to retire to another room, where he would soon join us, if we disliked tobacco-smoke, he presented his pipe to Miss Matty, and requested her to fill the bowl.
他说如果我们不喜欢烟草味，就可以到另一个房间去，他很快就会过来，然后他把烟斗递给马蒂小姐，请她装上烟丝。
This was a compliment to a lady in his youth; but it was rather inappropriate to propose it as an honour to Miss Matty, who had been trained by her sister to hold smoking of every kind in utter abhorrence.
这在他年轻时是对女士的赞美；但将其作为敬意而对马蒂小姐提出这个请求是相当不合适的，她姐姐曾教导她对各种吸烟行为深恶痛绝。
But if it was a shock to her refinement, it was also a gratification to her feelings to be thus selected; so she daintily stuffed the strong tobacco into the pipe, and then we withdrew.
但如果说这对她的文雅是一种冲击，被这样挑选出来也让她的感情得到了满足；于是她优雅地把浓烈的烟草塞进烟斗，然后我们就离开了。
“It is very pleasant dining with a bachelor,” said Miss Matty softly, as we settled ourselves in the counting-house.
“和单身汉一起用餐真是太愉快了，”我们在账房里坐定后，马蒂小姐轻声说。
“I only hope it is not improper; so many pleasant things are!”
“我只希望这不是不合规矩的；很多愉快的事情都不合规矩！”
“What a number of books he has!” said Miss Pole, looking round the room. “And how dusty they are!”
“他有好多书啊！”波儿小姐说道，环顾了一下房间，“这些书也有好多灰尘！”
“I think it must be like one of the great Dr Johnson’s rooms,” said Miss Matty. “What a superior man your cousin must be!”
“我觉得这里一定跟约翰逊博士的某间屋子一样。”马蒂小姐说，“你的表哥一定是个出类拔萃的人！”
“Yes!” said Miss Pole, “he’s a great reader; but I am afraid he has got into very uncouth habits with living alone.”
“是的！”波尔小姐说，“他是个博览群书的人，可我担心，他独自一人过日子，已经染上了粗野的习性。”
“Oh! Uncouth is too hard a word. I should call him eccentric; very clever people always are!” replied Miss Matty.
“哦！粗野这个词太重了。我应该称他为古怪之人；非常聪明的人总是古怪的！”马蒂小姐回答道。
