评论
打印
After tea, I was despatched downstairs into the dining-parlour for that volume of the old Encyclop?dia which contained the nouns beginning with C, in order that Miss Pole might prime herself with scientific explanations for the tricks of the following evening.
喝过茶后，我被派下楼到餐厅去取那本收录字母C开头名词的旧百科全书，这样波尔小姐就能为第二天晚上的魔术表演准备好科学解释了。
It spoilt the pool at Preference which Miss Matty and Mrs Forrester had been looking forward to, for Miss Pole became so much absorbed in her subject, and the plates by which it was illustrated, that we felt it would be cruel to disturb her otherwise than by one or two well-timed yawns, which I threw in now and then, for I was really touched by the meek way in which the two ladies were bearing their disappointment.
这破坏了马蒂小姐和福里斯特夫人一直期待的牌局，因为波尔小姐对这个话题和彩色插图非常着迷，我们觉得除了适时地打一两个哈欠之外，用任何方式打扰她都是很残忍的，我时不时地打哈欠，因为看到两位女士温顺地忍受她们的失望，我感到有些同情她们。
But Miss Pole only read the more zealously, imparting to us no more information than this— “Ah! I see; I comprehend perfectly.
但是波尔小姐读得更起劲了，她没有给我们更多的信息，只是说：“啊！我明白了；我完全理解了。
A represents the ball. Put A between B and D—no! Between C and F, and turn the second joint of the third finger of your left hand over the wrist of your right H. Very clear indeed!
A代表球。把A放在B和D之间——不！放在C和F之间，然后将左手第三指的第二个关节翻过右手的H。非常清楚！
My dear Mrs Forrester, conjuring and witchcraft is a mere affair of the alphabet.
我亲爱的福里斯特夫人，魔术和巫术只是字母表的把戏。
Do let me read you this one passage?”
我一定要给你读一下这段。”
Mrs Forrester implored Miss Pole to spare her, saying, from a child upwards, she never could understand being read aloud to;
福里斯特夫人恳求波尔小姐放过她，说她从小就不明白大声朗读出来的文字；
and I dropped the pack of cards, which I had been shuffling very audibly, and by this discreet movement I obliged Miss Pole to perceive that Preference was to have been the order of the evening, and to propose, rather unwillingly, that the pool should commence.
我放下了那叠纸牌，之前我一直在哗哗地大声洗牌，通过这个不动声色的动作，我迫使波尔小姐意识到今晚的活动应该是玩惠斯特牌，然后她很不情愿地提议开始玩牌。
The pleasant brightness that stole over the other two ladies’ faces on this!
这让另外两位女士的脸上露出了愉快的光彩！
Miss Matty had one or two twinges of self-reproach for having interrupted Miss Pole in her studies: and did not remember her cards well, or give her full attention to the game, until she had soothed her conscience by offering to lend the volume of the Encyclop?dia to Miss Pole, who accepted it thankfully, and said Betty should take it home when she came with the lantern.
马蒂小姐对打断波尔小姐的研究感到有些自责：于是没有好好记牌，也没有全神贯注地玩，直到她提出把百科全书借给波尔小姐，才平息了自己不安的良心，波尔小姐感激地接受了，并说等贝蒂拿灯笼来的时候，她会把书带回家。
The next evening we were all in a little gentle flutter at the idea of the gaiety before us.
第二天晚上，一想到我们将要看到的热闹场面，我们都有点兴奋不已。
Miss Matty went up to dress betimes, and hurried me until I was ready, when we found we had an hour-and-a-half to wait before the “doors opened at seven precisely.”
马蒂小姐早早地上楼梳妆打扮，还不停地催促我，直到我也收拾好，这时我们才发现，离“七点整开门”还有一个半小时。
And we had only twenty yards to go!
而我们走过去只有二十码！（注：约为18米。）
However, as Miss Matty said, it would not do to get too much absorbed in anything, and forget the time; so she thought we had better sit quietly, without lighting the candles, till five minutes to seven.
不过，正如马蒂小姐所说，要是被任何事情吸引了注意力而忘记了时间是不行的；所以她认为我们最好安静地坐着，不点蜡烛，直到七点差五分。
So Miss Matty dozed, and I knitted.
所以马蒂小姐打起了瞌睡，而我开始织毛线。
At length we set off; and at the door under the carriage-way at the “George,” we met Mrs Forrester and Miss Pole: the latter was discussing the subject of the evening with more vehemence than ever, and throwing X’s and B’s at our heads like hailstones.
最后我们终于出发了；在“乔治”旅店马车道尽头的门口，我们遇见了福里斯特夫人和波尔小姐：后者正比以前更为激动地讨论着今晚的主题，像下冰雹一样对我们说着X和B怎样怎样。
She had even copied one or two of the “receipts”—as she called them—for the different tricks, on backs of letters, ready to explain and to detect Signor Brunoni’s arts.
她甚至还抄下了一两条“秘诀”——她是这么说的——关于不同戏法的秘诀，写在信纸背面，准备用来解释和识破布鲁诺尼先生的戏法。
We went into the cloak-room adjoining the Assembly Room; Miss Matty gave a sigh or two to her departed youth, and the remembrance of the last time she had been there, as she adjusted her pretty new cap before the strange, quaint old mirror in the cloak-room.
我们走进了与宴会厅相邻的衣帽间；马蒂小姐一边对着那面怪异而古雅的旧镜子调整她的那顶漂亮的新帽子，一边想起她上次来这里的情景，为逝去的青春叹了一两口气。
The Assembly Room had been added to the inn, about a hundred years before, by the different county families, who met together there once a month during the winter to dance and play at cards.
大约一百年前，郡里的各个家族在旅馆里增设了这个宴会厅，冬天，他们每月都会在这里聚会一次，跳舞、玩牌。
Many a county beauty had first swung through the minuet that she afterwards danced before Queen Charlotte in this very room.
许多郡内美女都是在这个房间里第一次跳小步舞，然后才在夏洛特女王面前跳舞。
It was said that one of the Gunnings had graced the apartment with her beauty; it was certain that a rich and beautiful widow, Lady Williams, had here been smitten with the noble figure of a young artist, who was staying with some family in the neighbourhood for professional purposes, and accompanied his patrons to the Cranford Assembly.
据说，有位冈宁家的姑娘曾在这里大放异彩；可以肯定的是，一位富有而美丽的寡妇威廉姆斯夫人曾在这里迷上了一位年轻的贵族艺术家，这位艺术家为了工作暂住在附近某个家族的府邸里，还曾陪同他的赞助人来到克兰福德的宴会厅。
And a pretty bargain poor Lady Williams had of her handsome husband, if all tales were true.
而且可怜的威廉姆斯夫人为了她这个英俊的丈夫付出了相当大的代价，如果所有传闻都是真的话。
Now, no beauty blushed and dimpled along the sides of the Cranford Assembly Room; no handsome artist won hearts by his bow, chapeau bras in hand;
如今，克兰福德的宴会厅里不再有美女两颊绯红，笑靥如花；不再有英俊的艺术家手拿礼帽，弯腰鞠躬，赢得美人的芳心；
the old room was dingy; the salmon-coloured paint had faded into a drab; great pieces of plaster had chipped off from the fine wreaths and festoons on its walls; but still a mouldy odour of aristocracy lingered about the place, and a dusty recollection of the days that were gone made Miss Matty and Mrs Forrester bridle up as they entered, and walk mincingly up the room, as if there were a number of genteel observers, instead of two little boys with a stick of toffee between them with which to beguile the time.
这个老旧的房间变得昏暗；三文鱼色的油漆已经褪成黄褐色；墙壁上精美的花环和垂花装饰上有大块的灰泥剥落；但是这里仍然残留着一股发霉的贵族气息，弥漫着蒙尘的对旧日时光的回忆，这让马蒂小姐和福里斯特夫人一进门就昂首挺胸，迈着细碎的步子走入房间，仿佛那里有许多上流社会的旁观者，而不是两个拿着一根太妃糖消磨时间的小男孩。
