Much happier was the new home in Hertfordshire, to which the boys went for the rest of the summer. It was the Georgian red-brick rectory at Watton-at-Stone, seat of the old Archdeacon Rollo Meyer, a charming and mellow man whose environment was that of the rose-bed and the tennis court, rather than the well-scrubbed, brisk discipline of the Wards. John and Alan both responded with joy, John to girls on the tennis court (he being fifteen and decidedly interested), Alan to being left alone, allowed to cycle in the woods and make his own mess as he pleased as long as he met minimum standards in the house. Alan's standing also went up in Mrs Meyer's eyes when a gypsy fortune teller at the church fête said that he would be a genius.
后来,两个男孩回到了郝特福德郡的新家,变得开心多了,在这里度过了余下的夏天。红砖的教区宅邸,透着乔治王时代的艺术风格,副主教罗勒?梅耶是一个迷人而成熟的男人,附近还有玫瑰花床和网球场,沃德家那套严明的纪律也一去不复返了。约翰很喜欢在网球场和女孩们一起玩,他现在已经15岁了,显然会对此很有兴致。艾伦则开心地在丛林里一个人骑单车,还可以随心所欲地把屋子搞得乱七八糟。在一次教会活动时,一位吉卜赛算命人说,艾伦将来会是一个天才,梅耶夫人也觉得,艾伦确实不是个一般的孩子。
The Meyers' guardianship was shortlived, for Mr Turing suddenly decided to resign from the Indian Civil Service. He was angry at his rival, a certain Campbell who had come out with him in 1896 and had obtained a lower grade in the entrance examination, being promoted to be Chief Secretary to the Madras Government. So he abandoned his own chances of further advancement, and Alan's parents never returned as Sir Julius and Lady Turing, * though they had the more tangible benefit of a 1000 per annum pension.
他们在梅耶家并没有住很久,因为他们的父亲朱利叶斯?图灵先生,被竞争对手气得要命,突然决定要辞职。他的竞争对手凯普贝,本来在上岗考试中成绩不如他,但却被提拔成马德拉斯首席秘书长。于是,朱利叶斯不愿再等待下一次晋升机会了,干脆告老还乡。他每年能拿1000英磅退休金,但是却没有爵位注。
Technically, Mr Turing did not resign until 12 July 1926, and in the meantime he was on leave, the development of Madras somehow continuing without him. But he lost no time in establishing a new sense of economy. Mrs Turing had to submit accounts detailing the housekeeping expenses to the centime. Holidays in St Moritz and Scotland were declared henceforth out of the question.
图灵先生是1926年7月12日辞职的,他走了之后,马德拉斯仍然照常发展,但他自己的经济状况却完全不同了。艾赛儿现在要详细记录家用开销的账目,像去苏格兰度假这样的事情,从此以后再也不可能了。从很多方面来看,他过早退休是一件坏事,他的两个儿子也觉得,这是一个灾难。艾伦认为,父亲本来应该胜过那个什么凯普贝的,而约翰后来则评论道:
I doubt if I should have found my father an easy superior or subordinate for by all accounts he cared nothing for the hierarchy nor his own future in the Indian Civil Service and spoke his mind regardless of the consequences. One example will suffice. For a while he acted as principal private secretary to mild Lord Willingdon in the Madras Presidency and when a difference of opinion developed between them my father remarked 'After all you are not the Government of India'. Such thumping, suicidal indiscretion one can but admire from a safe distance.
我以前真的没想到,我父亲这么容易就被击败了。其实我本来早就应该想到的,因为很多人都说,我父亲一点都不关心级别和制度,也不关心自己的政治前程,总是口无遮拦地把自己的想法说出来。有一个例子足以体现这一点,那时候他在马德拉斯,做威灵顿的首席助理,有时候他们意见不同,我父亲就会说:「你记住,你不是印度的老大!」这种严重的找麻烦的话,实在是让人没法接受。