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"What a very attractive woman!" I exclaimed, turning to my companion.
我回頭向我的伙伴說道："真是一位美麗的女郎！"
He had lit his pipe again and was leaning back with drooping eyelids.
他已經重新點上了煙斗，靠在椅背上，合著兩眼，
"Is she?" he said languidly; "I did not observe."
無力地說道："是嗎？我沒有留神。"
"You really are an automaton–a calculating machine," I cried.
我嚷道："你真是個機仆人，一架計算機！
"There is something positively inhuman in you at times."
"有時你簡直一點兒人性也沒有。"
He smiled gently. "It is of the first importance," he cried, "not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities.
他溫和地微笑道："不要讓一個人的特質影響你的判斷能力，這是最重要的。
A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.
一個委托人，對于我僅僅是一個單位，問題里的一個因素。
The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.
感情作用會影響清醒的理智。
I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money,
一個我一生所見的最美麗的女人，曾經為了獲取保險賠款而毒殺了三個小孩，結果被判絞刑；
and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor."
可是我認識的一個最不討人喜歡的男子，卻是一位慈善家，捐贈了二十五萬鎊救濟倫敦的平民。"
"In this case, however..."
"但是，這一次..."
"I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. Have you ever had occasion to study character in handwriting?
"我向來不作任何例外。定律沒有例外。你也曾研究過筆跡的特征嗎？
What do you make of this fellow's scribble?"
對于這個人的筆跡你有什么見解？"
"It is legible and regular," I answered. "A man of business habits and some force of character."
我答道："寫得還夠清楚、整齊，是一個有商業經驗和性格堅強的人寫的。"
Holmes shook his head. "Look at his long letters," he said.
福爾摩斯搖頭道："你看他寫的長字母
"They hardly rise above the common herd. That d might be an a, and that l an e.
差不多都沒有高過一般字母，那個d字象個a字，還有那個l象個e，
Men of character always differentiate their long letters, however illegibly they may write.
性格堅強的人不論寫得怎樣難認，字的高矮總是分明的，
There is vacillation in his k's and self-esteem in his capitals.
他的k字寫得不一律，大寫的字母倒還工整。
I am going out now. I have some few references to make.
我現在要出去了，還有些問題要搞清楚。
Let me recommend this book–one of the most remarkable ever penned.
讓我介紹你一本書，一本最不平凡的著作，
It is Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man. I shall be back in an hour."
這是溫伍德·瑞德寫的《成仁記》，我去一個鐘頭就回來。"
I sat in the window with the volume in my hand, but my thoughts were far from the daring speculations of the writer.
我坐在窗前拿著書，但是我的思想并沒有放在研究這位作者的杰作上。
My mind ran upon our late visitor: her smiles, the deep rich tones of her voice, the strange mystery which overhung her life.
我的思想專注在方才來的客人身上：她的音容笑貌和她在生活里所遭遇的離奇的事情。
If she were seventeen at the time of her father's disappearance she must be seven-and-twenty now–a sweet age,
如果她父親失蹤那年她是十七歲的話，她現在就應當是二十七歲了
when youth has lost its self-consciousness and become a little sobered by experience.
正是青年稚氣消退、轉到稍經事故的妙齡的階段。
So I sat and mused until such dangerous thoughts came into my head
我就這樣地坐在那里冥想，直到危險的妄想闖進我的腦海。
that I hurried away to my desk and plunged furiously into the latest treatise upon pathology.
因此我急急坐到桌前，拿出一本最近的病理學論文來仔細地讀，借以遏制我的妄想。
What was I, an army surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking account, that I should dare to think of such things?
我是一個什么樣的人？一個陸軍軍醫，有一條傷腿，又沒有多少錢，怎好有這種妄想？
She was a unit, a factor–nothing more.
她只是案子里面的一個單位，一個因素，再沒有什么了。
If my future were black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by mere will-o'-the-wisps of the imagination.
如果我前途是黑暗的，最好還是毅然地擔當票來，不要去胡思亂想，妄想要扭轉自己的命運吧。
