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I had not been back twenty-four hours before I ran across Rose Waterford in Jermyn Street.
回到倫敦還不到二十四小時，我就在杰爾敏大街上遇見了柔斯·瓦特爾芙德。
You look very gay and sprightly, I said. "What's the matter with you?"
“看你今天這么喜氣洋洋的樣子，”我說，“有什么開心的事啊？”
She smiled, and her eyes shone with a malice I knew already. It meant that she had heard some scandal about one of her friends, and the instinct of the literary woman was all alert.
她笑了起來，眼睛流露出一道我早已熟悉的幸災樂禍的閃光。這意味著她又聽到她的某個朋友的一件丑聞，這位女作家的直覺已經處于極度警覺狀態。
You did meet Charles Strickland, didn't you?
“你看見過查理斯·思特里克蘭德，是不是？”
Not only her face, but her whole body, gave a sense of alacrity. I nodded. I wondered if the poor devil had been hammered on the Stock Exchange or run over by an omnibus.
不僅她的面孔，就連她的全身都變得非常緊張。我點了點頭。我懷疑這個倒霉鬼是不是在證券交易所蝕了老本兒，要不就是讓公共汽車軋傷了。
Isn't it dreadful? He's run away from his wife.
“你說，是不是太可怕了？他把他老婆扔了，跑掉了。”
Miss Waterford certainly felt that she could not do her subject justice on the curb of Jermyn Street, and so, like an artist, flung the bare fact at me and declared that she knew no details. I could not do her the injustice of supposing that so trifling a circumstance would have prevented her from giving them, but she was obstinate.
瓦特爾芙德小姐肯定覺得，在杰爾敏大街馬路邊上講這個故事大辱沒這樣一個好題目，所以她只是象個藝術家似地把主題拋出來，宣稱她并不知道細節。而我卻不能埋沒她的口才，認為根本無需介意的環境竟會妨礙她給我講述故事。但是她還是執拗地不肯講。
I tell you I know nothing, she said, in reply to my agitated questions, and then, with an airy shrug of the shoulders: "I believe that a young person in a city tea-shop has left her situation."
“我告訴你我什么也不知道，”她回答我激動的問題說，接著，很俏皮地聳了聳肩膀，又加了一句：“我相信倫敦哪家茶點店準有一位年輕姑娘把活兒辭了?！?/div>
She flashed a smile at me, and, protesting an engagement with her dentist, jauntily walked on. I was more interested than distressed. In those days my experience of life at first hand was small, and it excited me to come upon an incident among people I knew of the same sort as I had read in books. I confess that time has now accustomed me to incidents of this character among my acquaintance. But I was a little shocked. Strickland was certainly forty, and I thought it disgusting that a man of his age should concern himself with affairs of the heart. With the superciliousness of extreme youth, I put thirty-five as the utmost limit at which a man might fall in love without making a fool of himself. And this news was slightly disconcerting to me personally, because I had written from the country to Mrs. Strickland, announcing my return, and had added that unless I heard from her to the contrary, I would come on a certain day to drink a dish of tea with her. This was the very day, and I had received no word from Mrs. Strickland. Did she want to see me or did she not? It was likely enough that in the agitation of the moment my note had escaped her memory. Perhaps I should be wiser not to go. On the other hand, she might wish to keep the affair quiet, and it might be highly indiscreet on my part to give any sign that this strange news had reached me. I was torn between the fear of hurting a nice woman's feelings and the fear of being in the way. I felt she must be suffering, and I did not want to see a pain which I could not help; but in my heart was a desire, that I felt a little ashamed of, to see how she was taking it. I did not know what to do.
她朝我笑了一下，道歉說同牙醫生約定了時間，便神氣十足地揚長而去。這個消息與其說叫我難過，不如說使我很感興趣。在那些日子里我的見聞還很少是親身經歷的第一手材料，因此在我碰到這樣一件我在書本里閱讀到的故事時，覺得非常興奮。我承認，現在時間和閱歷已經使我習慣于在我相識的人中遇到這類事情了。但是我當時還有一種驚駭的感覺。思特里克蘭德那一年一定已經有四十歲了，我認為象他這樣年紀的人再牽扯到這種愛情瓜葛中未免令人作嘔。在我當時年幼無知，睥睨一切的目光中，一個人陷入愛情而又不使自己成為笑柄，三十五歲是最大的年限。除此以外，這個新聞也給我個人添了點兒小麻煩。原來我在鄉下就給思特里克蘭德太太寫了信，通知她我回倫敦的日期，并且在信中說好如果她不回信另作安排的話，我將在某月某日到她家去吃茶。我遇見瓦特爾芙德小姐正是在這一天，可是思特里克蘭德太太并沒有給我捎什么信來。她到底想不想見我呢？非?？赡?，她在心緒煩亂中把我信里訂的約會忘到腦后了。也許我應該有自知之明，不去打擾她?？墒橇硪环矫?，她也可能想把這件事瞞著我，如果我叫她猜出來自己已經聽到這件奇怪的消息，那就太不慎重了。我既怕傷害這位夫人的感情，又怕去她家作客惹她心煩，心里非常矛盾。我知道她這時一定痛苦不堪，我不愿意看到別人受苦，自己無力替她分憂；但另一方面我又很想看一看思特里克蘭德太太對這件事有何反應，盡管我對這個想法自己也覺得不好意思。我真不知道該怎么辦好了。
