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Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.
他把手插在衣袋里，在壁爐前舒展開雙腿，盡情地笑了一陣子。
"Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the chair.
"噢，真的嗎？"他喊道，忽然嗆住了喉嚨，接著又笑了起來，直到笑得軟弱無力地躺在椅子上。
"What is it?" "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I employed my morning, or what I ended by doing."
"這是怎么回事？""簡直太有趣了。我敢說你怎么也猜不出我上午在忙什么，或者忙的結果是什么。"
"I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler."
"我想象不出來。也許你一直在注意觀察艾琳·艾德勒小姐的生活習慣，也許還觀察了她的房子。"
"Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, however.
"一點不錯，但是結局卻相當不平常。不過我愿意把情況告訴你。
I left the house a little after eight o'clock this morning in the character of a groom out of work.
我今天早晨八點稍過一點離開這里，扮成一個失業的馬夫。
There is a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsy men.
在那些馬夫中間存在著一種美好的互相同情、意氣相投的感情。
Be one of them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found Briony Lodge.
如果你成為他們之中的一員，你就可以知道你要想知道的一切。我很快就找到了布里翁尼府第。
It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but built out in front right up to the road, two stories.
那是一幢小巧雅致的別墅，后面有個花園。這是一幢兩層樓房，面對著馬路建造的。
Chubb lock to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well furnished,
門上掛著洽伯鎖。右邊是寬敞的起居室，內部裝飾華麗，
with long windows almost to the floor, and those preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open.
窗戶之長幾乎到達地面，然而那些可笑的英國窗閂連小孩都能打開。
Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window could be reached from the top of the coach-house.
除了從馬車房的房頂可以夠得著過道的窗戶以外，就沒有什么值得注意的了。
I walked round it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without noting anything else of interest.
我圍繞別墅巡行了一遍，從各個角度仔細偵察，但并未發現任何令人感興趣之處。
I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the garden.
接著我順著街道漫步，果然不出所料，我發現在靠著花園墻的小巷里，有一排馬房。
I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses,
我幫助那些馬夫梳洗馬匹。
and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two fills of shag tobacco,
他們酬勞我兩個便士、一杯混合酒、兩煙斗裝得滿滿的板煙絲，
and as much information as I could desire about Miss Adler,
并且提供了許多我想知道的有關艾德勒小姐的情況。
to say nothing of half a dozen other people in the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested,
除她之外，他們還告訴我住在附近的其他六、七個人的情況，我對這些人絲毫不感興趣，
but whose biographies I was compelled to listen to."
但是又不得不聽下去。"
