She was the best cook on the island, and she adored good food. From morning till night you saw her sitting on a low chair in the kitchen, surrounded by a Chinese cook and two or three native girls, giving her orders, chatting sociably with all and sundry, and tasting the savoury messes she devised. When she wished to do honour to a friend she cooked the dinner with her own hands. Hospitality was a passion with her, and there was no one on the island who need go without a dinner when there was anything to eat at the Hotel de la Fleur. She never turned her customers out of her house because they did not pay their bills. She always hoped they would pay when they could. There was one man there who had fallen on adversity, and to him she had given board and lodging for several months. When the Chinese laundryman refused to wash for him without payment she had sent his things to be washed with hers. She could not allow the poor fellow to go about in a dirty shirt, she said, and since he was a man, and men must smoke, she gave him a franc a day for cigarettes. She used him with the same affability as those of her clients who paid their bills once a week.
她是島上最好的廚師，對(duì)美饌佳肴有很深的愛好。從清早直到夜晚，你什么時(shí)候都會(huì)看見她坐在廚房里一把矮椅上，一名中國(guó)廚師和兩三個(gè)本地的使女圍著她團(tuán)團(tuán)轉(zhuǎn)；她一面發(fā)號(hào)施令，一面同所有的人東拉西扯，偷空還要品嘗一下她設(shè)計(jì)烹調(diào)出的令人饞涎欲滴的美味。如果要對(duì)一位朋友表示敬意，她就親自下廚。殷勤好客是她的本性；只要鮮花旅館有東西吃，島上的人誰也用不著餓肚皮。她從來不因?yàn)榉靠透恫怀鰩ざ阉麄冓s走。有一次有一個(gè)住在她旅館的人處境不佳，她竟一連幾個(gè)月供給這人食宿，分文不收。最后開洗衣店的中國(guó)人因?yàn)檫@人付不起錢不再給他洗衣服，她就把這位房客的衣服和自己的混在一起給洗衣店送去。她說，她不能看著這個(gè)可憐的人穿臟襯衫，此外，既然他是一個(gè)男人，而男人又非抽煙不可，她還每天給這個(gè)人一個(gè)法郎，專門供他買紙煙。她對(duì)這個(gè)人同對(duì)那些每星期付一次賬的客人一樣殷勤和氣。
Age and obesity had made her inapt for love, but she took a keen interest in the amatory affairs of the young. She looked upon venery as the natural occupation for men and women, and was ever ready with precept and example from her own wide experience.
年齡和發(fā)胖已經(jīng)使她自己不能再談情說愛了；但是她對(duì)年輕人的戀愛事卻極有興趣。她認(rèn)為情欲方面的事是人的本性，男人女人都是如此，她總是從自己的豐富經(jīng)驗(yàn)中給人以箴言和范例。
"I was not fifteen when my father found that I had a lover," she said. "He was third mate on the Tropic Bird. A good-looking boy."
“我還不到十五歲的時(shí)候，我父親就發(fā)現(xiàn)我有了愛人，”她說，“他是熱帶鳥號(hào)上的三副。一個(gè)漂亮的年輕人。”
She sighed a little. They say a woman always remembers her first lover with affection; but perhaps she does not always remember him.
她嘆了一口氣。人們都說女人總是不能忘懷自己的第一個(gè)愛人；但是也許她并不是永遠(yuǎn)把頭一個(gè)愛人記在心上的。
"My father was a sensible man."
“我父親是個(gè)明白事理的人。”
"What did he do?" I asked.
“他怎么著你了？”我問。
"He thrashed me within an inch of my life, and then he made me marry Captain Johnson. I did not mind. He was older, of course, but he was good-looking too."
“他差點(diǎn)兒把我打得一命嗚呼，以后他就讓我同約翰生船長(zhǎng)結(jié)了婚。我倒也不在乎。當(dāng)然了，約翰生船長(zhǎng)年紀(jì)大多了，但是他也很漂亮。”
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