評論
打印
"You know, we English are so dreadfully ignorant. You must forgive me if it's necessary to explain." Then she turned to me. "Mr. Van Busche Taylor is the distinguished American critic. If you haven't read his book your education has been shamefully neglected, and you must repair the omission at once. He's writing something about dear Charlie, and he's come to ask me if I can help him."
“你知道，我們英國人見聞狹窄，簡直太可怕了。如果我不得不做些解釋，你一定得原諒我。”接著她轉(zhuǎn)過來對我說：“凡·布施·泰勒先生就是那位美國最有名的評論家。如果你沒有讀過他的著作，你的教育可未免太欠缺了；你必須立刻著手彌補一下。泰勒先生現(xiàn)在正在寫一點兒東西，關(guān)于親愛的查理斯的。他特地來我這里看看我能不能幫他的忙。”
Mr. Van Busche Taylor was a very thin man with a large, bald head, bony and shining; and under the great dome of his skull his face, yellow, with deep lines in it, looked very small. He was quiet and exceedingly polite. He spoke with the accent of New England, and there was about his demeanour a bloodless frigidity which made me ask myself why on earth he was busying himself with Charles Strickland. I had been slightly tickled at the gentleness which Mrs. Strickland put into her mention of her husband's name, and while the pair conversed I took stock of the room in which we sat. Mrs. Strickland had moved with the times. Gone were the Morris papers and gone the severe cretonnes, gone were the Arundel prints that had adorned the walls of her drawing-room in Ashley Gardens; the room blazed with fantastic colour, and I wondered if she knew that those varied hues, which fashion had imposed upon her, were due to the dreams of a poor painter in a South Sea island. She gave me the answer herself.
凡·布施·泰勒先生身體非常削瘦，生著一個大禿腦袋，骨頭支棱著，頭皮閃閃發(fā)亮；大寬腦門下面一張臉面色焦黃，滿是皺紋，顯得枯干瘦小。他舉止文靜，彬彬有禮，說話時帶著些新英格蘭州口音。這個人給我的印象非常僵硬刻板，毫無熱情；我真不知道他怎么會想到要研究查理斯·思特里克蘭德來。思特里克蘭德太太在提到她死去的丈夫時，語氣非常溫柔，我暗自覺得好笑。在這兩人談話的當(dāng)兒，我把我們坐的這間客廳打量了一番。思特里克蘭德太太是個緊跟時尚的人。她在阿施里花園舊居時那些室內(nèi)裝飾都不見了，墻上糊的不再是莫里斯墻紙，家具上套的不再是色彩樸素的印花布，舊日裝飾著客廳四壁的阿倫德爾圖片也都撤下去了。現(xiàn)在這間客廳是一片光怪陸離的顏色，我很懷疑，她知道不知道她把屋子裝點得五顏六色的這種風(fēng)尚都是因為南海島嶼上一個可憐的畫家有過這種幻夢。對我的這個疑問她自己作出了回答。
