評論
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"My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather,
"我的名字叫海倫·斯托納，我和我的繼父住在一起，
who is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in England,
他是位于薩里郡西部邊界的斯托克莫蘭的羅伊洛特家族，
the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of Surrey."
英國最古老的撒克遜家族之一的最后的一個生存者。"
Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he.
福爾摩斯點點頭，"這個名字我很熟悉，"他說。
"The family was at one time among the richest in England,
"這個家族一度是英倫最富有的家族之一，
and the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, and Hampshire in the west.
它的產業占地極廣，超出了本郡的邊界，北至伯克郡，西至漢普郡。
In the last century, however, four successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition,
可是到了上個世紀，連續四代子嗣都屬生性荒淫浪蕩、揮霍無度之輩，
and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the days of the Regency.
到了攝政時期終于被一個賭棍最后搞得傾家蕩產。
Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, and the two-hundred-year-old house,
除了幾畝土地和一座二百年的古老邱宅外，其它都已蕩然無存，
which is itself crushed under a heavy mortgage.
而那座邸宅也已典押得差不多了。
The last squire dragged out his existence there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper;
最后的一位地主在那里茍延殘喘地過著落破王孫的可悲生活。
but his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to the new conditions,
但是他的獨生子，我的繼父，認識到他必須使自己適應這種新的情況，
obtained an advance from a relative, which enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta,
從一位親戚那里借到一筆錢，這筆錢使他得到了一個醫學學位，并且出國到了加爾各答行醫，
where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he established a large practice.
在那兒憑借他的醫術和堅強的個性，業務非常發達。
In a fit of anger, however, caused by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house,
可是，由于家里幾次被盜，他在盛怒之下，
he beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital sentence.
毆打當地人管家致死，差一點因為這個被判處死刑。
As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man."
就這樣，他遭到長期監禁。后來，返回英國，變成一個性格暴躁、失意潦倒的人。"
