Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced. Their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgment, too, unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them.
伊麗莎白聽著姐姐的話,嘴上一聲不響,心里可并不信服。她比她姐姐的觀察力來得敏銳,脾氣她沒有姐姐那么好惹,因此提到彬家姐妹,她只要想想她們在跳舞場里的那種舉止,就知道她們并不打算要討一般人的好。而且她胸有城府,決不因為人家等待她好就改變主張,她不會對她們發生多大好感的。
They were in fact very fine ladies, not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of being agreeable where they chose it; but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank; and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother's fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.
事實上她們都是些非常好的小姐;她們并不是不會談笑風生,問題是在要碰到她們高興的時候;她們也不是不會待人和顏悅色,問題在于她們是否樂意這樣做??上У氖?,她們一味驕傲自大。她們都長得很漂亮,曾經在一個上流的??茖W校里受過教育,有兩萬鎊的財產,花起錢來總是揮霍無度,愛結交有身價地位的人,因此才造成了她們在各方面都自視甚高,不把別人放在眼里。她們出生于英格蘭北部的一個體面家族。她們對自己的出身記得很牢,可是卻幾乎忘了她們兄弟的財產以及她們自己的財產都是做生意賺來的。
Mr. Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly an hundred thousand pounds from his father, who had intended to purchase an estate, but did not live to do it. -- Mr. Bingley intended it likewise, and sometimes made choice of his county; but as he was now provided with a good house and the liberty of a manor, it was doubtful to many of those who best knew the easiness of his temper, whether he might not spend the remainder of his days at Netherfield, and leave the next generation to purchase.
彬格萊先生從他的父親那兒只承繼了一筆將近十萬鎊的遺產。他父親生前本來打算購置些田產,可惜沒有了卻心愿就與世長辭了。彬格萊先生同樣有這個打算,并且一度打算就在自己故鄉購置,不過目前他既然有了一幢很好的房子,而且有莊園聽他任意使用,于是那些了解他性格的人都說,象他這樣一個隨遇而安的人,下半輩子恐怕就在尼日斐花園度過,購置田產的事又要留給下一代去做了。