Mr. Sillerton Jackson had returned the opera-glass to Lawrence Lefferts. The whole of the club turned instinctively, waiting to hear what the old man had to say; for old Mr. Jackson was as great an authority on "family" as Lawrence Lefferts was on "form." He knew all the ramifications of New York's cousinships; and could not only elucidate such complicated questions as that of the connection between the Mingotts (through the Thorleys) with the Dallases of South Carolina, and that of the relationship of the elder branch of Philadelphia Thorleys to the Albany Chiverses (on no account to be confused with the Manson Chiverses of University Place), but could also enumerate the leading characteristics of each family: as, for instance, the fabulous stinginess of the younger lines of Leffertses (the Long Island ones); or the fatal tendency of the Rushworths to make foolish matches; or the insanity recurring in every second generation of the Albany Chiverses, with whom their New York cousins had always refused to intermarry--with the disastrous exception of poor Medora Manson, who, as everybody knew . . . but then her mother was a Rushworth.
西勒頓·杰克遜先生把小望遠鏡還給了勞倫斯·萊弗茨。全俱樂部的人都本能地轉過臉，等著聽這位老者開講。因為正如勞倫斯·萊弗茨在“舉止”問題上那樣，老杰克遜先生在“家族”問題上是最高權威。他了解紐約那些堂、表親戚關系的所有支派；不僅能說清諸如明戈特家族（通過索利家族）與南卡羅來納州達拉斯家族之間的關系，以及上一支費城索利家族與阿爾巴尼·奇弗斯家族（決不會與大學區的曼森·奇弗斯族混淆）復雜的親緣，而且還能列舉每個家族的主要特點。比如萊弗茨家年輕一代（長島那些人）無比吝嗇；拉什沃斯一家極其愚蠢，總是在婚配問題上犯下致命錯誤；再如，阿爾巴尼·奇弗斯家每隔一代就會出現一個神經病，他們紐約的表兄妹一直拒絕與之通婚——惟獨可憐的梅多拉·曼森是個不幸的例外，她——人所共知……而她的母親本來就是拉什沃斯家的人。

In addition to this forest of family trees, Mr. Sillerton Jackson carried between his narrow hollow temples, and under his soft thatch of silver hair, a register of most of the scandals and mysteries that had smouldered under the unruffled surface of New York society within the last fifty years. So far indeed did his information extend, and so acutely retentive was his memory, that he was supposed to be the only man who could have told you who Julius Beaufort, the banker, really was, and what had become of handsome Bob Spicer, old Mrs. Manson Mingott's father, who had disappeared so mysteriously (with a large sum of trust money) less than a year after his marriage, on the very day that a beautiful Spanish dancer who had been delighting thronged audiences in the old Opera-house on the Battery had taken ship for Cuba. But these mysteries, and many others, were closely locked in Mr. Jackson's breast; for not only did his keen sense of honour forbid his repeating anything privately imparted, but he was fully aware that his reputation for discretion increased his opportunities of finding out what he wanted to know.
除了這種家族譜系的豐富知識之外，西勒頓·杰克遜在凹陷狹窄的兩鬢之間、柔軟濃密的銀發下面，還保存著郁結在紐約社會平靜表層底下的最近50年間多數丑聞與秘史的記錄。他的信息的確面廣量大，他的記憶的確精確無誤，所以人們認為惟有他才能說出銀行家朱利葉斯·博福特究竟是何許人，老曼森·明戈特太太的父親、漂亮的鮑勃·斯派塞的結局究竟如何。后者結婚不到一年，就在一位美麗的西班牙舞蹈演員登船去古巴的那一天神秘地失蹤了（帶著一大筆委托金），她在巴特利的老歌劇院曾令蜂擁的觀眾歡欣鼓舞。不過這些秘聞——還有許多其他的——都嚴嚴實實鎖在杰克遜先生心中。因為，不僅強烈的道義感不許他重復別人私下告訴他的任何事情，而且他十分清楚，謹慎周到的名聲會給他更多的機會，以便查明他想了解的情況。

The club box, therefore, waited in visible suspense while Mr. Sillerton Jackson handed back Lawrence Lefferts's opera-glass. For a moment he silently scrutinised the attentive group out of his filmy blue eyes overhung by old veined lids; then he gave his moustache a thoughtful twist, and said simply: "I didn't think the Mingotts would have tried it on."
所以，當西勒頓·杰克遜先生把小望遠鏡還給勞倫斯·萊弗茨的時候，俱樂部包廂的人帶著明顯的懸念等待著。他用布滿老筋的眼瞼下那雙朦朧的藍眼睛默默地審視一番那伙洗耳恭聽的人，然后若有所思地抖動一下胡髭，僅僅說了一句：“沒想到明戈特家的人會擺出這種架式。”