評論
打印
Newland Archer, during this brief episode, had been thrown into a strange state of embarrassment.
在這個短暫的插曲中間，紐蘭·阿切爾陷入一種奇怪的尷尬境地。
It was annoying that the box which was thus attracting the undivided attention of masculine New York should be that in which his betrothed was seated between her mother and aunt; and for a moment he could not identify the lady in the Empire dress, nor imagine why her presence created such excitement among the initiated. Then light dawned on him, and with it came a momentary rush of indignation. No, indeed; no one would have thought the Mingotts would have tried it on!
討厭的是，如此吸引著紐約男性世界全部注意力的包廂竟是他未婚妻就坐的那一個，她坐在母親與舅媽中間。他一時竟認不出那位穿著法國30年代服裝的女士，也想象不出她的出現為什么會在俱樂部會員中引起如此的興奮。接著，他明白過來，并隨之產生一陣憤慨。的確，沒有人會想到明戈特家的人會擺出這種架式！
But they had; they undoubtedly had; for the low- toned comments behind him left no doubt in Archer's mind that the young woman was May Welland's cousin, the cousin always referred to in the family as "poor Ellen Olenska." Archer knew that she had suddenly arrived from Europe a day or two previously; he had even heard from Miss Welland (not disapprovingly) that she had been to see poor Ellen, who was staying with old Mrs. Mingott. Archer entirely approved of family solidarity, and one of the qualities he most admired in the Mingotts was their resolute championship of the few black sheep that their blameless stock had produced. There was nothing mean or ungenerous in the young man's heart, and he was glad that his future wife should not be restrained by false prudery from being kind (in private) to her unhappy cousin; but to receive Countess Olenska in the family circle was a different thing from producing her in public, at the Opera of all places, and in the very box with the young girl whose engagement to him, Newland Archer, was to be announced within a few weeks. No, he felt as old Sillerton Jackson felt; he did not think the Mingotts would have tried it on!
然而他們這樣做了。毫無疑義，他們是這樣做了；因為阿切爾身后低聲的評論使他心中沒有絲毫懷疑，那位年輕女子就是梅·韋蘭的表姐，那位家里人一直稱作“可憐的埃倫·奧蘭斯卡”的表姐。阿切爾知道她一兩天前突然從歐洲回來了，甚至還聽韋蘭小姐（并非不滿地）說過，她已經去看過可憐的埃倫了。她住在老明戈特太太那兒。阿切爾完全擁護家族的團結。他最崇拜的明戈特家族的品德之一，就是他們對家族中出的幾個不肖子弟的堅決支持。他并不自私，也不是小雞肚腸；他未來的妻子沒有受到假正經的局限，能（私下）善待她不幸的表姐，他還為此感到高興。然而，在家庭圈子內接待奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人是一回事，把她帶到公共場所，尤其是歌劇院這樣的地方，則是完全不同的另一回事。而且就在那位年輕姑娘的包廂里，她與他紐蘭·阿切爾的訂婚消息幾周之內就要宣布。是的，他的感覺與老西勒頓·杰克遜一樣：他沒想到明戈特家的人會擺出這種架式！
He knew, of course, that whatever man dared (within Fifth Avenue's limits) that old Mrs. Manson Mingott, the Matriarch of the line, would dare. He had always admired the high and mighty old lady, who, in spite of having been only Catherine Spicer of Staten Island, with a father mysteriously discredited, and neither money nor position enough to make people forget it, had allied herself with the head of the wealthy Mingott line, married two of her daughters to "foreigners" (an Italian marquis and an English banker), and put the crowning touch to her audacities by building a large house of pale cream-coloured stone (when brown sandstone seemed as much the only wear as a frock-coat in the afternoon) in an inaccessible wilderness near the Central Park.
他當然知道，男人敢做的任何事（第五大街范圍之內），老曼森·明戈特太太這位女族長都敢做。他一向崇拜這位高大剛毅的老夫人，盡管她原來不過是斯塔騰島的凱瑟琳·斯派塞，有一位神秘的名譽掃地的父親，那件事無論金錢還是地位都難以讓人們忘記。然而，她卻與富有的明戈特家族的領頭人聯了姻，把兩個女兒嫁給了 “外國人”（一個意大利侯爵，一個英國銀行家），并且在中央公園附近無法插足的荒地里建了一所乳白色石頭大宅院（正值棕色沙石仿佛像下午的長禮服那樣青一色的時候），從而達到了登峰造極的地步。
