評(píng)論
打印
It invariably happened in the same way.
事情還是按老樣子進(jìn)行，一成不變。
Mrs. Julius Beaufort, on the night of her annual ball, never failed to appear at the Opera; indeed, she always gave her ball on an Opera night in order to emphasise her complete superiority to household cares, and her possession of a staff of servants competent to organise every detail of the entertainment in her absence.
在舉辦一年一度的舞會(huì)的這天晚上，朱利葉斯·博福特太太決不會(huì)忘記去歌劇院露露面。真的，為了突出她執(zhí)掌家務(wù)的全能與高明，顯示她擁有一班有才干的仆人，能夠在她不在時(shí)安排好招待活動(dòng)的種種細(xì)節(jié)，她總是在有歌劇演出的晚上舉辦舞會(huì)。
The Beauforts' house was one of the few in New York that possessed a ball-room (it antedated even Mrs. Manson Mingott's and the Headly Chiverses'); and at a time when it was beginning to be thought "provincial" to put a "crash" over the drawing-room floor and move the furniture upstairs, the possession of a ball-room that was used for no other purpose, and left for three-hundred-and-sixty-four days of the year to shuttered darkness, with its gilt chairs stacked in a corner and its chandelier in a bag; this undoubted superiority was felt to compensate for whatever was regrettable in the Beaufort past.
博福特家的住宅是紐約為數(shù)不多的有舞廳的住宅之一（甚至先于曼森，明戈特太太家和黑德利·奇弗斯家）。正當(dāng)人們開(kāi)始認(rèn)為在客廳的地板上“乒乒乓乓” 把家具搬到樓上顯得“土氣”的時(shí)候，擁有一個(gè)不作他用的舞廳，一年364天把它關(guān)閉在黑暗中，鍍金的椅子堆在角落里，枝形吊燈裝在袋子里——人們覺(jué)得，這種無(wú)庸置疑的優(yōu)越性足以補(bǔ)償博福特歷史上任何令人遺憾的事情。
Mrs. Archer, who was fond of coining her social philosophy into axioms, had once said: "We all have our pet common people--" and though the phrase was a daring one, its truth was secretly admitted in many an exclusive bosom. But the Beauforts were not exactly common; some people said they were even worse. Mrs. Beaufort belonged indeed to one of America's most honoured families; she had been the lovely Regina Dallas (of the South Carolina branch), a penniless beauty introduced to New York society by her cousin, the imprudent Medora Manson, who was always doing the wrong thing from the right motive. When one was related to the Mansons and the Rushworths one had a "droit de cite" (as Mr. Sillerton Jackson, who had frequented the Tuileries, called it) in New York society; but did one not forfeit it in marrying Julius Beaufort?
阿切爾太太喜歡將自己的社交哲學(xué)提煉成格言，有一次她曾說(shuō)：“我們?nèi)加凶约簩櫺业钠矫瘛彪m然這句話說(shuō)得很大膽，但它的真實(shí)性卻得到許多勢(shì)利者暗中的承認(rèn)。不過(guò)博福特夫婦并不屬于嚴(yán)格意義上的平民，有人說(shuō)他們比平民還要差。博福特太太確實(shí)屬于美國(guó)最有名望的家族之一，她原本是可愛(ài)的里吉納·達(dá)拉斯（屬于南卡羅來(lái)納的一個(gè)家系），一位分文不名的美人，是由她的表姐、魯莽的梅多拉·曼森引薦到紐約社交界的，而梅多拉·曼森老是好心做壞事。誰(shuí)若是與曼森家族和拉什沃斯家族有了親緣關(guān)系，那么誰(shuí)就會(huì)在紐約上流社會(huì)取得“公民權(quán)”（像西勒頓·杰克遜先生說(shuō)的那樣，他早年經(jīng)常出人杜伊勒利王宮）；但是，有沒(méi)有人會(huì)因?yàn)榧藿o朱利葉斯·博福特，而不喪失這種公民權(quán)呢？
