The burden of Mrs. Manson Mingott's flesh had long since made it impossible for her to go up and down stairs, and with characteristic independence she had made her reception rooms upstairs and established herself (in flagrant violation of all the New York proprieties) on the ground floor of her house; so that, as you sat in her sitting-room window with her, you caught (through a door that was always open, and a looped- back yellow damask portiere) the unexpected vista of a bedroom with a huge low bed upholstered like a sofa, and a toilet-table with frivolous lace flounces and a gilt-framed mirror.
曼森·明戈特太太脂肪的負擔早已使她無法上下樓梯，她以特有的獨立精神將客廳設(shè)在樓上，并且（公然違背紐約的所有行為規(guī)范）在住宅的一樓居住；因此，與她一起坐在起居室的窗口，就能意外地（透過始終開著的門和卷起的打環(huán)黃錦緞門簾）看到臥室。里面有一張裝飾得像沙發(fā)一樣的特大矮床，一張梳妝臺，上面擺著花哨的絲帶荷葉邊，還有一面鍍金框架的鏡子。

Her visitors were startled and fascinated by the foreignness of this arrangement, which recalled scenes in French fiction, and architectural incentives to immorality such as the simple American had never dreamed of. That was how women with lovers lived in the wicked old societies, in apartments with all the rooms on one floor, and all the indecent propinquities that their novels described. It amused Newland Archer (who had secretly situated the love-scenes of "Monsieur de Camors" in Mrs. Mingott's bedroom) to picture her blameless life led in the stage-setting of adultery; but he said to himself, with considerable admiration, that if a lover had been what she wanted, the intrepid woman would have had him too.
客人們對這種布置的異國情調(diào)既驚訝又為之傾倒。它使人想起法國小說中的那些場景，以及單純的美國人做夢也不會想到的那些傷風敗俗行徑的建筑學誘因。在舊時不道德的上流社會里，那些偷情的女人其住所都是如此。在她們居住的公寓里，所有的房間都在同一層，從而可以使她們能像小說中描寫的那樣輕而易舉地暗度陳倉。想象她在通奸的舞臺背景中過著白壁無瑕的生活，紐蘭·阿切爾（他暗中把《卡莫斯先生》中的愛情場面確定在明戈特太太的臥室里）覺得頗為有趣，但與此同時，他又在心里津津有味地想道：假如有個情人符合她的要求，這位剛毅的女人一定也會投入他的懷抱。

To the general relief the Countess Olenska was not present in her grandmother's drawing-room during the visit of the betrothed couple. Mrs. Mingott said she had gone out; which, on a day of such glaring sunlight, and at the "shopping hour," seemed in itself an indelicate thing for a compromised woman to do. But at any rate it spared them the embarrassment of her presence, and the faint shadow that her unhappy past might seem to shed on their radiant future. The visit went off successfully, as was to have been expected. Old Mrs. Mingott was delighted with the engagement, which, being long foreseen by watchful relatives, had been carefully passed upon in family council; and the engagement ring, a large thick sapphire set in invisible claws, met with her unqualified admiration.
令大家都感到寬慰的是，在這對訂婚青年造訪時，奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人并不在她祖母的客廳里。明戈特太太說她外出了。在這樣一個陽光明媚的日子，又是在 “購物時間”，一個受過創(chuàng)傷的女子外出，本身雖不算得體，但不管怎樣，卻免去了他倆面對她的窘境，還避免了她不幸的過去可能投到他們光輝前程上的淡淡陰影。正如事前預料的那樣，這次拜訪進展十分順利。明戈特老太太對這樁婚事很中意，留心的親戚們早有預見，并在家族的會議上給予了認可。那枚訂婚戒指鑲著一塊很厚的大藍寶石，嵌在幾個隱形的爪內(nèi)，得到了她毫無保留的贊賞。

"It's the new setting: of course it shows the stone beautifully, but it looks a little bare to old-fashioned eyes," Mrs. Welland had explained, with a conciliatory side-glance at her future son-in-law.
“是新式鑲嵌：寶石當然顯得十分完美，不過老眼光的人覺得它有點禿，”韋蘭太太解釋說，一面用眼睛的余光安撫地看著她未來的女婿。

"Old-fashioned eyes? I hope you don't mean mine, my dear? I like all the novelties," said the ancestress, lifting the stone to her small bright orbs, which no glasses had ever disfigured. "Very handsome," she added, returning the jewel; "very liberal. In my time a cameo set in pearls was thought sufficient. But it's the hand that sets off the ring, isn't it, my dear Mr. Archer?" and she waved one of her tiny hands, with small pointed nails and rolls of aged fat encircling the wrist like ivory bracelets. "Mine was modelled in Rome by the great Ferrigiani. You should have May's done: no doubt he'll have it done, my child. Her hand is large--it's these modern sports that spread the joints--but the skin is white.--And when's the wedding to be?" she broke off, fixing her eyes on Archer's face.
“老眼光？我希望你不是指我吧，親愛的？我喜歡一切新奇的東西，”老祖母說著，把鉆戒舉到她那雙明亮的小眼睛跟前，她的眼睛從未受過眼鏡的損傷。 “非常漂亮，”她又說，一面把鉆戒還回去，“非常獨特。我年輕的時候，用一塊彩玉鑲在幾顆珍珠之間就覺得很好了。不過戒指是靠手來襯托的，對吧，親愛的阿切爾先生？”她揮動著一只留了尖指甲的小手說，老年肥胖形成的圈圈如象牙手鐲一般環(huán)繞著她的手腕。“我的戒指是羅馬著名的費里加尼設(shè)計的。你該找人為梅定做，毫無疑問他會的，我的孩子。她的手很大——現(xiàn)在的這些運動把人的關(guān)關(guān)節(jié)節(jié)都變大了——不過皮膚還是很白的。——可婚禮什么時候舉行呢？”她收住話頭，兩眼緊盯著阿切爾的臉。