Mrs. and Miss Archer were both great lovers of scenery. It was what they principally sought and admired on their occasional travels abroad; considering architecture and painting as subjects for men, and chiefly for learned persons who read Ruskin. Mrs. Archer had been born a Newland, and mother and daughter, who were as like as sisters, were both, as people said, "true Newlands"; tall, pale, and slightly round-shouldered, with long noses, sweet smiles and a kind of drooping distinction like that in certain faded Reynolds portraits. Their physical resemblance would have been complete if an elderly embonpoint had not stretched Mrs. Archer's black brocade, while Miss Archer's brown and purple poplins hung, as the years went on, more and more slackly on her virgin frame.
阿切爾太太與阿切爾小姐都極愛秀麗的風光,這是她們在偶爾進行的國外旅行中主要的追求與憧憬。她們認為,建筑與繪畫是屬于男人的課題,而且主要屬于那些讀過拉斯金著作的有學問的人。阿切爾太太天生是紐蘭家的一員,母女倆像姐妹般相像,如人們說的,她們都屬于純正的“紐蘭家族”:身材高大,臉色蒼白,肩膀略圓,長長的鼻子,甜甜的笑容,還有一種目光低垂的特征,就像雷諾茲某些褪了色的畫像里畫的那樣。不過年邁發福已使阿切爾太太身上的黑色緞服繃得緊而又緊,而阿切爾小姐穿的棕紫色的毛織衣服,卻在她那處女的身架上一年比一年寬松。不然的話,她們形體上的相似真可說是維妙維肖了。
Mentally, the likeness between them, as Newland was aware, was less complete than their identical mannerisms often made it appear. The long habit of living together in mutually dependent intimacy had given them the same vocabulary, and the same habit of beginning their phrases "Mother thinks" or "Janey thinks," according as one or the other wished to advance an opinion of her own; but in reality, while Mrs. Archer's serene unimaginativeness rested easily in the accepted and familiar, Janey was subject to starts and aberrations of fancy welling up springs of suppressed romance.
就紐蘭所知,她們在精神領域的相似卻不像她們相同的習性所表現的那樣一致。長期的共同生活、相互依存的親情賦予她們相同的語匯以及開口講話時相同的習慣。無論哪一位想提出自己的意見時,總是先說“媽媽以為”或“詹尼以為”;但實際上,阿切爾太太卻是明顯地缺乏想像力,容易滿足于公認的事實與熟悉的東西,而詹尼卻容易受幻想支配,產生沖動和越軌,那些幻想隨時會從壓抑的浪漫噴泉中迸發出來。m
Mother and daughter adored each other and revered their son and brother; and Archer loved them with a tenderness made compunctious and uncritical by the sense of their exaggerated admiration, and by his secret satisfaction in it. After all, he thought it a good thing for a man to have his authority respected in his own house, even if his sense of humour sometimes made him question the force of his mandate.
母女倆相互敬慕,并且都尊重她們的兒子和兄長。而阿切爾也滿懷柔情地愛著她們倆,她們對他過分的贊賞使他惴惴不安,他從中得到的內心滿足又令他失去鑒別力。他想,一個男人的權威在自己家中受到尊重畢竟是件好事,盡管他的幽默感有時也使他懷疑自己得到的信賴到底有多大威力。
On this occasion the young man was very sure that Mr. Jackson would rather have had him dine out; but he had his own reasons for not doing so.
這一次年輕人十分肯定杰克遜先生寧愿讓他外出赴宴,然而他有自己的理由不照此辦理。
Of course old Jackson wanted to talk about Ellen Olenska, and of course Mrs. Archer and Janey wanted to hear what he had to tell. All three would be slightly embarrassed by Newland's presence, now that his prospective relation to the Mingott clan had been made known; and the young man waited with an amused curiosity to see how they would turn the difficulty.
老杰克遜當然是想談論埃倫·奧蘭斯卡的事,阿切爾太太與詹尼當然也想聽一聽他要講的內容,三個人都會由于紐蘭的在場而略顯尷尬:因為他與明戈特家族未來的關系已經公之于眾。年輕人饒有興趣地想看一看,他們將如何解決這一難題。