評論
打印
Mrs. Henry van der Luyden listened in silence to her cousin Mrs. Archer's narrative.
亨利·范德盧頓太太默不作聲地聽著表妹阿切爾太太的敘說。
It was all very well to tell yourself in advance that Mrs. van der Luyden was always silent, and that, though non-committal by nature and training, she was very kind to the people she really liked. Even personal experience of these facts was not always a protection from the chill that descended on one in the high-ceilinged white-walled Madison Avenue drawing-room, with the pale brocaded armchairs so obviously uncovered for the occasion, and the gauze still veiling the ormolu mantel ornaments and the beautiful old carved frame of Gainsborough's "Lady Angelica du Lac."
范德盧頓太太一向不愛講話；而且，她的性格和所受的訓(xùn)練都使她不肯輕易作出承諾，但她對真心喜歡的人還是很有同情心的。對于這些情況，提前做好思想準(zhǔn)備固然不錯，但即使你有過親身體驗(yàn)，也難保就能抵御得住麥迪遜大街白壁高頂?shù)目蛷d里襲來的陣陣寒意。淺色錦緞的扶手椅顯然是為這次接待剛剛揭去蓋罩，一層薄紗依然罩著鍍金的壁爐裝飾及雕刻精美的蓋恩斯巴羅所畫的“安吉莉卡·杜拉克小姐”畫像的像框。
Mrs. van der Luyden's portrait by Huntington (in black velvet and Venetian point) faced that of her lovely ancestress. It was generally considered "as fine as a Cabanel," and, though twenty years had elapsed since its execution, was still "a perfect likeness." Indeed the Mrs. van der Luyden who sat beneath it listening to Mrs. Archer might have been the twin-sister of the fair and still youngish woman drooping against a gilt armchair before a green rep curtain. Mrs. van der Luyden still wore black velvet and Venetian point when she went into society--or rather (since she never dined out) when she threw open her own doors to receive it. Her fair hair, which had faded without turning grey, was still parted in flat overlapping points on her forehead, and the straight nose that divided her pale blue eyes was only a little more pinched about the nostrils than when the portrait had been painted. She always, indeed, struck Newland Archer as having been rather gruesomely preserved in the airless atmosphere of a perfectly irreproachable existence, as bodies caught in glaciers keep for years a rosy life-in-death.
由亨廷頓繪制的范德盧頓太太的畫像（身著帶威尼斯針繡花邊的黑絲絨），面對著她那位可愛的女前輩的像。這張畫像被普遍認(rèn)為“像卡巴內(nèi)爾的作品一樣精致”，雖然已經(jīng)畫了20年，至今仍然顯得“維妙維肖”。的確，坐在畫像下面聽阿切爾太太講話的范德盧頓太太，與畫框中那位靠在綠布窗簾前那把鍍金扶手椅上、眼睛低垂的年輕美女很像一對孿生姐妹。范德盧頓太太參加社交活動——或者不如說她打開自己的家門迎接社交活動（因?yàn)樗龔牟煌獬鲇貌停┑臅r候，仍然穿著帶威尼斯針繡花邊的黑絲絨，她的金發(fā)雖然已經(jīng)褪色，但并未變成灰白，依然從額前的交疊部位平分開。兩只淡藍(lán)色眼睛中間筆直的鼻子，僅僅在鼻孔附近比畫像制作時略顯消瘦。實(shí)際上，她總是讓紐蘭·阿切爾覺得，仿佛她一直被可怕地保存在一個沒有空氣的完美實(shí)體之中，就像那些被冷凍在冰川中的尸體，好多年還保持著雖死猶生的紅潤。
Like all his family, he esteemed and admired Mrs. van der Luyden; but he found her gentle bending sweetness less approachable than the grimness of some of his mother's old aunts, fierce spinsters who said "No" on principle before they knew what they were going to be asked.
跟家中所有的成員一樣，他敬重并崇拜范德盧頓太太，不過他發(fā)現(xiàn)，她那略帶壓制的親切態(tài)度還不如母親幾位老姑的嚴(yán)厲容易讓人接近，那幾位惡狠狠的老處女不等弄清別人的要求，就會照例說一聲“不行”。
Mrs. van der Luyden's attitude said neither yes nor no, but always appeared to incline to clemency till her thin lips, wavering into the shadow of a smile, made the almost invariable reply: "I shall first have to talk this over with my husband."
范德盧頓太太的態(tài)度看不出是與否，不過總顯示出仁慈寬厚的樣子，直至她的薄嘴唇撇出一絲笑意，才幾乎是千篇一律地回答說：“我得先和我丈夫商量一下。”
