評論
打印
"How do you like my funny house?" she asked. "To me it's like heaven."
“你覺得我這可笑的房子怎么樣？”她問，“對我來說這就算天堂了。”
As she spoke she untied her little velvet bonnet and tossing it away with her long cloak stood looking at him with meditative eyes.
她一面說著，一面解開小絲絨帽的系帶，把帽子連同長斗篷扔到一邊。她站在那里，用沉思的目光望著他。
"You've arranged it delightfully," he rejoined, alive to the flatness of the words, but imprisoned in the conventional by his consuming desire to be simple and striking.
“你把它收拾得挺可愛，”他說，意識到了這句話的坦率，但又受到平時極欲言簡意賅、出語驚人的習慣的約束。
"Oh, it's a poor little place. My relations despise it. But at any rate it's less gloomy than the van der Luydens'."
“噢，這是個可憐的小地方，我的親戚們瞧不起它。但不管怎樣，它不像范德盧頓家那樣陰沉。”
The words gave him an electric shock, for few were the rebellious spirits who would have dared to call the stately home of the van der Luydens gloomy. Those privileged to enter it shivered there, and spoke of it as "handsome." But suddenly he was glad that she had given voice to the general shiver.
這話使他無比震驚，因為很少有人敢無法無天地說范德盧頓家宏偉的住宅陰沉。那些獲得特權進去的人在里面戰戰兢兢，并且都稱它“富麗堂皇”。猛然間，他為她說出了令眾人不寒而栗的話而變得很開心。
"It's delicious--what you've done here," he repeated.
“這兒你拾掇得——很怡人，”他重復說。
"I like the little house," she admitted; "but I suppose what I like is the blessedness of its being here, in my own country and my own town; and then, of being alone in it." She spoke so low that he hardly heard the last phrase; but in his awkwardness he took it up.
“我喜歡這個小房子，”她承認道。“不過我想，我喜歡的是它是在這里，在我自己的國家、我自己的城市，并且是我一個人住在里面。”她說得聲音很低，他幾乎沒聽清最后幾個字，不過卻在尷尬中理解了其要點。
"You like so much to be alone?"
“你很喜歡一個人生活？”
"Yes; as long as my friends keep me from feeling lonely." She sat down near the fire, said: "Nastasia will bring the tea presently," and signed to him to return to his armchair, adding: "I see you've already chosen your corner."
“是的，只要朋友們別讓我感到孤單就行。”她在爐火旁邊坐下，說：“納斯塔西婭馬上就送茶過來。”她示意讓他坐回到扶手椅里，又說：“我看你已經選好坐的位置了。”
Leaning back, she folded her arms behind her head, and looked at the fire under drooping lids.
她身子向后一仰，兩只胳膊交叉放在腦后，眼瞼垂下，望著爐火。
"This is the hour I like best--don't you?"
“這是我最喜歡的時間了——你呢？”
A proper sense of his dignity caused him to answer: "I was afraid you'd forgotten the hour. Beaufort must have been very engrossing."
一種體面的自尊使他回答說：“剛才我還擔心你已經忘掉了時間呢。博福特一定很有趣吧。”
