She shook her head and sighed. "Oh, I know--I know! But on condition that they don't hear anything unpleasant. Aunt Welland put it in those very words when I tried. . . . Does no one want to know the truth here, Mr. Archer? The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!" She lifted her hands to her face, and he saw her thin shoulders shaken by a sob.
她搖搖頭，嘆了口氣。“懊，我知道——我知道！不過前提是她們聽不見任何不愉快的事。當我想跟她談一談的時候，韋蘭姑媽就是這樣講的。難道這里沒有人想了解真相嗎，阿切爾先生？生活在這些好人中間才真正地孤獨呢，因為他們只要求你假裝！”她抬起雙手捂到臉上，他發現她那瘦削的雙肩因啜泣在顫抖。

"Madame Olenska!--Oh, don't, Ellen," he cried, starting up and bending over her. He drew down one of her hands, clasping and chafing it like a child's while he murmured reassuring words; but in a moment she freed herself, and looked up at him with wet lashes.
“奧蘭斯卡夫人！唉，別這樣，埃倫，”他喊著，驚跳起來，俯身對著她。他拉下她的一只手，緊緊握住，像撫摩孩子的手似地撫摩著，一面低低地說著安慰話。但不一會兒她便掙脫開，睫毛上帶著淚水抬頭看著他。

"Does no one cry here, either? I suppose there's no need to, in heaven," she said, straightening her loosened braids with a laugh, and bending over the tea- kettle. It was burnt into his consciousness that he had called her "Ellen"--called her so twice; and that she had not noticed it. Far down the inverted telescope he saw the faint white figure of May Welland--in New York.
“這兒沒有人哭，對嗎？我想壓根兒就沒有哭的必要，”她說，接著笑了一聲，理了理松散的發帶，俯身去拿茶壺。他剛才居然叫她“埃倫”，而且叫了兩次，她卻沒有注意到。他覺得心頭滾燙。對著倒置的望遠鏡，在很遠很遠的地方，他依稀看見梅·韋蘭的白色身影——那是在紐約。

Suddenly Nastasia put her head in to say something in her rich Italian.
突然，納斯塔西婭探頭進來，用她那圓潤的嗓音用意大利語說了句什么。

Madame Olenska, again with a hand at her hair, uttered an exclamation of assent--a flashing "Gia-- gia"--and the Duke of St. Austrey entered, piloting a tremendous blackwigged and red-plumed lady in overflowing furs.
奧蘭斯卡夫人又用手理了下頭發，喊了一聲表示同意的話“吉啊——吉啊”緊接著，圣奧斯特雷公爵便走了進來，身后跟著一位身材高大的夫人，她頭戴黑色假發與紅色羽飾，身穿緊繃繃的裘皮外套。

"My dear Countess, I've brought an old friend of mine to see you--Mrs. Struthers. She wasn't asked to the party last night, and she wants to know you."
“親愛的伯爵夫人，我帶了我的一位老朋友來看你——斯特拉瑟斯太太。昨晚的宴會她沒得到邀請，但她很想認識你。”

The Duke beamed on the group, and Madame Olenska advanced with a murmur of welcome toward the queer couple. She seemed to have no idea how oddly matched they were, nor what a liberty the Duke had taken in bringing his companion--and to do him justice, as Archer perceived, the Duke seemed as unaware of it himself.
公爵滿臉堆笑地對著大伙兒，奧蘭斯卡夫人低聲說了一句歡迎，朝這奇怪的一對走去。她似乎一點也不明白，他們兩人湊在一起有多奇怪，也不知道公爵帶來這樣一位伙伴是多么冒昧——說句公道話，據阿切爾觀察，公爵本人對此也一無所知。

"Of course I want to know you, my dear," cried Mrs. Struthers in a round rolling voice that matched her bold feathers and her brazen wig. "I want to know everybody who's young and interesting and charming. And the Duke tells me you like music--didn't you, Duke? You're a pianist yourself, I believe? Well, do you want to hear Sarasate play tomorrow evening at my house? You know I've something going on every Sunday evening--it's the day when New York doesn't know what to do with itself, and so I say to it: `Come and be amused.' And the Duke thought you'd be tempted by Sarasate. You'll find a number of your friends."
“我當然想認識你啦，親愛的，”斯特拉瑟斯太太喊道，那響亮婉轉的聲音與她那肆無忌憚的羽飾和假發十分相稱。“每一個年輕漂亮有趣的人我都想認識。公爵告訴我你喜歡音樂——對嗎，公爵？我想，你本人就是個鋼琴家吧？哎，你明晚想不想到我家來聽薩拉塞特的演奏？你知道，每個星期天晚上我都搞點兒活動 ——這是紐約社交界無所事事的一天，于是我就說：‘都到我這兒來樂一樂吧。’而公爵認為，你會對薩拉塞特感興趣的，而且你還會結識一大批朋友呢。”

Madame Olenska's face grew brilliant with pleasure. "How kind! How good of the Duke to think of me!" She pushed a chair up to the tea-table and Mrs. Struthers sank into it delectably. "Of course I shall be too happy to come."
奧蘭斯卡夫人高興得容光煥發。“太好了，難得公爵能想著我！”她把一把椅子推到茶桌前，斯特拉瑟斯太太美滋滋地坐了進去。“我當然很高興去。”

"That's all right, my dear. And bring your young gentleman with you." Mrs. Struthers extended a hail- fellow hand to Archer. "I can't put a name to you--but I'm sure I've met you--I've met everybody, here, or in Paris or London. Aren't you in diplomacy? All the diplomatists come to me. You like music too? Duke, you must be sure to bring him."
“那好吧，親愛的。帶著這位年輕紳士一起來。”斯特拉瑟斯太太向阿切爾友好地伸出手。“我叫不出你的名字——可我肯定見過你——所有的人我都見過，在這兒，在巴黎，或者在倫敦。你是不是干外交的？所有的外交官都到我家來玩。你也喜歡音樂吧？公爵，你一定要帶他來。”

The Duke said "Rather" from the depths of his beard, and Archer withdrew with a stiffly circular bow that made him feel as full of spine as a self-conscious school-boy among careless and unnoticing elders.
公爵從胡子底下哼了聲“當然”，阿切爾向后退縮著生硬地彎腰鞠了個躬。他覺得自己就像一名害羞的小學生站在一群毫不在意的大人中間一樣充滿勇氣。

He was not sorry for the denouement of his visit: he only wished it had come sooner, and spared him a certain waste of emotion. As he went out into the wintry night, New York again became vast and imminent, and May Welland the loveliest woman in it. He turned into his florist's to send her the daily box of lilies-of-the-valley which, to his confusion, he found he had forgotten that morning.
他并不因這次造訪的結局感到懊悔：他只希望收場來得快些，免得他浪費感情。當他出門走進冬季的黑夜中時，紐約又成了個龐然大物，而那位可愛的女子梅·韋蘭就在其中。他轉身去花商家吩咐為她送去每天必送的一匣鈴蘭。他羞愧地發現，早上竟把這事忘了。

As he wrote a word on his card and waited for an envelope he glanced about the embowered shop, and his eye lit on a cluster of yellow roses. He had never seen any as sun-golden before, and his first impulse was to send them to May instead of the lilies. But they did not look like her--there was something too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty. In a sudden revulsion of mood, and almost without knowing what he did, he signed to the florist to lay the roses in another long box, and slipped his card into a second envelope, on which he wrote the name of the Countess Olenska; then, just as he was turning away, he drew the card out again, and left the empty envelope on the box.
他在名片上寫了幾個字。在等待給他拿信封時，他環顧弓形的花店，眼睛一亮，落在一簇黃玫瑰上。他過去從沒見過這種陽光般金黃的花，他第一個沖動是用這種黃玫瑰代替鈴蘭，送給梅。然而這些花看樣子不會中她的意——它們太絢麗太濃烈。一陣心血來潮，他幾乎是下意識地示意花商把黃玫瑰裝在另一個長匣子里，他把自己的名片裝人第二個信封，在上面寫上了奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人的名字。接著，他剛要轉身離開，又把名片抽了出來，只留個空信封附在匣子上。

"They'll go at once?" he enquired, pointing to the roses.
“這些花馬上就送走嗎？”他指著那些玫瑰問道。

The florist assured him that they would.
花商向他保證，立刻就送。

雙語小說連載:純真年代 The Age of Innocence(8)