His Uncle sat looking at him for some time in silence. When their eyes at last met, he began at once to pursue the theme that had occupied his thoughts, aloud, as if he had been speaking all the time.

他們又碰了杯；沃爾特杯子里還剩著酒，他啜了一口，盡可能裝出一副很有鑒別力的神氣，把杯子舉到眼睛前面。

他的舅舅坐在那里默默地看了他一些時候。當他們的眼光最終相遇時，他立刻開始把他腦子里思考的問題大聲地繼續(xù)說下去，仿佛他一直在說話似的。

'You see, Walter,' he said, 'in truth this business is merely a habit with me. I am so accustomed to the habit that I could hardly live if I relinquished it: but there's nothing doing, nothing doing. When that uniform was worn,' pointing out towards the little Midshipman, 'then indeed, fortunes were to be made, and were made. But competition, competition - new invention, new invention alteration, alteration the world's gone past me. I hardly know where I am myself, much less where my customers are.

“你知道，沃爾特，”他說道，“老實說，經(jīng)營這個生意對我來說，是一種習(xí)慣。我在這個習(xí)慣中已經(jīng)陷得很深，如果我拋棄了它的話，那么我就難以活下去。可是現(xiàn)在沒有生意呀，沒有生意。當穿那種制服的時候，”他指著小海軍軍官候補生說道，“確實，那時候是可以發(fā)財?shù)模乙舱娴陌l(fā)了財。可是競爭呀，競爭呀——新發(fā)明呀，新發(fā)明呀，——改變呀，改變呀，——這世界已經(jīng)從我的身邊走過去了。我不知道我自己現(xiàn)在在哪里，更不知道我的顧客現(xiàn)在在哪里。”

'Never mind 'em, Uncle!'

'Since you came home from weekly boarding-school at Peckham, for instance - and that's ten days,' said Solomon, 'I don't remember more than one person that has come into the shop.'

“別去想那些事情，舅舅！”

“舉個例子來說吧，你從佩克姆①寄宿學(xué)校②回家以后，已有十天了，”所羅門說道，“在這十天中，我記得只有一個人到這店里來過”。

'Two, Uncle, don't you recollect? There was the man who came to ask for change for a sovereign '
'That's the one,' said Solomon.
'Why Uncle! don't you call the woman anybody, who came to ask the way to Mile-End Turnpike?'

“兩個人，舅舅。你不記得了嗎？不有個男子到這里來請求把一鎊換成零錢——”
“就是那個人，”所羅門說道。
“怎么，舅勇！有一位女人到這里來問到邁爾·恩德收稅柵的路怎么走法，難道你認為她就不是人嗎？”

注釋：alteration n. 修改，改變；變更
例句：
1. One obvious impact is the radical alteration of the land surface.
一種顯而易見的影響是大地表面劇烈的改變。
2. There is a structural alteration to the building.
這座建筑物在這有一處結(jié)構(gòu)上的改變。

--------
①佩克姆（Peckham）：倫敦郊區(qū)的地方。
②原文為weeklyboardingschool，是指一個星期寄宿六天的學(xué)校。