双语小说连载:纯真年代 The Age of Innocence(9)

"How do you like my funny house?" she asked. "To me it's like heaven."
“你觉得我这可笑的房子怎么样？”她问，“对我来说这就算天堂了。”

As she spoke she untied her little velvet bonnet and tossing it away with her long cloak stood looking at him with meditative eyes.
她一面说着，一面解开小丝绒帽的系带，把帽子连同长斗篷扔到一边。她站在那里，用沉思的目光望着他。

"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.
“你把它收拾得挺可爱，”他说，意识到了这句话的坦率，但又受到平时极欲言简意赅、出语惊人的习惯的约束。

"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，这是个可怜的小地方，我的亲戚们瞧不起它。但不管怎样，它不像范德卢顿家那样阴沉。”

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.
这话使他无比震惊，因为很少有人敢无法无天地说范德卢顿家宏伟的住宅阴沉。那些获得特权进去的人在里面战战兢兢，并且都称它“富丽堂皇”。猛然间，他为她说出了令众人不寒而栗的话而变得很开心。

"It's delicious--what you've done here," he repeated.
“这儿你拾掇得——很怡人，”他重复说。

"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.
“我喜欢这个小房子，”她承认道。“不过我想，我喜欢的是它是在这里，在我自己的国家、我自己的城市，并且是我一个人住在里面。”她说得声音很低，他几乎没听清最后几个字，不过却在尴尬中理解了其要点。

"You like so much to be alone?"
“你很喜欢一个人生活？”

"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，只要朋友们别让我感到孤单就行。”她在炉火旁边坐下，说：“纳斯塔西娅马上就送茶过来。”她示意让他坐回到扶手椅里，又说：“我看你已经选好坐的位置了。”

Leaning back, she folded her arms behind her head, and looked at the fire under drooping lids.
她身子向后一仰，两只胳膊交叉放在脑后，眼睑垂下，望着炉火。

"This is the hour I like best--don't you?"
“这是我最喜欢的时间了——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."
一种体面的自尊使他回答说：“刚才我还担心你已经忘掉了时间呢。博福特一定很有趣吧。”