双语小说连载:纯真年代 The Age of Innocence(9)

She looked amused. "Why--have you waited long? Mr. Beaufort took me to see a number of houses-- since it seems I'm not to be allowed to stay in this one." She appeared to dismiss both Beaufort and himself from her mind, and went on: "I've never been in a city where there seems to be such a feeling against living in des quartiers excentriques. What does it matter where one lives? I'm told this street is respectable."
她看上去很高兴，说：“怎么——你等了很久了吗？博福特先生带我去看了几处房子——因为看来是不会允许我继续住在这儿了。”她好像把博福特和他都给忘了似地接着说：“我从没见过哪个城市像这儿一样，认为住在偏远地区不妥。住得偏远不偏远，有什么关系吗？听人说这条街是很体面的呢。”

"It's not fashionable."
“这儿不够时髦。”

"Fashionable! Do you all think so much of that? Why not make one's own fashions? But I suppose I've lived too independently; at any rate, I want to do what you all do--I want to feel cared for and safe."
“时髦！你们都很看重这个问题吗？为什么不创造自己的时尚呢？不过我想，我过去生活得太无拘无束了，不管怎样，你们大家怎么做，我就要怎么做——我希望得到关心，得到安全感。”

He was touched, as he had been the evening before when she spoke of her need of guidance.
他深受感动，就像前一天晚上听她说到她需要指导时那样。

"That's what your friends want you to feel. New York's an awfully safe place," he added with a flash of sarcasm.
“你的朋友们就是希望你有安全感，纽约是个极为安全的地方。”他略带挖苦地补上一句。

"Yes, isn't it? One feels that," she cried, missing the mockery. "Being here is like--like--being taken on a holiday when one has been a good little girl and done all one's lessons."
“不错，是这样。我能感觉到，”她大声地说，并没有觉察他话中的讽刺。“住在这儿就像——就像——一个听话的小姑娘做完所有的功课，被带去度假一样。”

The analogy was well meant, but did not altogether please him. He did not mind being flippant about New York, but disliked to hear any one else take the same tone. He wondered if she did not begin to see what a powerful engine it was, and how nearly it had crushed her. The Lovell Mingotts' dinner, patched up in extremis out of all sorts of social odds and ends, ought to have taught her the narrowness of her escape; but either she had been all along unaware of having skirted disaster, or else she had lost sight of it in the triumph of the van der Luyden evening. Archer inclined to the former theory; he fancied that her New York was still completely undifferentiated, and the conjecture nettled him.
这个比喻本是善意的，但却不能让他完全满意。他不在乎自己对纽约社会说些轻浮的话，却不喜欢听别人使用同样的腔调。他不知她是否真的还没看出，纽约社会是个威力强大的机器，曾经险些将她碾得粉碎。洛弗尔·明戈特家的宴会动用了各种社交手段，才在最后时刻得到补救——这件事应该让她明白，她的处境是多么危险。然而，要么她对躲过的灾难压根儿一无所知，要么是范德卢顿晚会的成功使她视而不见。阿切尔倾向于前一种推测。他想，她眼中的纽约对人依然是一视同仁的，这一揣测让他心烦意乱。

"Last night," he said, "New York laid itself out for you. The van der Luydens do nothing by halves."

“昨天晚上，”他说，“纽约社交界竭尽全力地欢迎你；范德卢顿夫妇干什么事都是全心全意。”

"No: how kind they are! It was such a nice party. Every one seems to have such an esteem for them."
“是啊，他们对我太好了！这次聚会非常愉快。人人好像都很敬重他们。”

The terms were hardly adequate; she might have spoken in that way of a tea-party at the dear old Miss Lannings'.
这说法很难算得上准确；她若如此评价可爱的老拉宁小姐的茶会还差不多。