双语小说连载:纯真年代 The Age of Innocence(10)

"Well--what harm was there in inviting her? She was the best-looking woman in the room; she made the dinner a little less funereal than the usual van der Luyden banquet."
“哎——邀请了她又有何妨？她成了客厅里最漂亮的女人，她使得晚宴比范德卢顿平日那种宴会少了不少丧葬气氛。”

"You know cousin Henry asked her to please you: he persuaded cousin Louisa. And now they're so upset that they're going back to Skuytercliff tomorrow. I think, Newland, you'd better come down. You don't seem to understand how mother feels."
“你知道亨利表亲邀请她是为了让你高兴，是他说服了路易莎。他们现在很烦恼，准备明天就回斯库特克利夫去。我想，你最好下去一趟，纽兰。看来你还不理解妈妈的心情。”

In the drawing-room Newland found his mother. She raised a troubled brow from her needlework to ask: "Has Janey told you?"
纽兰在客厅里见到了母亲。她停下针线活，抬起忧虑的额头问道：“詹尼告诉你了吗？”

"Yes." He tried to keep his tone as measured as her own. "But I can't take it very seriously."
“告诉了，”他尽量用像她那样审慎的语气说。“不过我看问题没那么严重。”

"Not the fact of having offended cousin Louisa and cousin Henry?"
“得罪了路易莎和亨利表亲还不严重？”

"The fact that they can be offended by such a trifle as Countess Olenska's going to the house of a woman they consider common."
“我是说奥兰斯卡伯爵夫人去了一个他们认为是平民的女人家，他们不会为这样一件小事生气。”
"Consider--!"
“认为——？”

"Well, who is; but who has good music, and amuses people on Sunday evenings, when the whole of New York is dying of inanition."
“哦，她就是平民；不过她有好的音乐天赋，在星期天晚上整个纽约空虚得要命时给人们助兴。”

"Good music? All I know is, there was a woman who got up on a table and sang the things they sing at the places you go to in Paris. There was smoking and champagne."
“音乐天赋？据我所知，有个女人爬到了桌子上，唱了那种你在巴黎去的那些去处才唱的东西。还吸烟喝香摈呢。”

"Well--that kind of thing happens in other places, and the world still goes on."
“唔——这种事在其他地方也有，可地球还不是照转不误！”

"I don't suppose, dear, you're really defending the French Sunday?"
“我想，亲爱的，你不是当真在为法国的星期天辩护吧？”

"I've heard you often enough, mother, grumble at the English Sunday when we've been in London."
“妈妈，我们在伦敦的时候，我可是常听你抱怨英国的星期天呢。”

"New York is neither Paris nor London."
“纽约既不是巴黎，也不是伦敦。”

"Oh, no, it's not!" her son groaned.
“噢，对，不是！”儿子哼着说。

"You mean, I suppose, that society here is not as brilliant? You're right, I daresay; but we belong here, and people should respect our ways when they come among us. Ellen Olenska especially: she came back to get away from the kind of life people lead in brilliant societies."
“我想，你的意思是这里的社交界不够出色？我敢说，你说得很对；但我们属于这里。有人来到我们中间就应该尊重我们的生活方式，尤其是埃伦·奥兰斯卡：她来这儿不就是为了摆脱在出色的社交界过的那种生活嘛。”

Newland made no answer, and after a moment his mother ventured: "I was going to put on my bonnet and ask you to take me to see cousin Louisa for a moment before dinner." He frowned, and she continued: "I thought you might explain to her what you've just said: that society abroad is different . . . that people are not as particular, and that Madame Olenska may not have realised how we feel about such things. It would be, you know, dear," she added with an innocent adroitness, "in Madame Olenska's interest if you did."
纽兰没有回答。过了一会儿，她母亲又试探地说：“我刚才正要戴上帽子，让你带我在晚饭前去见一见路易莎。”他皱起了眉头，她接着说：“我以为你可以向她解释一下你刚刚说过的话：国外的社交界有所不同……人们并不那么计较。还有，奥兰斯卡夫人可能没想到我们对这种事情的态度。你知道，亲爱的，”她故作天真地巧言补充说：“如果你这么做，对奥兰斯卡夫人是很有好处的。”