Chapter 9
第九章
This is a terrible thing, he said, the moment we got out into the street.
“真太可怕了,”我們剛剛走到大街上,他馬上開口說(shuō)。
I realised that he had come away with me in order to discuss once more what he had been already discussing for hours with his sister-in-law.
我看出來(lái),他同我一起出來(lái)目的就是想同我繼續(xù)談?wù)撨@件他已經(jīng)同他的小姨子談了好幾小時(shí)的事。
We don't know who the woman is, you know, he said. "All we know is that the blackguard's gone to Paris."
“我們根本弄不清是哪個(gè)女人,你知道,”他說(shuō),“我們只知道那個(gè)流氓跑到巴黎去了。”
I thought they got on so well.
“我一直以為他們倆感情挺不錯(cuò)。”
So they did. Why, just before you came in Amy said they'd never had a quarrel in the whole of their married life. You know Amy. There never was a better woman in the world.
“是不錯(cuò)。哼,你來(lái)以前,阿美還說(shuō)他們結(jié)婚這么多年就沒有吵過(guò)一次嘴。你知道阿美是怎樣一個(gè)人。世界上沒有比她更好的女人了?!?/p>
Since these confidences were thrust on me, I saw no harm in asking a few questions.
既然他主動(dòng)把這家人的秘密都告訴我,我覺得我不妨繼續(xù)提出幾個(gè)問(wèn)題來(lái)。
But do you mean to say she suspected nothing?
“你的意思是說(shuō)她什么也沒有猜到?”
Nothing. He spent August with her and the children in Norfolk. He was just the same as he'd always been. We went down for two or three days, my wife and I, and I played golf with him. He came back to town in September to let his partner go away, and Amy stayed on in the country. They'd taken a house for six weeks, and at the end of her tenancy she wrote to tell him on which day she was arriving in London. He answered from Paris. He said he'd made up his mind not to live with her any more.
“什么也沒猜到。八月他是同她和孩子們一起在諾佛克度過(guò)的。他同平常日子一模一樣,一點(diǎn)也沒有反常的地方。我和我妻子到他們鄉(xiāng)下過(guò)了兩三天,我還同他玩過(guò)高爾夫球。九月,他回到城里來(lái),為了讓他的合股人去度假。阿美仍然待在鄉(xiāng)下。他們?cè)卩l(xiāng)下房子租了六個(gè)星期,房子快滿期以前她給他寫了封信,告訴他自己哪一天回倫敦來(lái)。他的回信是從巴黎發(fā)的,說(shuō)他已經(jīng)打定主意不同她一起生活了?!?/p>
What explanation did he give?
“他怎樣解釋呢?”
My dear fellow, he gave no explanation. I've seen the letter. It wasn't more than ten lines.
“他根本沒有解釋,小朋友。那封信我看了。還不到十行字?!?/p>
But that's extraordinary.
“真是奇怪了?!?/p>
We happened then to cross the street, and the traffic prevented us from speaking. What Colonel MacAndrew had told me seemed very improbable, and I suspected that Mrs. Strickland, for reasons of her own, had concealed from him some part of the facts. It was clear that a man after seventeen years of wedlock did not leave his wife without certain occurrences which must have led her to suspect that all was not well with their married life. The Colonel caught me up.
說(shuō)到這里我們正好過(guò)馬路,過(guò)往車輛把我們的談話打斷了。麥克安德魯告訴我的事聽起來(lái)很難令人相信,我懷疑思特里克蘭德太太根據(jù)她自己的理由把一部分事實(shí)隱瞞著沒對(duì)他說(shuō)。非常清楚,一個(gè)人結(jié)婚十七年不會(huì)平白無(wú)故地離家出走的,這里面一定有一些事會(huì)使她猜想兩人的夫妻生活并不美滿。我正在思忖這件事,上校又從后面趕上來(lái)。
Of course, there was no explanation he could give except that he'd gone off with a woman. I suppose he thought she could find that out for herself. That's the sort of chap he was.
“當(dāng)然了,除了坦白承認(rèn)自己是同另外一個(gè)女人私奔之外,他是無(wú)法解釋這件事的。據(jù)我看,他認(rèn)為早晚她會(huì)自己弄清楚的。他就是這樣一個(gè)人。”
What is Mrs. Strickland going to do?
“思特里克蘭德太太打算怎么辦?”
Well, the first thing is to get our proofs. I'm going over to Paris myself.
“哈,第一件事是抓到證據(jù)。我準(zhǔn)備自己到巴黎去一趟。”
And what about his business?
“他的買賣怎么辦?”
That's where he's been so artful. He's been drawing in his horns for the last year.
“這正是他狡詐的地方。一年來(lái)他一直把攤子越縮越小?!?/p>
Did he tell his partner he was leaving?
“他告訴沒告訴他的合股人他不想干了?”
Not a word.
“一句也沒透露?!?/p>
Colonel MacAndrew had a very sketchy knowledge of business matters, and I had none at all, so I did not quite understand under what conditions Strickland had left his affairs. I gathered that the deserted partner was very angry and threatened proceedings. It appeared that when everything was settled he would be four or five hundred pounds out of pocket.
麥克安德魯上校對(duì)證券交易的事不太內(nèi)行,我更是一竅不通,因此我不太清楚思特里克蘭德是在什么情況下退出了他經(jīng)營(yíng)的交易。我得到的印象是,被他中途甩開的合股人氣得要命,威脅說(shuō)要提出訴訟??磥?lái)一切都安排妥善后,這個(gè)人的腰包要損失四五百鎊錢。
It's lucky the furniture in the flat is in Amy's name. She'll have that at all events.
“幸而住房的全套家具都是寫在阿美名下的。不管
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