雙語(yǔ)·《刀鋒》 第四章 二

CHAPTER FOUR 2
第四章 二

I fell into the habit of dropping in to see Isabel three or four times a week in the afternoon after my day's work was over. She was generally alone at that hour and glad to have a gossip.The persons to whom Elliott had introduced her were much older than she and I discovered that she had few friends of her own generation.Mine were for the most part busy till dinnertime and I found it more agreeable to talk with Isabel than to go to my club and play bridge with rather grouchy Frenchmen who did not particularly welcome the intrusion of a stranger.Her charming way of treating me as if she and I were of an age made conversation easy and we joked and laughed and chaffed one another, chatting now about ourselves, now about our common acquaintances, now about books and pictures, so that the time passed very agreeably.One of the defects of my character is that I can never grow used to the plainness of people；however sweet a disposition a friend of mine may have, years of intimacy can never reconcile me to his bad teeth or lopsided nose：on the other hand I never cease to delight in his comeliness and after twenty years of familiarity I am still able to take pleasure in a well-shaped brow or the delicate line of a cheekbone.So I never came into Isabel's presence without feeling anew a little thrill of pleasure in the perfection of her oval face, in the creamy delicacy of her skin, and in the bright warmth of her hazel eyes.
我逐漸養(yǎng)成一個(gè)習(xí)慣，干完一天的工作之后，下午就去看望看望伊莎貝爾，一星期要去三四趟。這個(gè)時(shí)間，她通常都一個(gè)人在家，樂得跟人聊天。艾略特給她介紹的那些人，比她的年紀(jì)要大得多，我發(fā)現(xiàn)她幾乎沒有和她年齡相仿的朋友。我自己的朋友大多忙得不可開交，不到吃晚飯是騰不出時(shí)間的。再說(shuō)，我喜歡和伊莎貝爾聊天，而不愿去俱樂部跟那些氣哼哼的法國(guó)人打橋牌——那些法國(guó)佬不太歡迎外人介入他們的圈子。伊莎貝爾把我當(dāng)作同齡人對(duì)待，千嬌百媚的，使得我們的談話輕松愉快。我們談笑風(fēng)生、插科打諢，時(shí)而談人生，時(shí)而談朋友們的情況，時(shí)而談書畫，時(shí)光就這么令人愉快地悄然流逝。我生性有個(gè)缺點(diǎn)：總是看不慣其貌不揚(yáng)的人。一個(gè)朋友，不管性格多么好，即便有多年的交情，如果掉了牙齒或歪了鼻子，我便感到不舒服了。另一方面，對(duì)于漂亮的人我卻百看不厭——對(duì)于這樣的人，盡管交往已有二十年之久，我仍喜歡看她們那標(biāo)致的額頭或者線條優(yōu)美的臉頰。因此，我每次見到伊莎貝爾，看著她那完美的鵝蛋臉、凝脂般細(xì)膩的皮膚以及淡褐色眼里閃爍著的明快光芒，我都會(huì)產(chǎn)生一種心曠神怡的感覺。

Then a very unexpected thing happened.
后來(lái)，一件意想不到的事發(fā)生了。