雙語小說連載:純真年代 The Age of Innocence(11)

Some two weeks later, Newland Archer, sitting in abstracted idleness in his private compartment of the office of Letterblair, Lamson and Low, attorneys at law, was summoned by the head of the firm.
大約兩個星期之後，在萊特布賴一拉姆森一洛律師事務所中，紐蘭·阿切爾正坐在自己的隔間裏閒得發呆，這時，事務所的上司要召見他。

Old Mr. Letterblair, the accredited legal adviser of three generations of New York gentility, throned behind his mahogany desk in evident perplexity. As he stroked his closeclipped white whiskers and ran his hand through the rumpled grey locks above his jutting brows, his disrespectful junior partner thought how much he looked like the Family Physician annoyed with a patient whose symptoms refuse to be classified.
老萊特布賴先生，這位受紐約上層階級三代人信託的法律顧問，端坐在他的紅木寫字檯後面，顯然遇到了麻煩。他用手捋了捋濃密的白鬍須，理理突起的眉頭上方那凌亂的灰髮，他那位不敬的年輕合夥人心想，他多像一位因爲無法判斷病人症狀而苦惱的家庭醫生啊。

"My dear sir--" he always addressed Archer as "sir"--"I have sent for you to go into a little matter; a matter which, for the moment, I prefer not to mention either to Mr. Skipworth or Mr. Redwood." The gentlemen he spoke of were the other senior partners of the firm; for, as was always the case with legal associations of old standing in New York, all the partners named on the office letter-head were long since dead; and Mr. Letterblair, for example, was, professionally speaking, his own grandson.
“親愛的先生，”他一貫稱阿切爾爲“先生”——“我請你來研究一件小事，一件我暫時不想讓斯基普沃思和雷德伍德知道的事。”他所說的這兩位紳士是事務所另外兩名資深合夥人。正如紐約別的歷史悠久的法律事務所的情況那樣，這家事務所信箋頭上列有姓名的那幾個原來的合夥人都早已作古，像這位萊特布賴先生，就其職業稱謂而言，他實際上成了自己的祖父。

He leaned back in his chair with a furrowed brow. "For family reasons--" he continued.
他在椅子裏朝後一仰，皺起眉頭，然後說：“由於家庭的原因——”

Archer looked up.
阿切爾擡起頭來。

"The Mingott family," said Mr. Letterblair with an explanatory smile and bow. "Mrs. Manson Mingott sent for me yesterday. Her grand-daughter the Countess Olenska wishes to sue her husband for divorce. Certain papers have been placed in my hands." He paused and drummed on his desk. "In view of your prospective alliance with the family I should like to consult you--to consider the case with you--before taking any farther steps."
“明戈特家，”萊特布賴微笑着點了點頭解釋說。“曼森·明戈特太太昨天派人請我去。她的孫女奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人想向法庭起訴，要求與丈夫離婚，有些文件已交到我手上。”他停了一會兒，敲敲桌子。“考慮到你將要與這個家庭聯姻，我願在採取進一步行動之前，先找你諮詢一下——與你商量商量這件案子。”

Archer felt the blood in his temples. He had seen the Countess Olenska only once since his visit to her, and then at the Opera, in the Mingott box. During this interval she had become a less vivid and importunate image, receding from his foreground as May Welland resumed her rightful place in it. He had not heard her divorce spoken of since Janey's first random allusion to it, and had dismissed the tale as unfounded gossip. Theoretically, the idea of divorce was almost as distasteful to him as to his mother; and he was annoyed that Mr. Letterblair (no doubt prompted by old Catherine Mingott) should be so evidently planning to draw him into the affair. After all, there were plenty of Mingott men for such jobs, and as yet he was not even a Mingott by marriage.
阿切爾覺得熱血涌上了太陽穴。拜訪過奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人之後，他只見過她一次，那是在看歌劇的時候，在明戈特的包廂裏。這段時間，由於梅·韋蘭在他心目中恢復了應有的地位，奧蘭斯卡夫人的形象正在消退，已經不那麼清晰、那麼索繞心頭了。第一次聽詹尼隨便說起她要離婚時，他把它當作了毫無根據的流言，並沒在意。此後，他再也沒有聽人說過這事。從理論上講，他對離婚幾乎跟母親一樣抱有反感；令他惱火的是，萊特布賴先生（無疑受了老凱瑟琳·明戈特的慫恿）顯然打算把他拉進這件事情中來。明戈特家能幹這種事的男人多着哩，何況他目前還沒有通過婚姻變成明戈特家的一分子。

He waited for the senior partner to continue. Mr. Letterblair unlocked a drawer and drew out a packet. "If you will run your eye over these papers--"
他等待老合夥人說下去。萊特布賴先生打開一個抽屜，抽出了一包東西。“如果你瀏覽一下這些文件——”

Archer frowned. "I beg your pardon, sir; but just because of the prospective relationship, I should prefer your consulting Mr. Skipworth or Mr. Redwood."

阿切爾皺起了眉頭。“請原諒，先生；可正因爲未來的親戚關係，我更希望你與斯吉普沃思先生或雷德伍德先生商討這件事。”

Mr. Letterblair looked surprised and slightly offended. It was unusual for a junior to reject such an opening.
萊特布賴先生似乎頗感意外，而且有點生氣。一位下級拒絕這樣的開場白是很少見的。

He bowed. "I respect your scruple, sir; but in this case I believe true delicacy requires you to do as I ask. Indeed, the suggestion is not mine but Mrs. Manson Mingott's and her son's. I have seen Lovell Mingott; and also Mr. Welland. They all named you."
他點了點頭，說：“我尊重你的顧慮，先生，不過對這件事，我以爲真正的審慎還是要按我說的去做。說老實話，這並不是我的提議，而是曼森·明戈特和她的兒子們的提議。我已經見過了洛弗爾·明戈特，還有韋蘭先生，他們全都指名要你辦。”

Archer felt his temper rising. He had been somewhat languidly drifting with events for the last fortnight, and letting May's fair looks and radiant nature obliterate the rather importunate pressure of the Mingott claims. But this behest of old Mrs. Mingott's roused him to a sense of what the clan thought they had the right to exact from a prospective son-in-law; and he chafed at the role.
阿切爾感到怒火在上升。最近兩個星期，他一直有點不由自主地隨波逐流，以梅的漂亮容貌和光彩個性去對付明戈特家那些糾纏不休的要求。然而老明戈特太太的這道諭旨卻使他清醒地看到，這個家族認爲他們有權強迫未來的女婿去幹些什麼，他被這種角色激怒了。

"Her uncles ought to deal with this," he said.
“她的叔叔們應該處理這件事，”他說。

"They have. The matter has been gone into by the family. They are opposed to the Countess's idea; but she is firm, and insists on a legal opinion."
“他們處理了。全家人進行了研究，他們反對伯爵夫人的意見，但她很堅決，堅持要求得到法律的判決。”

The young man was silent: he had not opened the packet in his hand.
年輕人不作聲了：他還沒有打開手上的紙包。

"Does she want to marry again?"
“她是不是想再嫁人？”

"I believe it is suggested; but she denies it."
“我認爲有這個意思；但她否認這一點。”

"Then--"
“那麼——”

"Will you oblige me, Mr. Archer, by first looking through these papers? Afterward, when we have talked the case over, I will give you my opinion."
“阿切爾先生，勞駕你先看一遍這些文件好嗎？以後，等我們把情況交談之後，我會告訴你我的意見。”

Archer withdrew reluctantly with the unwelcome documents. Since their last meeting he had half-unconsciously collaborated with events in ridding himself of the burden of Madame Olenska. His hour alone with her by the firelight had drawn them into a momentary intimacy on which the Duke of St. Austrey's intrusion with Mrs. Lemuel Struthers, and the Countess's joyous greeting of them, had rather providentially broken. Two days later Archer had assisted at the comedy of her reinstatement in the van der Luydens' favour, and had said to himself, with a touch of tartness, that a lady who knew how to thank all-powerful elderly gentlemen to such good purpose for a bunch of flowers did not need either the private consolations or the public championship of a young man of his small compass. To look at the matter in this light simplified his own case and surprisingly furbished up all the dim domestic virtues. He could not picture May Welland, in whatever conceivable emergency, hawking about her private difficulties and lavishing her confidences on strange men; and she had never seemed to him finer or fairer than in the week that followed. He had even yielded to her wish for a long engagement, since she had found the one disarming answer to his plea for haste.
阿切爾無可奈何地帶着那些不受歡迎的文件退了出來。他們上次見面以來，他一直漫不經心地對待社交活動，以便使自己擺脫奧蘭斯卡夫人的負擔。他與她在爐火旁單獨相處建立的短暫親密關係，由於聖奧斯特利公爵與萊姆爾·斯特拉瑟斯太太的闖入，以及伯爵夫人對他們愉快的歡迎，已經天助神依般地破滅了。兩天之後，在她重獲範德盧頓夫婦歡心的喜劇中阿切爾助了一臂之力，他不無尖酸地心想，對於有權勢的老紳士用一束鮮花表示的善意，一位夫人是知道如何感激的，她不需要他這樣能力有限的年輕人私下的安慰，也不需要他公開的捍衛。這樣一想，就把他個人的問題簡化了，同時也令人驚奇地修復了他模糊的家庭觀念。無論梅遇到什麼緊急情況，他都無法想象她會對陌生男人大講自己的困難，不加考慮地信賴他們。在隨後的一個星期中，他覺得她比以往任何時候都更優雅更美麗。他甚至屈從了她延長訂婚期的願望，因爲她找到了解除爭端的辦法，使他放棄了儘快結婚的要求。

"You know, when it comes to the point, your parents have always let you have your way ever since you were a little girl," he argued; and she had answered, with her clearest look: "Yes; and that's what makes it so hard to refuse the very last thing they'll ever ask of me as a little girl."
“你知道，從你還是個小姑娘的時候起，只要你說到點子上，你父母一直都是容許你自行其事的，”他爭辯說。她神色十分安詳地回答道：“不錯；正是由於這個原因，才使得我難以拒絕他們把我看作小姑娘而提的最後一個要求。”

That was the old New York note; that was the kind of answer he would like always to be sure of his wife's making. If one had habitually breathed the New York air there were times when anything less crystalline seemed stifling.
這是老紐約的調子；這是他願永遠確信他的妻子會做的那種回答。假如一個人一直習慣於呼吸紐約的空氣，那麼，有時候，不夠清澈的東西似乎就會讓他窒息。

The papers he had retired to read did not tell him much in fact; but they plunged him into an atmosphere in which he choked and spluttered. They consisted mainly of an exchange of letters between Count Olenski's solicitors and a French legal firm to whom the Countess had applied for the settlement of her financial situation. There was also a short letter from the Count to his wife: after reading it, Newland Archer rose, jammed the papers back into their envelope, and reentered Mr. Letterblair's office.
他回來後閱讀的那些文件實際上並沒有告訴他多少情況，卻使他陷入一種窒息和氣急敗壞的心清。文件主要是奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人的律師與法國一個法律機構的往來信件，伯爵夫人曾請求該機構澄清她的經濟狀況；另外還有一封伯爵寫給妻子的短信。讀過那封信後，紐蘭·阿切爾站起來，把文件塞進信封，重新走進了萊特布賴的辦公室。

"Here are the letters, sir. If you wish, I'll see Madame Olenska," he said in a constrained voice.
“還給你這些信，先生。如果你願意，我想見見奧蘭斯卡夫人，”他聲音有些不自然地說。

"Thank you--thank you, Mr. Archer. Come and dine with me tonight if you're free, and we'll go into the matter afterward: in case you wish to call on our client tomorrow."
“謝謝你——謝謝你，阿切爾先生。如果你有空，今晚請過來一起吃晚飯，飯後我們把事情研究一下——假如你想明天拜訪我們的委託人的話。”

Newland Archer walked straight home again that afternoon. It was a winter evening of transparent clearness, with an innocent young moon above the house- tops; and he wanted to fill his soul's lungs with the pure radiance, and not exchange a word with any one till he and Mr. Letterblair were closeted together after dinner. It was impossible to decide otherwise than he had done: he must see Madame Olenska himself rather than let her secrets be bared to other eyes. A great wave of compassion had swept away his indifference and impatience: she stood before him as an exposed and pitiful figure, to be saved at all costs from farther wounding herself in her mad plunges against fate.
紐蘭·阿切爾這天下午又是直接走回家的。這是個明淨清澈的冬季傍晚，一彎皎潔的新月剛升起在房頂上方。他想讓靈魂內部注滿純淨的光輝，在晚飯後與萊特布賴關進密室之前這段時間，不想跟任何人說一句話。再做其他決定是不可能的，一定得按他的意見辦：他必須親自去見奧蘭斯卡夫人，而不能讓她的祕密暴露給其他人。一股同情的洪流已經沖走了他的冷漠與厭煩。她像一個無人保護的弱者站在他面前，等待着他不惜一切代價去拯救，以免她在對抗命運的瘋狂冒險中受到進一步的傷害。

He remembered what she had told him of Mrs. Welland's request to be spared whatever was "unpleasant" in her history, and winced at the thought that it was perhaps this attitude of mind which kept the New York air so pure. "Are we only Pharisees after all?" he wondered, puzzled by the effort to reconcile his instinctive disgust at human vileness with his equally instinctive pity for human frailty.
他記起她對他講過，韋蘭太太曾要求她免談她過去任何“不愉快的事”。想到也許正是這種心態才使得紐約的空氣如此純淨，他不覺有些畏縮。“難道我們竟是法利賽人不成？”他困惑地想。爲了擺平憎惡人類罪惡與同情人類脆弱這兩種本能的感情，他大傷腦筋。

For the first time he perceived how elementary his own principles had always been. He passed for a young man who had not been afraid of risks, and he knew that his secret love-affair with poor silly Mrs. Thorley Rushworth had not been too secret to invest him with a becoming air of adventure. But Mrs. Rushworth was "that kind of woman"; foolish, vain, clandestine by nature, and far more attracted by the secrecy and peril of the affair than by such charms and qualities as he possessed. When the fact dawned on him it nearly broke his heart, but now it seemed the redeeming feature of the case. The affair, in short, had been of the kind that most of the young men of his age had been through, and emerged from with calm consciences and an undisturbed belief in the abysmal distinction between the women one loved and respected and those one enjoyed--and pitied. In this view they were sedulously abetted by their mothers, aunts and other elderly female relatives, who all shared Mrs. Archer's belief that when "such things happened" it was undoubtedly foolish of the man, but somehow always criminal of the woman. All the elderly ladies whom Archer knew regarded any woman who loved imprudently as necessarily unscrupulous and designing, and mere simple- minded man as powerless in her clutches. The only thing to do was to persuade him, as early as possible, to marry a nice girl, and then trust to her to look after him.
他第一次認識到他恪守的那些原則是多麼初級。他被認爲是個不怕冒險的年輕人，他知道他與傻乎乎的託雷·拉什沃斯太太的桃色祕密還不夠祕密，無法給他蒙上一層名副其實的冒險色彩。然而拉什沃斯太太屬於“那種女人”：愚蠢、虛榮、生性喜歡偷偷摸摸，事情的祕密性與冒險性對她的吸引力遠大於他的魅力與品質。當他明白真相之後，難受得差點兒心碎，不過現在看來卻起到了補償作用。總之，那段恩怨屬於跟他同齡的多數年輕人都經歷過的那一種，它的發生於良心是平靜的，且絲毫不會動搖這樣一種信念：一個人尊重、愛戀的女人與他欣賞——並憐憫的女人是有天淵之別的。按照這種觀點，年輕人都受到他們的母親、姑姨及其他女長輩百般的慫恿和支持，她們都與阿切爾太太持同樣的看法：“發生這種事”，對於男人無疑是愚蠢的，而對於女人——不知何故——卻是罪惡的。阿切爾太太認識的所有上年紀的夫人們都認爲，任何輕率與人相愛的女人都必然是寡廉鮮恥、工於心計的，而心地單純的男人在其控制下則是無能爲力的。惟一的辦法是儘早說服他娶一位好姑娘，然後委託她去照管他。

In the complicated old European communities, Archer began to guess, love-problems might be less simple and less easily classified. Rich and idle and ornamental societies must produce many more such situations; and there might even be one in which a woman naturally sensitive and aloof would yet, from the force of circumstances, from sheer defencelessness and loneliness, be drawn into a tie inexcusable by conventional standards.
阿切爾開始想，在複雜的老式歐洲社會裏，愛情問題恐怕不這麼簡單，不這麼容易分門歸類。富足、悠閒、喜歡招搖的上流社會必然會發生許許多多這樣的私情，甚至會有這種可能：一位生性敏感的孤單女子，由於環境勢力所逼、由於全然孤立無助，會被牽涉進爲傳統規範不能饒恕的感情糾紛之中。

On reaching home he wrote a line to the Countess Olenska, asking at what hour of the next day she could receive him, and despatched it by a messenger-boy, who returned presently with a word to the effect that she was going to Skuytercliff the next morning to stay over Sunday with the van der Luydens, but that he would find her alone that evening after dinner. The note was written on a rather untidy half-sheet, without date or address, but her hand was firm and free. He was amused at the idea of her week-ending in the stately solitude of Skuytercliff, but immediately afterward felt that there, of all places, she would most feel the chill of minds rigorously averted from the "unpleasant."
一回到家，他便給奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人寫了幾句話，問她第二天什麼時間可以接見他。他打發信差送去，不久，便帶話回來，說她翌晨要與範德盧頓夫婦去斯庫特克利夫過星期天，不過晚飯以後她將一個人呆在家裏。回函寫在很不整潔的半頁紙上，沒有日期和地址，但她的書寫流暢而道勁。他對她到豪華幽閉的斯庫特克利夫度週末的主意感到高興，但稍後他立即意識到，惟其在那個地方，她纔會最深切地感受到堅決規避“不愉快”的那種思想的冷漠。

He was at Mr. Letterblair's punctually at seven, glad of the pretext for excusing himself soon after dinner. He had formed his own opinion from the papers entrusted to him, and did not especially want to go into the matter with his senior partner. Mr. Letterblair was a widower, and they dined alone, copiously and slowly, in a dark shabby room hung with yellowing prints of "The Death of Chatham" and "The Coronation of Napoleon." On the sideboard, between fluted Sheraton knife-cases, stood a decanter of Haut Brion, and another of the old Lanning port (the gift of a client), which the wastrel Tom Lanning had sold off a year or two before his mysterious and discreditable death in San Francisco--an incident less publicly humiliating to the family than the sale of the cellar.
7點鐘，他準時到達萊特布賴先生的家，心中爲飯後立即脫身的藉口暗自高興。他已從交給他的那些文件中形成了自己的意見，並不太想跟他的上司深入探討。萊特布賴先生是個鰥夫，只有他們兩人用餐。菜餚十分豐盛，而上菜卻慢慢騰騰。陰暗寒愴的餐廳裏掛着兩張發黃的版畫《查塔姆之死》與《拿破崙的加冕禮》。餐具櫃上面，帶凹槽的餐刀匣子中間，擺着一瓶豪特·布里翁的圓酒瓶，還有一瓶陳年拉寧紅葡萄酒（一位委託人的禮品），那是湯姆·拉寧那個飯桶神祕可恥地死於舊金山前一兩年打折傾銷的——他的死亡還不及地下酒窖的拍賣給家庭帶來的恥辱大。

After a velvety oyster soup came shad and cucumbers, then a young broiled turkey with corn fritters, followed by a canvas-back with currant jelly and a celery mayonnaise. Mr. Letterblair, who lunched on a sandwich and tea, dined deliberately and deeply, and insisted on his guest's doing the same. Finally, when the closing rites had been accomplished, the cloth was removed, cigars were lit, and Mr. Letterblair, leaning back in his chair and pushing the port westward, said, spreading his back agreeably to the coal fire behind him: "The whole family are against a divorce. And I think rightly."
一道可口的牡蠣湯之後，上了河鯡和黃瓜，然後是一客童子雞與油炸玉米餡餅，接着又有灰背野鴨和醋栗醬和蛋黃汁芹菜。午飯吃三明治、喝茶的萊特布賴先生，晚餐卻吃得從容不迫、專心致志，並堅持讓他的客人也照此辦理。終於，收場的禮節完成之後，撤掉桌布，點着雪茄，萊特布賴先生把酒瓶向西面一推，身體在椅子裏朝後一靠，無拘無束地向身後的煤火舒展開後背，然後說道：“全家人都反對離婚，我認爲這很正確。”

Archer instantly felt himself on the other side of the argument. "But why, sir? If there ever was a case--"
阿切爾即刻覺得自己站在了爭論的另一方。“可這是因爲什麼呢，先生？假如有個案子——”

"Well--what's the use? SHE'S here--he's there; the Atlantic's between them. She'll never get back a dollar more of her money than what he's voluntarily returned to her: their damned heathen marriage settlements take precious good care of that. As things go over there, Olenski's acted generously: he might have turned her out without a penny."
“唉，案子有什麼用？她在這裏——他在那裏，大西洋隔在他們中間。除了他自願給她的，多一美元她也絕對要不回來，他們那該死的異教婚姻財產處理法規定得明明白白。按那邊的情形，奧蘭斯基做得已經很慷慨了：他本來可以一個銅板都不給就把她攆走的。”

The young man knew this and was silent.
年輕人明白這一點，緘口無言了。

"I understand, though," Mr. Letterblair continued, "that she attaches no importance to the money. Therefore, as the family say, why not let well enough alone?"
“可是我知道，”萊特布賴接下去說，“她對錢的問題並不重視。所以，就像她的家人所說的，幹嗎不聽其自然呢？”

Archer had gone to the house an hour earlier in full agreement with Mr. Letterblair's view; but put into words by this selfish, well-fed and supremely indifferent old man it suddenly became the Pharisaic voice of a society wholly absorbed in barricading itself against the unpleasant.
阿切爾一小時之前到他家來的時候，與萊特布賴先生的意見完全一致，但這些話一從這個酒足飯飽、冷漠自私的老人口中講出來，卻突然變成全神貫注地防範不愉快事情出現的上流社會僞善者的腔調。

"I think that's for her to decide."
“我想這事該由她自己決定。”

"H'm--have you considered the consequences if she decides for divorce?"
“唔——假如她決定離婚，你考慮過事情的後果嗎？”

"You mean the threat in her husband's letter? What weight would that carry? It's no more than the vague charge of an angry blackguard."
“你是說她丈夫信中的威脅？那有什麼了不起？不過是一個發怒的惡棍含含糊糊的指控罷了。”

"Yes; but it might make some unpleasant talk if he really defends the suit."
“不錯；可假如他真要進行抗辯，卻有可能造成不愉快的口實。”

"Unpleasant--!" said Archer explosively.
“不愉快的——！”阿切爾暴躁地說。

Mr. Letterblair looked at him from under enquiring eyebrows, and the young man, aware of the uselessness of trying to explain what was in his mind, bowed acquiescently while his senior continued: "Divorce is always unpleasant."
萊特布賴先生詫異地挑起眉毛看着他，年輕人意識到向他說明自己的想法等於徒勞。他的上司接着說：“離婚永遠是不愉快的。”他默認地點了點頭。

"You agree with me?" Mr. Letterblair resumed, after a waiting silence.
萊特布賴先生沉默地等了一會兒又問道：“你同意我的意見嗎？”

"Naturally," said Archer.
“那當然，”阿切爾說。

"Well, then, I may count on you; the Mingotts may count on you; to use your influence against the idea?"
“這麼說，我可以依靠你，明戈特家可以依靠你，運用你的影響反對這個主意了。”

Archer hesitated. "I can't pledge myself till I've seen the Countess Olenska," he said at length.
阿切爾猶豫了。“會見奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人之前，我還不能打保票，”他終於說。

"Mr. Archer, I don't understand you. Do you want to marry into a family with a scandalous divorce-suit hanging over it?"

“阿切爾先生，我不理解你。難道你想和一個即將有離婚訴訟醜聞的家庭結親嗎？”

"I don't think that has anything to do with the case."
“我認爲那與這件事毫無關係。”

Mr. Letterblair put down his glass of port and fixed on his young partner a cautious and apprehensive gaze.
萊特布賴先生放下酒杯，盯着他的年輕合夥人，審慎、憂慮地瞅了一眼。

Archer understood that he ran the risk of having his mandate withdrawn, and for some obscure reason he disliked the prospect. Now that the job had been thrust on him he did not propose to relinquish it; and, to guard against the possibility, he saw that he must reassure the unimaginative old man who was the legal conscience of the Mingotts.
阿切爾明白他在冒被收回成命的風險。由於某種說不清的原因，他並不喜歡那種前景。既然任務已經交給了他，他就不打算放棄它了，而且，爲了防止那種可能，他明白必須讓這位代表明戈特一家法律信仰的缺乏想像力的老人放下心來。

"You may be sure, sir, that I shan't commit myself till I've reported to you; what I meant was that I'd rather not give an opinion till I've heard what Madame Olenska has to say."
“你可以放心，先生，不先向你彙報我是不會表態的；我剛纔的意思是，我在聽取奧蘭斯卡夫人的想法之前，不願發表意見。”

Mr. Letterblair nodded approvingly at an excess of caution worthy of the best New York tradition, and the young man, glancing at his watch, pleaded an engagement and took leave.
萊特布賴先生對這種稱得上紐約優秀傳統的過分謹慎讚許地點了點頭。年輕人瞥了一眼手錶，便藉口有約，告辭而去。

雙語小說連載:純真年代 The Age of Innocence(10)