(雙語)月亮和六便士 第4章(2)

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My engagements were few, and I was glad to accept. When I arrived, a little late, because in my fear of being too early I had walked three times round the cathedral, I found the party already complete. Miss Waterford was there and Mrs. Jay, Richard Twining and George Road. We were all writers. It was a fine day, early in spring, and we were in a good humour. We talked about a hundred things. Miss Waterford, torn between the aestheticism of her early youth, when she used to go to parties in sage green, holding a daffodil, and the flippancy of her maturer years, which tended to high heels and Paris frocks, wore a new hat. It put her in high spirits. I had never heard her more malicious about our common friends. Mrs. Jay, aware that impropriety is the soul of wit, made observations in tones hardly above a whisper that might well have tinged the snowy tablecloth with a rosy hue. Richard Twining bubbled over with quaint absurdities, and George Road, conscious that he need not exhibit a brilliancy which was almost a by-word, opened his mouth only to put food into it. Mrs. Strickland did not talk much, but she had a pleasant gift for keeping the conversation general; and when there was a pause she threw in just the right remark to set it going once more. She was a woman of thirty-seven, rather tall and plump, without being fat; she was not pretty, but her face was pleasing, chiefly, perhaps, on account of her kind brown eyes. Her skin was rather sallow. Her dark hair was elaborately dressed. She was the only woman of the three whose face was free of make-up, and by contrast with the others she seemed simple and unaffected.

我的約會并不多，我欣然接受了這個邀請。我到她家的時候稍微晚了一些，因為我害怕去得過早，圍著大教堂先兜了三個圈子。進門以后我才發(fā)現(xiàn)客人都已經(jīng)到齊了。瓦特爾芙德是其中之一，另外還有杰伊太太、理查·特維寧和喬治·婁德。在座的人都是作家。這是早春的一天，天氣很好，大家興致都非常高。我們談東談西，什么都談到了。瓦特爾芙德小姐拿不定主意，是照她更年輕時的淡雅裝扮，身著灰綠，手拿一支水仙花去赴宴呢，還是表現(xiàn)出一點年事稍高時的豐姿；如果是后者，那就要穿上高跟鞋、披著巴黎式的上衣了。猶豫了半天，結(jié)果她只戴了一頂帽子。這頂帽子使她的情緒很高，我還從來沒有聽過她用這么刻薄的語言議論我們都熟識的朋友呢。杰伊太太知道得很清楚，逾越禮規(guī)的言詞是機智的靈魂，因此時不時地用不高于耳語的音調(diào)說一些足能使雪白的臺布泛上紅暈的話語。理查·特維寧則滔滔不絕地發(fā)表荒唐離奇的謬論。喬治·婁德知道他的妙語驚人已經(jīng)盡人皆知，用不著再施展才華，因此每次張口只不過是往嘴里添送菜肴。思特里克蘭德太太說話不多，但是她也有一種可愛的本領(lǐng)，能夠引導(dǎo)大家的談話總是環(huán)繞著一個共同的話題；一出現(xiàn)冷場，她總能說一句合適的話使談話繼續(xù)下去。思特里克蘭德太太這一年三十七歲，身材略高，體態(tài)豐腴，但又不顯得太胖。她生得并不美，但面龐很討人喜歡，這可能主要歸功于她那雙棕色的、非常和藹的眼睛。她的皮膚血色不太好，一頭黑發(fā)梳理得非常精巧。在三個女性里面，她是唯一沒有施用化妝品的，但是同別人比較起來，這樣她反而顯得更樸素、更自然。

The dining-room was in the good taste of the period. It was very severe. There was a high dado of white wood and a green paper on which were etchings by Whistler in neat black frames. The green curtains with their peacock design, hung in straight lines, and the green carpet, in the pattern of which pale rabbits frolicked among leafy trees, suggested the influence of William Morris. There was blue delft on the chimney-piece. At that time there must have been five hundred dining-rooms in London decorated in exactly the same manner. It was chaste, artistic, and dull.

餐室是按照當(dāng)時的藝術(shù)風(fēng)尚布置的，非常樸素。白色護墻板很高，綠色的糊墻紙上掛著嵌在精致的黑鏡框里的惠斯勒【杰姆斯·艾波特·麥克奈爾·惠斯勒（1834—1903），美國畫家和蝕刻畫家，長期定居英國】的蝕刻畫。印著孔雀圖案的綠色窗簾線條筆直地高懸著。地毯也是綠顏色的，地毯上白色小兔在濃郁樹蔭中嬉戲的圖畫使人想到是受了威廉·莫利斯【威廉·莫利斯（1834—1896），英國詩人和藝術(shù)家】的影響。壁爐架上擺著白釉藍彩陶器。當(dāng)時的倫敦一定有五百間餐廳的裝演同這里一模一樣，淡雅，別致，卻有些沉悶。