| Chapter VI But when at last I met Charles Strickland, it was under circumstances which allowed me to do no more than just make his acquaintance. One morning Mrs. Strickland sent me round a note to say that she was giving a dinner-party that evening, and one of her guests had failed her. She asked me to stop the gap. She wrote: "It's only decent to warn you that you will be bored to extinction. It was a thoroughly dull party from the beginning, but if you will come I shall be uncommonly grateful. And you and I can have a little chat by ourselves." It was only neighbourly to accept. When Mrs. Strickland introduced me to her husband, he gave me a rather indifferent hand to shake. Turning to him gaily, she attempted a small jest. "I asked him to show him that I really had a husband. I think he was beginning to doubt it." | 第六章 但我最終還是同司查爾見了麵，並非像司太太之前說的那樣，隻是讓我和他丈夫認識那麽簡單。一天早上，司太太派人給我送來一張字條，條子上說她當天要搞個晚餐會，其中一位客人爽約，無法出席。她請我把這個缺堵上。她這樣寫道： “我隻是出於禮節，先警告你，這頓晚餐定會讓你覺得無聊透頂。從一開始這就是個徹頭徹尾的無聊聚會，但如果你肯賞光的話，我將不勝感激。咱倆可以單獨聊一聊。” 接受這個邀請隻是因為我和她是鄰裏街坊的關係。 司太太把我介紹給她的丈夫時，他和我握了下手，他的表情相當冷漠。她興高采烈地把身子轉向她的丈夫，試圖露出淺淺地一聲姍笑。 “我請他來，是為了向他說明，我真地是有夫之婦。我想他過去一直表示懷疑。” |
| Strickland gave the polite little laugh with which people acknowledge a facetiousness in which they see nothing funny, but did not speak. New arrivals claimed my host's attention, and I was left to myself. When at last we were all assembled, waiting for dinner to be announced, I reflected, while I chatted with the woman I had been asked to "take in," that civilised man practises a strange ingenuity in wasting on tedious exercises the brief span of his life. It was the kind of party which makes you wonder why the hostess has troubled to bid her guests, and why the guests have troubled to come. There were ten people. They met with indifference, and would part with relief. It was, of course, a purely social function. The Stricklands "owed" dinners to a number of persons, whom they took no interest in, and so had asked them; these persons had accepted. Why? To avoid the tedium of dining tete-a-tete, to give their servants a rest, because there was no reason to refuse, because they were "owed" a dinner. | 司先生很有禮貌地微微一笑，像是有人說了句不合時宜的俏皮話，而聽者並未覺得好笑，假裝露出的那種笑容，但他一言未發。這時又有新的客人到場，女主人的注意力被吸引了過去，我被單獨晾在一旁。最後客人全都到齊了，我們等著宣布晚餐開始時，我一邊和叫我“接待”的一位女客人閑聊，一邊心裏琢磨著：把短暫的生命白白浪費在各種無聊的應酬上，這恐怕隻有文明開化的人類能想得出來，真是匪疑所思，別出心裁。就拿這次晚宴來說，你一定很想弄清楚，女主人為何要大費周章請客，而客人為何不嫌麻煩赴約。那天一共有十個人出席。大家見麵時不冷不熱，分手時如釋重負。當然這是一次純粹的社交活動。司先生夫婦倆“欠了”這其中許多人一頓晚餐，而他倆對這些人根本毫無興趣，所以才邀請他們，這些人接受邀請並來赴約。這出於什麽原因呢？為了避免用餐時夫妻對坐時越看越生厭，為了給仆人們放個假，還是這些人根本就是為赴約而赴約，因為他們被人“欠了”一頓飯？ |
| The dining-room was inconveniently crowded. There was a K.C. and his wife, a Government official and his wife, Mrs. Strickland's sister and her husband, Colonel MacAndrew, and the wife of a Member of Parliament. It was because the Member of Parliament found that he could not leave the House that I had been invited. The respectability of the party was portentous. The women were too nice to be well dressed, and too sure of their position to be amusing. The men were solid. There was about all of them an air of well-satisfied prosperity. | 餐廳裏人滿為患，活動起來並不方便。這些人中有一位皇室顧問及夫人，一位政府官員及夫人，司太太的姐姐及姐夫麥上校，還有一位國會議員的夫人。正是因為國會議員發現無法離開議院前來赴約，我才被邀請。這些客人身價高貴，自命不凡。女士們顯得太過和藹友善，以至於穿著打扮並不那麽雍容華貴，而且她們對各自的地位太過自信，以至於他們的言談舉止並不令人感到妙趣橫生。男士們穩重實在。所有這些人身上都流露出一種養尊處優、意得誌滿的派頭。 |
| Everyone talked a little louder than natural in an instinctive desire to make the party go, and there was a great deal of noise in the room. But there was no general conversation. Each one talked to his neighbour; to his neighbour on the right during the soup, fish, and entree; to his neighbour on the left during the roast, sweet, and savoury. They talked of the political situation and of golf, of their children and the latest play, of the pictures at the Royal Academy, of the weather and their plans for the holidays. There was never a pause, and the noise grew louder. Mrs. Strickland might congratulate herself that her party was a success. Her husband played his part with decorum. Perhaps he did not talk very much, and I fancied there was towards the end a look of fatigue in the faces of the women on either side of him. They were finding him heavy. Once or twice Mrs. Strickland's eyes rested on him somewhat anxiously. | 在座的每個人不由自主地想讓氣氛熱鬧起來，說話時都把自己的嗓門比平時抬高了一些，屋子裏頓時一片嘩然。但聊天沒有統一話題。每個人都在和自己身旁的人聊；喝湯、吃魚和主菜時同身右邊的人聊，吃烤肉、甜品和開胃菜時同身左邊的人聊。他們聊時局、聊高爾夫、聊孩子以及最新上演的戲劇、聊皇家藝術學院的繪畫、聊天氣、聊度假計劃。聊天一直沒有中斷，聲音也越來越大。司太太也許可以暗自慶幸，此次聚會取得了成功。她丈夫扮演著自己的角色，顯得既得體大方又彬彬有禮。也許他沒說幾句話，我覺得晚宴快結束時，坐在他身旁的兩位女客臉上都有些疲憊之色。她們肯定發現和他聊天比較費勁。有那麽一兩次，司太太神情有些焦躁不安，兩隻眼睛一直盯著他看。 |
| At last she rose and shepherded the ladies out of one room. Strickland shut the door behind her, and, moving to the other end of the table, took his place between the K.C. and the Government official. He passed round the port again and handed us cigars. The K.C. remarked on the excellence of the wine, and Strickland told us where he got it. We began to chat about vintages and tobacco. The K.C. told us of a case he was engaged in, and the Colonel talked about polo. I had nothing to say and so sat silent, trying politely to show interest in the conversation; and because I thought no one was in the least concerned with me, examined Strickland at my ease. He was bigger than I expected: I do not know why I had imagined him slender and of insignificant appearance; in point of fact he was broad and heavy, with large hands and feet, and he wore his evening clothes clumsily. He gave you somewhat the idea of a coachman dressed up for the occasion. He was a man of forty, not good-looking, and yet not ugly, for his features were rather good; but they were all a little larger than life-size, and the effect was ungainly. He was clean shaven, and his large face looked uncomfortably naked. His hair was reddish, cut very short, and his eyes were small, blue or grey. He looked commonplace. I no longer wondered that Mrs. Strickland felt a certain embarrassment about him; he was scarcely a credit to a woman who wanted to make herself a position in the world of art and letters. It was obvious that he had no social gifts, but these a man can do without; he had no eccentricity even, to take him out of the common run; he was just a good, dull, honest, plain man. One would admire his excellent qualities, but avoid his company. He was null. He was probably a worthy member of society, a good husband and father, an honest broker; but there was no reason to waste one's time over him. | 最後她站起身來，像隻帶頭羊一樣引領著其他女士離開房間。她們走後，司先生隨手把門一關，走到桌子另一頭，在皇室顧問和政府官員中間坐了下來。他再次把波特酒遞過來，給我們發雪茄。皇室顧問稱讚說酒的味道很好，司先生告訴我們他從何處購得。我們開始聊起釀酒和煙草。皇室顧問告訴大家他正審理的一個案件，上校聊起打馬球的事。我無話可說，所以隻好一言不發地坐著，出於禮貌，我試圖表示出對聊天內容感興趣的樣子。因為我想他們根本就不會在意我，於是我就從容不迫地打量著司先生。他比我預料的高大一些；我不知道為何我之前會覺得他比較修長，其貌不揚。事實上，他膀闊腰圓，手腳寬大，他穿著晚禮服顯得笨手笨腳，他給人的印象有點像是一位身穿盛裝去參加宴會的馬車夫。他正值不惑之年，相貌不英俊，但也不難看，因為他五官比較端正，但都稍微大了一號，所以整體效果並不好看。他的胡須刮得幹幹淨淨，臉龐很大，光溜溜地看起來讓人感覺很不舒服。他一頭紅發留得很短，兩隻眼睛較小，說藍不藍，說灰不灰。他看上去相貌平平。我不再奇怪為何司太太提起他總是有些尷尬；對於想在文藝界為自己取得一席之地的一個女人而言，司先生幾乎不可能給她增光添彩。顯而易見，他根本沒有任何社交天分，但這種天分並非人人都非要有不可。他甚至沒有什麽怪癖，可以使他免於平凡庸俗。他隻不過是個心地善良、乏味無趣、忠厚老實、平凡無奇之人。人們欽佩他的優秀品格，卻躲著不願意和他相處。在這個世上，他是個可有可無之人。他可能是一位社會精英、一位模範丈夫、一位慈祥的父親、一位誠實可靠的經紀人；但沒有任何理由要把時間浪費在他身上。 |
