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双语小说连载:纯真年代 The Age of Innocence(2)

来源:可可英语 编辑:beck   可可英语APP下载 |  可可官方微信:ikekenet

Old Mrs. Mingott's foreign daughters had become a legend. They never came back to see their mother, and the latter being, like many persons of active mind and dominating will, sedentary and corpulent in her habit, had philosophically remained at home. But the cream- coloured house (supposed to be modelled on the private hotels of the Parisian aristocracy) was there as a visible proof of her moral courage; and she throned in it, among pre-Revolutionary furniture and souvenirs of the Tuileries of Louis Napoleon (where she had shone in her middle age), as placidly as if there were nothing peculiar in living above Thirty-fourth Street, or in having French windows that opened like doors instead of sashes that pushed up.
老明戈特太太的两个外籍女儿成了一则神话故事。她们从不回来看望母亲。母亲依恋故土且身体肥胖,像许多思想活跃意志专横的人那样,一直达观地留在家中,而那幢乳白色的房子(据说是仿照巴黎贵族的私人旅馆建造的)却成了她大无畏精神的见证。她在里面登上宝座,平静地生活在独立战争前的家具与路易·拿破仑杜伊勒利宫(她中年时曾在那儿大出风头)的纪念品中间,仿佛住在34街以北、用开得像门一样大的法式窗户代替推拉式吊窗丝毫不足为怪似的。

Every one (including Mr. Sillerton Jackson) was agreed that old Catherine had never had beauty--a gift which, in the eyes of New York, justified every success, and excused a certain number of failings. Unkind people said that, like her Imperial namesake, she had won her way to success by strength of will and hardness of heart, and a kind of haughty effrontery that was somehow justified by the extreme decency and dignity of her private life. Mr. Manson Mingott had died when she was only twenty-eight, and had "tied up" the money with an additional caution born of the general distrust of the Spicers; but his bold young widow went her way fearlessly, mingled freely in foreign society, married her daughters in heaven knew what corrupt and fashionable circles, hobnobbed with Dukes and Ambassadors, associated familiarly with Papists, entertained Opera singers, and was the intimate friend of Mme. Taglioni; and all the while (as Sillerton Jackson was the first to proclaim) there had never been a breath on her reputation; the only respect, he always added, in which she differed from the earlier Catherine.
人人(包括西勒顿·杰克逊先生)都一致认为,老凯瑟琳从没拥有过美貌,而在纽约人眼中,美貌是成功的保证,也可作为某些失败的借口。不友善的人们说,像她那位大英帝国的同名女人一样,她获得成功靠的是意志力量与冷酷心肠,外加一种由于私生活绝对正派而使她在一定程度上免遭非议的傲慢。曼森·明戈特先生去世的时候她只有28岁。出于对斯派塞家族的不信任,他用一条附加条款“冻结”了自己的遗产。他那位年轻、果敢的遗孀大无畏地走着自己的路,她无拘无束地混迹在外国的社交界,把女儿嫁到天知道何等腐化时髦的圈子里,与公爵大使们开怀畅饮,与教皇政治家亲密交往,款待歌剧演员,并做了芭蕾名门之后塔戈里奥尼夫人的密友。与此同时(正如西勒顿·杰克逊首先宣布的),关于她的名声却从没有一句口舌。这是她惟一一点,他总是接着说,与以前那位凯瑟琳的不同之处。

Mrs. Manson Mingott had long since succeeded in untying her husband's fortune, and had lived in affluence for half a century; but memories of her early straits had made her excessively thrifty, and though, when she bought a dress or a piece of furniture, she took care that it should be of the best, she could not bring herself to spend much on the transient pleasures of the table. Therefore, for totally different reasons, her food was as poor as Mrs. Archer's, and her wines did nothing to redeem it. Her relatives considered that the penury of her table discredited the Mingott name, which had always been associated with good living; but people continued to come to her in spite of the "made dishes" and flat champagne, and in reply to the remonstrances of her son Lovell (who tried to retrieve the family credit by having the best chef in New York) she used to say laughingly: "What's the use of two good cooks in one family, now that I've married the girls and can't eat sauces?"
曼森·明戈特太太早已解冻了丈夫的财产,并殷殷实实地活了半个世纪。早年困境的记忆使她格外节俭,虽然她在买衣服或添置家具时总是关照要最好的,但却舍不得为餐桌上瞬间的享乐过多破费。所以,由于完全不同的原因,她的饭菜跟阿切尔太太家一样差,她的酒也不能为之增光添彩。亲戚们认为,她餐桌上的吝啬损害了明戈特家的名誉——它一向是与吃喝讲究连在一起的。然而人们还是不顾那些“拼盘”与走味的香摈,继续到她家来。针对她儿子洛弗尔的劝告(他企图雇佣纽约最好的厨师以恢复家族的名誉),她常常笑着说:“既然姑娘们都嫁出去了,我又不能用调味品,一个家庭用两个好厨师还有什么用?”

Newland Archer, as he mused on these things, had once more turned his eyes toward the Mingott box. He saw that Mrs. Welland and her sister-in-law were facing their semicircle of critics with the Mingottian APLOMB which old Catherine had inculcated in all her tribe, and that only May Welland betrayed, by a heightened colour (perhaps due to the knowledge that he was watching her) a sense of the gravity of the situation. As for the cause of the commotion, she sat gracefully in her corner of the box, her eyes fixed on the stage, and revealing, as she leaned forward, a little more shoulder and bosom than New York was accustomed to seeing, at least in ladies who had reasons for wishing to pass unnoticed.
纽兰·阿切尔一面沉思着这些事情,又把目光转向了明戈特包厢。他见韦兰太太与她的嫂嫂正带着老凯瑟琳向族人灌输的那种明戈特家特有的自恃面对着组成半圆形的批评者。只有梅·韦兰面色绯红(也许由于知道他在看她),流露出事态严峻的意味。至于引起骚动的那一位,依然优雅地坐在包厢角落里,两眼凝视着舞台。由于身体前倾,她肩膀和胸部露得比纽约社会习惯看到的稍稍多了一点,至少在那些有理由希望不引起注意的女士们中间是如此。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
decency ['di:snsi]

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n. 得体,礼貌,体面
(复数)decenci

 
haughty ['hɔ:ti]

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adj. 傲慢的

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tribunal [trai'bju:nəl]

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n. 法官席,法院,法庭

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gravity ['græviti]

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n. 重力,严重,庄重,严肃

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intimate ['intimeit,'intimit]

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adj. 亲密的,私人的,秘密的
n. 密友<

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anomalous [ə'nɔmələs]

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adj. 反常的,不规则的

 
discredited

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adj. 不足信的;不名誉的 v. 败坏(或破坏)…的名

 
effrontery [ef'rʌntəri]

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n. 厚颜无耻

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flippancy ['flipənsi]

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n. 无礼,言语尖刻

 
visible ['vizəbl]

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adj. 可见的,看得见的
n. 可见物

 


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