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The ten days glided swiftly away: and, the day before the great party was to take place, Arthur proposed that we should stroll down to the Hall, in time for afternoon-tea.
十天很快就过去了：在盛大派对举行的前一天，亚瑟提议我们应该漫步到大厅，及时享用下午茶。
“Hadn’t you better go alone?” I suggested. “Surely I shall be very much de trop?”
“你不是最好一个人去吗？”我建议道。“我肯定会非常多余的吧？”
he added, with a graceful bow of mock politeness towards the unfortunate victim.
他补充道，优雅地向不幸的受害者鞠了一躬，假装礼貌。
“You see I shall have to bear the sight, to-morrow night, of my lady-love making herself agreeable to everybody except the right person, and I shall bear the agony all the better if we have a dress-rehearsal beforehand!”
“你知道，明天晚上我将不得不忍受看到我的爱人对每个人都很友好，除了正确的人，而如果我们事先有一个彩排，我将更好地忍受这种痛苦！”
“Well, no,” Arthur said musingly, as we set forth: “there’s no such part in a regular company.
“嗯，不，”亚瑟沉思着说，我们出发了：“在正规剧团里没有这样的角色。
After all, I’m afraid there’s no part for you but the ‘Well-dressed Villain’: only”, with a critical side-glance, “I’m a leetle uncertain about the dress!”
毕竟，恐怕除了“衣着讲究的恶棍”这个角色，没有适合你的了：只是”，带着挑剔的侧目，“我对服装有点不确定！”
We found Lady Muriel alone, the Earl having gone out to make a call, and at once resumed old terms of intimacy, in the shady arbour where the tea-things seemed to be always waiting.
我们发现穆里尔夫人独自一人，伯爵出去打电话了，我们立刻在阴凉的凉亭里恢复了旧日的亲密关系，那里的茶具似乎总是在等着。
The only novelty in the arrangements (one which Lady Muriel seemed to regard as entirely a matter of course), was that two of the chairs were placed quite close together, side by side.
布置中唯一的新奇之处（穆里尔夫人似乎完全认为这是理所当然的），是两把椅子并排放在一起，非常靠近。
“We have been arranging, as we came along, about letter-writing,” Arthur began. “He will want to know how we’re enjoying our Swiss tour: and of course we must pretend we are?”
“我们一路走来一直在安排写信，”亚瑟开始说。“他会想知道我们是如何享受瑞士之旅的：当然，我们必须假装我们是？”
“—is always a difficulty”, she quickly put in, “when you’re travelling about, and when there are no cupboards in the hotels. However, ours is a very portable one; and will be neatly packed, in a nice leather case ”
“——总是一个困难，”她很快插话道，“当你旅行的时候，当酒店里没有橱柜的时候。然而，我们的是一个非常便携的；将整齐地装在一个漂亮的皮箱里”
“But please don’t think about writing”, I said, “when you’ve anything more attractive on hand. I delight in reading letters, but I know well how tiring it is to write them.
“但是请不要在手头有更吸引人的事情时考虑写信，”我说，“我喜欢读信，但我知道写信有多累。”
“It is, sometimes,” Arthur assented. “For instance when you’re very shy of the person you have to write to.”
“有时候确实是这样”，亚瑟表示同意。“例如，当你非常害羞，不得不写信给某人的时候。”
“Does that show itself in the letter?” Lady Muriel enquired. “Of course, when I hear any one talking—you, for instance—I can see how desperately shy he is! But can you see that in a letter?”
“这在信中会表现出来吗？”穆里尔夫人问道。“当然，当我听到任何人说话——比如你——我都能看出他有多害羞！但你能在信中看出这一点吗？”
“Well, of course, when you hear any one talk fluently—you, for instance—you can see how desperately un-shy she is—not to say saucy!
“嗯，当然，当你听到任何人流利地说话——比如你——你就能看出她有多不害羞——可以说是厚脸皮！”
But the shyest and most intermittent talker must seem fluent in letter-writing.
“但是最害羞、最断断续续的说话者在写信时一定看起来很流利。”
He may have taken half-an-hour to compose his second sentence but there it is, close after the first!”
“他可能花了半个小时才写出第二句话，但它就在那里，紧跟在第一句话后面！”
Why shouldn’t he make pauses in writing, just as he would do in speaking?
为什么他不能在写作中停顿，就像他在说话时会做的那样？
And a very shy girl—if there is such a thing—might write a sentence on the first sheet of her letter—then put in a couple of blank sheets—then a sentence on the fourth sheet: and so on.”
而一个非常害羞的女孩——如果有这样的事情——可能会在她的信的第一页上写一句话——然后插入几张空白页——然后在第四页上写一句话：等等。”
“I quite foresee that we—I mean this clever little boy and myself—” Lady Muriel said to me, evidently with the kind wish to bring me into the conversation, “—are going to become famous—of course all our inventions are common property now—for a new Code of Rules for Letterwriting!
“我完全预见我们——我是说这个聪明的小男孩和我自己——”穆里尔夫人对我说，显然是出于好心，想把我带入谈话中，“——将会成名——当然，我们所有的发明现在都是共同财产——因为我们制定了一套新的书信规则！”
“Well, another thing greatly needed, little girl, is some way of expressing that we don’t mean anything.”
“嗯，另一件非常需要的东西，小女孩，是某种表达我们不意味着任何事情的方式。”
“Explain yourself, little boy! Surely you can find no difficulty in expressing a total absence of meaning?”
“解释一下你自己，小男孩！你肯定不难表达完全没有意义吧？”
I mean that you should be able, when you don’t mean a thing to be taken seriously, to express that wish. For human nature is so constituted that whatever you write seriously is taken as a joke, and whatever you mean as a joke is taken seriously! At any rate, it is so in writing to a lady!”
我的意思是，当你不希望某件事情被认真对待时，你应该能够表达出这种愿望。因为人类的本性就是这样，无论你认真写什么，都会被当作笑话，而你当作笑话的任何东西都会被认真对待！至少，在给女士写信时是这样！”
“Ah, you’re not used to writing to ladies!” Lady Muriel remarked, leaning back in her chair, and gazing thoughtfully into the sky. “You should try.”
“啊，你不习惯给女士写信！”穆里尔夫人靠在椅子上，若有所思地凝视着天空，说道。“你应该试试。”
“Very good,” said Arthur. “How many ladies may I begin writing to? As many as I can count on the fingers of both hands?”
“很好，”亚瑟说。“我可以开始给多少位女士写信？多到我可以用两只手的手指数得过来吗？”
“As many as you can count on the thumbs of one hand!” his lady-love replied with much severity. “What a very naughty little boy he is! Isn’t he?” (with an appealing glance at me).
“你可以用一只手的大拇指数得过来！”他的爱人非常严肃地回答。“他是个多么淘气的小男孩啊！不是吗？”（向我投来恳求的目光）。
“He’s a little fractious,” I said. “Perhaps he’s cutting a tooth.” While to myself I said “How exactly like Sylvie talking to Bruno!”
“他有点烦躁，”我说。“也许他正在长牙。”我心里想，“这简直就像西尔维和布鲁诺说话一样！”
“He wants his tea.” (The naughty little boy volunteered the information.) “He’s getting very tired, at the mere prospect of the great party to-morrow!”
“他想喝茶。”（淘气的小男孩主动提供了信息。）“仅仅是想到明天的盛大聚会，他就已经很累了！”
“Then he shall have a good rest before-hand!” she soothingly replied. “The tea isn’t made yet. Come, little boy, lean well back in your chair, and think about nothing—or about me, whichever you prefer!”
“那他应该事先好好休息一下！”她安慰地回答。“茶还没泡好呢。来吧，小男孩，在椅子上好好靠后，什么都不想——或者想我，随便你！”
“All the same, all the same!” Arthur sleepily murmured, watching her with loving eyes, as she moved her chair away to the tea table, and began to make the tea. “Then he’ll wait for his tea, like a good, patient little boy!”
“都一样，都一样！”亚瑟困倦地喃喃自语，用充满爱意的眼神看着她，她把椅子移到茶桌旁，开始泡茶。“那他就会像个好、耐心的小男孩一样等他的茶！”
“I saw them lying on the table as I came out, but my father said there was nothing in them, except that horrid murder-trial.”
“我出来的时候看到它们放在桌子上，但我父亲说除了那个可怕的谋杀案审判，里面什么都没有。”
(Society was just then enjoying its daily thrill of excitement in studying the details of a specially sensational murder in a thieve’s den in the East of London.)
（当时社会正每天都沉浸在兴奋之中，研究伦敦东部一个盗贼巢穴中一起特别耸人听闻的谋杀案的细节。）
“I have no appetite for horrors,” Arthur replied. “But hope we have learned the lesson they should teach us—though we are very apt to read it backwards!”
“我对恐怖的事情没有胃口，”亚瑟回答道。“但希望我们已经吸取了它们应该教给我们的教训——尽管我们很容易把它读反！”
See now,” suiting the action to the word “ I am sitting at your feet, just as if you were a second Gamaliel!
“看，”一边说一边做动作，“我正坐在你的脚边，就好像你是第二个迦玛列一样！”
(This was to me, who had risen to bring her chair back to its former place.)
（这是对我说的，我起身把她的椅子搬回原来的位置。）
Arthur was silent for a minute. “I would like to be clear what it is I mean,” he said, slowly and thoughtfully, “before I say anything to you—because you think about it.”
亚瑟沉默了一分钟。“我想在跟你说任何话之前，先弄清楚我的意思，”他慢慢地、若有所思地说，“因为你会思考。”
Anything approaching to a compliment was so unusual an utterance for Arthur, that it brought a flush of pleasure to her cheek, as she replied “It is you, that give me the ideas to think about.”
对于亚瑟来说，任何接近恭维的话都是如此不寻常，以至于她回答时脸颊上泛起了一阵愉悦的红晕，“是你给了我思考的想法。”
“One’s first thought”, Arthur proceeded, “in reading anything specially vile or barbarous, as done by a fellow-creature, is apt to be that we see a new depth of Sin revealed beneath us: and we seem to gaze down into that abyss from some higher ground, far apart from it.”
“一个人的第一个想法”，亚瑟继续说道，“在读到任何特别卑鄙或野蛮的事情时，是由一个同胞做的，很容易认为我们看到了一个新的罪恶深度在我们下面揭示：我们似乎从一些更高的地方凝视着那个深渊，与它相距甚远。”
“I think I understand you now. You mean that one ought to think—not ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are’—but ‘God, be merciful to me also, who might be, but for Thy grace, a sinner as vile as he!”
“我想我现在理解你了。你的意思是，人们应该想——不是‘上帝，我感谢你，我不像其他人那样’——而是‘上帝，也对我仁慈，我可能是，但因为你的恩典，一个像他一样卑鄙的罪人！”
“One must begin further back, I think. Think of some other man, the same age as this poor wretch. Look back to the time when they both began life—before they had sense enough to know Right from Wrong. Then, at any rate, they were equal in God’s sight—”
“我认为必须更进一步思考。想想另一个和这个可怜的家伙同龄的人。回顾他们开始生活的时间——在他们有足够的理智来分辨是非之前。那么，至少在上帝的眼中，他们是平等的——”
“We have, then, two distinct epochs at which we may contemplate the two men whose lives we are comparing.
“那么，我们有两个不同的时代，可以思考我们正在比较的两个人的生活。
At the first epoch they are, so far as moral responsibility is concerned, on precisely the same footing: they are alike incapable of doing right or wrong.
在第一个时代，就道德责任而言，他们处于完全相同的基础上：他们同样无法做对或做错。
At the second epoch the one man—I am taking an extreme case, for contrast —has won the esteem and love of all around him: his character is stainless, and his name will be held in honour hereafter: the other man’s history is one unvaried record of crime, and his life is at last forfeited to the outraged laws of his country.
在第二个时代，一个人——我为了对比而举了一个极端的例子——赢得了周围所有人的尊重和爱：他的品格无可挑剔，他的名字将在以后受到尊敬：另一个人的历史是一个一成不变的犯罪记录，他的生命最终被他的国家被激怒的法律所没收。
Now what have been the causes, in each case, of each man’s condition being what it is at the second epoch?
现在，在每种情况下，每个人在第二个时代的状况的原因是什么？”
These two kinds need to be discussed separately—that is, if I have not already tired you with my prosing?”
这两种需要分别讨论——也就是说，如果我还没有用我的唠叨让你感到疲倦的话？”
“On the contrary,” said Lady Muriel, “it is a special delight to me to have a question discussed in this way— analysed and arranged so that one can understand it.
“相反，”穆里尔夫人说，“我特别高兴能以这种方式讨论问题——分析和安排，以便人们能够理解它。
Some books, that profess to argue out a question, are to me intolerably wearisome, simply because the ideas are all arranged haphazard—a sort of ‘first come, first served’.”
有些书声称要论证一个问题，但对我来说却难以忍受，因为这些想法都是随意安排的——一种‘先到先得’的感觉。”
“You are very encouraging,” Arthur replied, with a pleased look. “The causes, acting from within, which make a man’s character what it is at any given moment, are his successive acts of volition—that is, his acts of choosing whether he will do this or that.”
“你很鼓舞人心，”亚瑟回答，脸上露出高兴的表情。“从内部起作用的原因，使一个人的性格在任何特定时刻成为它所是的，是他连续的意志行为——也就是说，他选择是否要做这件事或那件事的行为。”
“We are to assume the existence of Free-Will?” I said, in order to have that point made quite clear.
“我们要假设自由意志的存在吗？”我说，为了让这一点非常清楚。
“If not,” was the quiet reply, “cadit quaestio: and I have no more to say.”
“如果不是，”是平静的回答，“问题就不存在了：我也没什么可说的了。”
“We will assume it!” the rest of the audience—the majority, I may say, looking at it from Arthur’s point of view—imperiously proclaimed. The orator proceeded.
“我们假设它！”其余的听众——我可以说，大多数人，从亚瑟的角度来看——专横地宣称。演说者继续说道。
“The causes, acting from without, are his surroundings—what Mr. Herbert Spencer calls his ‘environment’.
“从外部起作用的原因是他的环境——赫伯特·斯宾塞先生称之为他的‘环境’。”
Now the point I want to make clear is this, that a man is responsible for his act of choosing, but not responsible for his environment.
“现在我想说明的一点是，一个人对他的选择行为负责，但对他的环境不负责任。”
Hence, if these two men make, on some given occasion, when they are exposed to equal temptation, equal efforts to resist and to choose the right, their condition, in the sight of God, must be the same.
“因此，如果这两个人在某个特定的场合，当他们面临同等的诱惑时，做出同等的努力来抵抗并选择正确的，他们在上帝眼中的状况必须是相同的。”
If He is pleased in the one case, so will He be in the other, if displeased in the one case, so also in the other.”
“如果他在一种情况下高兴，那么他在另一种情况下也会高兴，如果他在一种情况下不高兴，那么他在另一种情况下也会不高兴。”
“And yet, owing to their different environments, the one may win a great victory over the temptation, while the other falls into some black abyss of crime.”
“然而，由于他们不同的环境，一个人可能会在诱惑中赢得巨大的胜利，而另一个人则陷入某种罪恶的深渊。”
“But surely you would not say those men were equally guilty in the sight of God?”
“但你肯定不会说那些人在上帝眼中同样有罪吧？”
“Either that”, said Arthur, “or else I must give up my belief in God’s perfect justice.
“要么是这样，”亚瑟说，“要么我就必须放弃我对上帝完美正义的信仰。
But let me put one more case, which will show my meaning even more forcibly.
但让我再举一个例子，这个例子将更有力地表明我的意思。
Let the one man be in a high social position—the other say, a common thief.
让一个人处于高社会地位——另一个人，比如说，一个普通的小偷。”
Let the one be tempted to some trivial act of unfair dealing—something which he can do with the absolute certainty that it will never be discovered—something which he can with perfect ease forbear from doing—and which he distinctly knows to be a sin.
让一个人受到一些微不足道的不公平交易行为的诱惑——他可以绝对肯定地做这件事，而且永远不会被发现——他可以非常轻松地克制不做——而且他清楚地知道这是一种罪过。
Let the other be tempted to some terrible crime—as men would consider it—but, under an almost overwhelming pressure of motives—of course not quite overwhelming, as that would destroy all responsibility.
让另一个人受到一些可怕的罪行的诱惑——人们会这样认为——但在几乎无法抗拒的动机压力下——当然不是完全无法抗拒，因为那样会破坏所有的责任。
Now, in this case, let the second man make a greater effort at resistance than the first.
现在，在这种情况下，让第二个人比第一个人做出更大的抵抗努力。
Also suppose both to fall under the temptation—I say that the second man is, in God’s sight, less guilty than the other.”
也假设两个人都屈服于诱惑——我说，在上帝的眼中，第二个人比另一个人罪责较轻。”
Why, in that dreadful murder-trial, you would say, I suppose, that it was possible that the least guilty man in the Court was the murderer, and that possibly the judge who tried him, by yielding to the temptation of making one unfair remark, had committed a crime outweighing the criminal’s whole career!”
“为什么，在那场可怕的谋杀审判中，你会说，我想，法庭上罪责最轻的人可能是凶手，而审判他的法官，通过屈服于做出一个不公平评论的诱惑，犯下了一个超过罪犯整个职业生涯的罪行！”
But just think what a grievous sin it must be, in God’s sight, to yield to some very slight temptation, which we could have resisted with perfect ease, and to do it deliberately, and in the full light of God’s Law.
“但想想看，在上帝眼中，屈服于一些我们可以完全轻松抵抗的非常轻微的诱惑，并且故意这样做，在上帝律法的充分光照下，这一定是多么严重的罪过。”
“I ca’n’t reject your theory,” I said. “But how it seems to widen the possible area of Sin in the world!”
“我不能拒绝你的理论，”我说。“但它似乎如何扩大了世界上可能存在的罪恶范围！”
“To me it seems to clear away much of the cloud that hangs over the world’s history.
“对我来说，它似乎清除了笼罩世界历史的大部分乌云。”
When this view first made itself clear to me, I remember walking out into the fields, repeating to myself that line of Tennyson ’There seemed no room for sense of wrong!’
“当这个观点第一次在我心中变得清晰时，我记得我走出去到田野里，对自己重复着丁尼生的那句诗‘似乎没有犯错的余地！’”
The thought, that perhaps the real guilt of the human race was infinitely less than I fancied it— that the millions, whom I had thought of as sunk in hopeless depths of sin, were perhaps, in God’s sight, scarcely sinning at all—was more sweet than words can tell!
“想到也许人类真正的罪恶比我想象的要无限少——那些我认为深陷无望罪恶深渊的数百万人，也许在上帝眼中，几乎根本没有犯罪——这比言语所能表达的还要甜蜜！”
‘A livelier emerald twinkles in the grass, A purer sapphire melts into the sea!’
‘草地上闪烁着更活泼的翡翠，大海中融化着更纯净的蓝宝石！’
Lady Muriel shaded her face with her hand, and was silent for a minute. “It is a beautiful thought,” she said, looking up at last. “Thank you—Arthur, for putting it into my head!”
穆里尔夫人用手遮住脸，沉默了一分钟。“这是一个美丽的想法，”她最后抬起头说。“谢谢你——亚瑟，把它放进我的脑子里！”
The Earl returned in time to join us at tea, and to give us the very unwelcome tidings that a fever had broken out in the little harbour-town that lay below us—a fever of so malignant a type that, though it had only appeared a day or two ago, there were already more than a dozen down in it, two or three of whom were reported to be in imminent danger.
伯爵及时回来加入我们喝茶，并给我们带来了非常不受欢迎的消息，在我们下面的小港口城镇爆发了一场热病——一种如此恶性的热病，尽管它只在一两天前出现，但已经有十几个人病倒了，其中两三个人据报道处于迫在眉睫的危险之中。
In answer to the eager questions of Arthur—who of course took a deep scientific interest in the matter—he could give very few technical details, though he had met the local doctor.
在回答亚瑟急切的问题时——他当然对这件事有着深厚的科学兴趣——尽管他遇到了当地的医生，但他几乎不能给出技术细节。
It appeared, however, that it was an almost new disease—at least in this century, though it might prove to be identical with the “Plague” recorded in History—very infectious, and frightfully rapid in its action.
然而，似乎这是一种几乎全新的疾病——至少在本世纪是这样，尽管它可能与历史上记录的“瘟疫”相同——非常具有传染性，而且其作用非常迅速。
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