"Why should I?" he asked.
“为什么我要内疚？”
"Let me put the facts before you. You were dying, and Dirk Stroeve took you into his own house. He nursed you like a mother. He sacrificed his time and his comfort and his money for you. He snatched you from the jaws of death."
“让我把事情的经过向你摆一摆。你病得都快死了，戴尔克·施特略夫把你接到自己家里，象你亲生父母一样服侍你。为了你，他牺牲了自己的时间、金钱和安逸的生活。他把你从死神的手里夺了回来。”
Strickland shrugged his shoulders.
思特里克兰德耸了耸肩膀。
"The absurd little man enjoys doing things for other people. That's his life."
“那个滑稽的小胖子喜欢为别人服务。这是他的习性。”
"Granting that you owed him no gratitude, were you obliged to go out of your way to take his wife from him? Until you came on the scene they were happy. Why couldn't you leave them alone?"
“就说你用不着对他感恩，难道你就该霸占住他的老婆？在你出现在他们家门以前，人家生活得非常幸福。为什么你非要插进来不可呢？”
"What makes you think they were happy?"
“你怎么知道他们生活得幸福？”
"It was evident."
“这不是明摆着的事吗？”
"You are a discerning fellow. Do you think she could ever have forgiven him for what he did for her?"
“你什么事都看得很透。你认为他为她做了那件事，她会原谅他？”
"What do you mean by that?"
“你说的是什么事？”
"Don't you know why he married her?"
“你不知道他为什么同她结婚吗？”
I shook my head.
我摇了摇头。
"She was a governess in the family of some Roman prince, and the son of the house seduced her. She thought he was going to marry her. They turned her out into the street neck and crop. She was going to have a baby, and she tried to commit suicide. Stroeve found her and married her."
“她原来是罗马一个贵族家里的家庭教师，这家人的少爷勾引了她。她本以为那个男的会娶她做妻子，没想到却被这家人一脚踢了出来。她快临产了，想要自杀。这时候施特略夫发现了她，同她结了婚。”
"It was just like him. I never knew anyone with so compassionate a heart."
“施特略夫正是这样一个人。我从来没有见过哪个人象他那样富于侠义心肠的。”