Then--oh, then--if you still stood on one foot, with your hot hand clutching the three moist dollars in your pocket,

接着——哦，接下来——要是你还是不安地站着，发烫的手在口袋里紧攥着三张汗湿了的钞票，

and hoarsely proclaimed your hideous and culpable poverty, nevermore would Mrs. Parker be cicerone of yours.

哑着嗓子表明自己是多么贫困，简直羞愧极了，帕克太太可就再也不会给你当什么向导了。

She would honk loudly the word" Clara," she would show you her back, and march downstairs.

她会扯着嗓子大叫一声“克拉拉”，然后一转身，迈开大步下楼去了。

Then Clara, the coloured maid, would escort you up the carpeted ladder that served for the fourth flight,

于是，女仆克拉拉会陪你爬上当作第四层楼梯用的铺了毡毯的梯子，

and show you the Skylight Room.

带你去看带天窗的房间。

It occupied 7x8 feet of floor space at the middle of the hall.

它在房子的中间，七英尺宽，八英尺长，

On each side of it was a dark lumber closet or storeroom.

两边都是黑洞洞的杂物间。

In it was an iron cot, a washstand and a chair. A shelf was the dresser.

房间里有一张小铁床，一个洗脸架和一把椅子。一个木头架子就算是梳妆台。

Its four bare walls seemed to close in upon you like the sides of a coffin.

四面光溜溜的墙简直就像棺材的四壁，朝着你直逼过来。

Your hand crept to your throat, you gasped, you looked up as from a well--and breathed once more.

你不由自主地把手摸到了喉咙上，喘着气，抬起头，像是在井里一样朝上面望去——总算又能呼吸正常了。

Through the glass of the little skylight you saw a square of blue infinity.

透过小天窗的玻璃你看到了一块蓝色的天空。

"Two dollars, suh," Clara would say in her half-contemptuous, half- Tuskegeenial tones.

“两美元，先生。”克拉拉会半带着瞧不起，半带着塔斯基吉塔斯基吉人亲切的口气对你说。

One day Miss Leeson came hunting for a room.

一天莉森小姐来看房子。

She carried a typewriter made to be lugged around by a much larger lady.

她带着一台看上去只有大个头的女人才能应付得了的打字机。

She was a very little girl,

她可是个非常娇小的姑娘，

with eyes and hair that had kept on growing after she had stopped and that always looked as if they were saying:

身子不再长高之后，眼睛和头发却是一个劲儿地长，它们看上去仿佛总是在问：

"Goodness me ! Why didn't you keep up with us?"

“天哪！你为什么不跟着我们一块儿长呢？”