(单词翻译:单击)
Chapter 8
第八章
It was generally agreed in New York that the Countess Olenska had "lost her looks."
在纽约，人们普遍认为奥兰斯卡伯爵夫人“红颜已衰”。
She had appeared there first, in Newland Archer's boyhood,
她在纽兰·阿切尔童年时期第一次在这里露面，
as a brilliantly pretty little girl of nine or ten, of whom people said that she "ought to be painted."
那时她是个光彩照人的漂亮小姑娘，9到10岁的样子。人们说她“应该让人画像”。
Her parents had been continental wanderers, and after a roaming babyhood she had lost them both,
她的父母是欧洲大陆的漫游客，经过幼年的漂泊之后，她失去了双亲，
and been taken in charge by her aunt, Medora Manson, also a wanderer, who was herself returning to New York to "settle down."
被姑妈梅多拉·曼森收养。她也是位漫游客，刚刚要回纽约“定居”。
Poor Medora, repeatedly widowed, was always coming home to settle down (each time in a less expensive house),
可怜的梅多拉一再成为寡妇，经常回来定居（每一次回来住房的档次都要降低一点），
and bringing with her a new husband or an adopted child;
并带着一位新丈夫或者新收养的孩子。
but after a few months she invariably parted from her husband or quarrelled with her ward, and,
然而几个月之后，她又总是与丈夫分道扬镰或者与被监护人闹翻，
having got rid of her house at a loss, set out again on her wanderings.
赔本卖掉房子，又动身出去漫游。
As her mother had been a Rushworth, and her last unhappy marriage had linked her to one of the crazy Chiverses,
由于她母亲原姓拉什沃斯，而最后一次的不幸婚姻又把她与疯癫的奇弗斯家族的一个成员联在一起，
New York looked indulgently on her eccentricities;
所以纽约人都十分宽容地看待她的偏执行为。
but when she returned with her little orphaned niece, whose parents had been popular in spite of their regrettable taste for travel,
不过，当她带着成了孤儿的小侄女回来的时候，孩子的父母尽管因爱好旅游令人遗憾，生前却颇有人望，
people thought it a pity that the pretty child should be in such hands.
人们还是觉得把那个美丽的小姑娘托付给这样的人很可惜。
Every one was disposed to be kind to little Ellen Mingott,
人人都对小埃伦·明戈特怀有善意，
though her dusky red cheeks and tight curls gave her an air of gaiety that seemed unsuitable in a child who should still have been in black for her parents.
尽管她那黑黝黝的红脸蛋与密实的髭发使她显得神情愉快，看起来与一个仍在为父母服丧的孩子很不相称。
It was one of the misguided Medora's many peculiarities to flout the unalterable rules that regulated American mourning,
轻视美国人哀悼活动的那些不容改变的规矩，是梅多拉错误的怪癖之一。
and when she stepped from the steamer
当她从轮船上出来的时候，
her family were scandalised to see that the crape veil she wore for her own brother was seven inches shorter than those of her sisters-in-law,
家人们见她为其兄戴的黑纱比嫂嫂的短了7英寸，
while little Ellen was in crimson merino and amber beads, like a gipsy foundling.
而小埃伦居然穿着深红色美利奴呢，戴着琥珀色珍珠项链，像个吉卜赛弃儿一样，大家都极为震惊。
