It was difficult for Victor, who was a not particularly mature twenty-one, to know how to react.
维克托很难知道该如何回答，他只是一个还不太成熟的21岁小伙子。
An element of trust now came into his staying in Alan's room, though Alan remained 'a perfect gentleman'.
虽然艾伦保持着"完美的绅士形象"，但他待在艾伦的房间里，仍然存在着一些担忧。
But Victor did not reject Alan's friendship. Instead, they continued to agree to disagree on this subject as they did on religion.
但是他们仍然保持着很好的友谊，在这个问题上保留各自的看法，就像对待宗教问题一样。
They talked of what hereditary or environmental influences might determine it one way or the other.
他们讨论这是由遗传还是环境而造成的，
But whatever these were, it was clear that here was part of Alan that was so; that part of his reality was shaped that way.
但无论是什么，很清楚的是，艾伦就是这样的，事实就是这样的。
For him, without a God, there was nothing to appeal to but some inner consistency.
对艾伦来说，没有上帝，他不追求别的，只想要内在的相容。
As in mathematics, that consistency could not be proved by a rule-book, and there was no deus ex machina to hand down decisions as to right and wrong.
在数学中，相容性无法用规则来证明，也没有自动的机器来判定。
The axioms of his life were becoming clear by now, although how to live them out was quite another question.
他的生命公理现在越来越清晰了，虽然如何接受它们是另外一回事。
He had wanted the commonest in nature; he liked ordinary things.
他曾经追求自然界中最普通的东西，他喜欢一切平凡的东西，
But he found himself to be an ordinary English homosexual atheist mathematician. It would not be easy.
但他最终却看到，自己成了一位英国的同性恋无神论数学家。这可实在不是个平凡的事情。