名著精讀《飄》第一章 第14節

“But do you suppose,” he said, “that maybe Ashley hadn’t told her he was going to announce it tomorrow night and she was mad at him for not telling her, an old friend, before he told everybody else? Girls set a big store on knowing such things first.”

“可是，你想過沒有，”他說，"也許艾希禮沒告訴她明天晚上要宣佈那件事，而她覺得不先告訴老朋友便對別的人都說了，因此生氣了呢？姑娘們總是非常看重首先聽到這種事情的。”

“Well, maybe. But what if he hadn’t told her it was tomorrow? It was supposed to be a secret and a surprise, and a man’s got a right to keep his own engagement quiet, hasn’t he? We wouldn’t have known it if Miss Melly’s aunt hadn’t let it out. But Scarlett must have known he was going to marry Miss Melly sometime. Why, we’ve known it for years. The Wilkes and Hamiltons always marry their own cousins. Everybody knew he’d probably marry her some day, just like Honey Wilkes is going to marry Miss Melly’s brother, Charles.”

“唔，可能，就算沒有告訴她又怎樣呢？本來是要保密，叫人大吃一驚的嘛，一個男人就沒有權利對自己訂婚的計劃祕而不宣嗎？要不是媚蘭小姐的姑媽泄漏出來，我們也不會知道呀。而且思嘉一定早已知道他總是要娶媚蘭的。你想，我們知道也有好幾年了。威爾克斯家和漢密爾頓家向來是姑表聯姻。他總有一天要娶她的，這誰都知道，就像霍妮·威爾克斯要同媚蘭小姐的兄弟查爾斯結婚一樣。”

“Well, I give it up. But I’m sorry she didn’t ask us to supper. I swear I don’t want to go home and listen to Ma take on about us being expelled. It isn’t as if this was the first time.”

“好了，我不想談下去了。不過，我對於她不留我們吃晚飯這一點，總是感到遺憾。老實說，我不想回家聽媽媽對我們被學校開除的事大發雷霆，不能當做第一次那樣看待了。”

“Maybe Boyd will have smoothed her down by now. You know what a slick talker that little varmint is. You know he always can smooth her down.”

“說不定博伊德已經把她的火氣平息下來了。你明白那個討厭的矮鬼是多麼伶牙俐齒。他每次都能把她說得心平氣和的。”

“Yes, he can do it, but it takes Boyd time. He has to talk around in circles till Ma gets so confused that she gives up and tells him to save his voice for his law practice. But he ain’t had time to get good started yet. Why, I’ll bet you Ma is still so excited about the new horse that she’ll never even realize we’re home again till She sits down to supper tonight and sees Boyd. And before supper is over she’ll be going strong and breathing fire. And it’ll be ten o’clock before Boyd gets a chance to tell her that it wouldn’t have been honorable for any of us to stay in college after the way the Chancellor talked to you and me. And it’ll be midnight before he gets her turned around to where she’s so mad at the Chancellor she’ll be asking Boyd why he didn’t shoot him. No, we can’t go home till after midnight”

“是呀，他辦得到，不過那要花博伊德許多時間。他要拐彎抹角走來走去去，直到媽媽給弄得實在糊塗了，情願讓步，才肯放他省下點嗓子去幹律師的事。可是眼下，他恐怕還沒來得及準備好開場白呢。我敢跟你打賭，你看，媽媽一定還在爲那匹新來的馬感到興奮呢，說不定要到坐下來吃晚飯和看博伊德的時候纔會想起我們又回家了。只要不吃完晚飯，她的怒火就會愈來愈旺。因此要到十點鐘左右博伊德才有機會去告訴她，既然咱們校長採取了那樣態度斥責你我兩人，我們中間誰要是還留在學校也就太不光彩了。而要他把她扭過來轉而對校長大發雷霆，責問博伊德干嗎不開槍把他打死，那就非到半夜不行。因爲，我們要半夜過後才能回家。"

ose vt. 推想, 假設, 以爲, 認爲應該, 獲准 vi. 推測

We suppose that the situation will improve.
我們認爲形勢會好轉。

l [iks'pel] vt. 驅逐, 逐出, 開除

He was expelled from the school.
他被學校開除了。

th [smu:ð] adj. 平穩的, 流暢的, 安祥的, 圓滑的, 攪拌均勻的 vt. 使光滑, 磨光, 安慰, 理順(羽毛) vi. 變光滑

She smoothed out wrinkles out of the tablecloth.
她把桌布上的皺褶弄平。

cellor n. 英大臣(使館祕書, 首相)

The chancellor is the most powerful man in the Austrian government.
首相是奧地利政府最有實權的人。