四签名 13案情的陈述（5）

"What a very attractive woman!" I exclaimed, turning to my companion.

我回头向我的伙伴说道："真是一位美丽的女郎！"

He had lit his pipe again and was leaning back with drooping¹ eyelids².

他已经重新点上了烟斗，靠在椅背上，合着两眼，

"Is she?" he said languidly; "I did not observe."

无力地说道："是吗？我没有留神。"

"You really are an automaton–a calculating machine," I cried.

我嚷道："你真是个机仆人，一架计算机！

"There is something positively³ inhuman⁴ in you at times."

"有时你简直一点儿人性也没有。"

He smiled gently. "It is of the first importance," he cried, "not to allow your judgment⁵ to be biased⁶ by personal qualities.

他温和地微笑道："不要让一个人的特质影响你的判断能力，这是最重要的。

A client is to me a mere⁷ unit, a factor in a problem.

一个委托人，对于我仅仅是一个单位，问题里的一个因素。

The emotional qualities are antagonistic⁸ to clear reasoning.

感情作用会影响清醒的理智。

I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money,

一个我一生所见的最美丽的女人，曾经为了获取保险赔款而毒杀了三个小孩，结果被判绞刑；

and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor."

可是我认识的一个最不讨人喜欢的男子，却是一位慈善家，捐赠了二十五万镑救济伦敦的平民。"

"In this case, however..."

"但是，这一次..."

"I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. Have you ever had occasion to study character in handwriting?

"我向来不作任何例外。定律没有例外。你也曾研究过笔迹的特征吗？

What do you make of this fellow's scribble⁹?"

对于这个人的笔迹你有什么见解？"

"It is legible and regular," I answered. "A man of business habits and some force of character."

我答道："写得还够清楚、整齐，是一个有商业经验和性格坚强的人写的。"

Holmes shook his head. "Look at his long letters," he said.

福尔摩斯摇头道："你看他写的长字母

"They hardly rise above the common herd¹⁰. That d might be an a, and that l an e.

差不多都没有高过一般字母，那个d字象个a字，还有那个l象个e，

Men of character always differentiate¹¹ their long letters, however illegibly¹² they may write.

性格坚强的人不论写得怎样难认，字的高矮总是分明的，

There is vacillation¹³ in his k's and self-esteem in his capitals.

他的k字写得不一律，大写的字母倒还工整。

I am going out now. I have some few references to make.

我现在要出去了，还有些问题要搞清楚。

Let me recommend this book–one of the most remarkable¹⁴ ever penned.

让我介绍你一本书，一本最不平凡的著作，

It is Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man. I shall be back in an hour."

这是温伍德·瑞德写的《成仁记》，我去一个钟头就回来。"

I sat in the window with the volume in my hand, but my thoughts were far from the daring speculations¹⁵ of the writer.

我坐在窗前拿着书，但是我的思想并没有放在研究这位作者的杰作上。

My mind ran upon our late visitor: her smiles, the deep rich tones of her voice, the strange mystery which overhung her life.

我的思想专注在方才来的客人身上：她的音容笑貌和她在生活里所遭遇的离奇的事情。

If she were seventeen at the time of her father's disappearance¹⁶ she must be seven-and-twenty now–a sweet age,

如果她父亲失踪那年她是十七岁的话，她现在就应当是二十七岁了

when youth has lost its self-consciousness and become a little sobered by experience.

正是青年稚气消退、转到稍经事故的妙龄的阶段。

So I sat and mused¹⁷ until such dangerous thoughts came into my head

我就这样地坐在那里冥想，直到危险的妄想闯进我的脑海。

that I hurried away to my desk and plunged¹⁸ furiously into the latest treatise¹⁹ upon pathology.

因此我急急坐到桌前，拿出一本最近的病理学论文来仔细地读，借以遏制我的妄想。

What was I, an army surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking²⁰ account, that I should dare to think of such things?

我是一个什么样的人？一个陆军军医，有一条伤腿，又没有多少钱，怎好有这种妄想？

She was a unit, a factor–nothing more.

她只是案子里面的一个单位，一个因素，再没有什么了。

If my future were black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by mere will-o'-the-wisps of the imagination.

如果我前途是黑暗的，最好还是毅然地担当票来，不要去胡思乱想，妄想要扭转自己的命运吧。

1 drooping   

adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词

参考例句：

• The drooping willows are waving gently in the morning breeze. 晨风中垂柳袅袅。
• The branches of the drooping willows were swaying lightly. 垂柳轻飘飘地摆动。

2 eyelids   

n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色

参考例句：

• She was so tired, her eyelids were beginning to droop. 她太疲倦了，眼睑开始往下垂。
• Her eyelids drooped as if she were on the verge of sleep. 她眼睑低垂好像快要睡着的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 positively   

adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实

参考例句：

• She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
• The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。

4 inhuman   

adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的

参考例句：

• We must unite the workers in fighting against inhuman conditions.我们必须使工人们团结起来反对那些难以忍受的工作条件。
• It was inhuman to refuse him permission to see his wife.不容许他去看自己的妻子是太不近人情了。

5 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

6 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

7 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

8 antagonistic   

adj.敌对的

参考例句：

• He is always antagonistic towards new ideas.他对新思想总是持反对态度。
• They merely stirred in a nervous and wholly antagonistic way.他们只是神经质地，带着完全敌对情绪地骚动了一下。

9 scribble   

v.潦草地书写，乱写，滥写；n.潦草的写法，潦草写成的东西，杂文

参考例句：

• She can't write yet,but she loves to scribble with a pencil.她现在还不会写字，但她喜欢用铅笔乱涂。
• I can't read this scribble.我看不懂这种潦草的字。

10 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

11 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

12 illegibly   

adv.难读地，暧昧地

参考例句：

• Why? Because the project numbers are written illegibly on the folders. 为什么呢？因为项目成员把文件夹的名称写错了。 来自互联网
• I do not know where family doctors acquired illegiBly perplexing handwriting. 我不知道家庭医生从哪儿学来的那种看不明白、令人迷惑的书法。 来自互联网

13 vacillation   

n.动摇；忧柔寡断

参考例句：

• Vacillation is the cause of his failure.优柔寡断是他失败的原因。
• His constant vacillation made him an unfit administrator.他经常优柔寡断，这使他不适合当行政官员。

14 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

15 speculations   

n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断

参考例句：

• Your speculations were all quite close to the truth. 你的揣测都很接近于事实。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• This possibility gives rise to interesting speculations. 这种可能性引起了有趣的推测。 来自《用法词典》

16 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

17 mused   

v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事）

参考例句：

• \"I wonder if I shall ever see them again, \"he mused. “我不知道是否还可以再见到他们，”他沉思自问。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• \"Where are we going from here?\" mused one of Rutherford's guests. 卢瑟福的一位客人忍不住说道：‘我们这是在干什么？” 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

18 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

19 treatise   

n.专著；(专题)论文

参考例句：

• The doctor wrote a treatise on alcoholism.那位医生写了一篇关于酗酒问题的论文。
• This is not a treatise on statistical theory.这不是一篇有关统计理论的论文。

20 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。