单身贵族案 13勋爵驾到(5)

"Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet¹ as we went towards the vestry.

"唉，简直是孩子气。那是当我们去向教堂的法衣室的时候，她手里的花束掉落了。

She was passing the front pew at the time, and it fell over into the pew.

当时她正走过前排座位，花束就掉在座位前面。

There was a moment's delay, but the gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again,

稍微过了一会儿，座位上的先生把花束拾起来递给她，

and it did not appear to be the worse for the fall.

看来这束花依然完好如初。

Yet when I spoke² to her of the matter, she answered me abruptly³;

可是当我和她谈起这件事时，她回答我的话很生硬。

and in the carriage, on our way home, she seemed absurdly agitated⁴ over this trifling⁵ cause."

回家途中在马车里，她似乎为这件微不足道的小事而心烦意乱，实在令人可笑。"

"Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of the general public were present, then?"

"真的！你是说在前排座位里坐着一位先生，那么当时在座的也有一般群众了？"

"Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is open."

"哦，是的，教堂开门的时候，是不可能不让他们进去的。"

"This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?"

"这位先生不会是你妻子的一位朋友吗？"

"No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a common-looking person.

"不会，不会，我称呼他作先生是出于礼貌，他只不过是一个看上去很平常的人。

I hardly noticed his appearance. But really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point."

我几乎没有注意到他的容貌。但是，我想，真的，我们谈得离题太远了。"

"Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it.

"圣西蒙夫人婚礼结束回来时远没有她去时那么心情愉快。

What did she do on reentering her father's house?"

那么，当她重新回到她爸爸寓所的时候，她做了什么事？"

"I saw her in conversation with her maid."

"我看到她和她的女佣人在说话。"

1 bouquet   

n.花束，酒香

参考例句：

• This wine has a rich bouquet.这种葡萄酒有浓郁的香气。
• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

4 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

5 trifling   

adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的

参考例句：

• They quarreled over a trifling matter.他们为这种微不足道的事情争吵。
• So far Europe has no doubt, gained a real conveniency,though surely a very trifling one.直到现在为止,欧洲无疑地已经获得了实在的便利，不过那确是一种微不足道的便利。