海军协定（9）

“I did exactly what he indicated, and waited until the other clerks had departed. One of them in my room, Charles Gorot, had some arrears¹ of work to make up, so I left him there and went out to dine. When I returned he was gone. I was anxious to hurry my work, for I knew that Joseph—the Mr. Harrison whom you saw just now—was in town, and that he would travel down to Woking by the eleven-o'clock train, and I wanted if possible to catch it.

“When I came to examine the treaty I saw at once that it was of such importance that my uncle had been guilty of no exaggeration in what he had said. Without going into details, I may say that it defined the position of Great Britain towards the Triple Alliance, and fore-shadowed the policy which this country would pursue in the event of the French fleet gaining a complete ascendancy² over that of Italy in the Mediterranean³. The questions treated in it were purely⁴ naval⁵. At the end were the signatures of the high dignitaries who had signed it. I glanced my eyes over it, and then settled down to my task of copying.

“It was a long document, written in the French language, and containing twenty-six separate articles. I copied as quickly as I could, but at nine o'clock I had only done nine articles, and it seemed hopeless for me to attempt to catch my train. I was feeling drowsy⁶ and stupid, partly from my dinner and also from the effects of a long day's work. A cup of coffee would clear my brain. A commissionaire remains⁷ all night in a little lodge⁸ at the foot of the stairs, and is in the habit of making coffee at his spirit-lamp for any of the officials who may be working over time. I rang the bell, therefore, to summon him.

“我完全照他的吩咐做了，等待其他几个职员离开。只有一个叫做查尔斯-戈罗特的还有一点公事没有办完。于是我就出去吃晚餐，让他自己留在办公室里。我回来时，他已经走了。我急于把我这件公事赶出来，因为我知道约瑟夫——刚才你们见过的哈里森先生——正在城里，要乘十一点钟火车到沃金去，我也想尽可能赶上这趟火车。

“我一看这份协定，立即发觉它确实极端重要，舅父的话丝毫也不夸张。不需细看，我就可以说，它规定了大不列颠王国对三国同盟的立场，同时它也预定了一旦法国海军在地中海对意大利海军占完全优势时，英国要采取的对策。协定涉及的问题纯属海军方面的。协定最后是协商双方高级官员的签署。卧槽草看过之后，就坐下来动手抄写。

“这份文件很长，用法文写成，包括二十六项条文。我尽可能快抄，可是到九点钟才抄了九条，看来，我想赶十一点火车是没有希望了。由于整日劳累加上晚餐没有吃好，我感到昏昏欲睡，头脑麻木，心想喝杯咖啡清醒清醒头脑。楼下有一个小门房，整夜都有一个看门人守在那里，按惯例给每一个加夜班的职员用酒一精一灯烧咖啡。所以，我就按铃召唤他。

1 arrears   

n.到期未付之债，拖欠的款项；待做的工作

参考例句：

• The payments on that car loan are in arrears by three months.购车贷款的偿付被拖欠了三个月。
• They are urgent for payment of arrears of wages.他们催讨拖欠的工钱。

2 ascendancy   

n.统治权，支配力量

参考例句：

• We have had ascendancy over the enemy in the battle.在战斗中我们已占有优势。
• The extremists are gaining ascendancy.极端分子正逐渐占据上风。

3 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

4 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

5 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

6 drowsy   

adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的

参考例句：

• Exhaust fumes made him drowsy and brought on a headache.废气把他熏得昏昏沉沉，还引起了头疼。
• I feel drowsy after lunch every day.每天午饭后我就想睡觉。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 lodge   

v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆

参考例句：

• Is there anywhere that I can lodge in the village tonight?村里有我今晚过夜的地方吗？
• I shall lodge at the inn for two nights.我要在这家小店住两个晚上。