精灵鼠小弟第73期:鼠小弟约埃姆斯小姐见面（打印版）

"Pray forgive me, Miss Ames," continued Stuart, for presuming to strike up an acquaintance on so slender an excuse as your physical similarity;

“请原谅我的鲁莽，埃姆斯小姐，”斯图亚特继续写，当看到你那与我相似的外表时我感到就如同遇到了一个旧友。

but of course the fact is, as you yourself must know, there are very few people who are only two inches in height.

但是就是这样，因为你知道，很少有人身高只有两英寸。

I say "two inches" —actually I am somewhat taller than that.

我说“两英寸”还不太确切——实际上我比那还高一点儿。

My only drawback is that I look something like a mouse.

我唯一的缺陷是我的样子像一只老鼠。

I am nicely proportioned, however.

但即便如此，我还是一个很不错的人。

Am also muscular beyond my years.

我还有着一身与我的年龄不相称的强壮肌肉。

Let me be perfectly blunt: my purpose in writing this brief note is to suggest that we meet.

我干脆坦白说吧：我写这个便条的目的是想约你出来见一面。

I realize that your parents may object to the suddenness and directness of my proposal, as well as to my somewhat mouselike appearance,

我怕你的父母可能会反对我这个直率而又突然的提议，而且由于我的外表像老鼠一样，

so I think probably it might be a good idea if you just didn't mention the matter to them.

所以我想如果你不对他们谈起这件事，结果会更好。

What they don't know won't hurt them.

这样他们就会一无所知，也不会受到伤害了。

However, you probably understand more about dealing with your father and mother than I do,

可是，你也许更愿意和你的父母讨论这件事，

so I won't attempt to instruct you but will leave everything to your good judgment.

如果那样的话我也不会强迫你别这么做，但我还是要把我的意见留给你做参考。