地下墓穴（5）

 

Kennedy loved his subject with a love which was almost a mania—a love which held him true to it, amidst all the distractions¹ which come to a wealthy and dissipated young man. He had ambition, but his ambition was secondary to his mere² abstract joy and interest in everything which concerned the old life and history of the city. He yearned³ to see this new underworld which his companion had discovered.

“Look here, Burger,” said he, earnestly, “I assure you that you can trust me most implicitly⁴ in the matter. Nothing would induce me to put pen to paper about anything which I see until I have your express permission. I quite understand your feeling and I think it is most natural, but you have really nothing whatever to fear from me. On the other hand, if you don’t tell me I shall make a systematic⁵ search, and I shall most certainly discover it. In that case, of course, I should make what use I liked of it, since I should be under no obligation to you.”

Burger smiled thoughtfully over his cigar.

“I have noticed, friend Kennedy,” said he, “that when I want information over any point you are not always so ready to supply it.”

“When did you ever ask me anything that I did not tell you? You remember, for example, my giving you the material for your paper about the temple of the Vestals.”

“Ah, well, that was not a matter of much importance. If I were to question you upon some intimate thing would you give me an answer, I wonder! This new catacomb is a very intimate thing to me, and I should certainly expect some sign of confidence in return.”

肯尼迪热爱自己的专业到了近乎疯狂的地步，尽管在这个宫有而放荡的年轻人周围布满了形形色色的诱惑，他依旧痴心不改。他有雄心壮志，但那是第二位的，第一位的永远是对古代罗马的生活中每一件东西的说不清道不明的兴趣和好奇。他是多么渴望亲眼看看他的同伴发现的这个新的地下墓穴啊。

“嘿，伯格，”他急切地说，“我保证，这件事你可以绝对相信我。除非有你的明确允许，任何东西都无法引诱我把所看到的写在纸上。我非常理解你的感情，我认为那是十分自然的，不过你实在没什么可担心的。反过来说，如果你不告诉我，我会采取地毯式搜寻，而且我有十足的把握找到它。当然，在那种情况下，我想怎么做就怎么做，因为我并不欠你的情。”

伯格吸着雪茄，会心地笑了，

“肯尼迪，我的朋友，我曾经注意到，”他说，“当我需要某种信息的时候，你并不总是乐于提供的。”

“哪次你问我的时候我不解答了？你还记得吧，就拿维斯塔女神庙说，我就给你的论文提供了资料。”

“啊，是的，但那并不是一件重要的事情。如果我问的是某个隐秘的事，你还会告诉我吗？这个新的地下墓穴对我来说是件隐秘的事情，我当然也期待同样的回报，”

1 distractions   

n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱

参考例句：

• I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难，因为使人分心的事太多。
• There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多，使人无法好好工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 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。

3 yearned   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The people yearned for peace. 人民渴望和平。
• She yearned to go back to the south. 她渴望回到南方去。

4 implicitly   

adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地

参考例句：

• Many verbs and many words of other kinds are implicitly causal. 许多动词和许多其他类词都蕴涵着因果关系。
• I can trust Mr. Somerville implicitly, I suppose? 我想，我可以毫无保留地信任萨莫维尔先生吧？

5 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。