双语·《刀锋》 第三章 五

CHAPTER THREE 5
第三章 五

I was in London then and at first we in England did not realize how grave the situation was nor how distressing its results would be. For my own part, though chagrined at losing a considerable sum, it was for the most part paper profits that I lost, and when the dust had settled I found myself little the poorer in cash.I knew that Elliott had been gambling heavily and feared that he was badly hit, but I did not see him till we both returned to the Riviera for Christmas.He toldme then that Henry Maturin was dead and Gray ruined.
当时，我正在伦敦。我们身处英国，起初没有意识到情况是多么严重，后果会是多么叫人心灰意冷。就我自己而言，虽然对损失了相当大的一笔钱感到烦恼，但损失的大部分是票面利润，等到尘埃落定，我发现自己的现款并无缩水。我知道艾略特买股票下的赌注很大，担心他会受到沉重打击。可是，我一直没有和他见面。直到过圣诞节，我们重返里维埃拉，才得以相见。他告诉我，亨利·马图林死了，格雷破产了。

I know little of business matters and I dare say that my account of the events, given me by Elliott, will seem confused. So far as I could make out the catastrophe that had befallen the firm was due in part to Henry Maturin's self-will and in part to Gray's rashness.Henry Maturin at first would not believe that the break was serious, but persuaded himself that it was a plot of the New York brokers to put a quick one over their provincial brethren, and setting his teeth he poured forth money to support the market.He raged against the Chicago brokers who were letting themselves be stampeded by those scoundrels in New York.He had always prided himself on the fact that none of his smaller clients, widows with settled incomes, retired officers and such like, had ever lost a penny by following his advice, and now, instead of letting them take a loss, he supported their accounts out of his own pocket.He said he was prepared to go broke, he could make another fortune, but he could never hold up his head again if the little people who trusted him lost their all.He thought he was magnanimous；he was only vain.His great fortune melted and one night he had a heart attack.He was in his sixties, he had always worked hard, played hard, eaten too much, and drunk heavily；after a few hours of agony he died of coronary thrombosis.
我对做生意一窍不通，艾略特给我讲述了事件的经过，听得我一头雾水。我只觉得之所以大难临头，一半要怪亨利·马图林一意孤行，一半要怪格雷急躁冒进。亨利·马图林开头不相信事情会那么严重，认为只不过是纽约股票经纪人玩的小把戏，无非是想从别的地方的同行身上榨点油出来，于是咬紧牙关拿出大笔的钱来支撑市场。芝加哥的经纪人们被纽约的那些无赖吓得屁滚尿流，这叫他十分生气。他的那些小客户——有固定进项的寡妇、退伍的军官等，过去听从他的建议，不曾损失过一分钱，他以此而感到自豪，现在为了不使他们受到损失，就自己掏腰包给他们的账户注入资金。他说大不了就是破产么，他还可以东山再起；但是，如果让信任他的小客户蒙受损失，他就永远也无法抬起头来做人了。他自以为有一副侠肝义胆，然而却挽不住狂澜，偌大的家产投进去，顷刻化为乌有。一天夜里，他的心脏病突然发作。他已是六十多岁的人了，平时劳累过度，暴饮暴食，经过几个小时痛苦的挣扎，最终因冠状动脉栓塞而溘然长逝。

Gray was left to deal with the situation alone. He had been speculating extensively on the side, without the knowledge of his father, and was personally in the greatest difficulty.His efforts to extricate himself failed.The banks would not lend him money；older men on the exchange told him that the only thing was to throw up the sponge.I am not clear about the rest of the story.He was unable to meet his obligations and was, I understand, declared bankrupt；he had already mortgaged his own house and was glad to hand it over to the mortgagees；his father's house on Lake Shore Drive and the house at Marvin were sold for what they would fetch；Isabel sold her jewels：all that was left them was the plantation in South Carolina, which was settled on Isabel and for which a purchaser could not be found.Gray was wiped out.
只剩下格雷一人独立面对危局。这之前，他在投机生意上广泛涉入，父亲对此一无所知，而今他自己也深陷债务危机。他千方百计想摆脱困境，但最终归于失败。银行不肯贷款给他，交易所里老一辈的人告诉他，说仅有一条路可走了——低头认输。其余的情况我就不太清楚了。可能他无法履行还债的义务，于是便宣告破产了。他家的房子此前早已抵押了出去，这时便乖乖将房子交给了债权人。他父亲在湖滨道的房子以及马文的那套房子均折价卖了出去。伊莎贝尔把首饰也卖了个精光。南卡罗来纳州的那个农场成了他们仅有的财产（此农场过户在伊莎贝尔的名下），想卖也找不到买主。格雷成了一文不名的穷光蛋。

“And what about you, Elliott?”I asked.
“你的情况怎么样，艾略特？”我问道。

“Oh, I'm not complaining，”he answered airily.“God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.”
“哦，我倒没什么可抱怨的。”他语气轻松地回答道，“承蒙老天垂怜。”

I did not question him further, for his financial affairs were no business of mine, but whatever his losses were I presumed that like the rest of us he had suffered.
我没有打破砂锅问到底，因为他的经济情况与我无关。但不管怎样，他跟我们大家一样肯定也蒙受了损失。

The depression did not at first hit the Riviera badly. I heard of two or three people who had lost a good deal, many villas remained closed for the winter and several were put up for sale.The hotels were far from full and the Casino at Monte Carlo complained that the season was poor.But it was not for a couple of years that the draught made itself felt.Then an estate agent told me that on the stretch of coast that reaches from Toulon to the Italian border there were forty-eight thousand properties, large and small, to be sold.The shares of the Casino slumped.The great hotels put down their prices in a vain attempt to attract.The only foreigners to be seen were those who had always been so poor that they couldn't be poorer, and they spent no money because they had no money to spend.The shopkeepers were in despair.But Elliott neither diminished his staff nor lessened their wages as many did；he continued to provide choice food and choice wines to royal and titled persons.He bought himself a large new car, which he imported from America and on which he had to pay a heavy duty.He gave generously to the charity the bishop had organized to provide free meals for the families of the workless.In fact he lived as though there had never been a crisis and half the world were not staggering from its effects.
经济大萧条的恶潮起初对里维埃拉的冲击还不算大。后来听说有两三户人家损失惨重，许多别墅冬季都关门闭户，有几家还挂出了牌子出售。旅馆冷冷清清，蒙特卡洛的赌场牢骚满腹，说生意惨淡。不过，一直到两年之后，里维埃拉才真正感受到了这场飓风的影响。一个地产商告诉我，说从土伦到意大利边界的地中海沿岸，大大小小有四万八千处房地产要出售。赌场的股票跌到了谷底。大型旅馆压低价钱以吸引顾客，却无济于事。能看得见的外国游客，全都是些穷得不能再穷的人。他们分文不花，因为他们压根就没有钱可花。商铺的老板们个个都大失所望。而艾略特与别人不同，他既没有辞退自家的仆人，也没有减少他们的工资。他继续用好酒好菜招待那些王公贵族，还买了一辆崭新的大汽车，是从美国进口的，为此付了很大一笔关税。主教大人组织慈善活动，给失业家庭施舍义餐，他为之慷慨解囊。事实上，他一如既往，好像压根没发生经济危机似的，好像半个世界没有因此被冲击得摇摇晃晃似的。

I discovered the reason by chance：Elliott had by this time ceased to go to England except for a fortnight once a year to buy clothes, but he still transferred his establishment to his apartment in Paris for three months in the autumn and for May and June, these being the periods when the Riviera was deserted by Elliott's friends；he liked the summer there, partly on account of the bathing, but chiefly, I think, because the hot weather gave him the opportunity to indulge in a gaiety of dress that his sense of decorum had always forced him to eschew. He would appear then in trousers of startling colour, red, blue, green, or yellow, and with them wear singlets of contrasting hue, mauve, violet, puce, or harlequin, and would accept the compliments his attire clamoured for with the deprecating grace of an actress who is told that she has played a new role divinely.
后来，我无意中发现了其中的原因：艾略特此时除掉一年一度去伦敦两个星期购置衣服外，已经不去英国了，然而他仍旧每年秋天回巴黎在自己的公寓里住三个月，五月和六月也在巴黎度过，因为这几个月里他的朋友们是不去里维埃拉的；他喜欢里维埃拉的夏天，部分原因是能洗海水浴，而我觉得主要是因为炎热的天气使他有机会穿上五颜六色的衣服放松一下，平时，为了顾及体统，他是不能这样做的。这时候，他会穿上颜色鲜艳的裤子（红的、蓝的、绿的或者黄的），配上色调形成鲜明对比的汗衫（淡紫色的、蓝紫色的、深褐色的或者杂色的），接受人们对衣服的恭维，神情不以为然，谦虚得就像一个女演员听见人家说她扮演一个新角色演得非常成功一样。

I happened to be spending a day in Paris in the spring on my way back to Cap Ferrat and had asked Elliott to lunch with me. We met in the Ritz bar, no longer thronged with college boys come from America to have a good time, but as deserted as a playwright after the first night of an unsuccessful play.We had a cocktail, a transatlantic habit to which Elliott had at last become reconciled, and ordered our lunch.When we had finished, he suggested that we should go round the curio shops, and though I told him I had no money to spend I was glad enough to accompany him.We walked through the Place Vend?me and he asked if I would mind going in to Charvet’s for a moment；he had ordered some things and wanted to know if they were ready.It appeared that he was having some vests made, and some drawers, and he was having his initials embroidered on them.The vests had not come in yet, but the drawers were there and the shop assistant asked Elliott if he would like to see them.
那年春天，在返回费拉角的途中，我在巴黎待了一天，邀艾略特和我一同吃午饭。我们在里茨酒吧见了面。此处一片冷清，不见了从美国跑来寻乐子的大学生，就和一出戏剧初演之夜便砸了锅的情形一样人去屋空。我们喝了一杯鸡尾酒（此为美国人的习惯，艾略特最终还是无奈地接受了），然后点了饭菜。酒足饭饱，他建议一同去逛逛古玩店。我声称自己钱囊羞涩，但愿意舍命陪君子。我们步行穿过旺多姆广场，他问我愿意不愿意跟他到查维特服饰店去一趟——他在那家店里定做了几件衣服，想问问做好了没有。原来，他订的是几件内衣内裤，上面要用手工绣上他的姓名的缩写字母。内衣尚未做好，内裤已完工，店员问他要不要看一下。

“I would，”said he, and when the man had gone to fetch them added to me；“I have them made to order on a pattern of my own.”
“那就看看吧。”他说道。趁着店员去拿内裤的时候，他对我说道：“我让他们缝衣服时加上我的图案。”

They were brought, and to me, except that they were of silk, looked exactly like the drawers I had frequently bought for myself at Macy's；but what caught my eye was that above the intertwined E. T.of the initials was a count's crown.I did not say a word.
内裤拿来了，和我平时在麦西服装店买的一个样子，只不过料子是丝绸罢了。但我注意到，在E.T.两个缩写字母的上方绣着一个伯爵的冠饰。我看了，却一句话也没说。

“Very nice, very nice，”said Elliott.“Well, when the undershirts are ready you'll send them along.”
“非常漂亮，非常漂亮。”艾略特说，“等内衣做好，一同给我送去。”

We left the shop and Elliott, as he walked away, turned to me with a smile.
出了衣服店，离开那儿时，艾略特笑盈盈地转过脸对我说：

“Did you notice the crown?To tell you the truth, I'd forgotten about it when I asked you to come in to Charvet's. I don't think I've had occasion to tell you that His Holiness has been graciously pleased to revive in my favour my old family title.”
“注意到那个冠饰了吗？实话说，我拉你来查维特服饰店的时候，把这个给忘了。我一直没机会告诉你：教皇陛下给我面子，仁慈地恢复了我家古老的头衔。”

“Your what?”I said, startled out of my politeness.
“恢复了什么？”我诧异地问，完全忘掉了提问时应该委婉些。

Elliott raised a disapproving eyebrow.
艾略特不满地抬起了眉毛。

“Didn't you know?I am descended in the female line from the Count de Lauria who came over to England in the suite of Philip the Second and married a maid of honour of Queen Mary's.”
“你不知道吗？我母系那一方是劳里亚伯爵的后代，他是随从菲力普二世到英国来的，并且娶了玛丽王后的一个侍女。”

“Our old friend Bloody Mary?”
“就是那个血腥玛丽吗？”

“That, I believe, is what heretics call her，”Elliott answered stiffly.“I don't think I ever told you that I spent September of'twenty-nine in Rome. I thought it a bore having to go because Rome is empty then, but it was fortunate for me that my sense of duty prevailed over my desire for worldly pleasures.My friends at the Vatican told me that the crash was coming and strongly advised me to sell all my American securities.The Catholic Church has the wisdom of twenty centuries behind it and I didn't hesitate for a moment.I cabled to Henry Maturin to sell everything and buy gold, and I cabled to Louisa to tell her to do the same.Henry cabled back asking me if I was crazy and said he'd do nothing until I confirmed the instructions.I immediately cabled in the most peremptory manner, telling him to carry them out and to cable me that he had done so.Poor Louisa paid no attention to my advice and suffered for it.”
“我认为这是异教徒对她的称呼。”艾略特有点尴尬地说，“恐怕我没有告诉过你，一九二九年的九月我是在罗马度过的。我觉得去罗马是件很乏味的事情，因为那儿几乎成了空城。不过，幸亏我的责任感战胜了我追求世俗享乐的欲望。当时，梵蒂冈的朋友告诉我，说经济大崩溃就要来了，力劝我卖掉手头所有美国的股票。天主教会拥有两千年之久的智慧，所以我一刻也没有耽搁，马上拍电报给亨利·马图林，叫他把所有的股票全卖掉，购入黄金。我还发了封电报给路易莎，让她也如此办理。亨利·马图林回电问我是不是疯了，说除非我再发一封电报证实我的指示，否则他什么也不会做。我立刻又发了封电报，以极为强硬的语气，要他按我说的做，然后回电报把结果告诉我。可怜的路易莎没有听我的话，因此栽了跟头。”

“So when the crash came you were sitting pretty?”
“这么说，大崩溃降临时，你毛发未损？”

“An Americanism, my dear fellow, which I see no occasion for you to use, but it expresses my situation with a good deal of accuracy. I lost nothing；in fact I had made what you would probably call a packet.I was able some time later to buy back my securities for a fraction of their original cost, and since I owed it all to what I can only describe as the direct interposition of Providence I felt it only right and proper that I should do something for Providence in return.”
“这是美式用语，劝你还是别用的好。不过，用它来形容我那时的状况，倒是十分贴切的。我一分钱也没损失，实际上还捡了些便宜（你也许会称之为油水吧）。过了一段时期以后，我只花了很少一点钱就把原来卖掉的那些股票全买回来了。我认为只能把这种现象叫作上帝的直接干预，于是觉得应该做点事情来报答上帝，这样才合乎情理。”

“Oh, and how did you set about that?”
“哦，那你是怎样报答的呢？”

“Well, you know the Duce has been reclaiming great tracts of land in the Pontine Marshes and it was represented to me that His Holiness was gravely concerned at the lack of places of worship for the settlers. So, to cut a long story short, I built a little Romanesque church, an exact copy of one I knew in Provence, and perfect in every detail, which, though I say it myself, is a gem.It is dedicated to St.Martin because I was lucky enough to find an old stained-glass window representing St.Martin in the act of cutting his cloak in two to give half of it to a naked beggar, and as the symbolism seemed so apt I bought it and placed it over the high altar.” I didn't interrupt Elliott to ask him what connexion he saw between the Saint's celebrated action and the rake-offon the pretty penny he had made by selling out in the nick of time which, like an agent's commission, he was paying to a higher power. But to a prosaic person like me symbolism is often obscure.He went on.
“这个嘛，你知道教廷在蓬蒂内沼泽开垦了大片的土地，他们告诉我，说教皇陛下对那边的居民缺少一个做礼拜的地方深感焦虑。简而言之，我出资在那儿建了一座罗马式教堂，和我在普罗旺斯看到的一座一模一样，每一个部分都异常完美，可以说是一枚灿烂的明珠。教堂是奉献给圣马丁的。说来话长，一次，我有幸发现了一扇古香古色的反映圣马丁事迹的彩色玻璃窗，画面上的圣马丁将自己的长袍割成两半，一半给了一位光身子的乞丐让他遮体。我觉得这幅画很有象征意义，于是把玻璃窗买下，后来镶嵌在了主祭坛的上方。”我没有打断艾略特的话。但我不明白圣马丁的那种世人皆知的善举和艾略特的行为之间有什么联系——他只不过瞅准时机卖掉股票大捞了一把，从中取出一部分小钱贡献给上帝，就像是给代理人的回扣似的。不过，我这种人毕竟是俗胎凡眼，看不透其中的象征意义罢了。艾略特继续说道：

“When I was privileged to show the photographs to the Holy Father, he was gracious enough to tell me that he could see at a glance that I was a man of impeccable taste, and he added that it was a pleasure to him to find in this degenerate age someone who combined devotion to the Church with such rare artistic gifts. A memorable experience, my dear fellow, a memorable experience.But no one was more surprised than I when shortly afterwards it was intimated to me that he had been pleased to confer a title upon me.As an American citizen I feel it more modest not to use it, except of course at the Vatican, so I have forbidden my Joseph to address me as Monsieur le Comte, and I trust you will respect my confidence.I don't wish it bruited abroad.But I would not like His Holiness to think that I do not value the honour that he has done me and it is purely out of respect for him that I have the crown embroidered on my personal linen.I don't mind telling you that I take a modest pride in concealing my rank under the sober pin-stripe of an American gentleman.”
“一次受到教皇陛下的接见，我把教堂和彩色玻璃的照片拿给他看。他圣颜大悦，说他一眼就看出我是个很有品味的人，并且说在这个世风日下的时代能发现一个既忠于教会，又具有如此罕见艺术修养的人，让他感到很高兴。当时的情景叫人终生难忘，老伙计，终生难忘呀。但最让我感到意外的是，过后不久便有人通知我，说教皇陛下有心赐给我一个爵位。我是个美国公民，觉得还是谦虚些好，除非在梵蒂冈，在别的地方就不用这个头衔了。所以我禁止我的仆人约瑟夫称我为伯爵大人。我相信你会尊重我的隐私的。我不想把此事张扬出去。可是，我又不愿让教皇陛下觉得我不珍重他赐给我的荣誉，所以我把冠饰绣在我个人的衬衣上，这完全是出于对他的尊敬。可以这样说：我把爵位的标记不显山不露水地缝在内衣上，既是谦虚的表现，又透露出自豪感。”

We parted. Elliott told me he would come down to the Riviera at the end of June.He did not do so.He had just made his arrangements to transfer his staff from Paris, intending to drive down leisurely in his car so that every-thing should be in perfect order on his arrival, when he received a cable from Isabel to say that her mother had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.Elliott, besides being fond of his sister, had, as I have said, a strong strain of family feeling.He took the first ship out of Cherbourg and from New York went to Chicago.He wrote to tell me that Mrs.Bradley was very ill and grown so thin that it was a shock to him.She might last a few weeks longer or even a few months, but in any case he felt it his sad duty to remain with her till the end.He said he found the great heat more supportable than he had expected, but the lack of congenial society only tolerable because at such a moment he had in any case no heart for it.He said he was disappointed with the way his fellow-countrymen had reacted to the depression；he would have expected them to take their misfortune with more equanimity.Knowing that nothing is easier than to bear other people's calamities with fortitude, I thought that Elliott, richer now than he had ever been in his life, was perhaps hardly entitled to be severe.He ended by giving me messages for several of his friends and bade me by no means forget to explain to everyone I met why it was that his house must remain closed for the summer.
我们分手了。艾略特告诉我，说他将于六月底到里维埃拉来。可是他却没有如约而来。原因是这样的：当时他刚刚做好安排把仆人们从巴黎调往里维埃拉，而他本人准备开车过来，消消停停的，这样抵达里维埃拉时，便已万事俱备了；就在此时，伊莎贝尔来了封电报，说她的母亲病情突然加重。我在上文便说过，艾略特喜欢他的姐姐，家族感情非常强。他立刻从瑟堡乘船到了纽约，再从那儿返回芝加哥。他写信告诉我，说布雷德利夫人病得很厉害，瘦得不成人样，着实吓了他一跳。也许她还能活上几个星期，甚至几个月，可是不论怎样，他觉得自己有责任给她送终——不管这种责任是多么痛苦。他说芝加哥的高温比他预计的要容易忍受得多，然而却缺乏惬意的社交活动，不过这也没什么关系，因为这种时刻他反正没有心思与人交往。他说他的国人对经济萧条的反应令他感到失望，因为他原以为国人会以比较平静的心态对待这场灾难呢。看见别人遭难，以泰然的语气说些大话，这是再容易不过了。我觉得艾略特比他一生中任何时候都要富有，恐怕没资格对别人要求这样苛刻。最后，他请我把情况转告给他的几个朋友，并且请我务必记着向所有碰见的人解释，为什么他的府邸今年夏天没有开门迎客。

Little more than a month later I received another letter from him to tell me that Mrs. Bradley had died.He wrote with sincerity and emotion.I should never have thought him capable of expressing himself with such dignity, real feeling, and simplicity, had I not long known that notwithstanding his snobbishness and his absurd affectations Elliott was a kindly, affectionate, and honest man.In the course of this letter he told me that Mrs.Bradley's affairs appeared to be in some disorder.Her elder son, a diplomatist, being chargé d’affaires in Tokyo during the absence of the ambassador, had been of course unable to leave his post.Her second son, Templeton, who had been in the Philippines when I first knew the Bradleys, had been in due course recalled to Washington and occupied a responsible position in the State Department.He had come with his wife to Chicago when his mother’s condition was recognized as hopeless, but had been obliged to return to the capital immediately after the funeral.In these circumstances Elliott felt that he must remain in America until things were straightened out.Mrs.Bradley had divided her fortune equally between her three children, but it appeared that her losses in the crash of’twenty-nine had been substantial.Fortunately they had found a purchaser for the farm at Marvin.Elliott in his letter referred to it as dear Louisa’s country place.
过了不到一个月的时间，我又收到他的一封信，说布雷德利夫人过世了，词句写得悲痛，充满了深情。我早就认为尽管他为人势利，而且有许多荒唐做作的地方，但他仍不失为一个善良、多情和诚实的人，所以便觉得这样一封真诚、动情和单纯的信是出自于一片真心。他在信中告诉我，说在处理布雷德利夫人的丧事时乱事如麻。布雷德利夫人的长子是个外交官，由于驻日大使离任，他临时代理东京的外交事务，一时抽不出身奔丧。她的次子叫邓普顿，我最初认识布雷德利一家时，他在菲律宾群岛供职，后来调回华盛顿，并在国务院担任要职。母亲病危时，他带着妻子来到芝加哥，但母亲一下葬，便立刻返回了首都。遇到这种情况，艾略特觉得自己应该待在美国把后事料理完再说。布雷德利夫人把财产平均分成三份，给了她的三个孩子。不过，看上去，她在一九二九年经济大崩溃时遭受了重大损失。幸好马文的那个农场有了买主。艾略特在信中把农场说成是“亲爱的路易莎的乡间别墅”。

“It is always sad when a family has to part with its ancestral home，”he wrote，“but of late years I have seen this forced upon so many of my English friends that I feel that my nephews and Isabel must accept the inevitable with the same courage and resignation that they have. Noblesse oblige.”
“一户人家最后落得变卖祖屋，难免令人唏嘘。”他在信中写到，“不过，近年来眼见得许多英国朋友都被迫出此下策，我也就觉得两个外甥和伊莎贝尔必须以同样的勇气以及听天由命的态度接受这种不可避免的后果了。有权利就有义务。”

They had been lucky too in disposing of Mrs. Bradley's house in Chicago.There had long been a scheme afoot to tear down the row of houses in one of which Mrs.Bradley lived and build in their stead a great block of apartments, but it had been held up by her obstinate determination to die in the house in which she had lived.But no sooner was the breath out of her body than the promoters came forward with an offer and it was promptly accepted.Yet even at that Isabel was left very ill provided for.
他们运气好，把布雷德利夫人在芝加哥的房子也处理掉了。其实，早有人计划着要把布雷德利夫人以及其他几户人家住的那排房屋拆掉，在原址上建一幢大型公寓楼，但是，布雷德利夫人非常顽固，坚持要死在自己住的房子里，所以这个计划始终没有实现。布雷德利夫人一断气，就有中间人跑来提出要买房子，布家立刻就接受了。可尽管有了这笔钱，伊莎贝尔还是觉得不够用。

After the crash Gray had tried to get a job, even as a clerk in the office of such of the brokers as had weathered the storm, but there was no business. He applied to his old friends to give him something to do, however humble and however badly paid, but he applied in vain.His frenzied efforts to stave off the disaster that finally overwhelmed him, the burden of anxiety, the humiliation, resulted in a nervous breakdown, and he began to have headaches so severe that he was incapacitated for twenty-four hours and as limp as a wet rag when they ceased.It had appeared to Isabel that they could not do better than go down with the children to the plantation in South Carolina till Gray regained his health.In its day it had brought in a hundred thousand dollars a year for its rice crop, but for long now had been no more than a wilderness of marsh and gumwood, useful only to sportsmen who wanted to shoot duck, and no purchaser could be found for it.There they had lived off and on since the crash and there they proposed to return till conditions improved and Gray could find employment.
经济大崩溃之后，格雷试图找份工作干，哪怕为那些挺过了灾难的经纪人效力，在办公室当个小职员也可以，但屡屡碰壁。他找老朋友帮忙，想弄个差事做，不管地位多么卑贱，薪水多么低都可以，仍无果而终。为了度过这场灾难，他拼命挣扎，再加上忧虑过度和内心蒙受的屈辱，导致他的神经最终崩溃。他有时头痛欲裂，昼夜不息，头痛症一旦过去，便浑身软绵绵的，像面条一样。伊莎贝尔无奈之中，觉得只好先带着孩子举家前往南卡罗来纳州的那个农场暂住，等格雷恢复了健康再作计较。农场有过兴盛期，一年靠出产大米亦有十万块钱的进项，后来撂荒，成了一片泽国和荒林，对喜欢打野鸭的猎手才能派上用场，想脱手也苦于找不到买主。大崩溃发生后，他们偶尔在那儿住住，现在打算回到农场去，待情况转好，格雷能找到工作再说。

“I couldn't allow that，”Elliott wrote.“Why, my dear fellow, they live like pigs. Isabel without a maid, no governess for the children, and only a couple of coloured women to look after them.So I've offered them my apart-ment in Paris and proposed that they should stay there till things change in this fantastic country.I shall provide them with a staff, as a matter of fact my kitchen-maid is a very good cook, so I shall leave her with them and I can easily find someone to take her place.I shall arrange to settle the accounts myself so that Isabel can spend her small income on her clothes and the menus plaisirs of the family.This means of course that I shall spend much more of my time on the Riviera and so hope to see a great deal more of you, my dear fellow, than I have in the past.London and Paris being now what they are, I'm really more at home on the Riviera.It's the only place remaining where I can meet people who speak my own language.I dare say I shall go to Paris now and then for a few days, but when I do, I don't in the least mind pigging it at the Ritz.I’m glad to say that I’ve at long last persuaded Gray and Isabel to accede to my wishes and I’m bringing them all over as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made.The furniture and the pictures（very poor in quality, my dear fellow, and of the most doubtful authenticity）are being sold the week after next and meanwhile, as I thought to live in the house till the last moment would be painful to them, I have brought them to stay with me at the Drake.I shall settle them in when we get to Paris and then come down to the Riviera.Don’t forget to remember me to your royal neighbour.”
“我不能叫他们过那样的日子，”艾略特在信中写到，“老伙计，那是牲口一样的日子——伊莎贝尔没有贴身女佣，孩子没有家庭教师，只有两个黑种女人料理家务。我提出把我在巴黎的那套公寓让给他们住，等到这个风雨飘摇的国家形势改观之后再说。我将会给他们雇几个用人。其实，我厨房里的女佣烧得一手好菜，可以留给他们用，我自己完全能够再找一个代替她。他们所有的开销都由我负担，伊莎贝尔的那一点点进项，就让她买些衣服以及给家里买点好吃好喝的。当然，这意味着我在里维埃拉的时间要比以前多得多了，希望能多见见你，老伙计。伦敦和巴黎现在成了这个样子，我觉得还是住在里维埃拉自在些。里维埃拉成了唯一的一块净土，在这儿，我可以会会和自己有共同语言的人。巴黎当然也还会去的，偶尔住上几天。不过，即便去了巴黎，我也不在乎在里茨饭店凑合凑合。我可以很高兴地告诉你，我总算不枉费口舌，让格雷和伊莎贝尔接受了我的要求。把必要的事宜安排妥当，我立刻就带他们过来。那些家具和油画非常差劲，老伙计，真伪难辨，再过上一个星期就卖掉它们。我怕他们住在家里伤心，已经把他们带了来，目前和我一道暂住在德雷克饭店。过后去巴黎，我把他们安顿好，就回到里维埃拉去。别忘记替我向你的皇家邻居问好。”

Who could deny that Elliott, that arch-snob, was also the kindest, most considerate and generous of men?
无可否认，艾略特虽然是天字号的势利眼，然而也是最善良、最体贴、最慷慨的一个人！