双语·《刀锋》 第四章 二

CHAPTER FOUR 2
第四章 二

I fell into the habit of dropping in to see Isabel three or four times a week in the afternoon after my day's work was over. She was generally alone at that hour and glad to have a gossip.The persons to whom Elliott had introduced her were much older than she and I discovered that she had few friends of her own generation.Mine were for the most part busy till dinnertime and I found it more agreeable to talk with Isabel than to go to my club and play bridge with rather grouchy Frenchmen who did not particularly welcome the intrusion of a stranger.Her charming way of treating me as if she and I were of an age made conversation easy and we joked and laughed and chaffed one another, chatting now about ourselves, now about our common acquaintances, now about books and pictures, so that the time passed very agreeably.One of the defects of my character is that I can never grow used to the plainness of people；however sweet a disposition a friend of mine may have, years of intimacy can never reconcile me to his bad teeth or lopsided nose：on the other hand I never cease to delight in his comeliness and after twenty years of familiarity I am still able to take pleasure in a well-shaped brow or the delicate line of a cheekbone.So I never came into Isabel's presence without feeling anew a little thrill of pleasure in the perfection of her oval face, in the creamy delicacy of her skin, and in the bright warmth of her hazel eyes.
我逐渐养成一个习惯，干完一天的工作之后，下午就去看望看望伊莎贝尔，一星期要去三四趟。这个时间，她通常都一个人在家，乐得跟人聊天。艾略特给她介绍的那些人，比她的年纪要大得多，我发现她几乎没有和她年龄相仿的朋友。我自己的朋友大多忙得不可开交，不到吃晚饭是腾不出时间的。再说，我喜欢和伊莎贝尔聊天，而不愿去俱乐部跟那些气哼哼的法国人打桥牌——那些法国佬不太欢迎外人介入他们的圈子。伊莎贝尔把我当作同龄人对待，千娇百媚的，使得我们的谈话轻松愉快。我们谈笑风生、插科打诨，时而谈人生，时而谈朋友们的情况，时而谈书画，时光就这么令人愉快地悄然流逝。我生性有个缺点：总是看不惯其貌不扬的人。一个朋友，不管性格多么好，即便有多年的交情，如果掉了牙齿或歪了鼻子，我便感到不舒服了。另一方面，对于漂亮的人我却百看不厌——对于这样的人，尽管交往已有二十年之久，我仍喜欢看她们那标致的额头或者线条优美的脸颊。因此，我每次见到伊莎贝尔，看着她那完美的鹅蛋脸、凝脂般细腻的皮肤以及淡褐色眼里闪烁着的明快光芒，我都会产生一种心旷神怡的感觉。

Then a very unexpected thing happened.
后来，一件意想不到的事发生了。