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● 本段开始，她想起了火起之时，她于睡梦中惊醒，仓皇呼救逃生这一段情景。
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● pounding：用力地打。beating on the wood：打门。管家婆来报讯的时候，她还有工夫把手镯抢救出来。
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● 第二三两句叙她惊醒后所做的事：迷迷糊糊地跑到窗口去叫救命，披起一件灰色的厚晨服，把全身裹住，再检点一下什么东西该抢救出去。
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● In her mind’s eye：脑筋里很清楚地想到，好像看见一般。drawer：抽屉。dressing table：梳妆台。Provencal：法国东南部式的（家具的一种形式）。trinkets：小件珠宝玩物。
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● She had had time to think之后跟的是直接引语，可是把引号省去了。
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● So, remembering now之now又跳到她在火场前的那时候了。读英美新派的心理小说，一定要把书中主角所处的时间空间，时时留心辨明，才有线索可寻。因为近代心理小说的特点，就是描写“回忆”，而且是把“回忆”同“眼前情景”夹杂着写，看惯十八、十九世纪那种条理清楚、层次井然的小说的读者，乍读新派小说，往往有“茫无头绪，不知所云”之感。
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● associations：联想。想起了当初和手镯有关的种种联想，她想把它丢了也好。admit：承认。life had failed her：生命没有给她什么好处。
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● apathy：麻木，尤其指对于痛苦的麻木。pain：痛苦。痛苦与麻木之间，她挑选了一样。把手镯带出去，过去的一切悲喜哀乐，又要在她心头重演，这是所谓“痛苦”。让火把手镯给烧了，把过去都毁灭了，这是所谓“麻木”。两者之间，她早已经决定了采取一样。as between这一phrase，是从as for（至于）化出来的。这里的as不可省。
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As if to test that decision, the fire peeled off one wall of the house, and the room she had just left opened up before her. There was no distortion; the fire illumined and had not begun to destroy the room which she suddenly realized was dear to her. There was the Provencal dressing table, bought for a white-plastered bedroom they had had in a house in the Berkeley hills.
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● peeled off：剥去。屋子有一面的墙已经烧去，但是烧得很快，干净利落，好像剥去一层皮似的。
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● 墙剥去以后，她的卧室赫然在目，好像要考验（test）她所下的决心似的：到底她真是麻木呢，还是痛苦。she had just left是定语从句。
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● 她的卧室还没有烧坏，还没有走样（distortion）。illumined：照亮。火还没有把房间毁了，只是把它照亮了，使她看得更清楚。realized：觉悟。
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● 盛手镯的梳妆台就在眼前。她想起了这只梳妆台还是以前住在别所房子的时候所买，后来搬来的。white-plastered：四周墙壁和天花板涂白灰的。
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Now she saw the fire whirl up in a rotating gesture to snatch the clock and the vase with its white flowers, and, as if that were the signal for holocaust, the room was blotted out in a dance of up-prancing, laughing, clapping flames and the dressing table writhed in their grip. I never saw the bed, she thought, nor the curtains, the fabrics I loved. Now they were gone and, again to her surprise, she was grieved; she had thought she was immune to simple emotions like nostalgia or the faint sadness of having old friends depart who forget to say good-by.
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● whirl up：回旋而上。in a rotating gesture：以旋转之势。snatch：抢走，攫取。形容火势之迅速。
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● holocaust原意为“燔祭”，烧全牛全羊以祭神，转为“彻底毁灭”，尤其是用火来烧毁的。signal：信号。火把台钟和花瓶一烧去，好像是一声信号似的，立刻火势大作。blotted out：涂没。满室是火，房间都看不见了。
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● 形容flames的三个形容词都很有力量：prancing原意为马用后脚站起来跳，借作“跳跃”。up-prancing：往上跳的。laughing, clapping：火焰会笑，会鼓掌吗？这三个形容词都和前面的名词dance呼应。
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● writhed：辗转反侧，受煎熬之状。in their grip：在火焰的魔掌之中。盛手镯的梳妆台终于不保了。
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● she thought的前后是没有加引号的直接引语。从墙壁被剥去，到卧室被毁，只有很短的时间，她来不及周览全室，很多东西已经不可复见了。床没有见到，帐子幕帘等也没有见到，而这些编织物（fabrics）是她所喜欢的。fabrics是curtains的同位语。
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● again to her surprise：又是使她惊奇的。她历经沧桑，自以为已经磨炼得心如铁石，冷酷无情。不料今晚大火一起，所见所思，无不触目惊心，甚至悲从中来，她自己也觉得惊奇起来了。
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● immune（形容词）：有力抗拒，不受支配或伤害。其所以“支配”或“伤害”的东西放在介词to（或from或against）之后。她本来以为（had thought）她可以不受简单情感的支配。简单的情感有两个例子，一是思乡病（nostalgia），一是当老朋友远行忘了来辞行时所感觉到的那种“淡淡的轻愁”（faint sadness）。这一类的情感，她自以为是不能支配她的了。现在床和帐子被焚，其最后一瞥，她竟亦未能见到，直如老友之不辞而别，心中难免怅然耳。
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Someone was walking that way, hailing her. “They’ve got here at last, Mrs. James. They may be able to save some of the things downstairs.”
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“It’s all right.” She did not try to compete with fire and hose roar and the bells of rescuers arriving.
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“What?” the voice shouted to her. “What did you say?”
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“Never mind.”
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