1705003665

1705003666 When I return, several hours have apparently passed and my parents are looking for a place to have dinner. My father suggests the best one on the boardwalk and my mother demurs, in accordance with her principles.

1705003667

1705003668 However they do go to the best place, asking for a table near the window, so that they can look out on the boardwalk and the mobile ocean. The place is crowded and there is music from a kind of string trio. My father orders dinner with a fine confidence.

1705003669

1705003670 ● 他从厕所里回来，银幕上显然（apparently）又是好几个钟头过去了，他的父母正在找地方吃晚饭。他父亲提议到路边最好的馆子去吃，可是他母亲反对（demurs）。反对也没有什么理由，只是根据她的原则，她大约是不赞成进豪华的餐馆，花费太多的。

1705003671

1705003672 ● mobile：流动的，荡漾的。

1705003673

1705003674 ● string trio：弦乐三重奏；普通由第一第二小提琴和大提琴各一组织而成，这里是a kind of string trio（某一种的弦乐三重奏），可能似是而非，并不照此规定。

1705003675

1705003676 ● orders：点菜。with a fine confidence：态度很有自信；不慌不忙，指挥若定。

1705003677

1705003678 As the dinner is eaten, my father tells of his plans for the future, and my mother shows with expressive face how interested she is, and how impressed. My father becomes exultant. He is lifted up by the waltz that is being played, and his own future begins to intoxicate him. My father tells my mother that he is going to expand his business, for there is a great deal of money to be made. He wants to settle down. After all, he is twenty-nine, he is making more and more money, and he is envious of his married friends, and then as the waltz reaches the moment when all the dancers swing madly, then, then with awful daring, then he asks my mother to marry him, although awkwardly enough and puzzled even in his excitement, at how he had arrived at the proposal, and she, to make the whole business worse, begins to cry, and my father looks nervously about, not knowing at all what to do now, and my mother says: “It’s all I’ve wanted from the moment I saw you.”

1705003679

1705003680 ● expressive face：善于表情的脸。impressed：听后印象很深。how interested she is, and how impressed这一种句法上文已用过一次：how intelligent she is, and how interesting。

1705003681

1705003682 ● exultant：十分高兴。

1705003683

1705003684 ● waltz：一种舞曲，普通译作“华尔兹”。lifted up：音乐把人“举”起来了？应该是听得飘飘然而已。intoxicate him：使他陶醉。

1705003685

1705003686 ● expand：扩张。

1705003687

1705003688 ● settle down：成家立业，不再飘荡。

1705003689

1705003690 ● 描写求婚的这一句很长，句法略嫌噜苏，但非如此不足尽这位情郎的兴奋与尴尬之妙。请注意连用四个then（then as the waltz…, then, then…, then he asks my mother…），读者读到这里，当可想象这位情郎吞吞吐吐，欲说又止的神情。

1705003691

1705003692 ● envious of：羡慕。swing madly：疯狂地旋转。with awful daring：提起了可怕的勇气。

1705003693

1705003694 ● awkwardly enough：情形够窘了。puzzled连后面的at：迷惑不解；即使说他那时很兴奋吧，但是他自己也不明白怎么会走到（arrived at）求婚这条路上来的。

1705003695

1705003696 ● to make the whole business worse：他本来已经窘不堪言，她这么一哭，事情更糟了。looks nervously about：慌慌张张地东张西望。

1705003697

1705003698 It was then that I stood up in the theatre and shouted, “Don’t do it. It’s not too late to change your minds, both of you. Nothing good will come of it.” The whole audience turned to look at me, annoyed, the usher came hurrying down the aisle flashing his searchlight, and the old lady next to me tugged me down into my seat, saying: “Be quiet. You’ll be put out, and you paid thirty-five cents to come in.” And so I shut my eyes because I could not bear to see what was happening. I sat there quietly.

1705003699

1705003700 ● 他父母的爱情愈增进，痴人的神情也愈紧张。

1705003701

1705003702 ● Nothing good will come of it：不会有好结果的。

1705003703

1705003704 ● annoyed：觉得很讨厌（过去分词，形容The whole audience）。usher：电影院里领人入坐的职员；“带座的”。aisle：座位之间的大通道（此字s不读音，ai读i长音/ai/）。searchlight：电筒（探照灯亦是此字）。tugged：用力地拉。put out：驱逐出去。thirty-five cent：戏票之价（注意paid用过去式，因为买票已经是过去的事）。

1705003705

1705003706 ● bear：忍受。

1705003707

1705003708 But after a while I begin to take brief glimpses, and at length I watch again with thirsty interest. My parents have passed a fortune-teller’s booth, and my mother wishes to go in, but my father does not. They begin to argue about it. My mother becomes stubborn, and then they begin to quarrel. My mother refuses to budge. She is near to tears, but she feels an uncontrollable desire to hear what the palm-reader will say. My father consents angrily, and they both go into a booth which is draped in black cloth and its light is shadowed. The fortune-teller, a fat, short woman, comes into the room from the back and greets them.

1705003709

1705003710 ● take brief glimpses：偶然偷瞧几眼。at length：终于。with thirsty interest：兴趣极大。

1705003711

1705003712 ● fortune-teller’s booth：算命术士的木棚。

1705003713

1705003714 ● budge：让步（本解作“细微的移动”，大多用在否定句中；相当于中文的“决不移动分毫”、“丝毫不肯移动”等说法）。

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