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“我走了以后，玛格丽特说什么来着？” 'She laughed, and declared she'd never seen anybody funnier than you. But you mustn't think you're beaten. Just don't do women like that the honour of taking them seriously. They have no idea what good taste and manners are; it's just the same with pet dogs that have perfume poured over them ?they can't stand the smell, and go off and roll in some gutter.' “她笑了，她对我说，她从来也没有看见过像您那样滑稽的人；但是您决不要以为您失败了，对这些姑娘您不必那么认真。她们不懂得什么是风度，什么是礼貌；这就像替狗洒香水一样，它们总觉得味道难闻，要跑到水沟里去打滚洗掉。” 'Anyway, what's it to me?' 'I said, trying to sound offhand. 'I shan't ever see that woman again, and even if I liked her before I got to know her, everything is very different now that I have met her.' “总之，这跟我有什么相干？”我尽量装得毫不介意似地说，“我再也不要见到这个女人了，如果说在我认识她以前我对她有好感；现在认识她以后，情况却大不相同了。” 'Bah! I wouldn't be at all surprised one of these days to see you sitting in the back of her box and hear people saying how you're ruining yourself on her account. Still, you may be right, she has no manners, but she'd make an attractive mistress all the same.' “算了吧！总有一天我会看见您坐在她的包厢里，也会听到您为她倾家荡产的消息。不过，即便那样也不能怪您，她没有教养，但她是一个值得弄到手的漂亮的情妇哪！” Fortunately, the curtain went up and my friend said no more. It would be quite impossible for me to tell you what play was performed. All I remember was that, from time to time, I would glance up at the box I had left so abruptly, and that the shapes of new callers kept appearing in quick succession. 幸好启幕了，我的朋友没有再讲下去。要告诉您那天舞台上演了些什么是不可能的。我所能记得起来的，就是我不时地抬起眼睛望着我刚才匆匆离开的包厢，那里新的来访者川流不息。 
但是，我根本就忘不了玛格丽特，另外一种想法在我脑子里翻腾。我觉得我不应该念念不忘她对我的侮辱和我自己的笨拙可笑。我暗自说道，就是倾家荡产，我也要得到这个姑娘，占有那个我刚才一下子就放弃了的位置。 Some time before the final curtain, Marguerite and her companion left their box. 戏还没有结束，玛格丽特和她的朋友就离开了包厢。 Despite myself, I rose from my seat. 我身不由己地也离开了我的座位。 'You're not leaving?' said Ernest. “您这就走吗？”欧内斯特问我。 'Yes.' “是的。” 
“为什么？” Just then, he noticed that the box was empty. 这时候，他发现那个包厢空了。 'Go on, then, ' he said, 'and good luck, or rather, better luck!' “走吧，走吧，”他说，“祝您好运气，祝您万事顺利。” I left. 我走出了场子。 On the stairs, I heard the rustle of dresses and the sound of voices. I stepped to one side and, without being observed, saw the two women walk by me together with the two young men who were escorting them. 我听到楼梯上有窸窣的衣裙声和谈话声。我闪在一旁不让人看到，只见两个青年陪着这两个女人走过。 
在剧场的圆柱走廊里有一个小厮向她们迎上前来。 'Go and tell the coachman to wait outside the Cafe Anglais, ' said Marguerite, 'we shall go as far as there on foot.' “去跟车夫讲，要他到英国咖啡馆门口等我，”玛格丽特说，“我们步行到那里去。” A few minutes later, as I loitered on the boulevard, I saw Marguerite at the window of one of the restaurant's large rooms: leaning on the balcony, she was pulling the petals one by one off the camellias in her bouquet. 几分钟以后，我在林荫大道上踯躅的时候，看到在那个咖啡馆的一间大房间的窗口，玛格丽特正靠着窗栏，一瓣一瓣地摘下她那束茶花的花瓣。 One of the two men was leaning over her shoulder and was whispering to her. 两个青年中有一个俯首在她肩后跟她窃窃私语。 I found a seat in the Maison d'Or, in one of the private rooms on the first floor, and did not take my eyes off the window in question. 我走进了附近的金屋咖啡馆，坐在二楼的楼厅里，目不转睛地盯着那个窗口。 
深夜一点钟，玛格丽特跟她三个朋友一起登上了马车。 I took a cab and followed. 我也跳上一辆轻便马车尾随着她。 The carriage stopped outside 9 rue d'Antin. 她的车子驶到昂坦街九号门前停了下来。 Marguerite got out and went up to her apartment alone. 玛格丽特从车上下来，一个人回到家里。 No doubt this happened by chance, but this chance made me very happy. 她一个人回家可能是偶然的，但是这个偶然使我觉得非常幸福。 
从此以后，我经常在剧院里，在香榭丽舍大街遇见玛格丽特，她一直是那样快活；而我始终是那样激动。 But then a fortnight passed without my seeing her anywhere. I ran into Gaston and asked him about her. 然而，一连有两个星期我在哪儿都没有遇到她。在碰见加斯东的时候，我就向他打听她的消息。 'The poor girl is very ill, ' he replied. “可怜的姑娘病得很重，”他回答我说。 'What's the matter with her?' “她生的什么病？” 'The matter with her is that she's got consumption and, because she lives the sort of life which is not calculated to make her better, she's in bed and dying.' “她生的是肺病，再说，她过的那种生活对治好她的病是毫无好处的，她正躺在床上等死呢。” 
人心真是不可捉摸；我听到她的病情几乎感到很高兴。 Every day, I called to have the latest news of the patient, though without signing the book or leaving my card. It was in this way that I learned of her convalescence and her departure for Bagneres. 我每天去打听她的病况，不过我既不让人家记下我的名字，也没有留下我的名片。我就是通过这种方法知道了她已病愈，后来又去了巴涅尔的消息。 Then time went by, and the impression she had made on me, if not the memory, seemed to fade gradually from my mind. I travelled; new intimacies, old habits and work took the place of thoughts of her, and whenever I did think back to that first encounter, I preferred to see the whole thing as one of those passions which one experiences in youth, and laughs at in no time at all. 随着时光的流逝，如果不能说是我逐渐地忘了她，那就是她给我的印象慢慢地淡薄了。我外出旅游，和亲友往来，生活琐事和日常工作冲淡了我对她的思念。即使我回忆起那次邂逅，也不过把它当作是一时的感情冲动。这种事在年幼无知的青年中是常有的，一般都事过境迁，一笑了之。 Besides, there would have been no merit in vanquishing her memory, for I had lost sight of Marguerite since the time of her departure and, as I have explained to you, when she passed close to me in the passageway of the Theatre des Varietes, I did not recognize her. 再说，我能够忘却前情也没有什么了不起的，因为自从玛格丽特离开巴黎之后，我就见不到她了，因此，就像我刚才跟您说的那样，当她在杂耍剧院的走廊里，从我身边走过的时候，我已经认不出她了。 She was wearing a veil, it is true; but two years earlier, however many veils she had been wearing, I would not have needed to see her to recognize her: I would have known her instinctively. 固然那时她戴着面纱，但换了在两年以前，尽管她戴着面纱，我都能一眼认出她来，就是猜也把她猜出来了。 
尽管如此，当我知道她就是玛格丽特的时候，心里还是怦怦乱跳。由于两年不见她面而在逐渐淡漠下去的感情，一看到她的衣衫，刹那间便又重新燃烧起来了。 HOWEVER (Armand went on after a pause), though I realized full well that I was still in love, I felt stronger than I had before and, in my desire to be with Marguerite again, there was also a determination to make her see that I now had the upper hand. 可是，--阿尔芒歇了一会儿又接着说，--一方面我明白我仍然爱着玛格丽特，一方面又觉得我比以前要坚强些了，我希望再次跟玛格丽特见面，还想让她看看我现在比她优越得多。
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