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六个星期以后，伯爵已经不成问题，被完全抛在脑后了，只是对公爵我不得不继续隐瞒我跟玛格丽特的关系；然而当我在玛格丽特那里的时候，公爵还是经常被打发走的，借口是夫人在睡觉，不准别人叫醒她。 As a direct result of the habit of seeing me ?or rather the need to see me ?which Marguerite had contracted, I abandoned gambling at the precise moment when an experienced gambler would also have given up. All in all, with what I had won, I found myself in possession of twelve thousand francs which seemed an inexhaustible capital to me. 结果是养成了玛格丽特需要和我待在一起的习惯，这甚至变成了一种需要，因此我能正好在一个精明的赌徒应该滑脚的时候离开赌台。总之，因为总是赢钱，我发现手里已有万把法郎，这笔钱对我来说似乎是一笔取之不尽的财产。 The time of year had come round when I normally went off to join my father and my sister, and still I did not go. As a result, I received frequent letters from both of them asking me to come and stay with them. 习惯上我每年要去探望父亲和妹妹的时间来到了，但是我没有去，因此我经常收到他们两人要我回家的信。 To all their entreaties, I answered as best I could, repeating that I was well and that I was not short of money, two considerations which, I believed, would go some way to consoling my father for delaying the start of my annual visit. 对这些催我回家的来信，我全都婉转得体地一一答复，我总是说我身体很好，我也不缺钱花。我认为这两点或许能使父亲对我迟迟不回家探亲稍许得到些安慰。 Meantime, it came about one morning that Marguerite, who had been woken up by bright sunshine, leaped out of bed and asked me if I would like to take her out to the country for the day. 在这期间，一天早上，玛格丽特被强烈的阳光照醒了，她跳下床来问我愿不愿意带她到乡下去玩一天。 
我们派人去把普律当丝找来，玛格丽特嘱咐纳尼娜对公爵说，她要趁这阳光明媚的天气跟迪韦尔诺瓦太太一起到乡下去玩。随后我们三人就一起走了。 Apart from the fact that the presence of la Duvernoy was necessary to set the old Duke's mind at rest, Prudence was the sort of woman who seems expressly cut out for country outings. With her unquenchable high spirits and insatiable appetite, she was quite incapable of allowing anyone she was with to be bored for an instant, and was more than likely to be an old hand at ordering the eggs, cherries, milk, sauted rabbit and all the usual ingredients of the traditional lunch for which the countryside around Paris is known. 有迪韦尔诺瓦在场，可以使老公爵放心，除此之外，普律当丝好像生来就是一个专门参加郊游的女人。她整天兴致勃勃，加上她永远满足不了的胃口，有她作伴决不会有片刻烦闷，而且她还精通怎样去订购鸡蛋、樱桃、牛奶、炸兔肉以及所有那些巴黎郊游野餐必不可少的传统食物。 All that remained was to decide where we should go. 我们只要知道上哪儿去就行了。 Once again, it was Prudence who got us out of this difficulty. 这个使我们踌躇不决的问题又是普律当丝替我们解决了。 'Is it the real country you want to go to?' she asked. “你们是不是想到一个名副其实的乡下去呀？”她问。 
“是的。” 'Well, let's go to Bougival, to the Point du Jour. It's run by a widow named Arnould. Armand, go and hire a barouche.' “那好，我们一起去布吉瓦尔①，到阿尔努寡妇的曙光饭店去。阿尔芒，去租一辆四轮马车。” An hour and half later we were in the establishment run by the widow Arnould. 一个半小时以后，我们到了阿尔努寡妇的饭店。 Perhaps you know the inn I mean: it is a hotel during the week and pleasure garden on Sundays. From the garden, which is raised and stands as high as an ordinary first floor, you get a magnificent view. On the left, the Marly aqueduct commands the horizon; on the right, the view unfolds across a never-ending succession of hills; the river, which at this point hardly moves at all, stretches away like a wide ribbon of shimmering white silk between the plain of Les Gabillons and the lle de Croissy, and is rocked ceaselessly by the whisper of its tall poplars and the soughing of its willows. 您也许知道这个饭店，它一个星期有六天是旅馆，星期天是咖啡馆。它有一个花园，有一般二层楼那么高，在那里远眺，风景非常优美。左边是一望无际的马尔利引水渠，右边是连绵不断的小山岗；在加皮荣平原和克罗瓦西岛之间，有一条银白色的小河，它在这一带几乎是停滞的，像一条宽大的白色波纹缎带似的向两面伸展开去。两岸高大的杨树在随风摇曳，柳树在喃喃细语，不停地哄着小河入睡。 Far off, picked out in a wide swathe of sunlight, rise small white houses with red roofs, and factories which, shorn by distance of their grim, commercial character, complete the landscape in the most admirable way. 远处矗立着一片红瓦白墙的小房子，还有些工厂，它们在灿烂的阳光照耀下，更增添了一层迷人的色彩。至于这些工厂枯燥无味的商业化特点，由于距离较远就无法看清了。 
极目远眺，是云雾笼罩下的巴黎。 As Prudence had told us, it was really the country and, I must say, it was a real lunch we had. 就像普律当丝对我们讲的那样，这是一个真正的乡村，而且，我还应该这样说，这是一顿真正的午餐。 It is not of gratitude for the happiness I have to thank the place for that I'm saying all this. Bougival, in spite of its unattractive name, is one of the prettiest spots you could possibly imagine. I have travelled a great deal and seen great sights, but none more charming than this tiny village cheerfully nestling at the foot of the hill which shelters it. 倒不是因为我感谢从那里得到了幸福才这样说的。可是布吉瓦尔，尽管它的名字难听，还是一个理想的风景区。我旅行过不少地方，看见过很多壮丽的景色，但是没有看到过比这个恬静地坐落在山脚下的小乡村更优美的地方了。 Madame Arnould offered to arrange for us to take a boat out on the river, and Marguerite and Prudence accepted with alacrity. 阿尔努夫人建议我们去泛舟游河，玛格丽特和普律当丝高兴地接受了。 The countryside has always been associated with love, and rightly so. Nothing creates a more fitting backdrop to the woman you love than the blue sky, the fragrances, the flowers, the breezes, the solitary splendour of fields and woods. However much you love a woman, however much you trust her, however sure of the future her past life makes you, you are always jealous to some degree. If you have ever been in love, really in love, you must have experienced this need to shut out the world and isolate the person through whom you wished to live your whole life. It is as though the woman you love, however indifferent she may be to her surroundings, loses something of her savour and consistency when she comes into contact with men and things. Now I experienced this more intensely than any other man. Mine was no ordinary love; I was as much in love as mortal creature can be. But I loved Marguerite Gautier, which is to say that in Paris, at every turn, I might stumble across some man who had already been her lover, or would be the next day. Whereas, in the country, surrounded by people we had never seen before who paid no attention to us, surrounded by nature in all her springtime finery, which is her annual gesture of forgiveness, and far from the bustle of the city, I could shelter my love from prying eyes, and love without shame or fear. 人们总是把乡村和爱情联系起来，这是很有道理的。没有比这明亮的田野或者寂静的树林里的蓝天、芳草、鲜花和微风更能和您心爱的女人相配了。不论您多么爱一个女人，不论您多么信任她，不论她过去的行为可以保证她将来的忠实，您多少总会有些妒意的。如果您曾经恋爱过，认认真真地恋爱过，您一定会感到必须把您想完全独占的人与世界隔绝。不管您心爱的女人对周围的人是如何冷若冰霜，只要她跟别的男人和事物一接触，似乎就会失去她的香味和完整。这是我比别人体会更深的。我的爱情不是一种普通的爱情，我像一个普通人恋爱时所能做的那样恋爱着，但是我爱的是玛格丽特·戈蒂埃，这就是说在巴黎，我每走一步都可能碰到一个曾经做过她情人的人，或者是即将成为她情人的人。至于在乡下，我们完全置身于那些我们从来没有遇到过、也不关心我们的人中间，在这一年一度春意盎然的大自然怀抱中，在远离城市的喧闹声的地方，我可以倾心相爱，而用不到带着羞耻、怀着恐惧地去爱。 
妓女的形象在这里渐渐消失了。我身旁是一个叫做玛格丽特的年轻美貌的女人，我爱她，她也爱我，过去的一切已经没有痕迹，未来是一片光明。太阳就像照耀着一个最纯洁的未婚妻那样照耀着我的情妇。我们双双在这富有诗意的地方散步，这些地方仿佛造得故意让人回忆起拉马丁①的诗句和斯居杜②的歌曲。玛格丽特穿一件白色的长裙，斜依在我的胳臂上。晚上，在繁星点点的苍穹下，她向我反复絮叨着她前一天对我说的话。远处，城市仍在继续它喧闹的生活，我们的青春和爱情的欢乐景象丝毫不受它的沾染。 Such was the dream which that day's burning sun brought me through the leafy trees and I, lying full-length in the grass of the island where we had landed, free of all human ties which had hitherto bound me, allowed my mind to run free and gather up all the hopes it met with. 这就是那天灼热的阳光穿过树叶的空隙给我带来的梦境。我们的游船停在一个孤岛上，我们躺在小岛的草地上，割断了过去的一切人间关系，我听任自己思潮起伏，憧憬着未来。 Add to this that, from the spot where I lay, I could see, on the bank, a charming little two-storied house which crouched behind a railing in the shape of a semi-circle. Beyond the railing, in front of the house, was a green lawn as smooth as velvet, and, behind the building, a small wood full of mysterious hideaways, where each morning all traces of the previous evening's passage would surely be all mossed over. 从我所在的地方，我还看到岸边有一座玲珑可爱的三层楼房屋，外面有一个半圆形的铁栅栏，穿过这个栅栏，在房屋前面有一块像天鹅绒一样平整的翠绿色的草地，在房子后面有一座神秘莫测的幽静的小树林。这块草地上，头天被踏出的小径，第二天就被新长出来的苔藓淹没了。 Climbing flowers hid the steps leading up to the door of this empty house, and hugged it as far up as the first floor. 一些蔓生植物的花朵铺满了这座空房子的台阶，一直延伸到二楼。
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