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玛格丽特动了一下，想站起来，我拉住她对她说： 'I want you to be happy. I don't want there to be anything that you can reproach me for. That's all.' “我希望你幸福，希望你没有什么可以埋怨我的，就这些。” 'Even so, we shall go our separate ways!' “那么我们就要分手了！” 'Why, Marguerite? Who can separate us?' I exclaimed. “为什么，玛格丽特？谁能把我们分开？”我大声说道。 'You. You won't take me into your confidence by saying exactly where you stand, and you're vain enough to want to keep me in my place. You want to keep me in the luxury to which I was accustomed, but you also want to maintain the moral distance between us. You're the one. You don't consider that my feelings are sufficiently disinterested to want to share what money you have with me so that we could live happily together. No, you'd sooner ruin yourself. A slave to a stupid prejudice, that's what you are. Do you really think I compare a carriage and bits of jewelry with your love? Do you imagine I think happiness consists of those empty pleasures which people make do with when they've got nothing to love, but which seem so unimportant when they have? You'll pay my debts, you'll sign away all you have and you'll be my keeper! And how long will that last? Two or three months ?and then it'll be too late to start the life I'm offering you, for then you'd be kept by me, and that's something which no self- respecting man could accept. Whereas at the moment, you've got eight or ten thousand francs a year on which we can manage. I'll sell everything I don't need, and by investing the proceeds I'd have a steady two thousand a year. We'll rent a nice little apartment and live there together. In summer, we'll come down to the country, not to a house like this, but to something smaller, just big enough for two. You've no ties, I'm free, and we're young. For heaven's sake, Armand, don't make me go back to the life I had to lead once!' “你，你不愿让我知道你的景况，你要我保留我的虚荣心来满足你的虚荣心，你想保持我过去的奢侈生活，你想保持我们思想上的差距；你，总之，你不相信我对你的无私的爱情，不相信我愿意和你同甘共苦，有了你这笔财产我们本来可以一起生活得很幸福，但是你宁愿把自己弄得倾家荡产，你这种成见真是太根深蒂固了。你以为我会把你的爱情和车子、首饰相比吗？你以为我会把虚荣当作幸福吗？一个人心中没有爱情的时候可以满足于虚荣，但一旦有了爱情，虚荣就变得庸俗不堪了。你要代我偿清债务，把自己的钱花完，最后你来供养我！就算这样又能维持多长时间呢？两三个月？那时候再依我的办法去生活就太迟了，因为到那时你什么都得听我的，而一个正人君子是不屑于这样干的。现在你每年有八千到一万法郎的年金，有了这些钱我们就能过日子了。我卖掉我多余的东西，每年就会有两千利弗尔的收入。我们去租一套漂漂亮亮的小公寓，两个人住在里面。夏天我们到乡下玩玩，不要住像现在这样的房子，有一间够两个人住的小房间就行了。你无牵无挂，我自由自在，我们年纪还轻，看在上天的份上，阿尔芒，别让我再去过我从前那种迫不得已的生活吧。” 
我无法回答，感激和深情的泪水糊住了我的眼睛，我扑在玛格丽特的怀抱之中。 'I wanted, ' she went on, 'to arrange everything without telling you. I wanted to pay my debts and get my new apartment ready. In October, we would have reteurned to Paris and it would have been too late to say no. But since Prudence has told you everything, you'll have to agree before and not after. Do you love me enough to say yes?' “我原来想，”她接着说，“瞒着你把一切都安排好，把我的债还清，叫人把我的新居布置好。到十月份，我们回到巴黎的时候，一切都已就绪；不过既然普律当丝全都告诉你了，那你就得事前同意而不是事后承认……你能爱我到这般地步吗？” I could not hold out against such devotion. I kissed Marguerite's hands with great feeling and told her: 对如此真挚的爱情是不可能拒绝的，我狂热地吻着玛格丽特的手对她说： 'I shall do whatever you want.' “我一切都听你的。” And so what she had decided was agreed between us. 她所决定的计划就这样讲定了。 
于是她快乐得像发了疯似的，她跳啊、唱啊，为她简朴的新居而庆祝，她已经和我商量在哪个街区寻找房子，里面又如何布置等等。 I could see she was happy and very proud of this arrangement which seemed as though it would bring us together for good. 我看她对这个主意既高兴又骄傲，似乎这样一来我们就可以永不分离似的。 Which was why I had no wish to be any less keen than she was. 我也不愿意白受她的恩情。 In a moment, I decided what course my life was to take. I worked out how I stood financially, and made over to Marguerite the income from my mother's estate, though it did not seem anything like an adequate return for the sacrifice which I was accepting. 转眼之间我就决定了今后的生活，我把我的财产作了安排，把我从母亲那里得来的年金赠给玛格丽特，为了报答我所接受的牺牲，这笔年金在我看来是远远不够的。 There remained the allowance of five thousand francs which my father made me and, however things turned out, this annual allowance would always be enough to live on. 我自己留下了我父亲给我的每年五千法郎津贴，不管发生什么事情，靠它来过日子也足够了。 
我瞒着玛格丽特作了这样的安排。因为我深信她一定会拒绝这笔赠与的。 The money in question derived from a mortgage of sixty thousand francs on a house which I had never even seen. All I knew was that each quarter, my father's solicitor, an old family friend, handed over seven hundred and fifty francs against my signature. 这笔年金来自一座价值六万法郎的房子的抵押费。这座房子我从来也没有看见过。我所知道的只不过是每一季度，我父亲的公证人--我家的一位世交--都要凭我一张收据交给我七百五十法郎。 The day Marguerite and I came to Paris to look at apartments, I called at his office and asked him how I should set about transferring this income to another party. 在玛格丽特和我回巴黎去找房子的那天，我找了这位公证人，问他我要把这笔年金转让给另外一个人我应该办些什么手续。 The good man thought that I was ruined, and asked me questions about why I had decided to take such a step. Now, since I was going to have to tell him sooner or later in whose favour I was making the deed of gift, I decided to confess the truth there and then. 这位好心人以为我破产了，就询问我作出这个决定的原因。因为我迟早得告诉他我这次转让的受益人是谁，我想最好还是立即如实告诉他。 He did not raise any of the objections which his position as solicitor and friend entitled him to make, and he assured me that he would see that everything was arranged for the best. 作为一个公证人或者一个朋友，他完全可以提出不同意见；但他毫无异议，他向我保证他一定尽量把事情办好。 
我当然叮嘱他在我父亲面前要严守秘密。随后我回到玛格丽特身边，她在朱利·迪普拉家里等我。她宁愿到朱利家去而不愿意去听普律当丝的说教。 We started looking for apartments. Marguerite found all the ones we saw too expensive, and I thought them too ordinary. Even so, we did agree in the end, and, in one of the quietest parts of Paris, decided on a modest lodge which was situated at a good distance from the main house. 我们开始找房子。我们所看过的房子，玛格丽特全都认为太贵，而我却觉得太简陋。不过我们最后终于取得了一致意见，决定在巴黎最清静的一个街区租一幢小房子，这幢小房子是一座大房子的附属部分，但是是独立的。 Behind this small lodge there was a delightful garden which was part of the property. It was enclosed by walls high enough to separate us from our neighbours, but not so high that they restricted the view. 在这幢小房子后面还附有一个美丽的小花园，花园四周的围墙高低适宜，既能把我们跟邻居隔开，又不妨碍视线。 It was better than we had hoped for. 这比我们原来希望的要好。 While I went back to my apartment to arrange to vacate the premises, Marguerite went to see a dealer who, she said, had already done for one of her friends what she was now going to ask him to do for her. 我回家去把我原来那套房子退掉，在这期间，玛格丽特到一个经纪人那儿去了。据她说，这个人曾经为她的一个朋友办过一些她现在去请他办的事。 
她非常高兴地又回到普罗旺斯街来找我。这个经纪人同意替她了清一切债务，把结清的帐单交给她，再给她两万法郎，作为她放弃所有家具的代价。 You can see form the sum realized by the auction that this good man of business stood make upwards of thirty thousand francs out of his client. 您已经看到了，从出售的价格来看，这个老实人大概赚了他主顾三万多法郎。 We set off back to Bougival in high spirits. As we went, we continued telling each other about our plans for the future which, with the help of our thoughtlessness but especially our love, we saw in the rosiest of lights. 我们又欢欢喜喜地回到布吉瓦尔去，继续商量今后的计划。由于我们无忧无虑，特别是我们情深似海，我们总觉得前景无限美好。 A week later, we were having lunch when Nanine came in and told me that my servant was asking for me. 一个星期以后，有一天正当我们在吃午饭的时候，纳尼娜突然进来对我说，我的仆人要见我。 I told her to show him in. 我叫他进来。
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