第三章（第9/12页）

"I don't think I can stand that young man," said Clifford at lunch.

吃午餐的时候，克利福德说：“我真有点受不了那小子。”

"Why?" asked Connie.

“为什么？”康妮问。

"He's such a bounder underneath his veneer...just waiting to bounce us.” "I think people have been so unkind to him," said Connie.

“揭去光鲜的外表，他就是个不折不扣的下流坯……随时可能给我们带来威胁。”“我倒觉得是人们对他太不友善。”康妮说。

"Do you wonder? And do you think he employs his shining hours doing deeds of kindness?" "I think he has a certain sort of generosity." "Towards whom?" "I don't quite know.” "Naturally you don't. I'm afraid you mistake unscrupulousness for generosity.” Connie paused. Did she? It was just possible. Yet the unscrupulousness of Michaelis had a certain fascination for her. He went whole lengths where Clifford only crept a few timid paces. In his way he had conquered the world, which was what Clifford wanted to do. Ways and means...? Were those of Michaelis more despicable than those of Clifford? Was the way the poor outsider had shoved and bounced himself forward in person, and by the back doors, any worse than Clifford's way of advertising himself into prominence? The bitch-goddess, Success, was trailed by thousands of gasping, dogs with lolling tongues. So Michaelis could keep his tail up. The queer thing was, he didn't.

“你感到不解么？难不成你以为他整日行善积德？”“我认为他有种宽宏的气度。”“对谁？”“我不太清楚。”“你当然不清楚。恐怕你只是误把寡廉鲜耻当成了宽宏大量。”康妮无言以对。当真如此么？确有这种可能。但正是米凯利斯不知廉耻的品性让她为之着迷。相对于克利福德的蹒跚学步，他早已功成名就。他以自己的方式征服世界，而这正是克利福德梦寐以求的。至于方法和途径……？米凯利斯所用的手段比克利福德的更加卑劣么？这个被社会边缘化的倒霉蛋，凭借自身的奋斗以及偷偷摸摸的伎俩扬名立万，而克利福德则依靠自我标榜和吹嘘上位，难道两者有什么本质的不同？成功，这位堕落女神，被千万只耷拉着舌头的狗，气喘吁吁地尾随在后。因此，米凯利斯大可以趾高气昂地翘起尾巴。但出人意料的是，他并没有如此地得意忘形。

He came back towards tea-time with a large handful of violets and lilies, and the same hang-dog expression. Connie wondered sometimes if it were a sort of mask to disarm opposition, because it was almost too fixed. Was he really such a sad dog? His sad-dog sort of extinguished self persisted all the evening, though through it Clifford felt the inner effrontery. Connie didn't feel it, perhaps because it was not directed against women; only against men, and their presumptions and assumptions. That indestructible, inward effrontery in the meagre fellow was what made men so down on Michaelis. His very presence was an affront to a man of society, cloak it as he might in an assumed good manner.

他果然在下午茶时分回到拉格比，手里捧着一大束紫罗兰和百合，垂头丧气的卑怯表情依然如故。康妮有时怀疑，这种神态是否是他用来瓦解对方敌对的面具，因为他总是那副可鄙的模样。他当真是只丧家犬么？整晚他都摆出那副可怜巴巴的丧气相，而在克利福德眼中，这不过是为了掩饰其厚颜无耻的本质。康妮却并不这么认为，或许这样的伎俩不会用在女人身上，而只针对男人，针对他们的专横和狂妄。这个瘦小枯干的家伙厚颜无耻到根深蒂固的程度，而正因为此，人们才会对他如此地深恶痛绝。无论装得多么斯文得体，他的存在对于上流社会的人们而言，都无异于公然侮辱。

Connie was in love with him, but she managed to sit with her embroidery and let the men talk, and not give herself away. As for Michaelis, he was perfect; exactly the same melancholic, attentive, aloof young fellow of the previous evening, millions of degrees remote from his hosts, but laconically playing up to them to the required amount, and never coming forth to them for a moment. Connie felt he must have forgotten the morning. He had not forgotten. But he knew where he was...in the same old place outside, where the born outsiders are. He didn't take the love-making altogether personally. He knew it would not change him from an ownerless dog, whom everybody begrudges its golden collar, into a comfortable society dog.