3级-《三个陌生人》-第24课

前情提要 

巴普蒂丝塔确定了查尔斯就住在自己的隔壁，感到十分惶恐。当她提出要换一家旅馆时，赫德根第一次跟自己的妻子发火了……

故事原文 

The Three Strangers and Other Stories 24

三个陌生人 24

5 Secrets discovered

5  泄密

Mr and Mrs Heddegan both felt the honeymoon was not a success. They were happy to return to the island and start married life together in David Heddegan's large house. Baptista soon became as calm and passive as she had been before. She even smiled when neighbours called her Mrs Heddegan, and she began to enjoy the comfortable life that a rich husband could offer(1) her. She did nothing at all to stop people finding out about her first marriage to Charles Stow, although there was always a danger of(2) that happening.

赫德根先生和太太都觉得蜜月过得不怎么样。他们很高兴能重返小岛，在戴维·赫德根的大房子里开始婚后生活。巴普蒂丝塔很快就变得和从前一样平静而顺从了。她开始享受一位富有的丈夫所能提供的安逸生活，听见邻居叫自己赫德根太太的时候甚至还会微笑。她没有刻意做什么来阻止人们揭发她跟查尔斯·斯托的第一次婚姻，尽管这种危险性随时存在。

One evening in September, when she was standing in her garden, a workman walked past along the road. He seemed to recognize her, and spoke to her in friendly surprise.

9月的一天晚上，她站在花园里，一名工人从旁边的小路经过。他似乎认出了她，友好而惊讶地跟她打了个招呼。

'What! Don't you know me?' he asked.

“什么！难道您不认识我了吗？”他问道。

'I'm afraid I don't,' said Baptista.

“恐怕是不认识。”巴普蒂丝塔说。

'I was your witness(3), madam. I was mending the church window when you and your young man came to get married. Don't you remember? The vicar called me, to be a witness.'

“我是您的证婚人，夫人。您和您年轻的丈夫结婚的时候，我正在修理教堂的窗户呢，您不记得了吗？牧师当时叫我当了证婚人。”

Baptista looked quickly around. Heddegan was at the other end of the garden but unluckily, just at that moment, he turned and walked towards the house. 'Are you coming in, my dear?' he called out to Baptista.

巴普蒂丝塔迅速环顾四周。赫德根在花园的另一头，他正巧在这一刻转身，朝着房子走去。“你进来吗，我亲爱的？”他对巴普蒂丝塔大声喊道。

The workman stared at him. 'That's not your—' he began, then he saw Baptista's face and stopped. Baptista was unable to speak, and the workman began to realize that there was a little mystery(4) here. 'I've been unlucky since then,' he continued, still staring at Baptista's white face. 'It's hard finding enough work to buy food for my wife and myself. Perhaps you could help me, because I once helped you?'

工人瞪着他看。“那该不是你的——”他张口就说。接着，他看见了巴普蒂丝塔的脸，闭上了嘴。巴普蒂丝塔说不出话来，工人开始意识到这其中定有玄机。“从那以后我一直不走运，”他盯着巴普蒂丝塔苍白的脸，接着说，“我很难找到足够的工作来给自己和妻子糊口。你不妨帮帮我吧，因为我曾经帮过你。”

Baptista gave him some money, and hoped never to see him again. But he was cleverer than he looked. By asking questions on the island and the mainland, he soon realized that Baptista had married one man on Tuesday, and another man on Wednesday. He visited her again two days later.

巴普蒂丝塔给了他一些钱，希望永远也不要再见到他。可他远比看上去聪明。在询问了一些岛上和大陆的人以后，他很快便意识到巴普蒂丝塔在星期二嫁给了一个男人，而星期三又嫁给了另一个男人。两天之后，他再次拜访了她。

'It was a mystery to me, madam!' he said, when she opened the door. 'But now I understand it all. I want to tell you, madam, that I'm not a man to make trouble(5) between husband and wife. But I'm going back to the mainland again, and I need a little more money. If your old man finds out about your first husband, I'm sure he won't like it, will he?'

“这对我来说曾是个谜，夫人！”她打开门时，他说道，“现在我全都明白了。我想告诉您，夫人，我不是那种在夫妻之间制造矛盾的人。但我打算再回到大陆上去，因此还需要一小笔钱。如果您老公发现您第一任丈夫的事，我敢保证他会不高兴的，对吧？”

She knew he was right, and paid him what he wanted. A week later the workman sent his wife to ask for more money, and again Baptista paid. But when there was a fourth visit, she refused to pay, and shut the door in the man's surprised face.

她知道他说得没错，于是便如了他的愿。一个星期后，工人又派他的老婆来要更多的钱，巴普蒂丝塔又一次满足了她。但等到工人第四次上门来的时候，她拒绝付钱，当面把一脸惊诧的工人关在了门外。

（原文中出现高光标示内容请见核心语言点）

核心语言点 

1. offer 提供

例句：

The doctor should be able to offer advice on diet.

医生应该能够提供节食的建议。

I did what I could to offer comfort to the family.

我已经尽我所能为家庭提供舒适。

2. danger of (doing) sth. ……的危险

例句：

The danger of accident increases during the holidays.

假期期间事故的危险会增加。

We're all in danger of losing our jobs.

我们都面临失业的危险。

3. witness 目击证人，目睹，见证

例句：

Several people witnessed the accident.

很多人都目睹了这场事故。

We are witnessing a historic moment.

我们正在见证着历史性的时刻。

4. mystery 迷，神秘的事

例句：

It's a mystery how he got my phone number.

想不通他是怎么拿到了我的电话号码。

It's one of life's little mysteries where socks disappear after they're washed.

洗完的袜子到底丢在哪儿了， 这可真是人生中的小秘密。

5. make/cause trouble 制造麻烦

    take the trouble to do sth. 不厌其烦地做某事

例句：

The teacher took the trouble to learn all our names on the first day.

第一天老师不厌其烦地把我们所有的名字都记了下来。

I didn't mean to cause you any trouble.

我并不想给你添任何麻烦。