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第5章 The 1,000,000 BankNote(5)

Well, dont you see what was bound to happen? I drifted naturally into buying whatever I wanted, and asking for change. Within a week I was sumptuously equippedequipped v.装备,预备,整装 vbl.装备,预备,整装 with all needful comforts and luxuries, and was housed in an expensive private hotel in Hanover Square. I took my dinners there, but for breakfast I stuck by Harriss humble feeding house, where I had got my first meal on my millionpound bill. I was the making of Harris. The fact had gone all abroad that the foreign crank who carried millionpound bills in his vestvest n.汗衫, 背心, 内衣 vt.使穿衣服, 授予 vi.穿衣服, 归属 pocket was the patron saint of the place. That was enough. From being a poor, struggling, little handtomouth enterprise, it had become celebrated, and overcrowded with customers. Harris was so grateful that he forced loans upon me, and would not be denied, and so, pauperpauper n.叫花子, 乞丐 as I was, I had money to spend, and was living like the rich and the great. I judged that there was going to be a crash by and by, but I was in now and must swim across or drown. You see there was just that element of impending disaster to give a serious side, a sober side, yes, a tragic side, to a state of things which would otherwise have been purely ridiculousridiculous adj.荒谬的, 可笑的。 In the night, in the dark, the tragedy part was always to the front, and always warning, always threatening, and so I moaned and tossed, and sleep was hard to find. But in the cheerful daylight the tragedy element faded out and disappeared, and I walked on air, and was happy to giddinessgiddiness n.眼花, 轻率, to intoxication, you may say.

喏,往后的事你心里明白了吧?我顺其自然,想买什么就买什么,买完了,吆喝一声“找钱!”不出一个星期,我把所需的各色安享尊荣的行头统统置办齐备,在汉诺威广场一家价格不菲的旅馆安顿下来。我在那儿用晚餐,可早晨还是到哈里斯家的小吃店去吃个便饭,我就是在那儿靠一百万英镑的钞票吃的头一顿饭。是我成全了哈里斯。消息传开了,说马甲口袋里揣着百万大钞的古怪老外是这儿的财神爷。这就够了。这原本是一家穷得叮当响、苦巴苦结勉强糊口的小吃店,现在名声大振、顾客盈门了。哈里斯感激不尽,非要借钱给我,还不许我推辞;于是,我虽然一贫如洗,囊中却并不羞涩,日子过得又阔气,又排场。我心里也在打鼓,想着说不定哪天就会露馅,可是,事已至此也只有一往无前了。你看,这本来纯粹是件胡闹的事,可有了这种危机感,竟显出几分严肃、几分伤感和几分悲哀来。夜幕降临后,这悲哀总是在黑暗中走上前来警告我,威胁我;让我唉声叹气,辗转反侧,夜不能寐。然而,一到喜气洋洋的白天,这些悲剧因素就烟消云散,无影无踪了。我飘飘然,乐得晕头转向,像喝醉了酒一样。

And it was natural, for I had become one of the notorietiesnotoriety n.恶名, 丑名, 声名狼藉, 远扬的名声 of the metropolismetropolis n.首都, 主要都市, 都会, 大主教教区, 大城市 of the world, and it turned my head, not just a little, but a good deal. You could not take up a newspaper, English, Scotch, or Irish, without finding in it one or more references to the “vestpocket millionpounder” and his latest doings and saying. At first, in these mentions, I was at the bottom of the personalgossip column, next, I was listed above the knights, next above the baronetsbaronet n.从男爵, next above the barons, and so on, and so on, climbing steadily, as my notoriety augmented, until I reached the highest altitude possible, and there I remained, taking precedence of all dukes not royal, and of all ecclesiasticsecclesiastic n.神职者, 教会, 牧师 adj.神职者的, 牧师的, 教会的 except the primate of all England. But mind, this was not fame, as yet I had achieved only notoriety. Then came the climaxing stroke—the accoladeaccolade n.赞美, 骑士爵位的授予, 连谱号, so to speak—which in a single instant transmuted the perishable dross of notoriety into the enduring gold of fame: Punch caricatured me! Yes, I was a made man now, my place was established. I might be joked about still, but reverently, not hilariously, not rudely. I could be smiled at, but not laughed at. The time for that had gone by. Punch pictured me all aflutter with rags, dickeringdicker n.十个, 小生意, 十张 vi.做小生意, 易货, 还价 with a beefeater for the Tower of London. Well, you can imagine how it was with a young fellow who had never been taken notice of before, and now all of a sudden couldnt say a thing that wasnt taken up and repeated everywhere, couldnt stir abroad without constantly overhearing the remark flying from lip to lip, “There he goes, thats him!” couldnt take his breakfast without a crowd to look on, couldnt appear in an operabox without concentrating there the fire of a thousand lorgnetteslorgnette n.长柄眼镜, 长柄望远镜。 Why, I just swam in glory all day long—that is the amount of it.

说来也不足为奇;我已经成了这个世界大都会的显赫人物,我的思想何止是一星半点,简直是彻头彻尾地改造了。不管你翻开哪份报纸,无论是英格兰的,苏格兰的,还是爱尔兰的,你总会看到一两条有关“身藏百万英镑者”及其最新言行的消息。刚开始的时候,这些有关我的消息放在杂谈栏的尾巴上;接着我的位置就超过了各位爵士,后来盖过了二等男爵,再往后又凌驾于男爵之上了,如此这般,我的位置越升越高,名气也越来越响,直到无法再高的地方才停了下来。这时候,我已经居于皇室之下和众公爵之上;虽然比不上全英大主教,但足可俯瞰除他以外的一切神职人员。切记,直到这时,我还算不上有声望;只能说是有了名气。就在这时,高潮突起——就像封侯拜将一般——刹那间,我那过眼烟云似的名气化作了天长地久的金子般的声望:《笨拙》画刊登了我的漫画!是啊,如今我已经功成名就,站稳脚跟了。也许还有人调侃,可都透着尊重,既没出格,也不粗鲁;也许还有人发笑,却没有人嘲笑了。那样的日子已经过去。《笨拙》把我画得衣服都开了线,正跟一个伦敦塔的卫兵讨价还价。喏,你可以想见一个向来默默无闻的小伙子,突然间,他的每一句只言片语都会到处传扬;随便走到哪里,都能听见人们相互转告:“那个走路的,就是他!”吃早饭一直有人围得里三层外三层;在包厢一露面,成百上千的望远镜都齐刷刷地瞄了过去。嘿,我一天到晚出尽了风头——也可以说是独领风骚吧。

You know, I even kept my old suit of rags, and every now and then appeared in them, so as to have the old pleasure of buying trifles, and being insulted, and then shooting the scofferscoffer n.嘲笑者 dead with the millionpound bill. But I couldnt keep that up. The illustrated papers made the outfitoutfit n.用具, 配备, 机构, 全套装配, vt.配备, 装备 vi.得到装备 so familiar that when I went out in it I was at once recognized and followed by a crowd, and if I attempted a purchase the man would offer me his whole shop on credit before I could pull my note on him.

你看,我还留着那套破衣服哪,时不时地穿出去,为的是品味一下从前那种乐趣:先买点儿小东西,接着受一肚子气,最后用那张百万大钞把势利眼毙掉。可是,我的这种乐趣维持不下去了。画刊上把我的那套行头弄得尽人皆知,只要我穿着它一上街,就有一大群人跟在屁股后面;我刚想买东西,还没来得及拽出那张百万大钞,老板就已经要把整个铺子都赊给我了。

About the tenth day of my famefame n.名声, 名望, 传说, <古>传闻 vt.(常用被动语态)使闻名, 使有名望, 盛传 I went to fulfil my duty to my flag by paying my respects to the American minister. He received me with the enthusiasm proper in my case, upbraidedupbraid v.责备 me for being so tardy in my duty, and said that there was only one way to get his forgivenessforgiveness n.宽恕, 宽仁之心, and that was to take the seat at his dinnerparty that night made vacant by the illness of one of his guests. I said I would, and we got to talking. It turned out that he and my father had been schoolmates in boyhood, Yale students together later, and always warm friends up to my fathers death. So then he required me to put in at his house all the odd time I might have to spare, and I was very willing, of course.

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