蓝宝石案 10一顶奇怪的帽子(10)

"But his wife -- you said that she had ceased to love him."

"可是他的妻子--你刚才说过她已经不再爱他了。"

"This hat has not been brushed for weeks.

"这顶帽子已经有好几个星期没有掸掸刷刷了。

When I see you, my dear Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat,

我亲爱的华生，如果我看到你的帽子堆积了个把星期的灰尘，

and when your wife allows you to go out in such a state,

而且你的妻子听之任之，就让你这个样子去出访，

I shall fear that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's affection."

我恐怕你也已经很不幸地失去你的妻子的爱情了。"

"But he might be a bachelor."

"可是他可能是个单身汉哪！"

"Nay¹, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg."

"不可能，因为那天晚上他正要把那只鹅带回家去作为一件表示亲善的礼物献给他的妻子的。你可别忘了系在鹅腿上的那张卡片。"

"You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce² that the gas is not laid on in his house?"

"你对每个问题都做出了解答，可是你究竟是怎样推断出他家里没有安煤气灯的呢？"

"One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I see no less than five,

"一滴烛油、或者甚至是两滴烛油，那可能是偶然滴上的；可是当我看到至少有五滴烛油时，

I think that there can be little doubt that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with burning tallow

我认为毫无疑问每一滴烛油都一定是由于常和点燃着的蜡烛接触而滴上的。

walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in one hand and a guttering³ candle in the other.

比方说，夜里上楼时很可能是一手拿着帽子，而另一只手拿着淌着烛油的蜡烛。

Anyhow, he never got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?"

不管怎么说，他决不可能从煤气灯上沾上烛油。你现在相信了吧？"

"Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing;

"太好了，你的脑子真灵，"我笑着说，"

"but since, as you said just now, there has been no crime committed,

但是既然象你刚才所说的，这中间没有犯罪行为，

and no harm done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a waste of energy."

除了失去一只鹅以外，并未造成任何危害，所有的一切看来都是浪费精力了。"

1 nay   

adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者

参考例句：

• He was grateful for and proud of his son's remarkable,nay,unique performance.他为儿子出色的，不，应该是独一无二的表演心怀感激和骄傲。
• Long essays,nay,whole books have been written on this.许多长篇大论的文章，不，应该说是整部整部的书都是关于这件事的。

2 deduce   

vt.演绎，推论，推断

参考例句：

• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。
• I imagine that you may deduce an apt moral from my tale.我觉得你也许能从我的际遇中引出恰当的教训。

3 guttering   

n.用于建排水系统的材料；沟状切除术；开沟

参考例句：

• a length of guttering 一节沟槽
• The candle was guttering in the candlestick. 蜡烛在烛台上淌着蜡。 来自辞典例句