四签名 13案情的陈述（5）（在线收听）

"What a very attractive woman!" I exclaimed, turning to my companion.

我回头向我的伙伴说道："真是一位美丽的女郎！"

He had lit his pipe again and was leaning back with drooping eyelids.

他已经重新点上了烟斗，靠在椅背上，合着两眼，

"Is she?" he said languidly; "I did not observe."

无力地说道："是吗？我没有留神。"

"You really are an automaton–a calculating machine," I cried.

我嚷道："你真是个机仆人，一架计算机！

"There is something positively inhuman in you at times."

"有时你简直一点儿人性也没有。"

He smiled gently. "It is of the first importance," he cried, "not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities.

他温和地微笑道："不要让一个人的特质影响你的判断能力，这是最重要的。

A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.

一个委托人，对于我仅仅是一个单位，问题里的一个因素。

The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.

感情作用会影响清醒的理智。

I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money,

一个我一生所见的最美丽的女人，曾经为了获取保险赔款而毒杀了三个小孩，结果被判绞刑；

and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor."

可是我认识的一个最不讨人喜欢的男子，却是一位慈善家，捐赠了二十五万镑救济伦敦的平民。"

"In this case, however..."

"但是，这一次..."

"I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. Have you ever had occasion to study character in handwriting?

"我向来不作任何例外。定律没有例外。你也曾研究过笔迹的特征吗？

What do you make of this fellow's scribble?"

对于这个人的笔迹你有什么见解？"

"It is legible and regular," I answered. "A man of business habits and some force of character."

我答道："写得还够清楚、整齐，是一个有商业经验和性格坚强的人写的。"

Holmes shook his head. "Look at his long letters," he said.

福尔摩斯摇头道："你看他写的长字母

"They hardly rise above the common herd. That d might be an a, and that l an e.

差不多都没有高过一般字母，那个d字象个a字，还有那个l象个e，

Men of character always differentiate their long letters, however illegibly they may write.

性格坚强的人不论写得怎样难认，字的高矮总是分明的，

There is vacillation in his k's and self-esteem in his capitals.

他的k字写得不一律，大写的字母倒还工整。

I am going out now. I have some few references to make.

我现在要出去了，还有些问题要搞清楚。

Let me recommend this book–one of the most remarkable ever penned.

让我介绍你一本书，一本最不平凡的著作，

It is Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man. I shall be back in an hour."

这是温伍德·瑞德写的《成仁记》，我去一个钟头就回来。"

I sat in the window with the volume in my hand, but my thoughts were far from the daring speculations of the writer.

我坐在窗前拿着书，但是我的思想并没有放在研究这位作者的杰作上。

My mind ran upon our late visitor: her smiles, the deep rich tones of her voice, the strange mystery which overhung her life.

我的思想专注在方才来的客人身上：她的音容笑貌和她在生活里所遭遇的离奇的事情。

If she were seventeen at the time of her father's disappearance she must be seven-and-twenty now–a sweet age,

如果她父亲失踪那年她是十七岁的话，她现在就应当是二十七岁了

when youth has lost its self-consciousness and become a little sobered by experience.

正是青年稚气消退、转到稍经事故的妙龄的阶段。

So I sat and mused until such dangerous thoughts came into my head

我就这样地坐在那里冥想，直到危险的妄想闯进我的脑海。

that I hurried away to my desk and plunged furiously into the latest treatise upon pathology.

因此我急急坐到桌前，拿出一本最近的病理学论文来仔细地读，借以遏制我的妄想。

What was I, an army surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking account, that I should dare to think of such things?

我是一个什么样的人？一个陆军军医，有一条伤腿，又没有多少钱，怎好有这种妄想？

She was a unit, a factor–nothing more.

她只是案子里面的一个单位，一个因素，再没有什么了。

If my future were black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by mere will-o'-the-wisps of the imagination.

如果我前途是黑暗的，最好还是毅然地担当票来，不要去胡思乱想，妄想要扭转自己的命运吧。