地下墓穴（3）（在线收听）

And yet for some years there had been an acquaintanceship which appeared to be slowly ripening into a friendship between these two very different rivals. The base and origin of this lay in the fact that in their own studies each was the only one of the younger men who had knowledge and enthusiasm enough to properly appreciate the other. Their common interests and pursuits had brought them together, and each had been attracted by the other’s knowledge. And then gradually something had been added to this. Kennedy had been amused by the frankness and simplicity of his rival, while Burger in turn had been fascinated by the brilliancy and vivacity which had made Kennedy such a favourite in Roman society. I say “had,” because just at the moment the young Englishman was somewhat under a cloud. A love-affair, the details of which had never quite come out, had indicated a heartlessness and callousness upon his part which shocked many of his friends. But in the bachelor circles of students and artists in which he preferred to move there is no very rigid code of honour in such matters, and though a head might be shaken or a pair of shoulders shrugged over the flight of two and the return of one, the general sentiment was probably one of curiosity and perhaps of envy rather than of reprobation.

“Look here, Burger,” said Kennedy, looking hard at the placid face of his companion, “I do wish that you would confide in me.”

As he spoke he waved his hand in the direction of a rug which lay upon the floor. On the rug stood a long, shallow fruit-basket of the light wicker-work which is used in the Campagna, and this was heaped with a litter of objects, inscribed tiles, broken inscriptions, cracked mosaics, torn papyri, rusty metal ornaments, which to the uninitiated might have seemed to have come straight from a dustman’s bin, but which a specialist would have speedily recognized as unique of their kind. The pile of odds and ends in the flat wicker-work basket supplied exactly one of those missing links of social development which are of such interest to the student. It was the German who had brought them in, and the Englishman’s eyes were hungry as he looked at them.

不过，近几年这两个完全不同类型的人从相识慢慢变成了朋友。友谊的基础和源泉是两个年轻人在各自的研究工作中，由于拥有渊博的知识和极大的热情，发现只有对方才能真正欣赏自己，共同的兴趣和追求把他们聚到一起，每个人都为对方的知识渊博所折服。渐渐地，彼此在对方身上发现了更多的东西。肯尼迪喜欢同伴的率直和单纯，而伯格则着迷于曾经使肯尼迪成为罗马上流社会宠儿的风采和机敏。我说“曾经”是因为现在这个英国人已经失宠了。一桩桃色事件——具体情形尚不明了一一表明他是个冷酷无情的人，这使他的许多朋友大为震惊。不过在他喜欢与之交往的单身学者和艺术家的圈子里并没有严格的道德准则，对于私奔时是两个人而回来的只有一个这件事，尽管有人摇头，有人耸肩，但更多的反应却是好奇和妒忌，而不是遣责。

“嘿，伯格，"肯尼迪盯着同伴平静的脸说道，“真希望你能信任我。”

的水果篮，是细柳条编的，平原地区常见。篮子里堆满了破烂一一雕花瓦片，残缺的碑文，破碎的马赛克，撕破的纸草纸，生锈的金属饰物。在外行人眼里这全是从垃圾箱捡来的，可是一名专家会很快认出它们是举世无双的珍品。扁平的柳条篮子里放的这堆零碎可以弥补社会发展链条中缺失的一环，对学者来说实在太有趣了。把它们带来的是这个德国人，而英国人的目光在盯着它们的时候显得极为贪婪。