On the telephone the mistress said they were looking forward, awfully, to the night, and Claire heard herself substantiate the invitation by saying she had simply rung up to remind them. She thought of asking another man to give a complexion of decency to the evening, but the only three unattached men she could think of had been lovers of hers and she could not call on them; it seemed pathetic.
电话中那个情人说,他们三人正非常盼望晚上去她家。克莱尔只好再次确认这一邀请,说她打电话就是想提醒他们,怕他们忘记。她想再邀请一位男士,使晚上的聚会看起 来还算比较得体,可是她能想到的单身男人只有三个,都是她过去的情人,她自然不能邀请他们;这情况真够可怜的。
"Damn," she said, irritated by many things, but mainly by the fact that she was going through one of those bleak, loveless patches that come in everyone's life, but, she imagined, came more frequently the older one got. She was twenty-eight. Soon she would be thirty, withering.
“真该死,”她说,心里因为许多事情感到憋火,主要还是因为她现在正处于黯淡而缺少爱情的一个阶段,这种情况在每个人的生活中都会发生,不过她觉得随着年龄的增长,这种时段来得越来越频繁了。她已经28岁,很快就30 了,容颜渐渐老去。
When Claire returned, she found her mother holding a hand mirror up to get a back view of a ridiculous hat which she had tried on. It resembled the shiny straw she wore for her trip, except that it was more ornamental.
克莱尔回来的时候,发现母亲正在试一顶很可笑的帽子,她手拿着一面镜子在看脑后的 效果:这顶帽子与她下飞机时戴的那顶闪亮的草帽相似,只不过更加花哨。