His Uncle sat looking at him for some time in silence. When their eyes at last met, he began at once to pursue the theme that had occupied his thoughts, aloud, as if he had been speaking all the time.

他们又碰了杯；沃尔特杯子里还剩着酒，他啜了一口，尽可能装出一副很有鉴别力的神气，把杯子举到眼睛前面。

他的舅舅坐在那里默默地看了他一些时候。当他们的眼光最终相遇时，他立刻开始把他脑子里思考的问题大声地继续说下去，仿佛他一直在说话似的。

'You see, Walter,' he said, 'in truth this business is merely a habit with me. I am so accustomed to the habit that I could hardly live if I relinquished it: but there's nothing doing, nothing doing. When that uniform was worn,' pointing out towards the little Midshipman, 'then indeed, fortunes were to be made, and were made. But competition, competition - new invention, new invention alteration, alteration the world's gone past me. I hardly know where I am myself, much less where my customers are.

“你知道，沃尔特，”他说道，“老实说，经营这个生意对我来说，是一种习惯。我在这个习惯中已经陷得很深，如果我抛弃了它的话，那么我就难以活下去。可是现在没有生意呀，没有生意。当穿那种制服的时候，”他指着小海军军官候补生说道，“确实，那时候是可以发财的，我也真的发了财。可是竞争呀，竞争呀——新发明呀，新发明呀，——改变呀，改变呀，——这世界已经从我的身边走过去了。我不知道我自己现在在哪里，更不知道我的顾客现在在哪里。”

'Never mind 'em, Uncle!'

'Since you came home from weekly boarding-school at Peckham, for instance - and that's ten days,' said Solomon, 'I don't remember more than one person that has come into the shop.'

“别去想那些事情，舅舅！”

“举个例子来说吧，你从佩克姆①寄宿学校②回家以后，已有十天了，”所罗门说道，“在这十天中，我记得只有一个人到这店里来过”。

'Two, Uncle, don't you recollect? There was the man who came to ask for change for a sovereign '
'That's the one,' said Solomon.
'Why Uncle! don't you call the woman anybody, who came to ask the way to Mile-End Turnpike?'

“两个人，舅舅。你不记得了吗？不有个男子到这里来请求把一镑换成零钱——”
“就是那个人，”所罗门说道。
“怎么，舅勇！有一位女人到这里来问到迈尔·恩德收税栅的路怎么走法，难道你认为她就不是人吗？”

注释：alteration n. 修改，改变；变更
例句：
1. One obvious impact is the radical alteration of the land surface.
一种显而易见的影响是大地表面剧烈的改变。
2. There is a structural alteration to the building.
这座建筑物在这有一处结构上的改变。

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①佩克姆（Peckham）：伦敦郊区的地方。
②原文为weeklyboardingschool，是指一个星期寄宿六天的学校。