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"Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale.
"噢，这里面还有一桩相当痛苦的故事哩。
This fellow is madly, insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago,
这个小伙子爱她爱得发了疯似的。但是，大约两年前，
when he was only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away five years at a boarding-school,
那时他还不过是个少年，也就是在他真正了解她以前，她曾经离家五年，在一所寄宿学校读书。
what does the idiot do but get into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a registry office?
这个傻瓜在布里斯托尔被一个酒吧女郎缠住，并在婚姻登记所和她登记结婚，你看他有多傻？
No one knows a word of the matter,
谁也不知道有这件事，
but you can imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not doing what he would give his very eyes to do,
而你可以想象他干了这件傻事之后是多么着急，因为他没有做他显然应该做的事，
but what he knows to be absolutely impossible.
而是做了他自己明知是绝对不应该做的事。
It was sheer frenzy of this sort which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father,
他就是因为曾干了那件十足疯狂的蠢事而急得双臂乱舞的，
at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Turner.
当他父亲在最后一次和他谈话中亟力劝他向特纳小姐求婚的时候。
On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man,
而且，他无力供养自己，而他的父亲为人十分刻薄，
would have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth.
如果他知道实情，肯定会彻底抛其他的。
It was with his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in Bristol, and his father did not know where he was.
前三天他是在布里斯托尔和他的那个当酒吧女郎的妻子一起度过的。当时他父亲对他身在何处，全无所知。
Mark that point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however,
请注意这一点。这是很重要的。但是，坏事变成了好事。
for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious trouble and likely to be hanged,
那个酒吧女郎从报上看到他身陷囹圄，案情严重，可能被处绞刑，
has thrown him over utterly and has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the Bermuda Dockyard,
于是干脆将他抛弃了。她写信告诉他，她原是有夫之妇，此人在百慕大码头工作，
so that there is really no tie between them.
所以在他们之间并没有真正的夫妻关系。
I think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all that he has suffered."
我想这一消息对备受苦难的小麦卡锡是一种告慰。"
"But if he is innocent, who has done it?"
"但是，如果他是无辜的，那又是谁干的呢？"
"Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two points.
"哦！是谁吗？我要提醒你特别注意两点。
One is that the murdered man had an appointment with someone at the pool,
第一，被谋杀者和某人约定在池塘见面，
and that the someone could not have been his son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would return.
这个人不可能是他的儿子，因为他的儿子正在外面，他不知道他什么时候回来。
The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned.
第二，在被谋杀者知道他儿子已经回来之前，有人听见他大声喊'库伊'！
Those are the crucial points upon which the case depends.
这两点是能否破案的关键。
And now let us talk about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all minor matters until to-morrow."
现在，如果你乐意的话，让我们来谈谈乔治·梅瑞秋斯吧。那些次要的问题我们明天再说吧。"
