Midnight Visitor
不速之客
Robert Arthur
罗伯特·阿瑟
Ausable did not fit the description of any secret agent Fowler had ever read about. Following him down the corridor of the gloomy French hotel where Ausable had a room, Fowler felt disappointed. It was a small room on the sixth floor, and hardly a setting for a romantic figure.
奥萨博与福勒所读过的书中关于特工的描述并不相符。福勒很失望地跟着他一路走过阴暗的法国旅馆的走廊,奥萨博在那里租了一间房。那是一个位于六层的小房间,人们很难将这种环境与这样一位传奇人物联系起来。
Ausable was, for one thing, fat. Very fat. And then there was his accent. Though he spoke French passably, he had never altogether lost the New England accent he had brought to Paris from Boston twenty years ago.
令他失望的是,首先,奥萨博是一个胖子,而且非常胖。其次是他的口音,尽管他的法语还说得过去,但他仍然带有二十年前从波士顿带到巴黎的新英格兰口音。
"You are disappointed," Ausable said wheezily over his shoulder. "You were told that I was a secret agent, a spy, dealing in espionage and danger. You wished to meet me because you are a writer, young and romantic. You thought you would have mysterious figures in the night, the crack of pistols, drugs in the wine."
“你一定很失望,”奥萨博气喘吁吁地回过头说,“别人说我是一个特工,一名间谍,周旋于间谍活动和危险之间。你期望能见到我,因为你是一个年轻、浪漫的作家。你可能以为今天晚上会碰到神秘人物、枪声、放在酒里的迷药。”
"Instead, you spent a dull evening in a French music hall with a sloppy fat man who, instead of having messages slipped into his hand by dark-eyed beauties, gets only an ordinary telephone call making an appointment in his room. You have been bored!" The fat man chuckled to himself as he unlocked the door of his room and stood aside to let his frustrated guest enter.
“然而事情并不像你想象的那样,你在一个演奏法国音乐的餐厅同一个粗心的胖子度过了一个乏味的夜晚。并没有黑眼睛的美女给他传递情报,他只是打了一个普通电话,与人约定在他的房间见面。你一定失望极了!”胖男人边低声笑着边开门,并且站到一旁让他那位失望的客人进房间。