I had my first date with Polly the following evening. This was in the nature of a survey; I wanted to find out just how much work I had to do to get her mind up to the standard I required. I took her first to dinner. "Gee, that was a delish dinner," she said as we left the restaurant. Then I took her to a movie. "Gee, that was a marvy movie," she said as we left the theater. And then I took her home. "Gee, I had a sensaysh time," she said as she bade me good night.
第二天晚上,我就和波莉第一次约会。这只不过是对她的考察,我想知道得做多少工作才能使她达到我的标准。我先请她吃饭。离开饭店时,她说:“哇,这顿饭太棒了。”然后请她去看电影。走出电影院时,她说:“哇,电影真好。”最后我送她回家。告别时,她说:“哇,今晚真痛快。”
I went back to my room with a heavy heart. I had gravely underestimated the size of my task. This girl's lack of information was terrifying. Nor would it be enough merely to supply her with information. First she had to be taught to think. This loomed as a project of no small dimensions, and at first I was tempted to give her back to Petey. But then I got to thinking about her abundant physical charms and about the way she entered a room and the way she handled a knife and fork, and I decided to make an effort.
回到房间,我心情沉重:我大大低估了任务的艰巨性。这姑娘头脑空空,令人吃惊。仅仅给她补充知识远远不够,先得教会她思考。这任务可是艰巨,我真想把她还给皮蒂。可一想到她那么多生理优势、进屋的仪态、拿刀叉的姿势,我还是决定继续努力。
I went about it, as in all things, systematically. I gave her a course in logic. It happened that I, as a law student, was taking a course in logic myself, so I had all the facts at my finger tips. "Polly," I said to her when I picked her up on our next date, "tonight we are going over to the Knoll and talk."
像做其他事情一样,我系统地去做。我先给她讲逻辑。身为学法律的学生,我恰好正在听逻辑学课,所以信手拈来。我第二次约她的时候说:“波莉,今晚去‘小山’聊聊。”
"Oo, terrif," she replied. One thing I Mill say for this girl: you would go far to find another so agreeable.
“哇,好极了。”她回答。我得补充一句,这么好商量的人可不容易找。
We went to the Knoll, the campus trysting place, and we sat down under an old oak, and she looked at me expectantly. "What are we going to talk about?" she asked.
我们去了“小山”。这是校园里人们幽会的地方。我们坐在一棵老橡树下,她带着期待的目光 问:“聊什么?”
"Logic."
“逻辑学。”