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Some two weeks later, Newland Archer, sitting in abstracted idleness in his private compartment of the office of Letterblair, Lamson and Low, attorneys at law, was summoned by the head of the firm.
大约两个星期之后，在莱特布赖一拉姆森一洛律师事务所中，纽兰·阿切尔正坐在自己的隔间里闲得发呆，这时，事务所的上司要召见他。
Old Mr. Letterblair, the accredited legal adviser of three generations of New York gentility, throned behind his mahogany desk in evident perplexity. As he stroked his closeclipped white whiskers and ran his hand through the rumpled grey locks above his jutting brows, his disrespectful junior partner thought how much he looked like the Family Physician annoyed with a patient whose symptoms refuse to be classified.
老莱特布赖先生，这位受纽约上层阶级三代人信托的法律顾问，端坐在他的红木写字台后面，显然遇到了麻烦。他用手捋了捋浓密的白胡须，理理突起的眉头上方那凌乱的灰发，他那位不敬的年轻合伙人心想，他多像一位因为无法判断病人症状而苦恼的家庭医生啊。
"My dear sir--" he always addressed Archer as "sir"--"I have sent for you to go into a little matter; a matter which, for the moment, I prefer not to mention either to Mr. Skipworth or Mr. Redwood." The gentlemen he spoke of were the other senior partners of the firm; for, as was always the case with legal associations of old standing in New York, all the partners named on the office letter-head were long since dead; and Mr. Letterblair, for example, was, professionally speaking, his own grandson.
“亲爱的先生，”他一贯称阿切尔为“先生”——“我请你来研究一件小事，一件我暂时不想让斯基普沃思和雷德伍德知道的事。”他所说的这两位绅士是事务所另外两名资深合伙人。正如纽约别的历史悠久的法律事务所的情况那样，这家事务所信笺头上列有姓名的那几个原来的合伙人都早已作古，像这位莱特布赖先生，就其职业称谓而言，他实际上成了自己的祖父。
He leaned back in his chair with a furrowed brow. "For family reasons--" he continued.
他在椅子里朝后一仰，皱起眉头，然后说：“由于家庭的原因——”
Archer looked up.
阿切尔抬起头来。
"The Mingott family," said Mr. Letterblair with an explanatory smile and bow. "Mrs. Manson Mingott sent for me yesterday. Her grand-daughter the Countess Olenska wishes to sue her husband for divorce. Certain papers have been placed in my hands." He paused and drummed on his desk. "In view of your prospective alliance with the family I should like to consult you--to consider the case with you--before taking any farther steps."
“明戈特家，”莱特布赖微笑着点了点头解释说。“曼森·明戈特太太昨天派人请我去。她的孙女奥兰斯卡伯爵夫人想向法庭起诉，要求与丈夫离婚，有些文件已交到我手上。”他停了一会儿，敲敲桌子。“考虑到你将要与这个家庭联姻，我愿在采取进一步行动之前，先找你咨询一下——与你商量商量这件案子。”
Archer felt the blood in his temples. He had seen the Countess Olenska only once since his visit to her, and then at the Opera, in the Mingott box. During this interval she had become a less vivid and importunate image, receding from his foreground as May Welland resumed her rightful place in it. He had not heard her divorce spoken of since Janey's first random allusion to it, and had dismissed the tale as unfounded gossip. Theoretically, the idea of divorce was almost as distasteful to him as to his mother; and he was annoyed that Mr. Letterblair (no doubt prompted by old Catherine Mingott) should be so evidently planning to draw him into the affair. After all, there were plenty of Mingott men for such jobs, and as yet he was not even a Mingott by marriage.
阿切尔觉得热血涌上了太阳穴。拜访过奥兰斯卡伯爵夫人之后，他只见过她一次，那是在看歌剧的时候，在明戈特的包厢里。这段时间，由于梅·韦兰在他心目中恢复了应有的地位，奥兰斯卡夫人的形象正在消退，已经不那么清晰、那么索绕心头了。第一次听詹尼随便说起她要离婚时，他把它当作了毫无根据的流言，并没在意。此后，他再也没有听人说过这事。从理论上讲，他对离婚几乎跟母亲一样抱有反感；令他恼火的是，莱特布赖先生（无疑受了老凯瑟琳·明戈特的怂恿）显然打算把他拉进这件事情中来。明戈特家能干这种事的男人多着哩，何况他目前还没有通过婚姻变成明戈特家的一分子。
