Pitcher, confidential clerk in the office of Harvey Maxwell, broker, allowed a look of mild interest and surprise to visit his usually expressionless countenance when his employer briskly entered at half past nine in company with his young lady stenographer. —
匿名的下属皮切在哈维·麦克斯韦尔的办公室里担任保密文员，当他的雇主带着他年轻的女秘书带着微微的兴趣和惊讶的表情进入办公室时，他的面无表情的脸上闪现出一丝。 —

With a snappy Good-morning, Pitcher, Maxwell dashed at his desk as though he were intending to leap over it, and then plunged into the great heap of letters and telegrams waiting there for him.
麦克斯韦尔踊跃地说了声早上好，然后像打算跳过桌子一样冲向他的办公桌，然后迅速地扎进那堆等待他处理的信件和电报中。

The young lady had been Maxwell’s stenographer for a year. —
这位年轻女士已经是麦克斯韦尔的秘书一年了。 —

She was beautiful in a way that was decidedly unstenographic. —
她的美丽以一种明显与秘书不符的方式显现出来。 —

She forewent the pomp of the alluring pompadour. —
她放弃了引人注目的波涛发型的张扬。 —

She wore no chains, bracelets or lockets. —
她没有佩戴项链、手链或吊坠。 —

She had not the air of being about to accept an invitation to luncheon. —
她没有接受午餐的样子。 —

Her dress was grey and plain, but it fitted her figure with fidelity and discretion. —
她的服装灰色而朴素，但它紧密贴合她的身材。在她整齐的黑色头巾帽上， —

In her neat black turban hat was the gold-green wing of a macaw. —
别着一只金绿色的金刚鹦鹉的翅膀。 —

On this morning she was softly and shyly radiant. —
这个早上，她柔和而害羞地闪耀着。 —

Her eyes were dreamily bright, her cheeks genuine peachblow, her expression a happy one, tinged with reminiscence.
她的眼睛梦幻般地明亮，她的脸颊真正像桃花红，她的表情幸福而充满回忆。

Pitcher, still mildly curious, noticed a difference in her ways this morning. —
还有点好奇的Pitcher注意到她今天的方式有所不同。 —

Instead of going straight into the adjoining room, where her desk was, she lingered, slightly irresolute, in the outer office. —
她没有直接走进隔壁的房间，她的办公桌在那里。她在外面的办公室里稍稍犹豫不决。 —

Once she moved over by Maxwell’s desk, near enough for him to be aware of her presence.
她曾经走到Maxwell的桌子旁边，离他足够近，让他意识到她的存在。

The machine sitting at that desk was no longer a man; —
坐在那张桌子旁边的机器不再是一个人； —

it was a busy New York broker, moved by buzzing wheels and uncoiling springs.
它是一个忙碌的纽约经纪人，被嗡嗡作响的轮子和展开的弹簧驱使着。

Well–what is it Anything asked Maxwell sharply. —
那么，有什么事吗？Maxwell尖锐地问道。 —

His opened mail lay like a bank of stage snow on his crowded desk. —
他的打开的邮件像舞台上的雪堆一样摆放在他拥挤的桌子上。 —

His keen grey eye, impersonal and brusque, flashed upon her half impatiently.
他机敏的灰色眼睛，冷漠而急躁，半不耐烦地瞥了她一眼。

Nothing, answered the stenographer, moving away with a little smile.
没有，打字员回答道，带着微笑走开了。

Mr. Pitcher, she said to the confidential clerk, did Mr. Maxwell say anything yesterday about engaging another stenographer
Pitcher先生，她对机密助理说道，昨天Maxwell有没有提到要雇佣另一个打字员？

He did, answered Pitcher. He told me to get another one. —
他就是这么说的，皮彻（Pitcher）回答说。 —

I notified the agency yesterday afternoon to send over a few samples this morning. —
他告诉我再去拿一个。我昨天下午就通知了机构，让他们今天早上送几个样品过来。 —

It’s 9.45 o’clock, and not a single picture hat or piece of pineapple chewing gum has showed up yet.
现在已经是9点45分了，一个帽子或一块菠萝口香糖都还没送到。

I will do the work as usual, then, said the young lady, until some one comes to fill the place. —
我还是像往常一样工作，年轻女士说道，直到有人来顶替这个位置。 —

And she went to her desk at once and hung the black turban hat with the gold-green macaw wing in its accustomed place.
她立刻走到自己的桌子那里，把那顶戴着金绿色金刚鹦鹉翅膀的黑色礼帽挂到了原来的位置。

He who has been denied the spectacle of a busy Manhattan broker during a rush of business is handicapped for the profession of anthropology. —
一个曾经无法目睹纽约曼哈顿的繁忙经纪人在繁忙工作时刻的人，对于人类学这个行业来说是不利的。 —

The poet sings of the crowded hour of glorious life. —
诗人歌颂了充实而辉煌的生活时刻。 —

The broker’s hour is not only crowded, but the minutes and seconds are hanging to all the straps and packing both front and rear platforms.
而经纪人的工作时刻不仅紧凑，而且每一分钟和每一秒都挤满了人，前后车厢都塞得满满的。

And this day was Harvey Maxwell’s busy day. —
而今天是哈维·麦克斯韦尔繁忙的一天。 —

The ticker began to reel out jerkily its fitful coils of tape, the desk telephone had a chronic attack of buzzing. —
股票报价器开始不稳地滚动着带子，办公桌上的电话一直发出刺耳的嗡嗡声。 —

Men began to throng into the office and call at him over the railing, jovially, sharply, viciously, excitedly. —
男人开始蜂拥进入办公室，纷纷从栏杆处大声叫喊，喜悦地、尖刻地、恶意地、兴奋地。 —

Messenger boys ran in and out with messages and telegrams. —
传令员们进进出出，带着信息和电报。 —

The clerks in the office jumped about like sailors during a storm. —
办公室里的职员们像风暴中的水手一样跳来跳去。 —

Even Pitcher’s face relaxed into something resembling animation.
甚至皮切尔的脸也放松了一些，变得活跃起来。

On the Exchange there were hurricanes and landslides and snowstorms and glaciers and volcanoes, and those elemental disturbances were reproduced in miniature in the broker’s offices. —
证券交易所里发生了飓风、山体滑坡、暴风雪、冰川和火山，这些原始的扰乱在经纪人的办公室里被缩小成了模型。 —

Maxwell shoved his chair against the wall and transacted business after the manner of a toe dancer. —
麦克斯韦尔把椅子推到墙边，像踮脚舞者一样进行业务交易。 —

He jumped from ticker to ‘phone, from desk to door with the trained agility of a harlequin.
他像小丑一样训练有素地从报价机跳到电话、从桌子跳到门口。

In the midst of this growing and important stress the broker became suddenly aware of a high-rolled fringe of golden hair under a nodding canopy of velvet and ostrich tips, an imitation sealskin sacque and a string of beads as large as hickory nuts, ending near the floor with a silver heart. —
在这个快速发展且重要的紧张氛围中，经纪人突然注意到在一顶摇曳的天鹅绒和鸵鸟羽毛点缀下，有一缕高高卷起的金发，还有一件仿制的海豹皮外套和一串像山核桃一样大的珠子，地面上还挂着一颗银色的心形物品。 —

There was a self-possessed young lady connected with these accessories; —
这些配件与一个自持的年轻女士有关联； —

and Pitcher was there to construe her.
Pitcher在那里来解释她。

Lady from the Stenographer’s Agency to see about the position, said Pitcher.
一位来自速记员代理处的女士来看工作机会，Pitcher说。

Maxwell turned half around, with his hands full of papers and ticker tape.
Maxwell半转身，手里满是文件和传真纸。

What position he asked, with a frown.
什么职位？他皱着眉头问。

Position of stenographer, said Pitcher. —
速记员的职位，Pitcher说。 —

You told me yesterday to call them up and have one sent over this morning.
昨天你告诉我打电话给他们，让他们今早派一个来。

You are losing your mind, Pitcher, said Maxwell. —
你是在疯了，Pitcher，Maxwell说。 —

Why should I have given you any such instructions Miss Leslie has given perfect satisfaction during the year she has been here. —
为什么我要给你这样的指示？Leslie小姐在这里工作一年以来一直令人满意。 —

The place is hers as long as she chooses to retain it. There’s no place open here, madam. —
只要她愿意，这个位置就是她的。这里没有空缺，女士。 —

Countermand that order with the agency, Pitcher, and don’t bring any more of ‘em in here.
取消代理处的那个订单，Pitcher，不要再带进来别的人。

The silver heart left the office, swinging and banging itself independently against the office furniture as it indignantly departed. —
银色的心形配饰离开了办公室，在愤怒地荡来荡去碰撞着办公家具。 —

Pitcher seized a moment to remark to the bookkeeper that the old man seemed to get more absent-minded and forgetful every day of the world.
Pitcher抓住时机对记账员说，老人似乎每天都变得越来越心不在焉和健忘。

The rush and pace of business grew fiercer and faster. —
生意的忙碌和速度变得更加凶猛和迅猛。 —

On the floor they were pounding half a dozen stocks in which Maxwell’s customers were heavy investors. —
在交易所上，他们抛售了六个股票，这些股票中的一些是Maxwell的重要投资者。 —

Orders to buy and sell were coming and going as swift as the flight of swallows. —
买卖指令来来回回，犹如燕子飞行一般迅速。 —

Some of his own holdings were imperilled, and the man was working like some high-geared, delicate, strong machine–strung to full tension, going at full speed, accurate, never hesitating, with the proper word and decision and act ready and prompt as clockwork. —
他自己的一些投资陷入了危险之中，这个人就像一个高速运转、精密而强大的机器——紧绷，全速运转，准确无误，从不犹豫，恰到好处的语言、决策和行动如同钟表般迅速。 —

Stocks and bonds, loans and mortgages, margins and securities–here was a world of finance, and there was no room in it for the human world or the world of nature.
股票和债券、贷款和抵押、保证金和证券——这里是金融的世界，而在其中没有空间留给人类世界或自然世界。

When the luncheon hour drew near there came a slight lull in the uproar.
午餐时间临近时，喧嚣中出现了轻微的间歇。

Maxwell stood by his desk with his hands full of telegrams and memoranda, with a fountain pen over his right ear and his hair hanging in disorderly strings over his forehead. —
麦克斯韦尔站在他的办公桌旁，手上拿着满满一抱的电报和备忘录，右耳上夹着一支钢笔，头发乱糟糟地披散在额头上。 —

His window was open, for the beloved janitress Spring had turned on a little warmth through the waking registers of the earth.
他的窗户是开着的，因为亲爱的门房斯普林已经通过一些苏醒的管道向地球注入了一点温暖。

And through the window came a wandering–perhaps a lost–odour–a delicate, sweet odour of lilac that fixed the broker for a moment immovable. —
透过窗户传来一阵漫游的气味，也许是一阵迷失的气味，一阵幽香的丁香花气味使这位经纪人瞬间停了下来。 —

For this odour belonged to Miss Leslie; —
因为这种气味属于莉莉丝小姐， —

it was her own, and hers only.
它是她独有的。

The odour brought her vividly, almost tangibly before him. —
这种气味生动地、几乎可以触摸到地把她带到了他面前。 —

The world of finance dwindled suddenly to a speck. —
金融世界突然变得微不足道起来。 —

And she was in the next room–twenty steps away.
而她就在隔壁房间里，离他仅二十步之遥。

By George, I’ll do it now, said Maxwell, half aloud. —
我发誓要现在就去问她，麦克斯韦尔半声说道。 —

I’ll ask her now. I wonder I didn’t do it long ago.
我想不明白我为什么不早点这么做。

He dashed into the inner office with the haste of a short trying to cover. —
他急忙冲进内部办公室，有如一只小短距离赛马试图冲刺。 —

He charged upon the desk of the stenographer.
他撞向了速记员的办公桌。

She looked up at him with a smile. —
她微笑着抬头看着他。 —

A soft pink crept over her cheek, and her eyes were kind and frank. —
一抹嫩粉色温柔地爬上她的脸颊，她的眼睛友善而坦率。 —

Maxwell leaned one elbow on her desk. —
麦克斯韦尔用胳膊肘撑在她的桌子上。 —

He still clutched fluttering papers with both hands and the pen was above his ear.
他仍然用双手抓着飘动的纸张，笔插在耳朵上方。

Miss Leslie, he began hurriedly, I have but a moment to spare. —
莱斯利小姐，他匆匆地开始说，我只有一分钟。 —

I want to say something in that moment. —
在这一刻我想说点什么。 —

Will you he my wife I haven’t had time to make love to you in the ordinary way, but I really do love you. —
你愿意成为我的妻子吗？我没有时间以正常的方式去爱你，但我真的爱你。 —

Talk quick, please–those fellows are clubbing the stuffing out of Union Pacific.
快说吧，请–那些人正在痛打联合太平洋铁路。

Oh, what are you talking about exclaimed the young lady. —
哦，你在说什么啊，年轻女士惊呼道。 —

She rose to her feet and gazed upon him, round-eyed.
她站了起来，眼睛睁得圆圆的。

Don’t you understand said Maxwell, restively. —
难道你不明白吗，麦克斯韦尔不耐烦地说。 —

I want you to marry me. I love you, Miss Leslie. —
我想让你嫁给我。我爱你，莱斯利小姐。 —

I wanted to tell you, and I snatched a minute when things had slackened up a bit. —
我想告诉你，我趁着事情稍微缓和了一点的时候抓紧了一分钟。 —

They’re calling me for the ‘phone now. —
他们正在叫我接电话。 —

Tell ‘em to wait a minute, Pitcher. —
请告诉他们等一分钟，普利彻。拜托你了， —

Won’t you, Miss Leslie
莱斯利小姐。

The stenographer acted very queerly. —
速记员的举动显得非常奇怪。 —

At first she seemed overcome with amazement; —
起初，她似乎被惊讶所淹没； —

then tears flowed from her wondering eyes; —
然后泪水从她惊讶的眼睛中流出； —

and then she smiled sunnily through them, and one of her arms slid tenderly about the broker’s neck.
然后她带着阳光般的微笑，眼中含着泪水，一只胳膊温柔地绕过经纪人的脖子。

I know now, she said, softly. —
我现在知道了，她轻声说道。 —

It’s this old business that has driven everything else out of your head for the time. —
这个古老的事情让你暂时把其他事情都抛之脑后。 —

I was frightened at first. —
起初我感到害怕。 —

Don’t you remember, Harvey We were married last evening at 8 o’clock in the Little Church Around the Corner.
你不记得了吗，哈维？昨晚我们在转角处的小教堂结婚了，时间是八点钟。