Captain Nichols, 一个落魄船员, 有一个年龄不明, 全身上下紧绷绷的妻子, 偏就这个妻子让captain怕得要死, 毛姆这段犀利又揶揄的描写, 让人忍俊不禁.
对于妻子年龄的描写, 即平常说的20岁不显年轻, 40岁不显老:
She was a woman of twenty-eight, I should think, though of a type whose age is always doubtful; for she cannot have looked different when she was twenty, and at forty would look no older.
真正的不怒自威:
At any rate Captain Nichols was frightened to death of her. Sometimes, sitting with me on the terrace of the hotel, he would become conscious that she was walking in the road outside. She did not call him: she gave no sign that she was aware of hs existence; she merely walked up and down composedly. Then a strange uneasiness would seize the Captain; he would look at his watch and sigh. "Well, I must be off," he said. Neither wit nor whisky could detain him then.
男主这个人神共愤的男人奇迹般的和Captain结成了queer companion, 俩人一块l领救济粮, 街头露宿, 去船上找老乡蹭吃蹭喝, 被船长踹下船. 不愧是男主的朋友, captain对这一脚的解读也颇为奇特:
“There is no harm in a kick in the hindquarters when your belly’s full,” said Captain Nichols, “and personally I never take it in bad part. An officer got to think about discipline.”
I had a lively picture of Captain Nichols flying headlong down a narrow gangway before the uplifted foot of an angry mate, and, like a true Englishman, rejoicing in the spirit of the Mercantile Marine.