《罗杰疑案》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

Mrs. Ferrars died on the night of the 16th–17th September—a Thursday. I was sent for at eight o’clock on the morning of Friday the 17th. There was nothing to be done. She had been dead some hours.

费拉尔斯太太死于九月十六日到十七日的夜间，那是一个星期四。十七日星期五早晨八点，有人来叫我。已经无济于事。她已死去好几个小时了。

It was just a few minutes after nine when I reached home once more. I opened the front door with my latch-key, and purposely delayed a few moments in the hall, hanging up my hat and the light overcoat that I had deemed a wise precaution against the chill of an early autumn morning. To tell the truth, I was considerably upset and worried. I am not going to pretend that at that moment I foresaw the events of the next few weeks. I emphatically did not do so. But my instinct told me that there were stirring times ahead.

我再次回到家时，刚过九点几分钟。我用弹簧锁钥匙打开前门，故意在门厅里耽搁了片刻，挂好帽子，还有那件我认为是抵御初秋早晨寒气明智之举的薄大衣。说实话，我相当心烦意乱，忧心忡忡。我不打算假装那一刻我预见到了接下来几周的事件。我绝对没有。但我的直觉告诉我，动荡的时刻就在前头。

From the dining-room on my left there came the rattle of tea-cups and the short, dry cough of my sister Caroline.

从我左边的餐厅里，传来茶杯的咔嗒声和我姐姐卡罗琳短促而干涩的咳嗽声。

“Is that you, James?” she called.

「是你吗，詹姆斯？」她喊道。

An unnecessary question, since who else could it be? To tell the truth, it was precisely my sister Caroline who was the cause of my few minutes’ delay. The motto of the mongoose family, so Mr. Kipling tells us, is: “Go and find out.” If Caroline ever adopts a crest, I should certainly suggest a mongoose rampant. One might omit the first part of the motto. Caroline can do any amount of finding out by sitting placidly at home. I don’t know how she manages it, but there it is. I suspect that the servants and the tradesmen constitute her Intelligence Corps. When she goes out, it is not to gather in information, but to spread it. At that, too, she is amazingly expert.

一个多余的问题，因为还能是谁呢？说实话，正是我姐姐卡罗琳导致了我那几分钟的耽搁。吉卜林先生告诉我们，猫鼬家族的座右铭是：「去查个明白。」如果卡罗琳采用纹章，我肯定会建议用一只直立咆哮的猫鼬。可以省略座右铭的前半部分。卡罗琳只要安安静静坐在家里，就能查出无数事情。我不知道她是怎么做到的，但事实就是如此。我怀疑仆人和商贩构成了她的情报队伍。她出门时，不是为了收集信息，而是为了散布信息。在这方面，她也惊人地擅长。

It was really this last named trait of hers which was causing me these pangs of indecision. Whatever I told Caroline now concerning the demise of Mrs. Ferrars would be common knowledge all over the village within the space of an hour and a half. As a professional man, I naturally aim at discretion. Therefore I have got into the habit of continually withholding all information possible from my sister. She usually finds out just the same, but I have the moral satisfaction of knowing that I am in no way to blame.

真正让我此刻犹豫不决的，正是她这后一种特点。无论我现在告诉卡罗琳什么关于费拉尔斯太太去世的事，一个半小时内就会传遍整个村子。作为专业人士，我自然力求谨慎。因此我养成了习惯，尽可能对姐姐隐瞒一切信息。她通常照样能查出来，但我有道德上的满足感，知道这绝不能怪我。

Mrs. Ferrars’ husband died just over a year ago, and Caroline has constantly asserted, without the least foundation for the assertion, that his wife poisoned him.

费拉尔斯太太的丈夫刚在一年多前去世，卡罗琳一直断言，毫无根据地说，是他妻子毒死了他。

She scorns my invariable rejoinder that Mr. Ferrars died of acute gastritis, helped on by habitual over-indulgence in alcoholic beverages. The symptoms of gastritis and arsenical poisoning are not, I agree, unlike, but Caroline bases her accusation on quite different lines.

她蔑视我一贯的反驳，即费拉尔斯先生死于急性胃炎，加上习惯性过度饮酒所致。我同意，胃炎和砒霜中毒的症状并非不相似，但卡罗琳的指控基于完全不同的理由。

“You’ve only got to look at her,” I have heard her say.

「你只要看看她就知道了，」我听过她这么说。

Mrs. Ferrars, though not in her first youth, was a very attractive woman, and her clothes, though simple, always seemed to fit her very well, but all the same, lots of women buy their clothes in Paris and have not, on that account, necessarily poisoned their husbands.

费拉尔斯太太虽然已非青春年少，却是个非常有魅力的女人，她的衣服虽然朴素，却总是显得非常合身，但尽管如此，许多女人在巴黎买衣服，并不因此就必然毒死了丈夫。

As I stood hesitating in the hall, with all this passing through my mind, Caroline’s voice came again, with a sharper note in it.

我站在门厅里犹豫着，脑子里转着这些念头，卡罗琳的声音又传来了，带着更尖锐的语调。

“What on earth are you doing out there, James? Why don’t you come and get your breakfast?”

「你到底在外面干什么，詹姆斯？怎么不来吃早饭？」

“Just coming, my dear,” I said hastily. “I’ve been hanging up my overcoat.”

「就来，亲爱的，」我赶紧说。「我在挂大衣。」

“You could have hung up half a dozen overcoats in this time.”

「这点时间你都能挂半打大衣了。」

She was quite right. I could have.

她说得完全对。我确实能。

I walked into the dining-room, gave Caroline the accustomed peck on the cheek, and sat down to eggs and bacon. The bacon was rather cold.

我走进餐厅，照例在卡罗琳脸颊上轻吻一下，坐下来吃鸡蛋和培根。培根有点凉了。

“You’ve had an early call,” remarked Caroline.

「你一早被叫出去了，」卡罗琳说。

“Yes,” I said. “King’s Paddock. Mrs. Ferrars.”

「是的，」我说。「国王围场。费拉尔斯太太。」

“I know,” said my sister.

「我知道，」我姐姐说。

“How did you know?”

「你怎么知道的？」

“Annie told me.”

「安妮告诉我的。」

Annie is the house parlormaid. A nice girl, but an inveterate talker.

安妮是家里的客厅女仆。一个好姑娘，但是个积习难改的碎嘴子。