The Great Gatsby — Page 191

他本可以帮助建设这个国家的。"

He'd of helped build up the country."

"那倒是，"我不自在地说。

"That's true," I said, uncomfortably.

他摸索着那床绣花被，想把它从床上拉开，然后僵硬地躺了下去——转眼间就睡着了。

He fumbled at the embroidered coverlet, trying to take it from the bed, and lay down stiffly—was instantly asleep.

那天夜里，一个明显很害怕的人打电话来，在报上自己的姓名之前，坚持要知道我是谁。

That night an obviously frightened person called up, and demanded to know who I was before he would give his name.

"我是卡拉威先生，"我说。

"This is Mr. Carraway," I said.

"哦！"他的口气听起来松了一口气。"我是克利普斯普林格。"

"Oh!" He sounded relieved. "This is Klipspringer."

我也松了一口气，因为这似乎预示着又多了一个会去盖茨比墓前的朋友。我不想让这件事登上报纸、引来一群看热闹的人，所以我自己也打了几个电话。这些人都很难找到。

I was relieved too, for that seemed to promise another friend at Gatsby's grave. I didn't want it to be in the papers and draw a sightseeing crowd, so I'd been calling up a few people myself. They were hard to find.

"葬礼是明天，"我说，"下午三点，就在这里，在宅子里。希望你能告诉任何可能有兴趣来的人。"

"The funeral's tomorrow," I said. "Three o'clock, here at the house. I wish you'd tell anybody who'd be interested."

"哦，我会的，"他急忙说。"当然，我不太可能见到任何人，但如果碰到的话。"

"Oh, I will," he broke out hastily. "Of course I'm not likely to see anybody, but if I do."

他的语气让我起了疑心。

His tone made me suspicious.

"你自己当然会来的。"

"Of course you'll be there yourself."

"嗯，我当然会尽力的。我打电话来是因为——"

"Well, I'll certainly try. What I called up about is—"

"等一下，"我打断他说，"你能不能干脆说你会来？"

"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "How about saying you'll come?"

"嗯，事情是这样的——说实话，我现在住在格林尼治的一些朋友家里，他们相当指望我明天陪着他们。其实，好像有个野餐什么的。当然，我会尽力脱身的。"

"Well, the fact is—the truth of the matter is that I'm staying with some people up here in Greenwich, and they rather expect me to be with them tomorrow. In fact, there's a sort of picnic or something. Of course I'll do my best to get away."

我毫不掩饰地"哼"了一声。

I ejaculated an unrestrained "Huh!