Miss Waterford certainlyfelt that she could not do her subject justice on the curb of Jermyn Street,and so, like an artist, flung the bare fact at me and declared that she knew nodetails. I could not do her the injustice of supposing that so trifling acircumstance would have prevented her from giving them, but she was obstinate.

"I tell you I knownothing, " she said, in reply to my agitated questions, and then, with anairy shrug of the shoulders: "I believe that a young person in a citytea-shop has left her situation. "

She flashed a smile at me,and, protesting an engagement with her dentist, jauntily walked on. I was moreinterested than distressed. In those days my experience of life at first handwas small, and it excited me to come upon an incident among people I knew ofthe same sort as /ai/ had read in books. I confess that time has now accustomed meto incidents of this character among my acquaintance. But I was a littleshocked. Strickland was certainly forty, and I thought it disgusting that a manof his age should concern himself with affairs of the heart. With thesuperciliousness of extreme youth, I put thirty-five as the utmost limit atwhich a man might fall in love without making a fool of himself.

瓦特尔芙德小姐肯定觉得，在杰尔敏大街马路边上讲这个故事太辱没这样一个好题目，所以她只是象个艺术家似地把主题抛出来，宣称她并不知道细节。而我却不能埋没她的口才，认为根本无需介意的环境竟会妨碍她给我讲述故事。但是她还是执拗地不肯讲。

“我告诉你我什么也不知道，”她回答我激动的问题说，接着，很俏皮地耸了耸肩膀，又加了一句：“我相信伦敦哪家茶点店准有一位年轻姑娘把活儿辞了。”

她朝我笑了一下，道歉说同牙医生约定了时间，便神气十足地扬长而去。这个消息与其说叫我难过，不如说使我很感兴趣。在那些日子里我的见闻还很少是亲身经历的第一手材料，因此在我碰到这样一件我在书本里阅读到的故事时，觉得非常兴奋。我承认，现在时间和阅历已经使我习惯于在我相识的人中遇到这类事情了。但是我当时还有一种惊骇的感觉。思特里克兰德那一年一定已经有四十岁了，我认为象他这样年纪的人再牵扯到这种爱情瓜葛中未免令人作呕。在我当时年幼无知，睥睨一切的目光中，一个人陷入爱情而又不使自己成为笑柄，三十五岁是最大的年限。