6
0厄尔和艾莉
作者： F. 斯科特 · 费兹杰拉德
编译：嘉炜
接下来的一个星期天下午，我在乡下一个半私人的游泳池，遇到了这位城中富有盛名的女生。当艾莉和我到达时，刚好看到舍恩在泳池的另一端，他那肌肉发达的身体从泳衣里无意的裸露出来。
“嘿,中尉！”他在远处跟我打招呼。
当我向他挥手回敬时，他咧嘴一笑，眨了眨眼，把头转向了身边的女孩。然后戳了戳她，朝我猛地摇了摇头，这是介绍的一种形式。
“和基蒂·普雷斯顿在一起的是谁？”艾莉问，当我告诉她时，她说厄尔看起来像一个有轨电车售票员，并假装为她寻找车程需求。
过了一会儿，他有力又优雅地钻进了水里并爬到我们泳池这边，我把他介绍给艾莉。
“你觉得我的姑娘怎么样，中尉?”他问道。“我跟你说过她很不错，对吧?”他把头转向艾莉；这是他想要暗示他的姑娘和艾莉是同一圈层的。“找一天傍晚我们一起在酒店吃晚饭怎么样?”
我一会儿就离开了他们，有意思的是，很显然艾莉也觉得呆在这里并不理想，但舍恩中尉并没有被如此轻易地劝退。他开心地、无伤大雅地打量着艾莉那可爱又苗条的身材，显然她认为她比其他姑娘更有吸引力。而不到一会儿，我看到他们一起在水里，艾丽神情严肃地游开了，舍恩则在她周围和她面前疯狂地一会儿沉在水里，一会儿又冒出头来，并且停下来，着迷地盯着她，就像一个男孩盯着航海玩具一样。
一个下午过去了，他一直守在她身边。最后艾莉走到我身边，笑着小声说:“他一直跟着我。就像我没有付车费给他买票一样。”
她快速地转过身。这时，基蒂·普雷斯顿小姐站在我们面前，脸上带着奇怪的慌乱。
“艾莉·卡尔霍恩，我没想到你会出来，故意从另一个女孩手中夺走一个男人。”——即将发生的事情使得艾莉的脸上掠过一阵警觉而难堪的表情。“我还以为你认为自己是超然于此的呢！”
普雷斯顿小姐的声音很低，但它保持着那种可以让人感受到，而不是直接听到的紧张。我看到艾莉清澈可爱的眼睛，惊恐地扫视四周。幸运的是，厄尔本人正愉快而天真地朝我们走来。
“如果你关心他，你就不应当在他面前贬低自己。”艾莉突然说道，并特意抬高了头。
她以她擅长的一贯的行事方式，来对抗基蒂的幼稚和激烈的占有欲。或者这正是你喜欢的，艾莉的特有“教养”，她通常也以此来对抗多数女孩子的“共性”。她转过了身。
“等一下，孩子！”舍恩喊道。“你的地址呢？”也许我应该给你打个电话。”
她看着厄尔的神情，足以向吉蒂表明她对他毫无兴趣。
“我这个月在红十字会很忙，”她说，她的声音和她向后梳着的金色头发一样冷冰冰的。“再见。”
在回家的路上，她笑了。她那受到困扰的神情消失了，因为之前曾被不情愿地卷入那桩低级的韵事而神伤。
她说：“她永远也抓不住那个年轻人。”“他想找个新人。”
“显然他想要艾莉·卡尔霍恩。”
这个想法使她感到好笑。
“他可以把他的检票打孔器让我戴着，就像兄弟会的勋章一样。非常有趣！要是妈妈看见这样的人进了家门，她会躺下晕死过去。”
为了给足艾莉面子，他足足过了两个星期才来到她的家里。尽管他一直纠缠她，直到在后来的一次乡村俱乐部的舞会上她才假装表现出了厌烦。
“他真是再粗鲁不过了，安迪。”她小声对我说。“但是他很真诚。”
The following Sunday afternoon I met the lady at a semiprivate swimming pool in the country. When Ailie and I arrived, there was Schoen's muscular body rippling out of a bathing suit at the far end of the pool.
"Hey, lieutenant!"
When I waved back at him he grinned and winked, jerking his head toward the girl at his side. Then, digging her in the ribs, he jerked his head at me. It was a form of introduction.
"Who's that with Kitty Preston?" Ailie asked, and when I told her she said he looked like a street-car conductor, and pretended to look for her transfer.
A moment later he crawled powerfully and gracefully down the pool and pulled himself up at our side. I introduced him to Ailie.
"How do you like my girl, lieutenant?" he demanded. "I told you she was all right, didn't I?" He jerked his head toward Ailie; this time to indicate that his girl and Ailie moved in the same circles. "How about us all having dinner together down at the hotel some night?"
I left them in a moment, amused as I saw Ailie visibly making up her mind that here, anyhow, was not the ideal. But Lieutenant Earl Schoen was not to be dismissed so lightly. He ran his eyes cheerfully and inoffensively over her cute, slight figure, and decided that she would do even better than the other. Then minutes later I saw them in the water together, Ailie swimming away with a grim little stroke she had, and Schoen wallowing riotously around her and ahead of her, sometimes pausing and staring at her, fascinated, as a boy might look at a nautical doll.
While the afternoon passed he remained at her side. Finally Ailie came over to me and whispered, with a laugh: "He's following me around. He thinks I haven't paid my carfare."
She turned quickly. Miss Kitty Preston, her face curiously flustered, stood facing us.
"Ailie Calhoun, I didn't think it of you to go out and delib'ately try to take a man away from another girl."--An expression of distress at the impending scene flitted over Ailie's face.--"I thought you considered yourself above anything like that."
Miss Preston's voice was low, but it held that tensity that can be felt farther than it can be heard, and I saw Ailie's clear lovely eyes glance about in panic. Luckily, Earl himself was ambling cheerfully and innocently toward us.
"If you care for him you certainly oughtn't to belittle yourself in front of him," said Ailie in a flash, her head high.
It was her acquaintance with the traditional way of behaving against Kitty Preston's naïve and fierce possessiveness, or if you prefer it, Ailie's "breeding" against the other's "commonness." She turned away.
"Wait a minute, kid!" cried Earl Schoen. "How about your address? Maybe I'd like to give you a ring on the phone."
She looked at him in a way that should have indicated to Kitty her entire lack of interest.
"I'm very busy at the Red Cross this month," she said, her voice as cool as her slicked-back blond hair. "Good-by."
On the way home she laughed. Her air of having been unwittingly involved in a contemptible business vanished.
"She'll never hold that young man," she said. "He wants somebody new."
"Apparently he wants Ailie Calhoun."
The idea amused her.
"He could give me his ticket punch to wear, like a fraternity pin. What fun! If mother ever saw anybody like that come in the house, she'd just lie down and die."
And to give Ailie credit, it was fully a fortnight before he did come in her house, although he rushed her until she pretended to be annoyed at the next country-club dance.
"He's the biggest tough, Andy," she whispered to me. "But he's so sincere.”
