精靈鼠小弟 第73期:鼠小弟約埃姆斯小姐見面

"Pray forgive me, Miss Ames," continued Stuart, for presuming to strike up an acquaintance on so slender an excuse as your physical similarity;

“請原諒我的魯莽，埃姆斯小姐，”斯圖亞特繼續(xù)寫，當看到你那與我相似的外表時我感到就如同遇到了一個舊友。

but of course the fact is, as you yourself must know, there are very few people who are only two inches in height.

但是就是這樣，因為你知道，很少有人身高只有兩英寸。

I say "two inches" —actually I am somewhat taller than that.

我說“兩英寸”還不太確切——實際上我比那還高一點兒。

My only drawback is that I look something like a mouse.

我唯一的缺陷是我的樣子像一只老鼠。

I am nicely proportioned, however.

但即便如此，我還是一個很不錯的人。

Am also muscular beyond my years.

我還有著一身與我的年齡不相稱的強壯肌肉。

Let me be perfectly blunt: my purpose in writing this brief note is to suggest that we meet.

我干脆坦白說吧：我寫這個便條的目的是想約你出來見一面。

I realize that your parents may object to the suddenness and directness of my proposal, as well as to my somewhat mouselike appearance,

我怕你的父母可能會反對我這個直率而又突然的提議，而且由于我的外表像老鼠一樣，

so I think probably it might be a good idea if you just didn't mention the matter to them.

所以我想如果你不對他們談起這件事，結果會更好。

What they don't know won't hurt them.

這樣他們就會一無所知，也不會受到傷害了。

However, you probably understand more about dealing with your father and mother than I do,

可是，你也許更愿意和你的父母討論這件事，

so I won't attempt to instruct you but will leave everything to your good judgment.

如果那樣的話我也不會強迫你別這么做，但我還是要把我的意見留給你做參考。