地下墓穴（10）

（单词翻译）

“I suppose it is the survival¹ of the fittest,” said he. “If he had been the better man she would not have deserted² him. Let’s drop the subject, for I have had enough of it!”

“Only one other thing. How did you get rid of her in three weeks?”

“Well, we had both cooled down a bit, you understand. She absolutely refused, under any circumstances, to come back to face the people she had known in Rome. Now, of course, Rome is necessary to me, and I was already pining to be back at my work—so there was one obvious cause of separation. Then, again, her old father turned up at the hotel in London, and there was a scene, and the whole thing became so unpleasant that really—though I missed her dreadfully at first—I was very glad to slip out of it. Now, I rely upon you not to repeat anything of what I have said.”

“My dear Kennedy, I should not dream of repeating it. But all that you say interests me very much, for it gives me an insight³ into your way of looking at things, which is entirely⁴ different from mine, for I have seen so little of life. And now you want to know about my new catacomb. There’s no use my trying to describe it, for you would never find it by that. There is only one thing, and that is for me to take you there.”

“适者生存吧，我想，"他说。“如果他是更好的，她就不会抛弃他了，咱们别再谈这个话题了，我实在说够了！”

“只剩一个问题了。你是怎么在三个星期后把她甩掉的？”

“你明白，后来我们俩的热情都有点冷却了。她无论如何也不肯回到罗马面对那些熟悉的面孔了。而对我来说，当然，罗马是非回来不可的，我时刻盼望回来工作。就这样，出现了分手的充分理由。而且，此时她的老爸到了伦敦的旅馆，大吵大闹一番，整个事情变得非常不愉快，我很高兴能及早脱身一一虽然最初还是极其思念她的。现在，我恳求你不要把我的这些话讲出去。”

“亲爱的肯尼迪，我就是做梦也不会讲出去的。不过你讲的这些使我发生了很大兴趣，它们让我了解了你处世的方式，那与我的方式完全不同，因为我对生活了解太少，现在，你想知道我发现的地下墓穴的情况吧。其实我把它描述出来也没用，那样你根本发现不了什么，只有一个办法，就是我把你带到那儿去。”