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故事发生在上世纪初的英国.一对富豪兄弟用一张面值百万英镑的现钞打赌,看这张钞票究竟会给人带来无尽的财富还是只是一张一文不值的“小纸片”.&&&&很快,从美国来的亚当进入了富豪兄弟的视线.这个人的船在海上触礁沉没,他靠给其他船只做工来抵押船票才到了英国.现在他身无分文、饥饿难忍,这样一个穷人是再适合不过的人选了.于是亚当被请进了富豪家中.&&&&富豪兄弟给了亚当百万钞票,并和他约定在一个月的时间里,亚当可以任意使用.但一个月后他必须把钞票原样不动地还给富豪,这样他可以得到富豪们为他提供的任何一份他想从事的工作.亚当糊里糊涂地接受了约定.&&&&亚当无论去吃饭、购买服装都会因衣衫褴褛遭到人们的白眼.但当他拿出这张钞票时,人们不但向他大献殷勤,甚至连相关的费用都可以减免,因为在他们看来亚当是富豪,而且根本没有人可以给一张百万面值的钞票找零.&&&&很快报纸上刊登出美国一位有着着装怪癖的百万富翁光临英国的消息,一时间亚当成为上流社会的焦点,无论是公爵、富商都以和亚当交际为荣,年轻姑娘们更是为了吸引亚当的注意而彼此间争风吃醋,亚当成为英国尽人皆知的人物.&&&&但很快亚当陷入困境中.先是他欠下的债越来越多,之后饭店服务员和他开玩笑,将百万钞票藏了起来,瞬间股市大跌,人们相传亚当是骗子,要债的人挤满了整个饭店……&&&&好在一个月的期限终于到了,亚当如释重负地将钞票还给了富豪兄弟.但亚当并没有接受他们为他安排工作,因为经历了大起大落,亚当早已厌倦了人们对金钱的追逐.尽管失去了金钱,但他却得到了许多.
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淘豆网网友近日为您收集整理了关于百万英镑中英双语版的文档，希望对您的工作和学习有所帮助。以下是文档介绍：百万英镑中英双语版 Mark TwainThe 1,000,000 Bank-NoteWhen I was twenty-seven years old, I was a mining-broker's clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the detailsof stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing to depend upon but my wits an butthese were setting my feet in the road to eventual fortune, and I was content with the prospect.My time was my own after the afternoon board, Saturdays, and I was accustomed to put it in on a littlesail-boat on the bay. One (来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])day I ventured too far, and was carried out to sea. Just at nightfall, when hope was aboutgone, I was picked up by a small brig which was bound for London. It was a long and stormy voyage, and theymade me work my passage without pay, as mon sailor. When I stepped ashore in London my clothes wereragged and shabby, and I had only a dollar in my pocket. This money fed and sheltered me twenty-four hours.During the next twenty-four I went without food an(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])d shelter.About ten o'clock on the following morning, seedy and hungry, I was dragging myself along Portland Place,when a child that was passing, towed by a nurse-maid, tossed a luscious big pear - minus one bite - into the gutter. Istopped, of course, and fastened my desiring eye on that muddy treasure. My mouth watered for it, my stomachcraved it, my whole being begged for it. But every time I made a move to get it some passing eye detected my(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])purpose, and of course I straightened up then, and looked indifferent, and pretended that I hadn't been thinkingabout the pear at all. This same thing kept happening and happening, and I couldn't get the pear. I was just gettingdesperate enough to brave all the shame, and to seize it, when a window behind me was raised, and a gentlemanspoke out of it, saying:&Step in here, please.&I was admitted by a gorgeous flunkey, and shown int(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])o a sumptuous room where a couple of elderlygentlemen were sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down. They had just finished their breakfast,and the sight of the remains of it almost overpowered me. I could hardly keep my wits together in the presence ofthat food, but as I was not asked to sample it, I had to bear my trouble as best I could.& 2 &Now, something had been happening there a little before, which I did not know anyth(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])ing about until a goodmany days afterwards, but I will tell you about it now. Those two old brothers had been having a pretty hotargument a couple of days before, and had ended by agreeing to decide it by a bet, which is the English way ofsettling everything.You will remember that the Bank of England once issued two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for aspecial purpose connected with some public transaction with a foreign country. For some(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html]) reason or other only oneof these had be the other still lay in the vaults of the Bank. Well, the brothers, chatting along,happened to get to wondering what might be the fate of a perfectly honest and intelligent stranger who should beturned adrift in London without a friend, and with no money but that million-pound bank-note, and no way ount for his being in possession of it. Brother A said he w Brother B s(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])aid he wouldn't.Brother A said he couldn't offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be arrested on the spot. So theywent on disputing till Brother B said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man would live thirty days,anyway, on that million, and keep out of jail, too. Brother A took him up. Brother B went down to the Bank andbought that note. Just like an Englishman, pluck to the backbone. Then he dictated a le(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])tter, which one ofhis clerks wrote out in a beautiful round hand, and then the two brothers sat at the window a whole day watchingfor the right man to give it to.They saw many honest faces go by that were no many that were intelligent,
many that were both, but the possessors were not poor enough, or, if poor enough, were notstrangers. There was always a defect, until I but they agreed that I fil(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])led so theyelected me unanimously, and there I was now waiting to know why I was called in. They began to ask me questionsabout myself, and pretty soon they had my story. Finally they told me I would answer their purpose. I said I wassincerely glad, and asked what it was. Then one of them handed me an envelope, and said I would find theexplanation inside. I was going to open it, take it to my lodgings, and look i(来源：淘豆网[/p-7451556.html])t over carefully, and notbe hasty or rash. I was puzzled, and wanted to discuss the matter a little further, but they didn't; so I took my leave,feeling hurt and insulted to be made the butt of what was apparently some kind of a practical joke, and yet obligedto put up with it, not being in circumstances to resent affronts from rich and strong folk.& 3 &I would have picked up the pear now and eaten it before all the world, so I had lost that bythis unlucky business, and the thought of it did not soften my feeling towards those men. As soon as I was out ofsight of that house I opened my envelope, and saw that it contained money! My opinion of those people changed, Ican tell you! I lost not a moment, but shoved note and money into my vest pocket, and broke for the nearest cheapeating house. Well, how I did eat! When at last I couldn't hold any more, I took out my money and unfolded it, tookone glimpse and nearly fainted. Five millions of dollars! Why, it made my head swim.I must have sat there stunned and blinking at the note as much as a minute before I came rightly to myselfagain. The first thing I noticed, then, was the landlord. His eye was on the note, and he was petrified. He wasworshiping, with all his body and soul, but he looked as if he couldn't stir hand or foot. I took my cue in a moment,and did the only rational thing there was to do. I reached the note towards him, and said, carelessly:&Give me the change, please.&Then he was restored to his normal condition, and made a thousand apologies for not being able to break thebill, and I couldn't get him to touch it. He wanted to look at it, and k he couldn't seem to getenough of it to quench the thirst of his eye, but he shrank from touching it as if it had been something too sacredfor mon clay to handle. I said:&I am sorry if it is an inconvenience, but I must insist. P I haven't anything else.&But he said that wasn' he was quite willing to let the trifle stand over till another time. I said Imight not be in his neighborhood ag but he said it was of no consequence, he could wait, and,moreover, I could have anything I wanted, any time I chose, and let the account run as long as I pleased. He said hehoped he wasn't afraid to trust as rich a gentleman as I was, merely because I was of a merry disposition, and choseto play larks on the public in the matter of dress. By this time another customer was entering, and the landlordhinted to me to put the
then he bowed me all the way to the door, and I started straight for thathouse and those brothers, to correct the mistake which had been made before the police should hunt me up, andhelp me do it. I in fact, pretty badly frightened, though, of course, I but Iknew men well enough to know that when they find they've given a tramp a million-pound bill when they thoughtit was a one-pounder, they are in a frantic rage against him instead of quarreling with their own near-sightedness, asthey ought. As I approached the house my excitement began to abate, for all was quiet there, which made me feelpretty sure the blunder was not discovered yet. I rang. The same servant appeared. I asked for those gentlemen.& 4 &&They are gone.& This in the lofty, cold way of that fellow's tribe.&Gone? Gone where?&&On a journey.&&But whereabouts?&&To the Continent, I think.&&The Continent?&&Yes, sir.&&Which way - by what route?&&I can't say, sir.&&When will they be back?&&In a month, they said.&&A month! Oh, this is awful! Give me some sort of idea of how to get a word to them. It's of the lastimportance.&&I can't, indeed. I've no idea where they've gone, sir.&&Then I must see some member of the family.&&Family's away, been abroad months - in Egypt and India, I think.&&Man, there's been an immense mistake made. They'll be back before night. Will you tell them I've been here,and that I will ing till it's all made right, and they needn't be afraid?&&I'll tell them, if e back, but I am not expecting them. They said you would be here in an hour tomake inquiries, but I must tell you it's all right, they'll be here on time and expect you.&So I had to give it up and go away. What a riddle it all was! I was like to lose my mind. They would be here&on time.& What could that mean? Oh, the letter would explain, maybe. I had
I got it out andread it. This is what it said:&You are an intelligent and honest man, as one may see by your face. We conceive you to be poor and astranger. Enclosed you will find a sum of money. It is lent to you for thirty days, without interest. Report at thishouse at the end of that time. I have a bet on you. If I win it you shall have any situation that is in my gift - any, thatis, that you shall be able to prove yourself familiar with petent to fill.&& 5 &No signature, no address, no date.Well, here was a coil to be in! You are posted on what had preceded all this, but I was not. It was just a deep,dark puzzle to me. I hadn't the least idea what the game was, nor whether harm was meant me or a kindness. I wentinto a park, and sat down to try to think it out, and to consider what I had best do.At the end of an hour my reasonings had crystallized into this verdict.Maybe those men mean me well, ma no way to decide that - let it go. They've got agame, or a scheme, or an experiment,
no way to determine what it is - let it go. There' no way to find out what it is - let it go. That disposes of the indet the remainder of thematter is tangible, solid, and may be classed and labeled with certainty. If I ask the Bank of England to place thisbill to the credit of the man it belongs to, they'll do it, for they know him, although I don't; but they will ask mehow I came in possession of it, and if I tell the truth, they'll put me in the asylum, naturally, and a lie will land mein jail. The same result would follow if I tried to bank the bill anywhere or to borrow money on it. I have got tocarry this immense burden around until those e back, whether I want to or not. It is useless to me, asuseless as a handful of ashes, and yet I must take care of it, and watch over it, while I beg my living. I couldn't giveit away, if I should try, for neither honest citizen nor highwayman would accept it or meddle with it for anything.Those brothers are safe. Even if I lose their bill, or burn it, they are still safe, because they can stop payment, andthe Bank
but meantime I've got to do a month's suffering without wages or profit - unless Ihelp win that bet, whatever it may be, and get that situation that I am promised. I sho men oftheir sort have situations in their gift that are worth having.& 6 &I got to thinking a good deal about that situation. My hopes began to rise high. Without doubt the salarywould be large. It wo after that I should be all right. Pretty soon I was feeling first-rate. Bythis time I was tramping the streets again. The sight of a tailor-shop gave me a sharp longing to shed my rags, andto clothe myself decently once more. Could I afford it? No; I had nothing in the world but a million pounds. So Iforced myself to go on by. But soon I was drifting back again. The temptation persecuted me cruelly. I must havepassed that shop back and forth six times during that manful struggle. At last I I had to. I asked if they hada misfit suit that had been thrown on their hands. The fellow I spoke to nodded his head towards another fellow,and gave me no answer. I went to the indicated fellow, and he indicated another fellow with his head, and no words.I went to him, and he said:& 'Tend to you presently.&I waited till he was done with what he was at, then he took me into a back room, and overhauled a pile ofrejected suits, and selected the rattiest one for me. I put it on. It didn't fit, and wasn't in any way attractive, but itwas new, and I wa so I didn't find any fault, but said, with some diffidence:&It would be an modation to me if you could wait some days for the money. I haven't any small changeabout me.&The fellow worked up a most sarcastic expression of countenance, and said:&Oh, you haven't? Well, of course, I didn't expect it. I'd only expect gentlemen like you to carry largechange.&I tled, and said:&My friend, you shouldn't judge a stranger always by the clothes he wears. I am quite able I simply didn't wish to put you to the trouble of changing a large note.&& 7 &He modified his style a little at that, and said, though still with something of an air:&I didn't mean any particular harm, but as long as rebukes are going, I might say it wasn't quite your affair tojump to the conclusion that we couldn't change any note that you might happen to be carrying around. On thecontrary, we can.&I handed the note to him, and said:&Oh, I apologize.&He received it with a smile, one of those large smiles which goes all around over, and has folds in it, andwrinkles, and spirals, and looks like the place where you have thro and then in the act of histaking a glimpse of the bill this smile froze solid, and turned yellow, and looked like those wavy, wormy spreads oflava which you find hardened on little levels on the side of Vesuvius. I never before saw a smile caught like that,and perpetuated. The man stood there holding the bill, and looking like that, and the proprietor hustled up to seewhat was the matter, and said, briskly:&Well, what's up? what's the trouble? what's wanting?&I said: &There isn't any trouble. I'm waiting for my change.&&Come, get him his change, T get him his change.&Tod retorted: &Get him his change! It's easy to say, but look at the bill yourself.&The proprietor took a look, gave a low, eloquent whistle, then made a dive for the pile of rejected clothing,and began to snatch it this way and that, talking all the time excitedly, and as if to himself:&Sell an eccentric millionaire such an unspeakable suit as that! Tod's a fool - a born fool. Always doingsomething like this. Drives every millionaire away from this place, because he can't tell a millionaire from a tramp,and never could. Ah, here's the thing I am after. Please get those things off, sir, and throw them in the fire. Do methe favor to put on this it's just the thing, the very thing - plain, rich, modest, a made to order for a foreign prince - you may know him, sir, his Serene Highness the Hospodar of Hhad to leave it with us and take a mourning-suit because his mother was going to die - which she didn't. But that' we can't always have things the way we - that is, the way they - there! trousers all right, they fit you to acharm, aha, right again! now the coat - Lord! look at that, now! Perfect - the whole thing! Inever saw such a triumph in all my experience.&& 8 &I expressed my satisfaction.&Quite right, sir, it'll do for a makeshift, I'm bound to say. But wait till you see what we'll get upfor you on your own measure. Come, Tod, get at it. Length of leg, 32&& - and so on. Before I couldget in a word he had measured me, and was giving orders for dress-suits, morning suits, shirts, and all sorts ofthings. When I got a chance I said:&But, my dear sir, I can't give these orders, unless you can wait indefinitely, or change the bill.&&Indefinitely! It's a weak word, sir, a weak word. Eternally - that's the word, sir. Tod, rush these thingsthrough, and send them to the gentleman's address without any waste of time. Let the minor customers wait. Setdown the gentleman's address and--&&I'm changing my quarters. I will drop in and leave the new address.&&Quite right, sir, quite right. One moment - let me show you out, sir. There - good day, sir, good day.&Well, don't you see what was bound to happen? I drifted naturally into buying whatever I wanted, and askingfor change. Within a week I was sumptuously equipped with all forts and luxuries, and was housed inan expensive private hotel in Hanover Square. I took my dinners there, but for breakfast I stuck by Harris's humblefeeding house, where I had got my first meal on my million-pound bill. I was the making of Harris. The fact hadgone all abroad that the foreign crank who carried million-pound bills in his vest pocket was the patron saint of theplace. That was enough. From being a poor, struggling, little hand-to-mouth enterprise, it had e celebrated,and overcrowded with customers. Harris was so grateful that he forced loans upon me, andand so, pauper as I was, I had money to spend, and was living like the rich and the great. I judged that there wasgoing to be a crash by and by, but I was in now and must swim across or drown. You see there was just thatelement of impending disaster to give a serious side, a sober side, yes, a tragic side, to a state of things whichwould otherwise have been purely ridiculous. In the night, in the dark, the tragedy part was always to the front, andalways warning, and so I moaned and tossed, and sleep was hard to find. But in the cheerfuldaylight the tragedy element faded out and disappeared, and I walked on air, and was happy to giddiness, tointoxication, you may say.& 9 &A for I had e one of the notorieties of the metropolis of the world, and it turned myhead, not just a little, but a good deal. You could not take up a newspaper, English, Scotch, or Irish, without findingin it one or more references to the &vest-pocket million-pounder& and his latest doings and saying. At first, in thesementions, I was at the bottom of the personal- next, I was listed above the knights, next above s, next above the barons, and so on, and so on, climbing steadily, as my notoriety augmented, until I reachedthe highest altitude possible, and there I remained, taking precedence of all dukes not royal, and of all ecclesiasticsexcept the primate of all England. But mind, as yet I had achieved only notoriety. Then came theclimaxing stroke - the accolade, so to speak - which in a single instant transmuted the perishable dross of notorietyinto the enduring gold of fame: Punch caricatured me! Yes, I my place was established. Imight be joked about still, but reverently, not hilariously, I could be smiled at, but not laughed at. Thetime for that had gone by. Punch pictured me all a-flutter with rags, dickering with a beef-eater for the Tower ofLondon. Well, you can imagine how it was with a young fellow who had never been taken notice of before, andnow all of a sudden couldn't say a thing that wasn't taken up and couldn't stir abroad withoutconstantly overhearing the remark flying from lip to lip, &T that's him!& couldn't take his breakfastwithou couldn't appear in an operabox without concentrating there the fire of a tes. Why, I just swam in glory all day long- that is the amount of it.You know, I even kept my old suit of rags, and every now and then appeared in them, so as to have the oldpleasure of buying trifles, and being insulted, and then shooting the scoffer dead with the million-pound bill. But Icouldn't keep that up. The illustrated papers made the outfit so familiar that when I went out in it I was at oncerecognized and followed by a crowd, and if I attempted a purchase the man would offer me his whole shop oncredit before I could pull my note on him.& 10 &About the tenth day of my fame I went to fulfil my duty to my flag by paying my respects to the Americanminister. He received me with the enthusiasm proper in my case, upbraided me for being so tardy in my duty, andsaid that there was only one way to get his forgiveness, and that was to take the seat at his dinner-party that nightmade vacant by the illness of one of his guests. I said I would, and we got to talking. It turned out that he and myfather had been schoolmates in boyhood, Yale students together later, and always warm friends up to my father'sdeath. So then he required me to put in at his house all the odd time I might have to spare, and I was very willing,of course.In fact, I w I was glad. When the crash e, he might somehow be able to saveme fr I didn't know how, but he might think of a way, maybe. I couldn't venture to unbosommyself to him at this late date, a thing which I would have been quick to do in the beginning of this awful career ofmine in London. No, I couldn' I that is, too deep for me to be risking revelationsto so new a friend, though not clear beyond my depth, as I looked at it. Because, you see, with all my borrowing, Iwas carefully keeping within my means - I mean within my salary. Of course, I couldn't know what my salary wasgoing to be, but I had a good enough basis for an estimate in the fact, that if I won the bet I was to have choice ofany situation in that rich old gentleman's gift provided I petent - and I sho Ihadn't any doubt about that. And as to the bet, I wasn't I had always been lucky. Now myestimate of the salary was six hundred
say, six hundred for the first year, and so on up year byyear, till I struck the upper figure by proved merit. At present I was only in debt for my first year's salary.Everybody had been trying to lend me money, but I had fought off the most of them on on sothis indebtedness represented only ?00 borrowed money, the other ?00 represented my keep and my purchases. Ibelieved my second year's salary would carry me through the rest of the month if I went on being cautious andeconomical, and I intended to look sharply out for that. My month ended, my employer back from his journey, Ishould be all right once more, for I should at once divide the two years' salary among my creditors by assignment,and get right down to my work.& 11 &It was a lovely dinner-party of fourteen. The Duke and Duchess of Shoreditch, and their daughter the LadyAnne-Grace-Eleanor-Celeste-and-so-forth-and-so-forth-de-Bohun, the Earl and Countess of Newgate, ViscountCheapside, Lord and Lady Blatherskite, some untitled people of both sexes, the minister and his wife and daughter,and his daughter's visiting friend, an English girl of twenty-two, named Portia Langham, whom I fell in love within two minutes, and she with me - I could see it without glasses. There was still another guest, an American - but Iam a little ahead of my story. While the people were still in the drawing-room, whetting up for dinner, and coldlyinspecting the ers, the servant announced:&Mr. Lloyd Hastings.&The moment the usual civilities were over, Hastings caught sight of me, and came straight with cordia then stopped short when about to shake, and said, with an embarrassed look:&I beg your pardon, sir, I thought I knew you.&&Why, you do know me, old fellow.&&No. Are you the - the--&&Vest-pocket monster? I am, indeed. Don't be afraid to ca I'm used to it.&&Well, well, well, this is a surprise. Once or twice I've seen your own name coupled with the nickname, but itnever occurred to me that you could be the Henry Adams referred to. Why, it isn't six months since you wereclerking away for Blake Hopkins in Frisco on a salary, and sitting up nights on an extra allowance, helping mearrange and verify the Gould and Curry Extension papers and statistics. The idea of your being in London, and avast millionaire, and a colossal celebrity! Why, it's the Arabian e again. Man, I can'can' give me time to settle the whirl in my head.&&The fact is, Lloyd, you are no worse off than I am. I can't realize it myself.&& 12 &&Dear me, it is stunning, now isn't it? Why, it's just three months today since we went to the Miners'restaurant--&&No; the What Cheer.&&Right, it was the What C went there at two in the morning, and had a chop and coffee after a hardsix-hours grind over those Extension papers, and I tried to persuade you e to London with me, and offered toget leave of absence for you and pay all your expenses, and give you something over if I eed and you would not listen to me, said I wouldn't eed, and you couldn't afford to lose the run of businessand be no end of time getting the hang of things again when you got back home. And yet here you are. How odd itall is! How did you happen e, and whatever did give you this incredible start?&&Oh, just an accident. It's a long story - a romance, a body may say. I'll tell you all about it, but not now.&&When?&&The end of this month.&&That's more than a fortnight yet. It's too much of a strain on a person's curiosity. Make it a week.&&I can't. You'll know why, by and by. But how's the trade getting along?&His cheerfulness vanished like a breath, and he said with a sigh:&You were a true prophet, Hal, a true prophet. I wish I hadn'e. I don't want to talk about it.&&But you must. You e and stop with me to-night, when we leave here, and tell me all about it.&&Oh, may I? Are you in earnest?& and the water showed in his eyes.&Y I want to hear the whole story, every word.&& 13 &&I'm so grateful! Just to find a human interest once more, in some voice and in some eye, in me and affairs ofmine, after what I've been through here - lord! I could go down on my knees for it!&He gripped my hand hard, and braced up, and was all right and lively after that for the dinner - which didn'tcome off. No; the usual thing happened, the thing that is always happening under that vicious and aggravatingEnglish system - the matter of precedence couldn't be settled, and so there was no dinner. Englishmen always eatdinner before they go out to dinner, because they know the ri but nobody ever warns thestranger, and so he walks placidly into trap. Of course, nobody was hurt this time, because we had all been todinner, none of us being novices excepting Hastings, and he having been informed by the minister at the time thathe invited him that in deference to the English custom he had not provided any dinner. Everybody took a lady andprocessioned down to the dining-room, because it is usual to go but there the dispute began.The Duke of Shoreditch wanted to take precedence, and sit at the head of the table, holding that he outranked aminister who represented merely a nati but I stood for my rights, and refused to yield. In thegossip column I ranked all dukes not royal, and said so, and claimed precedence of this one. It couldn't be settled,of course, struggle as we might and did, he finally (and injudiciously) trying to play birth and antiquity, and I&seeing& his Conqueror and &raising& him with Adam, whose direct posterity I was, as shown by my name, whilehe was of a collateral branch, as shown by his, and by his recent N so we all processioned back to thedrawing-room again and had a perpendicular lunch - plate of sardines and a strawberry, and you group yourself andstand up and eat it. Here the religion of precedence the two persons of highest rank chuck up ashilling, the one that wins has first go at his strawberry, and the loser gets the shilling. The next two chuck up, thenthe next two, and so on. After refreshment, tables were brought, and we all played cribbage, sixpence a game. TheEnglish never play any game for amusement. If they can't make something or lose something - they don't carewhich - they won't play.& 14 &W certainly two of us had, Miss Langham and I. I was so bewitched with her that Icouldn't count my hands if they went abo and when I struck home I never discovered it, andstarted up the outside row again, and would have lost the game every time, only the girl did the same, she being injust my condition, and consequently neither of us ever got out, or cared to wonder why we didn't; we onlyjust knew we were happy, and didn't wish to know anything else, and didn't want to be interrupted. And I told her -I did, indeed - told her I and she - well, she blushed till her hair turned red, she said shedid. Oh, there was never such an evening! Every time I pegged I every time she pegged sheacknowledged receipt of it, counting the hands the same. Why, I couldn't even say &Two for his heels& withoutadding, &My, how sweet you do look!& and she would say, &Fifteen two, fifteen four, fifteen six, and a pair are eight,and eight are sixteen - do you think so?& - peeping out aslant from under her lashes, you know, so sweet andcunning. Oh, it was just too-too!Well, I was perfectly honest told her I hadn't a cent in the world but just themillion-pound note she'd heard so much talk about, and it didn't belong to me, and that s andthen I talked low, and told her the whole history right from the start, and it nearly killed her laughing. What in thenation she could find to laugh about I couldn't see, every half-minute some new detail would fetchher, and I would have to stop as much as a minute and a half to give her a chance to settle down again. Why, shelaughed herself lame - she did, I never saw anything like it. I mean I never saw a painful story - a story of aperson's troubles and worries and fears - produce just that kind of effect before. So I loved her all the more, seeingshe could be so cheerful when there wasn't anything
for I might soon need that kind of wife,you know, the way things looked. Of course, I told her we should have to wait a couple of years, till I could
but she didn't mind that, only she hoped I would be as careful as possible in the matter ofexpenses, and not let them run the least risk of trenching on our third year's pay. Then she began to get a littleworried, and wondered if we were making any mistake, and starting the salary on a higher figure for the first yearthan I would get. This was good sense, and it made me feel a little less confident than I had butit gave me a good business idea, and I brought it frankly out.& 15 &&Portia, dear, would you mind going with me that day, when I confront those old gentlemen?&She shrank a little, but said:&N-o; if my being with you would help hearten you. But - would it be quite proper, do you think?&&No, I don't know that it would - in fact, I'm afraid it wouldn't; but, you see, there's so much dependent uponit that--&&Then I'll go anyway, proper or improper,& she said, with a beautiful and generous enthusiasm. &Oh, I shallbe so happy to think I'm helping!&&Helping, dear? Why, you'll be doing it all. You're so beautiful and so lovely and so winning, that with youthere I can pile our salary up till I break those good old fellows, and they'll never have the heart to struggle.&Sho! you should have seen the rich blood mount, and her happy eyes shine!&You wicked flatterer! There isn't a word of truth in what you say, but still I'll go with you. Maybe it willteach you not to expect other people to look with your eyes.&Were my doubts dissipated? Was my confidence restored? You may judge by this fact: privately I raised mysalary to twelve hundred the first year on the spot. But I didn' I saved it for a surprise.All the way home I was in the clouds, Hastings talking, I not hearing a word. When he and I entered myparlor, he brought me to myself with his fervent appreciations of my forts and luxuries.&Let me just stand here a little and look my fill. Dear me! it's a palace - it's just a palace! And in it everythinga body could desire, including cosy coal fire and supper standing ready. Henry, it doesn't merely make me rea it makes me realize, to the bone, to the marrow, how poor I am - how poor I am, and howmiserable, how defeated, routed, annihilated!&& 16 &Plague take it! this language gave me the cold shudders. It scared me broad awake, and made prehend that I was standing on a halfinch crust, with a crater underneath. I didn't know I had been dreaming -that is, I hadn't been allowing myself to know but now - oh, dear! Deep in debt, not a cent in theworld, a lovely girl's happiness or woe in my hands, and nothing in front of me but a salary which might never - oh,would never - materialize! Oh, oh, oh! I am ruined past hope! nothing can save me!&Henry, the mere unconsidered drippings of your daily e would--&&Oh, my daily e! Here, down with this hot Scotch, and cheer up your soul. Here's with you! Or, no -you' sit down and--&&N I'm past it. I can't eat, but I'll drink with you till I drop. Come!&&Barrel for barrel, I'm with you! Ready? Here we go! Now, then, Lloyd, unreel your story while I brew.&&Unreel it? What, again?&&Again? What do you mean by that?&&Why, I mean do you want to hear it over again?&&Do I want to hear it over again? This is a puzzler. W don't take any more of that liquid. You don't needit.&&Look here, Henry, you alarm me. Didn't I tell you the whole story on the way here?&&You?&&Yes, I.&&I'll be hanged if I heard a word of it.&&Henry, this is a serious thing. It troubles me. What did you take up yonder at the minister's?&& 17 &Then it all flashed on me, and I owned up like a man.&I took the dearest girl in this world - prisoner!&So then he came with a rush, and we shook, and shook, and shook
and he didn't blameme for not having heard a word of a story which had lasted while we walked three miles. He just sat down then,like the patient, good fellow he was, and told it all over again. Synopsized, it amounted to this: He e toEngland with what he thought was he had an &option& to sell the Gould and Curry Extensionfor the &locators& of it, and keep all he could get over a million dollars. He had worked hard, had pulled every wirehe knew of, had left no honest expedient untried, had spent nearly all the money he had in the world, had not beenable to get a solitary capitalist to listen to him, and his option would run out at the end of the month. In a word, hewas ruined. Then he jumped up and cried out:&Henry, you can save me! You can save me, and you're the only man in the universe that can. Will you do it?Won't you do it?&&Tell me how. Speak out, my boy.&&Give me a million and my passage home for my 'option'! Don't, don't refuse!&I was in a kind of agony. I was right on the point ing out with the words, &Lloyd, I'm a pauper myself -absolutely penniless, and in debt!& But a white-hot idea came flaming through my head, and I gripped my jawstogether, and calmed myself down till I was as cold as a capitalist. Then I said, in mercial and self-possessedway:&I will save you, Lloyd--&&Then I'm already saved! God be merciful to you forever! If ever I--&& 18 &&Let me finish, Lloyd. I will save you, for that would not be fair to you, after your hardwork, and the risks you've run. I don' I can keep my capital moving, in mercial centerlike London, it's what I'm at, but here is what I'll do. I know all about that mine,I know its immense value, and can swear to it if anybody wishes it. You shall sell out inside of the fortnight forthree millions cash, using my name freely, and we'll divide, share and share alike.&Do you know, he would have danced the furniture to kindling-wood in his insane joy, and broken everythingon the place, if I hadn't tripped him up and tied him.Then he lay there, perfectly happy, saying:&I may use your name! Your name - think of it! Man, they'll flock in droves, these rich L they'llfight for that stock! I'm a made man, I'm a made man forever, and I'll never forget you as long as I live!&In less than twenty-four hours London was abuzz! I hadn't anything to do, day after day, but sit at home, andsay to ers:&Y I told him to refer to me. I know the man, and I know the mine. His character is above reproach, andthe mine is worth far more than he asks for it.&Meantime I spent all my evenings at the minister's with Portia. I didn't say a word t Isaved it for a surprise. W never anything sometimes love, sometimes salary,sometimes love and salary together. And my! the interest the minister's wife and daughter took in our little affair,and the endless ingenuities they invented to save us from interruption, and to keep the minister in the dark andunsuspicious - well, it was just lovely of them!& 19 &When the month was up at last, I had a million dollars to my credit in the London and County Bank, andHastings was fixed in the same way. Dressed at my level best, I drove by the house in Portland Place, judged by thelook of things that my birds were home again, went on towards the minister's and got my precious, and we startedback, talking salary with all our might. She was so excited and anxious that it made her just intolerably beautiful. Isaid:&Dearie, the way you're looking it's a crime to strike for a salary a single penny under three thousand a year.&&Henry, Henry, you'll ruin us!&&Don't you be afraid. Just keep up those looks, and trust to me. It'll e out right.&So, as it turned out, I had to keep bolstering up her courage all the way. She kept pleading with me, andsaying:&Oh, please remember that if we ask for too much we may
and then what will e ofus, with no way in the world to earn our living?&We were ushered in by that same servant, and there they were, the two old gentlemen. Of course, they weresurprised to see that wonderful creature with me, but I said:&It's all right, she is my future stay and helpmate.&And I introduced them to her, and called them by name. It didn' they knew I would knowenough to consult the directory. They seated us, and were very polite to me, and very solicitous to relieve her fromembarrassment, and put her as much at her ease as they could. Then I said:&Gentlemen, I am ready to report.&&We are glad to hear it,& said my man, &for now we can decide the bet which my brother Abel and I made. Ifyou have won for me, you shall have any situation in my gift. Have you the million-pound note?&& 20 &&Here it is, sir,& and I handed it to him.&I've won!& he shouted, and slapped Abel on the back. &Now what do you say, brother?&&I say he did survive, and I've lost twenty thousand pounds. I never would have believed it.&&I've a further report to make,& I said, &and a pretty long one. I want you to let e soon, and detail mywhole month' and I promise you it's worth hearing. Meantime, take a look at that.&&What, man! Certificate of deposit for ?00,000. Is it yours?&&Mine. I earned it by thirty days' judicious use of that little loan you let me have. And the only use I made ofit was to buy trifles and offer the bill in change.&&Come, this is astonishing! It's incredible, man!&&Never mind, I'll prove it. Don't take my word unsupported.&But now Portia's turn e to be surprised. Her eyes were spread wide, and she said:&Henry, is that really your money? Have you been fibbing to me?&&I have, indeed, dearie. But you'll forgive me, I know.&She put up an arch pout, and said:&Don't you be so sure. You are a naughty thing to deceive me so!&&Oh, you'll get over it, sweetheart, you' it was only fun, you know. Come, let's be going.&&But wait, wait! The situation, you know. I want to give you the situation,& said my man.&Well,& I said, &I'm just as grateful as I can be, but really I don't want one.&& 21 &&But you can have the very choicest one in my gift.&&Thanks again, but I don't even want that one.&&Henry, I'm ashamed of you. You don't half thank the good gentleman. May I do it for you?&&Indeed, you shall, dear, if you can improve it. Let us see you try.&She walked to my man, got up in his lap, put her arm round his neck, and kissed him right on the mouth.Then the two old gentlemen shouted with laughter, but I was dumfounded, just petrified, as you may say. Portiasaid:&Papa, he has said you haven't a situation in your gift that he' and I feel just as hurt as--&播放器加载中，请稍候...
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百万英镑中英双语版 Mark TwainThe 1,000,000 Bank-NoteWhen I was twenty-seven years old, I was a mining-broker's clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the detailsof stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing to depend upon but my wits an butthese were sett...
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