"Did not you hear him complain of the rheumatism? and is not that the commonest infirmity of declining life?"

“你没听他说有风湿病吗？难道这不是最常见的衰老症？”

"My dearest child, " said her mother, laughing, "at this rate you must be in continual terror of MY decay; and it must seem to you a miracle that my life has been extended to the advanced age of forty. "

“我最亲爱的孩子，”她母亲笑着说，“照这么说，你一定在不停地为我的衰老而感到心惊胆战啦。在你看来，我能活到四十岁的高龄一定是个奇迹吧。”

"Mamma, you are not doing me justice. I know very well that Colonel Brandon is not old enough to make his friends yet apprehensive of losing him in the course of nature. He may live twenty years longer. But thirty-five has nothing to do with matrimony. "

“妈妈，你曲解了我的意思。我知道，布兰登上校还没老到使他的朋友们现在就担心会合乎自然地失去他，他可能再活二十年。但是到了三十五岁就不该考虑结婚。”

"Perhaps, " said Elinor, "thirty-five and seventeen had better not have any thing to do with matrimony together. But if there should by any chance happen to be a woman who is single at seven and twenty, I should not think Colonel Brandon's being thirty-five any objection to his marrying HER. "

“也许，”埃丽诺说道，“三十五岁和十七岁最好不要结成姻缘。不过，万一有个女人到了二十七岁还是独身，我看布兰登上校若是想要娶她为妻，三十五岁总不该成为障碍吧。”

"A woman of seven and twenty, " said Marianne, after pausing a moment, "can never hope to feel or inspire affection again, and if her home be uncomfortable, or her fortune small, I can suppose that she might bring herself to submit to the offices of a nurse, for the sake of the provision and security of a wife. In his marrying such a woman therefore there would be nothing unsuitable. It would be a compact of convenience, and the world would be satisfied. In my eyes it would be no marriage at all, but that would be nothing. To me it would seem only a commercial exchange, in which each wished to be benefited at the expense of the other. "

过了一会儿，玛丽安说道：“一个二十七岁的女人决不可能春心复萌，或者惹人动情。她若是家境不好，或者财产不多，认为做妻子可以不愁生计，并且生活得安稳些，说不定会甘愿去尽尽保姆的职责。因此，娶这样一个女人，并没有什么不妥之处。这是一项实惠的协定，大家都感到称心如意。在我后来，这根本算不上婚姻，不过这也无关紧要。对我来说，这似乎只是一种商品交换，双方都想损人利己。”