陈乃蒨TheModelMillionaire.doc

The Model Millionaire模特兒巨富 Oscar Wilde原著，陳乃蒨翻譯 UNLESS one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie Erskine never realised. Poor Hughie! Intellectually, we must admit, he was not of much importance. He never said a brilliant or even an ill-natured thing in his life. But then he was wonderfully good-looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear-cut profile, and his grey eyes. He was as popular with men as he was with women, and he had every accomplishment except that of making money. 除非一個人很富有，不然就算長得很吸引人也仍是無用武之地；浪漫是有錢人的特權，非失業者的職業。貧窮人家就是應該平平凡凡、普普通通的過生活能夠有個長久穩定的收入總是比長得迷人保險多了這現代生活中的真理卻是休．爾斯金永遠也無法參透的。可憐的休！我們必須承認，爾斯金並無舉足輕重的地位他沒說過令人聽了會眼睛為之一亮的話就連壞話都沒講過！不過，他俐落的身材、灰湛的眼睛、再配上蜷曲的棕髮，真是生得完美迷人！就連男人也像女人一樣迷戀他！他多才多藝—只可惜除了賺錢這項技能以外。 His father had bequeathed him his cavalry sword, and a History of the Peninsular War in fifteen volumes. Hughie hung the first over his looking-glass, put the second on a shelf between Ruffs Guide and Baileys Magazine, and lived on two hundred a year that an old aunt allowed him. He had tried everything. He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months; but what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears? He had been a tea-merchant for a little longer, but had soon tired of pekoe and souchong. Then he had tried selling dry sherry. That did not answer; the sherry was a little too dry. Ultimately he became nothing, a delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession. 他先父留下一把騎士劍和一套十五冊精裝的＜半島戰爭史＞，休把放在書架上＜賽馬指南＞ 英國哲學家山謬．貝利的＜雜誌＞ 中間，過著由阿姨接濟他ㄧ年兩百英鎊的。但這也不能怪他，他的確嘗試過要賺錢他曾經連續六個月到股票交易所報到學習投資，可是，一位翩翩花蝴蝶怎麼股票的牛市與熊市？他也曾半年當茶商，不過很快就對販售白毫烏龍與小種紅茶感到倦怠無趣。他試著販賣干雪莉葡萄酒，，雪莉酒甜，顧客不喜歡！最終，他成了一無是處飽食終日、無所事事的浪蕩子，空有ㄧ身虛華的外殼。 To make matters worse, he was in love. The girl he loved was Laura Merton, the daughter of a retire