《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter VIII》第14节
“Don’t belong to any.” “You ought to have a church, George, for times like this. You must have gone to church once. Didn’t you get married in a church? Listen, George, listen to me. Didn’t you get married in a church?” “That was a long time ago.” The effort of answering broke the rhythm of his rocking—for a moment he was silent. Then the same half-knowing, half-bewildered look came back into his faded eyes. “Look in the drawer there,” he said, pointing at the desk. “Which drawer?” “That drawer—that one.” Michaelis opened the drawer nearest his hand. There was nothing in it but a small, expensive dog-leash, made of leather and braided silver. It was apparently new. “This?” he inquired, holding it up. Wilson stared and nodded. “I found it yesterday afternoon. She tried to tell me about it, but I knew it was something funny.” “You mean your wife bought it?” “She had it wrapped in tissue paper on her bureau.” Michaelis didn’t see anything odd in that, and he gave Wilson a dozen reasons why his wife might have bought the dog-leash. But conceivably Wilson had heard some of these same explanations before, from Myrtle, because he began saying “Oh, my God!” again in a whisper—his comforter left several explanations in the air.
注释摘要
这一段发生在威尔逊的修车铺里，时间是车祸之后的深夜。邻居米切里斯试图安抚精神濒临崩溃的威尔逊，便问起他有没有教堂可以去。威尔逊直截了当地回答“哪家都不去”——他不是拒绝，而是根本不属于任何教会。这句话在二十年代的美国底层社会里是一笔白描，却也带着阶级意味：教堂不仅是信仰场所，也是一种社区归属和道德撑持，而威尔逊连这个都没有。 米切里斯不死心，追问起婚礼是否…