《福尔摩斯探案集·红发会》第11节
“I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope’s Court looked like a coster’s orange barrow. I should not have thought there were so many in the whole country as were brought together by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they were—straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found ourselves in the office.” “Your experience has been a most entertaining one,” remarked Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge pinch of snuff. “Pray continue your very interesting statement.”
注释摘要
威尔逊此刻的叙述进入了一个近乎荒诞喜剧的高潮。他口中描绘的是一幅只有在伦敦才会出现的奇景：所有发色带红的人，从四面八方涌进城，把舰队街堵得水泄不通。他用的比喻也透着他的阶层和趣味——“costermonger 的橘子车”（costermonger 是当时伦敦街头推车叫卖水果、蔬菜的小贩，橘子车往往堆得满满当当，一片橙色），这个比方恰好吻合他当铺老板那种朴实…