We arrived at theatre, where, curiously enough, all our 'bus-load except an old woman with a basket seemed to be going in. I walked ahead and presented the tickets. The man looked at them, and called out: "Mr. Willowly! do you know anything about these?" holding up my tickets. The gentleman called to, came up and examined my tickets, and said: "Who gave you these?" I said, rather indignantly: "Mr. Merton, of course." He said: "Merton? Who's he?" I answered, rather sharply: "You ought to know, his name's good at any theatre in London." He replied: "Oh! is it? Well, it ain't no good here. These tickets, which are not dated, were issued under Mr. Swinstead's management, which has since changed hands." While I was having some very unpleasant words with the man, James, who had gone upstairs with the ladies, called out: "Come on!" I went up after them, and a very civil attendant said: "This way, please, box H." I said to James: "Why, how on earth did you manage it?" and to my horror he replied: "Why, paid for it of course."
我们终于抵达了剧院，奇怪地是，除了一个携篮子的老妇人，全车人都进了剧院。我拿着票走在前面。当我出示剧票时，检票人看了看，然后举起剧票大喊：“威罗利先生！你了解这些票的情况吗？”被叫的那位先生走过来仔细地检查了我的票，然后问：“谁给你的这些票？”
我相当愤怒地回答他：“当然是默顿先生。”
“默顿？谁是默顿？”
“你应当知道，他的名字在伦敦的任何剧院都受到敬重。”我尖锐地回复。
“哦，是吗？不过在这儿没用。这些无期限剧票是史温斯泰德先生组织发放的，后来几经转手。”
当我还在与他争论时，詹姆斯已经与女士们走上了楼梯，并叫我：“来吧”。于是我上楼去追他们，一个非常有礼貌的引导员指引说：“请这边走，H包厢”。我问詹姆士：“你是如何做到的？”“怎么做到的？当然是买票了。”他的回答令我极为尴尬。
[本段要点]
1. busload [c] n车载量；车载人数
2. indignantly adv. 愤怒地；生气地
3. change hands转手；倒手
This was humiliating enough, and I could scarcely follow the play, but I was doomed to still further humiliation. I was leaning out of the box, when my tie--a little black bow which fastened on to the stud by means of a new patent--fell into the pit below. A clumsy man not noticing it, had his foot on it for ever so long before he discovered it. He then picked it up and eventually flung it under the next seat in disgust. What with the box incident and the tie, I felt quite miserable. Mr. James, of Sutton, was very good. He said: "Don't worry--no one will notice it with your beard. That is the only advantage of growing one that I can see." There was no occasion for that remark, for Carrie is very proud of my beard.
这已够丢人的了，我几乎无法观看话剧，但是我注定还要经历更丢人的事。我把身子探出包厢外时，我的领结---一个通过新专利固定到饰钮上的很小的黑色领结，掉到了下面正厅的后排。一个笨手笨脚的家伙开始没有注意，在上面踩了很久才发现它。他把它捡起来，厌恶地扔到了邻排的座位底下。因为包厢事件和领带，我感到非常郁闷。萨顿的詹姆士是个好人。他安慰我说：“不要担心，有你的胡子盖着，没有人会注意到你的领结掉了。在我看来，这是留胡子的唯一优点。”不过这可不是说这种话的场合，因为卡丽一直很为我的胡须骄傲。
[本段要点]
1. humiliating adj. 羞辱性的；不光彩的
2. scarcely adv. 几乎不；简直不能
3. be doomed to注定要
4. lean out 探身出去
5. stud [C] n. 领扣；饰钮；大头钉
6. clumsy adj. 笨拙的
7. ever so long 许久
To hide the absence of the tie I had to keep my chin down the rest of the evening, which caused a pain at the back of my neck.
为了不被人发现没有领结，我不得不整晚低着下巴，搞得后背很痛。
April 24.--Could scarcely sleep a wink through thinking of having brought up Mr. and Mrs. James from the country to go to the theatre last night, and his having paid for a private box because our order was not honoured, and such a poor play too. I wrote a very satirical letter to Merton, the wine merchant, who gave us the pass, and said, "Considering we had to pay for our seats, we did our best to appreciate the performance." I thought this line rather cutting, and I asked Carrie how many p's there were in appreciate, and she said, "One." After I sent off the letter I looked at the dictionary and found there were two. Awfully vexed at this.
4月24日 昨晚想起带詹姆士夫妇看话剧的事几乎一夜没眨眼。他们从乡下来，因为我的票无效，詹姆士自己出的私人包厢钱，而且话剧也非常糟糕。我给为我们剧票的酒水商默顿写了一封带讽刺意味的信，我在信中说：“考虑到不得不自己出钱买座位，所以我们努力地欣赏表演。”我觉得这句话相当有力度，当时我问卡丽在“appreciate”中有几个p，她说：“一个。”当我把信发出后，查字典却发现是两个p。为此非常恼火。
[本段要点]
1. satirical adj.嘲讽的；含讽刺意味的
2. considering prep, conj. 考虑到；就…..而言
She’s very active, considering her age. 就她的年龄来说，她是够活跃的。
Considering he’s only just started, he knows quite a lot about it.
考虑到他只是刚刚开始，他对此的了解已经不少了。
3. vexed adj. 焦虑的；恼怒的；烦恼的
He was vexed at his failure. 他失败后垂头丧气。
She was vexed that I was late. 嗔怪我来晚了。
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