1 A Royal Visit

A Scandal in BOhEmia

波西米亚丑闻

Chapter 1 A Royal Visit One evening in March 1888, I was returning from a visit to a patient when I happened to find myself passing through Baker Street. I was reminded that it had been some time since I'd seen my old friend Sherlock Holmes. The upper- floor window of his flat was brightly lit, and I could see the tall silhouette of the great detective against the blind as he energetically paced his study. His head was sunk upon his chest and his hands were clasped behind him in a manner that told their own story. It was clear to me who knew him so well that he was hot upon the scent of a new problem. His landlady, Mrs. Hudson, greeted me like an old friend and showed me upstairs. When I entered, Holmes stopped his pacing and turned to me. "Watson!" he declared. "You've put on seven and a half pounds since I last saw you."

1888年3月的一天晚上，我看完一个病人正往回走，碰巧经过贝克街。 我想起我已经有一段时间没有见到我的老朋友夏洛克·福尔摩斯了。 他公寓楼上的窗户灯火通明，我可以看到这位大侦探在书房里精力充沛地踱来踱去，他高大的身影映在百叶窗后面。 他的头低垂在胸前，双手在背后交叉着，那种姿势说明了他们自己的情况。 我很了解他，很清楚他对一个新问题很敏感。 他的女房东哈德森太太像老朋友一样招呼我，并领我上楼。 当我进来时，福尔摩斯停止了踱步，转向我。 “华生！”“自从我上次见到你以来，你的体重增加了七磅半。”

"Seven!" I corrected him with a frown. "Indeed? I would have said just a little more. But how are you, my dear fellow? I see you're working as a doctor again, that you've got yourself muddy recently, and that you have a most careless housemaid." "Holmes, this is too much!" I said, laughing. "It's true. I'm back working as a doctor. I also went for a country walk on Thursday and came back in a mess. As to Mary Jane, she is, indeed, quite hopeless, but I cannot for the life of me understand how you can know these things."

“七!”我皱着眉头纠正他。 “真的吗?我会说再多一点。 不过，你好吗，我亲爱的朋友？ 我看你又当上医生了，你最近弄得满身是泥，而且你有一个非常粗心的女佣。” “福尔摩斯，这太过分了！”我笑着说。 “这是真的。我回来当医生了。 周四我还去乡间散步，回来时一塌糊涂。 至于玛丽·简，她确实是完全没有希望了，可是我怎么也不明白你怎么会知道这些事情。”

"It's simplicity itself," said Holmes. "If a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of antiseptic with a black stain of silver nitrate on his right forefinger and a bulge in his hat to show where he's stowed his stethoscope, it's a fair bet that he's a working doctor. My eyes also tell me that the leather on the sole of your left shoe has been badly scratched, as if someone has carelessly scraped it to remove encrusted mud." I shook my head in wonder when I heard his reasoning. His deductions were so simple, yet at the same time devilishly clever. "Since you're here, and I know you like mysteries," Holmes continued, "you might be interested in this." He handed me a sheet of

“这很简单，”福尔摩斯说。 “如果一位先生走进我的房间，身上有一股杀菌剂的味道，右手食指上有硝酸银的黑色污渍，帽子上有一个凸起，表明他把听诊器藏在哪里，那么他很有可能是一名职业医生。” 我的眼睛也告诉我，你左脚鞋底的皮革被刮得很厉害，好像有人不小心刮掉了粘在上面的泥。” 当我听到他的推理时，我惊奇地摇了摇头。 他的推理是如此简单，但同时又异常聪明。 “既然你在这里，而且我知道你喜欢推理小说，”福尔摩斯接着说，“你也许会对这个感兴趣。” 他递给我一张

thick, pink-tinted notepaper. "It came in the evening post," he said. "Read it aloud." The note was undated, and had neither a signature nor an address. "There will call upon you tonight, at a quarter to eight o'clock," I read, "a gentleman who desires to consult with you on a matter of deepest importance. Please be in your chamber at that hour, and do not take affront if your visitor is wearing a mask." "It is indeed mysterious!" I exclaimed. "Who do you imagine this visitor is?" "We can only speculate," said Holmes. "What do you deduce from the writing and the paper on which it is written?"

粉红色的厚信纸。 “是晚邮报送来的，”他说。 “大声读出来。”这张便条没有日期，既没有签名，也没有地址。 “今晚八点差一刻，”我念道，“有一位先生要来找你商量一件极其重要的事。 请在那个时候呆在你的房间里，如果你的客人戴着口罩，不要冒犯他。” “这确实很神秘！”我叫道。 “你认为这位客人是谁？”福尔摩斯说："我们只能推测。 “从字迹和写字迹的纸上，你能推断出什么？”

"The paper looks expensive," I said. "The man who wrote it is presumably well-to-do." "And probably not from this country," said Holmes. "The style suggests the writer's first language isn't English. I checked the watermark on the paper, and it comes from the small European state of Bohemia, where they speak German." As he spoke, there came from outside the sharp sound of horses' hooves and a grating of wheels against the street's edge. Holmes went to the window and gave a whistle. "I spy a nice little carriage pulled by a

“报纸看起来很贵，”我说。 “写这封信的人想必很富裕。” “而且很可能不是这个国家的人，”福尔摩斯说道。 这种风格表明作者的母语不是英语。 我检查了纸上的水印，它来自欧洲的一个小国家波希米亚，那里的人说德语。” 他说话的时候，外面传来了尖锐的马蹄声和车轮撞击街道边缘的声音。 福尔摩斯走到窗前，吹了一声口哨。 “我看到一辆漂亮的小马车，由一个……