名篇背诵：Husband and Wife Feeling Estranged 夫妻反目

Husband and Wife Feeling Estranged 夫妻反目

阿瑟·黑利(Arthur Hailey)

Ruth said, with a trace of her earlier anger, “There is no other man. Can't you get that through your thick head? There never has been. I came to you a virgin — you know that, unless you've forgotten or have me confused with one of your other girl friends. And there hasn't been anyone else but you since.”

Nim winced because he did remember, but persisted, “Then what were you doing...?”

“That's my private business. But I'm telling you again: it wasn't a man.”

He believed her. Absolutely.

“Oh Christ!” he said, and thought everything was coming apart at once, most of what he had done and said recently had turned out to be wrong. As to their marriage,he wasn't sure if he wanted it to go on or not. Maybe Ruth was right, and getting out would be the best thing for them both. The idea of personal freedom was attractive. On the other hand, there was a good deal he would miss — the children, home, a sense of stability, even Ruth, despite their having grown apart. Not wanting to be forced to a decision, wishing that what was happening could have been postponed, he asked almost plaintively , “So where do we go from here?”

- estranged [ɪˈstreɪndʒd] a. 分居的，决裂的

- wince [wɪns] v. 皱眉蹙额

- plaintively [ˈpleɪntɪvlɪ] ad. 哀伤地

露丝带着原有的怒气说：“你那榆木脑袋难道就不明白，没有别的男人，从来没有。我嫁你时是处女之身——你是知道的，除非你忘了事实或者把我跟你别的女朋友弄混淆了。从那时起一直没有别的男人，只有你。”

尼姆皱着眉头，因为他的确记得是那么回事，但他还是坚持说：“那个时候你们在做什么……？”

“那是我的隐私。我要再跟你说一遍，那不是男人。”

他信了她，绝对信她讲的话。

“哦，上帝呀！”他说着，心里想突然间一切都搞砸了，他最近的言行结果都错了。至于婚姻，他弄不清该怎么办。也许露丝是对的，分手才是对他们俩最好的办法。离开她，有自由对自己的吸引力，可是另一方面要失去很多：孩子、家庭、稳定感，甚至露丝也丢了。虽说有了分歧，尼姆不想被迫草草做决定，希望有个缓冲的余地。他几乎是痛苦地问，“那么接下来我们怎么办呢？”

阿瑟·黑利(1920—2004)，出生于英国，影视剧本作家兼小说家。家贫读不起大学，先后当过房地产经纪人、营销经理、编辑。第一部长篇小说是《最后诊断》(The Final Diagnosis ，1959)，此外还写了很多小说和剧本，有的被改编成电影或电视剧，例如《烈药》(Strong Medicine ，1975)，《大饭店》(Hotel ，1965)，《负荷》(Overload ，1978)等，最出名的是《航空港》(Airport ，1968)。