Burmese Days 缅甸岁月 Chapter 3

Flory turned to the left outside the Club gate and started down the bazaar ² road, under the shade of the peepul trees. A hundred yards away there was a swirl ³ of music, where a squad ⁴ of Military Policemen, lank ⁵ Indians in greenish khaki, were marching back to their lines with a Gurkha boy playing the bagpipes ⁶ ahead of them. Flory was going to see Dr Veraswami. The doctor's house was a long bungalow ⁷ of earth-oiled wood, standing ⁸ on piles, with a large unkempt garden which adjoined that of the Club. The back of the house was towards the road, for it faced the hospital, which lay between it and the river., ,As Flory entered the compound there was a frightened squawk of women and a scurrying ⁹ within the house. Evidently he had narrowly missed seeing the doctor's wife. He went round to the front of the house and called up to the veranda ¹⁰:, ,'Doctor! Are you busy? May I come up?', , ,'If you may come up! Of course, of course, come up this instant! Ah, Mr Flory, how very delightful ¹² to see you! Come up, come up. What drink will you have? I have whisky, beer, vermouth and other European liquors. Ah, my dear friend, how I have been pining for some cultured conversation!', ,The doctor was a small, black, plump man with fuzzy hair and round, credulous ¹³ eyes. He wore steel-rimmed spectacles, and he was dressed in a badly fitting white drill suit, with trousers bagging concertina-like over clumsy black boots. His voice was eager and bubbling, with a hissing ¹⁵ of the s's. As Flory came up the steps the doctor popped back to the end of the veranda and rummaged ¹⁶ in a big tin ice-chest, rapidly pulling out bottles of all descriptions. The veranda was wide and dark, with low eaves from which baskets of fern hung, making it seem like a cave behind a waterfall of sunlight. It was furnished with long, cane-bottomed chairs made in the jail, and at one end there was a book-case containing a rather unappetizing little library, mainly books of essays, of the Emerson-Carlyle-Stevenson type. The doctor, a great reader, liked his books to have what he called a 'moral meaning'., ,She replied in her usual tart and offhand way.她开口回答了，用她平常那种尖酸刻薄的声调随口说道。,Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上 ，鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用 。