“heartless” figure who is unable to connect with the widow’s deeper reason for ing to sell her shares and the other presenting the narrator as equally “heartless” in his inability to act to relieve the girl’s “heartache.”

作者在這些遭遇中只看到了講故事的機會，將自己定位為藝術的代理人，無情地在空間上保持在上方，在情感上遠離現實的心痛。

the author sees in these encounters nothing more than an opportunity for telling tales, for positioning himself as an agent of art, relentlessly keeping himself spatially above and emotionally beyond the heartaches of the real.

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這個故事實際上由兩部分組成。

this story really consists of two parts.

第一部分可能可以省略，但它給了我們一些細節，這些細節是有用的。

the first part might be left out, but it gives us a few particulars, and these are useful.

我們當時住在鄉下一位紳士的莊園裡，碰巧主人離開了幾天。

we were staying in the country at a gentleman’s seat, where it happened that the master was absent for a few days.

與此同時，從鄰近的城鎮來了一位女士；她帶著一隻哈巴狗，她說她來是為了出售她製革廠的股份。

In the meantime, there arrived from the next town a lady; she had a pug dog with her, and came, she said, to dispose of shares in her tan-yard.

她帶著她的檔案，我們建議她把檔案放在一個信封裡，並在上面寫上莊園主人的地址，“軍需官將軍騎士” 等等。

She had her papers with her, and we advised her to put them in an envelope, and to write thereon the address of the proprietor of the estate, “General war-missary Knight,” &c.

她專心地聽我們說，拿起筆，停頓了一下，請求我們慢慢地重複那個地址。

She listened to us attentively, seized the pen, paused, and begged us to repeat the direction slowly.

我