ess under it all; like the soil of Labrador, which his gay little flowers on its surface, and a foot down is frozen.

但康妮对去伦敦不太感冒，不想涉足本奈利夫人口中那个五光十色的世界。她跟那个花花世界格格不入，觉得没什么兴趣。她深切地感觉到，那时尚社会的底层存在异乎寻常、足以摧毁一切的酷寒，就像拉布拉多（注：北美洲最大的半岛，位于加拿大东部，哈德逊湾与大西洋及圣劳伦斯湾之间。）冰冻的土壤。地表上生长着欣欣向荣的娇艳花朵，而地表下一英尺的地方则完全被冻结。

Tommy Dukes was at Wragby, and another man, Harry Winterslow, and Jack Strangeways with his wife Olive. The talk was much more desultory than when only the cronies were there, and everybody was a bit bored, for the weather was bad, and there was only billiards, and the pianola to dance to.

汤米·杜克斯也在拉格比，此外还有哈里·温特斯洛，以及杰克·斯特兰韦斯和他的妻子奥利夫。谈话有些漫无边际，不像只是朋友间闲聊那么放得开，大家都觉得有点沉闷，天气也不太好，而可以作为消遣的，除了打台球，就是随着钢琴的伴奏跳跳舞。

Olive was reading a book about the future, when babies would be bred in bottles, and women would be "immunized'.

奥利夫在读一本关于未来世界的书，说到时候婴儿都可以通过试管，进行人工培育，而女人们则可以置身事外。

"Jolly good thing too!" she said. "Then a woman can live her own life." Strangeways wanted children, and she didn't.

“真是太棒了！”她感叹道。“这样的话，女人就可以尽情享受生活。”斯特兰韦斯想要孩子，但她却不愿意生。

"How'd you like to be immunized?” Winterslow asked her, with an ugly smile.

“你很想置身事外吗？”温特斯洛问道，脸上露出丑陋的微笑。

"I hope I am; naturally," she said. "Anyhow the future's going to have more sense, and a woman needn't be dragged down by her FUNCTIONS.” "Perhaps she'll float off into space altogether," said Dukes.

“那当然，我希望如此。”她说。“无论如何，未来世界将更趋于合理，女人也不必再为生理机能所累。”“那她们还不乐得飞上天去呀。”杜克斯说。

"I do think sufficient civilization ought to eliminate a lot of the physical disabilities," said Clifford. "All the love-business for example, it might just as well go. I suppose it would if we could breed babies in bottles.” "No!" cried Olive. "That might leave all the more room for fun." "I suppose," said Lady Bennerley, contemplatively, "if the love-business went, something else would take its place. Morphia, perhaps. A little morphine in all the air. It would be wonderfully refreshing for everybody.” "The government releasing ether into the air on Saturda