她而言，他对矿务的执着和敏感本身就是疯狂的表现，而他极端的灵感同样因癫狂而激发。

He talked to her of all his serious schemes, and she listened in a kind of wonder, and let him talk. Then the flow ceased, and he turned on the loudspeaker, and became a blank, while apparently his schemes coiled on inside him like a kind of dream.

他总将自己的宏伟计划讲给妻子听，而她只会故作惊讶，任他自说自话。口若悬河地讲完，他便会拧开收音机，变得死气沉沉，那些雄图大略则沦为某种梦境，深埋进他的内心世界。

And every night now he played pontoon, that game of the Tommies, with Mrs. Bolton, gambling with sixpences. And again, in the gambling he was gone in a kind of unconsciousness, or blank intoxication, or intoxication of blankness, whatever it was. Connie could not bear to see him. But when she had gone to bed, he and Mrs. Bolton would gamble on till two and three in the morning, safely, and with strange lust. Mrs. Bolton was caught in the lust as much as Clifford: the more so, as she nearly always lost.

如今，他每晚都会与博尔顿太太玩21点，这是英国行伍间喜闻乐见的纸牌游戏，以六便士作为赌注。赌牌的时候，他便会变得神志不清，陷入茫然的沉醉或者沉醉的茫然状态，鬼才分得清。康妮实在不忍见他变成这样。可她就寝之后，他和博尔顿太太仍不会罢手，奋战直至凌晨两三点，平平静静地，并带着一种奇怪的欲望。博尔顿太太沉溺的程度丝毫不逊克利福德，因为她几乎没有胜绩，可越是输，就越是着迷。

She told Connie one day: "I lost twenty-three shillings to Sir Clifford last night.” "And did he take the money from you?" asked Connie aghast.

有一天，她对康妮说：“我昨晚输给克利福德爵士23先令。”“他收下你的钱了吗？”康妮颇感惊讶地问。

"Why of course, my Lady! Debt of honour!"

“当然，夫人！这可是赌债！”

Connie expostulated roundly, and was angry with both of them. The upshot was, Sir Clifford raised Mrs. Bolton's wages a hundred a year, and she could gamble on that. Meanwhile, it seemed to Connie, Clifford was really going deader.

康妮狠狠申斥了两人，甚至大发雷霆。结果是，克利福德将博尔顿太太的年薪提高了100镑，她总算有了赌资。而在康妮心目中，克利福德的形象变得更加不可救药。

She told him at length she was leaving on the seventeenth.

她终于将行程告诉他，言明自己17日将会离开格拉比。

"Seventeenth!" He said. "And when will you be back?" "By the twentieth of July at the latest." "Yes! The twentieth of July." Strangely and blankly he looked at her, with the vagueness of a child, but with the queer blank cunning of an old man.

“17日！”他说。“那你什么时候回来？”“最迟7月20日。”“是吗？7月20号。”他失神落魄