ince, and a youngish English clergyman who had had pneumonia and was being chaplain to Sir Alexander for his health's sake. The prince was penniless, good-looking, would make an excellent chauffeur, with the necessary impudence, and basta! The Contessa was a quiet little puss with a game on somewhere. The clergyman was a raw simple fellow from a Bucks vicarage: luckily he had left his wife and two children at home. And the Guthries, the family of four, were good solid Edinburgh middle class, enjoying everything in a solid fashion, and daring everything while risking nothing.

别墅差不多已经满员。除了马尔科姆爵士和他的两个女儿，总共还有七位房客，分别是一对苏格兰夫妇，同样带着两位千金；一位意大利的伯爵夫人，年纪轻轻便已守寡；一位年轻的格鲁吉亚亲王，还有一位英国牧师，人在中年，因生过肺炎，目前正在亚历山大爵士的礼拜堂供职，借机会调养身体。那位亲王虽然长得雍容华贵，但穷困潦倒，言行粗鲁，雇来做车夫再合适不过！伯爵夫人如猫咪般娴静，但也会耍些手段。牧师本在白金汉教区供职，头脑有些简单，幸好他没把妻子和两个孩子带来。而那四口之家姓格思里，来自爱丁堡，是家资殷实的中产阶级，乐于享受生活，但行事谨慎，敢于尝试一切，但以不冒风险为前提。

Connie and Hilda ruled out the prince at once. The Guthries were more or less their own sort, substantial, hut boring: and the girls wanted husbands. The chaplain was not a bad fellow, but too deferential. Sir Alexander, after his slight stroke, had a terrible heaviness his joviality, but he was still thrilled at the presence of so many handsome young women. Lady Cooper was a quiet, catty person who had a thin time of it, poor thing, and who watched every other woman with a cold watchfulness that had become her second nature, and who said cold, nasty little things which showed what an utterly low opinion she had of all human nature. She was also quite venomously overbearing with the servants, Connie found: but in a quiet way. And she skilfully behaved so that Sir Alexander should think that he was lord and monarch of the whole caboosh, with his stout, would-be-genial paunch, and his utterly boring jokes, his humourosity, as Hilda called it.

康妮和希尔达立即就将亲王踢出局。格思里一家跟她们也算是同类人，有钱有势，但单调乏味，两个女儿都待字闺中。牧师生性良善，可惜太拘于俗礼。而亚历山大爵士，自从出现中风的迹象之后，好交际的乐天性格中掺杂进可怕的沉滞，可家里住进这么多风姿绰约的女子，还是令他意乱情迷。库珀夫人沉默寡言，却工于心计，总是臭着脸，时时刻刻提防着其他女人，已经成为她的第二天性。她总是冷言冷