I sat in the window with the volume in my hand, (私はその本を手に窓の側に座った) but my thoughts were far from the daring speculations of the writer. (しかし私の考えはその著者の大胆な推測から遥か遠くに離れていた) My mind ran upon our late visitor (私の心はさっきの訪問者に向かった) - her smiles, (彼女の笑顔) the deep rich tones of her voice, (彼女の深い豊かな声の調子) the strange mystery which overhung her life. (彼女の人生に覆い被さる奇妙な謎) If she were seventeen (もし彼女が17歳だったなら) at the time of her father’s disappearance (父親が失踪した時) she must be seven-and-twenty now (彼女は今27歳のはずだ) - a sweet age, (愛すべき年代だ) when youth has lost its self-consciousness and (若さが自意識を失い) become a little sobered by experience. (経験によって少し穏やかになる) So I sat and mused (私は座ってそういう物思いに耽った) until such dangerous thoughts came into my head that (非常に危険な考えが心に浮かんで) I hurried away to my desk and (急いで机に行き) plunged furiously into the latest treatise upon pathology. (がむしゃらに最新の病理学の専門書に向かうまで) What was I, (自分は何だ) an army surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking account, (弱い脚と情けない銀行口座の額の軍医が) that I should dare to think of such things? (厚かましくもそんなことを考えるとは？) She was a unit, (彼女は構成単位だ) a factor (要素だ) - nothing more. (それ以上ではない) If my future were black, (もし私の将来が真っ暗なら) it was better surely to face it like a man than (男らしく直視する方がずっといい) to attempt to brighten it by mere will-o’-the-wisps of the imagination. (ただの想像上の幻影の炎でそれを明るくしようとするよりも)