He is waiting for the airline ticket counter when he first notices the young woman. She has glossy black hair pulled tightly into a knot at the back of her bead-the man imagines it loosed and cascading to the small of her back-and carries over she shoulder of her leather coat a heavy black purse. She wears black boots of soft leather. He struggles to see her face-she is ahead of him in line-but it is not until she has bought her ticket and turns to walk away that he realizes her beauty, which is pale and dark-eyed and full-mouthed, and which quickens his heart beat. She seems aware that he is staring at her and lowers her gaze abruptly.
他第一次注意到那個年輕女人，是在他到航空公司售票處排隊買票的時候。她的烏黑髮亮的一頭秀髮在腦後緊緊地終成一個客。那人想像著那頭秀髮披散開來瀑布般落在腰間的情形，只見那女人穿著皮外套的肩上挎著一個沉甸甸的黑色坤包，腳上穿著一雙黑色軟皮靴。他竭力想看到她的容貌，她就排在他的前面。但是，一直到她買好票走開，他才睹她的芳容：雪白的皮膚，馬裡發亮的眼睛，豐滿的嘴唇。他心族搖蕩，狂跳不止。那年輕女人代乎察覺到他在注視著她，便突然垂下了眼睛。
The airline clerk interrupts. The man gives up looking at the woman—he thinks she may be about twenty-five—and buys a round-trip, coach class ticket to an eastern city.
售票員一說話打斷了他的想像。他不再看那女人——他想她可能有25歲左右——然後買了一張到東部一個城市的二等往返機票。
His flight leaves in an hour. To kill time, the man steps into one of the airport cocktail bars and orders a scotch and water. While he sips it he watches the flow of travelers through the terminal-including a remarkable number, he thinks, of an unattached pretty women dressed in fashion magazine clothes-until he catches sight of the black-haired girl in the leather coat. She is standing near a Travelers Aid counter, deep in conversation with a second girl, a blond in a cloth coat trimmed with gray fur. He wants somehow to attract the brunette’s attention, to invite her to have a drink with him before her own flight leaves for wherever she is traveling, but even though he believes for a moment she is looking his way he cannot catch her eye from out of the shadows of the bar. In another instant the two women separate; neither of their direction is toward him. He orders a second Scotch and water.
飛機過1個小時才起飛。為了消磨時間，他走進機場的一家雞尾酒吧，要了一杯兌水的蘇格蘭威士忌、他一邊慢慢地喝著酒，一邊望著大廳裡川流不息的乘客——他想，其中有好多一定都是未婚的漂亮女人，她們穿的是時裝雜誌上介紹的那種衣服——直到後來他又瞥見那個穿皮外套的黑髮姑娘。她站在旅客服務臺旁邊，和另外一個姑娘眉飛色舞地聊著什麼。另外那個姑娘金髮碧眼，身穿一件鑲著灰色貓皮的布外套。不知怎麼的，他想引起黑髮姑娘的注意，想趁這個姑娘要乘的飛往什麼地方去的班機還沒離開之前，請她喝上一杯。然而，儘管他認為她向他這邊張望了一小會兒，但他在酒吧的陰暗處，吸引不了她的秋波。過了沒多大一會兒，這兩個女人就分手了，都沒有朝這個方向走來。他又要了一杯兌水的蘇格蘭威士忌。
When next he sees her, he is buying a magazine to read during the flight and becomes aware that someone is jostling him. At first he is startled that anyone would be so close as to touch him, but when he sees who it is he musters a smile.
當他再次看見她的時候，他正在買一本雜誌，以便在飛機上看。突然，他覺得有人挨近了他。他先是吃了一驚，怎麼會有人靠得這麼近碰到他的身體呢?但等看清是誰之後，他的臉上浮起了微笑。
「Busy place,」 he says.
「這地方人可真多，」他說。
She looks up at him—is she blushing? —and an odd grimace crosses her mouth and vanishes. She moves away from him and joins the crowds in the terminal.
她抬眼看著他——她是害羞臉才紅的嗎?——她的嘴角掠過一絲奇怪的表情，轉眼就消失了。她從他的身邊走開，加入了大廳的人流之中。
The man is at the counter with his magazine, but when he reaches into his back pocket for his wallet the pocket is empty. Where could I have lost it? he thinks. His mind begins enumerating the credit cards, the currency, the membership and identification cards; his stomach churns with something very like fear. The girl who was so near to me, he thinks-and all at once he understands that she has picked his pocked.
他拿著雜誌站在櫃檯邊，但當他將手伸進後邊的口袋拿錢夾的時候，發現裡邊什麼也沒有了。他在心裡想著：我可能是在什麼地方把它弄丟的呢?他開始在腦海裡清點裝在錢夾裡的信用卡、鈔票、會員證、身份證等東西。一種酷似恐懼的感覺使他的胃部劇烈地痙攣起來。那個姑娘挨我那樣近，他想——他立馬明白了，是她偷了他的錢夾。
What is he to do? He still has his ticket, safely tucked inside his suitcoat—he reaches into the jacket to feel the envelope, to make sure. He can take the flight, call someone to pick him up at his destination-since he cannot even afford bus fare-conduct his business and fly home. But in the meantime he will have to do something about the lost credit cards-call home, have his wife get the numbers out of the top desk drawer, phone the card companies-so difficult a process, the whole thing suffocating. What shall he do?
怎麼辦呢?飛機票還在，裝在上衣內袋裡是萬無一失的——他將手伸到衣服裡面，摸了摸裝機票的紙袋，心才落了地。他可以乘這班飛機，到達目的地，叫人來接。他連坐公共汽車的錢都沒有了。完事之後，再乘飛機回家。但是，在此期間要對那些信用卡失竊採取措施——要打電話，讓妻子將放在寫字檯最上面抽屜裡的信用卡號碼取出來，和一家家信用卡公司通電話——真是麻煩死了，要全部辦完，準會要命。怎麼辦呢?
First. Find a policeman, tell what has happened, describe the young woman, damn her, he thinks, for seeming to be attentive to him, to let herself stand so close to him, to blush prettily when he spoke-and all the time she wanted only to steal from him. And her blush was not shyness but the anxiety of being caught; that was most disturbing of all. Damn deceitful creatures. He will spare the policeman the details-just tell what she has down, what is in the wallet. He grits his teeth. He will probably never see his wallet again.
首先找警察把事情經過以及那年輕女人的模樣告訴他。這女人真可惡，好像對他很有意思，站得離他是那樣近，聽他說話時她的臉紅得是那樣嫵媚動人——卻要挖空心思想偷他的東西。原來她臉紅不是因為害羞，而是做賊心虛。這是最惱人的。這該死的騙人的娘們。這些細節還是不給警察說好——單講她所做的事情、他的錢夾裡有什麼東西就行了。他咬牙切齒。很可能他再也見不到自己的錢夾了。
He is trying to decide if he should save time for talking to a guard near the X-ray machines when he is appalled-and elated-to see the black-haired girl. She is seated against a front window of the terminal, taxis and private cars moving sluggishly beyond her in the gathering darkness: she seems engrossed in a book. A seat beside her is empty, and the man occupies it.
他正在考慮為了節省時間，就跟那個站在金屬探測器旁邊的保安員談一下。突然，他眼睛一亮，喜出望外——吃驚地看到了那個黑髮女人(報紙上會說：「長著一頭烏黑秀髮的女賊。」)靠坐在大廳的前窗。在她身後漸濃的暮色中，計程車和私車在慢慢騰騰地移動。她好像在全神貫注地看書。她旁邊的座位空著。於是，他坐了下來。
「I』ve been looking for you,」 he says.
「我正在找你呢，」他說。
She glances at him with no sort of recognition. 「I don’t know you,」 she says.
她瞟了他一眼，似乎沒有認出他是誰。「找不認識你，」她說。
「Sure you do.」
「你不會不認識我的。」
She sighs and puts the book aside. 「is this all you characters think about—picking up girls like we were stray animals? What do you think I am?」
她嘆了口氣，將書放在一邊。「你們這些人怎麼光想這個。好像我們女孩子是迷路的小動物，隨隨便便就能搞到手似的。你把我當成什麼人了?」
「You lifted my wallet,」 he says. He is pleased to have said 「lifted」, thinking it sounds more wordly than stole or took or even ripped off.
「你摸走了我的錢夾，」他說。他很得意地說「摸走」，他覺得這個字眼比「偷走」、「盜走」，甚至「掏走」，聽上去更加貼切。
「I beg your pardon?」 the girl says.
「你在說什麼呀?」那女孩說。
「I know you did—at the magazine counter. If you』ll just give it back, we can forget the whole thing. If you don't, then I』ll hand you over to the police.」
「我知道是你幹的——在雜誌櫃檯邊。只要你還給我，事情就一筆勾銷，否則就把你交給警察。」
She studies him, her face serious. 「All right,」 she says. She pulls the black bag onto her lap, reaches into it and draws out a wallet.
她仔細打量著那人，神情非常嚴肅。「好吧，」她說著，將她那隻黑包拉到膝蓋上，手伸進去，掏出了一隻皮夾。
He takes it from her. 「Wait a minute,」 he says, 「This isn’t mine.」
他從她手裡一把拿過來。「等一下，」他說，「這不是我的。」
The girl runs, he bolts after her. It is like a scene in a movie—bystanders scattering, the girl zigzagging to avoid collisions, the sound of his own breathing reminding him how old he is—until he hears a woman’s voice behind him:
那女孩撒腿就跑，他在後面窮追不捨，真像電影中的場面——周圍的人紛紛避開。那女孩飛快地左拐右轉，避免發生碰撞。他的喘息聲使他想起了自己的年紀——後來聽到一個女人的喊叫聲從背後傳來：
「Stop, thief! Stop that man!」
「抓、抓賊!抓住那個男人!」
Ahead of him the brunette disappears around a corner and in the same moment a young man in a marine uniform puts out a foot to trip him up. He falls hard, banging knee and elbow on the tile floor of the terminal, but manages to hang on to the wallet which is not his.
前面，黑髮女人已經轉過拐角，不見了蹤影。與此同時，一個身穿海軍陸戰隊制服的年輕人伸腳一絆。那人猛地跌倒，膝蓋和胳膊肘都重重地砸在大廳的地板磚上，但他的手裡仍緊緊地攥著那個不屬於他的皮夾。
The wallet is a woman’s, fat with money and credit cards from places like Sak’s and Peck & Peck and Lord & Taylor, and it belongs to the blonde in the fur-trimmed coat—the blonde he has earlier seen in conversation with the criminal brunette. She, too, is breathless, as is the police man with her.
這隻皮夾是一名婦女的，鼓鼓囊囊地裝著鈔票和像「薩克」、「佩克與佩克」、「洛德與泰勒」這種公司的信用卡。皮夾的主人是那個穿皮毛鑲邊外套的金髮女人——他早先看到在和那個作賊的黑髮女人交談的金髮女人。她也跑得氣喘籲籲，像那個和她一同趕來的警察一樣。
「That’s him,」 the blonde girl says, 「He lifted my billfold.」
「就是他，」金髮女人說，「是他偷了我的皮夾。」
It occurs to the man that he cannot even prove his own identity to the policeman.
他突然想到，他甚至無法向警察證實自己的身份。
Two weeks later—the embarrassment and rage have diminished, the family lawyer has been paid, the confusion in his household has receded-the wallet turns up without explanation in one morning’s mail. It is intact, no money is missing, all the cards are in place. Though he is relieved, the man thinks that for the rest of his life he will feel guilty around policemen, and ashamed in the presence of women.
時隔兩星期之後——他不再那樣尷尬和惱怒，家庭律師的報酬已經支付，家裡的風波也已經過去——他的錢夾在上午送來的郵件中意外地出現了，沒有附任何解釋。皮夾原封未動，錢一點也沒少，所有的證卡都在。儘管鬆了口氣，但他覺得，在自己今後的人生旅途中，他在警察旁邊會感到內疚，在女人們面前會感到羞愧難當。