Chapter 1
During the first half of the present century there fl ourished and practiced in the city of New York a physician by the name of Dr. Sloper. His colleagues liked to call him “the best doctor in the country”—and every day he never failed to prove himself worthy of the title.
At the time at which we are chiefly concerned with him, he was some fifty years of age, and his popularity was at its height. He was very witty, and he passed in the best society of New York for a man of the world. I must add, by the way, that he was a thoroughly honest man.
Without a doubt, fortune had favored him, and he had found the path to prosperity very easily. He had married at the age of twenty-seven, for love, a very charming girl, Miss Catherine Harrington, of New York, who, in addition to her charms, had brought him a considerable amount of money. Mrs. Sloper was amiable, graceful, accomplished, elegant, and in 1820 she had been one of the prettiest girls of the small but promising capital. She was for about five years a source of extreme satisfaction to the young physician, who was both a devoted and a very happy husband.
The fact of his having married a rich woman made no difference in the line he had traced for himself, and he cultivated his profession with as definite a purpose as if he still had no other resources than his fraction of the modest inheritance which on his father's death he had shared with his sisters. This purpose was simply to learn something interesting, and to do something useful. Of course his easy domestic situation saved him a good deal of worry, and his wife's affi liation to the“best people” brought him a good many of those patients whose symptoms are, if not more interesting in themselves than those of the lower orders, at least more consistently displayed.
He desired experience, and in the course of twenty years he got a great deal. It must be added that it came to him in some forms which, whatever might have been their intrinsic value, made it the reverse of welcome. His first child died at three years of age, in spite of everything that the mother's tenderness and the father's science could invent to save him. Two years later, Mrs. Sloper gave birth to a second infant—an infant of a sex which rendered the poor child, to the Doctor's sense, an inadequate substitute for his firstborn, of whom he had promised himself to make an excellent man. The little girl was a disappointment; but this was not the worst. A week after her birth the young mother suddenly betrayed alarming symptoms, and before another week had elapsed left Austin Sloper a single father.
For a man whose trade was to keep people alive, he had certainly done poorly in his own family. Our friend, however, escaped criticism: that is, he escaped all criticism but his own, which was the most competent and most formidable. He walked under the weight of this very private guilt for the rest of his days. The world, meanwhile, felt that his misfortune made him more interesting, and, thus, more fashionable.
His little girl remained to him, and though she was not what he had desired, he proposed to himself to make the best of her. She had been named, as a matter of course, after her poor mother, and even in her youngest years the Doctor never called her anything but Catherine. She grew up a very healthy child, and her father, as he looked at her, often said to himself that, such as she was, he at least need have no fear of losing her. I say “such as she was, ” because, to tell the truth—But this is a truth about which I will wait to tell you.
flourish /ˈflʌrɪʃ/ vi.（指某一个时代的名人）享有盛名
witty/ˈwɪtɪ/adj．机敏的；风趣的
pass for 被认为，被当作
prosperity/prɒˈsperətɪ/n．成功；幸运；繁荣
amiable/ˈeɪmjəbl/adj． 和蔼的；友善的
accomplished/əˈkʌmplɪʃt/adj.善于交际的；多才多艺的
elegant/ˈelɪɡənt/adj． 文雅的，优雅的
trace/treɪs/vt．描绘出，标出
cultivate/ˈkʌltɪveɪt/vt.（花费心思、时间等）发展；培养，磨炼
definite/ˈdefɪnɪt/adj． 确定的；明白的
resources /rɪˈsɔ:sɪs/ n. （复数）资源；财富
fraction/ˈf rækʃən/n． 小片，碎片，一小部分
inheritance/ɪnˈherɪtəns/n． 继承之物，遗产
domestic/dəʊˈmestɪk/adj． 家庭的；家务的
affi liation /əˌfɪlɪˈeɪʃən/ n． 联系；友好关系
symptom/ˈsɪmptəm/n．病症，症状
consistently/kənˈsɪstəntlɪ/adv.一贯地，一致地
display/dɪsˈpleɪ/vt．显露，表现
intrinsic/ɪnˈtrɪnsɪk/adj．内在的
reverse /rɪˈvə:s/ n． 相对；相反
in spite of 虽然；不顾；尽管……仍……
invent/ɪnˈvent/vt．发明，创造
render/ˈrendə/vt． 使成，致使（处于某状况）
inadequate /ɪnˈædɪkwət/ adj. (in-=not) 不适当的；不充分的
substitute n． 代替者，代用物
betray/bɪˈtreɪ/vt．暴露，显示
elapse/ɪˈlæp s/v i.（指时间）经过，逝去
criticism/ˈkrɪtɪsɪzəm/n．批评
competent /ˈkɒmpɪtənt/ adj. （指性质）足够的；适当的
formidable/ˈfɔ:mɪdəbl/adj．可怕的，令人畏惧的
misfortune /ˌmɪsˈfɔ:tʃən/ n.不幸
propose/prəˈpəʊz/vi． 做出计划，打算