The Standard of Living

The Standard of Living

Dorothy Parker

Annabel and Midge had been best friends almost from the day that Midge had found a job as

stenographer

< br>（

速记员）

with the firm that employed Annabel. By now, Annabel, two years longer

in the stenographic department, had worked up to the wages of eighteen dollars and fifty cents a

week; Midge was still at sixteen dollars. Each girl lived at home with her family and paid half her

salary to its support.

The girls sat side by side at their desks, they lunched together every noon, together they set

out for home at the end of the day's work. Many of their evenings and most of their Sundays were

passed

in

each

other's

company.

Often

they

were

joined

by

two

young

men,

but

there

was

no

steadiness

to

any

such

quartet;

the

two

young

men

would

give

place,

unlamented,

to

two

other

young men, and

lament

（悲恸）

would have been inappropriate, really since the newcomers were

scarcely distinguishable form their

predecessors

（

前辈）

.

Invariably

（

总是）

the girls spent the fine

idle hours of their hot-weather Saturday afternoons together. Constant use had not worn

ragged

（衣衫褴褛的）

the fabric of their friendship.

They looked alike, though the

resemblance

（

相似）

did not lie in their features. It was in their

movements, their style, and their

adornments

（装饰）

.

Always the girls went to walk on Fifth Avenue on their free afternoons, for it was the ideal

ground

for

their

favorite

game.

The

game

could

be

played

anywhere,

and

indeed,

was,

but

the

great shop windows stimulated the two players to their best form.

Annabel had invented the game; or rather she had evolved it from an old one. Basically, it

was

no

more

than

the

ancient

sport

of

what-would-you-do-if-you-had-a-million- dollars?

But

Annabel had drawn a new set of rules for it, had narrowed it, pointed it, made it stricter. Like all

games, it was the more absorbing for being more difficult.

Annabel's

version

went

like

this:

You

must

suppose

that

somebody

dies

and

leaves

you

a

million dollars, cool. But there is a condition to the bequest. It is stated in the will that you must

spend every

nickel

（镍）

of the money on yourself.

There lay the

hazard

（危害）

of the game. If, when playing it, you forgot and listed among

your

expenditures

（花费）

the rental of a new apartment for your family, for example, you lost

your turn to the other player. It was astonishing how many-- and some of them among the experts,

too --would

forfeit

（被没收）

all their winnings by such slips.

It

was

essential,

of

course,

that

it

be

played

in

passionate

seriousness.

Each

purchase

must

be

carefully

considered

and,

if

necessary,

supported

by

argument.

There

was

no

zest

（热情）

to

playing it wildly. Midge played the game like a master from the moment she learned it. It was she

who added the touches that made the whole thing

cozier

（

舒适）

. According to Midge's innovations,

the

eccentric

（古怪的）

who died and left you the money was not anybody you loved, or, for the

matter of that, anybody you even knew. It was somebody who had seen you somewhere and had

thought,

die.

bene factor

（捐助者，

恩人）

, full

of

years

and

comfortably

ready

to

depart,

was

to

slip

softly

away

during

sleep

and

go

right

to

heaven. These

embroideries

（

刺绣，

润 饰）

permitted Annabel and Midge to play their game in the

luxury of peaceful consciences.

Midge played with a seriousness that

wasp

（易动怒的人）

not only proper but extreme. The

single strain on the girls' friendship had followed an announcement once made by Annabel that the

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