“Could it work?” Archer asked himself. “Why on earth(究竟，到底) not?” his alter ego(另一个自我) replied.
“这能行得通吗？”阿彻问自己。“为什么不行呢？”他的另一个自我回答道。
He stood in the penthouse(顶层豪华公寓) living room where, for years, dinners of shepherd’s pie(牧羊人派) and Krug(库克香槟) had been served up to London’s finest. From the floor-to-ceiling windows he stared down at the Shard, the Eye, the Cheese Grater(伦敦地标建筑群) and the Palace of Westminster, all embraced by the gleaming River Thames. Behind him, in the vast lounge, a Picasso and a Monet adorn(装饰，点缀)ed the walls.
他站在顶层公寓的客厅里，多年来，这里曾向伦敦最显赫的人物供应过牧羊人派和库克香槟。从落地窗向下望去，碎片大厦、伦敦眼、“奶酪刨”大楼和威斯敏斯特宫尽收眼底，全都被波光粼粼的泰晤士河环抱。在他身后，宽敞的休息室里，墙上挂着毕加索和莫奈的画作。
Settling into the overstuffed(填塞过满的，鼓鼓囊囊的) cream sofa, he felt almost insanely satisfied with his life. Yes, it would be well worth writing up. Rags-to-riches stories were his stock-in-trade(惯用手段，拿手好戏), and the riches had come from his own efforts. More than 330m of his 31 page-turner(引人入胜的书) novels had been sold in 114 countries. (The Monet was a bonus from his third, “Kane and Abel(《凯恩与阿贝尔》)”.) There had been seven sets of short stories, three plays and even a Gospel(福音书). Not long ago, in India, a beggar boy at a traffic light had tried to sell him “the latest Jeffrey Archer”. “I am the latest Jeffrey Archer!” he had joyfully cried.
他陷进那张塞得鼓鼓的米色沙发里，对自己的生活感到几乎疯狂般的满足。是的，这很值得写下来。白手起家的故事是他的拿手好戏，而财富来自他自己的努力。他的31部引人入胜的小说在114个国家卖出了超过3.3亿册。（那幅莫奈的画是他第三部小说《凯恩与阿贝尔》带来的额外收获。）他还出版了七部短篇小说集、三部戏剧，甚至一部福音书。不久前在印度，一个红绿灯前的乞丐男孩曾试图向他兜售“最新的杰弗里·阿彻”。他当时开心地喊道：“我就是最新的杰弗里·阿彻！”