雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第1章19:威靈頓夫人

This particular incident was always held against Mr Turing by his wife, the more so as she was particularly in awe of Lady Willingdon. The truth perhaps was that despite all the endless talk of duty, the qualities required in a district officer were very different from those of rule-book-keeping and deference to rank. Governing millions of people spread over an area equal to that of Wales called for an independent judgment and force of personality which were less welcome in the more courtly circles of metropolitan Madras. They were certainly little needed in his retirement, in which the busy intrigue of India assumed a retrospective appeal. His remaining years were dogged by a sense of loss, disillusion, and an intense boredom which fishing and bridge parties could never alleviate. He was aggravated by the fact that his younger wife found the return to Europe an opportunity to emerge from the constricting mental atmosphere of Dublin and Coonoor. For he had little regard for her more intellectual ambitions, combined as they were with a rather nervous, fussy domesticity; while she suffered from his obsessive penny-pinching and sense of being betrayed. They were both emotionally demanding, but neither met the other's demands, and they came to communicate in little but planning the garden.

圖靈夫人對此也經常抱怨，尤其是當她羨慕威靈頓夫人的時候。說實話，圖靈先生工作很負責，遵守規章，服從安排，一心爲當地的數百萬人民服務。但是在馬德拉斯官場，這些都沒有什麼用。他的餘生，充滿了挫折感和幻滅感，釣魚和橋牌，也無法緩解他的苦悶和壓抑。特別是圖靈夫人想要回歐洲，這更加惡化了他的情緒。他們不斷地給對方提出要求，但是誰也不能滿足誰，到後來除了一起收拾花園以外，就很少再溝通了。

One result of the new arrangement was that Alan now saw some point to learning French, and it became Alan's favourite school subject. But he also liked it as a sort of code, in which he naively wrote a postcard to his mother about 'la revolution' at Hazelhurst that Mr Darlington was not supposed to be able to read. (The joke was on their Breton maid at Dinard, who often spoke of a socialist revolution being imminent.)

這趟法國之行的結果是，艾倫喜歡上法語了，這現在成了他最喜歡的學科。實際上，他是喜歡用法語作爲一種密碼。在海茲赫斯特時，他就用達靈頓先生看不懂的法語，給母親寫明信片，講法國大革命。這是他在迪納時，從布瑞頓的女傭那裏知道的，這位女傭經常說，社會主義革命即將來臨。

But it was science that entranced him, as his parents discovered when they arrived back to find him clutching Natural Wonders. Their reaction was not entirely negative. Mrs Turing's grandfather's second cousin, George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911), had been a famous Irish scientist whom she had once met as a girl in Dublin. He was best known as the inventor of the word 'electron' which he coined in 1894 before the atomicity of electric charge had been established. Mrs Turing was very proud of having a Fellow of the Royal Society in her family, for ranks and titles made a great impression upon her. She would also show Alan the picture of Pasteur on the French postage stamps, which suggested the prospect of Alan as a benefactor of humanity. Perhaps she recalled that doctor missionary in Kashmir, all those years ago! – but there was also the simple fact that although she herself pressed her ideas into a suitably ladylike form, she still represented the Stoneys who had married applied science to the expanding empire. Alan's father, however, could well have pointed out that a scientist could expect no more than ?500 a year, even in the Civil Service.

不過，真正讓艾倫入迷的，仍然是科學。他父母回來時，看到他緊緊抓着《自然奇蹟》，對此他們也並不完全反對。圖靈夫人的祖父的二堂兄，喬治?約翰斯托?斯托尼（1826-1911），是一位挺有名的愛爾蘭科學家，當她還是小女孩的時候，曾在都柏林見過他。這位科學家最著名的事蹟，是在1894年創造了「電子」這個詞，那時還沒有原子價這個概念。家族裏有這麼一位皇家科學院成員，這讓圖靈夫人感到十分自豪，那種頭銜和地位，給她留下了深刻的印象。她還給艾倫看了印有巴斯德（1822-1895，法國化學家，細菌學家）肖像的法國郵票，讓他看看當科學家的光明前景。也許她還想起了多年以前讓她仰慕的那位克什米爾的傳教士醫生。總而言之，她一切的想法都是圍繞一個原則，那就是她希望成爲貴族，她希望斯托尼家族有人用科學來推動王國進步。然而，圖靈先生對此卻有不同的看法，他覺得一個科學家每年頂多能掙500英鎊，即便當上政府科學家，也多掙不了多少。

But he also helped Alan in his own way, for when back at school in May 1924 Alan wrote:

他雖然這樣想，但他還是以自己的方式在幫助艾倫。1924年5月，當艾倫回到學校時，給父親寫信說：