It must have been about two in the morning when I returned home. I tried to wake up my wife by ringing the doorbell, but she was fast asleep, so I got a ladder from the shed in the garden, put it against the wall, and began climbing towards the bedroom window. I was almost there when a sarcastic voice below said, 'I don't think the windows need cleaning at this time of the night.' I looked down and nearly fell off the ladder when I saw a policeman.

我回到家肯定已經(jīng)凌晨?jī)牲c(diǎn)了。我試著按門鈴叫醒夫人，但她睡得很熟。于是我從花園的小棚里搬來了一個(gè)梯子，拿它抵在墻上，開始爬向臥室的窗戶。我?guī)缀蹙鸵先チ耍@時(shí)一個(gè)諷刺的聲音從下面?zhèn)鱽?，“我不認(rèn)為我們需要在晚上清理窗戶”。我往下看，看到一位警察，嚇得我差點(diǎn)從梯子上掉下來。

I immediately regretted answering in the way I did, but I said, 'I enjoy cleaning windows at night.'
'So do I,' answered the policeman in the same tone. 'Excuse my interrupting you. I hate to interrupt a man when he's busy working, but would you mind coming with me to the station?'
'Well, I'd prefer to stay here,' I said. 'You see. I've forgotten my key.'
'Your what?' he called.
'My key,' I shouted.
Fortunately, the shouting woke up my wife who opened the window just as the policeman had started to climb towards me.

我回答了他的話，“我喜歡晚上擦窗戶”，但我馬上后悔了。

“我也是”，警察用同樣的聲調(diào)回答道?！氨复驍_您了，我痛恨在一位男士努力工作時(shí)打斷他。但你介意跟我去趟警察局嗎？”

“不，我喜歡呆在這里，”我說，“我沒帶鑰匙?！?/span>

“你的什么？”他叫道。

“我的鑰匙！”我喊道。

幸運(yùn)的事，這叫聲吵醒了我老婆，在警察向我爬過來的時(shí)候她正好打開了窗戶。