The building was not what the changeful city defined as a modern one, and the dusty wooden stairway, as seen from the pavement, disappeared upward into a smoky darkness.

这座建筑并不是这座多变的城市所定义的现代建筑，从人行道上看，尘土飞扬的木楼梯向上消失在烟雾缭绕的黑暗中。

She passed the tobacconist's, and before her was that dark entrance to the wooden stairway leading up to Frincke's Business College—the very doorway she had always looked upon as the end of youth and the end of hope.

她经过烟草店，面前是通向弗林克商学院的木楼梯的黑暗入口——她一直把这个门口视为青春的尽头和希望的尽头。