一、解说
1. The tall, well-dressed gentleman standing before me was certainly a far cry from the old sea wolf of my imagination. 站在我面前的是一位身材高大、衣着讲究的先生，与我先前想象的老海怪完全不同。
    “standing before me”是现在分词短语，作定语，修辞“gentleman”，译成汉语可放在句首。
    “a far cry from sth/doing sth”是习语，意思是：a very different experience from sth/doing sth与某事物[做某事物]大不相同。
    例：Life on a farm is a far cry from what I've been used to. 农场生活与我已过惯的日子迥然不同。
    “wolf”是狼的意思，“sea wolf”在这里是指海员，海员因长期在海上航行，在常人眼里有点怪异，译作“海怪”比较贴切。

2. His air of complete self-assurance and somewhat lordly bearing would have frightened me, had it not been for his warm and hearty handshake. 他和我握手时是那样热情、真挚，要不然他那自信十足且略带傲慢的神情真会使我害怕呢。
    整个句子是虚拟语气，“had it not been for his warm and hearty handshake”是条件从句，已倒装，相当于if引导的从句。翻译时使用了反译法，并把否定的意思移到了主句中。

3. He took me in from top to toe with a quick glance. 他以敏捷的眼光从头到脚打量了我一番。
    “take sth in”意为：note sth with the eyes; observe sth注视或观察某事物。
    例1) He took in every detail of her appearance. 他端详了她一番。
    例2) The children took in the spectacle open-mouthed. 孩子们张着嘴注视精彩表演。
    例3) He took in the scene at a glance. 他看了一眼那里的景色。

4. Of course, I now expected to hear a loud banging of doors and a chorus of giggles and shouts, the scampering feet of youngsters

ing down the steps and sliding down the banister. 很自然，我以为会听到“砰砰”的关门声，叽叽喳喳的说笑声，嘈杂的脚步声，有的连蹦带跳，有的顺着扶手滑下来。
    不要一看到“course”就译作“当然”，太生硬。
5. Instead, led by a sober-faced young girl in her early teens, an almost solemn little procession descended step by step in well-mannered silence. 可是我没想到，这支小小的队伍在一个十来岁的沉静的女孩子的带领下，规规矩矩地不声不响地一步步走下楼来，简直太严肃了。
    “instead”表示一种转折，这里使用了增词法，在“可是”后面加了“我没想到”，这样更能准确地突出这种出乎意料的感觉。

6. This push, however, was the last. 不过这一推可就完了。
    这句话很难直译，不能将其译作“然而这是最后的一推”，太拙劣了。应该根据上下文将其含义译出。上文已提到这项帽子拉过两次了，下文是帽子掉了下来，所以译作“不过这一推可就完了”，含义准确。