- •I wrapped my hanky round my thumb and got myself organized. George
- •I was known as Needle.
- •I stood silently among the people, watching. As you will see, I wasn't in a
- •I took a good look at this man accompanying Kathleen. It was her husband.
- •It was not for me to speak to Kathleen, but I had a sudden inspiration which
- •I must explain that I departed this life nearly five years ago. But I did not
- •Inspired to it. Indeed it's one of the things I can't do now — to speak out,
- •I taught in a private school in Kensington, for almost three months, very
- •I didn't love Skinny so I gave him back the ring.
- •I accompanied the party as a sort of secretary. Skinny vouched for me, he
- •I had broken off our engagement, lectured me about this, but still he took me
- •I'm busy in the hat-shop and being presented. You would think he hadn't
- •I must say I was myself a bit off-put by this news about the brown woman. I
- •Intelligent than a mule and sturdier than a horse. But I'm not having any
- •I was able to live on the fee I got for writing a gossip column in a local
- •I met George once more in a hotel in Bulawayo. We drank highballs and
- •I had half a mind to marry Skinny; perhaps, I thought, when his studies
- •I had already heard about the baby girl. Coal black, by repute, with
- •Impotence and need I secreted a venom which infected all my life for days on
- •I was nearly sick. One, because of my Scottish upbringing. Two, because of
- •I returned to England with Skinny's party just before the war.
- •I did not see George again till just before my death, five years ago.
- •I was waiting to write about life and it seemed to me that the good fortune lay in
- •I thought of my type of luck after I became a Catholic and was being
- •I visited Skinny twice in the two years that he was in the sanatorium. He was
- •Very close friends. We met several times each week, and after our Saturday-
- •If we had felt moved to do so.
- •I ought to get in touch with poor George. But then I think he would write
- •I did not speak of George's marriage, nor of any of his confidences in the
- •Impatience with him in former days; she said,
- •In the course of the morning he had told her of his wartime nightclub in
- •I was curious to see this version of George, but I was leaving for Scotland
- •Visited at week-ends; this old lady lived a few miles from Kathleen's aunt,
- •I should go ahead of her in the early afternoon to see to the provisions for our
- •I said no, I liked an empty house.
- •It was like a treasure hunt as I followed clue after clue through the cool silent
- •I found myself speaking to him almost as if he were a child.
- •I giggled, and looked at him. His face had grown much larger, his lips full, wide,
- •I still kept up. They referred to her as "George's Dark Lady" and of course
- •I said, "If Kathleen intends to marry you, I shall tell her that you're already
- •Vest year. Unfortunately, the byreman's hands were even brawnier and
- •If I hadn't been wearing my long-sleeved cardigan, it was said, the bruises
- •I dashed his hopes. I said, "Hallo, George!"
- •In that convivial street. I thought to myself. "He looks as if he had a mouthful
- •I might have been inspired to say more on that agreeable morning, but he
- •I doubt if George will ever see me again in the Portobello Road. He broods
- •Its few drooping tenants. They huddled together like birds in a storm; their
- •I was waiting for friends to come and pick me up on their way to Venice.
- •Importance was permitted to dawn upon strangers.
- •In the garden, strangely standing on a path between the flowers for
- •I climbed the lower slopes of the mountains while the experts in their boots
- •I was moved by the sight. The girl called Mitzi was watching me as I stood
- •In the kitchen doorway. "Coffee?'' she said.
- •I saw a black lacquered cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and just
- •I went into the polished dining-room, and Mitzi brought my coffee there.
- •It was that very day that the nuisance occurred. The double windows of my
- •It was a cold day. I sat in my room writing letters. I glanced out of the
- •I looked up a few moments later, and this time Herr Stroh was seated on a
- •I left my room and went down to complain to Frau Lublonitsch.
- •I returned to my room. Herr Stroh still sat in position, the field-glasses in
- •In his doorway blinking up at the roof of the Guest-house Lublonitsch. He
- •I didn't want to draw his attention by following the line of his gaze but I
- •In Frau Lublonitsch's splendid bedroom.
- •I turned the comer just as Herr Stroh gave up his gazing; he went indoors,
- •It while I waited for someone to come. I did not have to wait long, for two
- •Indeed were there, but invisible.
- •In the peeling pastel stucco of the little town, the unnecessary floral balconies,
- •Intrigued her.
- •Impassive neck.
- •Is she —"
- •Insurance manager. The successful kind."
- •I think twenty-two. I am twenty-two so far as Richard's concerned. I don't
- •If you want to be successful with men you have to hang on to your youth."
- •Invitation must come from Richard."
- •Valley.
- •I felt the need of his support. "
- •Including Gwen. The one called Grace was quite pretty, with a bewildered
- •I put on my dark glasses to shield my eyes from the sun and conceal my
- •It is discouraging to put on sun glasses in the middle of someone's intimate
- •I was sent to have my eyes tested. He took me into the darkened interior
- •I had seen Miss Simmonds once before, at a garden fete, where she stood on
- •I stopped looking round. I said. "Read what?" for I had been told I would
- •I recall reading the letters correctly down to the last few lines, which were
- •I broke the glasses by sitting on them during my school holidays two years
- •I washed my hair the night before and put a wave in it. Next morning at
- •I smiled and put my hand in my blazer pocket.
- •I formed an idea of his private life. "Dorothy" I speculated, "and Basil." I let
- •Is it to her?"
- •I invented for myself a recurrent scene in which brother and sister
- •I was sent for to try on my new reading glasses. I had the hat-pin with me I
- •I said, "Grandmother said to inquire after your mother."
- •I took to giving Basil a charming smile when I passed him in the street on
- •I took walks before supper round the back lanes, ambling right round the
- •Visible from the window. He laid it side by side with another sheet of paper
- •Ink and started writing on the bottom of the sheet of paper before him,
- •I shivered in my soaking wet clothes. Dorothy looked with her eye at the
- •I took them into Mr. Simmonds early that afternoon.
- •I had smeared them with cold cream first.
- •Interrupted:
- •I noted her correct phrase, "Are these they?" and it seemed just over the
- •Vicious, in the wrong.
- •I started screaming when I got home, and was given a sedative. By evening
- •It was put down to an accident. There was a strong hope that Miss
- •I said, "The bottle may have been tampered with, have you thought of
- •I was attended by our woman doctor, the widow of the town's former
- •I saw Dr. Gray leaving the Simmonds' at six o'clock one evening. She must
- •I walked on, certain that he had known my guilty suspicions all along.
- •I had come to the summer school to lecture on history and she on
- •Inmost lives. This is probably because they spend so much time hearing out
- •It and myself looked back at myself through the dark water. I looked at Dr.
- •I took them off for a moment. I rather liked her for her innocence in not
- •I had my glasses on again, and was walking on.
- •I thought, neither had I.
- •I said, "He might have stopped seeing eyes if you'd taken him at his word."
- •I could hardly believe she was shouting, who previously had been so calm.
- •I think it was then she recognised me.
- •It there and then. You see, he had to do it while it was still wet."
- •Vestments, or at least lace veil.
- •Vestments.
- •Instance, when a local Town Councillor resigned his office Raymond said,
- •In this particular, from the prejudices of that middle class to which they as
- •Introduce them to so many people." For the dark pair had, within a month,
- •In eyes, skin, teeth, which made him seem all the more eager. He called out
- •Irritated Lou, though she kept her peace.
- •Very well by Elizabeth." They had pulled up outside the house where
- •I'm not going to leave my kids in no nursery. I'm not going to send them to no
- •In that he took a tubercular turn, which was followed by a religious one. He
- •Very delicate question. She was amazed when, within three weeks, Oxford
- •In previous numbers, various references to the Black Madonna, how she had
- •It was the Saturday before that Sunday when Lou had her first sick turn.
- •In the next parish magazine. "Another case has come to light of the kindly
- •In fact, it was a very easy birth, a girl. Raymond was allowed in to see Lou
- •In the late afternoon. She was half asleep. "The nurse will take you to see the
- •In the other cots. "Far more so than the others."
- •Isn't hers, which is ridiculous."
- •Very long chance. I've never known it happen in my experience, but I've
- •Inquire after Lou. He rather regretted smashing up the cot in his first fury.
- •It white."
- •It must be back in the olden days the nigro some ansester but it is only nature.
- •I thank the almighty it has missed my kids and your hubby must think it was
I saw a black lacquered cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and just
before Gertha closed the door I noticed, standing upon the cabinet, a large
ornamental clock, its case enamelled rosily with miniature inset pastel
paintings; each curve and twirl in the case of this clock overlaid with that
gilded-bronze alloy which is known as ormolu. The clock twinkled in the early
sunlight which slanted between the window hangings.
I went into the polished dining-room (я пошла в отполированную столовую),
and Mitzi brought my coffee there (и Митци принесла мой кофе туда). From the
window I could see Frau Lublonitsch in her dark dress (из окна я могла видеть
фрау Люблонич в темном платье), her black boots and wool stockings (черных
ботинках и шерстяных чулках). She was plucking a chicken (она ощипывала
курицу; to pluck — срывать, щипать, выщипывать, ощипывать птицу) over
a bucketful of feathers (над полным ведром с перьями). Beyond her I could see
the sulky figure of Herr Stroh (за ней я видела: «могла видеть» угрюмую
фигуру господина Строха) standing collarless (который стоял в /рубашке/ без
воротника; collar — воротник, ошейник, хомут), fat and unshaven (толстый и
небритый; to shave — брить, сбривать, бриться), in the open door of his hotel
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
122
across the path (в открытой двери своего отеля через дорожку). He seemed to
be meditating upon Frau Lubomtsch (он, казалось, размышлял о фрау
Люблонич; to meditate upon — размышлять /о чем-либо/).
brought [brO:t] feather ['feDq] sulky ['sAlkI]
I went into the polished dining-room, and Mitzi brought my coffee there.
From the window I could see Frau Lublonitsch in her dark dress, her black
boots and wool stockings. She was plucking a chicken over a bucketful of
feathers. Beyond her I could see the sulky figure of Herr Stroh standing
collarless, fat and unshaven, in the open door of his hotel across the path. He
seemed to be meditating upon Frau Lubomtsch.
* * *
It was that very day that the nuisance occurred (именно в этот день и
случилась та неприятность; nuisance — досада, неприятность, помеха,
неудобство). The double windows of my bedroom (двойные окна: «окна с
двойной рамой» моей спальни) were directly opposite the bedroom windows of
the Hotel Stroh (были как раз: «прямо» напротив окон спальной в Отеле
Строх; opposite — находящийся напротив, противоположный), with no more
than twenty feet between (не более чем в двадцати футах /между ними/; foot
(feet) — нога, ступня; зд. фут — мера длины равная 30,48 см) — the width of
the narrow path that led up to the frontier (по ширине узкой тропинки, что вела
к границе; width — ширина, широта, narrow — узкий, тесный,
ограниченный).
nuisance ['nju:s(q)ns] frontier ['frAntIq]
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
123
It was that very day that the nuisance occurred. The double windows of my
bedroom were directly opposite the bedroom windows of the Hotel Stroh,
with no more than twenty feet between — the width of the narrow path that
led up to the frontier.
It was a cold day (день был холодный). I sat in my room writing letters (я
сидела в своей: «моей» комнате и писала письма; to write — писать,
написать, сочинять). I glanced out of the window (я взглянула в окно: «из
окна»; to glance — мельком взглянуть, быстро посмотреть). In the window
directly opposite me stood Heir Stroh (в окне, прямо напротив меня стоял
господин Строх), gazing blatantly upon me (откровенно уставившись на меня;
to gaze — пристально глядеть, глазеть, уставиться). I was annoyed at his
interest (я была раздражена его интересом; to be annoyed — быть
недовольным, раздосадованным, раздраженным). I pulled down the blind (я
опустила штору; to pull — тянуть, натягивать, blind — штора, жалюзи) and
switched on the light to continue my writing (и включила свет, чтобы
продолжать написание /писем/; to switch on/off — включать/выключать). I
wondered (я задумалась; to wonder — интересоваться, желать знать) if Herr
Stroh had seen me doing anything peculiar (видел ли господин Строх что-
нибудь особое в моих действиях: «как я делала что-нибудь специфическое»)
before I had noticed him (до того, как я заметила его), such as tapping my head
with the end of my pen (как например, стукала себя по голове кончиком ручки;
to tap — легко ударять, стучать) or scratching my nose (или чесала нос; to
scratch — царапать, чесать, ковырять) or pulling at my chin (или тянула себя
за подбородок), or one of the things one might do while writing a letter (или что-
нибудь еще: «одну из тех вещей», что можно делать, пока пишешь письмо).
blatant ['bleIt(q)nt] blind [blaInd] continue [kqn'tInju:]
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
124