Rebecca / Ребекка. Книга для чтения на английском языке

‘Yes, I know,’ I said.

‘Did you go into any of the rooms?’ she asked me.

‘No,’ I said. ‘No, I just opened a door, I did not go in. Everything was dark, covered up in dust-sheets. I’m sorry. I did not mean to disturb anything. I expect you like to keep all this shut up.’

‘If you wish to open up the rooms I will have it done,’ she said, ‘you have only to tell me. The rooms are all furnished, and can be used.’

‘Oh, no,’ I said. ‘No. I did not mean you to think that.’

‘Perhaps you would like me to show you all over the west wing?’ she said.

I shook my head. ‘No, I’d rather not,’ I said. ‘No, I must go downstairs.’ I began to walk down the stairs, and she came with me, by my side, as though she were a warder, and I in custody.

‘Any time, when you have nothing to do, you have only to ask me, and I will show you the rooms in the west wing,’ she persisted, making me vaguely uncomfortable. I knew not why. Her insistence struck a chord in my memory[97], reminding me of a visit to a friend’s house, as a child, when the daughter of the house, older than me, took my arm and whispered in my ear, ‘I know where there is a book, locked in a cupboard, in my mother’s bedroom. Shall we go and look at it?’ I remembered her white, excited face, and her small, beady eyes, and the way she kept pinching my arm.

‘I will have the dust-sheets removed, and then you can see the rooms as they looked when they were used,’ said Mrs Danvers. ‘I would have shown you this morning, but I believed you to be writing letters in the morning-room. You have only to telephone through to my room, you know, when you want me. It would only take a short while to have the rooms in readiness.’

We had come down the short flight of stairs, and she opened another door, standing aside for me to pass through, her dark eyes questing my face. ‘It’s very kind of you, Mrs Danvers,’ I said, ‘I will let you know[98] some time.’

We passed out together on to the landing beyond, and I saw we were at the head of the main staircase now, behind the minstrel’s gallery. ‘I wonder how you came to miss your way?’ she said. ‘The door through the west wing is very different to this.’

‘I did not come this way,’ I said.

‘Then you must have come up the back way, from the stone passage?’ she said.

‘Yes,’ I said, not meeting her eyes. ‘Yes, I came through a stone passage.’

She went on looking at me, as though she expected me to tell her why I left the morning-room in sudden panic, going through the back regions, and I felt suddenly that she knew, that she must have watched me, that she had seen me wandering perhaps in that west wing from the first, her eye to a crack in the door. ‘Mrs Lacy, and Major Lacy, have been here some time,’ she said. ‘I heard their car drive up shortly after twelve.’

‘Oh!’ I said. ‘I had not realized that.’

‘Frith will have taken them to the morning-room,’ she said, ‘it must be getting on for half past twelve. You know your way now, don’t you?’

‘Yes, Mrs Danvers,’ I said. And I went down the big stairway into the hall, knowing she was standing there above me, her eyes watching me.

I knew I must go back now, to the morning-room, and meet Maxim’s sister and her husband. I could not hide in my bedroom now. As I went into the drawing-room I glanced back, over my shoulder, and I saw Mrs Danvers still standing there at the head of the stairs, like a black sentinel.

I stood for a moment outside the morning-room, with my hand on the door, listening to the hum of voices. Maxim had returned, then, while I had been upstairs, bringing his agent with him I supposed, for it sounded to me as if the room was full of people. I was aware of the same feeling of sick uncertainty I had experienced so often as a child, when summoned to shake hands with visitors, and turning the handle of the door I blundered in, to be met at once, it seemed, with a sea of faces and a general silence.

‘Here she is at last,’ said Maxim. ‘Where have you been hiding? We were thinking of sending out a search party. Here is Beatrice, and this is Giles, and this is Frank Crawley. Look out, you nearly trod on the dog[99].’

Beatrice was tall, broad-shouldered, very handsome, very much like Maxim about the eyes and jaw, but not as smart as I had expected, much tweedier; the sort of person who would nurse dogs through distemper, know about horses, shoot well. She did not kiss me. She shook hands very firmly, looking me straight in the eyes, and then turned to Maxim. ‘Quite different from what I expected. Doesn’t answer to your description at all’

Everyone laughed, and I joined in, not quite certain if the laugh was against me or not, wondering secretly what it was she had expected, and what had been Maxim’s description.

And ‘This is Giles,’ said Maxim, prodding my arm, and Giles stretched out an enormous paw and wrung my hand, squeezing the fingers limp, genial eyes smiling from behind horn-rimmed glasses.

‘Frank Crawley,’ said Maxim, and I turned to the agent, a colourless, rather thin man with a prominent Adam’s apple, in whose eyes I read relief as he looked upon me. I wondered why, but I had no time to think of that, because Frith had come in, and was offering me sherry, and Beatrice was talking to me again. ‘Maxim tells me you only got back last night. I had not realized that, or of course we would never have thrust ourselves upon you so soon. Well, what do you think of Manderley?’

‘I’ve scarcely seen anything of it yet,’ I answered, ‘it’s beautiful, of course.’

She was looking me up and down, as I had expected, but in a direct, straightforward fashion, not maliciously like Mrs Danvers, not with unfriendliness. She had a right to judge me, she was Maxim’s sister, and Maxim himself came to my side now, putting his arm through mine, giving me confidence.

‘You’re looking better, old man,’ she said to him, her head on one side, considering him; ‘you’ve lost that finedrawn look, thank goodness. I suppose we’ve got you to thank for that?’ nodding at me.

‘I’m always very fit,’ said Maxim shortly, ‘never had anything wrong with me in my life. You imagine everyone ill who doesn’t look as fat as Giles.’

‘Bosh,’ said Beatrice; ‘you know perfectly well you were a perfect wreck six months ago. Gave me the fright of my life when I came and saw you. I thought you were in for a breakdown. Giles, bear me out. Didn’t Maxim look perfectly ghastly last time we came over, and didn’t I say he was heading for a breakdown[100]?’

‘Well, I must say, old chap, you’re looking a different person’ said Giles. ‘Very good thing you went away. Doesn’t he look well, Crawley?’

I could tell by the tightening of Maxim’s muscles under my arm that he was trying to keep his temper. For some reason this talk about his health was not welcome to him, angered him even, and I thought it tactless of Beatrice to harp upon it in this way, making so big a point of it.

‘Maxim’s very sunburnt’ I said shyly; ‘it hides a multitude of sins. You should have seen him in Venice having breakfast on the balcony, trying to get brown on purpose. He thinks it makes him better-looking.’

Everyone laughed, and Mr Crawley said, ‘It must have been wonderful in Venice, Mrs de Winter, this time of year,’ and ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘we had really wonderful weather. Only one bad day, wasn’t it, Maxim?’ the conversation drawing away happily from his health, and so to Italy, safest of subjects, and the blessed topic of fine weather. Conversation was easy now, no longer an effort. Maxim and Giles and Beatrice were discussing the running of Maxim’s car, and Mr Crawley was asking if it were true that there were no more gondolas in the canals now, only motor-boats. I don’t think he would have cared at all had there been steamers at anchor in the Grand Canal, he was saying this to help me, it was his contribution to the little effort of steering the talk away from Maxim’s health, and I was grateful to him, feeling him an ally, for all his dull appearance.

‘Jasper wants exercise,’ said Beatrice, stirring the dog with her foot, ‘he’s getting much too fat, and he’s barely two years old. What do you feed him on, Maxim?’

‘My dear Beatrice, he has exactly the same routine as your dogs,’ said Maxim. ‘Don’t show off and make out you know more about animals than I do.’

‘Dear old boy, how can you pretend to know what Jasper has been fed on when you’ve been away for a couple of months? Don’t tell me Frith walks to the lodge gates with him twice a day. This dog hasn’t had a run for weeks. I can tell by the condition of his coat.’

‘I’d rather he looked colossal than half-starved[101] like that halfwit dog of yours’ said Maxim.

‘Not a very intelligent remark when Lion won two firsts at Cruft’s[102] last February,’ said Beatrice.

The atmosphere was becoming rather strained again, I could tell by the narrow lines of Maxim’s mouth, and I wondered if brothers and sisters always sparred like this, making it uncomfortable for those who listened. I wished that Frith would come in and announce lunch. Or would we be summoned by a booming gong? I did not know what happened at Manderley.

‘How far away from us are you?’ I asked, sitting down by Beatrice, ‘did you have to make a very early start[103]?’ ‘We’re fifty miles away, my dear, in the next county, the other side of Trowchester. The hunting is so much better with us. You must come over and stay, when Maxim can spare you. Giles will mount you.’

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Примечания

1

cheek-by-jowl – (разг.) бок о бок

2

he strange prick of tears behind my eyes – (разг.) глаза пощипывало от непролившихся слез

3

in its very lack of atmosphere – (разг.) в своей безликости

4

All things are shared. – (разг.) Мы делили и радости, и горести.

5

Bradshaws – (разг.) расписание поездов

6

what she did about it – (зд.) куда это все девалось

7

a little late in the day – (разг.) с опозданием; поздновато

8

trailing in the wake – (разг.) следуя по пятам

9

maitre d’hotel – (фр.) метрдотель, распорядитель

10

he can’t get over – (разг.) сильно переживает; все никак не может смириться

11

there was seldom opportunity to escape – (разг.) едва ли кто-то мог улизнуть (скрыться, спастись)

12

debating her method of attack – (разг.) обдумывая способ нападения

13

without offending courtesy – (устар.) не нарушая правил приличия

14

worsted hose – (устар.) толстые камвольные обтягивающие штаны

15

the Conquest – имеется в виду Вильгельм Завоеватель, покоривший Англию в 1066 г.

16

Ethelred – Этельред, король Англии (968-1016), отдал королевство датчанам

17

would give their eyes for the chance – (разг.) отдали бы все на свете за возможность

18

to my knowledge – (устар.) насколько я знаю

19

The sting did not touch her – (разг.) Его укол не достиг цели

20

you put yourself just a teeny bit forward – (разг.) вы вели себя несколько вызывающе (неподобающим образом)

21

Eh bien, Blaize, je viens… – (фр-) Хорошо, Блез, я иду…

22

put a curb upon their conversation – (разг.) не позволяло им распускать языки

23

would make a distraction – (зд.) будет хоть каким-то развлечением

24

hors d’auvre – (фр.) холодные закуски

25

and her like – (разг.) и ей подобных

26

he was still puzzled by us – (разг.) он так и не мог понять природу наших отношений

27

the conversation had been mine alone – (разг.) я все время болтала

28

You’re cheap at ninety pounds a year. – (разг.) Ваши услуги стоят дороже девяноста фунтов в год.

29

something held him back – (разг.) что-то удерживало его (не давало разговориться)

30

I never found out – (зд.) я так и не выяснила

31

I did not mind very much – (разг.) я об этом вообще-то не задумывалась

32

I must have looked upon it before with dull eyes. – (разг.) Я, должно быть, смотрела и не видела.

33

wrapped in his secret self – (зд.) погруженный в свои тайны

34

I wished I had not come. – (разг.) Я пожалела о том, что поехала с ним.

35

the car became one of many once again – (устар.) машина влилась в поток транспорта

36

dull as sawdust – (разг.) совершенно безвкусный (как опилки; ср. русск. с картонным вкусом)

37

the kiss of Judas – (разг.) поцелуй Иуды, синоним предательства (Иуда, один из учеников Христа, предал его врагам и получил за это тридцать сребреников)

38

Jezebel – (библ.) Иезавель, жена Ахава, царя Израиля, перен. распутница

39

cling like limpets – (зд.) прилепились как моллюски

40

that bottled up a memory – (разг.) которое могло бы законсервировать впечатления

41

What degradation lay in being young – (разг.) Как унизительно быть молодой

42

peeping Tom – ср. русск. любопытной Варваре…

43

But for you – (разг.) Если бы не вы

44

the daily papers folded anyhow – (разг.) газеты сложены кое-как

45

I would be a whipping-boy again – (разг.) снова я буду козлом отпущения, мальчиком для битья, прислугой за все

46

Exquisitely turned out – (разг.) Изысканно одетая

47

in my boxes – ср. русск. «на чемоданах»

48

fumbled with the awkward catch of her trunk – (разг.) пыталась справиться с неудобной застежкой ее чемодана

49

That’s decided me. – (зд.) Это помогло мне принять решение.

50

All in your own class. – (разг.) Все люди одного круга.

51

be at my beck and call – (разг.) быть у меня на побегушках

52

Sous le lavabo se trouve un vase – (фр.) «Ночная ваза» находится под раковиной

53

D’you like Hot music? – (разг.) Вам нравится современная музыка?

54

I saw by his eye – (разг.) по его глазам я поняла

55

rendezvous – (фр.) встреча

56

Anyway it’s worth trying. – (разг.) В любом случае стоит попытаться.

57

very flushed in the face – (разг.) раскрасневшаяся

58

I felt like a lay-figure – (разг.) я чувствовала себя манекеном

59

I’m invariably ill-tempered in the early morning. – (разг.) По утрам у меня всегда плохое настроение.

60

n the spur of the moment – (разг.) под влиянием минуты

61

It did not ring true. – (разг.) Это звучало нереально (неправдоподобно). Я не могла в это поверить.

62

what a shame – (разг.) какая досада

63

Get thee behind me, Satan. – (библ.) Изыди, Сатана.

64

who has handed in her notice – (разг.) которая подала прошение об увольнении

65

Still waters certainly run deep – (посл.) В тихом омуте черти водятся

66

you’ll have to adapt yourself to his ways – (разг.) вам придется приспосабливаться к его характеру и образу жизни

67

You can scarcely string two sentences together – (зд.) Вы с трудом можете связать пару слов (не умеете поддерживать разговор)

68

as an omen of ill-will – (разг.) как на дурное предзнаменование

69

I’ve bustled you down here – (разг.) я поспешил привезти вас сюда

70

she’s an extraordinary character – (разг.) у нее своеобразный характер

71

On we went – (разг.) Мы ехали дальше и дальше

72

I did not want this sort of thing – (зд.) я хотел этого избежать

73

Peter Lelys – сэр Петер Лели (1618–1680), голландский живописец, живший в Англии

74

Vandykes – Антонис ван Дейк (1599–1641), фламандский живописец

75

she considered me ill-bred – (разг.) она решила, что я дурно воспитана

76

his tail a-thump – (устар.) его хвост выбивал дробь; он живенько вилял хвостом

77

wrapped in his secret self – (зд.) погруженный в себя

78

they cleared out – (зд.) они все закончили и убрали

79

It’s for you to make your own time – (устар.) Вы вольны сами выбирать удобное для вас время

80

It’s for you to say. – (разг.) Как скажете; как прикажете.

81

liked to supervise things herself – (разг.) любила сама присматривать за всем

82

perhaps she thought I was going to interfere with the running of the house – (разг.) возможно, она решила, что я начну вмешиваться в хозяйственные дела дома (в управление поместьем)

83

I’d have given her the sack long ago – (разг.) я бы давно уволил ее

84

she had got into the way of doing it – (разг.) она привыкла к такому положению вещей

85

This is something you will have to get used to. – (разг.) Вам придется к этому привыкнуть.

86

my spirits sinking to zero – (разг.) совершенно упав духом

87

I’ve been away from things too long. – (зд.) Я слишком долго не занимался делами.

88

it did not do to apologize – (разг.) не надо было извиняться

89

Did you require anything – (устар.) Вам что-нибудь угодно

90

a place for odds and ends – (разг.) место, где хранили всякую всячину

91

from long custom – (разг.) в силу привычки

92

opened a drawer at hazard – (разг.) открыла наугад какой-то ящик

93

faux pas – (фр.) ложный шаг, ошибка

94

You have no preference – (устар.) Вам все равно

95

not for a moment anyway – (разг.) по крайней мере, не сейчас

96

must have lost my bearings – (разг.) должно быть, заблудилась

97

struck a chord in my memory – (разг.) вызвала в памяти

98

I will let you know – (разг.) я дам вам знать

99

you nearly trod on the dog – (зд.) вы чуть не наступили на собаку

100

he was heading for a breakdown – (разг.) он допрыгается до нервного срыва

101

I’d rather he looked colossal than half-starved – (разг.) Пусть уж лучше он выглядит толстым, чем заморенным

102

Cruft’s – знаменитые британские собачьи бега, проводятся ежегодно в Бирмингеме; судьи определяют победителя в каждой породе и награждают титулом чемпиона самого лучшего по всем статьям пса

103

did you have to make a very early start? – (разг.) вам пришлось рано выехать?