Авессалом, Авессалом! | страница 20



Oh, he was brave.О да, он был храбр.
I have never gainsaid that.Этого я никогда не отрицала.
But that our cause, our very life and future hopes and past pride, should have been thrown into the balance with men like that to buttress it-men with valor and strength but without pity or honor.Но почему же единственной опорой нашего дела, всей нашей жизни, надежд на будущее и гордости минувшим должны были стать такие люди - люди, обладавшие доблестью и силой, но лишенные сострадания и чести?
Is it any wonder that Heaven saw fit to let uslose?"Нужно ли удивляться, что господь позволил нам потерпеть пораженье?
'No'me,' Quentin said.- Нет, сударыня, - отозвался Квентин.
'But that it should have been our father, mine and Ellen's father of all of them that he knew, out of all the ones who used to go out there and drink and gamble with him and watch him fight those wild Negroes, whose daughters he might even have won at cards.- Но почему его жертвой оказался наш отец, наш с Эллен отец, из всех, кого он знал, - а не те, кто постоянно ездил туда, и пил и играл с ним в азартные игры, и смотрел, как он борется с этими дикими неграми, - из всех, чьих дочерей он мог бы даже выиграть в карты?
That it should have been our father.Почему именно наш отец?
How he could have approached papa, on what grounds; what there could have been besides the common civility of two men meeting on the street, between a man who came from nowhere or dared not tell where and our father; what there could have been between a man like that and papa-a Methodist steward, a merchant who was not rich and who not only could have done nothing under the sun to advance his fortunes or prospects but could by no stretch of the imagination even have owned anything that he would have wanted, even picked up in the road-a man who owned neither land nor slaves except two house servants whom he had freed as soon as he got them, bought them, who neither drank nor hunted nor gambled-what there could have been between a man who to my certain knowledge was never in a Jefferson church but three times in his life-the once when he first saw Ellen, the once when they rehearsed the wedding, the once when they performed it-a man that anyone could look at and see that, even if he apparently had none now, he was accustomed to having money and intended to have it again and would have no scruples about how he got it-that man to discover Ellen inside a church.