| Подпоручик с тревогой следил за ним. |
| "Just this moment I remember an amusing story" (Nasanski now dropped into his usual good-tempered tone), "but, ugh! how my wits go wool-gathering-now here, now there. | - Вспомнилась мне одна смешная история, -добродушно и просто заговорил Назанский. - Эх, мысли-то у меня как прыгают!.. |
| Once upon a time I sat waiting for the train at Ryasan, and wait I did-I suppose half a day, for it was right in the middle of the spring floods, and the train had met with real obstacles. Well, you must know, I built myself a little nest in the waiting-room. | Сидел я однажды в Рязани на станции "Ока" и ждал парохода. Ждать приходилось, пожалуй, около суток, - это было во время весеннего разлива, - и я - вы, конечно, понимаете - свил себе гнездо в буфете. |
| Behind the counter stood a girl of eighteen-not pretty, being pockmarked, but brisk and pleasant. She had black eyes and a charming smile. In fact, she was a very nice girl. | А за буфетом стояла девушка, так лет восемнадцати, - такая, знаете ли, некрасивая, в оспинках, по бойкая такая, черноглазая, с чудесной улыбкой и в конце концов премилая. |
| We were three, all told, at the station: she, I, and a little telegraphist with white eyebrows and eyelashes. | И было нас только трое на станции: она, я и маленький белобрысый телеграфист. |
| Ah! excuse me, there was another person there-the girl's father, a fat, red-faced, grey-haired brute, who put me in mind of a rough old mastiff. | Впрочем, был и ее отец, знаете - такая красная, толстая, сивая подрядческая морда, вроде старого и свирепого меделянского пса. |
| But this attractive figure kept itself, as a rule, behind the scenes. | Но отец был как бы за кулисами. |
| Only rarely and for a few minutes did he put in an appearance behind the counter, to yawn, scratch himself under his waistcoat, and immediately afterwards disappear for a longish time. He spent his life in bed, and his eyes were glued together by eternally sleeping. | Выйдет на две минуты за прилавок и все зевает, и все чешет под жилетом брюхо, не может никак глаз разлепить. Потом уйдет опять спать. |
| The little telegraphist paid frequent and regular visits to the waiting-room, laid his elbows on the counter, but was, for the most part, as mute as the grave. | Но телеграфистик приходил постоянно. Помню, облокотился он на стойку локтями и молчит. |
| She, too, was silent and looked dreamily out of the window at the floods. | И она молчит, смотрит в окно, на разлив. |
