Посторонний | страница 6

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The nurse got up and moved toward the door.	Сиделка встала и направилась к выходу.
As she was going by, the keeper whispered in my ear:	И тогда сторож сказал мне:
"It's a tumor she has, poor thing."	- Это у нее шанкр.
I looked at her more carefully and I noticed that she had a bandage round her head, just below her eyes.	Я не понял, но, взглянув на женщину, увидел, что ниже глаз у нее марлевая повязка.
It lay quite flat across the bridge of her nose, and one saw hardly anything of her face except that strip of whiteness.	Там, где следовало быть носу, бинт лежал совсем плоско. Лица не было - только белая повязка.
As soon as she had gone, the keeper rose.	Когда женщина вышла, сторож сказал:
"Now I'll leave you to yourself."	- Я сейчас оставлю вас одного.
I don't know whether I made some gesture, but instead of going he halted behind my chair.	Не знаю уж, какой жест я сделал, но сторож все не уходил.
The sensation of someone posted at my back made me uncomfortable.	Его присутствие за моей спиной смущало меня.
The sun was getting low and the whole room was flooded with a pleasant, mellow light.	Комнату заливал яркий свет.
Two hornets were buzzing overhead, against the skylight.	Гудели два шмеля, ударяясь о стеклянный потолок.
I was so sleepy I could hardly keep my eyes open.	Я чувствовал, что меня одолевает дремота.
Without looking round, I asked the keeper how long he'd been at the Home.	Я спросил сторожа, не оборачиваясь к нему: - Давно вы здесь?
"Five years." The answer came so pat that one could have thought he'd been expecting my question. That started him off, and he became quite chatty.	Он тотчас ответил: - Пять лет, - как будто ждал моего вопроса. А затем принялся болтать.
If anyone had told him ten years ago that he'd end his days as doorkeeper at a home at Marengo, he'd never have believed it.	Оказывается, он никак не ожидал, что ему придется доживать свой век сторожем богадельни около какой-то деревни Маренго.
He was sixty-four, he said, and hailed from Paris.	Ему шестьдесят четыре года, он парижанин.

When he said that, I broke in.	Тут я его прервал:
"Ah, you don't come from here?"	"Ах, вы не здешний?"
I remembered then that, before taking me to the warden, he'd told me something about Mother. He had said she'd have to be buried mighty quickly because of the heat in these parts, especially down in the plain. "At Paris they keep the body for three days, sometimes four." After that he had mentioned that he'd spent the best part of his life in Paris, and could never manage to forget it.

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