| I did not want to go back to the shop. | Идти в магазин было боязно. |
| Sascha came hurriedly into the yard and shouted: | На двор выскочил Саша и закричал: |
| "What the devil has become of you?" | - Какого чорта ты возишься! |
| I shook my pincers at him in a sudden access of rage. | Я замахнулся на него клещами, вдруг взбесившись. |
| I knew that both he and the assistant robbed the master. They would hide a pair of boots or slippers in the stovepipe, and when they left the shop, would slip them into the sleeves of their overcoats. | Я знал, что он и приказчик обкрадывают хозяина: они прятали пару ботинок или туфель в трубу печи, потом, уходя из магазина, скрывали их в рукавах пальто. |
| I did not like this, and felt alarmed about it, for I remembered the threats of the master. | Это не нравилось мне и пугало меня,- я помнил угрозу хозяина. |
| "Are you stealing?" I had asked Sascha. | - Ты воруешь? - спросил я Сашу. |
| "Not I, but the assistant," he would explain crossly. "I am only helping him. | - Не я, а старший приказчик,- объяснил он мне строго,- я только помогаю ему. |
| He says, 'Do as I tell you,' and I have to obey. If I did not, he would do me some mischief. | Он говорит - услужи! Я должен слушаться, а то он мне пакость устроит. |
| As for master, he was an assistant himself once, and he understands. | Хозяин! Он сам вчерашний приказчик, он всё понимает. |
| But you hold your tongue." | А ты молчи! |
| As he spoke, he looked in the glass and set his tie straight with just such a movement of his naturally spreading fingers as the senior assistant employed. | Г оворя, он смотрел в зеркало и поправлял галстук теми же движениями неестественно растопыренных пальцев, как это делал старший приказчик. |
| He was unwearying in his demonstrations of his seniority and power over me, scolding me in a bass voice, and ordering me about with threatening gestures. | Он неутомимо показывал мне своё старшинство и власть надо мною, кричал на меня басом, а приказывая мне, вытягивал руку вперёд отталкивающим жестом. |
| I was taller than he, but bony and clumsy, while he was compact, flexible, and fleshy. | Я был выше его и сильнее, но костляв и неуклюж, а он - плотненький, мягкий и масляный. |
| In his frock-coat and long trousers he seemed an important and substantial figure in my eyes, and yet there was something ludicrous and unpleasing about him. |
