Old Mr. Ablewhite never made his appearance that night. But I knew the importance which his worldly greed attached to his son’s marriage with Miss Verinder – and I felt a positive conviction (do what Mr. Godfrey might to prevent it) that we should see him the next day. With his interference in the matter, the storm on which I had counted would certainly come, and the salutary exhaustion of Rachel’s resisting powers would as certainly follow. I am not ignorant that old Mr. Ablewhite has the reputation generally (especially among his inferiors) of being a remarkably good-natured man. According to my observation of him, he deserves his reputation as long as he has his own way, and not a moment longer.
The next day, exactly as I had foreseen, Aunt Ablewhite was as near to being astonished as her nature would permit, by the sudden appearance of her husband. He had barely been a minute in the house, before he was followed, to MY astonishment this time, by an unexpected complication in the shape of Mr. Bruff.
I never remember feeling the presence of the lawyer to be more unwelcome than I felt it at that moment. He looked ready for anything in the way of an obstructive proceeding – capable even of keeping the peace with Rachel for one of the combatants!
“This is a pleasant surprise, sir,” said Mr. Ablewhite, addressing himself with his deceptive cordiality to Mr. Bruff. “When I left your office yesterday, I didn’t expect to have the honour of seeing you at Brighton to-day.”
“I turned over our conversation in my mind, after you had gone,” replied Mr. Bruff. “And it occurred to me that I might perhaps be of some use on this occasion. I was just in time to catch the train, and I had no opportunity of discovering the carriage in which you were travelling.”
Having given that explanation, he seated himself by Rachel. I retired modestly to a corner – with Miss Jane Ann Stamper on my lap, in case of emergency. My aunt sat at the window; placidly fanning herself as usual. Mr. Ablewhite stood up in the middle of the room, with his bald head much pinker than I had ever seen it yet, and addressed himself in the most affectionate manner to his niece.
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Примечания
1
Seringapatam – a town in southern India; the town got its name for the 12th century temple to the Hindu god Vishnu. In the 15th century it became the capital of the rajahs and sultans
2
Mohammedan – Muslim
3
Mahmud of Ghizni (998–1030) – sultan of Ghazna, the king-dom comprising the territory of present-day Afghanistan, most of Iran and northern India
4
Somnauth – Somnath, an ancient city in west-central India, now ruined; it is known for its temple of Shiva (Lord of the Moon)
5
Brahmins – members of the caste of Hindu priests
6
Benares – Varanasi, a sacred city of the Hindus in northern India on the left bank of the Ganges River
7
Vishnu – one of the main Hindu gods; Vishnu is associated with the Sun
8
Aurungzebe – Aurangzeb (1618–1707), emperor of India in 1658–1707, the last of the Mogul emperors
9
the Moguls – a Muslim dynasty that ruled India in the 16th–18th centuries
10
Brahma(h) – one of the major gods in Hinduism who created the earth and everything on it
11
Tippoo – Tippu (1750–1799), sultan of Mysore; he died in 1799 when his capital, Seringapatam, was stormed by the Brit-ish forces.
12
Yorkshire – a large historic county in the north-central part of England
13
the Garden of Eden – in the Old Testament, paradise where the first man and woman lived
14
Adam – in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the first man cre-ated by God on the sixth day of creation
15
claret – Bordeaux wine; the city of Bordeaux was known for its wine even in the Roman times
16
jugglers – persons who perform tricks to amuse people
17
Reformatory – an institution for reforming young crimi-nals
18
quicksand – liquid sand combined with pools of water at the mouth of large rivers or along the beach
19
cambric – cotton (originally linen) cloth first made in France, used for bands, cuffs, ruffs
20
Hampstead – originally a village, now an inner borough (in-corporated town or district) of London north of Westminster and the City of London
21
plaguy – dangerous, annoying
22
freaks – a freak is somebody or something unusual or ab-normal
23
Christendom – the Christian world; cultural and religious community of Christian countries.
24
boudoir