victoria_vn: переводы

→And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer.

→  "Egg and--" Mrs. Sheridan held the envelope away from her. "It looks like mice. It can't be mice, can it?"     "Olive, pet," said Laura, looking over her shoulder.     "Yes, of course, olive. What a horrible combination it sounds. Egg and olive."

→Sadie brought them in and went back to the door. Of course Laura and Jose were far too grown-up to really care about such things. All the same, they couldn't help agreeing that the puffs looked very attractive. Very. Cook began arranging them, shaking off the extra icing sugar.     "Don't they carry one back to all one's parties?" said Laura.

→That meant the cream puffs had come. Godber's were famous for their cream puffs. Nobody ever thought of making them at home.     "Bring them in and put them on the table, my girl," ordered cook.

→"Well, cook, I congratulate you."     Cook swept up crusts with the long sandwich knife, and smiled broadly.     "Godber's has come," announced Sadie, issuing out of the pantry. She had seen the man pass the window.

→They were finished at last, and Laura took them off to the kitchen. She found Jose there pacifying the cook, who did not look at all terrifying.     "I have never seen such exquisite sandwiches," said Jose's rapturous voice. "How many kinds did you say there were, cook? Fifteen?"     "Fifteen, Miss Jose."

→"Now, Laura," said her mother quickly, "come with me into the smoking-room. I've got the names somewhere on the back of an envelope. You'll have to write them out for me. Meg, go upstairs this minute and take that wet thing off your head. Jose, run and finish dressing this instant. Do you hear me, children, or shall I have to tell your father when he comes home to-night? And - and, Jose, pacify cook if you do go into the kitchen, will you? I'm terrified of her this morning."

→  The envelope was found at last behind the dining-room clock, though how it had got there Mrs. Sheridan could not imagine.     "One of you children must have stolen it out of my bag, because I remember vividly - cream cheese and lemon-curd. Have you done that?"     "Yes."

→  "The flags for the sandwiches, Sadie?" echoed Mrs. Sheridan dreamily. And the children knew by her face that she hadn't got them. "Let me see." And she said to Sadie firmly, "Tell cook I'll let her have them in ten minutes.     Sadie went.

→But now Sadie interrupted them. "What is it, Sadie?"     "If you please, m'm, cook says have you got the flags for the sandwiches?"

→  "Hans, move these tables into the smoking-room, and bring a sweeper to take these marks off the carpet and - one moment, Hans - " Jose loved giving orders to the servants, and they loved obeying her. She always made them feel they were taking part in some drama. "Tell mother and Miss Laura to come here at once.     "Very good, Miss Jose."

→  "Oh, I do, mother."     In the drawing-room Meg, Jose and good little Hans had at last succeeded in moving the piano.     "Now, if we put this chesterfield against the wall and move everything out of the room except the chairs, don't you think?"     "Quite."

→  "My darling child, you wouldn't like a logical mother, would you? Don't do that. Here's the man."     He carried more lilies still, another whole tray.     "Bank them up, just inside the door, on both sides of the porch, please," said Mrs. Sheridan. "Don't you agree, Laura?"

→     "But I thought you said you didn't mean to interfere," said Laura. Sadie had gone. The florist's man was still outside at his van. She put her arm round her mother's neck and gently, very gently, she bit her mother's ear.

→But at that moment Mrs. Sheridan joined them.     "It's quite right," she said calmly. "Yes, I ordered them. Aren't they lovely?" She pressed Laura's arm. "I was passing the shop yesterday, and I saw them in the window. And I suddenly thought for once in my life I shall have enough canna lilies. The garden-party will be a good excuse."

→  "O-oh, Sadie!" said Laura, and the sound was like a little moan. She crouched down as if to warm herself at that blaze of lilies; she felt they were in her fingers, on her lips, growing in her breast.     "It's some mistake," she said faintly. "Nobody ever ordered so many. Sadie, go and find mother."

→  The front door bell pealed, and there sounded the rustle of Sadie's print skirt on the stairs. A man's voice murmured; Sadie answered, careless, "I'm sure I don't know. Wait. I'll ask Mrs Sheridan."     "What is it, Sadie?" Laura came into the hall.     "It's the florist, Miss Laura."

→Little faint winds were playing chase, in at the tops of the windows, out at the doors. And there were two tiny spots of sun, one on the inkpot, one on a silver photograph frame, playing too. Darling little spots. Especially the one on the inkpot lid. It was quite warm. A warm little silver star. She could have kissed it.

→The house was alive with soft, quick steps and running voices. The green baize door that led to the kitchen regions swung open and shut with a muffled thud. And now there came a long, chuckling absurd sound. It was the heavy piano being moved on its stiff castors. But the air! If you stopped to notice, was the air always like this? 

→Laura put back the receiver, flung her arms over her head, took a deep breath, stretched and let them fall. "Huh," she sighed, and the moment after the sigh she sat up quickly. She was still, listening. All the doors in the house seemed to be open.