nvs1408: переводы

→My mother was equally satisfied at the outcome – not for her small legacy but for the future dispositions of our lives. So the family party broke up. Samuel returned to his ship in Portsmouth. Anna Maria and her husband and two children left for London. The Admiral’s brother – granted a legacy of £500 – returned to his home near Truro; as did the two cousins – who had been entirely ignored (Uncle Davey never liked them). Always depending on the continuing goodwill of Samuel, Claudine might consider she had been left as undisputed mistress. She had unfailingly been tactful with her nephews and nieces, and she knew she could manage Desmond and Mary. Anna Maria, with whom she did not get on so well, was safely busy childbearing and usually in London. The rest were servants.

→HE DIED on 27 November at eight o’clock in the evening, not at Place House but at Tregolls, where all his children had been summoned. Only three arrived in time, Samuel being at sea. Everyone was greatly upset.

→III

→‘Oh, I will, my dear. So I will.’

→‘You should write to the Admiralty. They have been away so long.’

→‘Not yet awhile,’ said Uncle Davey, playing the game we now all had to play. ‘Maybe at the end of the summer.’

→‘They’ll be home soon,’ said Aunt Anna, staring out of the window with absent blue eyes. ‘Clive and David. You told me their frigate would be home soon. Have you heard when?’

→‘Be sure you’re up next time I come,’ he said. ‘This shilly-shallying in bed … it don’t do you any good at all.’

→No one knew it then, but it was the last time they were to meet. When Uncle Davey got up to leave he stooped to kiss his wife, who was still in bed, and I saw her put an elderly, white-nailed hand round his back as if to hold him longer. When he straightened up he picked at a tooth defensively and half scowled at her.

→He had lost weight and his face was smaller, but as quick as ever to flush up at the least constraint. His men must find his humours as hard to predict as a wind in the Channel. But today he seemed good-tempered, and he was lucky to find Aunt Anna in one of her lucid moods. They talked together about old times and he was able to tell her that their eldest daughter was pregnant again. This would be number three in three years, so she was clearly going to outdo her mother. Uncle Davey was able to remind his wife of a practical joke he had played on their first nursemaid. It was something to do with apron strings, but that was all I heard amid his shouts of laughter. Aunt Anna laughed too but her laughter had a hollow sound as if she were looking down a well.

→ADMIRAL DAVEY Spry, Admiral of the Red, dropped in the following month to see his mad wife.

→II

→IV

→At length Fetch said: ‘I wouldn’t trust ’im, miss, no further ’n I could spit!’

→We still stood there.

→‘Come along, Fetch, your mistress is waiting.’ He bowed slightly. ‘Dutiful respects to your sister and your mother, Miss Emma; it has been a privilege.’ He turned and left us, and we stood and watched him walking back the way he had come. Parish barked a farewell.

→As he turned to Sally Fetch his face was quite expressionless. We might have been talking of the next regatta.

→‘Please leave me alone!’ I pulled my elbow free.

→‘I want you. As clear as clear. Think on it, little Emma. Now I have exceeded all good taste. All the frilly lace curtains of convention are torn to ribbons. Blown quite away. Polite words are not in me. Shall I ever be forgiven? Not, I’m sure, for this utter disgrace.’

→We were nearly at the ferry. Tregrundle stood with his new boat ready. It was half tide and one would only need a dozen strokes. I was short of breath. I half turned to wait for Fetch, but he caught my elbow.