Гордость и предубеждение / Pride and Prejudice. Great Expectations / Большие надежды
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I thought of her having said, “Matthew will come and see me at last when I am laid dead upon that table;” and I asked Herbert whether his father was so inveterate against her?
“It’s not that,” said he, “To return to the man and make an end of him. The marriage day was fixed, the wedding dresses were bought, the wedding tour was planned out, the wedding guests were invited. The day came, but not the bridegroom. He wrote her a letter – ”
“Which she received,” I struck in, “when she was dressing for her marriage? At twenty minutes to nine?”
“At the hour and minute,” said Herbert, nodding, “at which she afterwards stopped all the clocks.”
“Is that all the story?” I asked.
“All I know of it. But I have forgotten one thing. It has been supposed that the man to whom she gave her misplaced confidence acted throughout in concert [113] with her half-brother; that it was a conspiracy between them; and that they shared the profits.”
113
acted throughout in concert –
“I wonder he didn’t marry her and get all the property,” said I.
“He may have been married already,” said Herbert. “But I don’t know that.”
“What became of the two men?” I asked, after considering the subject.
“They fell into deeper shame and degradation – if there can be deeper – and ruin.”
“Are they alive now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said just now that Estella was not related to Miss Havisham, but adopted. When adopted?”
Herbert shrugged his shoulders. “There has always been an Estella, since I have heard of a Miss Havisham. I know no more. And now, Handel, all that I know about Miss Havisham, you know.”
“And all that I know,” I retorted, “you know.”
On the Monday morning at a quarter before nine, Herbert went to the counting-house. He was to come away in an hour or two to attend me to Hammersmith, and I was to wait about for him. We went back to Barnard’s Inn and got my little bag, and then took coach for Hammersmith. We arrived there at two or three o’clock in the afternoon, and had very little way to walk to Mr. Pocket’s house. Lifting the latch of a gate, we passed direct into a little garden overlooking the river, where Mr. Pocket’s children were playing about.
Mrs. Pocket was sitting on a garden chair under a tree, reading, with her legs upon another garden chair; and Mrs. Pocket’s two nurse-maids were looking about them while the children played. “Mamma,” said Herbert, “this is young Mr. Pip.”
Chapter 23
Mr. Pocket said he was glad to see me, and he hoped I was not sorry to see him. He was a young-looking man, in spite of his very gray hair, and his manner seemed quite natural. When he had talked with me a little, he said to Mrs. Pocket, “Belinda, [114] I hope you have welcomed Mr. Pip? [115] ” And she looked up from her book, and said, “Yes.”
114
Belinda – Белинда
115
you have welcomed Mr. Pip – ты познакомилась с мистером Пипом
I found out within a few hours, that Mrs. Pocket was the only daughter of a certain gentleman. The young lady had grown up highly ornamental, but perfectly helpless and useless. I learnt, and chiefly from Herbert, that Mr. Pocket had been educated at Harrow [116] and at Cambridge; [117] and he had had the happiness of marrying Mrs. Pocket very early in life.
116
Harrow –
117
Cambridge – Кембридж
After dinner the children were introduced. There were four little girls, and two little boys. One of the little girls have prematurely taken upon herself some charge of the others.
I looked awkwardly at the tablecloth while this was going on. A pause succeeded. But the time was going on, and soon the evening came.
There was a sofa where Mr. Pocket stood, and he dropped upon it in the attitude of the Dying Gladiator. [118] Still in that attitude he said, with a hollow voice, “Good night, Mr. Pip.” So I decided to go to bed and leave him.
118
Dying Gladiator – умирающий гладиатор
Chapter 24
After two or three days, when I had established myself in my room, Mr. Pocket and I had a long talk together. He knew more of my intended career than I knew myself.
He advised my attending certain places in London. Through his way of saying this, and much more to similar purpose, he placed himself on confidential terms with me in an admirable manner.
I thought if I could retain my bedroom in Barnard’s Inn, my life would be agreeably varied. So I went off to Little Britain and expressed my wish to Mr. Jaggers.
“If I could buy the furniture now hired for me,” said I, “and one or two other little things, I should be quite at home there.”
“Go it! [119] ” said Mr. Jaggers, with a short laugh. “Well! How much do you want?”
I said I didn’t know how much.
“Come!” retorted Mr. Jaggers. “How much? Fifty pounds?”
119
Go it! – Что ж, действуйте!
“O, not nearly so much.”
“Five pounds?” said Mr. Jaggers.
This was such a great fall, that I said in discomfiture, “O, more than that.”
“More than that, eh!” retorted Mr. Jaggers, lying in wait for me, with his hands in his pockets, his head on one side, and his eyes on the wall behind me; “how much more?”
“It is so difficult to fix a sum,” said I, hesitating.
“Come!” said Mr. Jaggers. “Twice five; will that do? Three times five; will that do? Four times five; will that do?”