Артур Дойл - Знак четырех / The Sign of the Four

‘Good-night, gentlemen both,’ said Jonathan Small.

‘You first, Small,’ remarked the wary Jones as they left the room. ‘I’ll take particular care that you don’t club me with your wooden leg, whatever you may have done to the gentleman at the Andaman Isles.’

‘Well, and there is the end of our little drama,’ I remarked after we had sat some time smoking in silence. ‘I fear that it may be the last investigation in which I shall have the chance of studying your methods. Miss Morstan has done me the honour to accept me as a husband in prospective.’

He gave a most dismal groan.

‘I feared as much,’ said he. ‘I really cannot congratulate you.’

I was a little hurt.

‘Have you any reason to be dissatisfied with my choice?’ I asked.

‘Not at all. I think she is one of the most charming young ladies I ever met and might have been most useful in such work as we have been doing. She had a decided genius that way witness the way in which she preserved that Agra plan from all the other papers of her father. But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgment. [163]’

‘I trust,’ said I, laughing, ‘that my judgment may survive the ordeal. But you look weary.’

‘Yes, the reaction is already upon me. I shall be as limp as a rag for a week.’

‘Strange,’ said I, ‘how terms of what in another man I should call laziness alternate with your fits of splendid energy and vigour.’

‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘there are in me the makings of a very fine loafer, and also of a pretty spry sort of a fellow. I often think of those lines of old Goethe:

‘ Schade, daß die Natur nur einen Mensch aus dir schuf, Denn zum würdigen Mann war und zum Schelmen der Stoff. ’ [164]

By the way, apropos of this Norwood business, you see that they had, as I surmised, a confederate in the house, who could be none other than Lal Rao, the butler: so Jones actually has the undivided honour of having caught one fish in his great haul.’

‘The division seems rather unfair,’ I remarked. ‘You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?’

‘For me,’ said Sherlock Holmes, ‘there still remains the cocaine-bottle.’ And he stretched his long white hand up for it.

a adjective прилагательное

adv adverb наречие

conj conjunction союз

n noun существительное

num numeral числительное

past past tense прошедшее время

pl plural множественное число

pron pronoun местоимение

p. p. past participle причастие прошедшего времени

prep preposition предлог

pr.p. present participle причастие настоящего времени

v verb глагол

abhor – v презирать

abstruse – a непонятный, неясный

accost – v обращаться

accurate – a точный

adhere – v прилипать

affably – adv учтиво

aggregate – n совокупность

agility – n проворство

agony columnраздел газеты о розыске пропавших

ague – n малярия

ally – n соучастник

amber – n янтарь

amiable – a дружелюбный

amiss – a неправильный, нехороший

annuity – n ежегодная рента

antecedent – n прошлое

apex – n высшая точка

apropos – prep что касается

ardent – a пылкий

ascertain – v удостовериться, подтвердить

astir – a на ногах (проснувшийся)

astride – adv зд . расставив ноги

athwart – adv поперек

atrocious – a жестокий

avarice – n алчность, корыстолюбие

averse – a не склонный к

aversion – n отвращение

backward – a зд . медлящий

badger – n барсук

balk – v задерживать

bar – n препятствие

barren – a зд . бессодержательный

bead – n бусина

beech – n бук

besetting – a зд. вечный (грех)

besought – past и p.p. от beseech (умолять, упрашивать)

bestiality – n свирепость

bias – v влиять

bide – v терпеть, выжидать ( уст .)

bizarre – a странный

blighted – a пришедший в упадок

bloodhound – n ищейка

bluff – a грубоватый

blunder – n ошибка

boisterously – adv возбужденно

bolt – n засов

boring – n бурение

brain – v размозжить голову

brier – n вереск, шиповник

brook – n ручей

brusque – a бесцеремонный

brusquely – adv резко

bugle – n горн

bumper – n зд. полный бокал

burglary – n ограбление

burly – a мощный

butler – n дворецкий

callous – a бессердечный

canine – а собачий

captive – n пленник

carafe – n графин

carboy – n стеклянная бутыль

cavalierly – adv бесцеремонно

chafe – v раздражать

chaplet – n бусы, четки

chase – n погоня

chuck – v швырять

chum – n дружок

clad (in)– a одетый

claim – n право (на)

club – n дубинка

clue – n ключ (к разгадке)

clung – past и p.p. от cling (цепляться (за))

coke – n кокс

compositor – n наборщик (в типографии)

conceit – n тщеславие

conjure – v вызывать в воображении

connoisseur – n знаток

contending – a соперничающий

contortion – n деформация

conventionality – n условность

convex – а выпуклый

convict – n заключенный

coronet – n диадема

cottonwood – n тополь

cough – n кашель

countenance – n лицо

cranny – n нора

crave – v тосковать