Jets from the Sixth Fleet thundered overhead, hoping to avert the long-expected coup d'etat. |
Над головами просвистели реактивные чудовища Шестого флота, надеющегося предотвратить ожидаемый переворот. |
The Milanese businessman's own wife was shouting abuse at him: Tonight he would cut out her faithless heart and mail it back to her mother. |
Собственная жена миланского бизнесмена оскорбительно кричала на него: сегодня он разобьет ее слабое сердце и отправит по почте ее матери, чтобы доконать и ту. |
What was there to do? |
Что было делать? |
In Milan, he would have had this Frenchman's head on a platter. |
В Милане этот француз давно бы уже сложил голову. |
But this was Rome, a southern city, an unpredictable and dangerous place. And legalistically, he was possibly in the wrong, which left him at a further disadvantage in the argument. |
Но Рим - южный город, непредсказуемое и опасное место. |
"Very well," he said. |
- Хорошо, - сдался водитель. |
"The blowing of the horn was perhaps truly unnecessary, despite the provocation." |
- Подача сигнала была, возможно, излишней. |
"I insist on a genuine apology," insisted Cordle. |
- Я настаиваю на полном извинении, - потребовал Кордл. |
There was a thundering sound to the east: Thousands of Soviet tanks were moving into battle formation across the plains of Hungary, ready to resist the long-expected NATO thrust into Transylvania. The water supply was cut off in Foggia, Brindisi, Bari. |
В Форджи, Бриндизи, Бари отключили водоснабжение. |
The Swiss closed their frontiers and stood ready to dynamite the passes. |
Швейцария закрыла границу и приготовилась к взрыву железнодорожных туннелей. |
"All right, I apologize!" the Milanese businessman screamed. |
- Извините! - закричал миланский бизнесмен. |
"I am sorry I provoked you and even sorrier that I was born! Again, I apologize! |
- Я сожалею, что спровоцировал вас, и еще больше сожалею, что вообще родился на свет! |
Now will you go away and let me have a heart attack in peace?" |
А теперь, может быть, вы уйдете и дадите мне умереть спокойно?! |
"I accept your apology," Cordle said. |
- Я принимаю ваше извинение, - сказал Кордл. |
"No hard feelings, eh?" |
- Надеюсь, вы на меня не в обиде? |
He strolled back to his car, humming "Blow the Man Down," and drove away as millions cheered. |
Он побрел к своей машине, тихонько напевая, и уехал. |
War was once again averted by a hairbreadth. |
Мир, висевший на волоске, был спасен. |
Cordle drove to the Arch of Titus, parked his car and-to the sound of a thousand trumpets-passed through it. |
Кордл доехал до арки Тита, остановил автомобиль и под звуки тысяч труб прошел под ней. |
He deserved this triumph as well as any Caesar. |
Он заслужил свой триумф в не меньшей степени, чем сам Цезарь. |
God, he gloated, I was loathsome! |
Боже, упивался он, я был отвратителен! |
In England, Cordle stepped on a young lady's toe just inside the Traitor's Gate of the Tower of London. |
В лондонском Тауэре, в Воротах Предателя, Кордл наступил на ногу молодой девушке. |
This should have served as an intimation of something. |
Это послужило началом знакомства. |
The young lady was named Mavis. |
Девушку звали Мэвис. |
She came from Short Hills, New Jersey, and she had long straight dark hair. She was slender, pretty, intelligent, energetic and she had a sense of humor. |
Уроженка Шорт-Хилс (штат Нью-Джерси), с великолепными длинными темными волосами, она была стройной, милой, умной, энергичной и обладала чувством юмора. |
She had minor faults, as well, but they play no part in this story. |
Ее маленькие недостатки не играют никакой роли в нашей истории. |
She let Cordle buy her a cup of coffee. |
Кордл угостил ее чашечкой кофе. |
They were together constantly for the rest of the week. |
Остаток недели они провели вместе. |
"I think I am infatuated," Cordle said to himself on the seventh day. |
Кажется, она вскружила мне голову, сказал себе Кордл на седьмой день. |
He realized at once that he had made a slight understatement. |
И тут же понял, что выразился неточно. |
He was violently and hopelessly in love. |
Он был страстно и безнадежно влюблен. |
But what did Mavis feel? |
Но что чувствовала Мэвис? |
She seemed not unfond of him. It was even possible that she might, conceivably, reciprocate. At that moment, Cordle had a flash of prescience. He realized that one week ago, he had stepped on the toe of his future wife and mother of his two children, both of whom would be born and brought up in a split-level house with inflatable furniture in Summit, New Jersey, or possibly Millburn. This may sound unattractive and provincial when stated baldly, but it was desirable to Cordle, who had no pretensions to cosmopolitanism. After all, not all of us can live at Cap Ferrat. Strangely enough, not all of us even want to. |
Недовольства его обществом она не обнаруживала. |
That day, Cordle and Mavis went to the Marshall Gordon Residence in Belgravia to see the Byzantine miniatures. |
В тот день Кордл и Мэвис отправились в резиденцию маршала Г ордона на выставку византийской миниатюры. |
Mavis had a passion for Byzantine miniatures that seemed harmless enough at the time. |
Увлечение Мэвис византийской миниатюрой казалось тогда вполне невинным. |
The collection was private, but Mavis had secured invitations through a local Avis manager, who was trying very hard, indeed. |
Коллекция была частной, но Мэвис с большим трудом раздобыла приглашения. |
They came to the Gordon Residence, an awesome Regency building in Huddlestone Mews. They rang. |
Они подошли к дому и позвонили. |
A butler in full evening dress answered the door. |
Дверь открыл дворецкий в парадной вечерней форме. |
They showed the invitations. |
Они предъявили приглашения. |