Роберт Луис Стивенсон. Катриона
| CATRIONA DEDICATION. To CHARLES BAXTER, Writer to the Signet_. MY DEAR CHARLES, It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company's office, must expect his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles. Yet, when I remember the days of our explorations, I am not without hope. There should be left in our native city some seed of the elect; some long-legged, hot-headed youth must repeat to-day our dreams and wanderings of so many years ago; he will relish the pleasure, which should have been ours, to follow among named streets and numbered houses the country walks of David Balfour, to identify Dean, and Silvermills, and Broughton, and Hope Park, and Pilrig, and poor old Lochend-if it still be standing, and the Figgate Whins-if there be any of them left; or to push (on a long holiday) so far afield as Gillane or the Bass. So, perhaps, his eye shall be opened to behold the series of the generations, and he shall weigh with surprise his momentous and nugatory gift of life. You are still-as when first I saw, as when I last addressed you-in the venerable city which I must always think of as my home. And I have come so far; and the sights and thoughts of my youth pursue me; and I see like a vision the youth of my father, and of his father, and the whole stream of lives flowing down there far in the north, with the sound of laughter and tears, to cast me out in the end, as by a sudden freshet, on these ultimate islands. And I admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny.R. L. S. Vailima , Upolu , Samoa , 1892.CATRIONA-Part I-THE LORD ADVOCATE | * ЧАСТЬ ПЕРВАЯ * . ГЕНЕРАЛЬНЫЙ ПРОКУРОР |
| CHAPTER I-A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK | ГЛАВА I. НИЩИЙ В РАЗЗОЛОЧЕННОМ СЕДЛЕ |
| The 25th day of August, 1751, about two in the afternoon, I, David Balfour, came forth of the British Linen Company, a porter attending me with a bag of money, and some of the chief of these merchants bowing me from their doors. | 25 августа 1751 года около двух часов дня, я, Дэвид Бэлфур, вышел из банка Британского Льнопрядильного кредитного общества; рядом шел рассыльный с мешком денег, а важные коммерсанты, стоя в дверях, провожали меня поклонами. |
| Two days before, and even so late as yestermorning, I was like a beggar-man by the wayside, clad in rags, brought down to my last shillings, my companion a condemned traitor, a price set on my own head for a crime with the news of which the country rang. | Всего два дня назад, и даже еще вчера утром, я ничем не отличался от нищего бродяги, ходил в лохмотьях, без единого шиллинга в кармане, товарищем моим был приговоренный к виселице изменник, а из-за преступления, о котором шла молва по всей стране, за мою голову была объявлена награда. |
| To-day I was served heir to my position in life, a landed laird, a bank porter by me carrying my gold, recommendations in my pocket, and (in the words of the saying) the ball directly at my foot. | Сегодня, получив наследство, я вступил в новую жизнь, я стал богатым землевладельцем, банковский рассыльный нес в мешке мои деньги, в кармане лежали рекомендательные письма, словом, как говорится, я вытянул из колоды счастливую карту. |
| There were two circumstances that served me as ballast to so much sail. | Однако же две тучки омрачали мой сияющий небосклон. |
| The first was the very difficult and deadly business I had still to handle; the second, the place that I was in. | Первая -- то, что мне предстояло выполнить чрезвычайно трудное и опасное дело; вторая -окружавший меня город. |
| The tall, black city, and the numbers and movement and noise of so many folk, made a new world for me, after the moorland braes, the sea-sands and the still country-sides that I had frequented up to then. | Высокие, темные дома, толчея и шум на многолюдных улицах -- все это было для меня ново и непривычно после поросших вереском склонов, песчаного морского берега и тихих деревень -- словом, всего, что я знал до сих пор. |
| The throng of the citizens in particular abashed me. | Особенно меня смущала уличная толпа. |
| Rankeillor's son was short and small in the girth; his clothes scarce held on me; and it was plain I was ill qualified to strut in the front of a bank-porter. | Сын Ранкилера был ниже и тоньше меня, его одежда выглядела на мне кургузой, и, конечно, мне в таком виде негоже было гордо выступать впереди рассыльного. |
| It was plain, if I did so, I should but set folk laughing, and (what was worse in my case) set them asking questions. | Люди, конечно, подняли бы меня на смех и, пожалуй (что в моем положении было еще хуже), начали бы любопытствовать, кто я такой. |
| So that I behooved to come by some clothes of my own, and in the meanwhile to walk by the porter's side, and put my hand on his arm as though we were a pair of friends. | Стало быть, мне следовало поскорее обзавестись собственной одеждой, а пока что шагать рядом с рассыльным, положив руку ему на плечо, как закадычному другу. |
| At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. |
