Кентервильское привидение. Человек-невидимка / The Canterville Ghost. The Invisible Man
clasping a white dimity bed-curtain, with a sweeping-brush, a kitchen knife, and a hollow turnip lying at his feet! Unable to understand this curious transformation, he clutched the placard with haste, and there, in the grey morning light, he read these fearful words:
YE OTIS GHOSTE
Ye Onlie True and Originale Spook,
Beware of Ye Imitationes.
All others are counterfeite.[59]
The whole thing flashed across him. He had been tricked, foiled, and outwitted! The old Canterville look came into his eyes; he ground his toothless gums together; and, raising his hands high above his head, swore according to the picturesque phraseology of the antique school, that, when Chanticleer had sounded twice his merry horn,[60] deeds of blood would happen, and murder walk abroad with silent feet.
Hardly had he finished this awful oath when, from the red-tiled roof of a distant homestead, a cock crew. He laughed a long, low, bitter laugh, and waited. Hour after hour he waited, but the cock, for some strange reason, did not crow again. Finally, at half-past seven, the arrival of the housemaids made him give up his fearful vigil, and he returned back to his room, thinking of his vain oath and ruined hopes. There he consulted several books of ancient chivalry, of which he was fond, and found that, on every occasion on which this oath had been used, Chanticleer[61] had always crowed a second time. “Perdition seize the naughty fowl,[62]” he muttered. And he then retired to a comfortable lead coffin, and stayed there till evening.
Exercises
1. Answer the questions:
1. Why was the United States Minister a little annoyed?
2. When did the ghost appear for the second time?
3. What did the twins do to the ghost?
4. What did Mrs. Otis bring to the ghost?
5. Did the ghost make a third attempt to frighten the United States Minister and his family?
6. What was his plan of action?
7. What did the ghost see when he turned the corner?
8. What did the terrible spectre look like?
9. Why was the ghost frightened?
10. Who constructed the terrible spectre?
When did the ghost return to his room?
2. True or false?
1. The United States Minister was naturally a little annoyed to find that his present had not been accepted.
2. The twins were very sorry for the things they had done to the ghost.
3. The second appearance of the ghost was on Saturday night.
4. Mrs. Otis brought the ghost some pills.
5. The ghost felt distressed because he had been unable to wear the suit of mail.
6. The ghost resolved to make a third attempt to frighten the United States Minister and his family.
7. The ghost bore Virginia a special grudge, being quite aware that it was she who was in the habit of removing the famous Canterville blood-stain by means of Pinkerton’s Paragon Detergent.
8. When the ghost turned the corner he saw a beautiful lady right in front of him.
9. The twins managed to outwit the ghost.
10. At half-past seven the ghost returned back to his room, thinking of his vain oath and ruined hopes.
3. Find in the text the English equivalents to the following words and expressions:
справедливое замечание, по некоторой необъяснимой причине, в соответствии с, в полной темноте, несварение желудка, в бешенстве, турнир, в надлежащем состоянии, ржавый, безрассудный юнец, преподать урок, табличка, живописный, кровавые деяния, свинцовый гроб.
4. Write questions to the following answers.
1. The United States Minister was a little annoyed because his present had not been accepted.
2. The chameleon-like colour of the stain excited a good deal of comment.
3. The second appearance of the ghost was on Sunday night.
4. They discharged two pellets on the ghost.
5. Mrs. Otis gave the ghost a bottle of Doctor Dobell’s tincture.
6. Longfello is a famous poet.
7. He fell back because he saw an awful phantom.
8. Its head was bald and burnished; its face round, and fat, and white.
9. There was a placard with strange writing on its breast.
10. He retired to a comfortable lead coffin.
5. Fill in the gaps with the words from the box.
1. If he really ___________________ to use the Rising Sun Lubricator, we shall have to take his chains from him.
2. The only thing that excited any attention being the ___________________ of the blood-stain on the library floor.
3. The second ___________________ of the ghost was on Sunday night.
4. The ghost was rubbing his knees with an ___________________ of agony on his face.
5. Towards evening a ___________________storm of rain came on, and the wind was so high that all the windows and doors in the old house shook and rattled.
6. ___________________ little Virginia, he had not quite made up his mind.
7. He ___________________ to himself, and turned the corner.
8. Right in front of him was standing a horrible spectre, motionless as a _______ ____________ image, and monstrous as a madman’s dream!
9. It bore a ___________________ of gleaming steel.
10. But the cock, __________________, did not crow again.
IV
The next day the ghost was very weak and tired. The terrible excitement of the last four weeks was beginning to have its effect. His nerves were completely shattered, and he started at the slightest noise. For five days he kept his room,[63] and at last made up his mind to give up the point of the blood-stain on the library floor. If the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did not deserve it. They were evidently people on a low, material plan of existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena. The question of phantasmic apparitions, and the development of astral bodies, was of course quite a different matter, and really not under his control. It was his duty to appear in the corridor once a week, and to gibber from the large oriel window on the first and third Wednesdays in every month, and he did not see how he could honourably escape from his obligations. It is quite true that his life had been very evil, but, upon the other hand, he was most conscientious in all things connected with the supernatural.
For the next three Saturdays, accordingly, he traversed the corridor as usual between midnight and three o’clock, taking every possible precaution against being either heard or seen. He removed his boots, trod as lightly as possible on the old worm-eaten boards, wore