Фунты лиха в Париже и Лондоне / Down and Out in Paris and London. Книга для чтения на английском языке

�Sooner rob than starve, mon ami. I have often planned it. A fat, rich American – some dark corner down Montparnasse way – a cobblestone in a stocking – bang! And then go through his pockets and bolt. It is feasible[53 - It is feasible – (разг.) Может получиться], do you not think? I would not flinch – I have been a soldier, remember.’

He decided against the plan in the end, because we were both foreigners and easily recognized.

When we had got back to my room we spent another one franc fifty on bread and chocolate.

Boris devoured his share, and at once cheered up like magic; food seemed to act on his system as rapidly as a cocktail. He took out a pencil and began making a list of the people who would probably give us jobs. There were dozens of them, he said.

�Tomorrow we shall find something, mon ami, I know it in my bones[54 - I know it in my bones – (разг.) я просто нутром чую]. The luck always changes. Besides, we both have brains – a man with brains can’t starve.

�What things a man can do with brains! Brains will make money out of anything. I had a friend once, a Pole, a real man of genius; and what do you think he used to do? He would buy a gold ring and pawn it for fifteen francs. Then – you know how carelessly the clerks fill up the tickets – where the clerk had written “en or[55 - en or – (фр.) золото]” he would add “et diamants[56 - et diamants – (фр.) с бриллиантами]” and he would change “fifteen francs” to “fifteen thousand”.

Neat, eh? Then, you see, he could borrow a thousand francs on the security of the ticket. That is what I mean by brains…’

For the rest of the evening Boris was in a hopeful mood, talking of the times we should have together when we were waiters together at Nice or Biarritz, with smart rooms and enough money to set up mistresses. He was too tired to walk the three kilometres back to his hotel, and slept the night on the floor of my room, with his coat rolled round his shoes for a pillow.

VI

We again failed to find work the next day, and it was three weeks before the luck changed. My two hundred francs saved me from trouble about the rent, but everything else went as badly as possible. Day after day Boris and I went up and down Paris, drifting at two miles an hour through the crowds, bored and hungry, and finding nothing. One day, I remember, we crossed the Seine eleven times.