25 лучших рассказов / 25 Best Short Stories

Just an hour, dear fairy, so we can remember how the grass and poplar trees looked, and the bow of those bonnet strings tied beneath her chin – even if it was the hatpins that did the work. Can’t do it? Very well; hurry up with that touring car and the oil stock, then.

Just in front of Mrs. James Williams sat a girl in a loose tan jacket and a straw hat adorned with grapes and roses. Only in dreams and milliners’ shops do we, alas! gather grapes and roses at one swipe. This girl gazed with large blue eyes, credulous, when the megaphone man roared his doctrine that millionaires were things about which we should be concerned.

Between blasts she resorted to Epictetian philosophy[37 - Epictetian philosophy – в греко-римской истории – философия стоицизма, для которой характерны ясность и спокойствие ума, и образ жизни, основанный на определенных моральных принципах; Эпиктет (I–II в. н.э.) – выдающийся философ, представитель позднего стоицизма.] in the form of pepsin chewing gum.

At this girl’s right hand sat a young man about twenty-four. He was well-built, active, strong-jawed and good-natured. But if his description seems to follow that of James Williams, divest it of anything Cloverdalian. This man belonged to hard streets and sharp corners. He looked keenly about him, seeming to begrudge the asphalt under the feet of those upon whom he looked down from his perch.

While the megaphone barks at a famous hostelry, let me whisper you through the low-tuned cardiaphone to sit tight; for now things are about to happen, and the great city will close over them again as over a scrap of ticker tape floating down from the den of a Broad street bear.

The girl in the tan jacket twisted around to view the pilgrims on the last seat. The other passengers she had absorbed; the seat behind her was her Bluebeard’s[38 - The Bluebeard – Синяя Борода, герой сказок Шарля Перро и литературный персонаж европейского, восточного и африканского фольклора, убивавший всех, кто рискнул войти в запертую и запретную комнату.

] chamber.

Her eyes met those of Mrs. James Williams.