Этот неподражаемый Дживс! / The Inimitable Jeeves

”

I don’t know if you know that sort of feeling you get on these days in the end of April and in the beginning of May, when the sky is blue, with cotton-wool clouds, and there’s a breeze blowing from the west? Romantic, if you know what I mean. On this particular morning it seemed to me that what I really wanted was some charming girl to ask me to save her from assassins or something. So that it was rather terrible when I suddenly ran into[7 - ran into – столкнулся с] Bingo Little, in a crimson satin tie decorated with horseshoes.

“Hallo, Bertie[8 - Bertie – Берти],” said Bingo.

“My God, man!” I gargled. “Your tie! Why? For what reason?”

“Oh, the tie?” He blushed. “I—er—I was given it.”

He seemed embarrassed, so I dropped the subject[9 - I dropped the subject – я оставил эту тему]. We walked a bit, and sat down on a couple of chairs by the Serpentine[10 - by the Serpentine – у Серпентина].

“Jeeves tells me you want to talk to me about something,” I said.

“Eh?” said Bingo. “Oh yes, yes. Yes.”

I waited for the news, but he didn’t seem to go on. Conversation languished. He stared straight ahead of him.

“I say, Bertie,” he said, after a pause of about an hour and a quarter.

“Hallo!”

“Do you like the name Mabel[11 - Mabel – Мэйбл]?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“You don’t think there’s a kind of music in the word, like the wind through the trees?”

“No.

He seemed disappointed for a moment; then cheered up.

“Of course, you wouldn’t. You always were a worm without any soul, weren’t you?”

“Just as you say. Who is she? Tell me all.”

For I realized now that poor old Bingo had fallen in love again. Ever since I have known him—and we were at school together—he has been perpetually falling in love with someone, generally in the spring.

“You’d better come along and meet her at lunch,” he said, looking at his watch.

“Well,” I said. “Where are you meeting her? At the Ritz[12 - the Ritz – «Ритц» (название отеля)]?”

“Near the Ritz.”

He was geographically accurate.