Tender is the night / Ночь нежна. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Of course even now I can just leave, or sit back and laugh at the whole thing – but I don’t think Violet would ever respect me again.”

“Yes, she would,” said Rosemary. “She’d respect you more.”

“No – you don’t know Violet. She’s very hard when she gets an advantage over you. We’ve been married twelve years, we had a little girl seven years old and she died and after that you know how it is. We both played around on the side a little[84 - We both played around on the side a little – Мы оба иногда «ходили на сторону»], nothing serious but drifting apart – she called me a coward out there to-night.

”

Troubled, Rosemary didn’t answer.

“Well, we’ll see there’s as little damage done as possible,” said Abe. He opened the leather case. “These are Barban’s duelling pistols – I borrowed them so you could get familiar with them. He carries them in his suitcase.” He weighed one of the archaic weapons in his hand.

Rosemary gave an exclamation of uneasiness and McKisco looked at the pistols anxiously.

“Well – it isn’t as if we were going to stand up and pot each other with forty-fives[85 - forty-fives – револьверы сорок пятого калибра],” he said.

“I don’t know,” said Abe cruelly; “the idea is you can sight better along a long barrel.”

“How about distance?” asked McKisco.

“I’ve inquired about that. If one or the other parties has to be definitely eliminated they make it eight paces, if they’re just good and sore it’s twenty paces, and if it’s only to vindicate their honor it’s forty paces.

His second agreed with me to make it forty.”

“That’s good.”

“There’s a wonderful duel in a novel of Pushkin’s[86 - There’s a wonderful duel in a novel of Pushkin’s – здесь допущена неточность: речь идет о дуэли Печорина и Грушницкого в «Герое нашего времени» М.

Ю. Лермонтова],” recollected Abe. “Each man stood on the edge of a precipice, so if he was hit at all he was done for.”

This seemed very remote and academic to McKisco, who stared at him and said, “What?”

“Do you want to take a quick dip[87 - to take a quick dip – окунуться, искупаться] and freshen up?”

“No – no, I couldn’t swim.” He sighed.