Dark Avenues / Темные аллеи. Книга для чтения на английском языке

At last he suddenly paused and gave a sullen smile: there had appeared, coming up out of the stairwell from the lower deck, from third class, a rather cheap black hat, and underneath it the hollow-cheeked, sweet face of the woman whose acquaintance he had made by chance the previous evening. He set off towards her with long strides. Coming up onto the deck completely, she set off awkwardly in his direction too, and also with a smile, chased along by the wind, all aslant because of it, holding on to her hat with a thin hand, and wearing a light little coat, beneath which could be seen slender legs.

“How did you sleep?” he said loudly and manfully while still on the move.

“Wonderfully!” she replied, immoderately cheerful. “I always sleep like a log…[108 - I always sleep like a log… – Я всегда сплю, как сурок (букв.: как бревно)]”

He retained her hand in his big one and looked into her eyes. She met his gaze with a joyful effort.

“Why did you sleep so long, my angel?” he said with familiarity.

“Good people are already having lunch.”

“Daydreaming all the time!” she answered in a brisk manner, quite at odds with[109 - at odds with – несоответственно] her entire appearance.

“And what about?”

“All sorts of things!”

“Oh dear, watch out! �Thus little children they do drown, whilst bathing in the summer weather, the Chechen’s there across the river’[110 - Thus little children… across the river: An inaccurate quotation from the �Circassian Song’ in Alexander Pushkin’s narrative poem A Prisoner in the Caucasus (1822).

(прим. перев.) А. С. Пушкин предостерегает казака, плывущего через реку: Как тонут маленькие дети,/ Купаясь жаркою порой:/ Чеченец ходит за рекой.].”

“And it’s the Chechen that I’m waiting for!” she replied with the same cheerful briskness.

“Better let’s go and have vodka and fish soup,” he said, thinking: she probably doesn’t even have the money to buy lunch.

She began stamping her feet coquettishly:

“Yes, yes, vodka, vodka! It’s hellish cold!”

And they set off at a rapid pace for the first-class dining room, she in front, he behind her, already examining her with a certain greed.

He had thought about her in the night.