Endless Night / Бесконечная ночь. Книга для чтения на английском языке

‘And I went to see my mother,’ I added.

‘You’ve never spoken much of your mother.’

‘Why should I?’ I said.

‘Aren’t you fond of her?’

I considered. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Sometimes I don’t think I am. After all, one grows up and – outgrows parents. Mothers and fathers.’

‘I think you do care about her,’ said Ellie. ‘You wouldn’t be so uncertain when you talk about her otherwise.’

‘I’m afraid of her in a way,’ I said. ‘She knows me too well. She knows the worst of me, I mean.’

‘Somebody has to,’ said Ellie.

‘What do you mean?’

‘There’s a saying by some great writer or other that no man is a hero to his valet[28 - no man is a hero to his valet – нет пророка в своем отечестве (пословица)]. Perhaps everyone ought to have a valet. It must be so hard otherwise, always living up to people’s good opinion of one.’

‘Well, you certainly have ideas, Ellie,’ I said. I took her hand. ‘Do you know all about me?’ I said.

‘I think so,’ said Ellie. She said it quite calmly and simply.

‘I never told you much.’

‘You mean you never told me anything at all, you always clammed up. That’s different. But I know quite well what you are like, you yourself.’

‘I wonder if you do,’ I said. I went on, ‘It sounds rather silly saying I love you. It seems too late for that, doesn’t it? I mean, you’ve known about it a long time, practically from the beginning, haven’t you?’

‘Yes,’ said Ellie, ‘and you knew, too, didn’t you, about me?’

‘The thing is,’ I said, ‘what are we going to do about it? It’s not going to be easy, Ellie. You know pretty well what I am, what I’ve done, the sort of life I’ve led. I went back to see my mother and the grim, respectable little street she lives in. It’s not the same world as yours, Ellie. I don’t know that we can ever make them meet.’

‘You could take me to see your mother.’

‘Yes, I could,’ I said, ‘but I’d rather not. I expect that sounds very harsh to you, perhaps cruel, but you see we’ve got to lead a queer life together, you and I. It’s not going to be the life that you’ve led and it’s not going to be the life that I’ve led either. It’s got to be a new life where we have a sort of meeting ground between my poverty and ignorance and your money and culture and social knowledge. My friends will think you’re stuck up and your friends will think I’m socially unpresentable. So what are we going to do?’

‘I’ll tell you,’ said Ellie, ‘exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to live on Gipsy’s Acre in a house – a dream house – that your friend Santonix will build for us. That’s what we’re going to do.’ She added, ‘We’ll get married first. That’s what you mean, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘that’s what I mean. If you’re sure it’s all right with you.’

‘It’s quite easy,’ said Ellie, ‘we can get married next week. I’m of age, you see. I can do what I like now. That makes all the difference. I think perhaps you’re right about relations. I shan’t tell my people and you won’t tell your mother, not until it’s all over and then they can throw fits and it won’t matter.’

‘That’s wonderful,’ I said, ‘wonderful, Ellie. But there’s one thing. I hate telling you about it. We can’t live at Gipsy’s Acre, Ellie. Wherever we build our house it can’t be there because it’s sold.’

‘I know it’s sold,’ said Ellie. She was laughing. ‘You don’t understand, Mike. I’m the person who’s bought it.’

Chapter 8

I sat there, on the grass by the stream among the water flowers with the little paths and the stepping stones all round us. А good many other people were sitting round about us, but we didn’t notice them or even see they were there, because we were like all the others. Young couples, talking about their future. I stared at her and stared at her. I just couldn’t speak.

‘Mike,’ she said. ‘There’s something, something I’ve got to tell you. Something about me, I mean.’

‘You don’t need to,’ I said, ‘no need to tell me anything.’

‘Yes, but I must. I ought to have told you long ago but I didn’t want to because – because I thought it might drive you away. But it explains in a way, about Gipsy’s Acre.’

‘You bought it?’ I said. ‘But how did you buy it?’

‘Through lawyers,’ she said, ‘the usual way. It’s a perfectly good investment, you know. The land will appreciate[29 - appreciate – (зд.) земля будет дорожать]. My lawyers were quite happy about it.’

It was odd suddenly to hear Ellie, the gentle and timid Ellie, speaking with such knowledge and confidence of the business world of buying and selling.

‘You bought it for us?’

‘Yes. I went to a lawyer of my own, not the family one. I told him what I wanted to do, I got him to look into it, I got everything set up and in train.[30 - I got everything set up and in train (разг.)– У меня все на мази] There were two other people after it but they were not really desperate and they wouldn’t go very high. The important thing was that the whole thing had to be set up and arranged ready for me to sign as soon as I came of age. It’s signed and finished.’

‘But you must have made some deposit or something beforehand. Had you enough money to do that?’

‘No,’ said Ellie, ‘no, I hadn’t control of much money beforehand, but of course there are people who will advance you money. And if you go to a new firm of legal advisers, they will want you to go on employing them for business deals once you’ve come into what money you’re going to have so they’re willing to take the risk that you might drop down dead before your birthday comes.’

‘You sound so businesslike,’ I said, ‘you take my breath away!’

‘Never mind business,’ said Ellie, ‘I’ve got to get back to what I’m telling you. In a way I’ve told it you already, but I don’t suppose really you realize it.’

‘I don’t want to know,’ I said. My voice rose, I was almost shouting. ‘Don’t tell me anything. I don’t want to know anything about what you’ve done or who you’ve been fond of or what has happened to you.’

‘It’s nothing of that kind,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realize that that was what you were fearing it might be. No, there’s nothing of that kind. No sex secrets. There’s nobody but you. The thing is that I’m – well – I’m rich.’

‘I know that,’ I said, ‘you’ve told me already.’

‘Yes,’ said Ellie with a faint smile, ‘and you said to me, “poor little rich girl”. But in a way it’s more than that. My grandfather, you see, was enormously rich. Oil. Mostly oil. And other things. The wives he paid alimony to are dead, there was only my father and myself left because his two other sons were killed. One in Korea and one in a car accident. And so it was all left in a great big huge trust and when my father died suddenly, it all came to me. My father had made provision for my stepmother before, so she didn’t get anything more. It was all mine. I’m – actually one of the richest women in America, Mike.’

‘Good Lord,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know… Yes, you’re right, I didn’t know it was like that.’

‘I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want to tell you. That was why I was afraid when I said my name – Fenella Goodman. We spell it G-u-t-e-m-a-n, and I thought you might know the name of Guteman so I slurred over it and made it into Goodman.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’ve seen the name Guteman vaguely. But I don’t think I’d have recognized it even then. Lots of people are called names rather like that.’

‘That’s why,’ she said, ‘I’ve been so hedged around all the time and fenced in, and imprisoned. I’ve had detectives guarding me and young men being vetted before they’re allowed even to speak to me. Whenever I’ve made a friend they’ve had to be quite sure it wasn’t an unsuitable one. You don’t know what a terrible, terrible prisoner’s life it is! But now that’s all over, and if you don’t mind —’

‘Of course I don’t mind,’ I said, ‘we shall have lots of fun. In fact,’ I said, ‘you couldn’t be too rich a girl for me!’

We both laughed. She said: ‘What I like about you is that you can be natural about things.[31 - to be natural about things – быть честным, прямым]’

‘Besides,’ I said, ‘I expect you pay a lot of tax on it, don’t you? That’s one of the few nice things about being like me. Any money I make goes into my pocket and nobody can take it away from me.’

‘We’ll have our house,’ said Ellie, ‘our house on Gipsy’s Acre.’ Just for a moment she gave a sudden little shiver.