«Дракула» и другие лучшие мистические истории на английском. Коллектив авторовЧитать онлайн книгу.

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avenue alone. I knocked gently and rang as quietly as possible, for I feared to disturb Lucy or her mother, and hoped to only bring a servant to the door. After a while, finding no response, I knocked and rang again, still no answer. I cursed the laziness of the servants that they should lie abed at such an hour, for it was now ten o’clock, and so rang and knocked again, but more impatiently, but still without response. Hitherto I had blamed only the servants, but now a terrible fear began to assail me. Was this desolation but another link in the chain of doom which seemed drawing tight round us? Was it indeed a house of death to which I had come, too late? I know that minutes, even seconds of delay, might mean hours of danger to Lucy, if she had had again one of those frightful relapses, and I went round the house to try if I could find by chance an entry anywhere. I could find no means of ingress. Every window and door was fastened and locked, and I returned baffled to the porch. As I did so, I heard the rapid pit-pat of a swiftly driven horse’s feet. They stopped at the gate, and a few seconds later I met Van Helsing running up the avenue. When he saw me, he gasped out, ‘Then it was you, and just arrived. How is she? Are we too late? Did you not get my telegram?’

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Примечания

1

goitre – an enlarged thyroid gland, illness of the hormones deficiency

2

‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ books – Blue book is an official document with information on a particular subject, published by the British government; Red book is an official, or canonical, collection of data or regulations.

3

Bradshaw’s Guide – a series of railway timetables and travelers’ guide books

4

the Honfoglalas – Hungarian conquest or land-taking, resulting in the settlement of the Hungarian people in Central Europe (9–10th centuries)

5

shame of Cassova – he means the Turkish victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, fought between the Serbian Principality and the invading Ottoman Empire.

6

the Crescent – the symbol of Islam and the Ottoman Empire

7

battle of Mohács (1526) – the battle fought between the forces of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, and the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary, resulting in the Ottoman victory

8

Omnia Romae venalia sunt – Everything in Rome is for sale. (Latin)

9

‘Marmion’ – a poem by Walter Scott (1771–1832) about the Battle of Flodden Field (1513)

10

fash masel – trouble myself (local language)

11

cured herrin’s – herring, preserved by fermentation, or pickling, or smoking

12

gang ageean wards – go ahead towards

13

crammle aboon the grees – climb about the steps

14

lack belly-timber sairly by the clock – I’m hungry, surely, it’s time

15

lock, stock, and barrel – everything, all of it

16

bairns – children

17

a’belderin’ – crying

18

touters – here: crooks

19

skeer = scare

20

hafflin – youth

21

steans – tombstones

22

acant – crooked

23

scowderment – chaos, confusio