had abandoned in order to foster her career. Even Dolly, who did not like

him, acknowledged his unselfishness. A sort of modesty had always prevented

Julia from discussing him with Dolly, but Dolly, with her shrewdness, had

long seen how intensely Michael exasperated his wife, and now and then took

the trouble to point out how useful he was to her. Everybody praised him. A

perfect husband. It seemed to her that none but she knew what it was like to

live with a man who was such a monster of vanity.

His complacency when he had beaten an opponent at golf (его самодовольствие,

когда он обыгрывал соперника в гольф) or got the better of someone in a

business deal (или одерживал над кем-то верх в деловой сделке; to get the

better of smb. — получить преимущество перед кем-либо) was infuriating

(приводило /ее/ в бешенство). He gloried in his artfulness (он гордился своей

ловкостью). He was a bore, a crashing bore (он был зануда, невыносимый

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зануда; crashing — необыкновенный, исключительный; to crash — с грохотом

разрушать). He liked to tell Julia everything he did (он любил рассказывать

Джулии обо всем, что он делал) and every scheme that passed through his head

(и о каждом замысле, что приходил ему на ум: «проходил через голову»); it

had been charming (это было очаровательным) when merely to have him with

her was a delight (когда просто быть рядом с ним: «иметь его с собой», было

/само по себе/ источником наслаждения), but for years she had found his

prosiness intolerable (но уже многие годы, она считала его будничность

невыносимой). He could describe nothing (он не мог описать ничего) without

circumstantial detail (без самых мельчайших подробностей; circumstantial —

подробный, обстоятельный, несущественный). Nor was he only vain of his

business acumen (он гордился не только своей деловой хваткой: «не был он

только самодоволен своей деловой хваткой»); with advancing years (с

возрастом; to advance in years — стареть, быть в летах; to advance —

продвигаться вперед) he had become outrageously vain of his person (он стал

чрезвычайно самовлюбленным: «самодовольный своей персоной»).

scheme [ski:m] intolerable [In'tOl(q)rqb(q)l] circumstantial ["sq:kqm'stxnS(q)l]

acumen ['xkjVmqn]

His complacency when he had beaten an opponent at golf or got the better of

someone in a business deal was infuriating. He gloried in his artfulness. He

was a bore, a crashing bore. He liked to tell Julia everything he did and every

scheme that passed through his head; it had been charming when merely to

have him with her was a delight, but for years she had found his prosiness

intolerable. He could describe nothing without circumstantial detail. Nor was

he only vain of his business acumen; with advancing years he had become

outrageously vain of his person.

As a youth he had taken his beauty for granted (когда он был молод, он

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воспринимал свою красоту как данность; to take for granted — считать само

собой разумеющимся): now he began to pay more attention to it (теперь он