В предлагаемую книгу вошел текст научно-фантастического романа Артура Конан Дойла «Затерянный мир», повествующего об опасной, но невероятно увлекательной экспедиции в дебри Амазонки. В ходе экспедиции группе исследователей предстоит столкнуться с поистине невероятными событиями, побывать на грани жизни и смерти и… даже повстречаться с доисторическими существами! Смогут ли они доказать, что все произошедшее с ними – правда?
Адаптация текста, комментарии и словарь Д. В. Положенцевой
Иллюстрации И. Кульбицкой
Chapter 1
There Are Heroisms All Round Us
Mr. Hungerton, her father, was the most tactless person on the earth, a good-natured man, but absolutely centered on himself. If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it would have been the thought of such a father-in-law. I am sure that he really believed that I came round to their house three days a week only for the pleasure of his company.
For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous talk about money exchange and debts.
“Imagine,” he cried, “that all the debts in the world were to be paid at once… what would happen then?”
I answered that I should be a ruined man. [1] He jumped from his chair, complained that it was impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject with me, and ran out of the room to dress for a Masonic meeting. [2]
1
I should be a ruined man – мне грозит разорение
2
a Masonic meeting – масонское собрание
At last I was alone with Gladys, and the moment of Fate had come! All that evening I had felt like the soldier who awaits the signal which will send him on a hope.
She sat against the red curtain. How beautiful she was! And yet how aloof! We had been friends, quite good friends; but never could I get beyond the same friendship which I might have had with one of my fellow-reporters upon the Gazette – a frank and kind friendship. My nature is all against a woman who is too frank with me. It is no compliment to a man. Where the real feeling begins, shyness and distrust are its companions. It is heritage from old days when love and violence went often hand in hand. The bent head, the sideward eye, the low voice… these, and not the straight gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion. Even in my short life I had learned it.
Gladys was full of womanly qualities. Some thought her to be cold and hard; but it was so untrue! That bronzed skin, that raven hair, the large eyes, the full lips… all the signs of passion were there. But I was sadly conscious [3] that up to now I had never found the secret how to conquer her. She could refuse me, but better be a refused lover than an accepted brother.
So I was about to break the silence, [4] when two critical, dark eyes looked at me. Gladys shook her head and smiled with reproof. [5]
3
I was sadly conscious – я с грустью осознавал
4
to break the silence – нарушить молчание
5
with reproof – с упреком
“I have a feeling that you are going to propose, Ned. I wish you wouldn’t.”
“How did you know that I was going to propose?” I asked in wonder.
“Don’t women always know? But… Ned, our friendship has been so good and so pleasant! What a pity to spoil it! Don’t you think how splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked?”
“I don’t know, Gladys. You see, I can talk face to face with anyone. So it does not satisfy me. I want my arms round you, and your head on my breast, and… oh, Gladys…”
“You’ve spoiled everything, Ned,” she said. “Why can’t you control yourself? [6] ”
“I can’t. It’s nature. It’s love.”
“Well, I have never felt it.”
“But you must… you, with your beauty, with your soul! Oh, Gladys, you were made for love! You must love!”
“One must wait till it comes.”
“But why can’t you love me, Gladys? Is it my appearance, or what?”
“No it isn’t that,” she said with a smile. “It’s deeper.”
“My character?”
6
to control yourself – держать себя в руках
She nodded severely.
“What can I do, Gladys? Tell me, what’s wrong?”
“I’m in love with somebody else,” she said.
I jumped out of my chair.
“It’s nobody in particular,” she explained, laughing at the expression of my face: “only an ideal. I’ve never met the kind of man I mean.”
“Tell me about him. What does he look like?”
“Oh, he might look very much like you.”
“How dear of you to say that! Well, what is it that he does that I don’t do? Just say the word… non-drinking, vegetarian, pilot, theosophist, superman. I’ll have a try at it, Gladys, if you will tell me what would please you.”
She laughed at the flexibility of my character.
“Well, in the first place, I don’t think my ideal would speak like that,” said she. “He would be a harder man, not so ready to adapt himself to a girl. But, above all, he must be a man who could act, who could look Death in the face and have no fear of him, a man of great experiences. It is not a man that I should love, but the glories he had won because they would be reflected upon me!”
She looked so beautiful in her enthusiasm!