IX. IX. IX. IX.

From this moment on—the moment when Mary the maid's pleasant smile saluted her—Laura's opinion of life at school suffered a change. С этого момента — с момента, когда служанка Мэри приветствовала ее приятной улыбкой, — отношение Лауры к школьной жизни изменилось. She was glad to be back—that was the first point: just as an adventurous sheep is glad to regain the cover of the flock. Learning might be hard; the governesses mercilessly secure in their own wisdom; but here she was at least a person of some consequence, instead of as at Godmother's a mere negligible null. Обучение может быть трудным; гувернантки безжалостно полагаются на собственную мудрость; но здесь она была, по крайней мере, влиятельной персоной, а не ничтожным ничтожеством, как у крестной. Of her unlucky essay at holiday-making she wrote home guardedly: the most tell-tale sentence in her letter was that in which she said she would rather not go to Godmother's again in the meantime. О своем неудачном сочинении на отдыхе она писала домой осторожно: самой красноречивой фразой в ее письме было то, в котором она сказала, что пока не хочет больше ходить к крестной. But there was such a lack of warmth in her account of the visit that mother made this, together with the above remark, the text for a scolding. Но в ее рассказе о посещении было так мало теплоты, что мать сделала это вместе с вышеприведенным замечанием текстом для выговора.

"YOU'RE A VERY UNGRATEFUL GIRL," she wrote, "TO FORGET ALL GODMOTHER HAS DONE FOR YOU. IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR HER SUPPLYING YOU WITH BOOKS AND THINGS I COULDN'T HAVE SENT YOU TO SCHOOL AT ALL. AND I HOPE WHEN YOU GROW UP YOU'LL BE AS MUCH OF A HELP TO ME AS MARINA IS TO HER MOTHER. I'D MUCH RATHER HAVE YOU GOOD AND USEFUL THAN CLEVER AND I THINK FOR A CHILD OF YOUR AGE YOU SEE THINGS WITH VERY SHARP UNKIND EYES. TRY AND ONLY THINK NICE THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE AND NOT BE ALWAYS SPYING OUT THEIR FAULTS. THEN YOU'LL HAVE PLENTY OF FRIENDS AND BE LIKED WHEREVER YOU GO." Laura took the statement about the goodness and cleverness with a grain of salt: she knew better. Лаура восприняла заявление о доброте и сообразительности с долей скептицизма: ей виднее. Mother thought it the proper thing to say, and she would certainly have preferred the two qualities combined; but, had she been forced to choose between them, there was small doubt how her choice would have fallen out. And if, for instance, Laura confessed that her teachers did not regard her as even passably intelligent, there would be a nice to-do. И если бы, например, Лаура призналась, что ее учителя не считают ее даже достаточно умной, это было бы неплохо. Mother's ambitions knew no bounds; and, wounded in these, she was quite capable of writing post-haste to Mrs. Gurley or Mr. Strachey, complaining of their want of insight, and bringing forward a string of embarrassing proofs. Амбиции матери не знали границ; и, задетая этим, она была вполне способна спешно написать миссис Герли или мистеру Стрейчи, жалуясь на их неосведомленность и приводя целый ряд смущающих доказательств. So, leaving Mother to her pleasing illusions, Laura settled down again to her role of dunce, now, though, with more equanimity than before. School was really not a bad place after all—this had for some time been her growing conviction, and the visit to Godmother seemed to bring it to a head. В конце концов, школа была действительно неплохим местом — с некоторых пор она все больше убеждалась в этом, и визит к крестной, казалось, обострил ее.

About this time, too, a couple of pieces of good fortune came her way.

The first: she was privileged to be third in the friendship between Inez and Bertha—a favour of which she availed herself eagerly, though the three were as different from one another as three little girls could be. Во-первых, ей выпала честь быть третьей в дружбе между Инес и Бертой, — услугой, которой она охотно воспользовалась, хотя эти трое так сильно отличались друг от друга, как только могут быть три маленькие девочки. Bertha was a good-natured romp, hard-fisted, thick of leg, and of a plodding but ineffectual industry. Берта была добродушной шалуньей, крепкой, толстоногой, трудолюбивой, но безрезультатной. Inez, on the other hand, was so pretty that Laura never tired of looking at her: she had a pale skin, hazel eyes, brown hair with a yellow light in it, and a Greek nose. Her mouth was very small; her nostrils were mere tiny slits; and so lazy was she that she seldom more than half opened her eyes. Both girls were well over fourteen, and very fully developed: compared with them, Laura was like nothing so much as a skinny young colt.

She was so grateful to them for tolerating her that she never took up a stand of real equality with them: proud and sensitive, she was always ready to draw back and admit their prior rights to each other; hence the friendship did not advance to intimacy. Она была так благодарна им за то, что они терпели ее, что никогда не становилась с ними на позицию настоящего равноправия: гордая и чуткая, она всегда была готова отступить и признать их прежние права друг перед другом; поэтому дружба не переросла в близость. But such as it was, it was very comforting; she no longer needed to sit alone in recess; she could link arms and walk the garden with complacency; and many were the supercilious glances she now threw at Maria Morell and that clique; for her new friends belonged socially to the best set in the school. Но как бы то ни было, это было очень утешительно; ей больше не нужно было сидеть в одиночестве на перемене; она могла взяться за руки и спокойно ходить по саду; и много высокомерных взглядов она теперь бросала на Марию Морель и эту клику; поскольку ее новые друзья принадлежали в социальном плане к лучшему набору в школе.

In another way, too, their company made things easier for her: neither of them aimed high; and both were well content with the lowly places they occupied in the class. С другой стороны, их общество облегчало ей жизнь: ни один из них не ставил перед собой высокие цели; и оба были вполне довольны скромными местами, которые они занимали в классе. And so Laura, who was still, in her young confusion, unequal to discovering what was wanted of her, grew comforted by the presence and support of her friends, and unmindful of higher opinion; and Miss Chapman, in supervising evening lessons, remarked with genuine regret that little Laura was growing perky and lazy.

Her second piece of good luck was of quite a different nature.

Miss Hicks, the visiting governess for geography, had a gift for saying biting things that really bit. She bore Inez a peculiar grudge; for she believed that certain faculties slumbered behind the Grecian profile, and that only the girl's ingrained sloth prevented them. Она затаила на Инес особую обиду; ибо она считала, что за греческим профилем дремлют определенные способности, и что только укоренившаяся лень девушки мешает им. One day she lost patience with this sluggish pupil.

"I'll tell you what it is, Inez," she said; "you're blessed with a real woman's brain: vague, slippery, inexact, interested only in the personal aspect of a thing. You can't concentrate your thoughts, and, worst of all, you've no curiosity—about anything that really matters. You take all the great facts of existence on trust—just as a hen does—and I've no doubt you'll go on contentedly till the end of your days, without ever knowing why the ocean has tides, and what causes the seasons.—It makes me ashamed to belong to the same sex." Вы принимаете на веру все великие факты существования, как курица, и я не сомневаюсь, что вы будете довольны до конца своих дней, так и не зная, почему в океане бывают приливы и что вызывает смену времен года. .— Мне стыдно, что я принадлежу к тому же полу». Inez's classmates tittered furiously, let the sarcasm glide over them, unhit by its truth. Одноклассники Инес яростно захихикали, позволив сарказму скользнуть по ним, не задев его правды. Inez herself, indeed, was inclined to consider the governess's taunt a compliment, as proving that she was incapable of a vulgar inquisitiveness. Да и сама Инес была склонна считать насмешку гувернантки комплиментом, доказывающим, что она не способна на вульгарное любопытство. But Laura, though she laughed docilely with the rest, could not forget the incident—words in any case had a way of sticking to her memory—and what Miss Hicks had said often came back to her, in the days that followed. Но Лора, хотя и покорно смеялась вместе с остальными, не могла забыть этого инцидента — слова в любом случае имели свойство прилипать к ее памяти, — и в последующие дни к ней часто возвращались слова мисс Хикс. And then, all of a sudden, just as if an invisible hand had opened the door to an inner chamber, a light broke on her. Vague, slippery, inexact, interested only in the personal—every word struck home. Расплывчато, скользко, неточно, интересуясь только личным, — каждое слово попадало в цель. Had Miss Hicks set out to describe HER, in particular, she could not have done it more accurately. Если бы мисс Хикс решила описать именно ЕЕ, она не смогла бы сделать это более точно. It was but too true: until now, she, Laura, had been satisfied to know things in a slipslop, razzle-dazzle way, to know them anyhow, as it best suited herself. She had never set to work to master a subject, to make it her own in every detail. Bits of it, picturesque scraps, striking features—what Miss Hicks no doubt meant by the personal—were all that had attracted her.—Oh, and she, too, had no intelligent curiosity. She could not say that she had ever teased her brains with wondering why the earth went round the sun and not the sun round the earth. Honestly speaking, it made no difference to her that the globe was indented like an orange, and not the perfect round you began by believing it to be.—But if this were so, if she were forced to make these galling admissions, then it was clear that her vaunted cleverness had never existed, except in Mother's imagination. Or, at any rate, it had crumbled to pieces like a lump of earth, under the hard, heavy hand of Miss Hicks. Laura felt humiliated, and could not understand her companions treating the matter so airily. She did not want to have a woman's brain, thank you; not one of that sort; and she smarted for the whole class. Она не хотела иметь женские мозги, спасибо; не один из тех; и она умничала за весь класс. Straightway she set to work to sharpen her wits, to follow the strait road. At first with some stumbling, of course, and frequent backslidings. Intellectual curiosity could not, she discovered, be awakened to order; and she often caught herself napping. Она обнаружила, что интеллектуальное любопытство не может быть пробуждено по порядку; и она часто ловила себя на том, что дремлет. Thus though she speedily became one of the most troublesome askers-why, her desire for information was apt to exhaust itself in putting the question, and she would forget to listen to the answer. Таким образом, хотя она быстро стала одной из самых беспокойных задающих вопросы - почему, ее жажда информации была склонна истощаться в постановке вопроса, и она забывала слушать ответ. Besides, for the life of her she could not drum up more interest in, say, the course of the Gulf Stream, or the formation of a plateau, than in the fact that, when Nelly Bristow spoke, little bubbles came out of her mouth, and that she needed to swallow twice as often as other people; or that when Miss Hicks grew angry her voice had a way of failing, at the crucial moment, and flattening out to nothing—just as if one struck tin after brass. К тому же, хоть убей, она не могла бы вызвать большего интереса, скажем, к течению Гольфстрима или формированию плато, чем к тому факту, что, когда Нелли Бристоу говорила, у нее изо рта вырывались маленькие пузырьки. , и что ей нужно глотать в два раза чаще, чем другим людям; или что, когда мисс Хикс сердилась, ее голос имел привычку пропадать в решающий момент и превращаться в ничто, как если бы ударили оловом о медь. No, it was indeed difficult for Laura to invert the value of these things.—In another direction she did better. By dint of close attention, of pondering both the questions asked by Miss Hicks, and the replies made by the cleverest pupils, she began to see more clearly where true knowledge lay. Благодаря пристальному вниманию, обдумыванию как вопросов, заданных мисс Хикс, так и ответов самых умных учениц, она стала яснее видеть, в чем заключается истинное знание. It was facts that were wanted of her; facts that were the real test of learning; facts she was expected to know. Stories, pictures of things, would not help her an inch along the road. Thus, it was not the least use in the world to her to have seen the snowy top of Mount Kosciusko stand out against a dark blue evening sky, and to know its shape to a tittlekin. Таким образом, ей не было ни малейшей пользы в мире видеть снежную вершину горы Костюшко, выделяющуюся на темно-синем вечернем небе, и знать ее форму до мелочей. On the other hand, it mattered tremendously that this mountain was 7308 and not 7309 feet high: that piece of information was valuable, was of genuine use to you; for it was worth your place in the class.

Thus did Laura apply herself to reach the school ideal, thus force herself to drive hard nails of fact into her vagrant thoughts. And with success. For she had, it turned out, a retentive memory, and to her joy learning by heart came easy to her—as easy as to the most brilliant scholars in the form. Дело в том, что у нее, как оказалось, была цепкая память, и, к ее радости, учить наизусть давалось ей легко — так же легко, как самым блестящим ученикам в школе. From now on she gave this talent full play, memorising even pages of the history book in her zeal; and before many weeks had passed, in all lessons except those in arithmetic—you could not, alas! Отныне она давала этому таланту полную свободу, запоминая в своем усердии даже страницы учебника истории; и не прошло и многих недель, как на всех уроках, кроме арифметических, — увы, нельзя! get sums by rote—she was separated from Inez and Bertha by the width of the class. заучивал суммы наизусть — от Инес и Берты ее отделяла ширина класса.

But neither her taste of friendship and its comforts, nor the abrupt change for the better in her class-fortunes, could counterbalance Laura's luckless knack of putting her foot in it. Но ни ее вкус к дружбе и ее удобствам, ни резкая перемена к лучшему в ее социальном положении не могли уравновесить неудачную способность Лауры вмешиваться в дела. This she continued to do, in season and out of season. Это она продолжала делать, в сезон и вне сезона. And not with the authorities alone. И не только с властями.

There was, for instance, that unfortunate evening when she was one of the batch of girls invited to Mrs. Strachey's drawingroom. Был, например, тот злосчастный вечер, когда она была одной из девушек, приглашенных в гостиную миссис Стрейчи. Laura, ignorant of what it meant to be blasee, had received her note of invitation with a thrill, had even enjoyed writing, in her best hand, the prescribed formula of acceptance. Лаура, не ведавшая о том, что значит быть пресыщенной, с трепетом приняла записку с приглашением и даже с удовольствием написала лучшим почерком предписанную формулу принятия. But she was alone in this; by the majority of her companions these weekly parties were frankly hated, the chief reason being that every guest was expected to take a piece of music with her. Но она была одна в этом; большинство ее товарищей откровенно ненавидели эти еженедельные вечеринки, главная причина заключалась в том, что каждый гость должен был взять с собой музыкальное произведение. Even the totally unfit had to show what they could do. Даже совершенно непригодные должны были показать, на что они способны. And the fact that cream-tarts were served for supper was not held to square accounts. А то, что на ужин подавали пирожные с кремом, не принималось в расчет.

"It's all very well for you," grumbled Laura's room-mate, Lilith Gordon, as she lathered her thick white arms and neck before dressing. "You're a new girl; you probably won't be asked." Laura did not give the matter a second thought: hastily selecting a volume of music, she followed the rest of the white dresses into the passage. Лаура не стала долго раздумывать: торопливо выбрав томик музыки, она последовала за остальными белыми платьями в коридор. The senior girl tapped at the drawingroom door. Старшая девушка постучала в дверь гостиной. It was opened by no other than the Principal himself.

In the girls' eyes, Mr. Strachey stood over six feet in his stocking-soles. He had also a most arrogant way of looking down his nose, and of tugging, intolerantly, at his long, drooping moustache. There was little need for him to assume the frigid contemptuousness of Mrs. Gurley's manner: his mere presence, the very unseeingness of his gaze, inspired awe. Ему не нужно было изображать из себя холодную презрительную манеру поведения миссис Герли: само его присутствие, само невидящее выражение его взгляда внушали благоговение. Tales ran of his wrath, were it roused; but few had experienced it. He quelled the high spirits of these young [P.93] colonials by his dignified air of detachment. Он подавлял приподнятое настроение этих молодых [P.93] колонистов своим достойным видом отстраненности.

Now, however, he stood there affable and smiling, endeavouring to put a handful of awkward girls at their ease. Теперь, однако, он стоял там приветливый и улыбающийся, стараясь расположить горстку неуклюжих девушек к себе. But neither his nor Mrs. Strachey's efforts availed. Но ни его усилия, ни усилия миссис Стрейчи не увенчались успехом. It was impossible for the pupils to throw off, at will, the crippling fear that governed their relations with the Principal. Ученики не могли по своей воле избавиться от калечащего страха, управлявшего их отношениями с директором. To them, his amiability resembled the antics of an uncertain-tempered elephant, with which you could never feel safe.— Besides on this occasion it was a young batch, and of particularly mixed stations. Для них его любезность напоминала выходки неуверенного слона, с которым никогда нельзя было чувствовать себя в безопасности. К тому же в данном случае это была молодая партия и особенно разного происхождения. And so a dozen girls, from twelve to fifteen years old, sat on the extreme edges of their chairs, and replied to what was said to them, with dry throats.

Though the youngest of the party, Laura was the least embarrassed: she had never known a nursery, but had mixed with her elders since her babyhood. Хотя Лаура была самой младшей в компании, она меньше всего смущалась: она никогда не знала детской, но с детства общалась со старшими. And she was not of a shy disposition; indeed, she still had to be reminded daily that shyness was expected of her. И она не была застенчивого характера; действительно, ей по-прежнему приходилось ежедневно напоминать, что от нее ожидают застенчивости. So she sat and looked about her. It was an interesting room in which she found herself. Low bookshelves, three shelves high, ran round the walls, and on the top shelf were many outlandish objects. What an evening it would have been had Mr. Strachey invited them to examine these ornaments, or to handle the books, instead of having to pick up a title here and there by chance.—From the shelves, her eyes strayed to the pictures on the walls; one, in particular struck her fancy. Какой был бы вечер, если бы мистер Стрейчи пригласил их осмотреть эти украшения или потрогать книги, вместо того чтобы случайно подбирать названия тут и там. стены; один, особенно поразил ее воображение. It hung over the mantelpiece, and was a man's head seen in profile, with a long hooked nose, and wearing a kind of peaked cap. Он висел над каминной полкой и представлял собой мужскую голову в профиль с длинным крючковатым носом и в чем-то вроде фуражки. But that was not all: behind this head were other profiles of the same face, and seeming to come out of clouds. Но это было еще не все: за этой головой были другие профили того же лица, и, казалось, вышли из облаков. Laura stared hard, but could make nothing of it.—And meanwhile her companions were rising with sickly smiles, to seat themselves, red as turkey-cocks' combs, on the piano stool, where with cold, stiff fingers they stumbled through the movement of a sonata or sonatina. Лора пристально смотрела, но ничего не могла понять. А тем временем ее спутники вставали с болезненными улыбками, чтобы сесть, красные, как гребешки индюков, на табурет рояля, где холодными, окоченевшими пальцами они спотыкались в движении. сонаты или сонатины. It was Lilith Gordon who broke the chain by offering to sing. The diversion was welcomed by Mrs. Strachey, and Lilith went to the piano. But her nervousness was such that she broke down half-way in the little prelude to the ballad. Но ее нервозность была такова, что она сломалась на полпути к небольшой прелюдии к балладе.

Mrs. Strachey came to the rescue. "It's so difficult, is it not, to accompany oneself?" "Это так трудно, не так ли, сопровождать себя?" she said kindly. "Perhaps one of the others would play for you?" No one moved.

"Do any of you know the song?" Two or three ungraciously admitted the knowledge, but none volunteered.

It was here Laura chimed in. Тут-то и вмешалась Лаура. "I could play it," she said; and coloured at the sound of her own voice. Mrs. Strachey looked doubtfully at the thin little girl. "Do you know it, dear? You're too young for singing, I think." "No, I don't know it. But I could play it from sight. Но я мог бы играть с глаз долой. It's quite easy." Everyone looked disbelieving, especially the unhappy singer.

"I've played much harder things than that," continued Laura. "Well, perhaps you might try," said Mrs. Strachey, with the ingrained distrust of the unmusical. Laura rose and went to the piano, where she conducted the song to a successful ending.

Mrs. Strachey looked relieved. "Very nice indeed." And to Laura: "Did you say you didn't know it, dear?" И Лоре: "Ты сказал, что не знал этого, дорогая?" "No, I never saw it before." Again the lady looked doubtful. "Well, perhaps you would play us something yourself now?" Laura had no objection; she had played to people before her fingers were long enough to cover the octave. She took the volume of Thalberg she had brought with her, selected "Home, Sweet Home", and pranced in. Her audience kept utter silence; but, had she been a little sharper, she would have grasped that it was the silence of amazement. Ее аудитория хранила полную тишину; но, будь она немного проницательнее, она бы поняла, что это было молчание изумления. After the prim sonatinas that had gone before, Thalberg's florid ornaments had a shameless sound. Her performance, moreover, was a startling one; the forte pedal was held down throughout; the big chords were crashed and banged with all the strength a pair of twelve-year-old arms could put into them; and wrong notes were freely scattered. Более того, ее выступление было поразительным; педаль форте все время удерживалась нажатой; большие аккорды разбивались и стучали со всей силой, которую могла вложить в них пара двенадцатилетних рук; и неправильные заметки были свободно разбросаны. Still, rhythm and melody were well marked, and there was no mistaking the agility of the small fingers.

Dead silence, too, greeted the conclusion of the piece Several girls were very red, from trying not to laugh. Мертвая тишина также встретила завершение пьесы. Несколько девушек сильно покраснели от попытки не рассмеяться. The Principal tugged at his moustache, in abstracted fashion. Директор рассеянно подергал свои усы.

Laura had reached her seat again before Mrs. Strachey said undecidedly: "Thank you, dear. Did you ... hm ... learn that piece here?" Laura saw nothing wrong. "Oh, no, at home," she answered. "I wouldn't care to play the things I learn here, to people. They're so dull." A girl emitted a faint squeak. Девушка издала слабый писк. But a half turn of Mrs. Strachey's head subdued her. "Oh, I hope you will soon get to like classical music also," said the lady gravely, and in all good faith. «О, я надеюсь, что вы скоро полюбите и классическую музыку», — серьезно и искренне сказала дама. "We prefer it, you know, to any other." «Мы предпочитаем его, знаете ли, любому другому». "Do you mean things like the AIR IN G WITH VARIATIONS? «Вы имеете в виду такие вещи, как AIR IN G WITH VARIATIONS? I'm afraid I never shall. There's no tune in them." Music was as fatal to Laura's equilibrium as wine would have been. Музыка была столь же губительна для душевного равновесия Лауры, как и вино. Finding herself next Mr. Strachey, she now turned to him and said, with what she believed to be ease of manner: "Mr. Strachey, will you please tell me what that picture is hanging over the mantelpiece? I've been looking at it ever since I came in, but I can't make it out. Are those ghosts, those things behind the man, or what?" It took Mr. Strachey a minute to recover from his astonishment. He stroked hard, and the look he bent on Laura was not encouraging. Он сильно погладил ее, и взгляд, который он бросил на Лору, не был ободряющим.

"It seems to be all the same face," continued the child, her eyes on the picture. "That," said Mr. Strachey, with extreme deliberation: "that is the portrait, by a great painter, of a great poet—Dante Alighieri." "Oh, Dante, is it?" said Laura showily—she had once heard the name. "Oh, yes, of course, I know now. He wrote a book, didn't he, called FAUST? I saw it over there by the door.—What lovely books!" But here Mr. Strachey abruptly changed his seat, and Laura's thirst for information was left unquenched. The evening passed, and she was in blessed ignorance of anything being amiss, till the next morning after breakfast she was bidden to Mrs. Gurley.

A quarter of an hour later, on her emerging from that lady's private sitting-room, her eyes were mere swollen slits in her face. Instead, however, of sponging them in cold water and bravely joining her friends, Laura was still foolish enough to hide and have her cry out. Однако вместо того, чтобы ополоснуть их холодной водой и храбро присоединиться к своим друзьям, Лора все еще была достаточно глупа, чтобы спрятаться и заставить ее плакать. So that when the bell rang, she was obliged to go in to public prayers looking a prodigious fright, and thereby advertising to the curious what had taken place. Так что, когда звенел звонок, она была вынуждена идти на публичную молитву, выглядя чрезвычайно испуганной, и таким образом сообщала любопытным о том, что произошло.

Mrs. Gurley had crushed and humiliated her. Laura learnt that she had been guilty of a gross impertinence, in profaning the ears of the Principal and Mrs. Strachey with Thalberg's music, and that all the pieces she had brought with her from home would now be taken from her. Secondly, Mr. Strachey had been so unpleasantly impressed by the boldness of her behaviour, that she would not be invited to the drawing-room again for some time to come.

The matter of the music touched Laura little: if they preferred their dull old exercises to what she had offered them, so much the worse for them. But the reproach cast on her manners stung her even more deeply than it had done when she was still the raw little newcomer: for she had been pluming herself of late that she was now "quite the thing". Но упрек, брошенный ей в манеры, уязвил ее еще сильнее, чем когда она была еще сырой новенькой: в последнее время она упрекала себя, что теперь она "сама вещь". And yet, painful as was this fresh overthrow of her pride, it was neither the worst nor the most lasting result of the incident. И все же, как ни болезненно было это новое ниспровержение ее гордыни, это не было ни худшим, ни самым продолжительным последствием инцидента. That concerned her schoolfellows. By the following morning the tale of her doings was known to everyone. It was circulated in the first place, no doubt, by Lilith Gordon, who bore her a grudge for her offer to accompany the song: had Laura not put herself forward in this objectionable way, Lilith might have escaped singing altogether. Ее распространила, без сомнения, в первую очередь Лилит Гордон, которая затаила на нее обиду за ее предложение аккомпанировать песне: если бы Лора не проявила себя таким предосудительным образом, Лилит, возможно, вообще избежала бы пения. Lilith also resented her having shown that she could do it—and this feeling was generally shared. Лилит также возмущалась тем, что она показала, что может это сделать, и это чувство в целом разделялось. It evidenced a want of good-fellowship, and made you very glad the little prig had afterwards come to grief: if you had abilities that others had not you concealed them, instead of parading them under people's noses. Это свидетельствовало о недостатке дружеских отношений и очень радовало, что маленький педант впоследствии потерпел неудачу: если у тебя были способности, которых не было у других, ты скрывал их, а не выставлял напоказ людям. In short, Laura had committed a twofold breach of school etiquette. Короче говоря, Лора дважды нарушила школьный этикет. No one of course vouchsafed to explain this to her; these things one did not put into words, things you were expected to know without telling. Hence, she never more than half understood what she had done. Следовательно, она никогда больше чем наполовину не понимала, что она сделала. She only saw disapproval painted on faces that had hitherto been neutral, and from one or two quarters got what was unmistakably the cold shoulder.— Her little beginnings at popularity had somehow received a setback, and through her own foolish behaviour. Она видела только неодобрение, нарисованное на лицах, которые до сих пор были нейтральными, и с одной или двух сторон столкнулась с тем, что было безошибочно холодным приемом. Ее маленькие начинания в популярности каким-то образом потерпели неудачу, и из-за ее собственного глупого поведения.