Кентервильское привидение. Человек-невидимка / The Canterville Ghost. The Invisible Man. Оскар Уайльд

      1. The terrible _______________ of the last four weeks was beginning to have its effect.

      2. He was most ____________ in all things connected with the supernatural.

      3. Strings were continually being _______ _____________ across the corridor.

      4. He had not appeared in this __________ __________ for more than seventy years.

      5. She suddenly broke off her _________ ___________ with the present Lord Canterville’s grandfather.

      6. At the same moment he heard ____________ of laughter proceeding from the bed.

      7. It was quite evident that his feelings were so __________ that he would not appear.

      8. Mr. Otis consequently _________________ his great work on the history of the Democratic Party.

      9. He made ____________________ for appearing to Virginia’s little lover in his celebrated impersonation of “The Vampire Monk, or the Bloodless Benedictine.”

      10. The little Duke slept in peace under the great ____________________ canopy in the Royal Bedchamber.

      V

      A few days after this, Virginia and her curly-haired cavalier went out riding on Brockley meadows, where she tore her habit[87] so badly in getting through a hedge that, on their return home, she made up her mind to go up by the back staircase so as not to be seen. As she was running past the Tapestry Chamber, the door of which happened to be open, she fancied she saw some one inside, and thinking it was her mother’s maid, who sometimes used to bring her work there, looked in to ask her to mend her habit. To her immense surprise, however, it was the Canterville Ghost himself! He was sitting by the window, watching the ruined gold of the yellowing trees fly through the air,[88] and the red leaves dancing madly down the long avenue. His head was leaning on his hand, and his whole attitude was one of extreme depression. Indeed, so lonely, and so much out of repair did he look,[89] that little Virginia, whose first idea had been to run away and lock herself in her room, was filled with pity, and determined to try and comfort him. So light was her footfall, and so deep his melancholy, that he was not aware of her presence till she spoke to him.

      “I am so sorry for you,” she said, “but my brothers are going back to Eton to-morrow, and then, if you behave yourself,[90] no one will annoy you.”

      “It is absurd asking me to behave myself,” he answered, looking round in astonishment at the pretty little girl who had ventured to address him, “quite absurd. I must rattle my chains, and groan through keyholes, and walk about at night, if that is what you mean. It is my only reason for existing.”

      “It is no reason at all for existing, and you know you have been very wicked. Mrs. Umney told us, the first day we arrived here, that you had killed your wife.”

      “Well, I quite admit it,” said the Ghost “but it was a purely family matter, and concerned no one else.”

      “It is very wrong to kill anyone,” said Virginia.

      “Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics! My wife was very plain and knew nothing about cookery. Why, there was a buck I had shot in Hogley Woods, and do you know how she had it sent to table? However, it is no matter now, for it is all over, and I don’t think it was very nice of her brothers to starve me to death,[91] though I did kill her.”

      “Starve you to death? Oh, Mr. Ghost – I mean Sir Simon, are you hungry? I have a sandwich in my bag. Would you like it?”

      “No, thank you, I never eat anything now; but it is very kind of you, all the same, and you are much nicer than the rest of your horrid, rude, vulgar, dishonest family.”

      “Stop!” cried Virginia, stamping her foot, “it is you who are rude, and horrid, and vulgar, and as for dishonesty, you know you stole the paints out of my box to try and furbish up that ridiculous blood-stain in the library. First you took all my reds, including the vermilion, and I couldn’t do any more sunsets, then you took the emerald-green and the chrome-yellow, and finally I had nothing left but indigo and Chinese white, and could only do moonlight scenes, which are always depressing to look at, and not at all easy to paint. I never told on you, though I was very much annoyed, and it was most ridiculous, the whole thing; for who ever heard of emerald-green blood?”

      “Well, really,” said the Ghost, rather meekly, “what was I to do?[92] It is a very difficult thing to get real blood nowadays, and, as your brother began it all with his Paragon Detergent, I certainly saw no reason why I should not have your paints. As for colour, that is always a matter of taste: the Cantervilles have blue blood, for instance, the very bluest in England; but I know you Americans don’t care for things of this kind.”

      “You know nothing about it, and the best thing you can do is to emigrate and improve your mind.[93] My father will be only too happy to give you a free passage.[94] Once in New York, you are sure to be a great success. I know lots of people there who would give a hundred thousand dollars to have a grandfather, and much more than that to have a family ghost.”

      “I don’t think I should like America.”

      “I suppose because we have no ruins and no curiosities,[95]” said Virginia, satirically.

      “No ruins! no curiosities!” answered the Ghost; “you have your navy and your manners.”

      “Good evening; I will go and ask papa to get the twins an extra week’s holiday.”

      “Please don’t go, Miss Virginia,” he cried; “I am so lonely and so unhappy, and I really don’t know what to do. I want to go to sleep and I cannot.”

      “That’s quite absurd! You have merely to go to bed and blow out the candle. It is very difficult sometimes to keep awake, especially at church, but there is no difficulty at all about sleeping. Why, even babies know how to do that, and they are not very clever.”

      “I have not slept for three hundred years,” he said sadly, and Virginia’s beautiful blue eyes opened in wonder; “for three hundred years I have not slept, and I am so tired.”

      Virginia grew quite grave, and her little lips trembled like rose-leaves. She came towards him, and kneeling down at his side,[96] looked up into his old withered face.

      “Poor, poor Ghost,” she murmured; “have you no place where you can sleep?”

      “Far away beyond the pine-woods,” he answered, in a low, dreamy voice, “there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and deep, there are the great white stars of the hemlock flower, there the nightingale sings all night long. All night long he sings, and the cold crystal moon looks down, and the yew-tree spreads out its giant arms

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