Маленькая хозяйка большого дома / The Little Lady Of The Big House

“Her mother was the Queen of Huahoa,” Graham answered. “Her father was an English gentleman. They were dead at the time of the swim, and Nomare[53] was queen herself. Yes, she was young. She was beautiful as any woman anywhere in the world may be beautiful. Thanks to her father’s skin, she was not golden brown. But you’ve heard the story undoubtedly—”

He looked at Dick, who shook his head.

“You’ll tell me the rest of the story some time,” Paula said.

“Dick knows it. I don’t understand why he hasn’t told you.”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Perhaps because he’s never had the time.”

Graham laughed.

“I was once a king of the cannibal isles, or of a paradise of a Polynesian isle[54]”.

“I see”, Paula waited for Dick to help her off.

8

“Cigars! And boxes of candy, gloves, or anything,” Ernestine said, smiling.

“But I don’t know Mrs. Forrest’s records, either,” Graham protested. “However, if in five minutes—”

“Ten minutes,” Paula said, “and to start from opposite ends of the pool. Is that fair? If you touch me, you win.”

Graham looked his hostess over with secret approval. She was clad, not in the single white silk slip, but in a coquettish suit of changeable light blue and green silk—almost the color of the pool; the skirt slightly above the knees; with long stockings, and tiny bathing shoes. On her head was a jaunty swimming cap.

Graham walked down to the other end of the hundred-and-fifty-foot pool.

“Paula, you’ll be caught for sure,” Dick warned. “Evan Graham is a real fish man. I saw the rock he dived from at Huahoa. That was after his time, and after the death of Queen Nomare. He was only a youngster—twenty-two. And he did it. So, get ready!”

“It’s almost a shame to play tricks on so reputable swimmer,” Paula said while both waited the signal.

“He may get you before you can turn the trick[55],” Dick warned again.

“All OK,” one of Dick’s guest, Bert, assured. “I went in myself. The pipe is working. There’s plenty of air.”

“Ready!” Dick called. “Go!”

Paula climbed the scaffold and jumped into the water. The moment she entered the water, Graham swung out on the platform and waited. He was confident that he could outspeed her, and his dive entered him in the water twenty feet beyond her entrance.

But at the instant he was in, Dick dipped two flat rocks into the water and struck them together. This was the signal for Paula to change her course. Graham heard the noise and wondered. He swam to the far end at high speed. He pulled himself out and watched the surface of the pool. Little Lady was drawing herself out of the pool at the other end.

Again he ran down the side of the tank, and again she climbed the scaffold. She swam toward the west side of the pool. They almost were in the air at the same time. In the water and under it, he could feel the agitation left by her progress; but the water was so dark he could see nothing.

When he touched the side of the pool he came up. Paula was not in sight. He drew himself out, panting, and stood ready to dive in at the first sign of her. But there were no signs.

“Seven minutes!” said Rita, Ernestine’s sister. “And a half! … Eight! … And a half!”

But they saw no Paula Forrest. Strangely, Graham saw no alarm on the faces of the others.

“She’s been under water over two minutes, and you’re all too calm about it,” he said. “I’ve still a minute—maybe I don’t lose,” he added quickly, as he stepped into the pool.

As he went down he turned over and explored the cement wall of the pool with his hands. Midway, possibly ten feet under the surface, his hands encountered an opening in the wall. He boldly entered. There was a pipe and at the end of it a little room, and he could stand up.

His fingers touched a cool smooth arm that shrank convulsively at contact while the possessor of it cried sharply. He held on tightly and began to laugh, and Paula laughed with him.

“You frightened me when you touched me,” she said. “You came without a sound, and I was a thousand miles away, dreaming …”

“What?” Graham asked.

“Well, honestly, I had just got an idea for a gown. And the only jewellery, a ring—one enormous ruby that Dick gave me years ago when we sailed together.”

“Is there anything you don’t do?” he laughed.

She joined with him.

“Who told you about the pipe?” she next asked.

“No one. I just understood.”

“It was Dick’s idea. You will find him full of whimsies. He liked to scare old ladies into fits by stepping off into the pool with their sons or grandsons and hiding away in here.”

“Well?—going to stay there all night?” Bert’s voice came down the pipe.

“It’s time to go back,” Paula suggested. “It’s not the coziest place in the world. Shall I go first?”

“By all means—and I’ll be right behind.”

“Somebody told you,” was Bert’s prompt accusal, when Graham rose to the surface of the pool and climbed out.

“And you were the scoundrel who rapped stone under water,” Graham said. “It was a crooked game[56], a conspiracy, and a felony. It’s a case for the district attorney.”

“But you won,” Ernestine cried.

“I certainly did, and, therefore, I shall not prosecute you, nor any one of your crooked gang—if the bets are paid promptly. Let me see—you owe me a box of cigars—”

“One cigar, sir!”

“A box! A box!”

9

Dick had started a gambling game. It went on at a big table at the far end of the room, accompanied by much owing and borrowing of small sums.

With nine players, the game was crowded, and Graham, with a profound sigh at the loss of his last bet—a nickel—announced that he was going to take a turn around the room to change his luck. He wanted to see Paula.

At this point, Ernestine told Graham:

“We’re all waiting for you. You and I are partners. Besides, Paula’s going to sleep. So say good night, and let her go.”

Paula had left for bed at ten o’clock. Dick said good night to Graham and continued on with his pretty sister-in-law toward her quarters.

“Just a tip, Ernestine,” he said at parting, his voice was serious to warn her.

“What have I done?” she pouted laughingly.

“Nothing … as of yet. But don’t get started. You’re only a kid yet—eighteen; and a nice, likable kid. Enough to make any man sit up and take notice. But Evan Graham is not any man—”

“Oh, I can take care of myself,” she blurted out in a fling of quick resentment.

“But listen to me. There comes a time for a girl when she mustn’t make a mistake and start in loving the wrong man. You haven’t fallen in love with Evan Graham yet, and all you have to do is just not to fall in love with him. He’s not for you, nor for any young girl. He’s an oldster, an ancient, and possibly has forgotten more about love, romantic love, and young things, than you’ll ever learn in a dozen lives. If he ever marries again—”

“Again!” Ernestine broke in.

“Why, he’s been a widower, my dear, for over fifteen years.”

“Then what of it?” she demanded defiantly.

“Just this,” Dick continued quietly. “The fact is that in fifteen years he has not married again. It means—”

“That he’s never recovered from his loss?” Ernestine interpolated. “But that’s no proof—”

“—Means all you have to do is look at him,” Dick held on steadily, “and realize that some very fine women, real wise women, mature women, have tested his endurance. But so far they’ve not succeeded in catching him. Think it over, dear.”

He took one of her hands in his, and drew her against him.

“You know, we hard-bitten[57] old fellows—” he began half-apologetically, half-humorously.

But she made a restless movement of distaste, and cried out:

“The young men are all youngsters, and that’s all. They’re full of life, and spirits, and dance, and song. But they’re not serious. They’re not big. They’re not—oh, they don’t give a girl that sense of proven strength, of, of … well, of manhood.”

“I understand,” Dick murmured. “But please do not forget to glance at the other side. Life is something to be learned. But young girls like you, Ernestine, have you learned any of it yet?”

“Tell me,” she asked abruptly, almost tragically, “about this wild young romance, about this young woman when he was young, fifteen years ago.”

“Fifteen?” Dick replied promptly. “Eighteen. They had been married for three years before she died. In fact, they were actually married, by a Church, and living in wedlock, about the same moment that you were born.”

“Yes, yes—go on,” she urged nervously. “What was she like?”

“She was a resplendent, golden-brown Polynesian queen whose mother had been a queen before her, whose father was an Oxford man, an English gentleman, and a real scholar. Her name was Nomare. She was Queen of Huahoa. She was barbaric. He was young enough. There was nothing sordid in their marriage. He was no penniless adventurer. She brought him her island kingdom and forty thousand men. He brought to that island his fortune—and it was no inconsiderable fortune. He built a palace that no South Sea[58] island ever possessed before or will ever possess again. Heavens! They had their own royal yacht, their mountain house, their canoe house. I know. I have been at great feasts in it.

When she died, no one knew where Graham was. Oh, what’s the use in telling any more. He was only a boy. She was half-English, half-Polynesian, and a really and truly queen. They were flowers of their races. They were a pair of wonderful children. They lived a fairy tale. And … well, Ernestine, the years have passed, and Evan Graham has passed from the realm of the youth. It will be a remarkable woman that will ever infatuate him now. Besides, he’s practically broke. Though he didn’t waste his money. As much misfortune, and more, than anything else.”

“Paula is more his kind,” Ernestine said meditatively.

“Yes, indeed,” Dick agreed. “Paula, or any woman as remarkable as Paula, will attract him a thousand times more than all the sweet, young, lovely things like you in the world. We oldsters have our standards, you know.”

“And I’ll have to pay attention at the youngsters,” Ernestine sighed.

“In the meantime, yes,” he chuckled. “Remembering, always, that you, too, in time, may grow into the remarkable, mature woman, who can catch a man like Evan.”

“But I shall be married long before that,” she pouted.

“Which is for the best, my dear. And, now, good night. And you are not angry with me?”

She smiled pathetically and shook her head, put up her lips to be kissed.

Dick Forrest, turning off lights as he went, penetrated the library, and smiled at recollection of the interview with his sister-in-law. He was confident that he had spoken in time. But a remark of Ernestine was echoing in his consciousness: “Paula is more his kind.”

“Fool!” he laughed aloud, continuing on his way. “And married a dozen years!”

10

It was long after ten in the morning, when Graham wandered into the music room. Despite the fact that he was a several days’ guest in the Big House, so big was it that the music room was a new territory. It was an exquisite room where a warm golden light was diffused from a skylight of yellow glass.

Graham was lazily contemplating some pictures, when of his eye, he saw his hostess. She came in from the far entrance. She was clad entirely in white, and looked very young and quite tall.

They smiled greeting across the room. She came toward him.

“You made a mistake with this room,” he said gravely.

“No, don’t say that! But how?”

“It must be longer, much longer, twice as long at least.”

“Why?” she demanded, with a disapproving shake of head.

“Because, then,” he answered, “you will walk twice as far this morning and my pleasure of watching you will be correspondingly increased.”

“I see you are like Dick,” she retorted. “always with your compliments. Now I want to show you the room. Dick gave it to me. It’s all mine, you see.”

“And the pictures?”

“I selected them,” she nodded, “every one of them. They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

Graham was prepared to talk on pictures, when Donald Ware entered. His violin was under his arm, and he crossed to the piano.

“We’re going to work till lunch,” Paula explained to Graham. “We’ll see you there. You can stay if you care, of course; but I warn you it’s really going to be work. And we’re going swimming this afternoon. Four o’clock at the pool, Dick says. Also, he’s got a new song he’s going to sing then. What time is it, Mr. Ware?”

“Ten minutes to eleven,” the musician answered briefly.

“You’re ahead of time—the engagement was for eleven. And till eleven you’ll wait, sir. I must see Dick, first. I haven’t said good morning to him yet.”

Paula knew her husband’s timetable. Her notes reminded her that he had coffee at six-thirty; was inaccessible between nine and ten, dictating correspondence to Blake; was inaccessible between ten and eleven, conferring with managers and foremen[59].

At eleven, unless there were unexpected telegrams or business, she could usually find Dick alone. Passing the secretaries’ room, she pressed the button that swung aside a section of filled book-shelves and revealed the tiny spiral of steel steps that led up to Dick’s work room. A shade of vexation passed across her face as she recognized Jeremy Braxton’s[60] voice. Jeremy was the general superintendent of the Harvest Group[61]. And the news he was telling was not good. She paused in indecision and stole back down the spiral on her way to the music room. She was depressed, due to her missing her morning greeting to Dick. But this depression vanished at seeing Graham, who had lingered with Ware at the piano.

“Don’t run away,” she urged. “Stay and watch the people work. Maybe you will start that book Dick has told me about.”

11

On Dick’s face, at lunch, there was no sign of trouble over the Harvest Group. After lunch everybody went out for a walk.

Paula wore a tan linen blouse with white turnback collar[62]. A short skirt reached the knees. Skirt and trousers were of fawn-colored silk corduroy. Soft white gauntlets on her hands matched with the collar in the one emphasis of color. Her head was bare.

“I don’t see how you can keep such a skin and expose yourself to the sun this way,” Graham said.

“I don’t,” she smiled with a dazzle of white teeth. “That is, I don’t expose my face this way more than a few times a year.”

As four o’clock approached, Donald Ware returned in a car to the Big House. Dick was at the pool when the party arrived, and the girls were immediately insistent for the new song.

“It isn’t exactly a new song,” Dick explained, his gray eyes twinkling roguery, “and it’s not my song. It was sung in Japan before I was born, and, I think, before Columbus[63] discovered America. Also, it is a duet—a competitive duet with forfeit penalties[64] attached. Paula will sing it with me—I’ll teach you. Sit down there, that’s right—now all the rest of you gather around and sit down.”

Paula sat down, facing her husband, in the center of the sitting audience. Then he sang the song, which was short and which she quickly picked up

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Примечания

1

Paula – Паола

2

Dick Forrest – Дик Форрест

3

Evan Graham – Ивэн Грэхем

4

watch-tower – сторожевая башня

5

Santiago – Сантьяго

6

civilian – штатский

7

South Africa – Южная Африка

8

Philippines – Филиппины

9

Yellow Sea – Жёлтое море

10

who about him – кто он такой

11

beginning at the end – если начать с конца

12

he’s broke – он разорён

13

South America – Южная Америка

14

Brazil – Бразилия

15

Ernestine – Эрнестина

16

nothing in that direction —здесь ничего не получится

17

to get him into a corner – загнать его в угол

18

drawing easel – мольберт

19

I am sending out a shipment of bulls – я отправляю партию быков

20

old man – старина, дружище

21

stallion-mane – грива

22

Dresden china figure – фигурка из дрезденского фарфора

23

my breath is quite taken away – у меня дух захватило

24

grand lady – светская женщина

25

Mrs. Watson – миссис Ватсон

26

jungle-birds – лесные птицы

27

Terrence McFane – Терренс МакФейн

28

epicurean anarchist – анархист-эпикуреец

29

Aaron Hancock – Аарон Ханкок

30

Theodore Malken – Теодор Мэлкин

31

the Hindoo – индус

32

Dar Hyal – Дар-Хиал

33

Red Cloud – Багряное Облако

34

Acorn Song – «Песня про жёлудь»

35

Goldfish Song – «Песня о золотой рыбке»

36

Mountain Lad’s song – «Песня горца»

37

Eros – Эрос

38

I stamp upon the hills! – Я попираю холмы!

39

Ai-kut – Ай-Кут

40

Yo-to-to-wi – Йо-то-то-ви

41

honey-dew – медвяная роса

42

Reflections on the Water – «Размышления на воде»

43

Debussy – Клод Дебюсси, французский композитор

44

Donald Ware – Доналд Уэйр

45

She’s used to it. – Она к этому привыкла.

46

they can’t help it – они ничего не могут с этим поделать

47

half-sister – сводная сестра

48

stable-man – конюх

49

at any rate – во всяком случае

50

to win through an undertow – одолевать высокую волну, ныряя под неё

51

sport a bet – держать пари

52

Queen of Huahoa – королева острова Хуахоа

53

Nomare – Номаре

54

Polynesian isle – полинезийский остров

55

turn the trick – провернуть трюк

56

a crooked game – нечестная игра

57

hard-bitten – искушённый

58

South Sea – Южное море

59

managers and foremen – экономки и управляющие

60

Jeremy Braxton – Джереми Брэкстон

61

general superintendent of the Harvest Group – старший директор золотых рудников «Группа Харвест»

62

turnback collar – отложной воротник

63

Columbus – Колумб

64

forfeit penalties – игра в фанты