| "You must know that my grandfather had two sons-my uncle Elias and my father Joseph. | Молодой человек придвинул кресло и протянул мокрые ноги к пылающему камину. |
| My father had a small factory at Coventry, which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. | - Меня зовут Джон Опеншоу,-сказал он.-Но, насколько я понимаю, мои личные дела мало связаны с этими ужасными событиями. |
| He was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire upon a handsome competence. | Это какое-то наследственное дело, и поэтому, чтобы дать вам представление о фактах, я должен вернуться к самому началу всей истории... |
| "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done very well. | У моего деда было два сына: мой дядя, Элиас, и мой отец, Джозеф. |
| At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. | Мой отец владел небольшой фабрикой в Ковентри. |
| When Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where he remained for three or four years. | Ему удалось расширить ее, когда началось производство велосипедов. |
| About 1869 or 1870 he came back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. | Отец изобрел особо прочные шины |
| He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to them. | "Опеншоу", и его предприятие пошло очень успешно, так что когда отец в конце концов продал свою фирму, он удалился на покой вполне обеспеченным человеком. |
| He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring disposition. | Мой дядя Элиас в молодые годы эмигрировал в Америку и стал плантатором во Флориде, где, как говорили, дела его шли очень хорошо. |
| During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I doubt if ever he set foot in the town. | Во времена войны *1 он сражался в армии Джексона, а затем под командованием Гуда и достиг чина полковника. |
| He had a garden and two or three fields round his house, and there he would take his exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave his room. | Когда Ли сложил оружие *2, мой дядя возвратился на свою плантацию, где прожил три или четыре года. |
| He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any friends, not even his own brother. | В 1869 или 1870 году он вернулся в Европу и арендовал небольшое поместье в Сассексе, вблизи Хоршема. |
| "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. | В Соединенных Штатах он нажил большой капитал и покинул Америку, так как питал отвращение к неграм и был недоволен республиканским правительством, освободившим их от рабства. |
| This would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years in England. | Дядя был странный человек - жестокий и вспыльчивый. |
| He begged my father to let me live with him and he was very kind to me in his way. | При всякой вспышке гнева он изрыгал страшные ругательства. |
| When he was sober he used to be fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would make me his representative both with the servants and with the tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite master of the house. | Жил он одиноко и чуждался людей. |
| I kept all the keys and could go where I liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in his privacy. | Сомневаюсь, чтобы в течение всех лет, прожитых под Хоршемом, он хоть раз побывал в городе. |
| There was one singular exception, however, for he had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or anyone else to enter. | У него был сад, лужайки вокруг дома, и там он прогуливался, хотя часто неделями не покидал своей комнаты. |
| With a boy's curiosity I have peeped through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such a room. | Он много пил и много курил, но избегал общения с людьми и не знался даже с собственным братом. |
| "One day-it was in March, 1883-a letter with a foreign stamp lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. |