Дом о семи шпилях - [53]

A woman clings to slight acquaintances, when she lives so much alone as I do."	Женщина рада любому знакомству, когда живет в таком одиночестве, как я.
"But if Mr. Holgrave is a lawless person!" remonstrated Phoebe, a part of whose essence it was to keep within the limits of law.	- Но если мистер Холгрейв человек, не признающий законов? - заметила Фиби, одним из достоинств которой было уважение к общественным постановлениям.
"O!" said Hepzibah, carelessly-for formal as she was, still, in her life's experience, she had gnashed her teeth against human law-"I suppose he has a law of his own!"	- О! - воскликнула Г епзиба. - Я думаю, что у него есть свои законы!
Chapter Six.	Глава VI
Maule's Well	Источник Моула
After an early tea, the little country-girl strayed into the garden.	Чай пили рано, и деревенская девушка отправилась гулять по саду.

The enclosure had formerly been very extensive, but was now contracted within small compass, and hemmed about, partly by high wooden fences, and partly by the outbuildings of houses that stood on another street.	Его теперь со всех сторон окружали деревянные заборы и пристройки домов, стоявших на другой улице.
In its center was a grass plot, surrounding a ruinous little structure, which showed just enough of its original design to indicate that it had once been a summerhouse.	В середине сада находилась лужайка с небольшим полуразвалившимся строением, в котором, однако, еще можно было узнать беседку.
A hop-vine, springing from last year's root, was beginning to clamber over it, but would be long in covering the roof with its green mantle.	Хмель, выросший из прошлогоднего корня, постепенно взбирался по ней вверх.
Three of the seven gables either fronted or looked sideways, with a dark solemnity of aspect, down into the garden.	Три из семи шпилей дома смотрели в сад с мрачной величавостью.
The black rich soil had fed itself with the decay of a long period of time; such as fallen leaves, the petals of flowers, and the stalks and seed-vessels of vagrant and lawless plants, more useful after their death than ever while flaunting in the sun. The evil of these departed years would naturally have sprung up again, in such rank weeds (symbolic of the transmitted vices of society) as are always prone to root themselves about human dwellings.	Чернозем был богат перегноем из осыпавшихся листьев, лепестков цветов и стеблей диких растений.
Phoebe saw, however, that their growth must have been checked by a degree of careful labor, bestowed daily and systematically on the garden.	Почти везде рос бурьян, но Фиби заметила в саду следы неустанного труда.
The white double rose-bush had evidently been propped up anew against the house, since the commencement of the season; and a pear tree and three damson trees, which, except a row of currant bushes, constituted the only varieties of fruit, bore marks of the recent amputation of several superfluous or defective limbs.	Кустарник с белыми розами, очевидно, был обставлен подпорками в начале весны, а у груши и трех дамасских слив, которые были единственными плодоносными деревьями в саду, недавно подрезали ветви.
There were also a few species of antique and hereditary flowers in no very flourishing condition, but scrupulously weeded; as if some person, either out of love or curiosity, had been anxious to bring them to such perfection as they were capable of attaining.	Было здесь также несколько сортов старинных цветов, не слишком хорошо разросшихся, но старательно ополотых вокруг.
The remainder of the garden presented a well-selected assortment of esculent vegetables, in a praiseworthy state of advancement. Summer squashes, almost in their golden blossom; cucumbers, now evincing a tendency to spread away from the main stock, and ramble far and wide; two or three rows of stringbeans, and as many more that were about to festoon themselves on poles; tomatoes, occupying a site so sheltered and sunny, that the plants were already gigantic, and promised an early and abundant harvest.	В остальной части сада росли разнообразные овощи: летние тыквы, уже в золотом цвету; огурцы, два или три сорта бобов и картофель, который занимал такое уютное и солнечное место, что стебли его уже выросли до гигантской высоты и обещали ранний и обильный урожай.

Phoebe wondered whose care and toil it could have been that had planted these vegetables, and kept the soil so clean and orderly.	Фиби никак не могла постичь, кто посадил все эти растения и содержал почву в такой чистоте и порядке.
Not, surely, her cousin Hepzibah's, who had no taste nor spirits for the lady-like employment of cultivating flowers, and-with her recluse habits, and tendency to shelter herself within the dismal shadow of the house-would hardly have come forth, under the speck of open sky, to weed and hoe among the fraternity of beans and squashes.	Уж, верно, не ее кузина Гепзиба, у которой вовсе не было склонности к разведению цветов и которая со своими затворническими привычками и вечным стремлением скрыться в печальной тени дома едва ли решилась бы рыться в земле между бобами и тыквами, под открытым небом.