Excellency? Well, how you doing, Michel? It's a long story, and not very interesting. Excuse me... Nikolai Ivanovich, I don't like your jokes! Maman, tell him! Nikolai Ivanovich, I don't like... - Is your Kolka all right? - Yes, he's all right. - Has he grown a big boy? - A big boy. - Very, very big? - Very, very big. Father! Colonel! Nowadays they give only Greek names. Don't sleep, Colonel! Don't sleep, I said! I'm awake. Stop it, I beg you. Papa, you mustn’t sleep here. I'm not sleeping, daughter. Everything's all right, thank God... A comic, a clown, an ataman. He's all that. Once he sewed up the pockets of his tunic... Then he filled his snuff-box with salt... Ladies and gentlemen, this is my wife, Sophia Yegorovna! Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! You've stolen my wife, haven't you? Porfiry Semyonovich showed me around. What a wonderful fresh air! Yes, it's not Petersburg. Pure ozone. - How long have you been here? - We came two days ago. I'm delighted with our garden. Marvelous garden! Sophia Yegorovna promised that Thursday you'd come to my place. Yes, our whole bunch will come. My garden's even better than yours, the river's deep, the horses are fine. Which way should we go? Through Yasnovka? - Through Platonovka. - That'll be a detour. Platonovka? I used to know the owner. Perhaps he's not Misha any longer, but Mikhail... - Vassilyevich. - That's right. Look at him! Michel never goes anywhere, yet he knows everyone. Sophie, there he is! Come on, don't you recognize him? I don't believe it! It has been seven years, Sophia Yegorovna. A dog gets old in that time, and a horse, too. Horses live as long as 18 years. On the average, of course. Well... Mikhail Vassilyevich and I have known each other long ago. He was a student at that time, and I... We all thought he'd become Minister of some special affairs, another Byron. And I was preparing to be a Yermolova, do you remember? Yes, seven years have passed... How are you? What are you doing now? I'm a school teacher, nothing more. What? You? Yes, me. Unbelievable! But why nothing more? One phrase wouldn't suffice to answer your question. Well, have you finished university at least? No, I quit. Just chucked it. But it doesn't prevent you from being a man... Does it? Sorry, but I don't understand your question. What do you mean? Yes, I didn't express myself clearly enough. It doesn't prevent you from being a man working for the benefit of women's emancipation, universal education and progress. It doesn't prevent you from serving the idea? Oh, no! On the contrary! For example, Ivan Ivanovich and I are working now for the benefit of emancipation and the idea, and quite successfully. Mr. Triletsky here is a doctor, a Darwinist. Porfiry Semyonovich can mow. He's a hygienist! He shaves mouzhiks' beards. And does it splendidly! His village looks like the Mariyinsky Theatre, everyone walks around bare-faced. We subscribe to the capital's newspapers, and Mister Petrin reads them to us. So we do work for various benefits, we work a lot. And this is my wife! I almost forgot! Alexandra! Stay put. Say hello, Sashenka. My wife, a civil duty, the prolongation of a family line. We breed... I have a son, the heir to the idea. Lacking means, ladies and gentlemen, we inherit ideas. Ladies and gentlemen, what's going on? Isn't it a holiday today? Isn't it summertime? And you sit here, like at a funeral service. Sophia Yegorovna and I just played out a comedy for you. And nobody even smiled. Just look at them, they're as boring as a choir of Moravian teachers. He can't stand it when people sit quietly. Michel is right! He's absolutely right! We've deserved it! We've deserved even more! He's the only one among us who lives and breathes at his full potential! If it were not for him, we would have withered altogether. You're such a clever man, ------------------------------ Читайте также: - текст Большой автобус на английском - текст Мой научный проект на английском - текст Ух ты, говорящая рыба! на английском - текст Гостья из будущего на английском - текст Патруль времени 2: Берлинское решение на английском |