Александр Дюма.
| Chapter 41. | III. |
| The Presentation. | Первая встреча |
| When Albert found himself alone with Monte Cristo, | Оставшись наедине с Монте-Кристо, Альбер сказал: |
| "My dear count," said he, "allow me to commence my services as cicerone by showing you a specimen of a bachelor's apartment. | - Граф, разрешите мне приступить к моим обязанностям чичероне и показать вам образчик квартиры холостяка. |
| You, who are accustomed to the palaces of Italy, can amuse yourself by calculating in how many square feet a young man who is not the worst lodged in Paris can live. | Вам, привыкшему к итальянским дворцам, будет интересно высчитать, на пространстве скольких квадратных футов может поместиться молодой парижанин, который, по здешним понятиям, живет не так уж плохо. |
| As we pass from one room to another, I will open the windows to let you breathe." | Переходя из комнаты в комнату, мы будем отворять окна, чтобы вы не задохнулись. |
| Monte Cristo had already seen the breakfast-room and the salon on the ground-floor. | Монте-Кристо уже видел столовую и нижнюю гостиную. |
| Albert led him first to his atelier, which was, as we have said, his favorite apartment. | Альбер прежде всего повел его в свою студию; как читатель помнит, это была его любимая комната. |
| Monte Cristo quickly appreciated all that Albert had collected here-old cabinets, Japanese porcelain, Oriental stuffs, Venetian glass, arms from all parts of the world-everything was familiar to him; and at the first glance he recognized their date, their country, and their origin. | Монте-Кристо был достойный ценитель всего того, что в ней собрал Альбер: старинные лари, японский фарфор, восточные ткани, венецианское стекло, оружие всех стран; все это было ему знакомо, и он с первого же взгляда определял век, страну и происхождение вещи. |
| Morcerf had expected he should be the guide; on the contrary, it was he who, under the count's guidance, followed a course of archaeology, mineralogy, and natural history. | Морсер думал, что ему придется давать объяснения, а вышло так, что он сам, под руководством графа, проходил курс археологии, минералогии и естественной истории. |
| They descended to the first floor; Albert led his guest into the salon. | Они спустились во второй этаж. Альбер ввел своего гостя в гостиную. |
| The salon was filled with the works of modern artists; there were landscapes by Dupre, with their long reeds and tall trees, their lowing oxen and marvellous skies; Delacroix's Arabian cavaliers, with their long white burnouses, their shining belts, their damasked arms, their horses, who tore each other with their teeth while their riders contended fiercely with their maces; aquarelles of Boulanger, representing Notre Dame de Paris with that vigor that makes the artist the rival of the poet; there were paintings by Diaz, who makes his flowers more beautiful than flowers, his suns more brilliant than the sun; designs by Decamp, as vividly colored as those of Salvator Rosa, but more poetic; pastels by Giraud and Muller, representing children like angels and women with the features of a virgin; sketches torn from the album of Dauzats' "Travels in the East," that had been made in a few seconds on the saddle of a camel, or beneath the dome of a mosque-in a word, all that modern art can give in exchange and as recompense for the art lost and gone with ages long since past. |
