| Во Франции к браку относятся серьезно; жених и невеста должны быть людьми одного круга, и у невесты должно быть приданое, соответствующее положению жениха. |
| It was true that her father had been a professor of some small distinction at the university, but in Russia, before the revolution, and since then Paris swarmed with princes and counts and guardsmen who were driving taxis or doing manual labour. | Правда, ее отец был не вовсе безвестный профессор в университете, но это было в России, до революции, а с тех пор Париж наводнили князья, и графы, и гвардейцы - и либо стали таксистами, либо занялись физическим трудом. |
| Everyone looked upon the Russians as shiftless and undependable. | В русских все видели людей ленивых и ненадежных. |
| People were sick of them. | Всем они надоели. |
| Lydia's mother, whose grandfather had been a serf, was herself hardly more than a peasant, and the professor had married her in accordance with his liberal principles; but she was a pious woman and Lydia had been brought up with strict principles. | Мать Лидии, чей отец был крепостной, и сама недалеко ушла от крестьянки, и профессор женился на ней, следуя своим либеральным воззрениям; но она была благочестива и воспитала дочь в строгих правилах. |
| It was in vain that she reasoned with herself; it was true that the world was different now and one must move with the times: she could not help it, she had an instinctive horror of becoming a man's mistress. | Напрасно Лидия пыталась себя переубедить - да, мир стал другим, и надо меняться вместе с ним, -но она ничего не могла с собой поделать: стать любовницей - от этой мысли она поневоле приходила в ужас. |
| And yet. | И все же. |
| And yet. | Все же. |
| What else was there to look forward to? | На что еще ей рассчитывать? |
| Wasn't she a fool to miss the opportunity that presented itself? | Не глупо ли упускать такой случай? |
| She knew that her prettiness was only the prettiness of youth, in a few years she would be drab and plain; perhaps she would never have another chance. | Ведь ее миловидность всего лишь миловидность юности, и уже через несколько лет она подурнеет и станет невзрачной; вполне вероятно, что другая возможность ей уже не представится. |
| Why shouldn't she let herself go? | Почему не дать себе волю? |
| Only a little relaxation of her self-control and she would love him madly, it would be a relief not to keep that constant rein on her feelings, and he loved her, yes, he loved her, she knew it, the fire of his passion was so hot it made her gasp, in the eagerness of his mobile face she read his fierce desire to possess her; it would be heavenly to be loved by someone she loved to desperation, and if it didn't last, and of course it couldn't, she would have had the ecstasy of it, she would have the recollection, and wouldn't that be worth all the anguish, the bitter anguish she must suffer when he left her? |