), and the tears of a boy ran down his thirty-five-year-old cheeks (и слезы мальчика =
мальчишеские слезы бежали вниз по его 35-летним щекам). Rollo Martins believed in friendship (Ролло Мартинс верил в дружбу), and that was why what happened later (и поэтому то, что случилось позже) was a worse shock to him (было худшим потрясением для него) than it would have been to you or me (чем это было бы для вас или меня) (you because you would have put it down to an illusion (вам — потому что вы бы сочли это за иллюзию;
to put down — опускать, класть; записать на /чей-л./ счет) and me because at once a rational explanation (а мне — потому что немедленно рациональное объяснение)—however wrongly (каким бы оно ни было неверным)—would have come to my mind (пришло бы мне на ум). If only he had come to tell me then (если бы только он пришел, чтобы рассказать мне тогда), what a lot of trouble would have been saved (какая куча проблем была бы предотвращена).
security [sI'kjuqrqtI], police [pq'li:s], circumstance ['sq:kqmstxns], trouble [trAbl], bother ['bODq], ['fju:n(q)rql], Vienna [vI'enq], central ['sentr(q)l], cemetery ['semqtrI], nature ['neItSq], vault [vO:lt], illusion [I'lu:Z(q)n], rational ['rxSnql], explanation ["eksplq'neIS(q)n]
ONE NEVER knows when the blow may fall. When I saw Rollo Martins first I made this note on him for my security police files: "In normal circumstances a cheerful fool. Drinks too much and may cause a little trouble. Whenever a woman passes raises his eyes and makes some comment, but I get the impression that really he'd rather not be bothered. Has never really grown up and perhaps that accounts for the way he worshipped Lime." I wrote there that phrase "in normal circumstances" because I met him first at Harry Lime's funeral. It was February, and the grave-diggers had been forced to use electric drills to open the frozen ground in Vienna's central cemetery. It was as if even nature were doing its best to reject Lime, but we got him in at last and laid the earth back on him like bricks. He was vaulted in, and Rollo Martins walked quickly away as though his long gangly legs wanted to break into a run, and the tears of a boy ran down his thirty-five-year-old cheeks. Rollo Martins believed in friendship, and that was why what happened later was a worse shock to him than it would have been to you or me (you because you would have put it down to an illusion and me because at once a rational explanation—however wrongly—would have come to my mind). If only he had come to tell me then, what a lot of trouble would have been saved.