"Valentin Katayev. The Cottage in the Steppe (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

carried off two portions of bouillon and meat patties, also on credit, and
promised to pay as soon as his gentleman won back his money; apparently, his
gentleman never did, because the soldier disappeared for good.
No one else came to dine.
As far as letting the two rooms was concerned, things were not much
better. The very day they put the little cards in the window a newly-wed
couple made inquiries: he was a young army surgeon, and everything he had on
was new and resplendent; she was a plump, dimpled blonde with a beauty-mark
over her Cupid's-bow lips, wearing a squirrel-lined cloak and pert bonnet,
and carrying a tiny muff on a cord. They seemed to be the personification of
happiness. Their new, twenty-four carat gold wedding-rings shone so
dazzlingly, they were surrounded by such a fragrant aroma of scented soap,
cold cream, brilliantine, hair tonic, and Brokar perfume, the mixture of
which seemed to Petya the very essence of newly-weddedness, that the Bachei
flat with its old wallpaper and poorly-waxed floors suddenly appeared to be
small, shabby, and dark.
While the young couple was looking over the rooms, the husband never
once let go of his wife's arm, as if he were afraid she'd run off somewhere;
the wife, in turn, pressed close to him as she looked round in horror and
exclaimed in a loud singsong voice:
"Dahling, it's a barm! It's a real bahn! It smells like a kitchen! No,
no, it's not at all what we're looking for!"
They left hurriedly. The army surgeon's silver spurs tinkled
delicately, and the young wife raised her skirts squeamishly and stepped
gingerly as if afraid to soil her tiny new shoes. It was only after the
downstairs door had banged behind them that Petya realized the strange
foreign word "bahn" was just plain "barn," and he felt so hurt he could have
cried. Auntie's ears were still burning long after they had gone.
No one else came to see the rooms. And so Auntie's plans failed. The
spectre of poverty again rose up before the Bachei family. Despair banished
all hopes. Who knows what the outcome would have been, if salvation had not
come one fine day-out of the blue, as it always does.






AN OLD FRIEND










It was really a glorious day, one of those March days when the snow has