Английский для смелых. Истории о духах и привидениях / Great Ghost Stories

 Nothing had been taken from the house, the servants had heard no sound, and excepting those terrible finger-marks upon the dead woman’s throat – dear God! that I might forget them! – no trace of the assassin was ever found.

I gave up my studies and remained with my father, who, naturally, was greatly changed. Always of a sedate, taciturn disposition, he now fell into so deep a dejection that nothing could hold his attention, yet anything – a footfall, the sudden closing of a door – aroused in him a fitful interest; one might have called it an apprehension. At any small surprise of the senses he would start visibly and sometimes turn pale, then relapse into a melancholy apathy deeper than before. I suppose he was what is called a ‘nervous wreck.’ As to me, I was younger then than now – there is much in that. Youth is Gilead, in which is balm for every wound. Ah, that I might again dwell in that enchanted land! Unacquainted with grief, I knew not how to appraise my bereavement; I could not rightly estimate the strength of the stroke.

One night, a few months after the dreadful event, my father and I walked home from the city (однажды вечером, несколько месяцев спустя после того ужасного события, мы с моим отцом шли домой из города; night – ночь; вечер)

. The full moon was about three hours above the eastern horizon (полная луна уже как три часа поднялась на востоке: «над восточным горизонтом»); the entire countryside had the solemn stillness of a summer night (торжественная тишина летней ночи окутала все вокруг; entire – полный, целый, весь; countryside – сельская местность; solemn – торжественный, производящий большое впечатление); our footfalls and the ceaseless song of the katydids were the only sound aloof (наши шаги и неумолчный: «беспрерывный» стрекот кузнечиков были единственными звуками в ночи; song – пение; katydid –

/зоол./ кузнечик углокрылый; aloof – поодаль, в стороне). Black shadows of bordering trees lay athwart the road (черные тени деревьев на обочине наискосок ложились на дорогу; to border – обрамлять, окаймлять; border – граница)

, which, in the short reaches between, gleamed a ghostly white (которая отсвечивала призрачным белым /светом/ в коротких промежутках между тенями; reach – протягивание /руки/; пространство, протяжение; to gleam – светиться; мерцать). As we approached the gate to our dwelling

(когда мы подошли к калитке /ведущей/ к нашему дому; to approach – подходить, приближаться), whose front was in shadow, and in which no light shone (чей фасад был в тени, а в окнах не было света: «и в котором не светился никакой свет»; to shine), my father suddenly stopped and clutched my arm (мой отец внезапно остановился и схватил мою руку), saying, hardly above his breath (едва слышно сказав; breath – дыхание; below one’s breath – тихо, шепотом; above one’s breath – чуть громче шепота):