JК
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight :: Набоков Владимир Владимирович
Страница: 95 из 124She had, I am afraid, that French sense of humour in connexion with connubial matters, which at another moment might have appealed to me too; but just now I felt that the flippantly indecent view she took of my inquiry was somehow slighting Sebastian's memory, As this feeling deepened, I found myself thinking all of a sudden that perhaps the whole thing was indecent and that my clumsy efforts to huntdown a ghost had swamped any idea that I might ever form of Sebastian's last love. Or would Sebastian have been tickled at the grotesque side of the quest I had undertaken for his sake? Would the biographee have found that special 'Knightian twist' about it which would have fully compensated the blundering biographer?
'Please, forgive me,' she said, putting her ice-cold hand on mine and looking at me from under her brows, 'You must not be so touchy, you know,'
She got up quickly and went to the mahogany affair in the corner. I looked at her thin girlish back as she bent down – and I guessed what she was about to do.
'No, not that, for God's sake!' I cried.
'No?' she said, 'I thought a little music might soothe you. And generally create the right atmosphere for our talk. No? Well, just as you like.'
The bulldog shook himself and lay down again.
'That's right,' she said in a coaxing-and-pouting voice.
'You were about to tell me,' I reminded her.
'Yes,' she said sitting down again at my side and pulling at the hem of her skirt, as she curled one leg under her. 'Yes. You see, I don't know who the man was, but I gathered he was a difficult sort of man. She says she liked his looks and his hands and his manner of talking, and she thought it would be rather good fun to have him make love to her – because, you see, he looked so very intellectual, and it is always entertaining to see that kind of refined, distant – brainy fellow suddenly go on all fours and wag his tail What's the matter now, cher Monsieur?'
'What on earth are you talking about?' I cried, 'When…. When and where did it happen, that affair?'
'Ah non merci, je ne suis pas le calendrier de mon amie. Vous ne voudriez pas! I didn't bother about asking her dates and names, and if she told me them herself, I have forgotten. Now, please don't ask me any more questions: I am telling you what I know, and not what you'd like to know. I don't think he was a relation of yours, because he was so unlike you – of course, as far as I can judge by what she told me and by what I have seen of you, You are a nice eager boy – and he, well, he was anything but nice – he got positively wicked when he found out that he was falling in love with Helene, Oh no, he did not turn into a sentimental pup, as she had expected, He told her bitterly that she was cheap and vain, and then he kissed her to make sure that she was not a porcelain figure. Well, she wasn't.
'Please, forgive me,' she said, putting her ice-cold hand on mine and looking at me from under her brows, 'You must not be so touchy, you know,'
She got up quickly and went to the mahogany affair in the corner. I looked at her thin girlish back as she bent down – and I guessed what she was about to do.
'No, not that, for God's sake!' I cried.
'No?' she said, 'I thought a little music might soothe you. And generally create the right atmosphere for our talk. No? Well, just as you like.'
The bulldog shook himself and lay down again.
'That's right,' she said in a coaxing-and-pouting voice.
'You were about to tell me,' I reminded her.
'Yes,' she said sitting down again at my side and pulling at the hem of her skirt, as she curled one leg under her. 'Yes. You see, I don't know who the man was, but I gathered he was a difficult sort of man. She says she liked his looks and his hands and his manner of talking, and she thought it would be rather good fun to have him make love to her – because, you see, he looked so very intellectual, and it is always entertaining to see that kind of refined, distant – brainy fellow suddenly go on all fours and wag his tail What's the matter now, cher Monsieur?'
'What on earth are you talking about?' I cried, 'When…. When and where did it happen, that affair?'
'Ah non merci, je ne suis pas le calendrier de mon amie. Vous ne voudriez pas! I didn't bother about asking her dates and names, and if she told me them herself, I have forgotten. Now, please don't ask me any more questions: I am telling you what I know, and not what you'd like to know. I don't think he was a relation of yours, because he was so unlike you – of course, as far as I can judge by what she told me and by what I have seen of you, You are a nice eager boy – and he, well, he was anything but nice – he got positively wicked when he found out that he was falling in love with Helene, Oh no, he did not turn into a sentimental pup, as she had expected, He told her bitterly that she was cheap and vain, and then he kissed her to make sure that she was not a porcelain figure. Well, she wasn't.