A Little Princess / Маленькая принцесса. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Oh, she had got herself into trouble now with a vengeance[102 - with a vengeance – в полном смысле слова]! To have impudently fallen asleep on such a young lady’s chair! She would be turned out of doors without wages.[103 - She would be turned out of doors without wages. – Ее, не заплатив, выставят за дверь.]

She made a sound like a big breathless sob.

“Oh, miss! Oh, miss!” she stuttered. “I arst yer pardon, miss![104 - I arst yer pardon, miss! = I ask your pardon, miss!] Oh, I do, miss!”

Sara jumped down, and came quite close to her.

“Don’t be frightened,” she said, quite as if she had been speaking to a little girl like herself. “It doesn’t matter the least bit.”

“I didn’t go to do it, miss,” protested Becky. “It was the warm fire – an’ me bein’ so tired. It – it WASN’T impertience!”

Sara broke into a friendly little laugh, and put her hand on her shoulder.

“You were tired,” she said; “you could not help it.

How poor Becky stared at her! In fact, she had never heard such a nice, friendly sound in anyone’s voice before. She was used to being ordered about and scolded, and having her ears boxed.[105 - She was used to being ordered about and scolded, and having her ears boxed. – Она привыкла к тому, что ей приказывали, ругали и таскали за уши.] And this one – in her rose-colored dancing afternoon splendor – was looking at her as if she were not a culprit at all – as if she had a right to be tired – even to fall asleep! The touch of the soft, slim little paw on her shoulder was the most amazing thing she had ever known.

“Ain’t – ain’t yer[106 - ain’t yer = aren’t you] angry, miss?” she gasped. “Ain’t yer goin’ to tell the missus?”

“No,” cried out Sara. “Of course I’m not.”

The woeful fright in the coal-smutted face made her suddenly so sorry that she could scarcely bear it.

“Why,” she said, “we are just the same – I am only a little girl like you. It’s just an accident that I am not you, and you are not me!”

Becky did not understand in the least.[107 - Becky did not understand in the least. – Бекки совсем не поняла ее.