Travels with my aunt / Путешествие с тетушкой. Книга для чтения на английском языке

, когда Британией правили короли Георги I, II и III (неоклассицизм)]. Through the windows I could see men with exaggerated moustaches in tweed coats, which were split horsily behind, gathered round a girl in jodhpurs. They were not the type to whom I would have extended much credit, and I doubted whether any of them, except the girl, had ever ridden a horse. They were all drinking bitter, and I had the impression that any spare cash they might have put aside went on tailors and hairdressers rather than equitation.

We went in by a side door. My aunt’s apartment was on the second floor, and on the first floor there was a small sofa, which I learnt later had been bought my aunt so that she could take a little rest on the way up. It was typical of her generous nature that she had bought a sofa, which could barely be squeezed onto the landing, and not a chair for one.

“I always take a little rest at this point. Come and sit down, too, Henry. The stairs are steep, though perhaps they don’t seem so at your age.” She looked at me critically. “You have certainly changed a lot since I saw you last, though you haven’t got much more hair.”

“I’ve had it, but I’ve lost it,” I explained.

“I have kept mine. I can still sit upon it,” She added surprisingly, “�Rapunzel[13 - Rapunzel – персонаж немецкой сказки, девушка, заточенная в башню; она расплетает косу до земли, прекрасный принц взбирается по ее волосам в башню и спасает ее], Rapunzel, let down your hair’.

“Aren’t you disturbed by the noise from the bar?”

“Oh no. And the bar is very convenient if I suddenly run short. I just send Wordsworth[14 - Wordsworth – Уильям Вордсворт (1770–1850), английский поэт-романтик, представитель «озерной школы»] down”.

“Who is Wordsworth?”

“I call him Wordsworth because I can’t bring myself to call him Zachary. All the eldest sons in his family have been called Zachary for generations – after Zachary Macaulay, who did so much for them on Clapham Common. The surname was adopted from the bishop not the poet.