Кентервильское привидение. Человек-невидимка / The Canterville Ghost. The Invisible Man. Оскар Уайльд

Чтение книги онлайн.

      For a moment the Canterville ghost stood quite motionless in natural indignation; then, dashing the bottle violently upon the floor,[27] he went down the corridor, uttering hollow groans, and emitting a green light. Just, however, as he reached the top of the staircase, a door was flung open, two little white-robed figures appeared, and a large pillow whizzed past his head! There was evidently no time to be lost, so, adopting the Fourth dimension of Space as a means of escape,[28] he vanished through the wainscoting, and the house became quite quiet.

      On reaching a small secret chamber in the left wing, he leaned up against a moonbeam to recover his breath, and began to try and realize his position. Never, in a brilliant and uninterrupted career of three hundred years, had he been so grossly insulted. He thought of the Dowager Duchess, whom he had frightened into a fit as she stood before the glass in her lace and diamonds; of the four housemaids, who had gone into hysterics when he merely smiled at them through the curtains on one of the spare bedrooms; of the rector of the parish, whose candle he had blown out as he was coming late one night from the library; and of old Madame de Tremouillac, who, having wakened up one morning early and seen a skeleton seated in an armchair by the fire reading her diary, had been confined to her bed[29] for six weeks with an attack of brain fever, and, on her recovery, had become reconciled to the Church, and broken off her connection with that notorious sceptic, Monsieur de Voltaire. He remembered the terrible night when Lord Canterville was found choking in his dressing-room, with the knave of diamonds half-way down his throat,[30] and confessed, just before he died, that he had cheated Charles James Fox out of 50,000 pounds at Crockford’s by means of that very card, and swore that the ghost had made him swallow it. All his great achievements came back to him again, from the butler who had shot himself in the pantry because he had seen a green hand tapping at the window-pane, to the beautiful Lady Stutfield, who was always obliged to wear a black velvet band round her throat to hide the mark of five fingers burnt upon her white skin, and who drowned herself at last in the pond. And after all this some wretched modern Americans were to come and offer him the Rising Sun Lubricator, and throw pillows at his head! It was quite unbearable. Besides, no ghost in history had ever been treated in this manner. Accordingly, he determined to have vengeance, and remained till daylight in an attitude of deep thought.[31]

      Exercises

      1. Answer the questions:

      1. What did the Otis family find when they came down to breakfast?

      2. What subjects did the Otis family discuss?

      3. When did the family retire?

      4. Why was Mr. Otis awakened?

      5. What noise did Mr. Otis hear?

      6. What did the ghost look like?

      7. What did Mr. Otis give to the ghost?

      8. How did the ghost manage to escape?

      9. Why did the ghost feel insulted?

      10. What did the ghost decide to do?