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E-Books (english-e-reader), The Third Party (1)

The Third Party (1)

In law, the third party is a person involved in a situation in addition to the two main people involved. A third party quite often appears in cases of divorce, for example.

However, all threesomes are different. And in some of them it is not always clear which of the three people actually is the third party...

The two men met by arrangement in the bar of Buswell's Hotel, at half past eleven. 'I think we'll recognize each other all right,' the older man had said. 'I expect she's told you what I look like.'

He was tall, his face pinkish-brown from the sun, his fair hair turning grey. The man he met was thinner, wearing glasses and a black winter coat - a smaller man, whose name was Lairdman.

'Well, we're neither of us late,' Boland said a little nervously. 'Fergus Boland. How are you?' They shook hands. Boland took out his wallet. 'I'll have a whiskey myself. What'll I get you?'

'Oh, just a lemonade for me, Fergus, this time of day.' Boland ordered the drinks and they stood by the bar. Boland held out a packet of cigarettes. 'Do you smoke?'

Lairdman shook his head. He placed an elbow tidily on the bar. 'Sorry about this,' he said.

They were alone except for the barman, who put their two glasses in front of them. Boland paid him. 'I mean I'm really sorry,' Lairdman went on, 'doing this to anyone.'

'Good luck,' Boland said, raising his glass. He had softened the colour of the whiskey by adding twice as much water. 'You never drink this early in the day, I suppose?' he said, carefully polite. 'Well, that's very sensible, I always think.'

'I thought it might not be an occasion for drinking.'

'I couldn't talk to you without a drink inside me, Lairdman.'

'I'm sorry about that.'

'You've stolen my wife from me. It's not an everyday event.'

'I'm sorry-'

'It'd be better if you didn't keep saying that.'

Lairdman made no protest at Boland's sharpness. 'The whole thing's awkward, I must confess. I didn't sleep at all last night.'

'You're from Dublin, she tells me,' Boland said, still politely. 'You're in the wood business. There's money in that, no doubt.' Lairdman was offended. She'd described her husband as clumsy, but had added he wouldn't hurt a fly. Already, five minutes into the difficult meeting, Lairdman wasn't so sure.

'I don't like Dublin,' Boland continued. 'To be honest, I never have. I'm a small-town man, but of course you'll know that.' He imagined his wife telling her lover about the narrowness of his experience. She liked to tell people things; she talked a lot.

'I want to thank you,' Lairdman said, 'for taking all this so well. Annabella has told me.'

'I don't see that I have any choice.'

Lairdman's lips were very thin, his mouth a line that smiled without any obvious effort. I wonder why he doesn't have a funny little moustache, like so many Dubliners, thought Boland.

'I thought you might hit me when we met,' Lairdman said. 'But Annabella said you weren't like that at all.'

'No, I'm not.'

'That's what I mean by taking it well.'

'All I want to know is what your plans are.'

'Plans?'

'I'm just asking if you're thinking of marrying her, and what your arrangements are. I mean, have you a place that's suitable for her? I'll have another whiskey,' he said to the barman.

'We were hoping that - if you agree - she would move into my place more or less at once. It's suitable all right - a seven- room flat in Wellington Road. But in time we'll get a house.'

'Thanks,' Boland said to the barman, paying him.

'It was my turn to pay,' Lairdman protested, just a little late. She wouldn't care for meanness, Boland thought, when it began to have an effect on her, which it would, in time.

'But marriage?' Boland said. 'It isn't easy, you know, to marry another man's wife in Ireland.'

'Annabella and I would naturally like to be married one day.'

'That's what I wanted to ask you about. How are you thinking of getting a divorce? She doesn't really know much about it - we talked about it for a long time.'

'Thank you for that. And for suggesting we should meet.'

'You two have given me good reasons for a divorce, Lairdman, but it's no damn use to me. A divorce will take years.'

'It wouldn't take so long if you had an address in England. Then we could get a divorce over there.'

'But I haven't an address in England.'

'It's only a thought, Fergus.'

'So she wasn't exaggerating when she said you wanted to marry her?'

'I don't think I've ever known Annabella exaggerate,' Lairdman replied stiffly.

Then you don't know the most important thing about her, Boland thought - that is, she can't help telling lies, which you and I might politely describe as exaggerating.

'I'm surprised you never got married,' he said. He really was surprised, because in his experience self-confident little men like Lairdman very often had a good-looking woman in their life.

'I've known your wife a long time,' Lairdman said softly, trying not to let his smile show. 'As soon as I first saw Annabella, I knew she was the only woman I'd ever want to marry.'

Boland stared into his whiskey. He had to be careful about what he said. If he became angry for a moment, he was quite likely to ruin everything. The last thing he wanted was for the man to change his mind. He lit a cigarette, again offering the packet to Lairdman, who again shook his head. In a friendly, conversational way Boland said, 'Lairdman's an interesting name.'

'It's not Irish - French maybe, or part of it anyway.'

When she had said her lover's name was Lairdman, Boland had remembered it from his schooldays, and in Buswell's bar, he had immediately recognized the face. At school, Lairdman had been famous for an unexpected reason: his head had been held down a toilet while his hair was scrubbed with a toilet brush. The boys who had done this were older and bigger than him. Called Roche and Dead Smith, they took pleasure in punishing small boys whose faces and habits they found annoying.

'I think we were at school together,' Boland said.

Lairdman almost gave a jump, and this time it was Boland who tried not to smile. Clearly, this had come as a shock to Lairdman.

'I don't remember a Boland,' Lairdman said.

'I'd have been a little older than you. I hated the damn place.'

'Oh, I quite liked it,' Lairdman said.

'You day boys went home in the evenings and at weekends, we boarders had to stay there all the time.'

'I suppose that made a difference.'

'Of course it did.'

For the first, time Boland felt annoyed. Not only was her lover mean, he was stupid as well. If he had any common sense at all, he'd realize he'd be mad to buy a house for Annabella, because no one could ever be sure she would do what she had promised.

'I've always thought, actually, it gave an excellent education,' Lairdman was saying.

The awful little Frenchman who couldn't make himself understood. The history teacher who gave the class a history book to read while he wrote letters. The mathematics man who couldn't solve the problems he presented. The head teacher who enjoyed causing as much physical pain as possible.

'Oh, a great place,' Boland agreed. 'A fine school.'

'I'm sorry I don't remember you.'

'I wouldn't expect you to.'

'We'll probably send our children there. If we have boys.'

'Your children?'

'You wouldn't mind? Oh dear, no, why should you? I'm sorry, that was a silly thing to say.'

'I'm having another whiskey,' Boland said. 'How about you?'

'No, I'm OK, thanks.'

This time Lairdman didn't mention, even too late, that he should pay. Boland lit another cigarette. So she hadn't told Lairdman? She had let the poor man imagine that in no time at all the seven-room flat wouldn't be big enough for all the children they were going to have. Boland could almost hear her telling Lairdman that her husband was to blame for their childless marriage. In fact, she'd discovered before they got married that she couldn't have children; in a quarrel long after the wedding she confessed that she'd known and hadn't told him.

'Naturally,' Lairdman continued, 'we'd like to have a family.'

'You would, of course.'

'I'm sorry that side of things didn't go right for you.'

'I was sorry myself.'

'The thing is, Fergus, is it OK about the divorce?'

'Are you saying I should agree to be the guilty party?'

'It is what men in your situation usually do, actually. But if you don't like the idea of it-'

'Don't worry, I'll agree to be the guilty party.'

'You're being great, Fergus.'

His wife used to say, 'I think I'll go up and stay with Phyllis,' saying it more often as time went by. Phyllis was a woman she knew in Dublin. But of course, Phyllis had just been a name she'd used, a friend who would tell lies for her if necessary. 'Phone me,' he used to say, and obediently his wife phoned him, telling how Dublin looked and how Phyllis was. No doubt, she'd been sitting on the edge of a bed in the seven-room flat in Wellington Road.

'It's really good of you to come all this way,' Lairdman said, sounding eager to end the meeting. 'I'll ring Annabella this afternoon and tell her all about it. You won't mind that, Fergus?'

'Not at all.'

Boland had often interrupted such a telephone conversation. He would come home and find her sitting on the stairs, talking on the phone. As soon as he came through the door, she'd wave a greeting and start to whisper secretively into the phone.

The trouble with Annabella was that sooner or later everything in the world bored her. 'Now I want to hear every single thing that's happened since the moment you left home this morning,' she would soon say to Lairdman. And the poor man would begin a long story about catching the bus and arriving at work and having a cake with his coffee. Later, in a quarrel, she would throw it all back at him. 'Who could possibly want to know about your damn cake?' she'd scream wildly at him, her fingers spread out in the air so that her blood-red nail varnish would dry evenly.

'I'll be able to say,' Lairdman was saying, almost proudly, 'that neither of us got angry. She'll be pleased about that.'

Boland couldn't imagine his wife being pleased, since she hardly ever was. He wondered what it was that she liked about Lairdman. When he'd asked her, she'd said her lover was amusing, that he had what she called a fantastic sense of fun.

'I wonder what became of Roche and Dead Smith,' he said.

He didn't know why he said it, why he couldn't accept that the business between them was over. He should have shaken hands with Lairdman and left it at that, perhaps saying there were no hard feelings. He would never have to see the man again; once in a while, he would simply feel sorry for him.

'I don't remember either of them,' said Lairdman, shaking his head. 'I'll say goodbye, Fergus. I'm grateful, I really am.'

'They were the boys who had the bright idea of washing your hair in a toilet bowl.'

Boland had said to himself over and over again that Lairdman was welcome to her. He looked ahead to an easy life, living alone. The house she had filled with her moods and her lies for the last twelve years would be as silent as a peaceful sleep. He would clear out the memories of her, because naturally she wouldn't do that herself - the old fashion magazines, the empty medicine bottles, the clothes she had no further use for, the curtains torn to pieces by her cats. He would cook his own meals, and Mrs Couglan would still come to clean every morning. Mrs Couglan wouldn't exactly be sorry to see her go, either.

The Third Party (1) Die Dritte Partei (1) El Tercer Partido (1) Il terzo partito (1) サード・パーティー (1) 제3자 (1) Trzecia strona (1) Üçüncü Taraf (1) 第三方 (1) 第三方 (1)

In law, the third party is a person involved in a situation in addition to the two main people involved. Im Recht ist ein Dritter eine Person, die zusätzlich zu den beiden Hauptbeteiligten an einer Situation beteiligt ist. По закону третья сторона — это лицо, вовлеченное в ситуацию в дополнение к двум основным участникам. 在法律上,第三人是指除两个主要涉案人员之外的涉案人员。 A third party quite often appears in cases of divorce, for example. Eine dritte Partei tritt zum Beispiel häufig bei Scheidungen auf.

However, all threesomes are different. Aber jeder Dreier ist anders. Однако все виды секса втроем отличаются друг от друга. And in some of them it is not always clear which of the three people actually is the third party... Und in einigen von ihnen ist nicht immer klar, welche der drei Personen tatsächlich die dritte Partei ist...

The two men met by arrangement in the bar of Buswell's Hotel, at half past eleven. Die beiden Männer trafen sich um halb zwölf in der Bar des Buswell's Hotel, wie vereinbart. Они встретились по договоренности в баре отеля Buswell's в половине одиннадцатого вечера. 'I think we'll recognize each other all right,' the older man had said. Ich denke, wir werden uns schon wiedererkennen", hatte der ältere Mann gesagt. Думаю, мы узнаем друг друга, - сказал старший. 'I expect she's told you what I look like.' Ich nehme an, sie hat Ihnen gesagt, wie ich aussehe.

He was tall, his face pinkish-brown from the sun, his fair hair turning grey. Er war groß, sein Gesicht von der Sonne rosa-braun gefärbt, sein helles Haar ergraut. The man he met was thinner, wearing glasses and a black winter coat - a smaller man, whose name was Lairdman.

'Well, we're neither of us late,' Boland said a little nervously. Nun, wir sind beide nicht zu spät", sagte Boland etwas nervös. Ну, мы ни один из нас не опоздал, - немного нервно сказал Боланд. 'Fergus Boland. How are you?' They shook hands. Boland took out his wallet. Boland holte seine Brieftasche heraus. Боланд достал свой бумажник. 'I'll have a whiskey myself. Я сам выпью виски. What'll I get you?' Was darf ich Ihnen bringen?'

'Oh, just a lemonade for me, Fergus, this time of day.' Boland ordered the drinks and they stood by the bar. Boland held out a packet of cigarettes. 'Do you smoke?'

Lairdman shook his head. He placed an elbow tidily on the bar. Er stützte einen Ellbogen ordentlich auf die Theke. 'Sorry about this,' he said.

They were alone except for the barman, who put their two glasses in front of them. Sie waren allein, bis auf den Barkeeper, der ihnen ihre beiden Gläser vor die Nase stellte. Boland paid him. 'I mean I'm really sorry,' Lairdman went on, 'doing this to anyone.' Ich meine, es tut mir wirklich leid", fuhr Lairdman fort, "dass ich das jemandem antue. Мне очень жаль, - продолжал Лэрдман, - что я так поступил с кем-то".

'Good luck,' Boland said, raising his glass. Viel Glück", sagte Boland und hob sein Glas. He had softened the colour of the whiskey by adding twice as much water. Er hatte die Farbe des Whiskeys durch Zugabe der doppelten Menge Wasser abgemildert. 'You never drink this early in the day, I suppose?' Ich nehme an, Sie trinken nie so früh am Tag, oder? 'Вы, наверное, никогда не пьете так рано?' he said, carefully polite. сказал он, тщательно соблюдая вежливость. 'Well, that's very sensible, I always think.' Nun, das ist sehr vernünftig, denke ich immer. 'Ну, это очень разумно, я всегда так думаю'.

'I thought it might not be an occasion for drinking.' Ich dachte, es wäre nicht der richtige Zeitpunkt zum Trinken.

'I couldn't talk to you without a drink inside me, Lairdman.'

'I'm sorry about that.'

'You've stolen my wife from me. It's not an everyday event.'

'I'm sorry-'

'It'd be better if you didn't keep saying that.' Es wäre besser, wenn du das nicht ständig sagen würdest.

Lairdman made no protest at Boland's sharpness. 'The whole thing's awkward, I must confess. Die ganze Sache ist peinlich, das muss ich zugeben. I didn't sleep at all last night.'

'You're from Dublin, she tells me,' Boland said, still politely. 'You're in the wood business. Sie sind in der Holzbranche tätig. There's money in that, no doubt.' Damit lässt sich Geld verdienen, ohne Zweifel.' В этом, несомненно, есть деньги". Lairdman was offended. Lairdman war beleidigt. Лэрдман обиделся. She'd described her husband as clumsy, but had added he wouldn't hurt a fly. |||||awkward or uncoordinated|||||||| Sie hatte ihren Mann als ungeschickt beschrieben, aber hinzugefügt, dass er keiner Fliege etwas zuleide tun würde. Already, five minutes into the difficult meeting, Lairdman wasn't so sure. Schon nach fünf Minuten des schwierigen Treffens war sich Lairdman nicht mehr so sicher.

'I don't like Dublin,' Boland continued. 'To be honest, I never have. Um ehrlich zu sein, habe ich das nie getan. I'm a small-town man, but of course you'll know that.' He imagined his wife telling her lover about the narrowness of his experience. Er stellte sich vor, wie seine Frau ihrem Liebhaber von der Beschränktheit seiner Erfahrung erzählte. She liked to tell people things; she talked a lot. Она любила рассказывать, много говорила.

'I want to thank you,' Lairdman said, 'for taking all this so well. Ich möchte mich bei Ihnen bedanken", sagte Lairdman, "dass Sie das alles so gut aufgenommen haben. Я хочу поблагодарить вас, - сказал Лэрдман, - за то, что вы так хорошо все это восприняли. Annabella has told me.'

'I don't see that I have any choice.' Ich sehe nicht ein, dass ich eine andere Wahl habe. Je ne vois pas comment je pourrais faire autrement.

Lairdman's lips were very thin, his mouth a line that smiled without any obvious effort. Lairdmans Lippen waren sehr schmal, sein Mund eine Linie, die ohne offensichtliche Anstrengung lächelte. I wonder why he doesn't have a funny little moustache, like so many Dubliners, thought Boland. Ich frage mich, warum er keinen lustigen kleinen Schnauzbart hat, wie so viele Dubliner, dachte Boland.

'I thought you might hit me when we met,' Lairdman said. 'But Annabella said you weren't like that at all.' Aber Annabella hat gesagt, du wärst überhaupt nicht so.

'No, I'm not.'

'That's what I mean by taking it well.' Das ist es, was ich meine, wenn ich sage, dass ich es gut aufnehme.

'All I want to know is what your plans are.'

'Plans?'

'I'm just asking if you're thinking of marrying her, and what your arrangements are. Ich wollte nur wissen, ob du sie zu heiraten gedenkst und wie deine Pläne aussehen. Я просто спрашиваю, не думаете ли вы жениться на ней, и каковы ваши планы. I mean, have you a place that's suitable for her? I'll have another whiskey,' he said to the barman. Я возьму еще виски", - сказал он бармену.

'We were hoping that - if you agree - she would move into my place more or less at once. Wir hatten gehofft, dass sie - wenn Sie einverstanden sind - mehr oder weniger sofort bei mir einziehen würde. Nous espérions que - si vous êtes d'accord - elle emménagerait chez moi plus ou moins immédiatement. Мы надеялись, что - если вы согласитесь - она переедет ко мне более или менее сразу. It's suitable all right - a seven- room flat in Wellington Road. Sie ist durchaus geeignet - eine Sieben-Zimmer-Wohnung in der Wellington Road. Подходящий вариант - семикомнатная квартира на Веллингтон-роуд. But in time we'll get a house.'

'Thanks,' Boland said to the barman, paying him.

'It was my turn to pay,' Lairdman protested, just a little late. She wouldn't care for meanness, Boland thought, when it began to have an effect on her, which it would, in time. Sie würde sich nicht um Gemeinheiten kümmern, dachte Boland, wenn sie sich auf sie auswirkten, was mit der Zeit der Fall sein würde. Elle ne se soucierait pas de la mesquinerie, pensait Boland, lorsqu'elle commencerait à avoir un effet sur elle, ce qui ne manquerait pas d'arriver avec le temps. Она не будет обращать внимания на подлость, думал Боланд, когда она начнет оказывать на нее влияние, что со временем и произойдет.

'But marriage?' Mais le mariage ? Boland said. 'It isn't easy, you know, to marry another man's wife in Ireland.' Il n'est pas facile, vous savez, d'épouser la femme d'un autre homme en Irlande.

'Annabella and I would naturally like to be married one day.' Annabella et moi aimerions naturellement nous marier un jour.

'That's what I wanted to ask you about. How are you thinking of getting a divorce? Wie denken Sie über eine Scheidung nach? Comment envisagez-vous de divorcer ? She doesn't really know much about it - we talked about it for a long time.' Sie weiß nicht wirklich viel darüber - wir haben lange darüber gesprochen. Elle ne sait pas grand-chose à ce sujet - nous en avons parlé pendant longtemps".

'Thank you for that. And for suggesting we should meet.' Und für den Vorschlag, dass wir uns treffen sollten.'

'You two have given me good reasons for a divorce, Lairdman, but it's no damn use to me. ||||||||||||||no good||| Ihr beide habt mir gute Gründe für eine Scheidung genannt, Gutsherr, aber das nützt mir nichts. Вы оба дали мне веские основания для развода, лэрдмен, но мне это ни к чему. A divorce will take years.'

'It wouldn't take so long if you had an address in England. Это не займет так много времени, если у вас есть адрес в Англии. Then we could get a divorce over there.' Тогда мы могли бы развестись там".

'But I haven't an address in England.'

'It's only a thought, Fergus.' 'Это всего лишь мысль, Фергюс'.

'So she wasn't exaggerating when she said you wanted to marry her?'

'I don't think I've ever known Annabella exaggerate,' Lairdman replied stiffly. Не думаю, что Аннабелла когда-либо преувеличивала, - жестко ответил Лэрдман.

Then you don't know the most important thing about her, Boland thought - that is, she can't help telling lies, which you and I might politely describe as exaggerating. Dann kennst du das Wichtigste an ihr nicht, dachte Boland, nämlich, dass sie nicht anders kann, als Lügen zu erzählen, die du und ich höflich als Übertreibung bezeichnen würden. Alors vous ne savez pas ce qui est le plus important chez elle, pensa Boland, c'est-à-dire qu'elle ne peut pas s'empêcher de dire des mensonges, que vous et moi pourrions poliment qualifier d'exagération.

'I'm surprised you never got married,' he said. Ich bin überrascht, dass du nie geheiratet hast", sagte er. He really was surprised, because in his experience self-confident little men like Lairdman very often had a good-looking woman in their life. Er war wirklich überrascht, denn nach seiner Erfahrung hatten selbstbewusste kleine Männer wie Lairdman sehr oft eine gut aussehende Frau in ihrem Leben.

'I've known your wife a long time,' Lairdman said softly, trying not to let his smile show. Ich kenne Ihre Frau schon lange", sagte Lairdman leise und versuchte, sich sein Lächeln nicht anmerken zu lassen. 'As soon as I first saw Annabella, I knew she was the only woman I'd ever want to marry.'

Boland stared into his whiskey. Boland regarde fixement son whisky. He had to be careful about what he said. Er musste vorsichtig sein mit dem, was er sagte. If he became angry for a moment, he was quite likely to ruin everything. Wenn er auch nur für einen Moment wütend wurde, konnte er alles kaputt machen. The last thing he wanted was for the man to change his mind. He lit a cigarette, again offering the packet to Lairdman, who again shook his head. Er zündete sich eine Zigarette an und bot das Päckchen erneut Lairdman an, der wiederum den Kopf schüttelte. In a friendly, conversational way Boland said, 'Lairdman's an interesting name.' Boland sagte freundlich und gesprächig: "Lairdman ist ein interessanter Name.

'It's not Irish - French maybe, or part of it anyway.' Es ist nicht irisch - vielleicht französisch, oder zumindest ein Teil davon.

When she had said her lover's name was Lairdman, Boland had remembered it from his schooldays, and in Buswell's bar, he had immediately recognized the face. Als sie gesagt hatte, der Name ihres Liebhabers sei Lairdman, hatte Boland sich an diesen Namen aus seiner Schulzeit erinnert, und in Buswells Bar hatte er das Gesicht sofort erkannt. At school, Lairdman had been famous for an unexpected reason: his head had been held down a toilet while his hair was scrubbed with a toilet brush. In der Schule war Lairdman aus einem unerwarteten Grund berühmt geworden: Sein Kopf war in eine Toilette gehalten worden, während sein Haar mit einer Toilettenbürste geschrubbt wurde. The boys who had done this were older and bigger than him. Called Roche and Dead Smith, they took pleasure in punishing small boys whose faces and habits they found annoying. Sie hießen Roche und Dead Smith und machten sich einen Spaß daraus, kleine Jungen zu bestrafen, deren Gesichter und Angewohnheiten sie als lästig empfanden.

'I think we were at school together,' Boland said.

Lairdman almost gave a jump, and this time it was Boland who tried not to smile. Lairdman zuckte fast zusammen, und dieses Mal war es Boland, der versuchte, nicht zu lächeln. Clearly, this had come as a shock to Lairdman. Für Lairdman war das natürlich ein Schock.

'I don't remember a Boland,' Lairdman said.

'I'd have been a little older than you. I hated the damn place.'

'Oh, I quite liked it,' Lairdman said.

'You day boys went home in the evenings and at weekends, we boarders had to stay there all the time.' ||||||||||||students living at the school|||||||

'I suppose that made a difference.'

'Of course it did.'

For the first, time Boland felt annoyed. Pour la première fois, Boland se sent agacé. Not only was her lover mean, he was stupid as well. Ihr Liebhaber war nicht nur gemein, er war auch dumm. Non seulement son amant est méchant, mais il est aussi stupide. If he had any common sense at all, he'd realize he'd be mad to buy a house for Annabella, because no one could ever be sure she would do what she had promised. Wenn er nur einen Funken gesunden Menschenverstand hätte, wüsste er, dass er verrückt wäre, ein Haus für Annabella zu kaufen, denn niemand kann sicher sein, dass sie hält, was sie versprochen hat.

'I've always thought, actually, it gave an excellent education,' Lairdman was saying. Ich habe immer geglaubt, dass es eine ausgezeichnete Ausbildung ist", sagte Lairdman.

The awful little Frenchman who couldn't make himself understood. Der furchtbare kleine Franzose, der sich nicht verständlich machen konnte. The history teacher who gave the class a history book to read while he wrote letters. Der Geschichtslehrer, der der Klasse ein Geschichtsbuch zum Lesen gab, während er Briefe schrieb. The mathematics man who couldn't solve the problems he presented. Der Mathematiker, der die von ihm gestellten Probleme nicht lösen konnte. The head teacher who enjoyed causing as much physical pain as possible. Der Schulleiter, der es genoss, so viel körperlichen Schmerz wie möglich zu verursachen.

'Oh, a great place,' Boland agreed. 'A fine school.'

'I'm sorry I don't remember you.'

'I wouldn't expect you to.' Das würde ich nicht erwarten.

'We'll probably send our children there. Wir werden wahrscheinlich unsere Kinder dorthin schicken. If we have boys.'

'Your children?'

'You wouldn't mind? Es macht Ihnen nichts aus? Oh dear, no, why should you? I'm sorry, that was a silly thing to say.' Es tut mir leid, das war eine dumme Bemerkung.'

'I'm having another whiskey,' Boland said. 'How about you?'

'No, I'm OK, thanks.'

This time Lairdman didn't mention, even too late, that he should pay. Boland lit another cigarette. So she hadn't told Lairdman? Sie hatte es Lairdman also nicht gesagt? She had let the poor man imagine that in no time at all the seven-room flat wouldn't be big enough for all the children they were going to have. Sie hatte den armen Mann ahnen lassen, dass die Sieben-Zimmer-Wohnung in kürzester Zeit nicht mehr für alle Kinder ausreichen würde. Boland could almost hear her telling Lairdman that her husband was to blame for their childless marriage. Boland konnte fast hören, wie sie Lairdman sagte, ihr Mann sei schuld an der Kinderlosigkeit ihrer Ehe. In fact, she'd discovered before they got married that she couldn't have children; in a quarrel long after the wedding she confessed that she'd known and hadn't told him. Tatsächlich hatte sie schon vor ihrer Hochzeit herausgefunden, dass sie keine Kinder bekommen konnte; in einem Streit lange nach der Hochzeit gestand sie ihm, dass sie es gewusst und ihm nicht gesagt hatte.

'Naturally,' Lairdman continued, 'we'd like to have a family.'

'You would, of course.'

'I'm sorry that side of things didn't go right for you.' Es tut mir leid, dass diese Seite der Dinge für Sie nicht richtig gelaufen ist.

'I was sorry myself.' Es hat mir selbst leid getan.

'The thing is, Fergus, is it OK about the divorce?'

'Are you saying I should agree to be the guilty party?' Willst du damit sagen, dass ich zustimmen soll, der Schuldige zu sein? Vous voulez dire que je devrais accepter d'être le coupable ?

'It is what men in your situation usually do, actually. Männer in Ihrer Situation tun das normalerweise. C'est ce que font généralement les hommes dans votre situation. But if you don't like the idea of it-'

'Don't worry, I'll agree to be the guilty party.' Keine Sorge, ich werde mich bereit erklären, den Schuldigen zu spielen.

'You're being great, Fergus.'

His wife used to say, 'I think I'll go up and stay with Phyllis,' saying it more often as time went by. Seine Frau pflegte zu sagen: "Ich glaube, ich gehe nach oben und bleibe bei Phyllis", und sagte das mit der Zeit immer öfter. Phyllis was a woman she knew in Dublin. Phyllis war eine Frau, die sie in Dublin kannte. But of course, Phyllis had just been a name she'd used, a friend who would tell lies for her if necessary. Aber natürlich war Phyllis nur ein Name, den sie benutzt hatte, eine Freundin, die für sie Lügen erzählen würde, wenn es nötig wäre. 'Phone me,' he used to say, and obediently his wife phoned him, telling how Dublin looked and how Phyllis was. Ruf mich an", pflegte er zu sagen, und seine Frau rief ihn gehorsam an und erzählte ihm, wie Dublin aussah und wie es Phyllis ging. No doubt, she'd been sitting on the edge of a bed in the seven-room flat in Wellington Road. Zweifellos saß sie auf einer Bettkante in der Sieben-Zimmer-Wohnung in der Wellington Road.

'It's really good of you to come all this way,' Lairdman said, sounding eager to end the meeting. |||||||||||||keen to finish|||| Es ist wirklich nett von Ihnen, dass Sie den ganzen Weg hierher gekommen sind", sagte Lairdman und klang, als wolle er das Treffen beenden. 'I'll ring Annabella this afternoon and tell her all about it. Ich werde Annabella heute Nachmittag anrufen und ihr alles erzählen. You won't mind that, Fergus?' Das stört dich doch nicht, Fergus?'

'Not at all.'

Boland had often interrupted such a telephone conversation. Boland hatte schon oft ein solches Telefongespräch unterbrochen. He would come home and find her sitting on the stairs, talking on the phone. As soon as he came through the door, she'd wave a greeting and start to whisper secretively into the phone. Sobald er durch die Tür kam, winkte sie ihm zur Begrüßung zu und begann, heimlich ins Telefon zu flüstern.

The trouble with Annabella was that sooner or later everything in the world bored her. 'Now I want to hear every single thing that's happened since the moment you left home this morning,' she would soon say to Lairdman. Jetzt will ich alles wissen, was passiert ist, seit Sie heute Morgen das Haus verlassen haben", wird sie bald zu Lairdman sagen. And the poor man would begin a long story about catching the bus and arriving at work and having a cake with his coffee. Und der arme Mann begann eine lange Geschichte darüber, wie er den Bus erwischte, zur Arbeit kam und einen Kuchen zu seinem Kaffee aß. Later, in a quarrel, she would throw it all back at him. Später, bei einem Streit, würde sie alles auf ihn zurückwerfen. 'Who could possibly want to know about your damn cake?' Wer könnte schon etwas über deinen verdammten Kuchen wissen wollen? she'd scream wildly at him, her fingers spread out in the air so that her blood-red nail varnish would dry evenly.

'I'll be able to say,' Lairdman was saying, almost proudly, 'that neither of us got angry. Ich werde sagen können", sagte Lairdman fast stolz, "dass keiner von uns wütend wurde. She'll be pleased about that.' Darüber wird sie sich freuen.'

Boland couldn't imagine his wife being pleased, since she hardly ever was. Boland konnte sich nicht vorstellen, dass seine Frau darüber erfreut war, denn das war sie fast nie. He wondered what it was that she liked about Lairdman. Er fragte sich, was sie an Lairdman mochte. Il se demande ce qu'elle aime chez Lairdman. When he'd asked her, she'd said her lover was amusing, that he had what she called a fantastic sense of fun. |||||||||entertaining||||||||||| Als er sie gefragt hatte, hatte sie gesagt, ihr Liebhaber sei amüsant und habe einen fantastischen Sinn für Spaß.

'I wonder what became of Roche and Dead Smith,' he said. Ich frage mich, was aus Roche und Dead Smith geworden ist", sagte er. Je me demande ce qu'il est advenu de Roche et de Dead Smith", a-t-il déclaré.

He didn't know why he said it, why he couldn't accept that the business between them was over. Er wusste nicht, warum er es sagte, warum er nicht akzeptieren konnte, dass die Sache zwischen ihnen vorbei war. Il ne savait pas pourquoi il l'avait dit, pourquoi il ne pouvait pas accepter que l'affaire entre eux était terminée. He should have shaken hands with Lairdman and left it at that, perhaps saying there were no hard feelings. Er hätte Lairdman die Hand schütteln und es dabei belassen sollen, vielleicht mit der Bemerkung, dass er ihm nicht böse sei. Il aurait dû serrer la main de Lairdman et en rester là, en disant peut-être qu'il n'y avait pas de rancune. He would never have to see the man again; once in a while, he would simply feel sorry for him. Er würde den Mann nie wieder sehen müssen; ab und zu würde er einfach nur Mitleid mit ihm haben.

'I don't remember either of them,' said Lairdman, shaking his head. Ich kann mich an keinen von ihnen erinnern", sagte Lairdman und schüttelte den Kopf. 'I'll say goodbye, Fergus. I'm grateful, I really am.' Ich bin dankbar, das bin ich wirklich.'

'They were the boys who had the bright idea of washing your hair in a toilet bowl.' The boys||||||||||||||||

Boland had said to himself over and over again that Lairdman was welcome to her. Boland hatte sich immer wieder gesagt, dass Lairdman bei ihr willkommen sei. He looked ahead to an easy life, living alone. Er freute sich auf ein einfaches Leben, ein Leben allein. The house she had filled with her moods and her lies for the last twelve years would be as silent as a peaceful sleep. Das Haus, das sie in den letzten zwölf Jahren mit ihren Launen und Lügen gefüllt hatte, würde so still sein wie ein friedlicher Schlaf. He would clear out the memories of her, because naturally she wouldn't do that herself - the old fashion magazines, the empty medicine bottles, the clothes she had no further use for, the curtains torn to pieces by her cats. Er würde die Erinnerungen an sie ausräumen, denn natürlich würde sie das nicht selbst tun - die altmodischen Zeitschriften, die leeren Medizinflaschen, die Kleidung, für die sie keine Verwendung mehr hatte, die von ihren Katzen zerrissenen Vorhänge. He would cook his own meals, and Mrs Couglan would still come to clean every morning. Mrs Couglan wouldn't exactly be sorry to see her go, either. Frau Couglan wäre auch nicht gerade traurig, sie gehen zu sehen.