CHAPTER 25, part 1 CAPÍTULO 25, parte 1

CHAPTER 25

Curdie Comes to Grief Курди приходит в скорбь

Everything was for some time quiet above ground. The king was still away in a distant part of his dominions. The men-at-arms kept watching about the house. They had been considerably astonished by finding at the foot of the rock in the garden the hideous body of the goblin creature killed by Curdie; but they came to the conclusion that it had been slain in the mines, and had crept out there to die; and except an occasional glimpse of a live one they saw nothing to cause alarm.

Curdie kept watching in the mountain, and the goblins kept burrowing deeper into the earth. As long as they went deeper there was, Curdie judged, no immediate danger.

To Irene the summer was as full of pleasure as ever, and for a long time, although she often thought of her grandmother during the day, and often dreamed about her at night, she did not see her. Для Ирины лето было по-прежнему полно наслаждений, и долгое время, хотя она часто думала о бабушке днем и часто мечтала о ней по ночам, она не видела ее. The kids and the flowers were as much her delight as ever, and she made as much friendship with the miners' children she met on the mountain as Lootie would permit; but Lootie had very foolish notions concerning the dignity of a princess, not understanding that the truest princess is just the one who loves all her brothers and sisters best, and who is most able to do them good by being humble towards them. At the same time she was considerably altered for the better in her behaviour to the princess. She could not help seeing that she was no longer a mere child, but wiser than her age would account for. Она не могла не видеть, что она уже не просто ребенок, а мудрее, чем позволяет ее возраст. She kept foolishly whispering to the servants, however--sometimes that the princess was not right in her mind, sometimes that she was too good to live, and other nonsense of the same sort. Она, однако, все глупо нашептывала прислуге, то что княгиня не в своем уме, то что она слишком хороша для жизни, и прочую чепуху в том же роде.

All this time Curdie had to be sorry, without a chance of confessing, that he had behaved so unkindly to the princess. Все это время Керди должен был сожалеть, не имея шанса признаться, что так недобро поступил с принцессой. This perhaps made him the more diligent in his endeavours to serve her. His mother and he often talked on the subject, and she comforted him, and told him she was sure he would some day have the opportunity he so much desired. Он и его мать часто разговаривали на эту тему, и она утешала его и говорила, что уверена, что когда-нибудь у него будет возможность, о которой он так желал.

Here I should like to remark, for the sake of princes and princesses in general, that it is a low and contemptible thing to refuse to confess a fault, or even an error. Здесь я хотел бы заметить, ради принцев и принцесс вообще, что это низкий и презренный поступок, чтобы не признаться в проступке или даже в ошибке. If a true princess has done wrong, she is always uneasy until she has had an opportunity of throwing the wrongness away from her by saying: 'I did it; and I wish I had not; and I am sorry for having done it.' So you see there is some ground for supposing that Curdie was not a miner only, but a prince as well. Так что есть основания предполагать, что Курди был не только шахтером, но и принцем. Many such instances have been known in the world's history. At length, however, he began to see signs of a change in the proceedings of the goblin excavators: they were going no deeper, but had commenced running on a level; and he watched them, therefore, more closely than ever. В конце концов, однако, он начал замечать признаки изменения работы гоблинов-землекопов: они не углублялись, а начали работать на уровне; и поэтому он наблюдал за ними более внимательно, чем когда-либо. All at once, one night, coming to a slope of very hard rock, they began to ascend along the inclined plane of its surface. Having reached its top, they went again on a level for a night or two, after which they began to ascend once more, and kept on at a pretty steep angle. Достигнув его вершины, они снова пошли по уровню на ночь или две, после чего снова стали подниматься и держались под довольно крутым углом.