«How about the man you fell in love with on the beach?»

«I don’t love anybody but you, Mother, darling.»

Rosemary stopped in the lobby (вестибюль, холл) and spoke to Gausse père about trains. The concierge, lounging (сидеть развалившись, расслабившись) in light-brown khaki by the desk, stared (уставиться) at her rigidly (строго, сурово), then suddenly remembered the manners of his métier (профессия, занятие, ремесло). She took the bus and rode with a pair of obsequious (исполнительный, послушный) waiters to the station, embarrassed (сбивать с толку, приводить в замешательство) by their silence, wanting to urge them: «Go on, talk, enjoy yourselves. It doesn’t bother (мешать, беспокоить) me.»

The first-class compartment was stifling (душный); the vivid (яркий) advertising cards of the railroad companies – The Pont du Gard at Arles, the Amphitheatre at Orange, winter sports at Chamonix – were fresher than the long motionless (неподвижное) sea outside. Unlike American trains that were absorbed in an intense destiny of their own, and scornful (презирающий) of people on another world less swift (подвижный) and breathless (запыхавшийся), this train was part of the country through which it passed. Its breath (дыхание) stirred (шевелить, сдувать) the dust from the palm leaves, the cinders (зола) mingled (смешиваться) with the dry dung (навоз) in the gardens. Rosemary was sure she could lean (наклониться, высунуться из) from the window and pull (выдёргивать) flowers with her hand.

A dozen cabbies (таксист) slept in their hacks (такси) outside (снаружи) the Cannes station. Over on the promenade (прогулка, променад) the Casino, the smart shops, and the great hotels turned blank (пустой) iron masks to the summer sea. It was unbelievable (Не верилось) that there could ever have been a «season,» and Rosemary, half in the grip (в тисках) of fashion, became a little self-conscious (застенчивый, легко смущающийся), as though she were displaying (проявлять) an unhealthy (нездоровый) taste (вкус) for the moribund (устаревающий, выходящий из употребления); as though (как будто) people were wondering (удивляться) why she was here in the lull (затишье) between the gaiety (веселье) of last winter and next winter, while (в то время, как) up north the true world thundered (греметь, грохотать) by.

As she came out of a drug store (аптека) with a bottle of cocoanut oil (кокосовое масло), a woman, whom she recognized as (в которой она узнала) Mrs. Diver, crossed her path with arms full of sofa cushions (диванная подушка), and went to a car parked down the street. A long, low black dog barked (лаять) at her, a dozing (дремлющий) chauffeur (шофёр) woke with a start (вздрагивание). She sat in the car, her lovely face set (сосредоточенный), controlled, her eyes brave (смелый) and watchful (наблюдательный), looking straight ahead (прямо вперед) toward nothing (в никуда). Her dress was bright red and her brown legs were bare (голый). She had thick, dark, gold hair like a chow (чау-чау) ’s.

With half an hour to wait for her train Rosemary sat down in the Café des Alliés on the Croisette, where the trees made a green twilight (сумерки) over the tables and an orchestra wooed (привлекать, обхаживать) an imaginary public of cosmopolites (космополит) with the Nice Carnival Song and last year’s American tune. She had bought Le Temps and The Saturday Evening Post for her mother, and as she drank her citronade she opened the latter (второй) at the memoirs of a Russian princess, finding the dim (непримечательный) conventions (обычай, традиция, правила поведения) of the nineties (девяностых) realer and nearer than the headlines (заголовок) of the French paper. It was the same feeling that had oppressed (угнетать) her at the hotel – accustomed (привыкший) to seeing the starkest (строгий, суровый) grotesqueries of a continent heavily (весьма, в большой степени) underlined as comedy or tragedy, untrained (неподготовленный) to the task of separating out (выделить) the essential (существенное) for herself, she now began to feel that French life was empty and stale (тривиальный, банальный). This feeling was surcharged () by listening to the sad tunes of the orchestra, reminiscent () of the melancholy music played for acrobats in vaudeville (водевиль). She was glad to go back to Gausse’s Hotel.