And I know Englishmen of the Colonel’s type — even if he had fallen in love with the young lady at first sight, he would have advanced slowly and with decorum, not rushing things. Therefore I concluded that Colonel Arbuthnot and Miss Debenham were in reality well acquainted and were for some reason pretending to be strangers. Another small point was Miss Debenham’s easy familiarity with the term ‘long distance’ for a telephone call. Yet Miss Debenham had told me that she had never been in the States.

“To pass to another witness (перейдем к следующему свидетелю). Mrs. Hubbard had told us that lying in bed she had been unable to see (миссис Хаббард сказала нам, что, лежа в постели, она не могла видеть; unable — неспособный) whether the communicating door was bolted or not (закрыта на засов смежная дверь или нет; bolt — засов, задвижка; to bolt — запирать на засов), and so had asked Miss Ohlsson to see for her (и потому попросила мисс Ольсон проверить /это/ для нее). Now (итак) — though her statement would have been perfectly true (хотя ее утверждение и было бы совершенно верным) if she had been occupying compartment No. 2, 4, 12 (если бы она занимала купе номер 2, 4, 12) or any even number (или любое /другое/ четное купе: «/купе/ с четным номером»; even — ровный, гладкий; мат. четный), in which the bolt is directly under the handle of the door (в которых задвижка располагается прямо/непосредственно под ручкой двери) — in the uneven numbers (в купе с нечетными номерами; uneven — неровный, негладкий; мат. нечетный) such as compartment No. 3 the bolt is well above the handle (таких, как купе номер 3, задвижка располагается значительно выше ручки; well — хорошо, отлично; значительно) and could not therefore be masked by the sponge-bag in the least (и поэтому не могла бы никак оказаться закрытой сумочкой для ванных принадлежностей; to mask — маскировать, скрывать). I was forced to the conclusion (я был вынужден сделать вывод; to force — заставлять, принуждать, вынуждать) that Mrs. Hubbard was inventing an incident that had never occurred (что миссис Хаббард выдумывала происшествие, которого вовсе не было; to invent — изобретать, создавать; выдумывать, придумывать; to occur — случаться, происходить).

witness ['wtns] uneven [n'i:vn] masked [m:skt] incident ['nsdnt]

“To pass to another witness. Mrs. Hubbard had told us that lying in bed she had been unable to see whether the communicating door was bolted or not, and so had asked Miss Ohlsson to see for her. Now — though her statement would have been perfectly true if she had been occupying compartment No. 2, 4, 12 or any even number, in which the bolt is directly under the handle of the door — in the uneven numbers such as compartment No. 3 the bolt is well above the handle and could not therefore be masked by the sponge-bag in the least. I was forced to the conclusion that Mrs. Hubbard was inventing an incident that had never occurred.