Английский с Р. Л. Стивенсоном. Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда

Well, we screwed him up to a hundred pounds for the child’s family; he would have clearly liked to stick out; but there was something about the lot of us that meant mischief, and at last he struck. The next thing was to get the money; and where do you think he carried us but to that place with the door? – whipped out a key, went in, and presently came back with the matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on Coutts’s, drawn payable to bearer, and signed with a name that I can’t mention, though it’s one of the points of my story, but it was a name at least very well known and often printed. The figure was stiff; but the signature was good for more than that, if it was only genuine.

I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman (я позволил себе указать этому господину; liberty – свобода; вольность, бесцеремонность) that the whole business looked apocryphal (что все это выглядит апокрифическим = сомнительным); and that a man does not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning (и что в обычной жизни человек не может в четыре часа утра войти в подвальную дверь) and come out of it with another man’s cheque for close upon a hundred pounds (и выйти из него с чеком, /подписанным именем/ другого человека, на почти что сотню фунтов). But he was quite easy and sneering (но он оставался вполне спокойным и презрительным; easy – легкий; спокойный).

‘Set your mind at rest (успокойтесь: «установите ваш разум/ваш дух к покою»; mind – разум; настроение, расположение духа),’ says he; ‘I will stay with you till the banks open (я останусь с вами до тех самых пор, пока не откроются банки), and cash the cheque myself (и сам получу деньги по чеку).’

I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman that the whole business looked apocryphal; and that a man does not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out of it with another man’s cheque for close upon a hundred pounds. But he was quite easy and sneering.

‘Set your mind at rest,’ says he; ‘I will stay with you till the banks open, and cash the cheque myself.’

So we all set off, the doctor, and the child’s father, and our friend and myself (итак, мы все – доктор, отец девочки, наш знакомец и я сам – отправились /в путь/), and passed the rest of the night in my chambers (и провели остаток ночи у меня); and next day, when we had breakfasted, went in a body to the bank (и на следующий день, позавтракав, мы в полном составе отправились в банк). I gave in the cheque myself (я сам предъявил чек; to give in – подавать, вручать /заявление, отчет, счет и т. п./), and said I had every reason to believe it was a forgery (и сказал, что у меня есть все основания полагать, что это подделка; to believe – верить; думать, полагать). Not a bit of it (ничуть не бывало). The cheque was genuine (чек был настоящим = подлинным).”