By John B. Priestley

(Two extracts from the novel)

"Cut some off for George," said Mrs. Smeeth, "and I'll keep it hot for him. He's going to be late again. You're a bit late yourself tonight, Dad."

"I know. We've had a funny day today," replied Mr. Smeeth, but for the time being he did not pursue следует the subject. He was busy carv­ing разрезая, and though it was only cold mutton баранина he was carving, he liked to give it all of his attention.

"Now, then, Edna," cried Mrs. Smeeth to her daughter, "don't sit there dreaming. Pass передай the potatoes and the greens овощи — careful, they're hot. And the mint sauce . Oh, I forgot it. Run and get it, that's a good girl. All right, don't bother беспокойся yourself. I can be there and back before you've got your wits together."

Mr. Smeeth looked up from his carving нарезки and eyed пристально глянула Edna severely строго. "Why didn't you go and get it when your mother told you. Letting her do everything."

His daughter pulled down опустила her mouth and wriggled изогнула a little. "I'd have gone," she said in сказала a whining хныкающем tone. "Didn't give me time, that's all."

Mr. Smeeth grunted заворчал impatiently. Edna annoyed him these days. He had been very fond of her when she was a child — and, for that mat­ter, he was still fond of her — but now she had arrived at what seemed to him a very silly, awkward трудный age. She had a way of acting, of looking, of talking, all acquired приобрела fairly recently, that irritated him. An outsider посторонний might have come to the conclusion that Edna looked like a slightly soiled загрязнённый and cheapened избитый elf. She was between seventeen and eighteen, a smallish girl, thin about the neck and shoulders but with sturdy сильными legs. She had a broad snub nose нос картошкой, a little round mouth that was nearly always open, and greyish-greenish-bluish серовато-зеленовато-голубоватые eyes set rather широко расставленные wide apart; and scores множество of faces exactly like hers, pert нахальных, prettyish недурных and under-nourished тощих (недоедающих), may be seen within a stone's throw небольшого расстояния of any picture theatre кинотеатра any evening in any large town. She had left school as soon as she could, and had wandered in an out бегала повсюду в поисках различной работы of various jobs, the latest and steadiest постоянная of them

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being one as assistant помощник in a big draper's мануфактурный Finsbury Park way. At home now, being neither child nor an adult, neither dependent nor indepen­dent, she was at her worst: languid вялая and complaining недовольная, shrill резкая and resent­ful обидчивая, or sullen угрюмая and tearful слезливая; she would not eat properly как следует; she did not want to help her mother, to do a bit of washing-up помыть посуду, to tidy her room; and it was only when one of her silly little friends called, when she was go­ing out, that she suddenly sprang бросалась into a vivid яркую personal life of her own, became eager and vivacious оживлённой. This contrast, as sharp as a sword , some­times angered раздражённая, sometimes saddened опечалив her father, who could not imag­ine how his home, for which he saw himself for ever planning and working, appeared in the eyes of fretful капризного, secretive скрытного and ambitious ado­lescence подростка. These changes in Edna annoyed and worried him far more than they did Mrs. Smeeth, who only took offence when she had a solid grievance обиду, and turned a tolerant терпимой, sagely мудрый feminine eye on what she called Edna's "airs and graces" «манерность».

Left to himself, Mr. Smeeth slowly knocked out выбил his pipe in the coal-scuttle ящик для угля and then stared вытаращил глаза into the fire, brooding задумавшись. He was always catching himself grumbling ворчащим about the children now, and he did not want to be a grumbling ворчащий father. He had enjoyed them when they were young, but now, although there were times when he felt a touch of pride, he no longer understood them. George especially, the elder of the two, and once a very bright promising boy, was both a disap­pointment разочарование and a mystery. George had had opportunities he himself had never had. But George had shown an inclination предрасположенность from the first с самого начала, to go his own way, which seemed to Mr. Smeeth a very poor жалкий way. He had no desire to stick to вмешиваться anything, to serve somebody faithfully честно, to work himself steadily up готовить себя собой to a good safe position к высокому положению. He simply tried one thing after another, selling wireless sets, helping some pal приятелю in a ga­rage (he was in a garage now, and it was his fourth or fifth), and though he always contrived умудрялся to earn something and appeared to work hard enough, he was not, in his father's opinion, getting anywhere. He was only twenty, of course, and there was time, but Mr. Smeeth, who knew very well that George would continue to go his own way without any reference отношение to him, did not see any possibility of improve­ment. The point was, that to George, there was nothing wrong, and his father was well aware of the fact that he could not make him see there was anything wrong. That was the trouble with both his chil­dren. There was obviously nothing bad about either of them; they compared very favourably симпатизирующе with other people's boys and girls; and he would have been quick to defend them; but nevertheless, they were

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growing up to be men and women he could not understand, just as if they were foreigners. And it was all very perplexing ошеломляюще and vaguely неуловимо saddening.

The truth was, of course, that Mr. Smeeth's children were foreign­ers, not simply because they belonged to a younger generation but because they belonged to a younger generation that existed in a dif­ferent world. Mr. Smeeth was perplexed озадачен because he applied применял to them standards they did not recognize. They were the product of a chang­ing civilization . They were the children of the Woolworth (английский филиал американской торговой компании; владеет однотипными универсальными магазинами во многих городах Великобритании. Основан в 1909) stores and the moving pictures. Their world was at once larger and shallower поверхностнее than that of their parents. They were less English, more cosmopoli­tan. Mr. Smeeth could not understand George and Edna, but a host множество of youths and girls in New York, Paris and Berlin would have under­stood them at a glance. Edna's appearance, her grimaces and ges­tures, were temporarily based on those of an Americanized Polish Jewess , who, from her mint происхождения in Hollywood, had stamped them on these young girls all over the world. George's knowing eye for a machine, his cigarette and drooping изнемождённое eyelid веко, his sleek лоснящиеся hair, his ties and shoes and suits, the smallest details of his motorcycling езды на мотоцикле and dancing, his staccato отрывистый impersonal обезличенный talk, his huge indifferences, could be matched соответствовать almost exactly round every corner in any American city or European capital.

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