Читать книгу Destiny's Puppets - Henri Mallet - Страница 13

On the day of Gleb and Tatiana’s wedding nearly all the actors of the theatre-studio "Youth" assembled in the big Burdins’ apartment on Gorky street in the center of Moscow. The young people moved together the tables, covered them with a huge table-cloth and placed the plates with snacks and salads on it. There were not enough chairs for all the guests and they had to be borrowed from the neighbors. Somebody put on the record on the turntable to create the festive atmosphere.

One, two, put on your shoes,

Aren’t you ashamed that you are asleep?

Funny, lovely, cute Enka

Is inviting us to dance…

Cheerful music spread loudly through the apartment and flew out through the open window onto a Moscow street.

The street became too narrow for us soon,

We woke up the whole city

The moon in the skies was ardently dancing

Enka with us till the morning.

Smartly dressed young people loudly sang a familiar, popular song, and some danced to the beat. The girls were swinging their heads with fashionable updos and were trying to decide who had a fuller skirt. The guys were sporting insanely tapered pipe trousers.

At last the newly-weds and their escort appeared in the doorway. There was universal applause and congratulations. Roshin’s plain silk white dress fit her poorly and she looked a bit at a loss. At the same time, her wavy hair, big eloquent eyes and the blush on her plump cheeks was a very pleasant bonus to the bride’s image. Gleb made a display of his elegant suite, tightly fitting his tall figure. A strip of red socks, which were all the rage, could be seen above his shoes. His blue eyes had a look of worry and fatigue. His aristocratic posture and pleasant mannerisms completed the image of a real fairytale bridegroom prince. All the girls at the party agreed that he was irresistible and some of them were truly jealous that Svetlov was not single any more.