Kitabı oku: «Маленькая хозяйка большого дома / The Little Lady Of The Big House», sayfa 5
“I understand that they … that Dick takes care of them?” Graham asked.
As she answered, he was occupied with her long, brown lashes. Perforce, he lifted his gaze to her eyebrows. When she smiled she smiled all of herself, generously, joyously.
“Yes,” she was saying. “They have nothing to worry about. Dick is most generous, and he encourages the idleness of men like them. For example,Terrence McFane27 is an epicurean anarchist28, if you know what that means. He will not hurt a flea. He has a pet cat I gave him, and he carefully picks her fleas, not injuring them, stores them in a box, and sets them free in the forest. And the one with a beard—Aaron Hancock29. Like Terrence, he doesn’t work. He says that there have always been peasants and fools who like to work. That’s why he wears a beard. To shave, he thinks, is unnecessary work, and, therefore, immoral. Dick had found him in Paris, and assured him: if you ever come back to America, you will have food and shelter. So here he is.”
“And the poet?” Graham asked, admiring the smile that played upon her face.
“Oh, Theo—Theodore Malken30, though we call him Leo. He doesn’t work, either. His relatives are dreadfully wealthy; but they disowned him and he disowned them when he was fifteen. They say he is lunatic, and he says they are merely mad. He really writes remarkable verses … when he writes. He prefers to dream and live in the jungle with Terrence and Aaron.”
“Andthe Hindoo31, there—who’s he?”
“That’sDar Hyal32. He’s their guest, a revolutionist. He studied in France, Italy, Switzerland, he is a political refugee from India. Talks about a new synthetic system of philosophy, and about a rebellion against the British tyranny in India. He advocates individual terrorism. He and Aaron quarrel tremendously—that is, on philosophical matters. And now—” Paula sighed and erased the sigh with her smile—“and now, you know about everybody.”
One thing Graham noted as the dinner proceeded. The sages called Dick Forrest by his first name; but they always addressed Paula as “Mrs. Forrest,” although she called them by their first names. These people respected few things under the sun, and among such few things they recognized the certain definite aloofness in Dick Forrest’s wife.
It was the same thing, after dinner, in the big living room. Her laugh fascinated Graham. There was a fibrous thrill in it, most sweet to the ear, that differentiated it from any laugh he had ever heard.
