The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / Загадочная история Бенджамина Баттона. Фрэнсис Скотт Фицджеральд

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СКАЧАТЬ pleasanter!” he demanded. “What's unpleasant about that? Weren't they nice girls?”

      To his great surprise Kismine began to weep.

      “Yes-th-that's the-the whole t-trouble. I grew qu-quite attached to some of them. So did Jasmine, but she kept inv-viting them anyway. I couldn't understand it.”

      A dark suspicion was born in John's heart.

      “Do you mean that they told, and your father had them-removed?”

      “Worse than that,” she muttered brokenly. “Father took no chances-and Jasmine kept writing them to come, and they had such a good time!”

      She was overcome by a paroxysm of grief.

      Stunned with the horror of this revelation, John sat there open-mouthed, feeling the nerves of his body twitter like so many sparrows perched upon his spinal column.

      “Now, I've told you, and I shouldn't have,” she said, calming suddenly and drying her dark blue eyes.

      “Do you mean to say that your father had them murdered before they left?”

      She nodded.

      “In August usually-or early in September. It's only natural for us to get all the pleasure out of them that we can first.”

      “How abominable! How-why, I must be going crazy! Did you really admit that-”

      “I did,” interrupted Kismine, shrugging her shoulders. “We can't very well imprison them like those aviators, where they'd be a continual reproach to us every day. And it's always been made easier for Jasmine and me, because father had it done sooner than we expected. In that way we avoided any farewell scene-”

      “So you murdered them! Uh!” cried John.

      “It was done very nicely. They were drugged while they were asleep-and their families were always told that they died of scarlet fever in Butte.”

      “But-I fail to understand why you kept on inviting them!”

      “I didn't,” burst out Kismine. “I never invited one. Jasmine did. And they always had a very good time. She'd give them the nicest presents toward the last. I shall probably have visitors too-I'll harden up to it. We can't let such an inevitable thing as death stand in the way of enjoying life while we have it. Think of how lonesome it'd be out here if we never had any one. Why, father and mother have sacrificed some of their best friends just as we have.”

      “And so,” cried John accusingly, “and so you were letting me make love to you and pretending to return it, and talking about marriage, all the time knowing perfectly well that I'd never get out of here alive-”

      “No,” she protested passionately. “Not any more. I did at first. You were here. I couldn't help that, and I thought your last days might as well be pleasant for both of us. But then I fell in love with you, and-and I'm honestly sorry you're going to-going to be put away-though I'd rather you'd be put away than ever kiss another girl.”

      “Oh, you would, would you?” cried John ferociously.

      “Much rather. Besides, I've always heard that a girl can have more fun with a man whom she knows she can never marry. Oh, why did I tell you? I've probably spoiled your whole good time now, and we were really enjoying things when you didn't know it. I knew it would make things sort of depressing for you.”

      “Oh, you did, did you?” John's voice trembled with anger. “I've heard about enough of this. If you haven't any more pride and decency than to have an affair with a fellow that you know isn't much better than a corpse, I don't want to have any more to with you!”

      “You're not a corpse!” she protested in horror. “You're not a corpse! I won't have you saying that I kissed a corpse!”

      “I said nothing of the sort!”

      “You did! You said I kissed a corpse!”

      “I didn't!”

      Their voices had risen, but upon a sudden interruption they both subsided into immediate silence. Footsteps were coming along the path in their direction, and a moment later the rose bushes were parted displaying Braddock Washington, whose intelligent eyes set in his good-looking vacuous face were peering in at them.

      “Who kissed a corpse?” he demanded in obvious disapproval.

      “Nobody,” answered Kismine quickly. “We were just joking.”

      “What are you two doing here, anyhow?” he demanded gruffly. “Kismine, you ought to be-to be reading or playing golf with your sister. Go read! Go play golf! Don't let me find you here when I come back!”

      Then he bowed at John and went up the path.

      “See?” said Kismine crossly, when he was out of hearing. “You've spoiled it all. We can never meet any more. He won't let me meet you. He'd have you poisoned if he thought we were in love.”

      “We're not, any more!” cried John fiercely, “so he can set his mind at rest upon that. Moreover, don't fool yourself that I'm going to stay around here. Inside of six hours I'll be over those mountains, if I have to gnaw a passage through them, and on my way East.” They had both got to their feet, and at this remark Kismine came close and put her arm through his.

      “I'm going, too.”

      “You must be crazy-”

      “Of course I'm going,” she interrupted impatiently.

      “You most certainly are not. You-”

      “Very well,” she said quietly, “we'll catch up with father and talk it over with him.”

      Defeated, John mustered a sickly smile.

      “Very well, dearest,” he agreed, with pale and unconvincing affection, “we'll go together.”

      His love for her returned and settled placidly on his heart. She was his-she would go with him to share his dangers. He put his arms about her and kissed her fervently. After all she loved him; she had saved him, in fact.

      Discussing the matter, they walked slowly back toward the château. They decided that since Braddock Washington had seen them together they had best depart the next night. Nevertheless, John's lips were unusually dry at dinner, and he nervously emptied a great spoonful of peacock soup into his left lung. He had to be carried into the turquoise and sable card-room and pounded on the back by one of the under-butlers, which Percy considered a great joke.

      IX

      Long after midnight John's body gave a nervous jerk, and he sat suddenly upright, staring into the veils of somnolence that draped the room. Through the squares of blue darkness that were his open windows, he had heard a faint far-away sound that died upon a bed of wind before identifying itself on his memory, clouded with uneasy dreams. But the sharp noise that had succeeded it was nearer, was just outside the room-the click of a turned knob, a footstep, a whisper, he could not tell; a hard lump gathered in the pit of his stomach, and his whole body ached in the moment that he strained agonisingly to hear. Then one of the veils seemed to dissolve, and he saw a vague figure standing by the door, a figure only faintly limned and blocked in upon the darkness, mingled so with the folds of the drapery as to seem distorted, like a reflection seen in a dirty СКАЧАТЬ