"Robert Chalmers - Purple Emperor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalmers Robert)

Etext of "The Purple Emperor"
From the Mystery of Choice
By Robert W. Chambers
New York
D. Appleton and Company
1897

Un souvenir heureux est peut-Иtre, sur terre,
Plus vrai que le bonheur.
A. DE MUSSET.

I.

THE Purple Emperor watched me in silence. I cast again, spinning
out six feet more of waterproof silk, and, as the line hissed through
the air far across the pool, I saw my three flies fall on the water
like drifting thistledown. The Purple Emperor sneered.

"You see," he said, "I am right. There is not a trout in Brittany that
will rise to a tailed fly."

"They do in America," I replied.

"Zut! for America!" observed the Purple Emperor.

"And trout take a tailed fly in England," I insisted sharply.

"Now do I care what things or people do in England?" demanded
the Purple Emperor.

"You don't care for anything except yourself and your wriggling
caterpillars," I said, more annoyed than I had yet been.

The Purple Emperor sniffed. His broad, hairless, sunburnt features
bore that obstinate expression which always irritated me. Perhaps
the manner in which he wore his hat intensified the irritation, for
the flapping brim rested on both ears, and the two little velvet
ribbons which hung from the silver buckle in front wiggled and
fluttered with every trivial breeze. His cunning eyes and
sharp-pointed nose were out of all keeping with his fat red face.
When he met my eye, he chuckled.

"I know more about insects than any man in Morbihan--or
FinistКre either, for that matter," he said.

"The Red Admiral knows as much as you do," retorted.

"He doesn't," replied the Purple Emperor angrily.

"And his collection of butterflies is twice as large as yours," I