"Avram Davidson - Blunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davidson Avram)

be? Growing more and more dubious, she noted that Ribacheck had once been
operated on for a varicocele. Later on she looked up the word in the little
Gould's medical dictionary in the office. She blushed, even though the
definition was far from explicit enough. Would a varicocele....? Or wouldn't
it....? There was, of course, no one she could ask. After that Ribacheck smiled
in vain.

And then, one day, Blunt came into the office. Wilma didn't realize it, because
she had taken off her glasses to clean them; but she was looking up when he came
in, and smiling in his direction. She really had lovely gray eyes. After that
Blunt came in the office rather often. He was exceedingly shy with women, and
found it difficult to talk small talk with them until he knew them well, but
Wilma was a bit shy herself.

Blunt, in short, began to court her. Before long, they had an understanding.
Mrs. Swanson said that he was really a very lovely person. So quiet, she said.
And really, an astonishing knowledge of medicine. After all, a First Class
Pharmacist's Mate was almost the same as a civilian doctor, wouldn't you say?
Mr. Swanson said that he was one of your steady young fellows. Seemed to know
quite a bit about your lumber, too, Mr. Swanson said. Everything was going so
smoothly that Blunt overcame his uncertainty as to the propriety of the
invitation, and asked Wilma, while they were walking one afternoon near the
bungalow he rented in Cataline, if she would care to just look the place over.
She said she would.

"I hired the place already furnished," Huey said, leading the way. "Some of the
things are real pretty," he said, waving his arm at large. Wilma looked at the
pink cloth lampshades with beaded fringes, the heavy red portieres hanging from
wooden rings.

"Mmm-hmm," she murmured.

"But this house, like every house, it needs a Woman's Touch," he said. Wilma's
heavy cheeks turned a deeper pink.

"Oh, a house does, it does!" she said fervently.

Huey stopped in from of a closed door. He stood with the key in his hand and
half turned to face her.

"Now I'm going to show you something that I haven't ever showed another person
here before. You're the very first, Wilma." Her face burned. She looked at the
faded and threadbare .carpet. She heard the key in the lock and the click of the
light switch, and followed his feet inside. She had to take off her glasses and
wipe her eyes.

"...and a woman who has, besides, a Scientific Background..."
Putting back her glasses, she saw opposite her a shelf with a row of little
bottles, each one containing something like a dried mushroom, only not quite
.... With a slight frown of puzzlement she read the neatly typed labels.