"Dunsany, Lord - Fifty-one Tales" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

known her when she was in her prime.
"You never knew the mermaids nor the fairies nor the
lovely goddesses of long ago, that's where we have the best
of you."
He was silent when the waiters came to his table, but
rambled merrily on as soon as they left, still turned to the
empty chair.
"You know I saw you here in London only the other day.
You were on a motor bus going down Ludgate Hill. It was
going much too fast. London is a good place. But I shall
be glad enough to leave it. It was in London that I met the
lady I that was speaking about. If it hadn't been for
London I probably shouldn't have met her, and if it hadn't
been for London she probably wouldn't have had so much
besides me to amuse her. It cuts both ways."
He paused once to order coffee, gazing earnestly at the
waiter and putting a sovereign in his hand. "Don't let it
be chicory," said he.
The waiter brought the coffee, and the young man dropped
a tabloid of some sort into his cup.
"I don't suppose you come here very often," he went on.
"Well, you probably want to be going. I haven't taken you
much out of your way, there is plenty for you to do in
London."
Then having drunk his coffee he fell on the floor by a
foot of the empty chair, and a doctor who was dining in the
room bent over him and announced to the anxious manager the
visible presence of the young man's guest.













Death and Odysseus




In the Olympian courts Love laughed at Death, because he was
unsightly, and because She couldn't help it, and because he
never did anything worth doing, and because She would.
And Death hated being laughed at, and used to brood apart