"Esther M. Friesner - A Beltaine And Suspenders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

conducive to anoveraged school girl's merry holiday, I still know exactly where

we are and am fully capable of bringing us to where we are going."
"Know all the ins and outs don't you?" Olivia sniped. "Very well, then; lead

on."



So he did. It was not a friendly road. The comfort of treading level beaten

earth vanished into the eruption of a multitude of rocky blemishes underfoot, a

road that simultaneously turned stony and steep without suitable geological

preamble or excuse. Olivia marched on, trading her smaller bags for poor

Telemachus' bulkier load out of simple Christian charity. The fog remained

impenetrable to the eye, though all around her she believed she scented the

unmistakable exhalation of dead leaves, rotting acorns, moldering bark and

sprouting fungi.



"It smells like we're in a forest," she announced with some amazement.



"Do you see any forest, Miss Drummond?" the vicar inquired, an edge to his

words.



"In this fog? I couldn't see my own face if I held up a mirror at arm's length."



"'His mercyendureth forever,'" Father Herrick intoned, using Scripture much as

other men might use a small bludgeon. "Perhaps when the fog lifts, you shall see

that all of your doubts concerning themonticuline and sylvan situation of

Greater AmbroseSurlesard were as foolish and meatless as . . ." He allowed his