"Hemingway, Ernest - Green Hills of Africa" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hemingway Ernest)

'Politics, women, drink, money, ambition. And the lack of politics,
women, drink, money and ambition,' I said profoundly.
'He's getting much too easy now,' Pop said.
'But drink. I do not understand about that. That has always seemed
silly to me. I understand it as a weakness.'
'It is a way of ending a day. It has great benefits. Don't you ever
want to change your ideas?'
'Let's have one,' Pop said. 'M'Wendi!'
Pop never drank before lunch except as a mistake and I knew he was
trying to help me out.
'Let's all have a gimlet,' I said.
'I never drink,' Kandisky said. 'I will go to the lorry and fetch some
fresh butter for lunch. It is fresh from Kandoa, unsalted. Very good.
To-night we will have a special dish of Viennese dessert. My cook has
learned to make it very well.'
He went off and my wife said: 'You were getting awfully profound. What
was that about all these women?'
'What women?'
'When you were talking about women.'
'The hell with them,' I said. 'Those are the ones you get involved with
when you're drunk.'
'So that's what you do.'
'No.'
'I don't get involved with people when I'm drunk.'
'Come, come,' said Pop. 'We're none of us ever drunk. My God, that man
can talk.'
'He didn't have a chance to talk after B'wana M'Kumba started.'
'I did have verbal dysentery,' I said.
'What about his lorry? Can we tow it in without ruining ours?'
'I think so,' Pop said. 'When ours comes back from Handeni.'
At lunch under the green fly of the dining-tent, in the shade of a big
tree, the wind blowing, the fresh butter much admired, Grant's gazelle
chops, mashed potatoes, green corn, and then mixed fruit for dessert,
Kandisky told us why the East Indians were taking the country over.
'You see, during the war they sent the Indian troops to fight here. To
keep them out of India because they feared another mutiny. They promised the
Aga Khan that because they fought in Africa, Indians could come freely to
settle and for business afterwards. They cannot break that promise and now
the Indians have taken the country over from the Europeans. They live on
nothing and they send all the money back to India. When they have made
enough to go home they leave, bringing out their poor relations to take over
from them and continue to exploit the country.'
Pop said nothing. He would not argue with a guest at table.
'It is the Aga Khan,' Kandisky said. 'You are an American. You know
nothing of these combinations.'
'Were you with Von Lettow?' Pop asked him. 'From the start,' Kandisky
said. 'Until the end.'
'He was a great fighter,' Pop said. 'I have great admiration for him.'
'You fought?' Kandisky asked.
'Yes.'