"Diana Wynne Jones - Castle In The Air (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

"Oh," she said. "Then that may make a difference. Does that mean you're
a different kind of woman from me?"

Abdullah stared at the girl of his dreams in some perplexity. "I'm not a
woman!" he said.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "You are wearing a dress."

Abdullah looked down and discovered that, in the way of dreams, he was
wearing his nightshirt. "This is just my strange foreign garb," he said
hastily. "My true country is far from here. I assure you that I am a man."

"Oh, no," she said decidedly. "You can't be a man. You're quite the
wrong shape. Men are twice as thick as you all over, and their stomachs
come out in a fat bit that's called a belly. And they have

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gray hair all over their faces and nothing but shiny skin on their
heads. You've got hair on your head like me and almost none on your
face." Then, as Abdullah put his hand rather indignantly to the six
hairs on his upper lip, she asked, "Or have you got bare skin under your
hat?"

"Certainly not," said Abdullah, who was proud of his thick, wavy hair.
He put his hand to his head and removed what turned out to be his
nightcap. "Look," he said.

"Ah," she said. Her lovely face was puzzled. "You have hair that's
almost as nice as mine. I don't understand."

"I'm not sure I do, either," said Abdullah. "Could it be that you have
not seen very many men?"

"Of course not," she said. "Don't be silly. I've only seen my father!
But I've seen quite a lot of him, so I do know."

"But don't you ever go out at all?" Abdullah asked helplessly.

She laughed. "Yes, I'm out now. This is my night garden. My father had
it made so that I wouldn't ruin my looks going out in the sun."

"I mean, out into the town, to see all the people," Abdullah explained.

"Well, no, not yet," she admitted. As if that bothered her a little, she
twirled away from him and went to sit on the edge of the fountain.
Turning to look up at him, she said, "My father tells me I might be able
to go out and see the town sometimes after I'm married-if my husband
allows me to-but it won't be this town. My father's arranging for me to
marry a prince from Ochinstan. Until then I have to stay inside these