"Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

self-respect. She was right to be worried."
In the shop Mrs. Cesari seized the rack from them in both massive arms, yelling instructions, and a line
of people rushed away past Martha to fetch more. Sophie yelled goodbye and slipped away in the
bustle. It did not seem right to take up more of Martha's time. Besides, she wanted to be alone to think.
She ran home. There were fireworks now, going up from the field by the river where the Fair was,
competing with the blue bangs from Howl's castle. Sophie felt more like an invalid than ever.
She thought and thought, and most of the following week, and all that happened was that she became
confused and discontented. Things just did not seem to be the way she thought they were. She was
amazed at Lettie and Martha. She had misunderstood them for years. But she could not believe Fanny
was the kind of woman Martha said.
There was a lot of time for thinking, because Bessie duly left to be married and Sophie was mostly
alone in the shop. Fanny did seem to be out a lot, gadding or not, and trade was slack after May Day.
After three days Sophie plucked up enough courage to ask Fanny, "Shouldn't I be earning a wage?"
"Of course, my love, with all you do!" Fanny answered warmly, fixing on a rose-trimmed hat in front of
the shop mirror. "We'll see about it as soon as I've done the accounts this evening." Then she went out
and did not come back until Sophie had shut the shop and taken that day's hats through to the house to
trim.
Sophie at first felt mean to have listened to Martha, but when Fanny did not mention a wage, either that
evening or any time later that week, Sophie began to think that Martha had been right.
"Maybe I am being exploited," she told a hat she was trimming with red silk and a bunch of wax
cherries, "but someone has to do this or there will be no hats at all to sell." She finished that hat and
started on a stark black-and-white one, very modish, and a quite new thought came to her. "Does it
matter if there are no hats to sell?" she asked it. She looked round at the assembled hats, on stands or
waiting in a heap to be trimmed. "What good are you all?" she asked them. "You certainly aren't doing
me a scrap of good."
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Jones, Diana Wynne - Howl's Moving Castle.txt
And she was within an ace of leaving the house and settling out to seek her fortune, until she
remembered she was the eldest and there was no point. She took up the hat again, sighing.
She was still discontented, alone in the shop next morning, when a very plain young woman customer
stormed in, whirling a pleated mushroom bonnet by its ribbons. "Look at this!" the young lady shrieked.
"You told me this was the same as the bonnet Jane Farrier was wearing when she met the Count. And
you lied. Nothing has happened to me at all!"
"I'm not surprised," Sophie said, before she had caught up with herself. "If you're fool enough to wear
that bonnet with a face like that, you wouldn't have the wit to spot the King himself if he came a
begging- if he hadn't turned to stone first just at the sight of you."
The customer glared. Then she threw the bonnet at Sophie and stormed out of the shop. Sophie
carefully crammed the bonnet into the wastebasket, panting rather. The rule was : Lose your temper,
lose a customer. She had just proven that rule. It troubled her to realize how very enjoyable it had been.
Sophie had no time to recover. There was the sound of wheels and horse hoofs and a carriage darkened
the window. The shop bell clanged and the grandest customer she had ever seen sailed in, with a sable
wrap drooping from her elbows and diamonds winking all over her dense black dress. Sophie's eyes
went to the lady's wide hat first- real ostrich plume dyed to reflect the pinks and greens and blues
winking in the diamonds and yet still look black. This was a wealthy hat. The lady's face was carefully
beautiful. The chestnut brown hair made her seem young, but...Sophie's eyes took in the young man
who followed the lady in, a slightly formless-faced person with reddish hair, quite well dressed, but
pale and obviously upset. He stared at Sophie with a kind of beseeching horror. He was clearly younger
than the lady. Sophie was puzzled.
"Miss Hatter?" the lady asked in a musical but commanding voice.
"Yes," said Sophie. The man looked more upset than ever. Perhaps the lady was his mother.