"John Kessel - Buffalo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kessel John)

sympathy for him. It occurs to him, to his own astonishment,
that he might be able to make _W_e_l_l_s feel better. "So--what
do you think of our country?" he asks.

"Good things seem to be happening here. I'm impressed
with your President Roosevelt."

"Roosevelt's the best friend the working man ever had."
Kessel pronounces the name "Roozvelt." "He's a man that--"
he struggles for the words, "--that's not for the past. He's
for the future."

It begins to dawn on Wells that Kessel is not an example
of a class, or a sociological study, but a man like himself
with an intellect, opinions, dreams. He thinks of his own
youth, struggling to rise in a classbound society. He leans
forward across the table. "You believe in the future? You
think things can be different?"

"I think they have to be, Mr. Wells."

Wells sits back. "Good. So do I."

Kessel is stunned by this intimacy. It is more than he
had hoped for yet it leaves him with little to say. He
wants to tell Wells about his dreams, and at the same time
 ask him a thousand questions. He wants to tell Wells
everything he has seen in the world, and to hear Wells tell
him the same. He casts about for something to say.

"I always liked your writing. I like to read
scientifiction."

"Scientifiction?"

Kessel shifts his long legs. "You know--stories about
the future. Monsters from outer space. The Martians. The
Time Machine. You're the best scientifiction writer I ever
read, next to Edgar Rice Burroughs." Kessel pronounces
"Edgar," "Eedgar."

"Edgar Rice Burroughs?"

"Yes."

"You _ l_ i_ k_ e Burroughs?"

Kessel hears the disapproval in Wells's voice.
"Well--maybe not as much as, as _ T_ h_ e _ T_ i_ m_ e
_ M_ a_ c_ h_ i_ n_ e," he