"Long, John Luther - Purple-Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Long John Luther)

But there was something elseЧjust the timid lifting of an eyelid. Garland
answered this with a rift of pleasure which shot across his face.
"Me? I lig also if you stay among usЧI."
But now it was spoken to the mats. There was the edge of a smile visible,
nevertheless, and Garland felt the courage it took for this.
"Well, if you like," said GarlandЧhe laughed suddenlyЧ"I like too."
"Thangs!"
They both said it at once; but some splendid reward passed from Purple-Eyes to
Garland.
So presently they had a feast, in which four little tables stood in a circleЧone
for each. There would have been only three had not Garland insisted that the
mother should dine with them. He had not the least idea how fearfully he had
disarranged domestic matters, for the mother, of course, instantly did as he
requested. And then the three of them served him, and cunningly joined in
engaging him while one or the other prepared the viands. But finally it was a
very joyous meal; and only when the Osaka beer came on did Garland at all
suspect how much out of the ordinary it was for them. They had forgotten to be
taught how to open the bottles!
IIЧTHE SHADOW OF THE SHOJI
And he went to sleep that night, when sleep came, on a floor that was as dainty
as any bed, in a huge wadded overcoat called a futon, on a wooden pillow that
rocked and screeched a little (as if afraid to screech more) when he turned. An
andon burned dimly behind a screen, and he was aware of the slumberous aroma
Japonica, as he characterized it. But he could not sleepЧof course not. For,
less than six feet away, behind the translucent walls of paper, he could hear
the melodious dithyrambics of the three voices. He could catch a sleepy word now
and then, which he knew came from the blue-eyed one. They were much fewer than
those of the other two. Some vague picture of those eyes, patiently sad, as he
had conceived them, kept itself between him and sleep, until finally it was
sudden morning, and the splendid light of Japan, subdued by the shoji, was
shining in his face.
He lay indolently awake for a long time, Presently a noise not much greater than
the alighting of a fly upon a stretched screen drew his attention. He perceived
a dampened finger slowly working against the other side of the shoji, until
presently the paper parted, and the finger came through. It was very pink at the
tip. Slowly it reamed the hole larger, then disappeared, to be replaced by an
eye. And the eye was blue. Garland nearly laughed aloud, until he remembered
that he was the objective of the eye. Then unconsciously he arranged his hair a
little, and began to pose. But the humor of it came down upon him again, and he
laughed. The eyes instantly disappeared, and he could see the shadow of its
owner gliding away. In a panic of regret, Garland called out:
"Don't go, Purple-Eyes!"
The shadow hesitated, and then returned.
"How you know tha' 's Purple-Eyes?"
"By her own confessionЧnow."
Her pretty laugh sifted through the shoji.
"You want me come unto you?" asked the voice beyond. "Tha' 's what I dunno."
Garland was (in his own phrase again) quite paralyzed. He might have thought,
but he did not, that she was only tendering the offices of the servant they did
not have; but he called out, with a mixture of bravado and trembling which