"OF HUMAN BONDAGE" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maugham W. Somerset)

dining-room. He paused. He knew that Miss Watkin and her sister
were talking to friends, and it seemed to him--he was nine years
old--that if he went in they would be sorry for him.

"I think I'll go and say good-bye to Miss Watkin."

"I think you'd better," said Emma.

"Go in and tell them I'm coming," he said.

He wished to make the most of his opportunity. Emma knocked at
the door and walked in. He heard her speak.

"Master Philip wants to say good-bye to you, miss."

There was a sudden hush of the conversation, and Philip limped
in. Henrietta Watkin was a stout woman, with a red face and dyed
hair. In those days to dye the hair excited comment, and Philip
had heard much gossip at home when his godmother's changed
colour. She lived with an elder sister, who had resigned herself
contentedly to old age. Two ladies, whom Philip did not know,
were calling, and they looked at him curiously.

"My poor child," said Miss Watkin, opening her arms.

She began to cry. Philip understood now why she had not been in
to luncheon and why she wore a black dress. She could not speak.

"I've got to go home," said Philip, at last.

He disengaged himself from Miss Watkin's arms, and she kissed
him again. Then he went to her sister and bade her good-bye too.
One of the strange ladies asked if she might kiss him, and he
gravely gave her permission. Though crying, he keenly enjoyed
the sensation he was causing; he would have been glad to stay a
little longer to be made much of, but felt they expected him to
go, so he said that Emma was waiting for him. He went out of the
room. Emma had gone downstairs to speak with a friend in the
basement, and he waited for her on the landing. He heard
Henrietta Watkin's voice.

"His mother was my greatest friend. I can't bear to think that
she's dead."

"You oughtn't to have gone to the funeral, Henrietta," said her
sister. "I knew it would upset you."

Then one of the strangers spoke.

"Poor little boy, it's dreadful to think of him quite alone in