"Pat Murphy - Menagerie" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Pat)

$elina and William returned. The young lady was laughing at something William
had said, but her laughter lacked the ease of companionable amusement. Lady
Dustan detected an edge of strain, a hint of something amiss.

"Miss Selina!" Lady Dustan called. "Where have you and Nit. Gordon been
wandering?"

"Only as far as the aviary," William said. "It is a beautiful night for a
stroll."

"Whatever have you been telling Miss Selina to amuse her so?" Lady Dustan asked.
She regarded the young woman with interest. Selina's face was flushed; her eyes
unnaturally bright.

"Foolish stories," Selina said. "That is all."

"I was describing a legend I heard among the African savages," William said.
"When the moon is full, they say that some men .turn into hyenas and run wild on
the savannah." He smiled, showing his teeth entirely too freely, Lady Dustan
thought. "The moon is almost full and the story came to mind when I heard the
hyenas laughing in the distance."

"My dear child," said Lady Dustan. She took Selina's hand and pressed it in her
own. "I'm sure no civilized people could ever believe in such a thing."

"On the contrary, Lady Dustan, many people have believed in stories that are
equally fabulous," George Paxton said. Though he spoke to the assembled company,
his eyes were on William and Selina. "Tales of men who become beasts go back to
antiquity. In ancient Rome, learned men wrote of the tumskin, versipellis, a man
who turned into a wolf. The French tell of the same creature, calling him loup
garou."

William laughed. "Do you suppose the Zoological Society will have a loup garou
in your collection, George? Would they welcome such a creature?"

George nodded, but his smile was strained. "If you would only bring us one, I
would ensure that the creature found a home there."

Lady Dustan felt Selina's hand tighten on hers and patted the young woman's
shoulder companionably. "Enough ot these foolish tales. Play another song, Mary,
and let us leave these men to talk of their unlikely adventures together."

Dutifully, Mary began to play.

The next morning, George Paxton woke just after dawn when a peacock screamed
under his window. He lay in bed for a moment, trying to recapture his dream.
Selina had been in distress and he had been running to save her, confident that
he would win her gratitude.

George was, as Lady Dustan had observed to Sir Radford, an amiable, open-hearted