"gp46w10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Parker Gilbert)

Cromwell and his Ironsides, Prince Rupert and the swarming rush of
cavalry, and the end of it all! Had it been a tale of his father's at
camp-fire? Had he read it somewhere? He felt his blood thump in his
veins. Another half-hour, wherein he was learning every minute, nothing
escaping him, everything interesting him; his grandfather and Mrs.
Gasgoyne especially, then the ladies retired slowly with their crippled
hostess, who gave Gaston, as she rose, a look almost painfully intense.
It haunted him.

Now Gaston had his chance. He had no fear of what he could do with men:
he had measured himself a few times with English gentlemen as he
travelled, and he knew where his power lay--not in making himself
agreeable, but in imposing his personality.

The guests were not soon to forget the talk of that hour. It played into
Gaston's hands. He pretended to nothing; he confessed ignorance here and
there with great simplicity; but he had the gift of reducing things, as
it were, to their original elements. He cut away to the core of a
matter, and having simple, fixed ideas, he was able to focus the talk,
which had begun with hunting stories, and ended with the morality of
duelling. Gaston's hunting stories had made them breathless, his views
upon duelling did not free their lungs.

There were sentimentalists present; others who, because it had become
etiquette not to cross swords, thought it indecent. Archdeacon Varcoe
would not be drawn into discussion, but sipped his wine, listened, and
watched Gaston.

The young man measured his grandfather's mind, and he drove home his
points mercilessly.

Captain Maudsley said something about "romantic murder."

"That's the trouble," Gaston said. "I don't know who killed duelling
in England, but behind it must have been a woman or a shopkeeper:
sentimentalism, timidity, dead romance. What is patriotism but romance?
Ideals is what they call it somewhere. I've lived in a land full of hard
work and dangers, but also full of romance. What is the result? Why, a
people off there whom you pity, and who don't need pity. Romance? See:
you only get square justice out of a wise autocrat, not out of your
'twelve true men'; and duelling is the last decent relic of autocracy.
Suppose the wronged man does get killed; that is all right: it wasn't
merely blood he was after, but the right to hit a man in the eye for a
wrong done. What is all this hullaballoo--about saving human life?
There's as much interest--and duty--in dying as living, if you go the
way your conscience tells you."

A couple of hours later, Gaston, after having seen to his horse, stood
alone in the drawing-room with his grandfather and grandmother. As yet
Lady Belward had spoken not half a dozen words to him. Sir William