"The Oblong Box" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

1850
THE OBLONG BOX
by Edgar Allan Poe

SOME YEARS ago, I engaged passage from Charleston, S. C, to the city
of New York, in the fine packet-ship "Independence," Captain Hardy. We
were to sail on the fifteenth of the month (June), weather permitting;
and on the fourteenth, I went on board to arrange some matters in my
state-room.
I found that we were to have a great many passengers, including a
more than usual number of ladies. On the list were several of my
acquaintances, and among other names, I was rejoiced to see that of
Mr. Cornelius Wyatt, a young artist, for whom I entertained feelings
of warm friendship. He had been with me a fellow-student at C-
University, where we were very much together. He had the ordinary
temperament of genius, and was a compound of misanthropy, sensibility,
and enthusiasm. To these qualities he united the warmest and truest
heart which ever beat in a human bosom.
I observed that his name was carded upon three state-rooms; and,
upon again referring to the list of passengers, I found that he had
engaged passage for himself, wife, and two sisters- his own. The
state-rooms were sufficiently roomy, and each had two berths, one
above the other. These berths, to be sure, were so exceedingly
narrow as to be insufficient for more than one person; still, I
could not comprehend why there were three state-rooms for these four
persons. I was, just at that epoch, in one of those moody frames of
mind which make a man abnormally inquisitive about trifles: and I
confess, with shame, that I busied myself in a variety of ill-bred and
preposterous conjectures about this matter of the supernumerary
state-room. It was no business of mine, to be sure, but with none
the less pertinacity did I occupy myself in attempts to resolve the
enigma. At last I reached a conclusion which wrought in me great
wonder why I had not arrived at it before. "It is a servant of
course," I said; "what a fool I am, not sooner to have thought of so
obvious a solution!" And then I again repaired to the list- but here I
saw distinctly that no servant was to come with the party, although,
in fact, it had been the original design to bring one- for the words
"and servant" had been first written and then overscored. "Oh, extra
baggage, to be sure," I now said to myself- "something he wishes not
to be put in the hold- something to be kept under his own eye- ah, I
have it- a painting or so- and this is what he has been bargaining
about with Nicolino, the Italian Jew." This idea satisfied me, and I
dismissed my curiosity for the nonce.
Wyatt's two sisters I knew very well, and most amiable and clever
girls they were. His wife he had newly married, and I had never yet
seen her. He had often talked about her in my presence, however, and
in his usual style of enthusiasm. He described her as of surpassing
beauty, wit, and accomplishment. I was, therefore, quite anxious to
make her acquaintance.
On the day in which I visited the ship (the fourteenth), Wyatt and