"Roads by Seabury Quinn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Quinn Seabury)

"I am very subtle in the dance, my lord. Moreover, I can
sing and play sweet music on the harp and flute and cymbals.
Also, I am skilled in cookery, and when thou hast grown tired
of me thou canst sell me for much gold -"
"Men of my race sell not their wives -"
"Wife? Saidst thou wife, my lord?" she breathed the
word incredulously.
"Am I a Greek or Arab to have slave girls travel in his
wake? Come, rouse thee up; we must to the palace where
quarters can be found for thee until I take thee to mine own."
Tears streamed down the girl's face, cutting little
channels in the rouge with which her cheeks were smeared,
but her smile looked through the tear drops as the sun in April
shines through showers of rain. "In very truth, He told my
future better than I knew!" she cried ecstatically, and to
Claus's utter consternation bent suddenly and pressed a
fervid kiss upon his buskin.
"What charlatan foretold thy future?" he demanded,
raising her and crooking an arm beneath her knees, for her

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broken foot was swelling fast, and walking was for her
impossible.
"The Master whom they crucified - may swine make
wallows of their mothers' graves! When I bowed me in the
dust and begged Him to have pity on me, He looked at me
and smiled, e'en though He trod the way to torture and to
death and was borne down with the weight of His gallows. He
told me, `Woman, thy desire shall be unto thee.' I thought He
meant that I was healed, but -" She flung both arms about
her bearer's neck and crushed his face against the
hemispheres of her small bosoms as she sighed rapturously.
"But what, wench?"
"I have seen thee from afar, my Claudius. Long have I
watched thee and had pleasure in thy manly beauty. At night I
used to dream that thou wouldst notice me, perchance come
unto me, or even buy me for thy slave; but that ever I should
bear the name of wife" - again her voice broke on a sigh, but
it was a sigh of pure happiness - "that I, Erinna the
hetaerae -"
"Thy Greek name likes me not," he interrupted.
"What's in a name, my lord? I'll bear whatever name
thou givest me, and be happy in it, since 'tis given me by
thee. By Aphrodite's brows, I'll come like any dog whene'er
thou callest me by such name as it may please thee to give
me -"
"Let be this talk of dogs and slaves," he broke in testily.