"Atlas Shrugged v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rand Ayn)

"Other people are human. They're sensitive. They can't devote their whole life to metals and engines. You're lucky-you've never had any feelings. You've never felt anything at all."
As she looked at him, her dark gray eyes went slowly from astonishment to stillness, then to a strange expression that resembled a look of weariness, except that it seemed to reflect much more than the endurance of this one moment.
"No, Jim," she said quietly, "I guess I've never felt anything at all." Eddie Willers followed her to her office. Whenever she returned, he felt as if the world became clear, simple, easy to face-and he forgot his moments of shapeless apprehension. He was the only person who found it completely natural that she should be the Operating Vice-President of a great railroad, even though she was a woman. She had told him, when he was ten years old, that she would run the railroad some day. It did not astonish him now, just as it had not astonished him that day in a clearing of the woods.
When they entered her office, when he saw her sit down at the desk and glance at the memos he had left for her-he felt as he did in his car when the motor caught on and the wheels could move forward.
He was about to leave her office, when he remembered a matter he had not reported. "Owen Kellogg of the Terminal Division has asked me for an appointment to see you," he said.
She looked up, astonished. "That's funny. I was going to send for him. Have him come up. I want to see him. . . . Eddie," she added suddenly, "before I start, tell them to get me Ayers of the Ayers Music Publishing Company on the phone."
"The Music Publishing Company?" he repeated incredulously.
"Yes. There's something I want to ask him."
When the voice of Mr. Ayers, courteously eager, inquired of what service he could be to her, she asked, "Can you tell me whether Richard Halley has written a new piano concerto, the Fifth?"
"A fifth concerto, Miss Taggart? Why, no, of course he hasn't."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite sure, Miss Taggart. He has not written anything for eight years."
"Is he still alive?"
"Why, yes-that is, I can't say for certain, he has dropped out of public life entirely-but I'm sure we would have heard of it if he had died."
"If he wrote anything, would you know about it?"
"Of course. We would be the first to know. We publish all of his work. But he has stopped writing."
"I see. Thank you."
When Owen Kellogg entered her office, she looked at him with satisfaction. She was glad to see that she had been right in her vague recollection of his appearance-his face had the same quality as that of the young brakeman on the train, the face of the kind of man with whom she could deal.
"Sit down, Mr. Kellogg," she said, but he remained standing in front of her desk.
"You had asked me once to let you know if I ever decided to change my employment, Miss Taggart," he said. "So I came to tell you that I am quitting."
She had expected anything but that; it took her a moment before she asked quietly, "Why?"
"For a personal reason."
"Were you dissatisfied here?"
"No."
"Have you received a better offer?"
"No."
"What railroad are you going to?"
"I'm not going to any railroad, Miss Taggart."
"Then what job are you taking?"
"I have not decided that yet."
She studied him, feeling slightly uneasy. There was no hostility in his face; he looked straight at her, he answered simply, directly; he spoke like one who has nothing to hide, or to show; the face was polite and empty.
"Then why should you wish to quit?"
"It's a personal matter."
"Are you ill? Is it a question of your health?"
"No."
"Are you leaving the city?"
"No."
"Have you inherited money that permits you to retire?"
"No."
"Do you intend to continue working for a living?"
"Yes."
"But you do not wish to work for Taggart Transcontinental?"
"No."
"In that case, something must have happened here to cause your decision. What?"
"Nothing, Miss Taggart."
"I wish you'd tell me. I have a reason for wanting to know."
"Would you take my word for it, Miss Taggart?"
"Yes."
"No person, matter or event connected with my job here had any bearing upon my decision."
"You have no specific complaint against Taggart Transcontinental?"