"Bram Stoker - Dracula" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

varied kind, history, geography, politics, political economy, botany, geology,
law, all relating to England and English life and customs and manners.
There were even such books of reference as the London Directory, the "Red"
and "Blue" books, Whitaker's Almanac, the Army and Navy Lists, and it somehow
gladdened my heart to see it, the Law List.

Whilst I was looking at the books, the door opened, and the Count entered.
He saluted me in a hearty way, and hoped that I had had a good night's rest.
Then he went on.

"I am glad you found your way in here, for I am sure there
is much that will interest you. These companions," and he laid
his hand on some of the books, "have been good friends to me,
and for some years past, ever since I had the idea of going to London,
have given me many, many hours of pleasure. Through them I have
come to know your great England, and to know her is to love her.
I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London,
to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share
its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.
But alas! As yet I only know your tongue through books.
To you, my friend, I look that I know it to speak."

"But, Count," I said, "You know and speak English thoroughly!"
He bowed gravely.

"I thank you, my friend, for your all too-flattering estimate,
but yet I fear that I am but a little way on the road I would travel.
True, I know the grammar and the words, but yet I know not how
to speak them.

"Indeed," I said, "You speak excellently."

"Not so," he answered. "Well, I know that, did I move and
speak in your London, none there are who would not know me
for a stranger. That is not enough for me. Here I am noble.
I am a Boyar. The common people know me, and I am master.
But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one. Men know him not,
and to know not is to care not for. I am content if I am
like the rest, so that no man stops if he sees me, or pauses
in his speaking if he hears my words, `Ha, ha! A stranger!'
I have been so long master that I would be master still,
or at least that none other should be master of me.
You come to me not alone as agent of my friend Peter Hawkins,
of Exeter, to tell me all about my new estate in London.
You shall, I trust, rest here with me a while, so that by our
talking I may learn the English intonation. And I would that you
tell me when I make error, even of the smallest, in my speaking.
I am sorry that I had to be away so long today, but you will,
I know forgive one who has so many important affairs in hand."