"Stoker, Bram - The Lady Of The Shroud" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

"The assistance I want," said Rupert, getting redder than ever, "is
from my--the trustee also. To carry out what I want to do."

"And what may that be?" asked my father. "I would like, sir, to make
over to my Aunt Janet--" My father interrupted him by asking--he had
evidently remembered my jest:

"Miss MacSkelpie?" Rupert got still redder, and I turned away; I
didn't quite wish that he should see me laughing. He went on
quietly:

"MACKELPIE, sir! Miss Janet MacKelpie, my aunt, who has always been
so kind to me, and whom my mother loved--I want to have made over to
her the money which my dear mother left to me." Father doubtless
wished to have the matter take a less serious turn, for Rupert's eyes
were all shiny with tears which had not fallen; so after a little
pause he said, with indignation, which I knew was simulated:

"Have you forgotten your mother so soon, Rupert, that you wish to
give away the very last gift which she bestowed on you?" Rupert was
sitting, but he jumped up and stood opposite my father with his fist
clenched. He was quite pale now, and his eyes looked so fierce that
I thought he would do my father an injury. He spoke in a voice which
did not seem like his own, it was so strong and deep.

"Sir!" he roared out. I suppose, if I was a writer, which, thank
God, I am not--I have no need to follow a menial occupation--I would
call it "thundered." "Thundered" is a longer word than "roared," and
would, of course, help to gain the penny which a writer gets for a
line. Father got pale too, and stood quite still. Rupert looked at
him steadily for quite half a minute--it seemed longer at the time--
and suddenly smiled and said, as he sat down again:

"Sorry. But, of course, you don't understand such things." Then he
went on talking before father had time to say a word.

"Let us get back to business. As you do not seem to follow me, let
me explain that it is BECAUSE I do not forget that I wish to do this.
I remember my dear mother's wish to make Aunt Janet happy, and would
like to do as she did."

"AUNT Janet?" said father, very properly sneering at his ignorance.
"She is not your aunt. Why, even her sister, who was married to your
uncle, was only your aunt by courtesy." I could not help feeling
that Rupert meant to be rude to my father, though his words were
quite polite. If I had been as much bigger than him as he was than
me, I should have flown at him; but he was a very big boy for his
age. I am myself rather thin. Mother says thinness is an "appanage
of birth."