"Theodore Sturgeon - Slow Sculpture" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

and there, or because they have grown too slowly in
whole or part. These are the ones which develop inter-
esting trunks and a resistance to misfortune that makes
them flourish if given the least excuse for living. This one
was far older than half this man's life, or all of it. Looking
at it. She was terrified by the unbidden thought that a
fire, a family of squirrels, some subterranean worm or
termite could end this beauty--something working out-
side any concept of rightness or justice or of respect.
She looked at the tree. She looked at the man.
"Coming?"
"Yes," she said and went with him into his laboratory.
"Sit down over there and relax," he told her. "This might
take a little while."
"Over there" was a big leather chair by the bookcase.
The books were right across the spectrum--reference
works in medicine and engineering, nuclear physics,
chemistry, biology, psychiatry. Also tennis, gymnastics,
chess, the oriental war game Go, and golf. And then
drama, the techniques of fiction. Modern English Usage,
The American Language and supplement. Wood's and
Walker's Rhyming Dictionaries and an array of other
dictionaries and encyclopedias. A whole long shelf of
biographies.
"You have quite a library."
He answered her rather shortly--clearly he did not
want to talk just now, for he was very busy.
He said only, "Yes I have--perhaps you'll see it some
time" which left her to pick away at his words to find
out what on earth he meant by them.
He could only have meant, she decided, that the books
beside her chair were what he kept handy for his work
that his real library was elsewhere. She looked at him
with a certain awe.
And she watched him. She liked the way he moved
swiftly, decisively. Clearly he knew what he was doing.
He used some equipment that she recognized a glass
still, titration equipment, a centrifuge. There were two
refrigerators, one of which was not a refrigerator at all,
for she could see the large indicator on the door. It stood
at 70 F. It came to her that a modern refrigerator is
perfectly adaptable to the demand for controlled environ-
ment, even a warm one.
But all that and the equipment she did not recognize



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