"Tolstoy, Leo - Albert" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolstoy Leo)

his head he again sat down beside Delesov and muttered almost in a whisper:
"I can't go there. I can't play there -- I have nothing -- nothing! No
clothes, no home, no violin. It is a miserable life! A miserable life!" he
repeated several times. And why should I go there? What for? No need!" he
said, smiling. "Ah! Don Juan ... "

He struck his head with his hand.

"Then let us go there together sometime," said Delesov.

Without answering, Albert jumped up, seized the violin, and began playing
the finale of the first act of Don Juan, telling the story of the opera in
his own words.

Delesov felt the hair stir on his head as Albert played the voice of the
dying commandant.

"No!" said Albert, putting down the violin. "I cannot play today. I have
had too much to drink."

But after that he went up to the table, filled a tumbler with wine, drank
it at a gulp, and again sat down on Delesov's bed.

Delesov looked at Albert, not taking his eyes off him. Occasionally Albert
smiled, and so did Delesov. They were both silent; but their looks and
smiles created more and more affectionate relations between them. Delesov
felt himself growing fonder of the man, and experienced an incomprehensible
joy.

"Have you ever been in love?" he suddenly asked.

Albert thought for a few seconds, and then a sad smile lit up his face. He
leaned over to Delusive and looked attentively in his eyes.

"Why have you asked me that?" he whispered. "I will tell you everything,
because I like you," he continued, after looking at him for a while and
then glancing round. "I won't deceive you, but will tell you everything
from the beginning, just as it happened." He stopped, his eyes wild and
strangely fixed. "You know that my mind is weak," he suddenly said. "Yes,
yes," he went on. "Anna Ivanovna is sure to have told you. She tells
everybody that I am mad! That is not true; she says it as a joke, she is a
kindly woman, and I have really not been quite well for some time." He
stopped again and gazed with fixed wide-open eyes at the dark doorway. "You
asked whether I have been in love? ... Yes, I have been in love," he
whispered, lifting his brows. "It happened long ago, when I still had my
job in the theatre. I used to play second violin at the Opera, and she used
to have the lower-tier box next the stage, on the left."

He got up and leaned over to Delusive's ear.