"T. H. White - The Once and Future King" - читать интересную книгу автора (White T.H)

in the last resource, when you consider that everybody has gone away to France, and that I am the ruler
of the kingdom. Of course, you could go to France... if you could get there."
She understood, or began to understand,
"I don't know what you mean."
"Then you must think it out."
"If you will excuse me," she said, rising, "I will call my woman."
"Call her by all means. Though I should have to send her away."
"Agnes will take her orders from me."
"I doubt it. Let us try."
"Mordred, will you leave me?"
"No, Jenny," he said. "I want to stay. But, if you will sit down quietly for a minute, and listen, I promise
to behave like a perfect gentlemanтАФlike one of your preux chevaliers, in fact."
"You leave no option."
"Very little."
"What do you want?" she asked. She sat down, folding her hands in her lap. She was accustomed to a
life of danger.
"Come now," he said, in high good humour, quite mad, enjoying his cat-and-mouse. "We must not rush
it in this bald way. We must be at ease before we begin our conversation, otherwise it will seem so
strained."
"I am listening."
"No, no. You must call me Mordy, or some such pet name. Then it will seem more natural when I call

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you Jenny. Everything will go forward so much more pleasantly."
She would not answer.
"Guenever, have you any idea of your position?"
"My position Is that of the Queen of England, as yours is that of the Protector."
"While Arthur and Lancelot are fighting each other in France."
"That is so."
"Suppose I were to tell you," he asked, stroking the pug, "that I had a letter this morning? That Arthur
and Lancelot are dead?"
"I should not believe you."
"They killed each other in battle."
"It is not true," she told him quietly.
"As a matter of fact, it isn't. How did you guess?"
"If it was not true, it was cruel to say so. Why did you say it?"
"A great many people would have believed it, Jenny. I expect a great many will."
"Why should they?" she asked, before she had caught his drift. Then she stopped, catching her breath.
For the first time, she began to feel afraid; but it was for Arthur.
"You can't mean..."
"Oh, but I can," he exclaimed gaily, "and I do. What do you think would happen if I were to announce
poor Arthur's death?"
"But, Mordred, you couldn't do such a thing! They are alive.. You owe everything... The King made you
his deputy,.. Your fealty... It would not be true! Arthur has always treated you with such scrupulous
justice...."
He said with cold eyes: "I have never asked to be treated with justice. It is something which he does to
people, to amuse himself."