"Robert Charles Wilson - Julian- A Christmas Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robert Charles)

"What I propose is that I take on Adam as a second student, full-time, and to the ultimate benefit of
both boys."

Sam was usually a man of few wordsтАФeven as a teacherтАФand he seemed as exhausted by this
oration as if he had lifted some great weight.

"As a student, but a student of what, Mr. Godwin?"

"Mechanics. History. Grammar and composition. Martial skillsтАФ"

"Adam already knows how to fire a rifle."

"Pistolwork, sabrework, fist-fightingтАФbut that's only a fraction of it," Sam added hastily. "Julian's
father asked me to cultivate the boy's mind as well as his reflexes."

My mother had more to say on the subject, chiefly about how my work at the stables helped offset
the family's leases, and how difficult it would be to do without those extra vouchers at the Estate store.
But Sam had anticipated the point. He had been entrusted by Julian's motherтАФthat is to say, the
sister-in-law of the PresidentтАФwith a discretionary fund for Julian's education, which could be tapped to
compensate for my absence from the stables. And at a handsome rate. He quoted a number, and the
objections from my parents grew considerably less strenuous, and were finally whittled away to nothing.
(I observed all this from a room away, through a gap in the door.)

Which is not to say no misgivings remained. Before I set off for the Estate the next day, this time to
visit one of the Great Houses rather than the stables, my mother warned me not to tangle myself too
tightly with the affairs of the high-born. I promised her I would cling to my Christian virtues. (A hasty
promise, less easily kept than I imagined.[4])

"It may not be your morals that are at risk," she said. "The high-born conduct themselves by different
standards than we use, Adam. The games they play have mortal stakes. You do know that Julian's father
was hung?"

Julian never spoke of it, but it was a matter of public record. I repeated Sam's assertion that Bryce
Comstock had been innocent.

"He may well have been. That's the point. There has been a Comstock in the Presidency for the past
thirty years, and the current Comstock is said to be jealous of his power. The only real threat to the reign
of Julian's uncle was the ascendancy of his brother, who made himself dangerously popular in the war
with the Brazilians. I suspect Mr. Godwin is correct, that Bryce Comstock was hanged not because he
was a bad General but because he was a successful one."

No doubt such scandals were possibleтАФI had heard stories about life in New York City, where the
President resided, that would curl a Cynic's hair. But what could these things possibly have to do with
me? Or even Julian? We were only boys.

Such was my naivet├й.


4
The days had grown short, and Thanksgiving had come and gone, and so had November, and snow