"Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The Final Circle of Paradise (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

instruments and proceeded to palpate my cheeks.
"And still Mirosa married him," he said suddenly. "I
expected anything and everything, except that. After all that
Levant had done for her. Do you remember that moment when they
were both weeping over the dying Pina? You could have bet
anything that they would be together forever. And now, imagine,
she is being wed to that literary fellow."
I have a rule: to pick up and sustain any conversation
that comes along. When you don't know what it's all about, this
can even be interesting.
"Not for long," I said with assurance. "Literary types are
very inconstant, I can assure you, being one myself."
For a moment his hands paused on my temples.
"That didn't enter my head," he admitted. "Still, it's
wedlock, even though only a civil one.... I must remember to
call my wife. She was very upset."
"I can sympathize with her," I said. "But it did always
seem to me that Levant was in love with that... Pina."
"In love?" exclaimed the Master, coming around from my
other side. "Of course he loved her! Madly! As only a lonely,
rejected-by-all man can love."
"And so it was quite natural that after the death of Pina,
he sought consolation with her best friend."
"Her bosom friend, yes," said the Master approvingly,
while tickling me behind the ear. "Mirosa adored Pina! It's a
very accurate term - bosom friend! One senses a literary man
in you at once! And Pina, too, adored Mirosa."
"But, you notice," I picked up, "that. right from the
beginning Pina suspected that Mirosa was infatuated with
Levant."
"Well, of course! They are extremely sensitive about such
things. This was clear to everyone - my wife noticed it at
once. I recollect that she would nudge me with her elbow each
time Pina alighted on Mirosa's tousled head, and so coyly and
expectantly looked at Levant."
This time I kept my peace.
"In general, I am profoundly convinced," he continued,
"that birds feel no less sensitively than people."
Aha, thought I, and said, "I don't know about birds in
general, but Pina was a lot more sensitive than let's say even
you or I."
Something bummed briefly over my head, and there was a
soft clink of metal.
"You speak like my wife, word for word," observed the
Master, "so you most probably must like Dan. I was overcome
when he was able to construct a bunkin for that Japanese
noblewoman... can't think of her name. After all, not one
person believed Dan. The Japanese king, himself..."
"I beg your pardon," I said. "A bunkin?"
"Yes, of course, you are not a specialist.... You remember