"Herbert George Wells. When the Sleeper Wakes" - читать интересную книгу автора

"It's Bellamy," said Warming. " There has been a lot of change certainly.
And, among other changes, I have changed. I am an old man."

Isbister hesitated, and then feigned a belated surprise. "I shouldn't have
thought it."

"I was forty-three when his bankers-you remember you wired to his
bankers-sent on to me."

"I got their address from the cheque book in his pocket," said Isbister.

"Well, the addition is not difficult," said Warming.

There was another pause, and then Isbister gave way to an unavoidable
curiosity. "He may go on for years yet," he said, and had a moment of
hesitation. "We have to consider that. His affairs, you know, may fall some
day into the hands of-someone else, you know."

"That, if you will believe me, Mr. Isbister, is one of the problems most
constantly before my mind. We happen to be-as a matter of fact, there are
no very trustworthy connections of ours. It is a grotesque and
unprecedented position."

"It is," said Isbister. "As a matter of fact, it's a case for a public
trustee, if only we had such a functionary."

"It seems to me it's a case for some public body, some practically undying
guardian. If he really is going on living-as the doctors, some of them,
think. As a matter of fact, I have gone to one or two public men about it.
But, so far, nothing has been done."

"It wouldn't be a bad idea to hand him over to some public body-the British
Museum Trustees, or the Royal College of Physicians. Sounds a bit odd, of
course, but the whole situation is odd."

"The difficulty is to induce them to take him."

"Red tape, I suppose? "

"Partly."

Pause. " It's a curious business, certainly," said Isbister. "And compound
interest has a way of mounting up."

"It has," said Warming. "And now the gold supplies are running short there
is a tendency towards
. . . appreciation."

"I've felt that," said Isbister with a grimace. "But it makes it better for