Reedle Откройте в мобильном приложении
Понятно
Понятно
Для того чтобы воспользоваться закладками, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Отмена
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Отмена
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
Отмена
621
He
had
refused
and
had
been
put
before
a
firing
squad
with
a
number
of
the
villagers
.
But
by
a
miracle
he
had
not
been
killed
outright
,
and
was
saved
.
This
was
evidently
the
story
Sarantopoulos
had
told
us
.
In
the
opinion
of
many
of
the
villagers
,
and
naturally
of
all
those
who
d
had
relatives
massacred
in
the
German
reprisal
,
he
should
have
done
what
they
ordered
.
But
that
was
all
past
.
He
had
been
wrong
,
but
to
the
honor
of
Greece
.
However
,
he
had
never
set
foot
in
the
village
again
.
Then
I
discovered
something
small
,
but
anomalous
.
I
asked
several
people
besides
Demetriades
,
who
had
been
at
the
school
only
a
year
,
whether
Leverrier
,
Mitford
s
predecessor
,
or
Mitford
himself
had
ever
spoken
about
meeting
Conchis
.
The
answer
was
always
no
understandably
enough
,
it
seemed
,
in
Leverrier
s
case
,
because
he
was
very
reserved
,
"
too
serious
"
as
one
master
put
it
,
tapping
his
head
.
It
so
happened
that
the
last
person
I
asked
,
over
coffee
in
his
room
,
was
the
biology
master
.
Karazoglou
said
in
his
aromatic
broken
French
that
he
was
sure
Leverrier
had
never
been
there
,
as
he
would
have
told
him
.
He
d
known
Leverrier
rather
better
than
the
other
masters
;
they
had
shared
a
common
interest
in
botany
.
He
rummaged
about
in
a
chest
of
drawers
,
and
then
produced
a
box
of
sheets
of
paper
with
dried
flowers
that
Leverrier
had
collected
and
mounted
.
There
were
lengthy
notes
in
an
admirably
clear
handwriting
and
a
highly
technical
vocabulary
,
and
here
and
there
professional
-
looking
sketches
in
India
ink
and
watercolor
.
622
As
I
sorted
uninterestedly
through
the
box
I
dropped
one
of
the
pages
of
dried
flowers
,
to
which
was
attached
a
sheet
of
paper
with
additional
notes
.
This
sheet
slipped
from
the
clip
that
was
holding
it
.
On
the
back
was
the
beginning
of
a
letter
,
which
had
been
crossed
out
,
but
was
still
legible
.
It
was
dated
June
6
,
1951
,
two
years
before
.
Dear
Mr
.
Conchis
,
I
am
much
afraid
that
since
the
extraordinary
and
then
it
stopped
.
I
didn
t
say
anything
to
Karazoglou
,
who
had
noticed
nothing
;
but
I
then
and
there
decided
to
visit
Mr
.
Conchis
.
I
cannot
say
why
I
became
so
suddenly
so
curious
about
him
.
Partly
it
was
for
lack
of
anything
else
to
be
curious
about
,
the
usual
island
obsession
with
trivialities
;
partly
it
was
that
one
cryptic
phrase
from
Mitford
and
the
discovery
about
Leverrier
;
partly
,
perhaps
mostly
,
a
peculiar
feeling
that
I
had
a
sort
of
right
to
visit
.
My
two
predecessors
had
both
met
this
unmeetable
man
,
and
not
wanted
to
talk
about
it
;
in
some
way
I
felt
I
had
a
turn
coming
,
too
.
I
did
one
other
thing
that
week
.
I
wrote
a
letter
to
Alison
.
I
sent
it
inside
an
envelope
addressed
to
Ann
in
the
flat
below
in
Russell
Square
,
asking
her
to
post
it
on
to
wherever
Alison
was
living
.
I
said
almost
nothing
in
the
letter
;
only
that
I
d
thought
about
her
once
or
twice
,
that
I
had
discovered
what
the
"
waiting
room
"
meant
;
and
that
she
was
to
write
back
only
if
she
really
wanted
to
,
I
d
quite
understand
if
she
didn
t
.
I
knew
that
on
the
island
one
was
driven
back
into
the
past
623
There
was
so
much
space
,
so
much
silence
,
so
few
meetings
that
one
too
easily
saw
out
of
the
present
and
then
the
past
seemed
ten
times
closer
than
it
was
.
It
was
likely
that
Alison
hadn
t
given
me
a
thought
for
weeks
,
and
that
she
had
had
half
a
dozen
more
affaires
.
So
I
posted
the
letter
rather
as
one
throws
a
message
in
a
bottle
into
the
sea
.
Not
as
a
joke
,
perhaps
,
but
almost
;
yet
with
a
kind
of
ashamed
hope
.
Отключить рекламу
624
The
absence
of
the
usually
unfailing
sun
-
wind
made
the
next
Saturday
oppressively
hot
.
The
cicadas
had
begun
.
They
racketed
in
a
ragged
chorus
,
never
quite
finding
a
common
beat
,
rasping
one
s
nerves
,
but
finally
so
familiar
that
when
one
day
they
stopped
in
a
rare
shower
of
rain
,
the
silence
was
like
an
explosion
.
They
completely
changed
the
character
of
the
pine
forest
.
Now
it
was
live
and
multitudinous
,
an
audible
,
invisible
hive
of
energy
,
with
all
its
pure
solitude
gone
,
for
besides
the
tzitzikia
the
air
throbbed
,
whined
,
hummed
with
carmine
-
winged
grasshoppers
,
locusts
,
huge
hornets
,
bees
,
midges
,
bots
and
ten
thousand
other
anonymous
insects
.
In
some
places
there
were
nagging
clouds
of
black
flies
,
so
that
I
climbed
through
the
trees
like
a
new
Orestes
,
cursing
and
slapping
.
I
came
to
the
ridge
again
.
The
sea
was
a
pearly
turquoise
,
the
far
mountains
ash
-
blue
in
the
windless
heat
.
I
could
see
the
shimmering
green
crown
of
pine
trees
around
Bourani
.
It
was
about
noon
when
I
came
through
the
trees
out
onto
the
shingle
of
the
beach
with
the
chapel
.
It
was
deserted
.
I
searched
among
the
rocks
,
but
there
was
nothing
,
and
I
didn
t
feel
watched
.
I
had
a
swim
,
then
lunch
,
black
bread
and
ochra
and
fried
squid
.
A
long
way
south
a
plump
caique
thudded
past
towing
a
line
of
six
little
lamp
-
boats
,
like
a
mallard
with
ducklings
.
Its
bow
wave
made
a
thin
dark
miraging
ripple
on
the
creamy
blue
surface
of
the
sea
,
and
that
was
all
that
remained
of
civilization
when
the
boats
had
disappeared
behind
the
western
headland
.
625
There
was
the
infinitesimal
lap
of
the
transparent
blue
water
on
the
stones
,
the
waiting
trees
,
the
myriad
dynamos
of
the
insects
,
and
the
enormous
landscape
of
silence
.
I
dozed
under
the
thin
shade
of
a
pine
,
in
the
agelessness
,
the
absolute
dissociation
of
wild
Greece
.
The
sun
moved
,
came
on
me
,
and
made
me
erotic
.
I
thought
of
Alison
,
of
sex
things
we
had
done
together
.
I
wished
she
was
beside
me
,
naked
.
We
would
have
made
love
against
the
pine
needles
,
then
swum
,
then
made
love
again
.
I
was
filled
with
a
dry
sadness
,
a
mixture
of
remembering
and
knowing
;
remembering
what
was
and
what
might
have
been
and
knowing
it
was
all
past
,
at
the
same
time
knowing
,
or
beginning
to
know
,
that
other
things
were
happily
past
at
least
some
of
my
illusions
about
myself
,
and
then
the
syphilis
,
for
there
were
no
signs
that
it
was
going
to
come
back
.
I
felt
physically
very
well
.
What
was
going
to
become
of
my
life
I
didn
t
know
;
but
lying
there
that
day
by
the
sea
it
didn
t
seem
to
matter
much
.
To
be
was
enough
.
I
felt
myself
in
suspension
,
waiting
without
fear
for
some
impulse
to
drive
me
on
.
I
turned
on
my
stomach
and
made
love
to
the
memory
of
Alison
,
like
an
animal
,
without
guilt
or
shame
,
a
mere
machine
for
sensation
spreadeagled
on
the
earth
.
Then
I
ran
across
the
burning
stones
into
the
sea
.
I
climbed
the
path
by
the
wire
and
the
undergrowth
,
passed
round
the
peeling
gate
,
the
mysterious
sign
,
and
stood
in
the
grassy
track
.
It
ran
level
,
curved
and
dipped
a
little
,
emerged
from
the
trees
.
626
The
house
,
dazzlingly
white
where
the
afternoon
sun
touched
it
,
stood
with
its
shadowed
back
to
me
.
It
had
been
built
on
the
seaward
side
of
a
small
cottage
that
had
evidently
existed
before
it
.
It
was
square
,
with
a
fiat
roof
and
a
colonnade
of
slender
arches
running
round
the
south
and
east
sides
.
Above
the
colonnade
was
a
terrace
.
I
could
see
the
open
French
windows
of
a
first
-
floor
room
giving
access
to
it
.
To
the
east
and
back
of
the
house
there
were
lines
of
swordplants
and
small
clumps
of
bushes
with
vivid
scarlet
and
yellow
flowers
.
In
front
,
southwards
and
seawards
,
there
was
a
stretch
of
gravel
and
then
the
ground
fell
away
abruptly
down
to
the
sea
.
At
both
corners
of
the
gravel
stood
palm
trees
,
in
neat
whitewashed
rings
of
stones
.
The
pines
had
been
thinned
to
clear
the
view
.
The
house
abashed
me
.
It
was
too
reminiscent
of
the
Côte
d
Azur
,
too
un
-
Greek
.
It
stood
,
white
and
opulent
,
like
Swiss
snow
,
and
made
me
feel
sticky
-
palmed
and
uncouth
.
I
walked
up
the
small
flight
of
steps
to
the
red
-
tiled
side
-
colonnade
.
There
was
a
closed
door
with
an
iron
knocker
cast
in
the
shape
of
a
dolphin
.
The
windows
beside
it
were
heavily
shuttered
.
I
knocked
on
the
door
;
the
knocks
barked
sharply
over
stone
floors
.
But
no
one
came
.
The
house
and
I
stood
silently
in
a
sea
of
insect
sound
.
Along
the
colonnade
to
the
corner
of
the
southern
front
of
the
house
;
there
the
colonnade
was
wider
and
the
arches
more
open
.
Standing
in
the
deep
shade
,
I
looked
out
over
the
treetops
and
the
sea
to
the
languishing
ash
-
lilac
mountains
627
Surprise
at
the
beauty
of
the
view
seen
through
the
slender
arches
,
and
a
déjà
vu
feeling
of
having
stood
in
the
same
place
before
;
something
in
that
particular
proportion
of
the
arches
,
something
in
that
particular
contrast
of
shade
and
burning
landscape
outside
I
couldn
t
say
.
There
were
two
old
cane
chairs
in
the
middle
of
the
colonnade
,
and
a
table
covered
in
a
blue
and
white
folk
-
weave
cloth
,
on
which
were
two
cups
and
saucers
and
two
large
plates
covered
in
muslin
.
By
the
wall
stood
a
rattan
couch
with
cushions
;
and
hanging
from
a
bracket
by
the
open
French
windows
was
a
small
brightly
polished
bell
with
a
faded
maroon
tassel
hanging
from
the
clapper
.
I
noticed
the
twoness
of
the
tea
table
,
and
stood
by
the
corner
,
embarrassed
,
aware
of
a
trite
English
desire
to
sneak
away
.
Then
,
without
warning
,
a
figure
appeared
in
the
doorway
.
It
was
Conchis
.
Отключить рекламу
628
Before
anything
else
,
I
knew
I
was
expected
.
He
saw
me
without
surprise
,
with
a
small
smile
,
almost
a
grimace
,
on
his
face
.
He
was
nearly
completely
bald
,
brown
as
old
leather
,
short
and
spare
,
a
man
whose
age
was
impossible
to
tell
;
perhaps
sixty
,
perhaps
seventy
;
dressed
in
a
navy
-
blue
shirt
,
knee
-
length
shorts
,
and
a
pair
of
salt
-
stained
gymshoes
.
The
most
striking
thing
about
him
was
the
intensity
of
his
eyes
;
very
dark
brown
,
staring
,
with
a
simian
penetration
emphasized
by
the
remarkably
clear
whites
;
eyes
that
seemed
not
quite
human
.
He
raised
his
left
hand
briefly
in
a
kind
of
silent
salutation
,
then
strode
to
the
corner
of
the
colonnade
,
leaving
me
with
my
formed
words
unspoken
,
and
called
back
to
the
cottage
.
"
Maria
!
"
I
heard
a
faint
wail
of
answer
.
"
You
"
I
began
,
as
he
turned
.
But
he
raised
his
left
hand
again
,
this
time
to
silence
me
;
took
my
arm
and
led
me
to
the
edge
of
the
colonnade
.
He
had
an
authority
,
an
abrupt
decisiveness
,
that
caught
me
off
-
balance
.
He
surveyed
the
landscape
,
then
me
.
The
sweet
saffronlike
smell
of
some
flowers
that
grew
below
,
at
the
edge
of
the
gravel
,
wafted
up
into
the
shade
.
"
I
chose
well
?
"
His
English
sounded
perfect
.
"
Wonderfully
.
But
you
must
let
me
"
Once
again
his
arm
,
brown
and
corded
,
swept
silencingly
towards
the
sea
and
the
mountains
and
the
south
,
as
if
I
might
not
have
properly
appreciated
it
.
I
looked
sideways
at
him
.
He
was
obviously
a
man
who
rarely
smiled
.
There
was
something
masklike
,
emotionpurged
,
about
his
face
.
629
Deep
furrows
ran
from
beside
his
nose
to
the
corners
of
his
mouth
;
they
suggested
experience
,
command
,
impatience
with
fools
.
He
was
slightly
mad
,
no
doubt
harmlessly
so
,
but
mad
.
I
had
an
idea
that
he
thought
I
was
someone
else
.
He
kept
his
apelike
eyes
on
me
.
The
silence
and
the
stare
were
alarming
,
and
faintly
comic
,
as
if
he
was
trying
to
hypnotize
a
bird
.
Suddenly
he
gave
a
curious
little
rapid
shake
of
the
head
;
quizzical
,
rhetorical
,
not
expecting
an
answer
.
Then
he
changed
,
as
if
what
had
happened
between
us
till
then
was
a
joke
,
a
charade
,
that
had
been
rehearsed
and
gone
according
to
plan
,
but
could
now
be
ended
.
And
I
was
completely
off
-
balance
again
.
He
wasn
t
mad
after
all
.
He
even
smiled
,
and
the
ape
eyes
became
almost
squirrel
eyes
.
He
turned
back
to
the
table
.
"
Let
us
have
tea
.
"
"
I
only
came
for
a
glass
of
water
.
This
is
"
You
came
here
to
meet
me
.
Please
.
Life
is
short
.
"
I
sat
down
.
The
second
place
was
mine
.
An
old
woman
appeared
,
in
black
,
a
black
gray
with
age
,
her
face
as
lined
as
an
Indian
squaw
s
.
She
was
incongruously
carrying
a
tray
with
an
elegant
silver
teapot
,
a
kettle
,
a
bowl
of
sugar
,
a
saucer
with
sliced
lemon
.
"
This
is
my
housekeeper
.
Maria
.
"
He
spoke
to
her
in
very
precise
Greek
,
and
I
heard
my
own
name
and
the
name
of
the
school
.
The
old
woman
bobbed
at
me
,
her
eyes
on
the
ground
,
unsmiling
,
and
then
unloaded
her
tray
.
Conchis
plucked
the
muslin
away
from
one
of
the
plates
with
the
quick
aplomb
of
a
conjurer
.
I
saw
cucumber
sandwiches
.
He
poured
the
tea
,
and
indicated
the
lemon
.
"
How
do
you
know
who
I
am
,
Mr
.
630
Conchis
?
"
"
Anglicize
my
name
.
I
prefer
the
ch
soft
.
"
He
sipped
his
tea
.
"
If
you
interrogate
Hermes
,
Zeus
will
know
.
"
"
I
m
afraid
my
colleague
was
tactless
.
"
"
You
no
doubt
found
out
all
about
me
.
"
"
I
found
out
very
little
.
But
that
makes
this
even
kinder
of
you
.
"
He
looked
out
to
sea
.
"
There
is
a
poem
of
the
Tang
dynasty
.
"
He
sounded
the
precious
little
glottal
stop
.
"
Here
at
the
frontier
,
there
are
falling
leaves
.
Although
my
neighbors
are
all
barbarians
,
and
you
,
you
are
a
thousand
miles
away
,
there
are
always
two
cups
on
my
table
.
"
I
smiled
.
"
Always
?
"
"
I
saw
you
last
Sunday
.
"
"
They
were
your
things
down
there
?
"
He
bowed
his
head
.
"
And
I
also
saw
you
this
afternoon
.
"
"
I
hope
I
haven
t
kept
you
from
your
beach
.
"
"
Not
at
all
.
My
private
beach
is
down
there
.
"
He
pointed
over
the
gravel
.
"
But
I
always
like
a
beach
to
myself
.
And
I
presume
the
same
of
you
.
Now
.
Eat
the
sandwiches
.
"
He
poured
me
more
tea
.
It
had
huge
torn
leaves
and
a
tarry
China
fragrance
.
On
the
other
plate
were
kourabiêdes
,
conical
buttercakes
rolled
in
icing
sugar
.
I
d
forgotten
what
a
delicious
meal
tea
could
be
;
and
sitting
there
I
felt
invaded
by
the
envy
of
the
man
who
lives
in
an
institution
,
and
has
to
put
up
with
the
institution
meals
and
institution
everything
else
,
for
the
rich
private
life
of
the
established
.
I
remembered
having
tea
with
one
of
my
tutors
,
an
old
bachelor
don
at
Magdalen
;
and
the
same
envy
for
his
rooms
,
his
books
,
his
calm
,
precise
,
ticking
peace
.
I
bit
into
my
first
kourabiè
,
and
gave
an
appreciative
nod
.