"Haggard, H Rider- She" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haggard H. Rider)

"Now," she said, "if I am Beauty, who are you?" That was when I was
only twenty.

And so I stood and stared, and felt a sort of grim satisfaction in the
sense of my own loneliness; for I had neither father, nor mother, nor
brother; and as I did so there came a knock at my door.

I listened before I went to open it, for it was nearly twelve o'clock
at night, and I was in no mood to admit any stranger. I had but one
friend in the College, or, indeed, in the world--perhaps it was he.

Just then the person outside the door coughed, and I hastened to open
it, for I knew the cough.

A tall man of about thirty, with the remains of great personal beauty,
came hurrying in, staggering beneath the weight of a massive iron box
which he carried by a handle with his right hand. He placed the box
upon the table, and then fell into an awful fit of coughing. He
coughed and coughed till his face became quite purple, and at last he
sank into a chair and began to spit up blood. I poured out some whisky
into a tumbler, and gave it to him. He drank it, and seemed better;
though his better was very bad indeed.

"Why did you keep me standing there in the cold?" he asked pettishly.
"You know the draughts are death to me."

"I did not know who it was," I answered. "You are a late visitor."

"Yes; and I verily believe it is my last visit," he answered, with a
ghastly attempt at a smile. "I am done for, Holly. I am done for. I do
not believe that I shall see to-morrow."

"Nonsense!" I said. "Let me go for a doctor."

He waved me back imperiously with his hand. "It is sober sense; but I
want no doctors. I have studied medicine and I know all about it. No
doctors can help me. My last hour has come! For a year past I have
only lived by a miracle. Now listen to me as you have never listened
to anybody before; for you will not have the opportunity of getting me
to repeat my words. We have been friends for two years; now tell me
how much do you know about me?"

"I know that you are rich, and have had a fancy to come to College
long after the age that most men leave it. I know that you have been
married, and that your wife died; and that you have been the best,
indeed almost the only friend I ever had."

"Did you know that I have a son?"