"Colin Kapp - Letter From An Unknown Genius" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kapp Colin)

and the nuclear submarine which had delivered her to these shores showed the involvement of
governments and the shadowy hand which gripped the world with cold pincers of fear.
The sound of footsteps returning across the flagged halls made her turn. It was the priest, his face
nearly impassive yet made rich with the deep, searching eyes and the resolute quietude which was so
characteristic of the Order in Residence at San Chemo.
"The abbe awaits you in the library, Madam Karp. If you please, I will show you the way. And may I
add this is an historic occasion. Never before in the four hundred and fifty years of San Chemo's
existence, has a woman been permitted to enter these walls. Unfortunately it is also an event which must
be forever left unrecorded."
"Madam Karp, this is indeed a pleasure!" The abbe extended his hand towards her. Momentarily she
hesitated, overwhelmed by the size and richness of the huge, dim library in which the abbe sat. "Forgive
me for not rising," he continued, "but it is many years since these legs last served me."
She broke her reverie and went to him quickly. "I wasn't aware of your infirmity, Abbe Mesnil—only
of your courage." She shook his hand gravely. "It is I who should apologize."
"Nonsense, Madam . . . my child!" His face was overcome by a kind of wonder. "Please stand more
fully in the light, for I think I have been misled. Seroia told me he was sending someone brilliant, but he
forgot to tell me he was sending someone beautiful."
"Not beautiful," said Marion Karp reprovingly. "Truth to tell, I'm uncommonly plain."
"That isn't true, my child, but to find these virtues combined with both a sense of humor and of
humility is something that happens but once in a lifetime."
"Abbe Mesnil!" Her voice sharpened. "I've not come all this way just to receive compliments."
"Indeed no! But let me say this: had I known Seroia would send . . . you . . . I would probably not
have consented. What will be told in San Chemo today places the hearer at great risk. I could expect
that much of a man. I would not knowingly have imposed it on a woman."
Marion Karp smiled. "Perhaps my society is less chivalrous in what it expects of a woman. And then
again, perhaps not. Think what your society demands of a peasant-wife, and then ask yourself who is the
more fortunate."
Abbe Mesnil's face softened. "And wisdom also! You are indeed one of the rarer kind."
A knock at the door heralded the arrival of a novice bearing refreshments on a tray. Marion Karp
took the offered sweetmeats and sipped the wine appreciatively, her eyes roving the great bookshelves
as if trying to summarize her host by the literary environment in which he lived and of which he seemed
almost a part. What she saw impressed her. When the novice had departed she returned to the abbe's
side.
"Considering you're so isolated from it, Abbe Mesnil, you're remarkably au fait with the latest
developments of modern science."
The old man smiled. "Does one need to stand in a puddle in order to study animalcula, or to dwell in
a vacuum in order to study the stars?"
She faltered momentarily. "My mistake, Abbe. I come so steeped in scientific method I tend to forget
the power of thought. May we now come to the matter which brought me here?"
"Surely, my child! First, I will tell you about a man. Later I shall ask you to meet someone and let him
tell his own story. I need scarcely warn you that what you will hear could be the cause of your own death
at the hands of our secret police, if they should learn of it. Equally it could cause my death and the death
of the one you shall meet. It could even bring about a pogrom which would end this church and this
village."
"I understand that."
"I'm sure you do. But remember that whoever speaks to you, or who even knows of your presence
here, is guilty of high treason in our modern police state. Nor are we willing traitors to the land of our
own flesh. We have invited you here in the name of God and in the cause of the preservation of
humankind . . . for the sake of Humanity."
 "The greater cause . . ." Marion Karp was watching him closely.