"Stevenson_Markheim" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stevenson Robert Louis)

Kerkhoff, one of the most aristocratic parts of that wonderfully
aristocratic city; and once or twice every week you might have seen
her, if you had been there to see, busily engaged in washing the red
tile and blue slate pathway in front of the professor's house. You
would have seen that she was very pleasant to look at, this Koosje,
very comely and clean, whether she happened to be very busy, or
whether it had been Sunday, and, with her very best gown on, she was
out for a promenade in the Baan, after duly going to service as
regularly as the Sabbath dawned in the grand old Gothic choir of the
cathedral.

During the week she wore always the same costume as does every other
servant in the country: a skirt of black stuff, short enough to show a
pair of very neat-set and well-turned ankles, clad in cloth shoes and
knitted stockings that showed no wrinkles; over the skirt a bodice and
a kirtle of lilac, made with a neatly gathered frilling about her
round brown throat; above the frilling five or six rows of unpolished
garnet beads fastened by a massive clasp of gold filigree, and on her
head a spotless white cap tied with a neat bow under her chin--as
neat, let me tell you, as an Englishman's tie at a party.

But it was on Sunday that Koosje shone forth in all the glory of a
black gown and her jewellery--with great ear-rings to match the clasp
of her necklace, and a heavy chain and cross to match that again, and
one or two rings; while on her head she wore an immense cap, much too
big to put a bonnet over, though for walking she was most particular
to have gloves.

Then, indeed, she was a young person to be treated with respect, and
with respect she was undoubtedly treated. As she passed along the
quaint, resounding streets, many a head was turned to look after her;
but Koosje went on her way like the staid maiden she was, duly
impressed with the fact that she was principal servant of Professor
van Dijck, the most celebrated authority on the study of osteology in
Europe. So Koosje never heeded the looks, turned her head neither to
the right nor to the left, but went sedately on her business or
pleasure, whichever it happened to be.

It was not likely that such a treasure could remain long unnoticed and
unsought after. Servants in the Netherlands, I hear, are not so good
but that they might be better; and most people knew what a treasure
Professor van Dijck had in his Koosje. However, as the professor
conscientiously raised her wages from time to time, Koosje never
thought of leaving him.

But there is one bribe no woman can resist--the bribe that is offered
by love. As Professor van Dijck had expected and feared, that bribe
ere long was held out to Koosje, and Koosje was too weak to resist it.
Not that he wished her to do so. If the girl had a chance of settling
well and happily for life, he would be the last to dream of throwing