"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 18 - Incident on Ath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

man in pain—nothing else?"

Her hesitation was answer enough. He had failed and by
working on now he would only accentuate the failure. Later,
when less tired, he would again examine the painting.

Rising, he applied solvent to his hands, ridding them of traces
of pigments. As he worked he said, casually, "Did you enjoy your
swim?"

"It was exercise."

"And Achiab? Was he also exercise?"

"When you are hungry, Cornelius, you eat." She turned to look
at an unfinished statuette. "You were busy and I was restless.
Achiab was a means of passing the time. We enjoyed an
interlude, together, though, I must admit, I was disappointed.
He was not as I remembered."

"Perhaps he, too, was merely hungry?"
 "Perhaps."

"Or," he said dryly, "maybe he was simply bored."

She turned, stung, meeting his eyes as he finished cleaning his
hands, her own eyes hard beneath the finely drawn arch of her
brows. For a long moment she stared at him and then,
shrugging, turned away. A whisper came from the chimes as she
headed toward the door.

"Ursula—I'm sorry!"

She paused and turned, the suspended chimes catching the
vibrations of her voice, providing a muted accompaniment to
her accusation.

"You checked—why?"

"An accident."

"What I do, where I go, whom I see—what are they to you?"

"It was an accident, Ursula, you must believe me." He
gestured toward the painting. "I was studying this. The figure
seemed wrong and I was checking anatomical detail. And then, I
suppose—"

"You checked." Her voice cut short his words, caused tinkles
to stream like liquid notes from the chimes. "You asked and