"Herbert George Wells. When the Sleeper Wakes" - читать интересную книгу автора

"Oh!" said Graham, and after an equally ineffectual attempt at the other
man, went to the railing and stared at the distant men in white, who stood
watching him and whispering together.

The Council? He perceived there were now eight, though how the newcomer had
arrived he had not observed. They made no gestures of greeting; they stood
regarding him as in the nineteenth century a group of men might have stood
in the street regarding a distant balloon that had suddenly floated into
view. What council could it be that gathered there, that little body of men
beneath the significant white Atlas, secluded from every eavesdropper in
this impressive spaciousness? And why should he be brought to them, and be
looked at strangely and spoken of inaudibly? Howard appeared beneath,
walking quickly across the polished floor towards them. As he drew near he
bowed and performed certain peculiar movements, apparently of a ceremonious
nature. Then he ascended the steps of the dais, and stood by the apparatus
at the end of the table.

Graham watched that visible inaudible conversation. Occasionally, one of
the white-robed men would glance towards him. He strained his ears in vain.
The gesticulation of two of the speakers became animated. He glanced from
them to the passive faces of his attendants. . . . When he looked again
Howard was extending his hands and moving his head like a man who protests.
He was interrupted, it seemed, by one of the white-robed men rapping the
table.

The conversation lasted an interminable time to Graham's sense. His eyes
rose to the still giant at whose feet the Council sat. Thence they wandered
at last to the walls of the hall. It was decorated in long painted panels
of a quasi-Japanese type, many of them very beautiful. These panels were
grouped in a great and elaborate framing of dark metal, which passed into
the metallic caryatidae of the galleries, and the great structural lines of
the interior. The facile grace of these panels enhanced the mighty white
effort that laboured in the centre of the scheme. Graham's eyes came back
to the Council, and Howard was descending the steps. As he drew nearer his
features could be distinguished, and Graham saw that he was flushed and
blowing out his cheeks. His countenance was still disturbed when presently
he reappeared along the gallery.

"This way," he said concisely, and they went on in silence to a little door
that opened at their approach. The two men in red stopped on either side of
this door. Howard and Graham passed in, and Graham, glancing back, saw the
white-robed Council still standing in a close group and looking at him.
Then the door closed behind him with a heavy thud, and for the first time
since his awakening he was in silence. The floor, even, was noiseless to
his feet.

Howard opened another door, and they were in the first of two contiguous
chambers furnished in white and green. "What Council was that? " began
Graham. "What were they discussing? What have they to do with me?" Howard
closed the door carefully, heaved a huge sigh, and said something in an