"Oscar Wilde. The Canterville Ghost" - читать интересную книгу автора

"No, thank you, I never eat anything now; but it is very kind of
you, all the same, and you are much nicer that the rest of your horrid,
rude, vulgar, dishonest family."
"Stop!" cried Virginia, stamping her foot, "it is you
who are rude, and horrid, and vulgar, and as for dishonesty, you know you
stole the paints out of my box to try and furbish up that ridiculous
blood-stain in the library. First you took all my reds, including the
vermillion, and I could't do any more sunsets, then you took the
emerald-green and the chrome-yellow, and finally I had nothing left but
indigo and Chinese white, and could only do moonlight scenes, which are
always depressing to look at, and not at all easy to paint. I never told on
you, though I was very much annoyed, and it was most ridiculous, the whole
thing; for who ever heard of emerald-green blood?"
"Well, really," said the ghost, rather meekly, "what was
I to do? It is a very difficult thing to get real blood nowadays, and, as
your brother began it all with his Paragon Detergent, I certainly saw no
reason why I should not have your paints. As for colour, that is always a
matter of taste: the Cantervilles have blue blood, for instance, the very
bluest in England; but I know you Americans don't care for things of this
kind."
"You know nothing about it, and the best thing you can do is to
emigrate and improve your mind. My father will be only too happy to give you
a free passage, and though there is a heavy duty on spirits of every kind,
there will be no difficulty about the Custom House, as the officers are all
Democrats. Once in New York, you are sure to be a great success. I know lots
of people there who would give a hundred thousands dollars to have a
grandfather, and much more than that to have a family ghost."
"I don't think I should like America."
"I suppose because we have no ruins and no curiosities," said
Virginia satirically.
"No ruins! no curiosities!" answered the ghost; "you
have your navy and your manners."
"Good evening; I will go and ask papa to get the twins an extra
week's holiday."
"Please don't go, Miss Virginia," he cried; "I am so
lonely and so unhappy, and I really don't know what to do. I want to go to
sleep and I cannot."
"That's quite absurd! You have merely to go to bed and blow out
the candle. It is very difficult sometimes to keep awake, especially at
church, but there is no difficulty at all about sleeping. Why, even babies
know how to do that, and they are not very clever."
"I have not slept for three hundred years," he said sadly,
and Virginia's beautifull blue eyes opened in wonder; "for three
hundred years I have not slept, and I am so tired."
Virginia grew quite grave, and her little lips trembled like
rose-leaves. She came towards him, and kneeling down at his side, looked up
into his old withered face.
"Poor, poor Ghost," she murmured; "have you no place
where you can sleep?"
"Far away beyond the pinewoods," he answered, in a low dreamy