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

the ceremony was over, the servants, according to an old custom observed the
Canterville family, extinguished their torches, and, as the coffin was being
lowered into the grave, Virginia stepped forward, and laid on it a large
cross made of white and pink almond-blossoms. As she did so, the moon came
out from behind a cloud, and flooded with its silent silver the little
churchyard, and from a distant copse a nightingale began to sing. She
thought of the ghost's description of the Garden of Death, her eyes became
dim with tears, and she hardly spoke a word during the drive home.
The next morning, before Lord Canterville went up to town, Mr. Otis had
an interview with him on the subject of the jewels the ghost had given to
Virginia. They were perfectly magnificent, especially a certain ruby
necklace with old Venetian setting, which was really a superb specimen of
sixteenth-century work, and their value was so great that Mr. Otis felt
considerable scruples about allowing his daughter to accept them.
"My Lord," he said, "I know that in this country
mortmain is held to apply to trinkets as well as to land, and it is quite
clear to me that these jewels are, or should be, heirlooms in your family. I
must beg you, accordingly, to take them to London with you, and to regard
them simply as a portion of your property which has been restored to you
under certain strange conditions. As for my daughter, she is merely a child,
and has as yet, I am glad to say, but little interest in such appurtenances
of idle luxury. I am also informed by Mrs. Otis, who, I may say, is no mean
authority upon Art - having had the priviledge of spending several winters
in Boston when she was a girl - that these gems are of great monetary worth,
and if offered for sale would fetch a tall price. Under these circumstances,
Lord Canterville, I feel sure that you will recognise how impossible it
would be for me to allow them to remain in the possession of any member of
my family; and, indeed, all such vain gauds and toys, however suitableor
necessary to the dignity of the British aristocracy, would be completely out
of place among those who have been brought up on the severe, and I believe
immortal, principles of Republican simplicity. Perchaps I shoud mention that
Virginia is very anxious that you should allow her to retain the box, as a
memento of your unfortunate but misguided ancestor. As it is extremely old,
and consequently a good deal out of repair, you may perchaps think fit to
comply with her request. For my own part, I confess I am a good deal
surprised to find a child of mine expressing sympathy with mediaevalism in
any form, and can only account for it by the fact that Virginia was born in
one of your London suburbs shortly after Mrs. Otis had returned from a trip
to Athens."
Lord Canterville listened very gravely to the worthy Minister's speech,
pulling his grey moustache now and then to hide an involuntary smile, and
when Mr. Otis had ended, he shook him cordially by the hand, and said,
"My dear sir, your charming little daughter rendered my unlucky
ancestor, Sir Simon, a very important service, and I and my family are much
indebted to her for her marvellous courage and pluck. The jewels are clearly
hers, and, egad, I believe that if I were heatless enough to take them from
her, the wicked old fellow would be out of his grave in a fortnight, leading
me the devil of a life. As for their being heirlooms, nothing is an heirloom
that is not so mentioned in a will or legal document, and the existence of
these jewels has been quite unknown. I assure you I have no more claim on