Читать книгу The Plumed Serpent. Historical Novel - Life and Love after the Mexico Revolution онлайн

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Kate turned to the General, who was near her, his face expressionless, yet alert.

‘Aztec things oppress me,’ she said.

‘They ARE oppressive,’ he answered, in his beautiful cultured English, that was nevertheless a tiny bit like a parrot talking.

‘There is no hope in them,’ she said.

‘Perhaps the Aztecs never asked for hope,’ he said, somewhat automatically.

‘Surely it is hope that keeps one going?’ she said.

‘You, maybe. But not the Aztec, nor the Indian to-day.’

He spoke like a man who has something in reserve, who is only half attending to what he hears, and even to his own answer.

‘What do they have, if they don’t have hope?’ she said.

‘They have some other strength, perhaps,’ he said evasively.

‘I would like to give them hope,’ she said. ‘If they had hope, they wouldn’t be so sad, and they would be cleaner, and not have vermin.’

‘That of course would be good,’ he said, with a little smile. ‘But I think they are not so very sad. They laugh a good deal and are gay.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘They oppress me, like a weight on my heart. They make me irritable, and I want to go away.’