Читать книгу The Complete Works of Algernon Blackwood. Novels, Short Stories, Horror Classics, Occult & Supernatural Tales, Plays онлайн

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'Oh, I feel all right,' he stammered. 'The healthy life in the woods, open air, and constant moving keep a fellow "fixed-up" to concert pitch all the time. I've never once—consulted a doctor in my life.' He was careful to keep the slang out. He felt he managed it admirably. He said 'consulted.'

'And you wrote such nice letters, Paul. It was dear of you.'

'I was lonely,' he said bluntly. And after a pause he added, 'I got all yours.'

'I'm so glad.' And then another pause. In which fashion they talked on for half an hour, each secretly estimating the other—wondering a little why they did not feel all kind of poignant emotions they had rather expected to feel. It was a perfectly natural scene between a brother and sister who had grown up entirely apart, who were quite honest, who were utterly different types, and who yet wished to hold to one another as the nearest blood ties they possessed. They skimmed pleasantly and, so far as he was concerned, more and more easily, over the surface of things. Her talk, like her letters, was sincere, simple, shallow; it concealed no hidden depths, he felt at once. And by degrees, even in this first conversation, crept a shadow of other things, so that he realised they were in reality leagues apart, and could never have anything much in common below the pleasant surface relations of life.