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

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Yet, even while he sheered off, as oil declines from its very nature to mingle with water, he felt genuinely drawn to her in another way. She was his own sister; she was his nearest tie; and she was Dick's widow. They would get along together all right; they would be good friends.

'Twenty years, Margaret.'

'Twenty years, Paul.'

And then another pause of several minutes during which something that was too vague to be a real thought passed like a shadow through his mind. What could his friend Dick have seen in her that was necessary to his life and happiness—Dick Messenger, who was scholar, poet, thinker-who sought the everlasting things—God? He instantly suppressed it as unworthy, something of which he was ashamed, but not before it had left a definite little trace in his imagination.

'So at last, Paul, you've really come home,' she resumed; 'I can hardly believe it,—and are going to settle down. You are a rich man.'

'Aunt Alice did her duty,' he laughed. He ignored the reference to settling down. It vaguely displeased him. 'It's for you as well as me,' he added, meaning the money. 'I want to share with you whatever you need.'