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

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He had told her frankly about his arrangement with the lumber Company, explaining that he regarded his present visit in the light of a holiday. 'I suppose that is—er—wise of you,' she said, but she had not been able to conceal her disappointment. She asked him presently if he really wanted to live all his life in such a place, and what it was in English life, or civilised, conventional life, that he so disliked, and Paul, feeling distinctly uncomfortable—for he loathed, giving pain—had answered evasively, with more skill than he knew, "Where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also." I suppose my treasure—the only kind I know—is out there in the great woods, Margaret.'

'Paul, are you married, then?' she asked with a start; and when he laughed and assured her most emphatically that he was not, she looked exceedingly puzzled and a little shocked too. 'Are you so very fond of this—er—treasure, then?' she asked point blank in her softest manner, 'and is she so—I mean, can't you bring her home and acknowledge her?' And after his first surprise when he had gathered her meaning, it took him a long time to explain that there was no woman concerned at all, and that it was entirely a matter of his temperament.