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

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'Maurice Blake!' she exclaimed. 'Joan's cousin with the big farm on the Downs? But you don't know him!'

'Not that Blake,' he laughed again; I and Joan, if you mean Joan Nicholson, Dick's niece who took up that rescue work, or something, in London, I have never seen in my life.'

'Then it's a book you mean—one of those books you are always poring over in the library,' she murmured half reproachfully.

'One of Dick's books, yes,' he replied gently, linking his arm through hers and leading the way in the direction of the cedars. 'One of my "treasures,"' he added slyly, 'that you once shamelessly imagined to be in petticoats.'

She rather liked his teasing. The interests they shared were uncommonly small, perhaps, and the coinage of available words still smaller. Yet their differences never took on the slightest 'edge.' A genuine affection smoothed all their little talks.

'You do read such funny old books, Paul,' she observed, as though somewhere in her heart lurked a vague desire to make him more modern. 'Don't you ever try books of the day—novels, for instance?' She had one under her arm at the moment. He took it to carry for her.