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

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A flame of happiness sped through him, and grief ran away utterly. The sense of loss that had numbed his soul vanished. And when she only answered him by the old mischievous laughter, he asked again: 'But how did you disguise yourself so well—your voice, and everything?

Even if your face was veiled I ought to have recognised you! It's too wonderful!'

'It was you who disguised me!' she replied, standing up close in front of him, and playing with his waistcoat buttons as of old. 'Your thoughts about me got twisted—sometimes. You thought too much. You should have felt only.'

'They never shall again,' he exclaimed.

'They never can. We are face to face now.' Paul turned to look again more closely. He saw her with extraordinary detail and vividness. It was indeed Nixie, but Nixie exactly as he had always wanted her, without quite knowing it himself; at least, without acknowledging it. No gulf of age was there to separate them now. She was the perfect Companion, for he had made her so. He smoothed her hair as they turned to walk by the river, and he caught the old childish perfume of it as it spread untidily over his shoulder, her eyes like dropped stars shining through it.