Читать книгу Self Condemned онлайн

70 страница из 92

'Of course I remember it. How stupid of me.'

'It is not stupid,' Percy protested. 'With her pictures even I sometimes forget which is which.'

'How extraordinary!' exclaimed René. 'I should have thought . . .'

'I am not often at a loss,' Percy smiled.

René had noticed that they were now alone in the room. Mary, he had assumed, had abstracted Hester purposively. Percy looked up and said almost with violence, 'I want to tell you how greatly I admire your action in resigning your position at the University. It is one of the finest things I have ever heard of. I congratulate you.'

This took René's breath away. For a moment he said nothing and stared a little stupidly at his brother-in-law. Suddenly he recovered, and almost shouted, 'My dear chap, you don't know how those words have cheered me. I knew you would understand. But the wholehearted nature of your support, your uncompromising endorsement of what I have done, well, it's like a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Percy.'

'It is I who have to thank you for setting all of us an example of fearless courage, of facing up to obscurantism and hypocrisy, the conservative mind which crushes all the life out of our institutions. To give up everything rather than be privy . . . to the intellectual fraud perpetrated in the name of education. My dear chap, it is inexpressibly fine, it is to have done a great public service. I wish I had half your guts!'