Читать книгу The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald онлайн

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“It’s too rough,” he announced. “We won’t go.”

Hallie, watching fascinated from the rail, paid no attention. Seductive cries were floating up from below:

“Theesa a good boat, lady an’ ge’man!”

“I spik American—been America two year!”

“Fine, sunny day for go to see Blue Grotte!”

The first passengers had already floated off, two to a boat, and now Hallie was drifting with the next batch down the gangway.

“Where are you going, Hallie?” shouted Mr. Nosby. “It’s too dangerous today. We’re going to stay on board.”

Hallie, half down the gangway, looked back over her shoulder.

“Of course I’m going!” she cried. “Do you think I’d come all the way to Capri and miss the Blue Grotto?”

Nosby took one more look at the sea—then he turned hurriedly away. Already Hallie, followed by Corcoran, had stepped into one of the small boats and was waving him a cheerful good-bye.

They approached the shore, heading for a small dark opening in the rocks. When they arrived, the boatman ordered them to sit on the floor of the boat to keep from being bumped against the low entrance. A momentary passage through darkness, then a vast space opened up around them and they were in a bright paradise of ultramarine, a cathedral cave where the water and air and the high-vaulted roof were of the most radiant and opalescent blue.