20 лучших повестей на английском / 20 Best Short Novels

That day the surgeon dined with us. Toward midnight he and I left the smoking room, and repaired to Francis Raven’s bedside. Rigobert was at his post, with no very agreeable expression on his face. The Frenchman and the Englishman had evidently not got on well together so far. Francis Raven lay helpless on his bed, waiting silently for two in the morning and the Dream Woman.

�I have come, Francis, to bid you good night,’ I said, cheerfully. �To-morrow morning I shall look in at breakfast time, before I leave home on a journey.

�Thank you for all your kindness, sir. You will not see me alive to-morrow morning. She will find me this time. Mark my words – she will find me this time.’

�My good fellow! she couldn’t find you in England. How in the world is she to find you in France?’

�It’s borne in on my mind, sir, that she will find me here. At two in the morning on my birthday I shall see her again, and see her for the last time.’

�Do you mean that she will kill you?’

�I mean that, sir, she will kill me – with the knife.

�And with Rigobert in the room to protect you?’

�I am a doomed man. Fifty Rigoberts couldn’t protect me.’

�And you wanted somebody to sit up with you?’

�Mere weakness, sir. I don’t like to be left alone on my deathbed.’

I looked at the surgeon. If he had encouraged me, I should certainly, out of sheer compassion, have confessed to Francis Raven the trick that we were playing him.

The next day (the twenty-ninth of February) was the day of the �Silver Wedding.’ The first thing in the morning, I went to Francis Raven’s room. Rigobert met me at the door.

�How has he passed the night?’ I asked.

�Saying his prayers, and looking for ghosts,’ Rigobert answered. �A lunatic asylum[51 - lunatic asylum – a mental hospital for the care and treatment of mental patients] is the only proper place for him.

I approached the bedside. �Well, Francis, here you are, safe and sound, in spite of what you said to me last night.’

His eyes rested on mine with a vacant, wondering look.

�I don’t understand it,’ he said.

�Did you see anything of your wife when the clock struck two?’

�No, sir.’

�Did anything happen?’

�Nothing happened, sir.