30 лучших рассказов британских писателей / 30 Best British Short Stories

Somehow I – What business had William to tell her about my wife?

They are all back in Drury Lane now, and William tells me that his wife sings at her work just as she did eight years ago. I have no interest in this, and try to check his talk of it; but such people have no sense of propriety, and he even speaks of the girl Jenny, who sent me lately a gaudy pair of worsted gloves worked by her own hand. The meanest advantage they took of my weakness, however, was in calling their baby after me. I have an uncomfortable suspicion, too, that William has given the other waiters his version of the affair; but I feel safe so long as it does not reach the committee.

Walter Besant

The Solid Gold Reef Company, Limited

Act I

�You dear old boy,’ said the girl, �I am sure I wish it could be, with all my heart, if I have any heart.’

�I don’t believe you have,’ replied the boy gloomily.

�Well, but, Reg, consider; you’ve got no money.’

�I’ve got five thousand pounds.

�You would go abroad with it and dig, and take your wife with you – to wash and cook.’

�We would do something with the money here. You should stay in London, Rosie.’

�Yes. In a suburban villa, at Shepherd’s Bush, perhaps. No, Reg, when I marry, if ever I do – I am in no hurry – I will step out of this room into one exactly like it.’ The room was a splendid drawing-room in Palace Gardens, splendidly furnished.

�Rosie, give me the right to earn all these things for you!’ the young man cried impetuously.

�You can only earn them for me by the time you have one foot in the grave. Hadn’t I better in the meantime marry some old gentleman with his one foot in the grave, so as to be ready for you against the time you come home? In two or three years the other foot, I dare say, would slide into the grave as well.

�You laugh at my trouble. You feel nothing.’

�If the pater would part, but he won’t; he says he wants all his money for himself, and that I’ve got to marry well. Besides, Reg’ – here her face clouded and she lowered her voice – �there are times when he looks anxious. We didn’t always live in Palace Gardens. Suppose we should lose it all as quickly as we got it. Oh!’ she shivered and trembled. �No, I will never, never marry a poor man.