30 лучших рассказов британских писателей / 30 Best British Short Stories

His spotted blue ascot, with its gentlemanly pearl scarf pin, was set forth, and the fact that the buttonhole in the left lapel of his morning coat showed signs of use was duly noted. What Parkinson saw he recorded, but he made no deductions. A handkerchief carried in the cuff of the right sleeve was simply that to him and not an indication that Mr. Carlyle was, indeed, left-handed.

But a more delicate part of Parkinson’s undertaking remained. He approached it with a double cough.

�As regards Mr. Carlyle’s personal appearance, sir–’

�No, enough!’ cried the gentleman concerned hastily.

�I have trained myself to suit my master’s requirements, sir,’ replied the man. He looked towards Mr. Carrados, received a nod and withdrew.

Mr. Carlyle was the first to speak.

�That man of yours would be worth five pounds a week to me, Max,’ he remarked thoughtfully. �But, of course–’

�I don’t think that he would take it,’ replied Carrados, in a voice of equally detached speculation.

�You still mean that – seriously?’

�I notice in you a chronic disinclination to take me seriously, Louis. It is really – to an Englishman – almost painful. Is there something inherently comic about me or the atmosphere of The Turrets?’

�No, my friend,’ replied Mr. Carlyle, �but there is something essentially prosperous.

�It might be merely a whim, but it is more than that,’ replied Carrados. �It is, well, partly vanity, partly ennui, partly’ – certainly there was something more nearly tragic in his voice than comic now – �partly hope.’

Mr. Carlyle was too tactful to pursue the subject.

�Those are three tolerable motives,’ he acquiesced. �I’ll do anything you want, Max, on one condition.’

�Agreed.

�That you tell me how you knew so much of this affair.’ He tapped the silver coin which lay on the table near them. �I am not easily flabbergasted,’ he added.

�You won’t believe that there is nothing to explain – that it was purely second-sight?’

�No,’ replied Carlyle tersely: �I won’t.’

�You are quite right. And yet the thing is very simple.’

�They always are – when you know,’ soliloquised the other.