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Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour
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Год написания книги
2017
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Women always took his side because he had an irresistible charm of manner.
Mrs. Crowley
I think George has, too, a little.
Dick
I hope for Lucy's sake he will turn out a different man from his father. I wish he weren't so like him in appearance. At last Fred Allerton had squandered every penny, and he married Lady Kelsey's sister, one of the three rich daughters of a Liverpool merchant. But he ran through her money, too, gambling, racing, and so forth, and she died of a broken heart – adoring him still.
Mrs. Crowley
You're as well informed as an encyclopædia, Mr. Lomas.
Dick
You see, I was made the trustee for the poor remains of Mrs. Allerton's fortune, and I know how Lucy has managed to keep all their heads above water. She's wonderful. Ever since she was a child she's held the reins in her own hands. She's stuck to her father, though Lady Kelsey implored her to leave him to his own foolish ways. She saw that George was decently educated. She hid from the world all the little shifts and devices to which she had to resort in order to keep up an appearance of decency.
Mrs. Crowley
I suppose you, too, think Fred Allerton little better than a scamp?
Dick
My dear lady, when a man has had to leave his club because he plays cards too well, it's at least permissible to suppose that there's something odd about him.
Mrs. Crowley
Here's Lady Kelsey. For heaven's sake try and amuse her a little.
[Lady Kelsey comes back into the room.
Lady Kelsey
Oh, Dick, I'm so full of my own troubles, I forgot to ask about yours. I'm so sorry to hear that you're ill.
Dick
On the contrary, I'm in the very best of health.
Lady Kelsey
But I saw in the papers that you were going to give up your seat in the House owing to ill-health.
Dick
Of course, I'd forgotten. My heart is seriously deranged.
Mrs. Crowley
How dreadful! What is the matter with it?
Dick
Can you ask? I've banged it about at your feet so long that its functions are excessively impaired. And it's beaten all my waistcoats out of shape.
Mrs. Crowley
Don't be so foolish. I was quite alarmed.
Dick
I'm going to retire.
Lady Kelsey
From the bar as well?
Dick
From the bar as well. Henceforth I shall cultivate only such arts and graces as are proper to the man of leisure. My fellow men are a great deal too strenuous, and I propose to offer them the spectacle of a complete idler who demands from the world neither honours nor profit, but only entertainment.
Mrs. Crowley
D'you mean to say you're going to give up a large practice and a position which may be very important merely to gratify a foolish whim?
Dick
I haven't time to work. Life is so much too short. A little while ago it occurred to me that I was nearly forty. [To Mrs. Crowley.] D'you know the feeling?
Mrs. Crowley
No, of course not. Don't be so uncivil.
Dick
By the way, how old are you?
Mrs. Crowley
Twenty-nine!
Dick
Nonsense! There's no such age.
Mrs. Crowley
I beg your pardon, upper parlourmaids are always twenty-nine.
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Последний отзыв
Книга дельная. Без воды, приводятся реальные кейсы и способы их разрешения. Много практичных полезных советов и методик. Кое-что уже испробовала в дел...
Далее